Today Apple announced their IPad. A new, bigger version of what essentially is the IPhone minus the phone. Like most folks in the tech world I was interested in what Apple would bring to the table. Especially when it came to mobile gaming on the IPhone/IPad/IPod. I’ve been a critic in the past, and I was hoping to see something new. I wanted to see Apple move beyond the control problems that have plagued the IPhone/IPod from becoming a viable platform for games.

I wasn’t impressed. Apple brought nothing new to mobile gaming, especially when it comes to controls. Sure, the screen is bigger (9.7 inches) and the frame rate is improved, but this will come at a price. Weighing in at 1.5 pounds with the larger footprint will only makes motion controls clunkier, holding it up for long periods will making gaming strenuous. In the end tilting the larger screen to steer your car in EA‘s Need for Speed Shift won’t be “funner” it’ll just be more annoying. Couple this with more replicated traditional controllers as opposed to solid real world buttons and joysticks just rings towards more of the same coming from Apple.

Frankly, I don’t see this being a viable platform for gaming. Mobile Internet, fine. Doing some typing with the Keyboard dock, okay. When it comes to gaming on the go, I still think a user is going to be much better off with a Nintendo DS or a Sony PSP. The IPad just isn’t going to cut it, despite what Apple may try to tell us in the future.

Kotaku posted this interesting little video coming out of Georgia Tech Augmented Environments Lab and Savannah College of Art and Design showing the gameplay footage for ARhrrrr an augmented reality game in development. It’s running on a handheld device from Nvidia called the Tegra. The Menu and HUD are pretty uninspired and clunky, but the possibilities of allowing players to draw their own maps and use real world objects to interact with the game is pretty spiffy.

TouchArcade was able to get a hand’s on experience with Doom Resurrection at the WWDC. (I’m jealous.) I may have gotten a little eager with my post that went live early this morning. It seems Doom Resurrection is a shooter on rails with the targeting done via tilt control. However I will take  Arn’s advice and not pass early judgment. As Arn writes in his hands on review:

The gameplay itself is best described as an “on rails” experience where the player is moved through the levels automatically while aiming their targeting reticule with the accelerometer and tapping a button to fire. The game also offers a dodging button to avoid enemy fire as well.

This is a little different than what MacWorld said in it’s article describing the control scheme:

Mustaine explained that it wasn’t until they settled on a control scheme that combined accelerometer-based movement and aiming with tap-based firing.

Seems the control scheme is more about accelerometer-based aiming and rail based movement. The dodge button is an interesting choice one I seem to recall from other rail shooters in the past. The arcade version of Time Crisis, another on-rail shooter, used the foot pedal as a cover system giving the game a little more depth than your standard shooter. I assume the dodging button works in a similar fashion.

There is a TON of new screenshots for Doom Resurrection over at TouchArcade as well as the video I posted this morning. If you’re interested I suggest you head over and take a look.