How's gaming on the Evo?

[aaz110]

So, my contract with AT&T finally expired (today), so I'm finally ready to ditch my iPhone 3G and move to Android and Sprint. I wasn't sure if I wanted the Evo 4G or the Epic 4G and was planning on waiting for the Epic to come out on the 31st so I can compare them in person. However, after looking at more video reviews and side by side comparisons online, I realized that I just seem to like the Evo better. I've been kicking myself after not ordering one from Bestbuy.com yesterday when they were actually available.

I do have one final question about the phone though, that I was hoping some of you could help me with. How is gaming on the Evo 4G? I understand that the Epic is supposed to have a better GPU, but if the difference isn't that much, then I wouldn't mind going with the Evo for everything else that is has going for it. I've also read that the 30 fps cap can be removed by rooting (at the expense of HDMI output), but I wasn't planning on rooting myself. So, are there any gamers out there with an Evo? What's the experience like? Is it drastically different after rooting? Also, are your gaming experiences on 2.2 or 2.1 still? I assume that any Evo that I would get now would probably be 2.2 from the factory (as I've seen on here from others).

Thanks in advance for any responses

 

[junebogey]

Honestly as a gamer its not so great u should go with the epic as a proud evo owner im saying get the epic because of the battery life on the evo theres not so many great games on android waiting on angry birds epic has a better resolution with the same apps which is better gaming

 

[teknagen]

There's only a handful of 3D games out there made for the higher resolution screen. I have asphalt5 and heavygunner.

Just search youtube for videos.

 

[exBBuser]

If u want to play games why don't u get a gaming console then. The EVO as a smartphone does everything u need to,when it comes to games it plays them just fine even though this is not its forte.

Now I see people r still complaining about the battery life of such a great device,I must admit that at first battery life issues were taking a toll on me and at some point I thought about giving up on the phone and keep my BB but I didn't. Instead I kept the phone and tweaked it,I know get over 18hrs of moderate use with about 20%-30% left of juice.

 

[Brian360]

You guys kidding? You can put a Playstation 1 emulator on it, a Game boy emulator, a Sega Genesis, SNES, NINTENDO, thousands of games right there.



Don't worry about battery life, 20$ will fix that for ya. Check out the "3000 mah battery" thread in the Accessories part of this sub-forum.

EVO made games suck though, "SpeedX 3d" and "Heavy Gunner" are neat, but any of the old school sega/snes/PSX games are much better. I mean c'mon, Final Fantasy 7 on your cell phone? Sex

 

[pwnst*r]

If you're on the fence because of gaming, then let me give you a shove:

Get the Epic.

 

[novox77]

I've also read that the 30 fps cap can be removed by rooting (at the expense of HDMI output)

HDMI works even with the FPS uncapped. First few kernels that came out with the uncap had issues with HDMI. They were long solved.

You won't find many Android games that are so CPU-intensive that it will bring either phone to its knees. Hopefully this will change, as developers realize that more and more people use Androids. Any 2D-based game will run fine. 3D rendering is where you will see the Epic outshine the Evo.

Personally, my phone is not my hardcore gaming platform, so I'm ok if 3D is weak. I doubt I'll be playing any FPSs on a dinky phone screen.

 

[BigCiX]

Well coming from the iPhone to an andriod phone don't expect any mafia wars or fruit ninjas. Games are not up to par yet as apple. In the future expect more games like apple. From what I hear it takes more to develop on andriod phones cause there's so many different screen sizes.

 

[Jonhern]

You guys kidding? You can put a Playstation 1 emulator on it, a Game boy emulator, a Sega Genesis, SNES, NINTENDO, thousands of games right there.



Don't worry about battery life, 20$ will fix that for ya. Check out the "3000 mah battery" thread in the Accessories part of this sub-forum.

EVO made games suck though, "SpeedX 3d" and "Heavy Gunner" are neat, but any of the old school sega/snes/PSX games are much better. I mean c'mon, Final Fantasy 7 on your cell phone? Sex

the ps1 emulator does not run that well on the evo even with the fps fix, but it runs better on my brothers incredible even though they have the same internals, go figure. I even over-clocked and still would not play that well. But the others run great, i like the saga genesis one, and since it now has multi touch button input you can play some games that were impossible before because of the lack of a keyboard.

 

[aznmode]

Here's a video of a guy testing asphalt 5 demo and PSx4droid emulator running Final Fantasy. Pretty Fn smooth to me. Psx4droid on Evo is not smooth at all. I've played Castlevania, Street Fighter Alpha2 and they are slow. Also playing Sparta and Dungeon from Gameloft and they are playable but not very smooth either. My phone is already rooted with Sprint lovers 2.2 rom and Netarchy 4.1.8 kernel with FPS unlocked. Not overclocked however. This Epic is only on 2.1 and it is smooth. Imagine it on Froyo.

http://androidforums.com/samsung-epic-4g/159852-epic-4g-graphics-test.html

 

[chill145]

the ps1 emulator does not run that well on the evo even with the fps fix, but it runs better on my brothers incredible even though they have the same internals, go figure. I even over-clocked and still would not play that well. But the others run great, i like the saga genesis one, and since it now has multi touch button input you can play some games that were impossible before because of the lack of a keyboard.

i hear you, i've tried the snes one and all the mario roms i could find would not work on the evo due to lack of keyboard.

however with that said, i did get the need for speed shift and it looks great on the evo. i had just got it one night to try it out because i'm also going look at the epic and i won't be playing that many games anyway so wanted to see the graphics being used.

long story short, graphics were great and everything went smoothly. i have that particular game on my computer and there was really no difference (aside from screen size). so the only downside (I have seen) with the evo is lack of physical keyboard and not being able to play particular games

 

[Caloy]

The Epic is a better choice for gaming. But for me it's not a deal breaker. I usually just play WSOP anyways... LOL

For me a deal breaker would be GPS navigation as I use it from time to time getting to somewhere, or just looking for a great place to eat.

 

[aaz110]

Thanks for all the responses so far. This will give me quite a bit to think about.

In regards to the games that I would be inclined to play on the device...I'm more interested in the emulators available than I am games built for Android (at this point). The physical keyboard used for the emulators is something that somehow completely slipped my mind so I'll have to think about how much weight in the decision that carries for me. Additionally, I probably would never play a first-person shooter on the device...I'd leave that for my PC or consoles in the (increasingly rare) instances that I'm in a mood for a FPS. I'm still on the fence about rooting, but if it really does seem to help, then I would probably do it. Do any of you experience any major drawbacks to rooting? What are some of the major advantages that you guys (and girls) like with rooting? I know wireless hotspot could be free with rooting, but I don't mind the idea of a USB-tether on a non-rooted phone, especially as it would keep the phone battery charged off the laptop as well right? Also, thanks to novox77 for pointing out that the HDMI issue has been fixed...I must have seen old information then.

Also, in response to exBBuser... please don't look into my inquiry about gaming as an attack against the Evo, especially as it's still the phone that I seem to always gravitate towards myself. With cell phones emerging as a major high-quality gaming platform, I think it's perfectly reasonable to expect a high-end phone to be capable of a decent gaming experience at this point. I understand that the software titles may not be there yet as Android market is still relatively young, but I fully expect that during the next two years (before I would be eligible for a subsidized upgrade on a new phone), there will be a lot more games to choose from on the Android market. I just want to make sure that my hardware is capable for when that time comes.

And I do have game consoles, including portable consoles...however, it's much easier to carry around just one portable device (my cell phone) than it would be the hand held console(s) as well. I have to travel quite often and can never fall asleep on planes. Just last weekend I had about 21 hours of flight time with another 16 hours killing time in various airports. My cell phone, loaded up with a few new games, was a godsend (especially when I discovered that the in-seat entertainment system on a 13 hour flight that I had was broken). I'm not too concerned with battery life as I don't mind upgrading to a bigger battery and when I'm on extended travel sessions, I have a couple of small battery packs that should be able to give the phone at least two full charges each...definitely enough to get me in between available wall outlets.

Thanks again for all the responses everyone. Sorry for the long rant at the end.

 

[TehBigCarp]

I wanted to throw my experience into the mix since we were on the topic of playstation emulation. I play FF7 on my phone and it plays smooth and great. I couldn't ask for it to be any better. ExZues is another amazing 3d action game that plays very well. I have been very impressed. Hope this helps