Back when it simply made Macs, Apple had an attitude toward gaming that veered toward indifference. That changed with the arrival of the iPhone. With its touch interface, built-in accelerometer, as well as eye-catching screen, Apple’s phone-and indeed, all of Apple’s iOS devices-made best portable gaming systems.



Realizing the importance of games to the iOS platform, Apple introduced Game Center with the iOS 4.1 update last fall. The service, that allows we to match up with friends for iOS gaming, has been a success by the numbers-Apple said at least week’s iPhone press event that 67 million users have signed up for Game Center.

Still, Apple’s ambivalent attitude toward gaming can be found in the first iteration of Game Center-linking up with friends hasn’t been as easy as it could be, as well as even if you have a bevy of Game Center buddies, there aren’t a lot of how to interact with them.

iOS 5’s version of Game Center looks to change that, by making it easier to find both friends and games whilst also adding many of the social elements that other online gaming services have implemented to great effect.



iOS 5 gives you a chance to personalize the Game Center presence by adding a pic to the previously spartan profile. The first time we release Game Center in iOS 5, you're prompted to choose a photo-you can choose you from your own library or shoot an image with the front-facing camera from in Game Center. Don’t feel such as the image has to be perfect; we can usually change it later by tapping Change Photograph from the Me tab in Game Center.

Talking of that Me tab, it displays brand new information in iOS 5. Previously, the tab showed how many friends you had on Game Center (in red), how many Game Center-supported games we have (in yellow), and how many achievements we unlocked (in blue). The Friends and Games flags stay, though they’re now blue and red, respectively. Achievements has been replaced by a Points flag-that is the number of points you ve racked up by unlocking achievements.

Game Center now tallies the points you ve racked up whenever you unlock achievements in games. It additionally compares your points to exactly what the friends have scored in games you both own.
Those points additionally make an appearance in the Friends tab, as Game Center looks to encourage a small friendly competition in iOS 5. Tap on an individual friend, as well as the Points see on the ensuing page shows a side-by-side comparison of how many achievement points the two of we have racked up in commonly played games. Game Center additionally lists points the friend has accrued in games we don’t own-a not-so-subtle prod to possibly download those apps as well as take your own competition to the next level.

In addition to showing point comparisons and the games the Game Center friend plays, the Friends tab additionally now lets you view your friend’s friends. It’s you of the ways Apple is hoping to help we connect with more people on Game Center in iOS 5.

It’s easier to find friends with Game Center’s brand new recommendations feature.

Finding friends, after all, had been a shortcoming of Game Center in past versions of iOS. Before iOS 5, adding a friend in Game Center meant tapping an Add Friends button in the Friends tab and then sending a request to either an email address or perhaps to somebody s Game Center nickname. Both techniques had their limitations-the individual we had been emailing will not even use Game Center, and if you didn’t understand yet another user’s Game Center nickname, that was your hard luck.

The Friends see in the Friends tab first lists shared friends-that is, other people we ve befriended on Game Center. But below that, you can see an entire list of the friend’s friends-using their full names and certainly not their Game Center IDs-with details on how many friends as well as games we have in common with this would-be companion. Tapping on the name of a person in the Friends list brings you to a screen showing common friends in more detail; there’s also a button for sending a friend request.

There’s an even easier method to add friends in Game Center, however. Whenever you tap on the Friends tab, the first thing we see, above even the list of your current friends, is a Recommendations button. Tap it, and we re taken to a list of potential Game Center buddies, which is pulled together based on friends as well as games you have in common. Sending a friend request on the Recommendations list is as simple as tapping on the people name and then tapping the Send Friend Request button.

Tap this button at the top of the Games tab, as well as you ll get a list of recommended games.

Game Center in iOS 5 doesn’t simply would like to help you find brand new friends; it also wants to make it easier to add games to your iPhone, iPod touch, as well as iPad. The Games tab adds a Game Recommendations button over your list of Game Center-supported Games. The ensuing list of recommendations includes a blend of apps your Game Center friends play as well as popular App Store downloads.

Tap on a game in the Recommendations list, and we ll get more details on which of the friends play the game. Separate tabs additionally show leaderboards and achievements for the game.

If we like what we see, we don’t have to leave Game Center to buy the app. Just tap the price of the game, listed underneath its title. Doing and so takes you to an App Store-like view that Apple has built directly into Game Center. From there, we can buy the app just as you'd if we had been in the mobile App Store app.

Game Center bases its recommendations on games the friends such as too as popular App Store downloads.
You can also find and purchase apps directly from your Game Center friends’ list of games. In prior versions of Game Center, tapping on a game in that list would definitely take we to the App Store. Now, we get the leaderboard as well as achievement views, along with a list of which friends are playing that particular game. As in the Recommendations list, tapping on the price of the game takes we to an App Store-like page inside Game Center, exactly where we can download the app. It’s a great method to add Super Stickman Golf, which your own friends are always babbling regarding.

Note that Game Center doesn’t clearly distinguish between iPhone and iPad apps when it lists friends’ games. But iPhone owners shouldn’t worry about inadvertently buying an iPad-only game that won’t work on their device. If we try to buy an app that just runs on the iPad from your iPhone, we ll be taken to a page that tells you the game just works on the iPad, along with options for understanding more about the game itself to the iPad.

iOS 5’s version of Game Center retains the Find Game Center Games button at the bottom of your list of games. Tapping it takes we from Game Center to the App Store app, as it did in previous versions of iOS.
iOS 5 introduces other changes to gaming, a few of which include developer tools that many end users will not see-at least until they’re put to work building a brand new generation of iOS games.

One of those developer-side tools will add OS-level support for turn-based games. (Think Words With Friends, where we get a notice that it’s the turn to play in a game with a remote opponent that goes at a pace we and your opponent determine.) Tools for turn-based games will mean support for asynchronous gaming, better notifications, as well as improved methods to find opponents. We’ll have to wait till games built using these APIs hit the App Store to gauge the full impact of these changes.

View the original article here