All About N-Gage has been taking a look at Nokia's best-selling N95 smartphone, to see how it shapes up as an N-Gage device and a general gaming machine. We've concluded that... well you'll have to read our review to find out, won't you? When you've finished that, be sure to also scroll to the bottom of the page for our sister site All About Symbian's review of the N95 as a general phone.
Read on in the full article.
Nice article, think the N95(more specifically the 8GB Black which is pure class) will probably my next upgrade when I can afford it, can see why it's such a popular handset.
I still think the N93 would be the current ultimate NGage phone(I mean the phone layout is perfect for gaming & it also has the TV out and 3d accelerator chip), but for one single yet obviuously very large problem, Nokia taking forever to kick start NGage for the device🙄
I do wish Nokia could keep us at least a little more updated with these things, I mean even and ETA for NGage on the confirmed soon to be supported phones would be nice. I keep checking every week just incase but that is starting to get a little tedious now.
Anyway, good things come to those that wait, can only look forward to the day I can start gaming on my N93, and then to my future upgrade of the N95.
I still think the N93 would be the current ultimate NGage phone(I mean the phone layout is perfect for gaming & it also has the TV out and 3d accelerator chip), but for one single yet obviuously very large problem, Nokia taking forever to kick start NGage for the device
Yes, it would indeed probably score even higher than the N95 but as you say Nokia seem to be dawdling about getting support to it!
I suspect it's the older hardware and smaller amount of RAM that's causing them headaches, or maybe they've just been overwhelmed by all the things they've still got to fix anyway (game transfers, savegame transfers, a horizontal mode for the app etc).
On the ETA, I think Nokia had their fingers burnt so badly with the general N-Gage launch date (first late 2006, then early 2007, then summer 2007, then late 2007, then eventually spring 2008) that they're not going to give any dates again.
wow okay, that n95 made me realise one thing that's annoying. n95 multimedia keys can be used for gaming, but n95 8gb keys cant. for now anyway. im using the latest firmware (20.0.016)
for that reason alone, n95 might be the better n-gage device than the n95 8gb, but i'll still take n95 8gb as a phone.
where do you get your info fom, a monkey?
is it really too much to ask for politeness? whatever. how about instead of referring me to your relatives, you tell me how to work the keys then? whenever i tap the play button in a game trying to change controls, it just takes me to media player. again, if ur going to reply, try to be nice. it's hard yes, your life sucks and stuff, but try.
n95 multimedia keys can be used for gaming, but n95 8gb keys cant
I've heard contradictory reports on the 8GB issue in the Arena forums, some people can get them to work while others can't.
The problem seems to stem from regional variations of the N95 and N95 8GB. You can find out which versions are currently supported from N-Gage's app download page (scroll right to the bottom of the screen):
http://www.n-gage.com/ngi/ngage/web/g0/en/get_ngage/download.html
Essentially it's the Chinese and American versions they're having problems with.
I've added a warning to the end of the article about the reports of 8GB keys not working as gaming buttons, and also a general warning about regional variants not all working with N-Gage.
hm okay, that's really strange because mine is the RM-320, and still the keys don't work. hopefully someone will be able to shed some light on the issue soon.
brrip, have you checked to see if you've got the latest firmware?
yeah i'm using v20.0.016. i find it odd that this should be happening. maybe i'm doing it wrong. let's say for cotd, i go into redifine keys, and press play. the media player opens instead of the key being changed.
Brrip, it should automatically make them act as gaming keys when you're running N-Gage games, and then revert back to music controls when you aren't playing N-Gage games. That's how it works on my non-8GB N95.
I hope in the future all games will have a 'redefine keys' option that allow n95/n96 owners to use the fast forward and rewind multimedia buttons too.. would be handy in games kike Fifa or BIA...
I hope in the future all games will have a 'redefine keys' option that allow n95/n96 owners to use the fast forward and rewind multimedia buttons too.. would be handy in games kike Fifa or BIA...
They couldn't do that without breaking compatibility with other models that only have two gaming buttons.
The game designers have been told that there are two gaming buttons available in horizontal mode, which is what the N81 and 5320 provide, so they can't really add third and fourth button options without damaging the gameplay for owners of these phones (and future ones too probably).
I understand what ur saying, but if the option was there to assign the fast forward & rewind buttons to any in game action, it would mean that every n-gage player wouldnt require Go-Go-Gadget wrists to play, say, Fifa with the keypad open in landscape mode.
As Fifa has numerous action buttons I feel forced to play it in portrait mode, which feels about as natural as looking at a billboard through a keyhole (should anyone feel so inclined! 😉 Remember the previous s60 BIA title.. I would've liked to play that in landscape mode but was forced to play in portrait mode due to the plethora of in game controls.
The n-gage website shows next gen BIA in horizontal mode.. Will this mean they have simplified all the controls around a directional pad, its middle key, and two gaming keys? Perhaps. But would it be a nice touch to allow n95\6 owners the opportunity to redefine the dormant fastforward/rewind keys to an action? Maybe. It would certainly mean id give Fifa more of an outing.
I guess all im saying is that, yes, Nokia should build the games around the two gaming button model to make gaming simple and accessible for the mass market, but should also include the option to give more experienced gamers the freedom to do whatever we want with the extra, idle, keys.
I understand what ur saying, but if the option was there to assign the fast forward & rewind buttons to any in game action, it would mean that every n-gage player wouldnt require Go-Go-Gadget wrists to play, say, Fifa with the keypad open in landscape mode.
I know that game's awkward, but I think that's more a problem with FIFA, EA should never have designed the game in a way that used the keypad in horizontal mode.
Like you say, Nokia ought to insist that the games are built round the controls available to them (in fact I assume they already have insisted, but FIFA didn't entirely obey this for some reason).
The horizontal control system on N-Gage games ought to just use the d-pad, d-pad button, two soft keys and two gaming buttons, though of course this wouldn't apply in vertical mode.
Most of the games have been able to cope with this restriction, and some of them, such as Creatures of the Deep, can actually be played entirely with the d-pad alone. The developers Infinite Dreams seem quite proud of being able to do "one-button" games because it means they work on the widest possible range of phones.
but should also include the option to give more experienced gamers the freedom to do whatever we want with the extra, idle, keys.
Customisable shortcuts you mean? Interesting idea... as long as the gameplay didn't depend on those buttons, it might be do-able.
However if they made the game easier to play, there's a danger of another tier of N-Gage gaming opening up, especially if some designers start assuming those third and fourth buttons are there (which is what FIFA seemed to do with the keypad in horizontal mode).
The n-gage website shows next gen BIA in horizontal mode.. Will this mean they have simplified all the controls around a directional pad, its middle key, and two gaming keys?
...and the two soft keys, don't forget them.
They probably will use a simplified control system, because all of Gameloft's other games are completely playable through the current horizontal controls. Gameloft have stuck to N-Gage's control system quite well.
One way of doing this simplifying is to make controls context-based, so for example the controls in the N-Gage version of Asphalt 3 let you do drifts if you turn in a certain way, there's no need for a separate drift control.