Apple announced the New Apple TV yesterday, showcasing Siri, the App Store, and a new remote. All of this was overdue, necessary, rumored, even expected. But the real story is in what comes next.The initial focus of the Apple TV, and the accompanying editorials and reviews, seem to be focused on the device as a target for the “casual gamer,” but this is a very short-sighted view. It’s no coincidence that Apple described their new iPad Pro as containing a “console-class” GPU.Benchmarking Apple’s recent offerings to the current console offerings shows a significant gap between them. From a CPU perspective, the iPad Air 2 Geekbench score has only 57% the performance of a PS4, and its GFXBench score on the Manhattan test is less than 50% of the current console offerings.But put that in perspective – the iPad Air 2, a year-old device running on a battery, provides approximately half the performance of the latest generation of console gaming devices, and at a similar price point.
What happens when you remove the power and cooling limitations present in a tablet?The new Apple TV is also using last year’s CPU/GPU from Apple – the A8. This is likely a compromise Apple made to focus CPU foundry capacity on the iPhone 6s. As the latest generation components are often supply-constrained, Apple would dedicate their supply on meeting sales goals for the new handset, and as production yields improve, move that component down the product line. So what would that mean for next year?If the next generation of Apple TV includes the A9 CPU and GPU, it would likely be on-par with the current generation gaming consoles. And with an annual Apple upgrade cycle, how long before it eclipses their capabilities? With consoles having a 4-7 year release cycle, it is without question that Apple TV has the ability to surpass the current generation’s capabilities before their next refresh. The next concern is storage required for today’s immense games. With Batman: Arkham Knight weighing in at 45GB on the current consoles, how can the Apple TV with its meager 32GB base offering hope to compete?
Further, Apple is limiting Apple TV apps to a ridiculous 200MB, this excluding any “real” games form ever making it to that platform. What is Apple doing here?What they are actually doing is fixing much of what is wrong with console gaming today. By looking at what Sony and Microsoft did wrong with their recent console launches, Apple has developed an entire set of APIs to greatly improve customer experience even for huge, content-rich games like those available today. The core application and associated assets (images, maps, music) is limited to 200MB. Then, the application can request additional assets, called on-demand resources, to be downloaded as needed. These assets are temporarily stored on the device, and can be deleted if the system needs more room. This allows that 32GB of space to be used very efficiently for games that are currently being played, and allows the game to download quickly so users don’t have to wait hours and hours for installation.Consider again Batman: Arkham Knight.
Of that 45GB of total space required, how much of it is needed at any time? The game takes approximately 15 hours to complete, and if you go through the extra levels, it takes 25 hours. If you never play the extra levels and additional content, there is no need to ever download them. While you are playing the first levels, the operating system is downloading the next levels in the background so they are ready when you are. When you move to level 3, level 2 can be safely deleted, ready to download again if your little brother decides to play. When bugs are found, the patches will be smaller. When new levels are added to the game, they are available when the player needs them. The entire experience is streamlined to make use of the local device storage and the cloud, seamlessly. Apple has completely changed the music and video retail industries. They have completely changed the handheld gaming market, and the cell phone market. They are positioning themselves to change the TV market, and if I were Sony and Microsoft, I’d be worried they are going after the console market as well.
Be sure to follow Apple TV Hacks on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ for all the latest Apple TV-related news.Best games of 2017: What's best to play and when Best games of 2017: What's best to play and when New Lord of the Rings game Shadow of War unveiled We're making some changes to Digital Spy's forums Injustice 2 trailer is Batman v Superman done right GoT's Natalie Dormer will be in Mass Effect: Andromeda With the launch of the excellent Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we thought we'd take a look back over the illustrious Lego video game series and pick our top 15 titles from the many, many, many that have been released.But where does The Force Awakens sit in our epic ranking? Well, you'll just have to read on and find out.And if you disagree, don't hesitate to fling Lego bricks of love our way on Twitter: @digitalspygames.15. LEGO JURASSIC WORLD (2015)Who thought you could go wrong with Lego, Chris Pratt and dinosaurs? Well apparently you can.While Lego Jurassic World had some great comedic moments, strong co-op gameplay and some slapstick fun, it all felt a little tired.
Still worth a punt if you want to be a Lego dinosaur though.14. Before the Lego series started taking on the big names in Hollywood, it contained an awesome game called Lego Island. You played as Pepper Roni, a pizza delivery boy in a world that you could create yourself. But you accidentally freed the diabolical Brickster and chaos ensued.It was hard not to get distracted by the fact that the entire island was customisable and you could build a load of different things before bringing them to life in-game. A foreshadowing of Lego Dimensions perhaps?13. LEGO RACERS (1999)Lego Mario Kart anyone? Lego Racers enabled you to build an awesome car out of Lego bricks and then race it around a track.Sadly it hasn't aged well, but we spent so long playing this game back in the day crafting racers that it deserves a place on this list. And maybe a reboot too.12. THE LEGO MOVIE VIDEOGAME (2014)The Lego Movie Videogame basically meant that you played through the entire plot of the film on your console of choice, taking on the various iconic roles to solve puzzles and smash bricks.
But that was part of the reason it's so low on this list. The game really followed the movie too closely, which compromised on some of the gameplay. But it was great to see Emmett and the gang again, but it could have done with deviating from the plot a little more.11. LEGO WORLDS (2016)Okay, so technically Lego Worlds isn't out yet, but you can play it via Steam Early Access and it's pretty amazing.It's basically Lego Minecraft and allows you – a bit like Lego Island – to create entire worlds with blocks but without taking over your entire dining room or risking the dog breaking everything.10. LEGO INDIANA JONES: THE ORIGINAL ADVENTURES (2008)Although there are two Lego Indiana Jones titles, the first is definitely the best, because The Crystal Skull isn't a real Indiana Jones movie.Becoming a little Lego Indy with whip and fedora as you explore the world of Indiana Jones block by block was always exhilarating, as long as you avoided the snakes.9. LEGO HARRY POTTER: YEARS 1-4 & 5-7 (2010/2011)Now we know that these are actually two different titles, but both Lego Harry Potter titles are so good you really need to play both.
The pair of games bring the magic of Hogwarts to life so well that even diehard Potter fans will be appeased.If you play both games, all seven books or eight movies are covered off with plenty of brilliantly blocky wizardry.8. LEGO CITY UNDERCOVER (2013)For this Wii U exclusive, developer TT Games managed to create an exciting original Lego title that was essentially the series' answer to Grand Theft Auto without the torture, drugs and prostitutes.It was an open-world sandbox game that could appeal to all the family for weeks on end.7. LEGO LORD OF THE RINGS (2012)Thankfully no-one told the Lego team that it couldn't pass into the realms of Lord of the Rings, so we got to play through a beautiful block-based rendition of the entire trilogy, complete with some of that glorious music and original dialogue.And although the story was compressed somewhat – can you blame them? – the game still offered a lot of gameplay action, secrets and worlds to wander.6. LEGO PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN (2011)We always knew Captain Jack Sparrow would translate well to Lego and bringing all three original Pirates of the Caribbean movies to life in Lego was a great feat.
Although we will argue that the game would have really benefited from some dialogue, it still managed to capture the world, characters and humour perfectly.5. LEGO STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS (2016)Although there have been so many Lego Star Wars games, we're in love with the latest release: Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Not only does it have the same excellent gameplay that the series is built on, but the twists you'll discover are quite brilliant.Plus, the trademark Telltale Games humour is stronger than ever.4. LEGO MARVEL SUPER HEROES (2013)Although it's not the newest in the Lego Marvel series, it was undoubtedly the game that really showcased the scope Lego games were capable of. Lego Marvel Super Heroes features over 150 characters to discover, tons of collectibles and lots of replayability, all with its very own story that makes you feel like you're watching a very personal Marvel movie. Complete with Stan Lee cameos.And don't forget, there's nothing more satisfying than flying around the world as Iron Man.3.
LEGO BATMAN 2: DC SUPER HEROESFor the first time in the franchise, Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes featured original voice acting, adding a whole new dimension to the series following a narrative of mainly primitive grunts.The sandbox gameplay was awesome and you could play as both Batman and Superman, along with a vast array of classic DC heroes.Drama and humour abounded, along with a great story and top notch graphics. It was close to being the best Lego game of all time.2. LEGO STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA (2007)With Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga you got both the brilliant Lego Star Wars and Lego Star Wars 2 games in one massive bundle with completely revamped graphics. That's a lot of content.We couldn't get enough of that classic soundtrack and huge helpings of that unique Lego humour that reigns to this day.1. LEGO DIMENSIONS (2015)It might have taken Lego a few years to get involved with the toys-to-life genre, but when it arrived, boy did it shake things up.Lego Dimensions combines real-world Lego block-building escapades, a toys-to-life portal and the classic Lego gameplay but with a lot more innovation than ever seen before.