Hi all. I'm getting an Ipad this weekend. Can anyone suggest some good games?
Judge Dredd Vs Zombies is worth a punt.
I write about this stuff for a living so could reel off a big list. What kind of games are you into?
Nothing with grinding. I like RTS games, FPS, racing....the odd puzzler.
I don't mind paying for a full game, what I don't want is something where you buy tokens or whatever that you can otherwise accumulate by watching ads.
So full proper games, not 5 minutes on the bog jobs.
If you like shoot-em-ups, Bullet Hell Monday is amazing. Easily the best touch controls I've ever used. Amazingly, the full game is a free download but you should give the guy a couple of quid to unlock all the ship types.
Took me 2 or 3 weeks to clear all the base missions and I'm not shit at these games.
If you want some lists to trawl through, I've written best game pieces for Stuff (https://www.stuff.tv/features/40-best-iphone-and-ipad-games-right-now), Macworld (paid/co-authored by others (http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/iosapps/best-iphone-ipad-games-2017-3484312/) and free (http://www.macworld.co.uk/feature/iosapps/63-best-free-ipad-games-best-freemium-f2p-games-for-ipad-2017-3506984/)), and TechRadar (mixed (http://www.techradar.com/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/50-best-ipad-games-the-greatest-free-and-paid-for-games-around-1233917) and free (http://www.techradar.com/news/mobile-computing/tablets/60-best-free-ipad-games-692690)).
Those should give you a lot to get into. Specifically, though, I've found no FPS games that really work on iPad, unless you're willing to buy a controller (such as the Nimbus). There are some on-rails equivalents like the EPOCH games, but they're a bit grindy.
RTS is better catered for, with a load of PC ports (and TBS is the same). So you should find plenty there.
Racers: one of my favourite genres, and there are loads of great games, whether you fancy futuristic oddness (AG Drive; Riptide GP: Renegade; Impulse), bonkers arcade fare (Asphalt 8; Need for Speed: Most Wanted), top-down racers (Reckless Racing 3), or retro fare (Horizon Chase; Ridge Racer Slipstream). Simulation-oriented stuff also exists, but Real Racing 3's probably the best of them and is grindy. This piece I wrote is for iPhone (http://www.tapsmart.com/games/17-best-racing-games-iphone-2016/), and a little outdated now, but most of those games are still great and work nicely on iPad.
Puzzlers: loads of quality stuff. Any particular kind of puzzle game? What about adventures, too? iPad has tons of top-notch things in that area, from the likes of weird touchscreen thriller Device 6 through to ports of classic PC point-and-clicks.
The Room series are very good puzzlers.
I quite enjoyed Lifeline (You're helping an astronaut stranded on another planet), although that's possibly better on the phone, due to the fact that the character sends you messages when they discover something / need help.
Tinman games have converted a load of the old Fighting Fantasy gamebooks plus come up with their a few of own.
Including a Judge Dredd game book that's quite fun.
Thanks for all the recommendations guys. I can't wait to play The Room. Hitman Go also looks appealing. I see there are two Crazy Taxi games on the app store, anyone had any good experiences with either of them?
Honestly, I wouldn't recommend Dredd vs Zombies. It wasn't that great in the first place and hasn't been updated in nearly four years.
The Room: Definitely. Start with the first part and play them all through, preferably in the dark while it's pissing down with rain outside, just to boost the atmosphere. (Also: turn off the hints.)
Lifeline...: That worked really well on Apple Watch, of all things. I was less impressed on iPhone. On iPad, I'm not sure I'd bother – there are better path-finding adventures of that ilk.
Hitman GO: This one is superb. It somehow retains the spirit of its console cousin, yet transforms the game into a tiny turn-based puzzle set on gorgeous dioramas. Lara Croft GO, while simpler, also comes highly recommended from me. (Deus Ex GO is also good, but not to the same level as the two others in the series.)
Crazy Taxi: One is a port of the Dreamcast game, which has just been reissued as free-to-play. From what I can tell, it's just mildly ad-infested, but otherwise still intact. It looks rough but plays well enough. (It is, after all, basically a direct port.) City Rush is Crazy Taxi reimagined as an auto-runner. It's quite good, given the limitations of the format, but you said you don't like grinding, and boy do you have to grind in that one.
Incidentally, my App of the Week (https://www.stuff.tv/app-week) column for Stuff.tv is often a game. There's some great stuff on there of late that I suspect would appeal to you, including Card Thief, Death Road to Canada, the stunning Euclidean Lands, Causality, Polytopia, and more.
Conversely I'm still playing Dredd v Zombies. I've almost completely maxed out all the levels and the weapons on both my HTC and Kindle. It's not a game I spend more than five minutes a day on, but I like it.
Fair enough. I know it has its fans, but I just didn't see anything to keep me playing in the long term. I'm a big fan of 2000 AD, but am only going to stick with a branded game like that if it's on par with the competition – and there are tons of superb shooters on iOS. (For the bite-sized 'few minutes a day' thing, though, that can work. I have a few titles like that myself that are objectively not all that, but which I'm still happy to dip into now and again. I certainly did that with Transformers: Forged to Fight for a while, although haven't picked that up in a couple of weeks.)
One game I would not recommend is Marvels Contest of Champions. I lost a year of my life to that. Quite the most horrifyingly addictive game since Final Fantasy 09 for me.
The big ones for me:
FTL
The Sorcery series
FFV
TellTale Games - Walking Dead 1 & 2
XCom Enemy Unknown (Same as the PC version, not quite so stable and battery life will disappear but good god. Brilliance)
Baldurs Gate 2 - I do not get on with the touch screen interaction but this is the best RPG on any computer ever and provides the best value you could possibly ever get, if you're a fan of this kind of thing.
Downwell - great retro platformer/shooter
Death Road to Canada as mentioned looks pretty sweet too.
I think for your personal tastes they may all be a bit wordy?
80 days...an interactive fiction story, basically a partially animated choose your own adventure. A steampunk version of the Jules Verne classic, where you play the part of valet Passepartout, organising luggage and buying tickets...alright, that sounds crap, but it's an award winning and original game, with a surprising number of twists and choices
Plague Inc is good if you want a Coronavirus simulator. I feel like the IAP stuff got a bit worse over time with it though.
Not sure if you can still get it but Geodefense was great. I think it was iPod rather than iPad so you'd need to modify your search. Tower Defense game but really well designed. Rock hard though.