We said 'Cell phone games will hit PS3 quality in 2013'. Did they?

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Is it even close? Let's take a look...

Resistance: Fall of Man - PS3

Dead Trigger: iOS

Dead Trigger looks incredible. Smooth, high-resolution and featuring a decent polygon count, its characters and environments look amazing. Games like RAGE HD sacrifice freedom of movement in exchange for better visuals, but here the gameplay is totally free-moving too. Just when all looked lost for cell phones, this is arguably as good, visually, as Resistance: Fall of Man. On PS3. It's as-near-as-dammit and dead gorgeous to look at. Pun intended.

After Burner Climax: PS3 (PSN)

To finish up, let's do a straight comparison. After Burner Climax is not a game from 2006, but it is a game that has been recently ported to iOS using assets from the PS3 version. Therefore, it's a great indicator of how well iOS can imitate modern PS3 games. Any shortfalls will be brutally clear. So...

After Burner Climax: iOS

Here's the iPhone 5 version. Bar the occasional dropped frame, the game runs at a decent 30fps, which isn't as good as the PS3 version's 60fps. Close inspection also reveals a few graphical shortcomings, such as muddy textures, reduced special effect quality on smoke trails and exhaust flames, as well as an absence of lighting effects on the buildings. It's still devilishly fast and very pretty, but it's not on a par with PS3's version.

It's so close. What do you think?

Objectively, cell phone games are not quite there yet. But to even be talking about the finer aspects of graphcial quality in a straight comparison between mobile games and PS3 is incredible. Dead Trigger is almost up there with the PS3 launch line-up, and Real Racing 3 is a minor miracle, no question. Perhaps before the year's out we'll see parity. That's a better way to end this than saying 'prediction fail'. Let us know what you think in the comments.

And if you're looking for more, check out our list of the Best iPhone games and the original Can cell phone graphics hit PS3 quality in 3 years?

Justin Towell
Justin Towell
Freelance Writer

Justin was a GamesRadar+ staffer for 10 years but is now a freelance writer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.