Vendetta MMORPG heads to Android

SPACESHIP SIMULATOR GAME Vendetta Online is winging its way to Android handsets.

The game is available on Windows, Mac and Linux, and according to developers Guild Software the Android version is a 100 per cent port of the game.

This means that gamers will be able to extend their space-lives to the mobile part of their day, letting them fly their ship, have dogfights or join a military campaign while at a wedding or in a meeting, or something.

The current android build will be demoed at the E3 games show, but only in private sessions. Between now and an actual release the Guild will carry out optimisation work, according to a page on its website.

Tablets and netbooks are most likely to benefit from the Android release, it explained, recommending use on displays of 1024x600 or better. Also suggested is the dual core Nvidia Tegra chip with OpenGL ES 2.0 support. Guild added, "There are currently a number of technical caveats in bringing intensive, PC-style games to Android, so we can only recommend Tegra at this time."

This means that Vendetta won't be appearing on the Ipad, which does not have a high enough resolution. Phones may follow in the future though. "We're not ruling out future support for other mobile platforms, including devices like the Iphone or Ipad. Porting a resource-intensive PC game to a mobile platform has a lot of challenges that are different from developing a brand-new app specifically for mobile use. To some extent, porting our title to any mobile device was going to be an 'experiment'. We felt more comfortable experimenting with Android and Nvidia; for a variety of reasons that I'll leave out for the sake of brevity," the firm wrote.

The nature of the game might expose some limitations on all devices, however, as the firm said that things like massive space battles will drain any machine's resources. In order to prevent this affecting gaming fun, Vendetta promises to warn players before they enter such a session though.

The game is expected to work on 3G and WiFi networks, but again large space battles might prove to be a bit of a drain on broadband resources. It is also suggested that players sign up for unlimited data plans.

Although they deny any suggestions that the game is vapourware, even before anyone has suggested this, the firm is vague on the release dates, choosing only to say that it is likely to be sometime this year. µ