From the Forums: Windows Phone 8 games, HTC 8S storage

It's another editions of From the Forums, folks! It has been a while since we featured some discussions from our Windows Phone community, so what has been happening on our forums? As expected, a number of threads have been created and posts accumulated so we'll quickly run through what's currently hot on the forum.

First up today is the lack of Windows Phone 8 games that take full advantage of the new hardware. Complaints and cries have been published on our community forum that call for more to be done in attracting more titles to the platform. Windows Phone Central member zephyrwala has the following to say on the matter:

"I love my lumia but there are hardly any games worth playing ! Other OS have games like GTA 3, NFS : most wanted, Batman, Max Payne, Ninjump, etc ! But despite of the Lumia 920 being quoted as the gaming phone for all amazing gaming engines support for WP8 but where the games ? Ut was promised that gameloft will release the new gaming titles but still there's nothing."

Microsoft has previously announced that the company will work hard on getting more titles available for Windows Phone, and game engines (among other technology) have began supporting the mobile platform. But we're yet to see any real progress.

What do you make of the selection of games currently on the store, good enough for the latest hardware? Be sure to add your thoughts in the "Where are the promised games?" thread.

HTC 8S

HTC 8S and 4GB

The HTC 8S only sports 4GB internal storage for all app data, downloads and more. This could prove to be an issue for those who enjoy playing a number of large games, but the good part is this is an affordable phone and comes with a MicroSD card slot. Still, just how many apps can you install on the device until the memory is full? 

Richard_c purchased a HTC 8S but later returned it for the very reason that not enough storage is available:

"If you have an iphone or android phone you can view the list of apps and see the app size and then the size of the data that is added to the app as you use it. Because of this you are limited to how many apps you can get on the 8S. This was my over sight as when I got my 8S and install about 30 apps top, all of which were useful app and utilities not games I found I had only 400mb left."

We found that the storage was limited in our testing run with the 8S, with only 1GB free to begin with. What are your thoughts? Is 4GB enough for total storage on new smartphones? Be sure to head on over to the "Is 4GB enough?" to add your thoughts and experiences.

Miscellaneous: Configure RT power options

With the new version of Windows, it can be confusing to some when it comes to performing tasks that should be straightforward. Microsoft has kept some processes to be identical to how they were achieved in Windows 7 - take power management for example. Forum member MikeInBA asked about power management in Windows RT for Surface.

"For your Surface, go to your desktop. Open up the file explorer and click on desktop, then control panel. In control panel, switch the view to small icons and go to power options. Tap on advanced power options and you'll see the option to turn it off after so many minutes. Change it from the default 2 minutes to whatever you'd like for it to remain on. You can do this for both battery and plugged in."

It serves as a reminder that it's easy to configure settings that remain in the same location. Be sure to check as you would on Windows 7 before freaking out, as the option may well be there. You can engage in the thread for more info.

Rich Edmonds
Senior Editor, PC Build

Rich Edmonds was formerly a Senior Editor of PC hardware at Windows Central, covering everything related to PC components and NAS. He's been involved in technology for more than a decade and knows a thing or two about the magic inside a PC chassis. You can follow him on Twitter at @RichEdmonds.

18 Comments
  • When are all those gameloft games.coming?
  • This!!!
  • Not only do we need the AAA title games, we need to have a GAMECLIP Device like the one for Android and the PS3 Games for XBox and Windows Phone (See the link below)
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwjBWDhm9xU&feature=plcp
    If we had this and could play the XBox Live Arcade titles and some modified AAA titles, it would propel Windows Phone into real competition for gaming mindshare. MS also needs to make all of the Video services on the XBox available for Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. It would then be true contender for the Premier Media/Gaming ecosystem.
  • 16 GB isn't enough, let alone 4
  • 4gb+ SD card for music,photos and documents.
  • Its Ludicrous that apps cannot be installed to the SD card this stopped me from getting an 8s i love my titan but storage has always been an issue for Win phones guess I'm have to save up for an Ativ s or consider cough Crashdroid.
  • Cant believe my comment made it into an article. I keep doing research on ways to manage storage on windows phone and that it the "other" storage which is used can change dynamically as you install more apps thus freeing up more storage. I dont know but its still making me stat away from the 8S and thats a real shame :-(
  • @wp8 games topic - finally my problems are being heard. I so want to give up my iPhone but its the games like GTA, Max Payne, temple run, etc and few selective apps, I just can't give it up ! WP8 is a gorgeous looking OS and I so love it every way but lack of apps, its like owning a machine gun and hardly having handful of bullets and going for a war :D
  • Grats Richard :) i love my 8S  its my first WP8 device, I was an android addict hehe , the storage is is enough for my apps, fantastic battery duration, good screen etc etc ...... :)
  • where's gamelofts promised 12 games!!?? Some supposedly coming out this holiday like mc4.
  • After 30 apps installed that only weighs under 5mb on avg, only 400mb left out of 4gb. I call that bs. Just how often do you come across apps that weighs over 20mb?? Even if he installed all 20mb apps, it will take 600 mb, less than a gig.
  • I have a few games that are easily 50-200MB each - Sid Meier's Pirates is 226 MB just for the game. You forget that many apps use space after being installed for caching data, offline maps, saves etc.
    I don't know how many apps & games I have installed (I can't be bothered counting) but they are using 11.7 GB of space... I got so sick of not having any space I recently wiped almost all of my music & photos from my mobile. I have 1.74 GB free, which is an all-time record for me as I usually have under 500 MB free.
    There is a setting (in Zune for WP7) to alter the amount of "reserved space" - I'm not sure if that's still the case in WP8, but it helps if that is reduced to almost nothing to install more apps (but may run into storage issues later on).
  • I hope you know that games does not = to apps lol! And how are you using 11.7 GB just on apps and games alone? Do you download every games and apps that come out everyday? 
  • Even if HTC will lower the price and bundle some small sd card with the phone it won't match the out of the box Lumia 620 experience. 4GB is only for those that realy don't use apps (but why did they buy a smartphone in the first place ?) so since iPhone has had 8GB as standard in 2008 we should expect that to be a minimum capacity nowadays in a phone.
  • I really don't see the need of a phone as a "serious" gaming device. Sure I have a couple of games for the times I get bored and want to pass 5 minutes, but if I really feel like gaming I have a gaming computer at home to use. Heck you can even buy a console for a couple hundred bucks for more serious gaming than a phone. Funny thing is most my games on my PC I bought for near the price if the phone games during steam summer sales. I'd much rather play my PC version of mirrors edge than my phone one.
  • >I really don't see the need of a phone as a "serious" gaming device. Sure I have a couple of games for the times I get bored and want to pass 5 minutes, but if I really feel like gaming I have a gaming computer at home to use
    agreed.
  • no im not a big gamer, bit its nice to blast abit of time when in bed bus train, laptop just runs out of battery  
  • Microsoft. I beg you to release an update. The 8S can still not use more than 1gb for apps, even though you put in 16gb extra in sd slot.