Latest news claims, that you can play VO on a Galaxy II and other smartphones. Now I'm sitting here, asking myself: How is that possible without 3 hands?

atm, when I play VO I need/use a G13 gamepad (a lot of keys and a small joystick, used for accelerating/deaccelerating and left/right "rudder" control and a "real" joystick with a cooliehat on top of it (joystick axes themself used for nick and roll control, coolihat used for the "strafe up/down/left/right" function.

Now, as far as I know on a smartphone you'd have 2 axes covered by using the accelerometer(s), you'd use one thumb for speed control, the other thumb for strafe control, the accel's for nick and roll.

Now what is uncovered: rudder control, firing, targeting, changing sensor mode and so on. Do I miss something here (maybe that those devices are only used for "emergency log-ins" like when your clan really needs some wingmans) or ...how the hell are you supposed to play this game on such a device?

Why don't you try it and find out? Some people seem to do fairly well once they figure out how it works for them.

Also, install the DroidButtons plugin.

well before I buy myself a ~400 euro smartphone I'd want to know if VO is playable. ATM I've a Nokia N900, which isn't supported (and I don't think that it is even capable of running this game).

The latest news specifically says the Galaxy SII is not officially supported.

We have several flight model options. I use: Arrows on left for forward/reverse/left/right, circle on right for orientation, device-tilt for roll. It's not perfect, but it functions. The SonyEricsson Xperia PLAY has probably the best control layout for the game, but is not the fastest chip for running it.

". Aside from the challenging ARM Mali GPU series (Galaxy SII, etc), we now support [...]"

I'm not a native english speaker but when I read that it says that you do support the ARM Mali GPU series (Galaxy SII, etc), tough the implementation was challenging, and ontop of that some other devices

If that's not what you meant, I'm sorry for misunderstanding but from my point of view that sentence says quite the opposite of your statement in this thread.

but in your layout, how do you fire?

There's a primary fire on the left side, and a secondary fire on the right side. Dedicated touchscreen buttons. Plus there are other touchscreen buttons for things like "Activate" and "Mission" which can be tasked to other things by long-pressing the touch region and then selecting a different function. "Target", for instance, can be set to all the different types of target.. object in front, nearest enemy, enemy in front, etc. "Mission" can be retasked to "Nav", "Activate" can be retasked to "Toggle Flight Model", and so on, they're pretty fast to switch around as needed.

The phone (with touchscreen) is not an ideal case for combat in VO, although it works pretty well on the Xperia PLAY with dedicated (real) buttons. I was able to kill bots (dentek collectors and such) reasonably well on the PLAY.

On a touchscreen-only phone I have a bit more trouble, but it does work. The size of the screen matters too.. on new devices like the HTC Edge (4.7" screen? something like that?) it'll be easier than on my 4" Atrix. However, the lack of feedback tactility (feeling yourself pressing the button, knowing your thumb is on the button by feel) is the biggest issue. With an outboard game controller it would work pretty well. We're looking at adding support for those.

Non-combat, everything else works pretty well. Flying around is cool. Mining, trading, etc.

okay, thanks for the reply.

I'd just like to add my 2c that the PLAY is pretty slick in its control layout. The R/L shoulder buttons are primary fire and turbo by default, there are multiple ways to brake, and the accelerometer works well. You can even do a serviceable barrel roll in PvP. Mainly I use the XP to do quick trades and to monitor chat, but it's mind-bending to take VO with you everywhere you go, and in doing so play the same character, in the same universe, with full access to the game.

Maybe I get too excited about this, but it's neat to see the future unfold as it has with GS as technology innovators in the gaming industry.