Verizon Galaxy Nexus Gaming Demo With Riptide GP And ShadowGun

There are a couple of games out there right now that show off the graphics finesse of whatever platform you play them on quite well, and in quite an easily comparable sense when it comes down to it, those being Riptide GP, a jet-ski racing game, and ShadowGun, a 3rd person shooter – today we've got these games being demonstrated on Verizon's LTE version of the Galaxy Nexus. This device is the first to work natively with Google's mobile OS by the name of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and runs a Texas Instruments OMAP4 1.2GHz dual-core processor. Is it enough to compete with such gaming titans as the ultra-powerful NIVIDA Tegra 3 quad-core processor toting ASUS Transformer Prime, or perhaps the iPad 2 for good measure?

What you're going to see below is a few videos, the first of which will be Riptide GP on the Galaxy Nexus, the second being ShadowGun on that same device, then you'll be looking at a couple of videos that show off these same games on the two most powerful tablet devices on the market today. Though a tablet isn't normally supposed to be compared to a handset like this in this manner, you'll see that though tablets have been shown to be running the show as far as high-class graphics and gaming go thus far, here in the Galaxy Nexus its evident that the smartphone is right there racing beside them, no problem at all whatsoever.

This game was originally developed in collaboration with NVIDIA to be optimized for NVIDIA Tegra 2 processors, dual-core like the Texas Instruments processor in the Galaxy Nexus, but currently being phased out as the Tegra 3 rolls out with twice the power. Meanwhile this game has been released for all devices powerful enough to work with it, and it looks fantastic here on the Galaxy Nexus. We have several things to thank for that including the high-level graphics processing in the Texas Instruments chip, the operating system Android 4.0's ability to work with processors to deliver high-end graphics and processing more efficiently than ever before, and the high-resolution display on the Galaxy Nexus. This game is available on the Android Market now.

Similarly you'll find ShadowGun working slick as a knife through butter with absolutely no load time between scenes and instantaneous rendering of all elements as they unfold, no problem. This game demands that your device be running efficiently or it skips and jumps as your machine tries to handle it — you'll see no such breaks here. This game, like Riptide GP, is available for download directly from the Android Market right this minute.

Now as far as both of these games working in the tablet world, there's more of a difference between the iPad 2 and the Transformer Prime than you'd think, and because the display is much more dense with pixels on the Galaxy Nexus than it is on the iPad 2, the difference between the two is pronounced heavily once again. First have a look at Riptide GP:

You'll have noticed at this point that the game has some added effects on the ASUS tablet – this is because NVIDIA worked with the folks developing Riptide GP to create a version that takes full advantage of the four cores of the Tegra 3 processor. A similar situation is going on with ShadowGun, what with water effects, in this case, and improved graphics across the game. Compare this version to the one you see played by the Galaxy Nexus above and you'll see that beyond those aesthetic bonuses, they run pretty similarly.

Stick around here on SlashGear to see our full review of the Verizon Galaxy Nexus this week and follow along in our timeline below to see our hands-on history with the Galaxy Nexus in general. Look like the device for you? Believe it or not, it's available in the USA right now!