Internet Explorer 10 will be available on October 26th along with Windows 8 and Microsoft Philippines gave us a sneak peek on what the new browser can do by having the popular game Contre Jour converted into HTML 5 so it can be played in web browsers. Similarly to what they did with Cut The Rope.
If you haven’t played Contre Jour yet, it’s just the most selling iPad app in the U.S. in 2011. It’s a puzzle game like Cut the Rope but with different objectives, very awesome graphics and soothing music. Designed by Ukrainian developer Maksym Hryniv, Contre Jour’s goal is to carefully guide the one-eyed creature through the game’s 30 levels until he reaches the “blue light” to rescue his love interest, the rose. This is done by transforming the landscape by swiping, pulling, and tapping the screen of your touch device which IE 10 handles really well.
For the web version of Contre Jour, there’s a separate area made just to showcase IE 10’s multi-touch feature. Levels in this area requires you to touch multiple points simultaneously to complete your goal.
I was impressed with how fluid the gameplay was on the browser considering simply a tablet was used for the demo. Just like Internet Explorer 9, the 10th iteration makes use of hardware acceleration provided by the GPU when needed. During the demo and while in the middle of the game, we take a look at the task manager and saw 0% CPU load on IE leaving more resources for other apps.
Internet Explorer may not be a popular choice of browser to some but when you find yourself with a touch-based device running on Windows 8, you will be hard-pressed not to use IE 10 as your default browser. Touch functionality on IE 10 is really well-made reminding me of the polished UX of the BlackBerry PlayBook.
Microsoft PH also announced that Atari Arcade site will be revamped to work well with IE 10 via HTML 5 on a touch-based device. Atari Arcade is an updated take on eight classic Atari games like Pong, Asteroids, Missile Command, and Centipede.
In the meantime, do check out Contre Jour web version on your web browser by visiting http://www.contrejour.ie. It works with all browsers and doesn’t require any plugins but if you do get your hands on IE 10, try it on that as well.