It can also be set to synchronise apps with your Android phone if you have one, and install them that way through than through Google Play or other stores. While Bluestacks is billed as an 'app player', the reality is that it's running a barebones versions of an older edition of Android through assorted witchcract, so you can make your PC look and behave like an Android tablet if you so wish. It hooks into my Google account and I can install any apps I've bought previously, or buy/install new ones, just like on a 'real' Android device. Also I'm an entitled little twerp who demands that every game is immediately available on his preferred platform.īluestacks did the trick, and there's no illegal skullduggery involved. Sure, I could play it on my phone, but I don't really get on with playing games on tiny screens any more. I'd given Bluestacks another spin because I really wanted to play space survival sim Out There (think FTL with no combat, a crushing sense of solitude and a desperate hunt for fuel) but was disappointed to find there was no PC version. It's not exactly aping a hexacore ARM processor in its current form, but it's speedy enough to handle games. Indeed, I was already aware of it too, but the last time I used it (over a year ago) it didn't seem quite up to scratch. I'm sure a great many of you will be familiar with it already, but please remember that won't be true of everyone. That's how pleased I am that a program called Bluestacks has meant I've spent the morning playing Android games from the big-screen comfort of my computer. Three exclamation marks in that introduction. I've cracked it! I've discovered the formula for eternal and invincible perversion! I have, this day, established a way in which PC gaming website Rock, Paper, Shotgun can post about intriguing mobile games without the slightest concern that we're stepping beyond our self-elected remit! Well, maybe a little, occasionally, hesitantly, sideways.

Android bluestacks experimental version