Microsoft Surface Pro & Gaming

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ToddW2

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What are some of the best games that the Surface Pro 3 256gb/8gb are capable of playing?

Any type of game -- I'm looking for something new to play away from TV and Desktop.
 
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Another route to take would be to get classic games. Check out http://www.gog.com They sell newer games too, but all of the old games that say they'll run in Windows will work on a Surface Pro just fine. If you've never played System Shock 2 this would be an EXCELLENT game that doesn't require much in the way of power to run well. The Ultima series would be a pretty good way to go too.

Then I would check out older shooters, especially things on the Source engine. Many of them should play at low-mid settings without a problem I would think.

Also, there are a lot of good indie games (like Shadownrun, FEZ, Monaco, Frozen Synapse, Uplink, etc.) that will run flawlessly on there.

Emulators too. I'd say you could get decent emulation up through maybe the PS1/N64 era or so.
 
Halo Spartan Wars? It's the only game I have installed on mine (though my laptop also has wordament and solitaire).
 
J3RK said:
Another route to take would be to get classic games. Check out http://www.gog.com They sell newer games too, but all of the old games that say they'll run in Windows will work on a Surface Pro just fine. If you've never played System Shock 2 this would be an EXCELLENT game that doesn't require much in the way of power to run well. The Ultima series would be a pretty good way to go too.

Then I would check out older shooters, especially things on the Source engine. Many of them should play at low-mid settings without a problem I would think.

Also, there are a lot of good indie games (like Shadownrun, FEZ, Monaco, Frozen Synapse, Uplink, etc.) that will run flawlessly on there.

Emulators too. I'd say you could get decent emulation up through maybe the PS1/N64 era or so.
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Great! Thanks. Hoping Dark Reign/Expansion + #2 work... just purchased the combo, and also Total Annihilation Commander Pack (all)... crossing fingers.
Dark Reign had some weird GFX issues on my Desktop Win7. But I need to read the manual I reckon. Maybe some old tweak or in XP mode.

What about C&C ?
 
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I ran Skyrim on my Surface Pro 1 without much problem.

I'd say to just install Steam. You'll be able to play a pretty huge part of that library. And the new 'tag' system, particularly, can even help you identify 'touch-friendly' titles (IE. games that specifically provide touch-UI-interfaces).
 
The HD4400 performs between a 8600gt and 8800gt. Essentially roughly the same performance as last gen consoles, meaning any game that runs on them in theory can be handled by a modern Haswell ULV.

The SP3 however will throttle under extended workloads especially if it taxes both the CPU and GPU. Gaming as a work is what would most fit this criteria. Reducing the cooling performance was the tradeoff for thinness/lightness. So the end result is that gaming performance is worse (less consistent) than the SP1 despite the SP1s older/slower CPU/GPU.

Civ 5 is actually optimized for touch and a game originally used to showcase the SP1. However the issue is Win 8/touch mode the game doesn't do resolution scaling properly so you have to run at the high native res, this combined with the throttling issue I'm not sure how well it will run.
 
diablo 3 runs semi decently.

ive got hearthstone, FF7, trine, sid meiers civ 5 (which is actually touch optimized!), CS:GO, TF2. I got a few others that im not sure if i ran yet: bastion, bit.trip.runner, defense grid, scribblenauts, shovel knight. but they should all work.

Surface 2 pro
 
limitedaccess said:
The HD4400 performs between a 8600gt and 8800gt. Essentially roughly the same performance as last gen consoles, meaning any game that runs on them in theory can be handled by a modern Haswell ULV.

The SP3 however will throttle under extended workloads especially if it taxes both the CPU and GPU. Gaming as a work is what would most fit this criteria. Reducing the cooling performance was the tradeoff for thinness/lightness. So the end result is that gaming performance is worse (less consistent) than the SP1 despite the SP1s older/slower CPU/GPU.

Civ 5 is actually optimized for touch and a game originally used to showcase the SP1. However the issue is Win 8/touch mode the game doesn't do resolution scaling properly so you have to run at the high native res, this combined with the throttling issue I'm not sure how well it will run.
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Thanks good to know.

I wonder if a thin laptop cooler could help if the fans were in the correct spots?

DF-1 said:
diablo 3 runs semi decently.

ive got hearthstone, FF7, trine, sid meiers civ 5 (which is actually touch optimized!), CS:GO, TF2. I got a few others that im not sure if i ran yet: bastion, bit.trip.runner, defense grid, scribblenauts, shovel knight. but they should all work.

Surface 2 pro
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Thanks for sharing your list!
 
Def. gets hot without even doing much, but so far so good. This device is proving much more awesome than I'd thought.
 
Invisible Inc has a great interface on the surface 3, steam home streaming is pretty awesome, plug a 360 controller in and your set. A lot of indie games are great on surface.
 
I've been playing too many online games that are time delayed for money, ugh... need to find some decent strategy games that don't charge me money to play at a reasonable pace.
 
If you liked the original X-Com games (turn based strategy) there's Xenonauts.
Heck, there's also the original X-Com games on gog for that matter.

There's always the classics such as Nethack as well. Spelunky should work if you like 2d platformers.
 
Frozen Synapse is an excellent strategy game. The Shadowrun games are RPGs, but they have turn based strategic combat. Might be a good mix if you like both genres. The King's Bounty games are good turn based strategy as well. I'd echo the X-Com games too.

I've never been as much into the RTS games, but as you mentioned above, Total Annihilation should run fine, something like Rise of Nations would work decently as well. I did some compatibility testing on that one before its release, and it worked on fairly lowly systems even then.

I'm playing Ultima VIII Pagan on my Macbook right now which has Intel graphics HDXXXX (can't remember which chipset off the top of my head) via the Pentagram Engine. It's running flawlessly. Pentagram also works on Windows and Linux. (I've used it on both.) Edit: Just checked. It's got Intel HD 3000 with only 384MB of VRAM. (though it does also have an i7 (albeit mobile version) and 8GB) I'd say it would be somewhat comparable to a Surface give or take. It's done decently well with most of what I've thrown at it. (within reason of course) :D Just checked the Surface 3 specs. Looks like it uses the HD4400, so you should have quite a bit more graphical power at your disposal than my MBP.

Definitely check out Frozen Synapse though if you're into strategy.
 
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Thanks! Will check those out too.

Hoping Starcraft 2 works decent, haven't played this version.
 
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