Surface RT gaming?

[Warhammer3025]

I'm considering the purchase of a Surface RT ($350 for the RT on Amazon is much more agreeable for a student's budget than $800+ for a Pro), but I wonder how well it supports gaming. I know that Civilization 5 has a much-touted tablet mode, but what about other games like Europa Universalis, Dungeons of Dredmore, or XCOM? Or non-steam games like Master of Orion 2, Sam & Max, or Heroes of Might & Magic 3?

 

[LadyRaider]

I don't think you can play those games on Surface RT. You can only play games specifically designed from the Windows Store. You will need the Pro to play all those old Windows games.

 

[Jglnaz372]

I don't think you can play those games on Surface RT. You can only play games specifically designed from the Windows Store. You will need the Pro to play all those old Windows games.

Agreed. Only the app games will work, not the regular Window's games.

 

[oion]

Surface RT uses ARM architecture, which doesn't support i386 instructions i.e. any regular Windows desktop software. That's the first thing you need to understand. Windows RT is a "walled garden" platform just like iOS or Android; you can't install regular OSx or Linux applications on those, either. Just app games like you'd play on your phone (though judging from other user comments about RT app games, they tend to be a lot more detailed or something).

Surface RT: Long battery life, cheap, comes with MS Office 2013 RT version (some limitations), lighter than Pro or any other Win tablet out there (I imagine), walled garden platform (that also means virtually immune to malware).

Surface Pro: 1st gen has shorter battery life (can buy battery-keyboard later this year), expensive (but not really, when compared to ultrabooks), does NOT come with MS Office (you'll have to buy a student version of Office from your school), heavier than Surface RT (though still lighter than a lot of ultrabooks), regular Windows 8 (backwards-compatible with legacy x386 software).

If your academic background requires hefty software support like compiling for Csci or something, you'll be much better off with a full Windows machine. If you don't need to install special class software and your class websites don't require things like Java (I'm pretty sure RT doesn't support Java), from the student priority standpoint, Surface RT is a straight-up better value. It's not like you'd be spending hours and hours a day gaming, amirite? But hey, if gaming is more important to you than anything else, you should be buying a desktop rig anyway. Or just drop for a full Windows 8/7 laptop.

 

[Warhammer3025]

I don't know of any special software I might be required to have later (I'm a Chemistry student, not a CompSci or Engineer), so that's not a concern at this point. It's also true that I won't be spending massive tracts of time playing games on whatever mobile computing device I end up with; I actually do have a full Windows 7 desktop that fills that role. Mostly I'd be using it to take notes in class and fill downtime with streaming videos and gaming.

Other products I'm considering include the Nexus 10, Acer Travelmate, and Asus VivoTab (though that one stretches the budget when including a keyboard). Any suggestions on which might be best? I simply can't afford $800+ for a full Surface Pro.

 

[oion]

I don't know of any special software I might be required to have later (I'm a Chemistry student, not a CompSci or Engineer), so that's not a concern at this point. It's also true that I won't be spending massive tracts of time playing games on whatever mobile computing device I end up with; I actually do have a full Windows 7 desktop that fills that role. Mostly I'd be using it to take notes in class and fill downtime with streaming videos and gaming.

Other products I'm considering include the Nexus 10, Acer Travelmate, and Asus VivoTab (though that one stretches the budget when including a keyboard). Any suggestions on which might be best? I simply can't afford $800+ for a full Surface Pro.

Ah, as long as you have another desktop to fulfill the "full computing" role, an RT device is a great companion for your use case. Well, minus the desktop PC games. You get great battery life, the units tend to be thinner and lighter, and Windows RT devices come with MS Office 2013-RT (there are differences from full Office, but it's usually good enough for any student work). Not to mention RT is essentially immune to common exploits and malware.

If at all possible, I highly recommend going to a Microsoft store to play with the actual units. The Surface keyboards and kickstand are subjective in terms of usability, and other hybrids may end up being clunky in your hands. And the reason why I'd recommend an MS store as opposed to a Best Buy or something is that the salespeople should be much more knowledgeable about their product.

 

[ctitanic]

One more thing, the Surface RT seems to be a good deal now with a very low price but, WARNING, the device is at least 3 times slower than a Surface 2 using Windows RT. A game that runs at 50 fps in Surface 2 the best you get is around 10 or 12 fps in a Surface RT. So summarizing, Surface RT is not a gaming device.

 

[xplatformer]

After reviewing TouchArcade's list of top iOS games for 2013...i'm sad.

I love my Surface 2, there should be at least 5 of those titles available for Windows RT.

On mine I have a regular rotation of the following games right now.

1) Halo Spartan Assault
2) Riptide 2
3) Pinball FX2
4) Marvel Avengers Alliance

I like all of them. But there two games from 2013 that I'd trade all of them (including Spartan Assault) for...

1)X-com: Enemy Unknown (I'd even pay $29.99 for it)
2)Shadowrun...which isn't listed on the page above, but I'd also be willing to pay $29 for that too.

I wish there were an concerted effort being made by someone at Microsoft to bring the top games to the platform. For those of us that don't run Office 24/7.

Windows RT and Windows Phone are going to eventually merge and I'd hope the platform would at least become as usable a gaming platform as Android is.

No, I don't want to run full windows on my tablet (I WANT the iOS computing experience but with the Windows Tile interface).

 

[FFX]

I would love to see, plants vs zombies 1&2. Kingdom Rush 1&2. Horn. Oceanhorn. Dead trigger 2.
Dead trigger and Horn, has had the status "coming soon" in the NVIDIA app for over a year now.