GRcade

Does anyone do this and, if so, what's your experience of it?

I'm mulling over buying a Surface 3 and if I were able to play games like Starcraft 2 and Civ V effortlessly using the stylus this would really help to assure me.

Edit: Found a video of some games being played on Surface, seems to work well with modern RTS games.

Touch screens Ain't nobody got time for that.

Ad7 wrote:Touch screens Ain't nobody got time for that.

I was really into PC gaming (mainly RTS and Point n Click) back in the 90s and really want to get back into it. My issue now is that I have an office job where I'm sat at a desk with a computer all day and it's the last thing I want to do when I get home.

I like lying on the couch playing console games and I'd like a tablet to compliment that, but I don't want to play any of the gooseberry fool you get on Android/iOS.

I've played Football Manager, X-COM and CIV 5 on my Surface Pro and it works okay but can be a little fiddly whenever you try to do something that wouldn't normally require a simple click of the left mouse button. I can't say I've tried the stylus though so that could be easier and I believe the model included with the Surface 3 is superior. Screen size was also an issue, quite difficult in something like Football Manager, where there's a lot on screen, to always accurately select the right thing. That said with a larger screen that wouldn't be an issue.

In most cases when gaming on my Surface I've ended up using the keyboard attachment because its so much easier, that said you can still do that far more comfortably than sitting at a desk. Overall its far from perfect but it works.

Finally bought a Surface 3. Had a dabble with a few demos...

Civ V - Worked amazingly well with touch/stylus, the game was designed with gestures in mind.

Starcraft 2 - Great for the most part, 2 finger swiping is similar to Google maps, some right button moves require you to hold the touch for longer.

Age of Empires HD - Really want to try this but there's no demo, seems to work well with a stylus

Civ is not an RTS game.

Generally anything that's turn based like Civ (or XCom) is going to be less of an issue on touch than an RTS game.

HSH28 wrote:Civ is not an RTS game.

Generally anything that's turn based like Civ (or XCom) is going to be less of an issue on touch than an RTS game.

Mildly frustrating, I'd been playing the Civ V demo for an hour and wanted to save my progress. To do this I have to enter a save name, which I can't do as I don't have a physical keyboard. I'd only have to do it once as I could later just select it from a list.

Still, I'll persist, Android/iOS just don't have games like this, but I'll wait until I have a keyboard before buying the full game.

Can't you get Civ Rev 1&2 on iPhone, iPad along with Xcom Enemy Within (which I own on iPhone)

NickSCFC wrote:

HSH28 wrote:Civ is not an RTS game.

Generally anything that's turn based like Civ (or XCom) is going to be less of an issue on touch than an RTS game.

Mildly frustrating, I'd been playing the Civ V demo for an hour and wanted to save my progress. To do this I have to enter a save name, which I can't do as I don't have a physical keyboard. I'd only have to do it once as I could later just select it from a list.

I have that problem all the time with the windows onscreen keyboard, The only solution I've found is to run games in windowed mode but even that's not foolproof as some games 'capture' the cursor so it can't move outside the game window.

You could try using something like GlovePie to set up a voice activated script that enters a line of text (e.g. "savegame1") into the text entry box when you say "save", it's a bit complicated to set up but I've seen people use it to play things like FIFA '13 and SFIV, it's an amazing piece of software considering it's free and made by one person (he's completely mental though).

Ironhide wrote:I have that problem all the time with the windows onscreen keyboard, The only solution I've found is to run games in windowed mode but even that's not foolproof as some games 'capture' the cursor so it can't move outside the game window.

You could try using something like GlovePie to set up a voice activated script that enters a line of text (e.g. "savegame1") into the text entry box when you say "save", it's a bit complicated to set up but I've seen people use it to play things like FIFA '13 and SFIV, it's an amazing piece of software considering it's free and made by one person (he's completely mental though).

Was that with Windows 8 or 10?

Windows 8 always had problems with the virtual keyboard on some apps, where as they appear to have been fixed with Windows 10.

Also, has anyone tried point and click games? I'd love to play something like Broken Sword.

Windows 7, not bothered upgrading yet.

I'm getting a new laptop soon though so that'll be my first experience with win8.1/10, the desktop will be upgraded if and when I decide 10 is acceptable.