Dota 2
The multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre is one of the most popular PC game types of all time. Frankly, League of Legends would be too easy to play, even on this HD Graphics-powered tablet. So, I went with Dota 2 instead.
Naturally, I was most interested in the Venue 8 Pro's native 1280x800 resolution for testing. All of the detail settings were turned down as low as they'd go, except for texture quality, which I nudged up to Medium.
As far as controls go, this type of title requires a keyboard and mouse. So, I didn't bother with the SteelSeries Free gamepad or GestureWorks Gameplay software. You can see the result in the video below:
Performance isn't great, but I'd still say that Dota 2 is playable on Dell's tablet at these settings. Of course, there's a big difference between frame rate and network-imposed lag when you're playing an online game. While 30 FPS should be playable for a MOBA, too much latency makes gameplay unpleasant (and that applies to every gaming platform).
Battle for Middle Earth II
I have a fondness for EA's Battle for Middle Earth series, set in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy realm. This title really pushed the visual boundaries of what I expected from an RTS back when it came out. So, I'm dusting it off for today's experiment.
Right off the bat, I ran into an issue: the game doesn't run on Windows 8. Thankfully, a resourceful fan who goes by the alias of Turin Turumbar created the BfME_Startup_Fixxer.exe patch to get around the problem.
The display's native 1280x800 resolution caused some performance problems, so I dialed that back to 1024x768 and cranked the detail preset up to Ultra-High. On Dell's small 8" screen, the lower resolution makes very little difference. Once again, I went with the Bluetooth-attached keyboard and mouse for control.
As you can see in our video, the game looks great considering its age. It runs surprisingly smoothly on Dell's small Windows-based tablet.
- Do You Want to Game On a Windows 8.1 Tablet?
- More Storage: SanDisk Ultra 128 GB MicroSDXC Memory Card
- Game Control: SteelSeries Free and GestureWorks Gameplay
- How We Tested Tablet-Based Gaming
- Strategy Games: Dota 2 and Battle for Middle Earth 2
- MMO Games: World Of Warcraft and Star Wars: The Old Republic
- First-Person Games: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Left 4 Dead, Unreal Tournament 3
- Racing Games: Need For Speed World and Burnout Paradise
- Gaming On a Windows Tablet: Not a Plug-And-Play Experience
Finally i see one noticeable advantage of Windows Tablet over Android
Finally i see one noticeable advantage of Windows Tablet over Android
Does not compute
- Battery (maybe most important when you speak of portablility) - how long does it last with this model. I was eyeing the Asus Transformer Book T100TA, which they say has a quite respectable battery (but is also more expensive)
- Does a PS3 controller (free, if you have a PS3) work with it?
I would ideally have liked to see a mention of the Prince of Persia / Max Payne (1+2) / (Older) Tomb Raider / Splinter cell (1-4) and similar older third-person adventure games. In my opinion those work marvellously with a PS3 gamepad. Ah, I forgot - I wonder whether the touch would work directly with games from the Monkey Island series. Ah, another great genre for playing on a tablet, that was totally missed here - turn-based strategy games like the Heroes of Might and Magic series and Civilization (4). And also the grand-daddy of "modern" open-world FPSs - FarCry 1
The biggest risk with those games is still compatibility with touch/Win 8.
An expanded re-visit maybe when the new generation of chips come out from either from Intel or AMD?
Some games run very well on the tablet - Left4Dead 2 and Unreal Tournament 2004 run fantastically, as you might expect because they're a bit older, or based on older engines. Likewise, some other games that have lower system requirements run perfectly well (indie stuff, smaller games, games that were ported from PC to tablet). Examples include Castle Crashers, Geometry Wars, Plants Vs Zombies, Puzzle Quest, Pac Man DX, etc
Some newer games that I've tried have framerate issues, but still at least play at lowest settings and resolutions. The games below, despite their framerate issues remain playable for the most part.
Battlefield 4 (looks horrific because resolution scaling must be used, 20-35fps)
Diablo 3 (35fps out of combat, 20-25 in combat, 17-19 in Torment II/III combat).
Borderlands 2 (30+ out of combat, some dips in combat)
Saints Row IV (45+ in places, 17-20 in others, it's odd, more geometry = bad)
Tomb Raider (27-45fps or so, perfectly playable for the most part).
In most cases, I am nerfing settings to a ridiculous degree.
(3DS XL and 2DS aren't really directly comparable due to the different form-factor - clam-shell vs tablet)
(3DS XL and 2DS aren't really directly comparable due to the different form-factor - clam-shell vs tablet)
That was a bit of a brainfart in the intro, the actual article mentions the 3DS XL.
Anyway, thanks for catching it. Fixed.
As far as being comparable, in the broad sense any portable gaming device is comparable. Portable console, phone, phablet, tablet... so I believe it's a relevant comparison in this context.
MSI has. MSI W20. I think the issue has more to do with the clock speeds on the APUs in this power envelope, around 1 ghz. With this low a clock it may not have the necessary oomf. The recent APU has the power envelope and oomf, but we are only now starting to see it used in Tablets.
The Venue 8 Pro got warm during our play time, but I never found it uncomfortable.