Matrix games on Windows tablets & phones

[aaatoysandmore]

Do you always have to play them or use them with batteries? Can you plug them into a wall socket and they will play while charging like my netbook?

[zakblood]

batteries tbh and as they are made to be low powered devices so are long life than most laptops, but can be used while plugged in charging as well, but you gain nothing from it, but can if you like

[MrsWargamer]

I tend to use some of my tablets while plugged in. I have one that functions as a small TV or a radio for me periodically.

I also never use my laptop on battery mode much either.

Granted, while out of the home, carrying around the battery charger tends to suck enough to not be worth it.

I rarely find myself needing more than 30 minutes of charge though.

[aaatoysandmore]

Lord I would need all day as I'd stay in dah bed and play games. But, as long as it works while charging I might look into one if it's just $99 like you say. I would never pay $300-$400 for one though. I can get a brand new desktop for that with loads of goodies.

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

I would never pay $300-$400 for one though. I can get a brand new desktop for that with loads of goodies.

Does such desktop play Crysis? [:D]

[aaatoysandmore]

ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen

ORIGINAL: aaatoysandmore

I would never pay $300-$400 for one though. I can get a brand new desktop for that with loads of goodies.

Does such desktop play Crysis? [:D]

Is that a turn based wargame? [:)]

[MrsWargamer]

I had to google Crysis just to find out what it even was

Yes, some of us actually don't know. Which I suspect should say enough about the program's worth to some of us.

So what a computer might be able to run it. I used to think the only useful yardstick was whether a machine could run autocad. But, I've yet to meet anyone that actually needs autocad, even though I know there are some that do.

When marketing a device, the only number that matters, is how many will you sell. And considering how many machines can run how many cliche wargames, the most valid point in this thread is that just about ANY machine will run just about ANY wargame. Whether or not the experience will be an enjoyable one is then next on the list of data points worth mention.

Whether or not my tablet will run Crysis, means nothing. The fact it will run War in the East is the only detail that will matter around here. My tablet likely run most of the industry's shooters, but they likely would be as 'enjoyable' as playing War in the East on it too.
I have not really found even a 10 inch tablet to have a big enough screen for some experiences. And once you go past a 10 inch screen, you've thrown away the reason you are carrying it around

[zakblood]

MrsWargamer, how you getting on with WITW?

and btw i have 7/8 and a 10.1 tablet, and agree, 7 and 8 are fine, 10 needs to be it's caddy as you get arm ache after too long using it...

[d714]

Crysis used to be the benchmark, "yes but can it play Crysis" used to be the gold standard. But damn that's a 7 year old game now - yes many tablets now probably can play Crysis since it only needs a dual core 2.2 ghz CPU and 2GB of RAM.
But that's not our gaming genre of choice - fortunetly from a power perspective our games move around basic sprites or little square boxes with NATO symbols. A basic tablet made in 2013 and 2014 should play just about everything in Matrix's product list. I will say I tried Rome Total War and it worked, but it was just too slow to be an enjoyable gaming experience. Wanted to try the more basic 1st Medieval Total War but it seems that game doesn't work on Windows 8.

[zakblood]

all Total War games work on windows 8.1 64bit, well they do on mine[:D][;)]

[d714]

ORIGINAL: zakblood

all Total War games work on windows 8.1 64bit, well they do on mine[:D][;)]

Hmmm, off topic, but this includes the 1st Medieval War (not MW2)? To be frank I never tried it, I just read threads in various TW forums that no one has had success with the first one. Any special tweaking that you needed to do?

[MrsWargamer]

I've not tried WitW yet. Yesterday saw a great load of shuffling around of things in the apartment

My experience with WitE though suggests it is likely more work than Crysis. Crysis only had to manage run of the mill video demands. Running WitE I was able to see just how much is going on under the hood. Your graphics card won't be the one sweating, the processor is what will be doing the heavy lifting, as the graphics are not quite the job. But processing the moves of all of that stuff can slow down anything not up to the task.

I have put The Longest Day away for the moment (ie I have it finally all set up on the board, now it is hiding in storage away from wind). It likely will take me another serious session just to sort out the pre game charts next. It's no small task sorting out a 10 thousand counter game when you use all 10 thousand counters at the beginning more or less.

I think what sold me on WitW, was it somewhat nullifies my need to spend any energy on all my Sicily, Italy, Normandy, Bulge based games. I can essentially either play it, or not, but not need to fret over using the other ones. It's a pain having to recall, and keep track of the interfaces of differing designs of competing wargames.

I don't see myself needing a unified experience though with WitE and WitW although I'm sure some nutball will ask for it

[zakblood]

ah, didn't read that bit, so will have to reload it and see, mw2 loads, not sure tbh about 1

got the whole lot on a steam sale a bargin tbh, sorry about that, but not really has any real problems with older games as yet, and i still play some dos ones as well

[Kuokkanen]

ORIGINAL: MrsWargamer

I haven't played Age of Wonders in a while though. I have it, just have not played it. Might install it on the tablet and see how it is like.

Have you done that yet? How does it go? Oh, and is it AoW3?

I have also taken a pass on indulging the new Civ extension Beyond the Earth.

Have you played CivV with your tablet?

Intel Atom Z3735G (which is a quad core)

I've looked through some tablets, and it seems 1,33 GHz Atom processors are very dominating at 300-500 € price tags (more expensive ones being hybrid machines). More GHz means 500 € and more with Microsoft Surface Pro 2 (without anykind of keyboard) costing 649,90 € on the list I'm looking at now. Are good display, 1,6 GHz i5, and 4/128 GB worth that price for wargames like Pandora and Age of Wonders 3?

[edit]
Are there any significant performance differences between different models of 1,33 GHz Atom processors?

[edit2]
I just checked AoW3 requirements. Recommended processor is Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4 Ghz. What are equivalent performance Core i and Atom processors for tablets, does anybody know?

[MrsWargamer]

I'm likely going to throw a few games on to it just for the sake of seeing I suppose.

Games I will check

Heroes Chronicles
AoW 1 (didn't care for the others)
Hearthstone (not sure if this is realistic)
Baldurs Gate
Command Ops Bulge
Close Combat Last Stand Arnhem (no particular reason this one though).

Games I have already checked out.
Panzer Corps
Battle Academy
Conflict of Heroes
Strategic Command
Unity of Command
WinSPWW2 and WinSPMBT

They all function fine but sometimes you benefit from having a bluetooth mouth, And all things considered, if you can't sit down to play, you are probably not going to have the time to play a serious wargame anyway

[MrsWargamer]

Life is funny.

Just because you can do a thing, doesn't mean you should do that thing, or that it will even be of any real value

Installed Hearthstone on the tablet. I get told prior to running the game, that the installer advises I will want 2gig of ram, and I have less than 1. I am warned the game experience might suffer. I then went and played a test match vs the innkeeper and won the match in addition to the game running just fine actually. And I was not in need of external controllers.

Now, I installed WitW, and it runs almost as well as it does on my laptop, a bit slower though. But really, it's WitW on a 7 inch screen. Do I really want to do that to myself? Just because it runs, doesn't mean it's a solid good idea.

Installed Command Ops Battles From The Bulge. Ok it installs fine, and then you are treated to perhaps one of the more brutal examples of 'there is a limit to how small a screen size you can expect to play some games on'. The menu function buttons well, I didn't even bother trying long on this one I don't think using the mouse was going to help much. The game's interface colour scheme and imagery are not what I would call optimized for ease of viewing when small. This is a game you likely will regret insisting on playing on anything less than a laptop screen. I ran out the juice, so I will amuse myself checking out the non wargame and Close Combat hopefuls tomorrow.

[MrsWargamer]

So I have done the survey as much as in my capacity.

I have not tried to do MMOs, or shooters as I don't play them to begin with.

Baldur's Gate looks not too bad, but eventually scrolling without a mouse is a nuisance.

Played some Heroes Chronicles. It actually responds well to touch input. Screen graphics are border line small. It is the only fantasy title I have tried that I might actually put on it later (used up a lot of my data space on wargames ).

I have essentially learned one big truth with Windows on a tablet. If the game was NOT designed for a tablet, it often will be inherently hard to see as the screen view will not be optimized for the size of the screen. If the game is not normally able to be scrolled in or out, then of course it won't be on the tablet as well and again, the view might be sufficiently small, as to reduce your thrill level.

When I compare the games I have on my Android using device, the games are made more likely to be able to contend with a reduced screen size. So just because you can put windows on a tablet, is no reason to be excited, if windows is really no perk.

I suspect 90% of the things I do on my Windows tablet, will be non game tasks that are not really at a disadvantage. For instance, I find I can type word documents on it reasonably well. It does though work best when I am sitting with the keyboard out and the mouse ready. The screen size though is not an issue.

To me, Windows on a tablet, is more about being able to carry an incredibly small computer on your person. But it only seems to be good for non gaming functions unless the games just coincidentally work out well.

So far it seems that Panzer Corps is the top dog for functions without need of added input devices.
Hearthstone is great as long as you have an internet connection of course.

I think the only area for me to explore left, and I am not sure I will do it immediately, is seeing how many of my Steam games like it. This is one area though, where Steam being installed without need of a hard copy present might be an advantage. I had no trouble installing Hearthstone direct from the internet.

[d714]

7 inch is pretty damn small. For gaming on a tablet I wouldn't pick up anything under 10 inch, which my tablet is. No problem with size except for the one Paradox game I play, and Paradox seems to love small walls of text on it's EU3-type game engines (I'm probably the only one still playing the much ignored "March of Eagles"). Fortunetly easily fixed with mods.

I have several Steam games, it works fine. Be aware it loads the entire game (as far as I can tell) onto your hard drive. I have some of the games loaded on a data card. Really, to see what works or not on ones hardware, be it a tablet or PC, one only needs to look at the hardware requirements stated for the game.

[aaatoysandmore]

I just want to see a Total War game play on one of them. [:'(] Is that even possible? I can just see MrsWargamers lil ole fingers running around that tablet window trying to play one of those real time battless out. [:D]

[MrsWargamer]

Well Total War series games are not even new, and as such, likely wouldn't even challenge the processor.

But it likely would be more a visual challenge than a tactile one.