Over the Xmas break of 2016, Microsoft New Zealand supplied Shane the Gamer (StG) one of their high end Surface Book Pro’s (Read our Review HERE) to give it a hard workout for PC related gaming.

With the new Surface Book’s and Surface Studio poised for release down under, the currently available model is still an up spec’d powerhouse and we were curious how it would do in replace of a high end gaming laptop.

The hybrid tablet / laptop combines a hardware keyboard where the screen, or tablet, slots in to. The tablet can be removed and navigated using your fingers or the Surface Pen. However, the tablet side of the Surface Book does not have any ports for peripherals other than headphones and playing any PC game with hand gestures or a stylus would have been impossible, so for this the screen remained docked to the keyboard.

Myself, keen to hit the ground running, loaded up Gears of War 4.

The first instance of installing the game saw many crashes, so an uninstall and then reinstall had to take place. The second install ended up not rendering graphics properly. So again, a completely fresh install. Third time lucky.

A warning popped up almost immediately after signing in to the Xbox Live function that the on board Nvidia GE Force Graphics card and the Intel HD 520 chipset did not have the required 2GB Memory (the Model that we had was only 1GB graphics memory).

Nonetheless the game continued to load despite not having the recommended specs.

Expecting Gears of War 4 to chug and choke and overall be laggy, I was super surprised at the Surface Book’s performance.

No lag to speak of and the game played as smoothly as it did on the Xbox One S. It was clear though that the Surface Book was being given a workout as the builtin fans (behind the screen) went into jet engine mode.

Still, three to four hours of play did not see the Surface Book melt down and although the back of the screen felt a bit hot, there were zero performance issues.

I tended to think that the Book’s internally installed RAM of 16GB and the i7 processors made up for the shortfall in the graphics component.

Next up was Dishonored 2. This game has usually set a bench mark for us, and we used this one, primarily when we reviewed the HP Omen Laptop a month or so back.

Again, there were warnings about specs, or lack of, before we were able to play. With Bethesda’s Dishonored 2 we did not have the same installation issues that we experienced with Gears of War 4, so I have put that down to the Microsoft Store vs. Steam – Steam being the winner.

Again the jet engine sounding fans ramped up as the Surface Book began to heat and again the internal RAM and processors made up for the shortfall in the graphics card.

Dishonored 2 went smoothly. There is a but though.

The Surface Book Pro began to REALLY heat up, so in fear of a meltdown and after just over one hour of play of Dishonored 2, we canned the test.

Still, as impressed as I was with the grunt these small form factor hybrids have, I wanted to see and do a bit more.

Taking the lighter side of gaming Borderlands 2 played fluidly and didn’t seem to stress out the Book all that much. Then I went a bit easier and began trying out some older titles, such as Prototype 2 and Dark Sector (still a favourite of mine from the Xbox One days).

These two did not even break a sweat on the device.

The Surface Book is designed to be an all rounder, and perhaps not a replacement for a high end gaming laptop. But it is more than capable providing you have good ventilation for the fans – and if you are to play something extremely graphic intensive, long play times on the Surface Book would not be advisable.

The Surface Book Pro is a marvel, an ingenious device that does everything that a conventional laptop does and a bit more. After our gaming test, we would recommend that you still hold on to your high end, zillion dollar gaming laptop as the higher spec’d model of the Surface Book we feel would only be ideal for mid range gaming (nothing too insanely graphic infused).

While it can do high end gaming and does it surprisingly well, I feel that if this was the normal usage of the device, it’s life would seriously be shortened.

Still, the Surface Book Pro is a winner in my eyes. It does everything that a conventional laptop does, but does it with style, and of course is ultimately a Surface tablet with a keyboard docking station.

As an all rounder for home, study or work (and yes, even play) it still gets my full recommendation.

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Being quite the fan of the original Dishonoured I was an eager beaver to get my hands on the second instalment. Arkane Studios brings us another turmoil filled game to the PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

If you haven’t played the first game, there may be some slight spoilers. The first game gave us the bleak and gloomy steampunk style city of Dunwall infested with essentially the black plague in which Corvo, the hero, had to navigate and uncover the truth behind his framing of the murder of theEmpress.

Dishonoured 2 is set 15 years later with little Emily, that you rescued in the first game, now Empress. Ruling over an empire is never without its evil relatives. As to not spoil too much, the evil relative decides to claim the thrown and, obviously, it falls to you to both resolve the issue and discover the truth behind the debacle, after escaping Dunwall with your life.

At the start of the game you are given a choice to play as either Corvo or Emily. Playing as Emily provides a fresh perspective for those returning to the series while Corvo feels like he has aged and has so much more of life weighing down on him. I don’t feel one perspective is better as I honestly enjoyed playing both options.

If you played through the first entry you will be familiar with the mystical powers that are granted you by a creepy guy known as the Outsider who does seem to have motives all his own. You don’t however have to accept the mark offered and can play through the game without benefit of powers, but personally, where is the fun in that?

As with any sequel, the continuing hero is relieved of any power gained in the previous game, and so the same goes for Corvo, but thankfully you regain them quick enough. I was happy to see most of his original powers returned but also happy to see they have been juiced up and have a few more upgrade options to still provide for a slightly different experience from the first game.

Emily on the other hand has a few new powers at her disposal most of which I found quite fun to use and implement in game. Emily has a shadow power that allows her to creep, well, creepily along to then grab and choke some unsuspecting individual. I found this a quite useful power to bypass enemies with little to no cover around and just enjoyed being a shadow entity.

Another power that is quite useful, especially for a non-lethal approach, is Link which allows you to link two or more (with upgrades) enemies that will all suffer the same fate of one of them. If you make one dead or unconscious the others follows suit.There are some similar powers to that of Corvo,like Dark Vision and the ability to quickly move from one spot to the other but I did quite enjoy the new powers on offer.

Apart from powers you have a few other tools in your arsenal. There is a gun, which generally rules out stealth but certainly gets the job done, a cross bow which can be armed with several ammo variants and of course the trusty sword which does its stabbing thing quite well. These all allow for a diverse range of ways to take down the enemy. There are even grenades and a couple of mines to really mix it up. So, if it all goes a bit pear shaped you can always go out with a bang but before things escalate to that there is still plenty of stealthier options.

Dishonoured 2 builds on everything enjoyable about the first game and fixes all the broken things to collectively create a well-rounded game. In the previous entry, the AI are incredibly dumb. Now this made going through the game bit easier but took away from an immersion point of view. Well in Dishonoured 2 they have certainly had some major brain surgery.

Now, if a fellow guard just disappears they will react and behave appropriately in searching the area and being on higher alert. Likewise, if certain things are disabled such as the electric fences in the game known as walls of light, well once again they will get suspicious and possibly check it out. In one instance, they came to check on the power source, where I had stashed two other bodies and so had to take care of that guard as well, but it was pleasant to see more appropriately behaving enemies.

It’s nice to be thinking more as to your surroundings and what is at your disposal than simply playing on an enemy’s stupidity. That said, it can make the game that much harder, specifically if you are going for a non-lethal playthrough. Though with enough exploration there is usually an option to avoid them all together.

Choosing a non-lethal playthrough is one way to up the ante as things certainly become much more problematic.There are some powers, once unlocked, that can help the process but even then, you will likely find yourself playing many sections numerous times.You really learn to save often for as soon as the enemy becomes alerted there isn’t really a non-lethal option.

Taking the lethal option however makes everything so much easier. Regular crossbow bolts are more readily available and there are numerous mines, grenades and bullets around to use for an elaborate kill. Dumping bodies is less of an issue as you don’t have to find safe place to hide them, you could just through them off a cliff or in a river, or with Corvo’s power, have them turn to ash. Becoming a monster is a much easier, and I my opinion more fun, than keeping one’s morality. Though I still welcomed the challenge of the not-lethal path.

I must say the game did make me question my morality at the start.As I had already decided to go for a non-lethal game, I was certainly inclined to start killing people just because they seem like totallyevil scum bags that might be entirely deserving of being put down.Regardless, it was nice to have a game make me truly hate the enemy I’m fighting.

The first game truly had a bleak and dismal environment with plague victims and rats everywhere, there wasn’t a spot of colour or light to be seen. Dishonoured 2, while still having gloomy prospects here and there contains a more vibrant and lively tone. It still includes the irregular dead bodies and blood stained walls but it all seems just a tad bit brighter. The city of Karnaca and its surrounds certainly uphold the steampunk themes and ideas from the first but do so with a high level of detail and elaborate level layouts. I very much enjoyed the actual connectivity of one section to the next.

Dishonoured 2 is a well-crafted game that takes all the great aspects from the original and builds upon them enough to still provide a fresh experience for gamers. It provides an intriguing story, though some characters aren’t as engaging the villains and enemies certainly do their bit to make you hate them. It has quite elaborate levels and districts to explore that offer all kinds of opportunities in combat. You can become death incarnate or a dark angel of mercy and the path you take is entirely up to you.