The Microsoft Surface tablets live a troubled existence. Ostensibly tablet devices designed by Microsoft to show how Windows 8 (and later 8.1) are designed to work on a Tablet, the devices originally came with; then later made optional a series of Covers (such as the Touch Cover and Type Cover) that added physical keyboards to the mix. Combined with the tablets featuring a kickstand to keep the screen upright, it often felt more like Microsoft were actually aiming to build hybrid devices – laptops with a removable screen that just HAPPENED to be usable as a tablet – rather than tablet devices in their own right.

The Surface Pro 3 takes it even further.

Microsoft’s belief is that up until now, tablets and laptops have been mutually exclusive devices, suiting different use cases. Unveiled today at a purpose-built event at New York City, Microsoft say their next entry to their Surface line of tablets is designed with one particular purpose in mind – to bridge that gap. So no longer is it enough to sell tablets with enough optional accessories to be usable as laptops – Microsoft’s new goal is to have their tablet replace your laptop entirely.

In order to achieve that goal, Microsoft first started by upping the 10.6-inch screen – as seen on the Surface Pro 2 – to 12-inches, or one whole foot wide. The display also comes with a 2,160 x 1,440 resolution, topping traditional 1080p HD displays on the market. The combination leads to a 4:3 viewing ratio – the same as a typical TV before Widescreen became commonplace – which Microsoft says is “critical” to compete with a typical laptop screen.

Despite the enlarged screen, Microsoft also seems to be committed to making the overall device smaller and lighter to use. At 9.1mm thick, the Surface Pro 3 shaves a millimetre-and-a-half of thickness from the Pro 2; while it weighs just 800g. The lightness of the tablet was demonstrated by placing it on a pair of scales with a MacBook Air on the other side, demonstrating it to be lighter than Apple’s famously ultra-thin laptop in a thinly-veiled dig towards one of the biggest players in the Tablet Computing market.

But if Microsoft really want to make this a laptop-killer, it needs the power to match. For this, Microsoft is equipping all the Surface Pro 3 tablets with Intel Core processors (more on that later), not only improving the power of the tablets beyond that of previous Surfaces, but also pushing it into the realm of – yes, you guessed it – your typical medium- to high-end laptop. Microsoft ran a number of high-end apps; and even a 3D-rendering app on-stage during the presentation to prove its capabilities. Adobe also came on-stage to show off a new version of Photoshop, “specifically optimised” for the Surface Pro 3, which even has 200% bigger icons to make it work equally well when touched with a stylus or with fingers. Adobe claim that the updated app also contains an enhanced feature set that has been made possible with the power of the new device.

Microsoft will release the Surface Pro 3 in three flavours, offering different Intel Core processors – the i3, i5 and i7 in order of power – to allow users to compromise between performance and price. All of them will sport a number of USB 3.0 ports and a redesigned kickstand, which rotates between angles starting at the standard 22 degrees up to 150 degrees – a departure from the fixed viewing angles of the previous two iterations. They will also come with Microsoft’s popular Type Covers in multiple colours.

While the devices hit stores in America on Wednesday, global release plans and price points are not yet known. Taking the American prices, however, the entry level i3 device – with minimum storage and RAM included – will cost $799; the equivalent of £480 here in the UK. Customers who want an Intel Core i5 will need to dish out $999 to $1,299 (roughly £590 – £770) depending on Storage and RAM, and the most priciest i7 model – with the full 512GB of storage and 8GB of on-board RAM – will set you back over a grand in our money, with the US price of $1,949 equating to over £1100 this side of the pond. We hope to have news on the European launch dates and price points as soon as they become available.

Space Hulk is a game that involves a team of Terminators being pitted against a species of alien called Genestealers and is set inside spaceships. It’s dark, it’s multiplayer compatible and now it has a co-op mode.

The new campaign called Harbringer of Torment is set for four players to take part in a single match, co-ordinating three teams of Terminators against a forth player controlling all of the Genestealers and taking place over 5 levels. The story behind the campaign is simple: a derelict is on a collision course with a populated planet and because its path cannot be altered the Terminator teams have been sent in to deal with the infestation of Genestealers on the ship. What’s more, it comes with bug fixes and is a free update to the game.

The new campaign has been in the works now for several months according to Full Control, owing to the fact that the new option to play co-operatively meant a major overhaul of the multiplayer system, including a multiplayer lobby so gamers can see matches that still require people to join them to complete the 4-player line-up. And each of the 5 stages have been designed with multiplayer gaming in mind.

As Space Hulk is currently one of the games on sale over at the Humble Store in their Spring Sales for only £3.99/$4.99, now could be the time to pick it up cheaply if you and your friends want a game that involves turn-based gameplay and shooting evil aliens/murdering human invaders.

Early Access is one of those topics that’s talked about a lot in gaming right now. The pros, the flaws of such a system and where lines ought to be drawn if they’re not already. Right now Steam is the only digital-distribution platform that offers Early Access and now GOG are saying that they haven’t ruled out doing something similar – only under their own terms.

If they ever offered a system similar to Steam’s it would be curated by CD Projekt, says its co-founder Marcin Iwinski, in an attempt to protect consumers from the threat of ‘hit and run’ early release games. This really doesn’t come as a surprise as curation is something that exists on GOG anyway, as they feel that they are responsible for what gets sold to the gamers who come to them looking for games to buy.

Iwinski has said that while the uncurated approach has worked well for Valve with Steam, they would always be going to take any sort of GOG Early Access down the path that GOG has always taken. But it is going to be fair too. “If you’re unhappy [with your purchase] and they’re constantly updating it, that’s fine,” he elaborated. “But if you’re unhappy and they just took your money and ran away like typical hit and run there is somebody who has to be on the hook for it.”

Sounds good. With Steam having recently had to refund all customers of Earth: Year 2066 due to that game’s problems and dishonesty from its creators, GOG’s idea of ‘Early Access’ does sound appealing. What do you think?

Earlier brought along a fine example of why you shouldn’t really believe everything that you see on the Internet…

Far Cry 4 was announced last week by Ubisoft so they could begin the ball rolling on hype for the game before E3 came along and the game’s announcement potentially got swallowed up amongst the other news that would be coming out of that event. Set in a region of the Himalayas called Kyrat, a place of breathtaking scenery and wildlife under the rule of a tyranical self-appointed king, players were going to have to use their wits and whatever they could to get through the game.

So when a trailer surfaced this morning, claiming to be Far Cry 4’s first trailer and showing a fly-over of mountains surrounded by blizzard which ended with the camera supposedly flying into the mountain before showing the game’s title, some certainly thought that it was Ubisoft releasing a little more information to follow up on the announcement of the game last week.

However that wasn’t the case. First the trailer got taken down from Youtube by their copyright infringement system, and then a little research proved that the trailer was a fake, the footage ripped from a BBC advertisement for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. What a shame.

What we do know for sure though is that Far Cry 4 is due out on November 21^st. So we should be getting some real trailers online soon.

We’ve known about it since February, but finally, D-day (Deactivation Day) has arrived for online services on Wii and DS games. At some point in the next 24 hours, Nintendo is turning off the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection Service as used for Wii and DS games. This means you’ll no longer be able to use the WiFi on Wii and DS to play those games online, download new content, or access leaderboards.

That means no more Mario Kart DS races; no more Professor Layton downloadable puzzles; no more online Multiplayer in Super Smash Bros. Brawl or the original Monster Hunter 3. And while it was originally suggested that DSi-enhanced games would not be affected, this seems to have been wishful thinking, as even Pokémon Black and Pokémon White and their sequels (along with the other DS-era Pokémon Titles) are being disconnected (Nintendo UK’s page about it only lists games with Downloadable Content as being discontinued; the American site is a little more comprehensive, although some titles have different names between regions).

While the games will no longer be playable online or be able to receive downloadable content, local Wireless is unaffected – so you can still wirelessly race, battle, puzzle against or otherwise play with your mates within a ten-metre range; and use Download Play if your game offers it. The games will also continue to have all their offline play features. Meanwhile, Pokémon fans worried their Pokémon collections from Generations 4 or 5 are permanently locked to stay in that generation need not worry – using a 3DS, it’s still Possible to move Pokémon from some DS Pokémon Titles to the Pokémon Bank and then to Pokémon X and Y, thanks to the Poké Transfer app for 3DS which remains functional.

Online services that do not use Nintendo WFC, such as Netflix and Youtube apps, also remain functional on their respective devices (for as long as the companies behind those apps continue to support the Wii or DS, anyway); and Internet Browsing is still also possible. Meanwhile the Wii Shop Channel is also remaining up and running for the moment, so WiiWare and Virtual Console games can still be downloaded, gifted and so on. Even so, it’s clear where the real focus of online for Nintendo is now – Wii U, 3DS, and the Nintendo Network, all of which will continue their normal lives long after their predecessors are cut off later today.