The Long View on Games for Windows Vista

[robwright]

Microsoft gave E3 attendees a look at some of the major PC titles coming out soon for its new operating system, Windows Vista. TwitchGuru examined a few of the titles - even though they were running on Windows XP instead of Vista - to get a sense of what's in store for PC gamers in 2007.

 

[Wolfy]

hooking up with console gamers isn't really that appetising as it might mean more immature in age and mind joining in pc users games.

1 PC games have plenty of knob heads online.

2 I'm interested on how they intend to deal with issues like auto aim for the console versions but this leads to point->

3 We all know who wins in a keyboard/mouse vs joypad. My thoughts are it will be a very short time before console gamers stop playing against the pc gamers which makes point 2 kinda pointless.

Right, back to work.

 

[SgtStarscream]

As a pretty hardcore FPS PC Gamer and and Console Gamer I must debate the above comment. In my years of playing on both types of platforms I haven't experienced much of what has been stated.

I'm interested on how they intend to deal with issues like auto aim for the console versions but this leads to point->

Considering that most of the good console games don't have "auto-aim" in multiplayer I don't see this being an issue. Your post makes it seem as if every console game has to help the gamer to get a kill. This simply is not true.

We all know who wins in a keyboard/mouse vs joypad. My thoughts are it will be a very short time before console gamers stop playing against the pc gamers which makes point 2 kinda pointless.

Do we? Have there been many console vs pc games? I bring this up because the developer for Shadowrun disagrees with your viewpoint and he had this to say at E3:

"Originally, we thought the PC would destroy the Xbox controller," said Bill Gross, a Software Test Engineer working on Shadowrun, the premiere Live Anywhere title for the Xbox 360 and Windows Vista. "But it didn't."

http://gamesfirst.com/?id=1286

The article goes on to state that they had to dumb down the 360 controller and provide auto-aim and other help for the PC gamers in order to balance things out.

I am not a console fanboy, I play on both types of platforms pretty consistently. I just think it is too early to tell what is going to beat what. I don't mean to hijack this thread with a console vs pc argument, but I had to clear up the misinformation. At any rate, I am excited for the future of Gaming on the Vista platform and I am also excited to play against my console brothers (and sisters) in upcoming games.

 

[FITCamaro]

I'd like to know how Vista is supposed to be the ultimate PC gaming platform when its systems requirements are through the roof. I don't care what Microsoft says. I've had the 32 and 64bit versions of the Feb. CTP running on 4 different machines at work. At the minimum the commit charge has been 650-700MB of RAM with nothing running. Each instance of IE takes 40-50MB of RAM.

Obviously I haven't played any games in it, but unless Microsoft plans to release all those systems resources back to the machine while playing games, gaming on Vista with anything but todays highest end hardware is going to suck.

And theres no way even the Base version of Vista will run on an 800MHz processor. It might boot up but no one would want to use it.

 

[Denisimo]

Considering that most of the good console games don't have "auto-aim" in multiplayer I don't see this being an issue. Your post makes it seem as if every console game has to help the gamer to get a kill. This simply is not true.

Ever heard of GameShark? You get hundreds of codes and cheats for all console games.
http://www.gameshark.com/

Try dealing with that.

 

[SgtStarscream]

Ever heard of GameShark? You get hundreds of codes and cheats for all console games.

I'm sorry, I just fail to see how this applies? There aren't cheat codes and hacked gamesaves on the PC? The Xbox360 has yet to be cracked (other than dvd firmware), so I don't see mods being an issue. Even if they are able to mod gamesaves they will be able to detect and ban them like they do on the original xbox in games like Halo 2.

As far as gamesaves on the 360, they are tied directly to your GamerCard (profile) - I don't think they can be transferred without also transfering the Gamer's Profile. I'm not sure that a gameshark would even work in multiplayer instances.

 

[SgtStarscream]

I'd like to know how Vista is supposed to be the ultimate PC gaming platform when its systems requirements are through the roof. I don't care what Microsoft says. I've had the 32 and 64bit versions of the Feb. CTP running on 4 different machines at work. At the minimum the commit charge has been 650-700MB of RAM with nothing running. Each instance of IE takes 40-50MB of RAM.

It seems we hear this argument every time there is a new OS. MS couldn't call it the ultimate in gaming if it ran on crappy hardware. They need to stay competitive. PC Gaming has always been about having the latest and greatest. That's why sites like Tom's exist. MS does recommend at least a Gigabyte of ram for running the Aero interface. I've been on the Beta for some time now and from what I've seen, most of that 650+mb of ram is eaten by the prettiness of the OS. For running games and high end apps it is likely you will need over 2gb.

And theres no way even the Base version of Vista will run on an 800MHz processor. It might boot up but no one would want to use it.

It does actually run on that hardware. It just doesn't run the full vista interface (i.e. the pretty glass interface and cool effects/transitions) Vista really wants you to upgrade your hardware when you up the OS. If anyone is actually still running less than 1ghz of processing power, they should seriously think about upgrading. Chances are they have gotten their money out of their aged machine. Or if you can't upgrade the hardware then don't upgrade the OS.

 

[zeekle]

I have a feeling you are going to want to run 4gigs of ram on Vista.

As far as PC VS 360 as a PC and console gamer I really dont want to play PC players on my 360. Even if the input devices give a wash (which I dont buy) the PC player has the potential to really beat the console on the hardware front.

I like consoling because everyone has the same gear for the most part.

 

[r0x0r]

I'd like to know how Vista is supposed to be the ultimate PC gaming platform when its systems requirements are through the roof.

Does anyone know if Vista can be tweaked like XP so it uses less resources? I tweaked XP Pro so that it would run quicker and more stable; it looks like Windows 95 but I got 3 years of gaming out of it and it hardly ever crashes (AMD XP 2000+, 512Mb 266Mhz RAM and Gefore 4 Ti4200... Hey, it kicked ass in 2002).

I even managed to run FEAR at 1024x768 w/ medium setting at just over 20fps! :lol:

 

[mat347]

We all know who wins in a keyboard/mouse vs joypad. My thoughts are it will be a very short time before console gamers stop playing against the pc gamers which makes point 2 kinda pointless.

Do we? Have there been many console vs pc games? I bring this up because the developer for Shadowrun disagrees with your viewpoint and he had this to say at E3:


Using the keyboard/mouse combo is MUCH better for FPS gaming when compared to the joypads. I also play both, and simply being able to spin/turn my character at the rate of my hand using the mouse gives me all the advantage I'll need. The joypads sensitivity can be adjust I know, but it still will never be the same as a mouse...heck..Tom's tested between different mouse types and found a good advantage by swapping to a high end gaming mouse(Razer). I simply cannot wait to play Halo3 against my buds, they usually beat me on the console(again, for the interface) and will completely dominate them with my PC. I can see the validity in the statement above about 360 players not wanting to game against the PCs.

I'm looking forward to Vista's added features. It has already been stated that it is scaleable(for those with lesser hardware), so getting rid of all the fufu stuff will lessen the hardware load quite a bit. I am curious to see if the GPUs are up to the constant rendering on the systems that stay on 24/7(like mine).

 

[r0x0r]

I simply cannot wait to play Halo3 against my buds, they usually beat me on the console(again, for the interface) and will completely dominate them with my PC. I can see the validity in the statement above about 360 players not wanting to game against the PCs.


Will you? The XBOX 360 uses USB ports for controller connection, so it's not unfeasible that the 360 would also have a mouse/keyboard setup (provided they work on the 360, but that's another issue).

My friend used a mouse/keyboard adaptor for the XBOX to play HALO 2 online. Needless to say, he kicked ass.

 

[witty]

ya ya ya, ms always touts the great game performance for thier new os, and the memory footprint gets bigger and bigger with each new iteration, if they were really going for performance it would be the opposite, i mean hell theres no competition in the pc game os really since all games are made for it anyway, so they can do pretty much whatever they want say its an improvement, and require new hardware to run it moot point. every single hardcore gamer is going to turn off all bells and whistles anyway "classic 95 theme etc" and it will still be a bigger resource hog than xp, just like xp is a bigger resource hog than 95 was etc. progress bla bla bla, and eventually they will cut off support for xp, so well all need new computers. my microsoft gamepad doesnt work in xp, but it works in linux, they cant port a driver to xp? my ass. i hate them, so should you.

*edit* sidewinder gameport got borked in the switch to xp pro sp2, worked fine in home.

 

[llama_man]

Weird. My Sidewinder works fine on XP SP2. 8O

But I use a Xbox360 controller now anyway, since analogue makes ProEvo a much nicer experience...

 

[witty]

it autodetects as a sidewinder and not a 3d pro? comfy controller there btw heh