Wednesday, June 27, 2007
This Game Too Crippled To Run On XP...
If only this kind of egg-on-the-face led to better behavior.
Microsoft has naturally been pushing Vista. I can't blame them. The operating system was way overdue in their billing cycle, and the big media middlemen have been feeling the pinch of needing stronger DRM protection at the O.S. level. We consumers were noticing it as well... our poor wallets were getting a little overweight from going an extra two years without paying for the obligatory Windows upgrade. It's almost as bad as when some of us skipped "upgrading" to Windows ME back in 2000.
Microsoft has pushed their "Games For Windows" initiative, which at first blush seemed to be a good thing. I'm still holding out some hope. After all, Microsoft appeared to be to be returning attention to the PC as a gaming platform! Huzzah! Not that I've not seen much of it yet. The third-party publishers (especially indies) are leery of things Microsoft is doing with their "Games Explorer," and are concerned that it was merely part of their marketing effort for Vista.
To make things worse for gamers, Vista has been experiencing the usual compatibility problems, which is annoying but not unanticipated. More importantly, game performance on Vista sucks compared to XP, depending upon the game, the drivers, and the video cards. While this may improve over time with improved drivers, no doubt Microsoft is banking on it just becoming a moot point over time, when comparisons will no longer occur.
Jeff Green even penned a possibly career-limiting editorial in the July issue of "The Official Games For Windows Magazine" (Formerly Computer Gaming World) calling Microsoft to the carpet over what's going on in the GFW initiative and the "Games for Windows Live" feature in Vista. As he states... "Because as the details are starting to come out now about Games for Windows Live, sir, (so polite) well-how do I put this nicely? Let's try this: It sucks ass."
As a gamer, I'm really not seeing anything to really convince me to fork over my cash for what might amount to a downgrade. Granted, I may have been deliberately keeping myself in the dark with respect to the other virtues that the operating system offers me as a gamer... but so far I haven't seen anything that would really convince me to move over to Vista. According to Valve's survey of Steam users, I'm not alone. So what would encourage me to move over to Vista? The killer app. Games I couldn't play under XP.
"Ah-hah!" says Microsoft. DirectX 10 is ONLY available under Vista, and they've got two games that run under DirectX 10 that are just too dang powerful for XP. There's no way to add DirectX 10 compatability under XP. So... gamers... you are just going to HAVE to upgrade to Vista now. (Of course, the two games are Microsoft-published, as third parties are really nervous about releasing a game for a currently limited userbase).
Then this happens. Hackers created a patch that allow the two "exclusive" Vista games to run just fine under XP. I'd be really interested in seeing timing tests take place to see if these two games, like most others, also run faster under XP than under Vista.
More importantly, they also exposed the truth that - at this point at least - "Vista Only" is little more than marketing hype, a factor of crippling software rather than taking advantage of greater power.
When they are clearly using DirectX and their PC games division as nothing more than physical labor to carry their Operating System division, it really makes me wonder about their commitment to Windows as a gaming platform.
(Vaguely) related grousing...
* Games For Windows: Empty Hype?
* Is Vista Going to Destroy Indie Gaming?
* R.I.P. Computer Gaming World
Feel Free to Chat About This in the Forum!
Labels: Mainstream Games
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 6:00 AM (Permalink)
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FASA/Microsoft never claimed that Shadowrun couldn't run on XP for technical reasons (especially since it uses DirectX 9 and not DX10). The reason they invoked is the integration with windows live (online, achievements).
The way microsoft tries to attract games on windows pretty much suck :
-There is some place where you can have a list of games available. Great...
-There is windows live! which doesn't add anything PC games didn't have before. How could we live without it?
-You can start the game immediatly and it will install it in the background. Awesome! (especially when you factor in the patches that must be installed and the slugginess it will causes).
The way microsoft tries to attract games on windows pretty much suck :
-There is some place where you can have a list of games available. Great...
-There is windows live! which doesn't add anything PC games didn't have before. How could we live without it?
-You can start the game immediatly and it will install it in the background. Awesome! (especially when you factor in the patches that must be installed and the slugginess it will causes).
# posted by 
: June 27, 2007 11:41 AM
: June 27, 2007 11:41 AM
Wow. This is seriously dangerous ground for Microsoft. If they are claiming that DX 10 is Vista only for various technical and support reasons, that is one thing.
But if they are artificially forcing games to only run on Vista when there is no other reason for it...that's perilously close to tying products, which is what they got into so much trouble for with IE.
Of course, the current DOJ shows absolutely no interest in enforcing antitrust legislation, so I doubt it will go anywhere.
But if they are artificially forcing games to only run on Vista when there is no other reason for it...that's perilously close to tying products, which is what they got into so much trouble for with IE.
Of course, the current DOJ shows absolutely no interest in enforcing antitrust legislation, so I doubt it will go anywhere.
I don't pretend to know much about either of these games --- I was a little bit interested in Shadowrun originally (I'm a fan of the Cyberpunk genre), but then I saw that it was for Vista and had a monthly fee associated with it (which was apparently the Live Anywhere charge --- and the game doesn't really have a single-player mode). I was surprised, as that made me think it was an MMO, and I hadn't heard that it was one.
So I put it back on the shelf and said, "Ah, well."
Too bad. With no monthly charge and if it had been available for Windows XP, I might have grabbed it BEFORE reading the generally negative reviews.
But I'm a weird Luddite indie who enjoys playing great games that don't tax my system. Well, and Oblivion and F.E.A.R. and stuff, but those are SO last year.
So I put it back on the shelf and said, "Ah, well."
Too bad. With no monthly charge and if it had been available for Windows XP, I might have grabbed it BEFORE reading the generally negative reviews.
But I'm a weird Luddite indie who enjoys playing great games that don't tax my system. Well, and Oblivion and F.E.A.R. and stuff, but those are SO last year.
Those were able to run on XP because they are DX9 games, and because for some stupid reason they set up Games for Windows Live! as something not tied to the OS, but basically a function that runs inside the game. Hence one of the major reasons why it sucks, you have to be already playing a game to access it.
That's what it sounded like. Nothing but the Windows Live service call and the installer check to prevent the games from running under XP.
Which is something a third-party wouldn't ever do, because they'd be stupidly cutting their sales potential. But since Bungee and FASA are both Microsoft-owned...
If they are willing to sacrifice their games business to the altar of their operating system business, I guess that points pretty clearly where Microsoft's priorities lay.
Which is something a third-party wouldn't ever do, because they'd be stupidly cutting their sales potential. But since Bungee and FASA are both Microsoft-owned...
If they are willing to sacrifice their games business to the altar of their operating system business, I guess that points pretty clearly where Microsoft's priorities lay.
Microsoft is in trouble, and it's starting to become apparent to those of the market that aren't in the MS fanboi bubble..
Is it just a coincidence that they've already announced the release of their next OS already by 2009?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128888-c,vistalonghorn/article.html
Is it just a coincidence that they've already announced the release of their next OS already by 2009?
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128888-c,vistalonghorn/article.html
It's just funny that Microsoft would say something like "DX 10 is only available on Vista for technical reasons", and people believe them? Based on their history of customer care? Based on their history of clean and honest business practices? Lol. Give me a break. I don't know a thing about it, and I would bet everything I own without hesitation that DX 10 could easily be ported to XP. It's a damn lie created to sell an OS they know sucks ass.
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# posted by : August 17, 2008 2:40 PM
: August 17, 2008 2:40 PMLinks to this post:
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