Gaming on Vista - Update

Gaming on the new Microsoft Vista platform is going to have both pros and cons, here's what I see so far:

Pros:

DirectX 10 - Too much to list, its all about better graphics. Better shader, faster DLLs, streamlined Hardware compatibility...

Better Audio Fidelity - sound will be going to true 32-bits, groovy.

Per Application Volume control - Use 3rd party VoiP? This will be a huge help at making everything the same volume level as your game.

Better Network Throughput Speeds - Probably won't see this as much over a "Broadband" connection, but will be great for LANs.

Games Explorer - Ideal way to organize games. Alas, I still probably prefer my own method.

Parental Controls - You know, for the kiddies, and the liberals ...er and the Christian conservatives.

Super Fetch Caching - should utilize all that memory you packed in your system efficiently.

Multicore Support - Dual core, quad core, er...octi core, shouldn't matter to Vista. Vista will know how to optimize your cores.

Ability to use any X360 accessory - Do you own a non iPod mp3 player, and wish you could have all those cool accessories too? Well, this is a step for PC gamers. PC already have alotta cool gear, but nothing wrong with having more.

Xbox Live Compatibility - Finally an opportunity to show that PC controls are better then consoles at FPS.

Windowed Gaming Mode/Aero UI - Do you alt-tab a lot while gaming? This should make Alt-tab lockups a thing of the past.

HD-TV support - Considering our eyes don't really care about the difference between DVI and HD on screens small then 50", this really isn't a huge plus.

Cons:

64bit Confusion -Vista is not the silver bullet for 64bit gaming. Vista will still have separate versions of 32 and 64 bit OS. 64bit Vista will still have the same nightmare compatibility issues that 64bit XP had, namely no 32bit driver and little application support. For this reason, most computer manufacturers will be pushing the 32bit OS with their systems regardless of the architecture of the processor. This means 64 bit apps will continue moving at a near death crawl.

Vista only Titles - Some games, mostly Microsoft published (Halo 2), will only run on Vista. This creates the need to upgrade, something that shouldn't be forced.

32bit Vista will not support HD-DVD or Blue-Ray - Well, not too horrible considering most games still haven't gone over 4Gb, while DVD can support 8Gb. Microsoft claims it wasn't their choice, but rather strong arming by the movie industries. Worst case: we'll have multiple DVDs to install.

3rd Parties Behind the Curve - Copy Protection programs are really 3rd party apps for games, and already we are seeing such apps (Starforce) don't have the ongoing maintenance as the game its on. Since not all copy protection apps are Vista certified, expect older games to crap out, even though the game would have ran perfectly. In addition, older Puck Buster (like on BF1942) have shown signs of problems on Vista.

Memory Minimum - Don't even think of running games in Vista under 2GB of RAM.

Video Card - To fully appreciate DX10, you should have an Nvidia 8 Series or ATI equivalent.

Lastly, as far as the whole "Made for Windows" seal goes, its just too hard to tell how helpful that really will be. Its more of a marketing ploy, as one of the requirements for the seal is the game must utilize the X360 controller. Seriously.

So at the end of the day, The upgrade to Vista is purely graphics driven. Most home users should lean toward the "Home Premium" edition. I would also recommend the full version, over the upgrade, just to make the inevitable rebuilds easier. You can expect some problems with games up to 2006, for this reason, its best to have a dual boot setup with XP as your trusty backup. As for 64-bit main stream gaming? Its not going to happen this year.