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Rahul Sood (Blog) - May 24, 2006 1:30 PM

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6 comment(s) - last by minosnz.. on Jun 3 at 9:06 PM

It's a Great Time for PC Gaming Over the years, I have attended the E3 Expo many times, and this year's festivities were easily the most exciting for me -- especially in light of all the developments in PC gaming.

Granted, Nintendo stole the show this time around with the Wii and they proved that gaming doesn't need to be limited to couch potatoes. Nintendo aside, there were a ton of things happening on the PC side that were not ignored. There were some great new games being showcased including Prey, Quake, Scarface, Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and of course the latest expansion pack for World Of Warcraft, just to name a few.

PC gaming is growing, competitive gaming is becoming a spectator sport, and large companies are starting to recognize this phenomenon. I'm not just talking about the hardware companies; I'm also talking about large companies in general, like Redbull, Coca Cola, Burger King, etc. In-game product placement is touted to be the fastest growing industry in advertising. Competitive gaming is here to stay, no doubt, and PC gaming is leading the way.

Microsoft will launch Vista sometime in 2007, an operating system that will seed the ultimate entertainment experience platform. With Microsoft Vista, the entertainment experience will be elevated to a completely different level. At the same time with the right hardware, you can enjoy the most detailed, most intense gaming experience on a PC with many new games. Games are getting more detailed and with Ageia powered Physics, I see the future of PC gaming becoming more realistic and more interactive.

Nvidia and ATi have both released solutions for large format WQXGA displays -- in other words, you can play a game at 2560x1600 and to be perfectly honest, there is nothing like it -- no console on earth can touch it (although you have to spend around $2000 just on the display alone). I'm certainly not dissing consoles; after all....

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Is it really?

By faiakes on 5/24/2006 3:15:41 PM , Rating: 2

Is Vista really going to be great for games?

It would seem that one has to either fork out a hefty sum for upgrades only to get similar FPS without necessarily getting better visual quality.

Sure Vista will run DX10 but again that's because Microsoft designed DX10 so that it would not run on WinXP thus forcing a premature upgrade!

2560-1600 gaming? When? Quad-SLI drivers are nearly non-existent and those that do exist are poor to say the least. Besides you don't need Vista for 2560-1600 gaming.

So why exactly is Vista going to be great for gaming?

RE: Is it really?

By Trisped on 5/24/2006 4:11:09 PM , Rating: 2

Vista, as with XP, will have code that makes it easier for games to run, and run correctly. When was the last time you saw a game for Windows ME, 98Se, 98, or 95? It isn't that nobody has those systems, it is that the OS doesn't have all the extra options to make gaming be the best it can be.

As for upgrading from XP, I don't upgrade OS until I get a new computer, no point in wasting your hardware.

2560x1600 gaming is possible, just not with FPS games. Just get a top of the line SLI or Cross Fire set up and a game that is 6 months old and you will never have a problem. WOW will run just fine with that set up.

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RE: Is it really?

By faiakes on 5/25/2006 2:08:44 PM , Rating: 2

So 2560x1600 is OK as long as you don't ask for more...

I know its feasible but I do play FPS games and they are the ones that SLI and Quad SLI are built for (notable exception being Oblivion).

I don't think I'll be upgrading to Vista until I have exhausted all options for decent FPS gaming because it looks like a resource hog.

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RE: Is it really?

By fungry on 5/29/2006 4:24:27 AM , Rating: 3

dude, not everything in this article relating to microsoft's new OS, the author is intentionally listing the great stuff that have appeared throughout E3... anyways, no one is telling you to get Vista anyways. If you dont' want it, don't bother :P. Plus i'm sure all the developers will still have Windows XP as part of its supported OS. and when that ends, that is the time to join the rest of the people ^^, unless of course you want to join straight into it the moment it comes out... but with your tone, i don't think so

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RE: Is it really?

By ZardozFrayn on 6/1/2006 2:24:24 PM , Rating: 2

I think by "seeding" a new entertainment platform the author is implying that Vista will be the event that finally motivates the masses to upgrade their hardware to current "modern" capabilities. A lot of folks can run their browser, email and spreadsheet just fine on a 5 year old machine, and they are not willing to fork over a few thousand just to play a game. Vista will give them the justification they need to spring for new hardware, and once they have it, the barrier to picking up a new game for fifty bucks is much lower...

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good for gaming

By minosnz on 6/3/2006 9:06:05 PM , Rating: 2

buying a new monitor for say 3500 nz is like buying two pcs.

we here in new zealand will have to probably wait untill 2010 for that kind of tech to get here.

Vista on the other hand ( and I'm waiting for sp1 unless otherwise it stacks up ) is something I will upgrade to, the thing I'm happy about is that vista means no "required" hardware upgrade!

I bought my new graphics card so I could play BF2 etc ( having a non dx9 and particle shader 2.0 compliant part ) so now I'm aero compliant - unless microsoft moves the goal posts?

DX10? great and about time!? why not save it for a new OS?

:)