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Windows Vista Gaming

By Alex Petraglia on Sunday, October 15, 2006 at 8:30 PM EST  

Games for Windows
Microsoft may be a major player in the next-gen console wars with the XBOX 360, but that shouldn’t lead one to believe it’s going to be slacking in the PC gaming department any time soon. On the contrary, with the launch of Windows Vista and the fresh-faced Games for Windows campaign, the future of PC gaming might be brightest with the backing of Redmond. We sat in on a keynote given by Michael Sievert, Microsoft’s corporate VP of Windows Client Marketing, to see, among other things, what gaming in Vista is like.

All compatible Games for Windows titles will get preferred treatment in Vista. They’ll show up as attractive 3D thumbnails in the Games Folder. There, you can view detailed listings of the game’s publisher, developer, rating, genre, and so on. Additionally, you can view what version of the game you’re running and check for any patches or updates. Microsoft anticipates about 1,500 best-selling PC games will work with these features when Vista launches.

Acknowledging how controversial the industry’s offerings have been in the past two years, Microsoft has included a Parental Control system that will list ESRB certified ratings of each game and details of what kind of objectionable content a particular title may contain. The administrator can then control each user’s access to each title

Slightly off-topic yet still relevant to gaming in Vista, one gadget that hopes to bridge the divide between wireless peripherals for consoles and the PC is Microsoft’s own Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. The receiver will connect to the PC via USB and will play nicely with the XBOX 360’s wireless peripherals, such as the controller, headset, or racing wheel.

It should be noted that some of the many forthcoming Games for Windows titles that will showcase Windows Vista’s gaming capabilities were announced back at E3 in May, and include Alan Wake, Hellgate: London, Shadowrun, Halo 2, and Crysis. We hope to preview many of these in addition to what gaming is like in Vista very soon.

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