Does windows 8 bring anything to PC Gamers?

SheepBeast said:
Cos of the xbox360 being DX9 only :mad:



Was that the presentation by the dude who had like 8 different tablets/laptops all running it? x86 and ARM together. That's the video I watched and I thought it looked really good. Perfect for a table OS, and bear in mind that as a desktop user, you don't have to use metro at all. It's just your start menu.

Personally the only time I use the start menu currently is for search and shut down, and both of these work in exactly the same way in windows 8. I'm sure most of the people complaining about it would have no problems once they actually see how it works.

Then again, people just like to complain. Especially when it's the latest bandwagon.
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Dont get me wrong yes its a step up and all but it means i have to get use to a new OS all over again which lets face it is fun at the start but a pain after a while when your tweaking etc... :p
 
In the past I've only upgraded every few Windows versions, and only when I felt (and researched) that it would be worthwhile for me to do so.

A different layout is completely meaningless, most new functions are mostly completely useless for me, and a slightly faster boot speed is not something that would be able to sway me in the slightest.

Important to me is being able to use as many of the games and applications I own, and this also applies to the ones from years past.

As Windows 7 fulfilled this criteria (even running games again I hadn't seen since Windows 98) this was a welcome version. I'd be a fool to give that up, venturing in the frustrating unknown yet again, especially after witnessing that horrible convoluted mess calling itself Vista that so many of my friends and acquaintances suffered with. No way do I want to go through that!

I'll probably stick with Windows 7 until the majority of new games don't run on it any more.

So, no thanks. Ask me again in 5 or 7 years time.
 
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Going back to the original question, Windows 8 brings the following for PC gamers:

DirectX 11.1 - Rumours are that it's going to be Windows 8 only.

SkyDrive - Basically a personal version of Steam Cloud which any files can be placed on allowing you to sync all your saved games over all your PCs.

Xbox Live

Hyper-V - Integrated virtualisation software which allows you to install any older version of Windows within it. Ideal for playing older games which require older versions of windows to run correctly (Dungeon Keeper, anyone?)

Integrated HTML5 support in the Metro interface - HTML5 is a potentially new platform for developing and distributing games.

MS App Store - Allowing devs a central place to distribute their games.
 
ZombieFan said:
Going back to the original question, Windows 8 brings the following for PC gamers:

DirectX 11.1 - Rumours are that it's going to be Windows 8 only.
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Nope has been confirmed that it will be for Windows 7 as well, just a little after Windows 8

Stelly
 
Hyper-V sounds very interesting. I tried to install Windows 98 on my PC a while back (dual boot) and a window popped, up telling me my processor was too fast! If it works, this Hyper-V would solve that.
 
I'll be using Hyper-V as well. Few old games I used to play with my mates when we were young (both of us on 1 keyboard) which don't work anymore. Still got the files, been saving them until I found an easy way to get them to work :)
 
coughs said:
Hey everyone

I was wondering if Windows 8 brings anything to PC Gamers and will you be making the transition from windows 7?
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Windows 8 no thanks 100% sticking with 7, a couple of friends are trying out the beta or leaked version an have nothing but bad things to say about it :rolleyes:
 
AWPC said:
Its not worth buying at all far from it does not even include native Bluray/DVD playback any longer to save on licensing fees for MS you have to buy a 3rd part codec :eek:
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No version of windows has ever included that. VLC ftw \o/

2: MS App store is obviously DRM heavy as the entire Windows 8 OS uses your Gamertag as its logon account now. MS are trying to build a Steam like store here to corner the market.
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Yup they really want something as successful as Apple's app store, not to mention Steam. You can create a local-only user account at the expense of the social integration (boo hoo), they just don't advertise it.

I think it will fail miserably for hardcore gamers they will have no interest whatsoever but the casual gaming market is massive so perhaps it will find some audience as Windows 7 is being discontinued on 25th October (stock up now!!).
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It's fast, I'll give it that. Maybe faster than 7. I have the consumer preview installed on an old-ish touchscreen laptop (AMD dual-core CPU @ 2GHz, 2GB RAM) and it boots in about 40 seconds and runs smoothly. The big turn-off is Metro which is just a terrible UI even using the touchscreen. There are simply no visual cues for regularly-used functions. On the desktop, the start button only appears when you move the pointer to the bottom-left corner of the screen.

Example: To shut down a Windows 8 PC (from Metro)
  1. Click your username at the top-right corner of the screen.
  2. Click "sign out", wait for it to sign you out and display the welcome screen.
  3. The welcome screen itself is a background picture, the time & date, a wifi icon and a power status icon. No buttons or controls. Left-click to get the actual login screen.
  4. Click the power icon (no text label) at the bottom-right corner.
  5. Click Shut Down.

To shut down a Windows 8 PC (from the desktop):
  1. Move the pointer to the bottom-right corner of the screen. A secret menu appears.
  2. Click the Settings icon. Make sure not to move the pointer away from the menu or it will vanish.
  3. Click the power icon.
  4. Click Shut Down.

To shut down a Windows 7 PC:
  1. Click the START button.
  2. Click "shut down".

I'm not looking forward to supporting end-users with Windows 8 PCs :( It's a classic example of moving backwards for the sake of being different. To be fair it's not finished yet and these things could improve, but MS had better get their finger out. The biggest worry is that MS want to focus on Metro as their primary UI going forward - it simply isn't appropriate for a desktop PC. On top of that they want to move to a lock-in business model similar to Apple's app store, and that is not good for the consumer. It's also a big "up yours" to the open PC platform that allowed them to rise to success in the first place!

MS are so keen to make this work its only £14.99 to upgrade a vendor OS if your buying a new device with it.
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They had similar upgrade pricing on vista and 7 too as part of the "express upgrade" scheme, the price varied by OEM. Some were free, some wanted up to £30. I got so many calls from people complaining that the "free" upgrade wasn't free :(

To be clear: The "express upgrade" scheme applies to new Windows PCs purchased within a certain timeframe before/after a new Windows release, intended to avoid a potential slump in PC sales leading up to the release date. Buying Windows 8 by itself will be £50+ easily.


Answer to OP's question in a nutshell: It might be faster than win7. But at what cost...
 
i used to reinstall xp so many times, vista was poor and i kepy on reinstalling.
now W7 imo is superb, reinstalled once in two years!
no real need for 8 for me.
 
although i think it looks good i've decided to wait and see full reviews before i takethe plunge.

that "shut down" thing looks pretty stupid i admit.
 
Is anyone running this and playing BF3 - Any problems with Punkbuster?

That was one of the issues I hit when I upgrading to Win7 Release candidate; the Punkbuster guys point bank refused to support pre-release OS; then they took an age once the Final was released.
 
SheepBeast said:
although i think it looks good i've decided to wait and see full reviews before i takethe plunge.

that "shut down" thing looks pretty stupid i admit.
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To be fair, I think the idea is that users shouldn't actually be doing a full shut down all the time, which is one of the few things in Windows 8 I do agree with. For laptop users there's Hibernate, for PC users there's Sleep - you're simply wasting your own time by using shut down and making SuperFetch less effective too. A shut down (unless it's actually required for a system update or hardware change) is largely pointless.

ZombieFan said:
MS App Store - Allowing devs a central place to distribute their games.
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Can't see that bringing anything to the table that Steam hasn't already got covered, especially with MS in control of the pricing.
 
TheVoice said:
To be fair, I think the idea is that users shouldn't actually be doing a full shut down all the time, which is one of the few things in Windows 8 I do agree with. For laptop users there's Hibernate, for PC users there's Sleep - you're simply wasting your own time by using shut down and making SuperFetch less effective too. A shut down (unless it's actually required for a system update or hardware change) is largely pointless.
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That's really a matter of preference. I find no point in standby or hibernation modes, to me they're just things that often happen automatically when I don't want them to (eg. watching anything on BBC iplayer) and occasionally make certain programs crash. When I'm done with my PC I turn it off, when I'm not done with it I don't turn it off.

I have no problem with you leaving your PC in standby or whatever but I do have a problem with MS hiding the ability to just turn the flipping thing off. That's the user's decision, no-one else's.
 
Why though? A PC will resume in about three seconds from Sleep, compared to however long it takes to do a full start-up.

It makes perfect sense really, the main complaint people have about their PCs is how long it takes to start-up (often as a result of all the garbage OEMs install at the factory), so encouraging users to use Sleep and Hibernate essentially solves that complaint.
 
I have been using windows 8 preview for a while . this week I built my new rig and my mobo wouldn't accept windows 8 until after a lot of messing about with various bios. long story short I could not settle for windows 7 after using 8. its so fast and non resource intensive I had to have it back. and im pleased to say I have. don't knock it until you try it I say
 
TheVoice said:
Why though? A PC will resume in about three seconds from Sleep, compared to however long it takes to do a full start-up.

It makes perfect sense really, the main complaint people have about their PCs is how long it takes to start-up (often as a result of all the garbage OEMs install at the factory), so encouraging users to use Sleep and Hibernate essentially solves that complaint.
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Your way works for you, my way works for me.

I turn my PC on once per day on average. It takes about 40 seconds or so. For me standby is a waste of energy and a potential cause of problems (especially with an overclocked PC, so I'm told).

My TV on the other hand, I leave that on standby because I typically use it for short intervals several times a day and a faster startup is useful.

As for startup time complaints, I rarely get any of those from my customers. When I do, it's almost always tons of background applications or a hardware failure. Or a minimum-spec vista box (1GB RAM). Ugh.
 
I'm not challenging "your way", I'm just challenging the normally-accepted way people use their PCs because they don't know any better.

That said, it seems a little odd to say that Sleep is a waste of energy (when in fact energy usage in very, very low in most cases) when your PC is on all day anyway.
 
I was totally going to skip W8 fearing it would be another Vista OS that is mainly for tablets that will have teething problems and wait for W9 when hopefully it will work properly but MS is so worried by all the problems that it's offering very cheap upgrade options until Jan 2013.

For such a cheap price I am considering it for the faster boot times alone, my time is precious and faster boots every time may be worth it for me.

Other things such as:
Networking improvements
A file copy dialogue that is no longer risible
New class drivers for things like USB 3.0 controllers, printers, motion sensors, mobile broadband cards, and a few others
WDDM 1.2
DX11.1

may offer benefits for gamers.
 
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