Games for Windows - new requirements

Echo toxin

Echo toxin

Echo toxin

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Two recently released titles, LucasArts' LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy and the Windows exclusive Company of Heroes from THQ serve as the first two titles to carry the new Games for Windows branding...

According to a statement released by Microsoft: “These and other new game titles carrying the Games for Windows branding will support wide-screen gaming, can be launched from within Windows Media Center, will be compatible with 64 bit consumer versions of Windows and support the Xbox 360 Controller for Windows (for games which enable gamepads).”
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So, what do you think about it all? About time we had some uniform branding to compete with the consoles. If you had a choice of two games (both receiving good review scores) and one had the GfW stripe and the other didn't, would you buy the GfW game?

I think I probably would. I don't really care about the Windows Media Centre launch but widescreen and 64-bit compatibility are a necessary requirement in my eyes. I plan on getting the 64-bit Windows Vista next year so any games that are guaranteed to run on it will have a welcome place on my shelf. :D Will be nice if you can get a rumble from the Xbox 360 pad, too.
 
It's good that they're trying to standardise these things, and can only serve to be good for the average joe casual PC gamer, as it can be a little daunting to those with no PC knowledge trying to play games. It's really just getting things into the mood of Vista so that games coming out will be fully Vista compatible and allow easier games management, I hope.
 
I like this. It's good to know a game will support widescreen before buying it, without having to check Widescreen Gaming Forums website and more developers will be keen on adding support for these things if it gets a Microsoft certification slapped on the box.

Let's hope EA take the hint, I'm sick of my favourite online game (BF2) not supporting WS properly and having to mess with the command line to get it working. Even then stretching the HUD.
 
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Depends upon if this 'standard' is optional or not and how much it costs the developers/publishers to get their products certified. Liitle point in a scheme if its mainly voluntary or if it ultimately costs money to get the stamp of approval...

It seems a good idea if it works, but I cant seem to find anything further on m$.com, though I found this IE-only link:

http://gameadvisor.futuremark.com/gameadvisor/service/

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
In that link theres 2 scenes, one rendered with directx9 and one with directx10, I seriously doubt theres such a big difference as is being portrayed in those screenshots.
 
Games for Windows

Anyone else seen this appearing on certain games as of yet,

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...r_Microsoft_Windows_Logo_for_Applications.asp


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326251psvr3.gif


seems that Microsoft certify the games to certain requirements which in turn i guess could only make dev's publish the games to a higher standard either that or its just another marketing ploy from m$.
 
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Echo toxin said:
If you had a choice of two games (both receiving good review scores) and one had the GfW stripe and the other didn't, would you buy the GfW game?
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I'd buy the game I wanted to play more.
 
PiKe said:
In that link theres 2 scenes, one rendered with directx9 and one with directx10, I seriously doubt theres such a big difference as is being portrayed in those screenshots.
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LMFAO! I just looked at those. Frigging hilarious.

There's no way those two pictures can even qualify for comparison, everything about them is utterly different. They should be labelled "rubbish pic" and "nice pic" instead of "DX9 pic" and "DX10 pic."
 
Ulfhedjinn said:
LMFAO! I just looked at those. Frigging hilarious.

There's no way those two pictures can even qualify for comparison, everything about them is utterly different. They should be labelled "rubbish pic" and "nice pic" instead of "DX9 pic" and "DX10 pic."
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LOL, that is funny. Going by that example, DX10 cant render water.
 
Echo toxin said:
LOL. That's kind of what I was getting at - if your interest in both games was equal.
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Then I'd buy whichever was cheapest :P

Joking aside, if there were two good games that I wanted, I'd simply buy both. Having some GFW sticker on won't make much difference to me, I've been buying games without any such label for many years and many of those have been great.
 
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This sounds like a great idea, but ideally MS would certify the games for free as long as they meet the standards. That would give indie developers a better chance. I hope it doesn't come to the point where it makes people think that only certified games will actually run on windows, but it is good to see MS giving PC games more support.

One more thing. Will they still qualify for this certification if they can also run under linux? I have my doubts about that one.
 
Psyk said:
I hope it doesn't come to the point where it makes people think that only certified games will actually run on windows
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I can forsee yet another box to click through when installing the game tha that no one reads:

Windows has detected that this software has not been certified by Microsoft's Games for Windows program. Installing uncertified software can lead to compatibility issues and/or system instability. Do you wish to continue installation?

[YES] [NO] [Shutdown-my-computer-and-play-on-my-Nintendo-instead]
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