Vista- PC gamings saving grace or the beginning of the end?

The only company likely to make any games Vista only will be Microsoft to try to intice gamers to upgrade to play games like the Halo series, which doesn't interest me. I wont be upgrading any time soon after Vista's launch as quite happy with XP and will only really upgrade the OS if i build a new computer for myself.

As to the PC games vs console sales issue, i read that PC games outsold the previous xbox console sales in the UK in the last recorded sales year by 5 to 1. So the PC market is still strong for gaming as you only need to look at the upcoming list of games this year to see that. The PC games sections in shops might be small and at the back of shops but some of that is down to the amount of released games in a year. As console versions will outnumber PC games as one PC game release will have 4-5 console versions, so easy to see what needs more space in shops.

SCM
 
Well I have just recieved my copy of vista in the post last friday, legit as well, i am going to do a bit of testing for microsoft.

Will install on my rig after I finish uni in 3 weeks time, I'll load a couple of games and do some benchmarks, don't even know of they'll install :)

Tried installing vista on an old laptop, got BSOD during installation everytime, old technology thou.

I think the major issue we will see with vista is driver support to begin with, thats why i am going to wait before I use it as my OS of choice, that and there will be a few bugs that will have to be fixed. Although i am not sure if vista can use xp drivers guess i'll find out in 3 weeks time. I'll start a thread and people can request screenies etc, or info on menus etc.

In regards to dual booting, this was a question i asked my microsoft rep, he went away, it seems as thou they maybe designing the os to ask if you want to dual boot when installing, the guy said it was something the design team wanted to intergrate into the installer, hopefully this will be true and microsoft will make dual booting easy, sort of like what Apple has done.
 
ic1male said:
That you've obviously got plenty of money so your argument about a console and TV being cheaper than a PC is irrelevant.
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Correct but what I am trying to say is that its a massive waste of money to buy Vista + DX10 Gfx card (£300 for Vista + £300ish for Gfx card)when it does not give games much of a boost compared to an X360 + TV for the same money.

Like many others I was stupid enough to spend big money on a DX9 gfx card hoping that the games support would be there and it is but not nearly as strong as I would like to justify my outlay hence me thinking I'm not getting caught out again so would rather have a console than waste more money on a gfx card with limited worthy game options.

Dont get me wrong the PC is always going to be a superior games platform but most game companies have accepted that consoles offer more profits so develop accordingly with the PC getting poorly coded ports as the resource to optimize is not there so the 512MB gfx cards are only just enough to run games with all the gfx settings which quite frankly is a joke.

The PC games market has been shrinking since 2003 and even though there are loads of DX9 capable PCs worldwide this years releases to date & for the next 6 months tell you how little games support is out there.

Nvidia, ATI & Microsoft should all be doing more to either lower hardware/software costs & or sponsor developers to create compelling game content as the way things are heading in a few years time you will be able to count on one hand how many worthwhile PC games get made.
 
warnea1984 said:
I think the major issue we will see with vista is driver support to begin with, thats why i am going to wait before I use it as my OS of choice, that and there will be a few bugs that will have to be fixed. Although i am not sure if vista can use xp drivers guess i'll find out in 3 weeks time. I'll start a thread and people can request screenies etc, or info on menus etc.

In regards to dual booting, this was a question i asked my microsoft rep, he went away, it seems as thou they maybe designing the os to ask if you want to dual boot when installing, the guy said it was something the design team wanted to intergrate into the installer, hopefully this will be true and microsoft will make dual booting easy, sort of like what Apple has done.
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I think it will need new drivers since the driver system has changed quite a bit. Most drivers will run in user mode rather than kernel mode. I'm just repeating what I heard so I'm not really sure.

Surely you'll be able to use GRUB to dual boot even if vista doesn't have any dual boot system?

As to the PC games vs console sales issue, i read that PC games outsold the previous xbox console sales in the UK in the last recorded sales year by 5 to 1. So the PC market is still strong for gaming as you only need to look at the upcoming list of games this year to see that. The PC games sections in shops might be small and at the back of shops but some of that is down to the amount of released games in a year. As console versions will outnumber PC games as one PC game release will have 4-5 console versions, so easy to see what needs more space in shops
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Also you have to take into account that PC gamers are more likely to shop online rather than in the high street.
 
Efour2 said:
i think he's upset he spent near 1k on a pair of gfx cards that wont be any cop in a few months :O
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No its because my 7800GTX512 is no cop now as very few games push it. As I have a 24" TFT you need this sort of gfx power to even run @ native 1920x1200 which is all because PC games are so poorly optimised.
 
It'll all come down to where the money is. If enough gamers move to Vista, then the developers will make games for it. If people don't move, they'll keep developing for XP. MS might end up offering heavy incentives to get the switch moving.
 
vonhelmet said:
It'll all come down to where the money is. If enough gamers move to Vista, then the developers will make games for it. If people don't move, they'll keep developing for XP. MS might end up offering heavy incentives to get the switch moving.
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They won't need to. They will rely on the free market to make the switch. DX10 and Vista have massive improvements in store for games, both in visual quality and performance. No game developer outfit worth its salt will turn these advancements down. Indeed they will have to adopt them to stay competitive with the top few.
 
PC gaming has pretty much died. Anyone played oblivion? talk about dumbed down. The console effect has hit a lot of the pc gaming industry, all I have to do is think of "deus ex: invisible war"(sequel to deus ex, which was a great game) and I immediatly want to go round smashing consoles.
 
warnea1984 said:
In regards to dual booting, this was a question i asked my microsoft rep, he went away, it seems as thou they maybe designing the os to ask if you want to dual boot when installing, the guy said it was something the design team wanted to intergrate into the installer, hopefully this will be true and microsoft will make dual booting easy, sort of like what Apple has done.
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Dual booting is already easy with XP isn't it? So it wouldn't be anything new as far as I can see.
 
Saikor said:
PC gaming has pretty much died. Anyone played oblivion? talk about dumbed down. The console effect has hit a lot of the pc gaming industry, all I have to do is think of "deus ex: invisible war"(sequel to deus ex, which was a great game) and I immediatly want to go round smashing consoles.
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While I agree DX:iw was dumbed down to the extreme, I don't think oblivion has suffered from being a console game aswell except for some minor interface issues.
 
PC gaming is the poor relation and has been for years now. Most games are developed for consoles first and foremost, or even exclusively - many of the best games simply are not on the PC and never will be.

I see the next Colin McRae rally game, CMR 2007, will not be on the PC but only on 360 and PS3.
 
Also don't forget the Grand Theft Auto series of games. What started off as an exclusive PC game ended up as an exclusive console game...

Same with Halo. Originally it was being developed for the PC then Microsoft bought out Bungie...

In short, the console market is monumentally larger than the PC gaming market. There is more money to be made. That's why games are increasingly targetting the console market.
 
as much as i love my pc i cant afford upgrading it constantly to keep up to date with changing technology that isnt even really neccesary i.e Vista.

Nowadays i just want to play games, not faff about with patches, imcompatability problems and viruses. I'm gonna go buy a 360 very soon. Pc gaming will always be the best but i just cant afford it :(
 
ben_j_davis said:
With all the new consoles getting HD's i'm willing to bet they will start patching as they do with the PC.
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Yes it's already happening with the 360. But HDDs in consoles are nothing new, the original Xbox came with one and it was released in 2001.
 
In the end people end up spending less when you buy a PC so I don't see what the whole buying a console is cheaper holds any water. It costs more if the truths known in the long term.

Take a looks at games for a start console games new can be anything from £34 to £44 (£50 a game on Xbox 360 release) where a PC game new can be from around £14 to £29 and how much do these 32" LCD HDTV TVs cost these 360 users buy cost?

I mean the amount of money you save on games like Fear Quake 4 and Tomb Raider Legends and so on that can be picked up for about £15 can be used to get a new graphics card or cpu. The amount of free games out there is also a great way of saving money. Do you think there will be many XBox 360 mmofps and mmorpgs that will have no monthly fees I don't think so.

So in the end I don't think being a PC gamer is more expensive.
 
WatchTower said:
In the end people end up spending less when you buy a PC so I don't see what the whole buying a console is cheaper holds any water. It costs more if the truths known in the long term.

Take a looks at games for a start console games new can be anything from £34 to £44 (£50 a game on Xbox 360 release) where a PC game new can be from around £14 to £29 and how much do these 32" LCD HDTV TVs cost these 360 users buy cost?

I mean the amount of money you save on games like Fear Quake 4 and Tomb Raider Legends and so on that can be picked up for about £15 can be used to get a new graphics card or cpu. The amount of free games out there is also a great way of saving money. Do you think there will be many XBox 360 mmofps and mmorpgs that will have no monthly fees I don't think so.

So in the end I don't think being a PC gamer is more expensive.
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I totally agree, im happy with my pc so much of it travels from rig to rig and i feel chuffed knowing how to fix things that go wrong, if a console went wrong i would not even know where to start... and imo RTS's will never work on a console and the same goes for the FPS they are key board mouse games... long may it last...!
 
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