[geeks] Ya-HoooooO!

[nate at portents.com]

> Of course, if you don't run Vista, you're increasingly going to be
> locked out of MS-branded games.  Halo 2 for the PC, for example,
> REQUIRES DirectX 10.  Even though it doesn't actually use any DirectX 10
> features.  It'll refuse to even install without it.  And DirectX 10, of
> course, will only even install on Vista.

Not entirely true.  Gears of War was published recently on the PC side by
Microsoft (developed by Epic), and it supports both XP and Vista, DirectX
9 and 10, and Microsoft even extended Games for Windows Live (the
equivalent of XBox Live) to XP as well as Vista.

It would be accurate to say that Microsoft tried and failed to get people
to upgrade to Vista by artificially limiting the platform of two games,
Halo 2 and Shadowrun, to Vista.  All they really did was hurt the PC
gaming platform by giving people the perception it's easier and cheaper to
play games on consoles (where Microsoft wins anyway).  DirectX 10 brings
nothing truly compelling to the table right now, DirectX 10 games almost
univerally perform worse, and games almost always (DirectX 9 or 10)
perform worse in Vista than they do in XP.  Thanks, Microsoft.

- Nate