Microsoft's game plan.

This week, Microsoft's game plan.

Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, brings with it some interesting changes for gaming. The “games for windows” idea intends to make PC gaming easier and more approachable, with ratings for both games and PCs. These ratings are intended to give computer users a clearer idea of how a game will run on their home PC setup. Test your setup to get a rating, then compare it against the game you want to play... or at least that's how it works in theory. 

Vista also promises new software standards that should eventually deliver a generation of visually lavish, computationally efficient games. For now, though, the flagship of Vista-only games is Halo 2, which arrives next month. PC users are likely to be disappointed – it's a conversion of an old Xbox game, and unlikely to show off the capabilities of next-generation PCs. We'll have to wait for quite some time before Vista-specific visuals make it into our games. (I'm waging that the game you'll want to buy Vista for will probably be Crysis, the follow-up to fabulous tropical-island action game, Far Cry.)

Crysis

Some gamers have raised concerns that Vista will just cause problems, threatening to make old games obsolete, and diminishing performance on existing systems. There certainly have been a few problems, although all the games I tested worked without major problems. Usually these problems result not from the operating system itself (which has numerous compatibility-mode tools to help with getting older games working) but with the software support from manufacturers, which often isn't good enough to keep older hardware functioning smoothly. Another problem is Vista's own performance – it demands much more of PCs than older versions of Windows, and that impinges on how well our games will run. A hot tip for Vista users is to run all games “as administrator” to circumvent any security-related mishaps.

However, what’s most interesting about Microsoft's next generation of Windows gaming is that it will soon begin to integrate with the Xbox 360's online service, Xbox Live. PC games are going to be using the service and accessing many of the same games. Online gamers could soon find themselves using a mouse or a keyboard to play in the same online game as someone sat at their TV with a gamepad. The gaming format wars just began a whole new phase.