Worried about buying the wrong version of games? Don't. Most developers plan on including both versions (9 and 10) on the same disc. But so far, we've only seen "artist's renditions" of what a DirectX 10 game might look like, so it's hard to get too excited - yet.
A great amount of games announced at E3 were also slated to be Vista compatible, but only a handful of Microsoft published games are being held back as Vista exclusive. Halo 2, Alan Wake and Flight Simulator X will only run on Vista. Understandably, this will annoy some gamers, but Microsoft sees it as an enticement to get users to upgrade sooner rather than later.
The rest of the Vista-compatible crop may include other enhanced features introduced by the new operating system. Most notable would beLive Anywhere - a cross-platform version of Xbox Live that will allow you to retain one global gamertag and share your games across your PC, 360 and even your mobile phone. Easy Install is another promising feature of Vista, an application that will install and update newly purchased games on the fly, replicating the easy-as-pie Xbox experience.
The view of Windows Vista is still anything but clear, so we'll update you as soon as we learn more about its features, games and compatibility. Microsoft currently plans to launch Vistain January 2007.
May 23, 2006
