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March 08 XBox 360 Wireless Receiver now available.... FOR THE PC!!Straight from Gamerscore Blog:
Now, where to get one hehehe. Building a Windows Vista Gaming PCPosted by me in the Microsoft Philippines Community site:
Hmm, now all I need is some cash to pimp out my PC, but then again, all I need is extra RAM (eyeing out those 1GB Corsairs), a better video card (Thinking R600), a better cooling fan (for my now 3.0 GHz Pentium D overclocked CPU), a bigger Hard Disk Drive, and some new chassis cooling fans (neon blue) and cathode lighting to pimp it up some. At least I won't be spending around something like (Php 138,000, and that's $2875 to you) More Games for Windows VistaNow available in MSN Games are Windows Vista capable games that's sure to give us some quick delightful fun.
"Yes, we're all very excited. ^_^ Three brand-spiffing-new games for Windows Vista just launched on MSN Games! And yes, that includes Geometry Wars, the insanely popular, equally addictive, and formerly Xbox-only arcade game, now making the leap to PC. As an added perk, Geometry Wars is priced at a mere $7.95 (all part of our master plan to create a world of sleep-deprived zombie gamers)." from Gamerscore Blog
March 05 Command and Conquer 3 DemoOver the past two weekends, I haven't been able to play some of my games (or read the news) due to work. However, just yesterday I was browsing through some articles over at Gamespy and Games For Windows Magazine (1Up.com) and learned that there's now a Command and Conquer 3 demo available now through their respective download sites (FilePlanet for Gamespy and FileFront for 1Up.com) and downloaded it. *Be noted that it's a BIG 1.2GB download, so better use a download manager or have someone who's been able to download it, share a copy (it's a demo anyway) with you.
I'm not too familiar with the actual C&C universe (I'm more of the Red Alert and Generals person). All I can say is, with C&C3, it gives back some of the good old formula for classic style C&C gaming (darn, I'll be missing that humvee-sniper-missile-defender CHEAPO combination in Generals, including the Airstrike special I do in Zero-Hour hehehe
 )Well right now I'll leave a screen cap of the main menu of C&C3... it kinda reminds me of StarCraft's March 04 Rainbow Six has gone to Vegas: Review I've been a fan of the Rainbow Six franchise since it began in the late 90's, as a novel, then spawned into one of the most successful tactical shooters in history. And in fact I have the actual novel with me, and I was crazy enough to do a paper on this during high school... which was post 9-11 at the time.
Given the uniqueness of the game being a tactical shooter, unlike Counter Strike at that time, Rainbow Six has its own quirks. Instead of being a run and gun shooter like Counter Strike, Rainbow Six presented a whole new realism where we actually plan our assaults through reconaissance report, mapping, and staging nav points on where the troops should be going and what they're going to be doing. This was the formula in Rainbow Six and up to Rainbow Six: Raven Shield. But with the following release of Lockdown, Rainbow Six changed course and became more of a run and gun shooter... like Counter Strike (which is the King for that part), and so Lockdown bombed out. However, things changed with the arrival of the XBox 360 and improved PC hardware. The new Rainbow Six coming out for this generation had to both cater the heavy action without compromising its roots of being a tactical shooter. Though I have to warn people that this game, actually requires a very hefty set of system requirements. (I had to overclock my Pentium D 805 to 3.0Ghz, making me need a new cooling fan for the processor.) Graphics wise, the game is leagues ahead of the last Rainbow Six on the PC, and it closely resembles that of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Environment is very nice, through the use of HDR, Shader effects and all other nice DirectX9c goodies. Though I find the character design a bit rough, same with the gun models. But as for the smoke (particles), lighting, the motion blur, it all looks beautifully done. And when screen capped correctly, it'll look it was taken with a camera in a real location! (Score: 4.1)
Sound wise, the game actully lessens the background music we'd typically hear from other games. It focuses more on the team chatter, environmental sound (the falling pieces of coins from blown up slot machines, plaster getting chipped off from walls). Gunfire is crisp, and very much real. (Score: 3.5)
Controls this time around is much simplefied, but then it doesn't have the support for joypads - or is it? I saw my update 1's readme to have some kind of support from the XBox 360 controller, but since I don't have an XBox 360 controller yet on my PC, I had to settle with a keyboard and mouse (actually works for me). The first stage actually introduces us the functionality of the hide button (Right mouse button to us PC gamers) for hiding in just about any hideable place on the map. The controls are very user friendly. The spacebar controls just about everything you can do: climb, open doors, command your team... R is still used for reloading, but holding it down gives us access to the menu for switching on our sound suppressors, or our laser pointers, as well as reload. The E key lets us to quick browse through our inventory, holding it gives us a menu for selecting our inventory. the 1-3 keys switch between guns, and 4-5 switches explosives and grenades. Z and X controls the Thermal and Night Vision goggles, but in reality, Thermals are better than NVGs. G controls the rules of engagement of the team, between assault and infiltrate. All in all it's pretty much simplefied from before, giving us quicker response and better action sequences. (Score: 4.5)
What Redstorm Studios created was a mesh between having a fast shooting gameplay - yet it has the feel of observing, thinking of a plan and executing it on the fly, which its core quality. And we have Rainbow Six Vegas. Additional improvements were smarter AI, they don't just shoot, they try to sneak or outflank us, they know how to hide and most importantly they do know how to shoot back. The same goes for my team mates. Commands are intuitive, point at a location and press space they go there and act according to what the situation dictates (to the best that they can), or stack-up on doors, or even prepare to rappel downwards.
Take this situation: In "The Spire" level, I have to bust through to a bi-level casino floor/room where many (about 10) terrorists were scattered amongst the slot machines and tables. There are three doors of entry, two on the lower level and another in the upper level. What I did was I placed my two men upstairs to do a sweep of the 2nd level, while I break into the ground floor and provide heavy return fire (c/o a light machine gun I swapped with my sub-machinegun at the weapons cache a room before). Once my team mates are in place I targetted the two tangos perched on the balcony overlooking my entrance. Once I say break in and clear, my two team mates took them out (while I was looking through the snake cam, a cool new feature of looking at enemies inside a room from the outside). Then I break in, but before actually entering, I had to take care of the mounting enemy precence near the door. I did several quick pop and shoot moves from the side of the door to take out two tangos from my view. after doing it, I ordered my guys to sweep the second floor while I made a mad dash to the corner under the 2nd level's area. I whipped out my LMG and suppressed the tangos that were trying to outflank me at the side. I ordered my team from above to also take out an annoying tango hiding behind a cart as they try to link up with me. We then preceded in cleaning up the entire ground floor with me covering the left side and they the right. I then swapped my LMG with one of their own assualt rifles and used it as an SMG, a very powerful SMG (A SIG552 Commando hehehe) (Score: 5.0) February 26 Going back to GTA Game DesignGoing back to GTA: San Andreas, let me touch upon the major coverage: Gameplay. The gameplay alone in GTA touches on almost all aspects of gaming genre. It may be classifed as an action adventure, but it can also be classified as: fighting, shooting, driving, flying, boating, sightseeing, billiards, dating, rhythm arcade, role-playing, sports... game
 Pretty much all the genres I say. There are types of game genres can be explicitly seen, like that of the shooting, fighting and driving aspects of the game where we have CJ, steal cars, engage with a shootout between rival gangs, or cops (but then I just turn off the wanted feature so the cops in the game won't suffer from me that much (and vice-versa). Driving well, yeah we can drive around every bit of land there is in San Andreas. But aside from just plain driving, we can also join some races, or even participate in a low-rider competition.
San Andreas isn't just about being on land. With GTA: Vice City preceeding it, several modes of transportation have also appeared. These are the boats and the aircraft. To those who've played boat racing or any water based game, the premise for playing with boats. Aircraft, to those who've flown flight simulators, we'll be expecting a much simpler one here. There are some secret aircraft that can do more than just fly...
 For fighting, well, a gun's more powerful than your regular punch, but there's sometimes duking it out is quite cool. In order to learn the arts of fighting, just drop on by the local Gym and train there. It has weights, a treadmill and a gym master where we show out our pokemon.... errr fight them man to man and after beating them, they teach us new tricks.
In the game, many convinience stores are littered throughout, and in these stores, we can find arcade machines where we can actually play more mini-games, in the arcade sort of way. In nightclubs, there's the rhythm dancing game ala Dance Dance Revolution included. Playing billiards, was one of my earlier discoveries while trying to break into Area 69 (a parody on Area 51). Basketball shoot-out at the courts near CJ's home is another one of those examples. I haven't tried it yet, But I don't know if doing bicycle stunts work in the skate parks in and around town. And there's the dating game, though while not as the same dating game some people I know of would think of, it still has its own quirks. A date in a liquor store, pizza place or restaurant?
Then there's the Role Playing game factor. CJ gets hungry, so he eats from the diner. But if he eats too much, he gets fat, literally. In order to keep in shape, he has to work out in the gym, or just run around the streets. CJ being a gang leader has his clothes to think about. He can wear from just his boxers, to a shiny new suit. In between those, he can wear basketball jerseys, military clothes... etc. and in different combinations to boot!
Next time, I'll be discussing about music and how it sets the game. Well then until next time! February 21 Virtual PC 2007 Full Version is now out!Like I've blogged before, Virtual PC 2007 was still in its beta stage, and just this week, Microsoft has announced its release. And it's the same as Virtual PC 2004, it's FREE!
Go to this site now and download your own OS emulator!
(to play the classic games on Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP)*do note that OS themselves don't come free, you must own one. There's still life in those old OS copies
And if you want to read the White Paper on VPC2007, you may need to install .NetFramework 3.0 and XPS Essentials pack
February 19 The MSX? anyone?Little did we know, the XBox wasn't the first time Microsoft had a hand with console gaming. And to think that console gaming at that time, which was the 80's, wasn't much of a console yet, it remained pretty much like the PCs that were made, it's just that they're console machines that had an OS and had keyboards, and joypads. Why so it's a console? Well partly it's due to the manufacturers involved. Most of the Japanese AND European manufacturers were: Sony, Yamaha, Panasonic, Toshiba, Daewoo, and Philips; companies that are known for making TVs, components, media devices, and of course home gaming consoles (sic. PlayStation from Sony
, 3DO from Panasonic  , and the lesser known CD-i from Philips ), and others (Yamaha makes music instruments and motorbikes, Daewoo aside from appliances, makes cars and GUNS ). These companies did the hardware, while Microsoft provided the Operating System in partnership with them. This OS was called the Machine with Software eXchangeability-DOS. The applications are programmed with MSX-BASIC. This was the brainchild of one Kasuhiko Nishi a Microsoft executive, he also came up with the name for the system. The system ran on:
MSX 1
MSX 2
MSX 2+
MSX turbo R
Source: Wikipedia
Games:
Something that's quite intriguing was that some of the most popular (*cough*Metal*Cough*Gear*COUGH*) started on a Microsoft system (Hehehe, I'm making noise here for having a port of Guns of the Patriots for the PC and X360. Kojima-san show your roots!). Also another gmae was developed for MSX... (*Cough*Final*Cough*Fantasy) But not only that, Castlevania, known just as simply as Dracula in Japan were some of the popular titles. Others included the classics like Bomberman, Circus Charlie, Frogger, TwinBee, R-Type and Xevious. Plus the ease of programming in BASIC back then probably helped young game programmers in Japan jump start their careers in game programming. For full list of games, the MSX games list from Wikipedia has some articles about the games.
Also, emulators are endorsed by Kasuhiko Nishi, he infact has one: http://www.bazix.nl/msxa.html. Other emulators include blueMSX which is dubbed the best emulator. But for me, the best would be the Wii's legacy player. I wonder if the XBox will have something like this? Then again, I'm still saving up for both consoles... and a new TV (lol, my TV just died)
The MSX did brought about gaming in Japan, and therefore, had a hand in the birth of console gaming. Neat huh.
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MSX and http://faq.msxnet.org/ [This time around, I'm embedding videos
]
MSX Interface R-Type Metal Gear -final stage- February 17 Hot games to look out for in 2007!Well 2007 is the year of the next gen. PS3, Wii, and of course the XBox360, but most of all who could forget about the venerable PC?
Websites like Gamespot and Gamespy whipped up their own Most Wanted Games list for 2007... and it's indeed really going to be a fun one.
As for Gamespy they have this:
 It's kind of surprising that most of their wanted picks are on the PC and XBox360.
And as for Gamespot:
 Both offer somewhat same, somwhat varied picks, but it all comes down to one thing, they do know their games! February 15 Game Design Lessons from GTA: San Andreas A very nice example of how effective Game Design was implemented was through the highly controversial game, Grand Theft Auto, III: San Andreas in particular.
The game world is in a world of its own, there's an active 24 hour game clock that cycles day and night in and around a real time frame of around 10 minutes or so. The cities in itself are well made, with urban planning through building placement, parks, road way design, to the little bit of side-streets and alleyways with much detail as possible. Though some buildings cannot be entered, due to time/resource constraints.
I ran a cheat code (Yes, due to time constraints) to look around the entire game world. Honestly, I'm awed by how places transition from one daysprawling urban area and a deserted mountain (with the eerieness of believing that there's bigfoot in it... or is there?) that's quite to say, a world all of its own. Unfortunately I got shot down and died while flying through the desert, coz I apparently flew on restricted airspace (drat)
 Moving on to vehicles. Grand Theft Auto won't be Grand Theft Auto without its ensemble of vehicles to ride on. From bicycles to Jump jets, GTA has it. Cars, Bicycles, Motorcycles, Boats, Airplanes, and even a jetpack, you name it, the game's got it. Take the simple car for example. There are around more than 20+ car designs to choose from, even more when the car modification mode has been activated. The possibility's limitless. As for roads, there's kilometers of roadway placed in San Andreas. I usually get lost finding my way home from a very far off mission in the game hehehe
 Air space is a different matter too.As for weapons and clothing. Hundreds of clothing combinations can be worn on CJ. From wearing only boxers, to looking like fly with bling-bling (Suit and jewelry), CJ can get to wear any combination the player can think of. From a basketball getup, homie getup, business getup, army nut (preferred choice) getup, to even a bum's getup (again, just the boxer shorts)
. As for guns, CJ has: shovels, golf clubs, brass knuckles, baseball bats, chainsaws, err adult toys for melee, while the usual: .45, dual .45, Desert Eagle, Mac 10, dual Mac 10, Tec 9, Dual Tec 9, MP5, M4, AK, Sniper Rifle, Hunting Rifle, Police Shotgun, Military Shotgun, Sawn off Shotgun, Dual Sawn off Shotgun, Flame Thrower, Grenades, Satchel Charges, Molotov Cocktails, RPGs, Homing Missiles... phew, that's a lot of guns!And this article ain't over yet! Part 2 will be coming soon.
February 09 Hackenslash 'emOne local site that perhaps strikes my attention when it comes to games would be Hackenslash.
This subsidiary website from the online edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) sprung up as early as 2004, making it around 3 years running. It began with quiet beginnings, not much of big updates or features, just the bare essentials. Some of their earliest updates were that of Manny Pacquiao's appearance in Fight Night 2 as well as the rumor that Microsoft Philippines would be having its HED here in the country as one of its earlier news reports.
And to think gaming would only thrive on MMORPGs and other online games that were recently introduced. Hackenslash broke through and began covering video games other than online games, take PC gaming for example.
And soon thereafter, more news, a wider range of gaming coverage came to Hackenslash. And even up till this day, they're still doing it. Very admirable work guys! February 05 Games Management on Windows VistaLast weekend, I took part in the celebration of the launch of Windows Vista and 2007 Office. [Pictures by the way are on my personal blog]
As an MS Junior, first and foremost, our job was to demo Vista and Office around.
My section involved talking about the features of Windows Vista in general. Over the course of the launch days, there are people who've been asking about Windows Vista for gaming. Mainly from those who've been visitng the Family pavillion. From time to time, I drop by the area to entertain inquiries about the compatiility of games in Windows Vista.
With the release of Vista, Microsoft has somewhat revived its support for video games through the Games for Windows program, and this time around, Vista has a system where video games can now be accessed through one area. The Games Explorer reintroduces video games as an integral part of the system. [Then again, Windows is THE preferred gaming platform for desktop players out there
]Going back to the topic, in Games Explorer, not only can we access all our games (well for the up and coming Windows Vista games that is) through the folder (but then again, my XP gaming rig had a similar Games Folder where I manually stuffed in my game shortcuts. Having games strewn around the all programs view is messy) but we can see the game's parental advisories, where it plays a part in Parental Controls; theres also a set of game ratings giving us some idea how the game will fare based on our computer's hardware.
Well that's all for now. Now I'm still hunting down that Flight Simulator X Game here (Full Version), the Demo's not enough! Plus, if you notice there's no Vista pictures here, well, I'm using my gaming PC to post here. My sisters are using ALL our Vista PCs at home
 for school work. This link care of Live Search gives us some ideas on what the Games Explorer can do: http://search.msn.com.ph/images/results.aspx?q=Windows%20Vista%20Games%20Explorer&FORM=BIREAnd if you want the original definition of Games Explorer, well this site tells it all: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/gamesexplorer.mspx February 02 A Flying I Will GoI recently downloaded and installed a demo copy of Flight Simulator X by Microsoft Game Studios, and quite frankly, it's been years since I've piloted an airplane on a PC (the last time was during my old Intel 486 PC days ). I was surprised by how complex the controls have become. Not only were the basic control systems: flight stick, the throttle, and the rudders, add to it a very simple autopilot system. Those were the days.
But now with Flight Simulator X, it gave me a whole new experience (sorry, this writer skipped the previous version, since he couldn't find it in ANY store shelf in the Philippines, only now.) Every control has been given several different settings. No longer I had to press the number keys in sequence when I throttle up or down; I now actually have to control my throttle (else I run out of fuel!) The control surfaces are tight and exact depending on what aircraft I'm flying. The graphics are gorgeous. This is actually the first time I experienced flying in an environment that is very natural. Trees, houses, buildings, plants, etc can be seen from my plane, and add to that the water effects.
Flight plans can be made, taxing and taking off can be a bit easy, flying the aircraft while in the air IS easy, but landing hehehe, got to work on proper throttling down prior to landing. (Now where's the arrestor cable? Wait, wrong game. I should've been playing Naval Aviator games
)It may seem to sound all fun, but.... Though just a warning. Microsoft Flight Simulator X requires quite a powerful machine (then again it's 2007 and it's more or less likely the norm to be owning a Dual Core PC with 1GB of RAM with Radeon X1600s which all can be bought at around 20k total if we have a motherboard supporting Dual Core. Pentium D 805 hint, hint
) Here's a sample I found out of SoapBox (though I don't know how to record my flights yet hehehe) Video: "This Bird Strikes" A-320 for Microsoft Flight Simulator January 29 101 Free Games Care of 1Up.com1Up.com is right now featuring 101 Free Video Games over their site. I'll try downloading a few and see how they fare.
January 27 Playing old games in XP (and on Vista)?Ever had the urge to play an old, old game such as the original Wing Commander or Syndicate game you have found in your room one day? (I know I did) Yet our only PC around at the moment has a Windows XP installed, and since we can't do anything much in the way of replacing the current OS with something much older, here's an alternative: Virtual PC 2004 (as for 2007, it will be discussed at the bottom).
Virtual PC 2004 is a Operating System emulator that basically mimics a PC, and now we can install any old OS of our choice to play the games. I have Windows 98 SE in stock so I use for installing and playing old games.
Now once the OS has been installed and configured (sharing 200MB of RAM is nice for speed increases), installing the game takes some time and soon enough you have an OS for playing games!
------------
Microsoft's next Virtual PC release will be known as Virtual PC 2007. What can we expect here?
Right now, I'm beta testing it under the Virtual PC 2007 Beta Program at Microsoft Connect. I can't say as much since I have a critical task to do at the moment.
Also though, another thing to look at is the Virtual PC Guy's Blog. He's the one who started it all! January 26 Gaming Musings: Filipinos in Video GamesWhen I got my Need for Speed: Carbon game and installed installed it, little did I know of a small surprise to pop up to me in the game. Somewhere in Palmont's Downtown area, specifically a hotel, has a Philippine Flag draped over its facade.
Now this strikes me as a Filipino, several things:
1) Is it a feature that checks my location and sets one of the flags there as the Philippine Flag
2) Somewhere in the design team is a Filipino, trying to say "hey there's a pinoy working in EA!"
3) The "magical dartboard" of the designers picking a country's flag to put in :-)
For the longest time, I've been seeing traces of Filipino elements in games that I played. May it be characters, places, weapons, etc. Wether it be a console game or PC game, there'd be something in the game that notably stood out like a sore thumb to Pinoy gamers. Some of these include:
1.) In Front Mission 3, there are some Filipino Wanzer pilots and a notable one, "Jose Astrada"
and another notable things are that the Philippines owns a Space Shuttle and a mobile sea fortress called "Dagat Ahas". Also noted are the islands of Panay, the city of Batangas, the Taal region, and other places.2.) In Soul Calibur series of weapon fighting games, one of the characters there is named "Talim" (Edge in Filipino) and fights with as movelist of Filipino martial arts.
3.) Of course, Need for Speed: Carbon has the Philippine Flag draped over the hotel.
4.) In the upcoming game Crysis (Games for Windows title) The setting will be in the Spratleys, a cluster of Islands off the shore of the Philippines.
Having said this, what other games out there have Pinoy stuff placed in it?
January 21 FIFA 07 ReviewRight now in my posession is a boxed DVD of FIFA 07 for the PC, and frankly I am in awe of how great this game has become since the past couple of years since I last played it.
The game of soccer is actually enjoyed the world over, except maybe for this country, so I guess not much would be interested to get this stuff.
But hey, I'm here to give a chat as to how this game fares better than that of its former incarnation (*cough* FIFA 06 *cough*) and giving interest to gamers who're continually playing... NBA Live 07. Here's a sport that actually needs more coordination than basketball.
The objective of the game of soccer pits two teams to run after a ball, get it, and try to shoot the ball into the opposing team's net... using your feet. Sounds easy, but the opposing team's players aren't just there for show, they'll try to outrun, outwit, and outlast you into surrendering the ball to them. Of course, he who scores more within 90 minutes wins.
Ok, so that's it for the background on soccer, now for my review.
What makes FIFA 07 so different from the other games is that online multiplayer's been tweaked to the point of having a fantasy league all in itself. How? We create a winning team (on our preference), go online (connect to EA) and sign up for the fantasy league and win games against other people from around the world. If you've been playing NBA Fantasy games over at Yahoo!, you'll probably understand that there's a game scheduling built into the system, kind of like the real thing. Too bad my net's not working right and I have high ping rates for network games. (must get another hosting soon, sigh).
As for the graphics, the players simply look amazing, their motions are at its best. And the nice thing about this release, EA has fixed the oily features players had in the previous game. They kind of look like people who've been smothered with oil all over. I'm glad that was fixed. Another addition to the game's graphics is the added background motion blur during replays. Another would be the better lighting conditions, making the game seem natural (That's HDR Lighting for you!). Funny though, the design of the entire packaging of the interface reminded me of my Zune's box art and website :P. (Score: 5.0)
For sound, well, EA of course got some artists (most of them I don't actually know if they're famous or not, but I did see a track by Muse there) to do music for them. It's a mix of rock, electronic, samba, etc. more like "world music" since the game is international in nature. The commentary, however seems to be weak. (Score: 4.5)
Controls, it's best that gamers play it with a joypad attached to their PC. Logitech's Dual Analog controllers work nice, however my controller, a Media Tech dual analog stick controller suffers some problems with the right analog stick. It somewhat does not respond inside the game (though it works fine in MGS2:Substance). If you have an XBox 360 wired controller around, you can use it for playing on the PC, since it is a USB device. Controls in the game are tighter, I experience a tighter control as to where my player goes, and how strong my kicks are. (Score: 4.5)
Gameplay wise, there are many options to choose from. Ranging from Tournaments where we pick a team and its league, play through it for an entire season and earn points to "purchase at their store" additional items/teams/jerseys/balls/etc. Aside from actually playing the game, it also continues FIFA 06's Manager game where instead of playing, we play as the manager of a club (more for the business people/leader side). There are practice sessions, challanges, and of course quick play. Players can also create a custom team, or edit a team by trading/transferring/getting rid off players that don't seem fit for playing in the game. Of course, if one can create a team, there should also be a player creation system, which in fact it does. (Score: 5.0)
With the number of challenges to counquer, a very large roster of clubs and international teams, better handling, and nicer graphics, I rate FIFA 07: 4.75/5 Final Score.
January 18 Games for WindowsRe-launched last year by Microsoft as a marketing effort on PC games, Games for Windows branding is similar to the Designed for Windows branding where in gamers are assured of (based on Games for Windows' statement at their site):
1) Quality. Games for Windows branded titles undergo extensive testing, and not just by the publisher. Microsoft also invests in quality checking each title to ensure they meet performance and reliability standards.
2) Compatibility. Games for Windows branded titles work on Windows XP and Windows Vista based PCs, including both 32 and 64 bit editions. Games for Windows titles that support controllers are also compatible with the Microsoft XBOX 360 controller for Windows, including the XBOX 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. They even support widescreen resolutions and more. 3) Safety features. You can be confident that any title carrying the Games for Windows brand will support the new parental controls and family settings features in Windows Vista. 4) Easy to Play. Games for Windows branded titles are easy to install, find and remove, especially in Windows Vista. Every Games for Windows title appears in the new Windows Vista Games Explorer (no more hunting around the start menu for that game you just installed). And Games for Windows branded titles all offer some form of “easy install”, putting you in the game more quickly. From the sound of this statement, at last now there's a standard being pursued so that people can enjoy their games as much as they can, by not limiting to their computer's capabilities (32 vs 64 bit, regular or widscreen monitor, or even next-generation OS compatibility). So if you happen to see the Games for Windows logo, we're assured that the game we'll be playing is going to run in Windows to the best it can.
Games for Windows Related sites:
Gaming RigIn order to give you guys a background on what system I'm using, I'm posting my PC's specs, just so you can guage its performance on games that I'm playing/testing
Processor: Intel Pentium D 805 OC @ 2.8GHz
Motherboard: Asus P5LD2 LGA 775 Motherboard with support for Dual-Core processors and up to DR2 667-MHz RAM sticks
RAM: 2x 512MB DDR2 533 GEIL OC @ 576MHz
Video Card: GeCube Radeon X1600 PRO with 256MB of DDR2 RAM
Hard Disk: Seagate 160 GB SATA
Sound Card: Creative SB Live! Value Edition
Casing: GL-09A Mesh Type Casing
Power Supply: Stock 24-pin 400Watt Power Supply
DVD-ROM Drive: Asus DVD+/-RW 16x
CD-ROM Drive: Sony 52x OEM
Cables: Rounded Cables
Network: Gb Ethernet / D-Link Wifi USB adapter w/cradle
Gaming controller/s: Media Tech 2 analog stick joypad
Keyboard and Mouse: default
Operating System: Windows XP Professional SP2
As you can see I have a mixed set of parts ranging from expensive motherboards to cheap keyboards, but this is reality. I can't afford all of them at the same time, just the vitals. Choosing the correct part will be beneficial for gaming. Watch out soon for more topics relating to Computer Building! January 17 Welcome!!Hello World and welcome to my latest creation, the Deadaim Gamer's Den; a blog specifically for gaming for the Philippines in general. Being/seeing the Philippine Video Gaming scene for quite a while, I've decided, why not make a blog at least. And to give a background on how it all started, I'll ask myself the question:
Why make a blog on gaming?
Aside from the obvious answer that I love gaming, video gaming has seen a rise in the country for the past several years. And I've been involved in some of the movement (somewhat) of the spread of video gaming, more specifically the growth of the games industry here through two events: Ugotgame? and Ugotgame? Pro. I got some airtime on it and discovered that the country has many gamers may it be on the console or on the PC. Another reason is that truth be told, video game piracy is rampant in the Philippines. Hopefully with this blog, I can educate the gaming public of why they should be buying original games, as well as the benefits they receive out of it. I recently got intereviewed by Microsoft Philippines for their Windows Vista release (I was one of the many beta testers here, and I've been testing some games from time to time on my test unit.) And I am influenced by an old senior of mine in college who's now a professional artist in the comics industry. He keeps a blog of his comic activities, though I keep my personal stuff in another blog also here.
What are we going to be expecting from this blog?
Right now I'm thinking of partitioning my month into several periods where each day I would be posting a topic. The topic would either be previews on upcoming games, some reviews on the games I've bought from stores, store reviews, random essays, upcoming game releases (PC for now), PC hardware guides, and much much more to come! |
You wanna play Games for Windows with your Xbox 360 controller? Wirelessly? It's finally here! |
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