I no longer feel pressurised to go DX10

Well, I felt the same way until I got a X360 controller myself. I only use it for some games but it can improve the gameplay quite a bit. For instance, I played NFS: Most Wanted with the keyb half-way through but once I plugged in the gamepad and got used to the analogue control the game felt much more satisfying. I then went back and beat NFS: U & U2 (again) with it and the gameplay also felt tighter.

In BF2 I use the controller whenever I'm piloting a choppa and I've played Rayman's Raving Rabbids exclusively with it. Especially for "console ports" and sports games a gamepad is seriously recommended. Nowadays I also use it to play games on console emulators. I know it feels weird, almost like you're betraying your PC legacy but for me it was a good decision.

Don't go for a cheap gamepad though; if you don't want to shell out for a X360 controller I suggest you borrow one from a friend and try any NFS game. The X360 controller is quite good IMO (with the possible exception of the D-pad's stiffness) and it is worth the price (the wired version at any rate). While it doesn't have quite the same quality of the SNES gamepad (my favourite of all time) it's not that far off.

You play raving rabbids with a GAMEPAD?! Yi gods man, you should be using a wiimote! The game was practically designed for it. Oh, not to mention that raving rabbids on pc starforced to hell.

Anyhow, it's not a big deal to me if a game requires the xbox 360 control pad to play well now for two reasons:
1. Microsoft's push to make Vista a gaming platform on par with consoles includes leverging as much as they can from Xbox, including the gamepad. The 360 control pad is essentially the official control pad of Vista.

2. It's done well. The 360 control pad's native support in new games is a godsend to older pc games, where even games with actual control pad support were still hell to set up, and it never worked quite as well as a real console game.

Even Dell has reverted to offering XP and now Ubuntu on newer PC's, and other manufacturers are seeing reduced interest in Vista-only new OEM PC's.

Microsoft's plan to launch/migrate PC's to Vista (and DX10) was, putting it likely, a big failure.

I really don't know if one can pinpoint this due to shortcomings in Vista or just how solid and trusted Windows XP has become. I think most of it revolves around the latter, as well as the general publics' mistrust in new software (i.e. "Wait for a service pack or two..").

It's XP being good enough, consoles being not only a legitimate alternative to pretty much all pc gaming but actually being better in most cases, and that the things that make pc gaming unique (good graphics, mouse and keyboard support, pervasive online multiplayer) do not need a new OS, and are even somewhat hampered by it. (slower game performance in vista, preference for dumbed down console style games, xbox live, pretty much the pc is becoming an expensive xbox)

And for people not using their PCs for gaming, I'd argue Ubuntu is good enough for 98% of non-gaming PC users.

Vista will take over though, it's just a matter of time. Whether or not Vista is a healthy, self-sufficient gaming platform that does more than just run console ports in hi res, who knows.

BTW, Vista really is a PITA. I just recently upgraded my device drivers on it, and now it can't boot because of some problem with the RAID controller. Ubuntu works sublimely though, I haven't bothered doing a system restore yet just because I have no reason too (except I wanna finish playing vampire: bloodlines! stupid ati linux drivers not running it fast enough in wine)
 
You play raving rabbids with a GAMEPAD?! Yi gods man, you should be using a wiimote! The game was practically designed for it. Oh, not to mention that raving rabbids on pc starforced to hell.

Heh, well, playing it with a X360 controller was 270 euros cheaper. ;)

Oh and I agree with the two reasons you mentioned. There have been other control pads for PCs before obviously but MS did their homework here and I've yet to find a compatibility problem.

As for DX10 pressure, meh. I think people are forgetting their history. DX9 cards came out in mid-2002 but we only got "true" DX9 games in mid-2004 (TR, FarCry, HL2).
 
Some games were *meant* to be played with a gamepad, no matter what platform they are played on. I use my trusty saitek P880 for some games that scream for it (for instance Dynasty Warriors Hyper PC). I couldn't imagine playing a fighter without a game pad. That seems like trying to play an RTS or a FPS *with* a game pad. It is probably okay once you get used to it, but I'm not sure.
 
As for DX10 pressure, meh. I think people are forgetting their history. DX9 cards came out in mid-2002 but we only got "true" DX9 games in mid-2004 (TR, FarCry, HL2).

At the same time, DX9 games even at the early stage looks so much better compare to consoles. DX10 games, however, is only on par or slightly better than consoles, excluding Wii.

Not everyone plays FPS btw, and I am literally the last one to get a 3D graphics card.
 
At the same time, DX9 games even at the early stage looks so much better compare to consoles. DX10 games, however, is only on par or slightly better than consoles, excluding Wii.

Not everyone plays FPS btw, and I am literally the last one to get a 3D graphics card.

We have barely seen any DX10 PC games yet but of those that we have I think there is a reasonable jump over console graphics. Just look at CoH and WIC in DX10, I certainly don't see any console RTS's that match those. CoJ is debatable (I personally think it looks amazing but many don't). Lost Planet is a decent improvement over the console version and the first major DX10 game is Crysis.

I don't recall 2003 PC gaming being in a better position.
 
At the same time, DX9 games even at the early stage looks so much better compare to consoles. DX10 games, however, is only on par or slightly better than consoles, excluding Wii.

But when the first DX9 games came out they were being compared to (at best) DX7 level hardware. Now the first DX10 games are being compared to DX9+ level hardware.
 
The 7300GT is faster than the 8500GT? Hmmm, I wouldn't have expected that.

This might be a slight oversimplification, but yeah. That's the problem with this gen -- Sure, if you've got the cash for a pair of 8800GTXs, by all means, buy away and brag to everyone here about it. ;) But for the rest of this is basically a run out the clock situation. The next generation (or half-generation) cannot come soon enough!
 
Do you have any quantitive evidence to support that claim? e.g. sales in relation to previous MS OS's for example?
In fact, even Microsoft admitted lack-luster retail sales- much lower than expected. They even had to combine the first two-months sales figures in their initial press releases to compare with XP's first month.

Also, several sources have mirrored the Vista launch being substantially lesser than the XP launch:
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/vista/vista_launch_falters_at_retail.html


For the record, I think its ridiculous that any "PC fan" would root for the failiure of DX10 and thus the technological progression of the PC as a gaming platform.
I think it's ridiculous that any tech-savvy and objective individual would blur the line between DX10 and Vista. The bonding is only something that Microsoft has created and an innocent victim in the fray!

While DX10 does push PC gaming to the next level, Vista's problems/shortcoming/issues may not be an acceptable price to pay.

But again, I mainly attribute Vista's problems and lack of adoption moreso to XP's strength and quality, with an added dash of lack of trust of consumers to new products. The more "extremist" folks (the smallest percentage, which I happen to fall into) wont adopt due to the unacceptable amount of "Big Brother" in their WGA changes and driver signing policy/DRM policy intermingling.
 
We are also hearing that some of the exclusive DX10 features that could enable unique and amazing effects DX9 isn't capable of just don't perform well enough on current hardware. Geometry shader heavy code, especially involving geometry amplification, does not perform equally well on all available platforms (and we're looking at doing some synthetic tests to help demonstrate this). The performance of some DX10 features is lacking to the point where developers are limited in how intensely they can use these new features.

Will Crysis be affected by this? The game is coming in September.
 
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