Don't have $400 to drop? Have a little patience...

[ChrisReid]

For us Europeans, play.com are selling core systems for £150 (inc delivery) now. Add the cost of a HDD and you still have a very nice deal compared to what you could get with your money a matter of weeks ago.

Make sure you look at the other things too. Hard drives are about £65-70, so you're looking at £215 compared to £270 or so for a full Premium 360 system. The Premium system also comes with a headset and an HD component cable which goes for around £10 and £20, so it might be worth it or easier for some people to just get that. You might use a different headset (I use the wireless one) and have another way of connecting to a screen however.

 

[Mav23]

Speaking of the wireless headset, I really dig the added flexibility and sound quality, but my ears are so small it wants to fly off my head if I make a sudden move.

 

[Death]

Two words: duct tape

 

[Mav23]

Haha, ouch!

 

[cff]

Is there any reason why a potential Arcade-Vista client coudn't work in XP as well?

 

[Quarto]

Yes, there is - Microsoft wants people to buy Vista, not stick with XP .

 

[Mav23]

At least I still have until May before I have to upgrade. ALWAYS read the fine print when downloading "Release Candidates".

 

[Edfilho]

I would also rather buy a 360 for $400 than downgrade my pc to Vista for $200 at the moment. But as I can't afford either right now, (and as RAM for my PC is a higher prioriy anyway) I'll have to see what happens come annual review/bonus time.

Don't be ridiculous, my pc actually runs faster with vista. If you have more than 1GB of RAM, there's actually a performance increase when you upgrade from XP to Vista.

My machine is a 3000+ A64, with 1GB of RAM and an AGP 6600GT (which is being upgraded to a 7800GS today )... It's no godly computer, and it runs Vista like butter.

 

[LeHah]

Don't be ridiculous, my pc actually runs faster with vista.

That doesn't exactly mean its a quality peice of software. I'm sure if I was so inclined, I could get Windows 3.1 running on my 3.2 Ghz, 2 Gigs of RAM PC and that sucker would start right up!

 

[Mav23]

Vista runs great on my machine too. 1GB Ram, Radeon 9600 Video Card, 2.4 GHz processor. It just kind of seems unecessary, 'cause the only real improvement from XP I've noticed is it's prettier.

 

[Justice]

I'm not too concerned about performace, so much as I am about drivers. I know my printer and video capture card do not have Vista drivers (I'm not sure about some of my other hardware). Therefore, for me, Vista is a downgrade because it reduces the functionality of my computer. Not to say I won't have to get it eventually, but it's going to cost me more than just the price of the OS.

 

[dragon875]

I know my printer and video capture card do not have Vista drivers (I'm not sure about some of my other hardware).

Vista has built-in drivers for printers and cameras that work very well. I have a HP all in one printer and a Canon PowerShot SD550 and they work perfectly with Vista's built-in drivers. It will only be a short while until official drivers will come out for these. Most drivers that are out for Vista work great (except for Creative Sound Blaster drivers). They just do not have all of the features yet, which is expected due to Vista being out for only a month.

 

[Mike-L]

There's another solution for the people concerned about Vista and nobody posted it here. You might install both Vista and XP on your PC using second-stage bootloader, and choose wether you like to boot XP or Vista anytime at system start-up. Therefore if you have any software/hardware that doesn't work on Vista you could switch to XP to use it.

Vista has built-in drivers for printers and cameras that work very well. I have a HP all in one printer and a Canon PowerShot SD550 and they work perfectly with Vista's built-in drivers.

Vista has a lot of *built-in* drivers , still not all of them, and imho there is slight chance that Vista drivers will be released for older hardware.

 

[cff]

Yes, there is - Microsoft wants people to buy Vista, not stick with XP .

True, but as much as I dislike MS, they actually tend to support old programs for quite some time. How long did Win9x survive? 2005? Something like that. They could have killed it much sooner for gamers by not releasing DirectX versions for older OS versions.

Besides unless Vista uses a new core I am sure that someone hacks the Arcade addon to run in XP.

 

[BrynS]

Geometry Wars is now available to buy ($7.95) for Vista.

[...]
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved for Windows Vista was made entirely in-house by Bizarre Creations, with extensive input from the original Geometry Wars author Stephen Cakebread. Here's what Microsoft had to say:

Microsoft wrote:
From puzzle players looking to relieve a bit of stress to adventure seekers in need of hard-hitting action, there's something for everyone on MSN(r) Games. And now there's even more to experience. Already a top seller on Xbox 360, "Geometry Wars: Retro EvolvedTM" is now available on a Windows PC near you! This Windows Vista(tm)-optimized title on MSN Games is easy to play, yet nearly impossible to master - perfect for hardcore gamers looking for a new challenge. [...]

The words "made entirely in-house" could imply that specific, additional coding was required to transition GW from XBLA to PC or that a relatively straightforward port was implemented by the original developer rather than contracted out -- either way it would seem to indicate that a PC (Vista only) version of Arena is not totally improbable.

Cheers,

Bryn

 

[Bandit LOAF]

I'm not sure -- it seems to confirm that Vista Live isn't simply a Live Arcade emulator... that individual developers will need to put time/money into porting their Arcade games.

That said, it certainly sounds like the decision to port games is based on which are most popular -- Geometry Wars, Uno... and if Arena sells as well as it should, we could certainly see it in a similar situation.

 

[SXGlory]

I think going forward, that the Live Arcade games will be programmed simultaneously, and I suspect a significantly larger amount of titles for PC.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

It's possible... on the other hand, Microsoft has always been pretty interested in making sure the Xbox has exclusive games. I'm sure they could make a mint with simultaneous Windows launches for Halo games, too...

 

[Mekt-Hakkikt]

Mpanty sent me an article about how XBox Live can be played through Windows Vista, but the article is in Italian thus I probably didn't understand it correctly:

http://www.repubblica.it/2005/i/sez...rossplatform-gaming/crossplatform-gaming.html

A quick google search on German sites (e.g.: http://www.pcwelt.de/news/unterhaltung/73825/index.html) revealed something called "Games for Windows Live" which is something similar to Xbox Live for the PC and allows playing against XBox players but is not essentially the same as Xbox Live.

Now, is this something new or the same you were talking about earlier in this thread?

Personnally, I think I'd be more comfortable playing my games on a PC than getting into the console world but since I am momentarily running a four years old no-name laptop (P4 Mobile with 2 GHz, 512 MB Ram and some GeForce GO) I most certainly would need a new PC to have Vista along with a Keyboard and a screen which all in all will be more costly than an used XBox 360. On the other hand, there will be a time when I have to get a new PC, so why not now? I mean, I haven't even played Doom 3 in a reasonable speed.

 

[ChrisReid]

Now, is this something new or the same you were talking about earlier in this thread?

Yeah, they confirmed last week that your current XBox Live account with also integrate with certain PC games in the future. Basically, Live Gold subscribers will be able to play the PC versions of Shadowrun and Uno with the 360 versions and vice versa. Those two, plus Halo 2 and Geometry Wars for Windows, will also add to your gamerscore.