So just what will work with Windows Vista as far as games go

The results were pretty amazing to me.

from JoeUser Forums
I'm sure a lot of you got Windows Vista when it came out. But what about your games? Are they a throw-away because you think they will not work. The best thing you can do is try it first. Windows Vista has a built in mechanism to check for faults. If you try and run a game and it does not work as intended., Vista intercepts the problem, asks you if it ran correctly, if not then you push the option to rerun it in its preferred configuration. Most of the time this will do the trick. Well, I got older games like NHL 2001 to run with no compatability problems. Ran without crashing. Okay. Im going to say something everyone hates. STARFORCE. Thats a whole controversial thing I dont even want to go into for discussion .But if you do play games on your PC that are protected by this copy protection scheme, you have to update your protection drivers before the games will work on Vista. They released these protection driver updates on the starforce website. Oh , and a few games, that did not work with XP originally work without problem in Vista. Funny how it works on one thing but not the other. Oh well. Anyway, point is don't be afraid to try your game out. The worst that can happen is it will not work at all. Im completely satisfied by the way Vista handles program crashing. Its much improved over other operating systems.
games
29,607 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I've just discovered as well that some games that use DirectX 9 do not work in Vista. The fix is to actually install DirectX 9, which apparently will coexist along with DirectX 10. DX10 is not fully backward compatible, so this has to be done for some games to function properly. Apparently, as well, some DX9 installers won't actually install, so you have to use the recent "redistributable" package here: WWW Link. This is a microsoft link (which you can see when you get there) so it is safe to d/l btw ... (can't be paranoid enough these days)
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
my games work fine, i have doom 3,quake 4,stalker shadow of chernobyl,UT2004,prey, half life 2 and the oldest game i got is aliens vs predator 2...all them work just fine.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
im running Halo, The Sims and Fable the lost chapters. And they all work fine.

Far Cry works but the sand looks blue, which is funny as your on a tropical island. Might be my graphics card though( Nvidia 6200 256mb, AGPx8).

Ford Racing 2 will not work.

Will stick with my Xbox for games for now, untill I upgrade my PC.

Also my emulators work fine. SNES, MegaDrive, NES, N64, PS1 and PC Engine all work.

Vista is a funny beast when it comes to games.

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried Morrowind. Had all kinds of wierd issues.
That was the end of Vista for me. I went back to XP and my system is now stable.
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My Quake 3 worked, run in sp2 mode and as administrator. Easy!

Pity my wireless card has the lag once a minute problem, and no updated asus software yet so i end up using xp anyway
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
So far I've played Counter-Strike: Source, Day of Defeat: Source, Half-Life 2, FarCry, Oblivion, Stalker, BF2, BF2142, GuildWars (All 3), WoW, Gothic 3, Silent Hunter 4, Hitman: Blood Money, GTA: San Andreas and the new Spider-Man game. All of which ran just as good if as they do on XP. The only downside is with BF2/2142 where you have to run in Admin mode if you want to play online because of Punkbuster. If you don't run as admin it will kick you off the server, not a big deal though.

By the way this is on an X1950 XTX
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you think that you can upgrade from XP to Vista, You are going to have problems.
If your going to upgrade to vist then buy a knew computer with vista in it. You will not have no problems. A computer goes down the drain after 2 years. All Games and softwear that come out every year require you to have more Ram or a better proccesor.
Same goes with vista. Just think about your first computer wich probably had 34mb of ram with windows 98 and then try to install xp. Good luck. That goes with games.
if your computer is not up to date your going to have problems.
Like someone said if vista has a probleme with a game, It will try to fix the problem if it can. as long as you have all requirement.

Again if your going to upgade to Vista then buy a knew computer. you will see that thing will go smooth and you will never look back to XP.

Its sad to say to buy a computer but thats just how the computer word works.
Tecnology only gets better at a fast rate.
I have waited for a long time to get a knew computer and love Vista. But i know after a few years i will be wanting a new one.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
a reply for astyanax0

how did you get DAY OF DEFEAT to work on your vista?
i have a dell e520 with vista and my DOD works but it lags pitifully
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well I dont have an nVidia card anymore, thats how. xD
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well...

I am running vista..Home premium and I have lots of "fluff" as one would say .. Part being Desktop X, Object Dock 1.9 Plus, WB 5.5 other "customizing" stuff..

I also have lots of Games...
I Run/Play City Of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars *all 3*, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Tales of Pirates, Voyage Century and Dungeon Runners... NONE of these MMOs give me ANY Problem..


I also have The Sims *all" The Sims 2 *all but Open for Buiness*. Zoo Tycoon *all* Zoo Tycon 2 *all but dino danger*, Fable (The Lost Chapters" Clive Barkers "UNDYING", Need for Speed Underground 1 and 2 And OTHERS..

NO Issues with these games either.. ALL run great and NO Lag...

THere is ONE game that I Have that Vista DOESN"T seem to like for some reason. Thats American McGee's ALICE.. *which I love but don't run right now*

All my programs and all my games installed work Great and I love it

I guess its the power of Dual Core...

my System
Dell xps 410
2.2 gzh Dual Core
Main HD 250 gigs
Secondary hd 250
2 Gigs of Ram
Nvidia 7300 (256 mg) Video and
Lastly Microsoft Vista home Premuim...


Love vista, NO issues now that everyone has caught up with drivers.. and Games are Running Great....


Anne
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm going to be purchasing a new computer in a few days and I've noticed they all come with Windows Vista now. I too have a lot of the Sims games and Zoo Tycoon and Rollercoaster Tycoon 1 & 2. But I have a lot of older games that specified that you needed Windows 95 or 98 to run the games. Also I have Cats 4 and 5 and this game called Kitty Luv and they don't work on Windows XP, atleast not for me. Does anyone have any games as old as the ones I mentioned or the cat games and do they work on Vista? Oh, and Ultimate Spiderman doesn't work on my Windows XP either.
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
the only game I have that doesn't work is RE2 PC, and Star Trek Hidden Evil, which are basically the same game, neither of which I could get to work on XP either. xD

games I have that DO work:
-F.E.A.R.
-F.E.A.R. Extraction Point
-DooM 3
-DooM 3 Resurrection Of Evil
-Halo
-Halo CE
-Halo 2 (duh Vista only!)
-Oni
-Far Cry (no blue sand =P)
-HL2
-Ragnarok Online
-Stepmania (latest Beta v4)
-Supreme Commander (no movie clips though o_0)
-Star Trek Voyager Elite Force (1&2)
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The only games I'm missing under Vista so far are some old DOS games I used to like going back to from time to time, but with a bit more effort with MS Virtual PC I'm confident they won't be a real issue. The other retro games (BBC emulated, Mame etc) have all been fine.

I have found the graphics driver updates from nVidia a disappointment so far. I've had to stick with the driver from Feb as it runs everything quicker and more reliably, although I haven't tried the very latest update yet as I've been distracted by a water leak in the PC cooling system shorting the graphics card and having to become a plumber...it's working again now after drying out although I suspect it's not too happy after the experience, and might be my excuse to upgrade it fairly soon - especially as the PC is only a few months old so I'll be contacting the manufacture and expecting them to take responsibility for it

Despite reports to the contrary before I got it, I've been very impressed with Vista's game compatability with everything I've thrown at it to date - the only problems I've had have been graphics driver related as far as I've been able to diagnose them - which do still seem to be an issue, and hence my compromise with the drivers from Feb still for now. e.g. Black and White 2 seems to cause the graphics driver to crash after a few hours play with any earlier or later driver version.
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
I tried Madden 2004 on Windows Vista. With graphics at a high resolution the players were running in slow motion. I had to drop the graphics to 800 X 600 but the graphics were still not perfectly smooth. Some sequences slow and others faster.

The worst thing with Vista was that I often got a blue screen at boot up . Then the computer would prompt me whether I wanted to run windows recovery. This was on a new computer running an Athlon duo core 5000+ with the latest main board. It was an open box computer that had previously been returned. I do not know if Vista is glitched or if I had a corrupted copy. At any rate I took advantage of the 14 day return policy and took it back to the store.
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
he only downside is with BF2/2142 where you have to run in Admin mode if you want to play online because of Punkbuster. If you don't run as admin it will kick you off the server, not a big deal though.


Actually all you have to do is download the punkbuster updater from Here and update your punkbuster client, then you don't have to run it admin mode. Of course that's granted you have disabled the UAC which I did right away.
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have HalfLife2,Day Of Defeat Source,HalfLife2 Episode 1,Call Of Duty,Call Of Duty United Offensive and Call Of Duty 2 all installed via the Steam client and all running great on Vista with an ATI X1650SE card installed.  
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Just a small note to the madden 2004 game, you must set your power options in the screensaver settings area to "High Performance" otherwise you will get that slow / fast speed behavior issue.