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The Future of PC Games, According to Microsoft

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the looking-to-the-future dept.

Geaty writes "Gamespot has an article up about Microsoft's big PC plans. Topics covered include why DirectX 9 will be the last DX for a while, the increased game support in Longhorn, and a 'standard' PC controller. Looks to this ignorant reader like Microsoft is trying to tackle the games market (again?), cornering matchmaking and patching. The controller issue seems like an attempt to bring to the PC platform some of the uniformity that consoles have."

5 of 355 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Activation Key by jkcity · · Score: 4, Informative

    some games are just easier to play on a game pad, and in my opionion is less strain on the hands, don't know if thats the same for everyoen though.

    You can also sit further back from the screen, I know you could do this with remote keyboards or mice, or one's with long cables, but for the most part its impracticle.

  2. How to use PS1 and N64 controllers with PC by yerricde · · Score: 4, Informative

    I just thought on how cool it would be to play quake with the nintendo 64 controller.

    Want cool? Buy it now.

    I personally prefer using PS1 controllers with the EMS USB2 adapter.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  3. Re:MOUSE damnit, MOUSE!! by twiztidlojik · · Score: 4, Informative

    What you want is a Nostromo n50 Speedpad.

    This thing is positively orgasmic. Four toggleable modes for every control. Ten keys. A D-pad. A wheel. Completely configurable. Any set of keys. For example, my D-pad does jump+forward, jump+back, etc etc, one key mode does movement, another mode does orders (while holding down the previous key pressed), yet another mode does taunts, and still another mode does acknowledgements.

    Hot damn. I love this thing. A Speedpad positively screams "awesome" when you bring it to a lan party. I nearly pissed myself when I saw it at the Belkin booth at MacWorld New York.

    --
    I will now redundantly add my name to the end of my post. You know, in case you forgot me or something.
  4. Re:Freelancer by Flamerule · · Score: 3, Informative
    Sure, they stole the idea for from another old game....
    Freelancer was developed by a company called Digital Anvil, which was acquired by Microsoft a couple of years ago. Digital Anvil started development on Freelancer ~5 years ago, so Microsoft hasn't had so much of an influence on it.

    But more importantly, Digital Anvil was founded by Chris (and Erin) Roberts, who made the Wing Commander and Privateer games at Origin. So Microsoft didn't steal the idea for Freelancer; Chris Roberts took it with him from Privateer. Unless you were referring to Elite, in which case Roberts stole that idea for Privateer.

  5. Re:Activation Key by br0ck · · Score: 3, Informative

    Atomic Bomberman is a dream

    You should try xblast, it's actually much more fun in my opinion. It's available here or for other platforms try the left links at the (noisy) homepage, or grab the Debian package.