I forgot one of the strangest, and sometimes most interesting, feature Vista is going to have. “Instant Play” PC game discs. Apparently Microsoft has figured out a way to design software on a disc that will allow you to simple pop the disc in and start gaming. It is still a “PC” game. The game installs in the background while you start playing through the beginning. In fact it is a lot like Steam, how you can play the game before it is all downloaded. They say it will not work with all games, and their are still some hurdles to get over. Still a neat idea.

The only thing remaining is patches. I wonder if Microsoft is planning any big ideas to make patching less irritating (a steam approach could work).

the x-box 360 joypad. no, i’m not kidding. since it’s going to be compatible with the PC you can bet that any cross platform game that’s also on x-box will just plug and play with said pad. one of the biggest gripes of playing console esque games is the horrendous joypad support the pc versions usually get.

introducing what you could call a standard general purpose pad will make games like prince of persia play as well on a PC as on any console, without the pain of fiddling around with the controller set up first. furthermore, i’m expecting developers to leave in those little coloured icons you get in console games saying press ‘X’ to jump complete with a little icon of the X button. my joypad doesn’t have numbered buttons, and seeing either ‘press button 3′ or press ‘Space’ when i’m playing with a pad, hinder things.

even better, if people do start buying into the 360 controller, third party companies can design their controllers to just plug and play as well. the PC has been lacking a good standardised pad for a long time, and seeing microsoft provide one in this manner, should see games that play better on pads, playing better on PCs.

for casual gamers, it’s a god send.

A- They’re featuring this partially because they’re really running out of things to feature in Vista. Microsoft’s best customers are their corporate customers who’ll buy something like 250,000 liscenses to run on their machines. But frankly I’m not sure how much they really have to offer them in Vista. Machine builders –people who make computers are surely going to buy this and offer it in large numbers. But basically this is something they can push to their 3rd best customer set–enthusiasts.

B-I’m kinda skeptical about the shelf space thing lasting very long but it sounds great. I guess i can be guardedly optimistic about this. I also think the controller idea sounds great but I hope this doesn’t lead to anyone trying to drop mouse and keyboard support from their console ports of stuff like say Brothers in Arms or Splinter Cell or somesuch.