"Neverwinter Nights 2", "Oblivion", And "Doom 3"
The next game I installed was Obsidian Entertainment's "Neverwinter Nights 2", which is known to be a system hog and a bit unstable. The installer for "NWN2" ran without incident, and, despite not being branded with the Games for Windows logo, Vista placed a "NWN2" icon in the Games folder. It also added the option to update "NWN2" or run the toolset from the right-click contextual menu on the icon, which was nice. The recommended Windows Experience Index score for "NWN2" is a 5.0, which is very high compared to what the average user system scores with Vista. Regardless, since my system was rocking at a 5.3, I figured I could run it just fine. Once again, I ratcheted up all the settings as high as they would go and once again the game ran but was unplayable. I am of the opinion that if I exceed the recommended requirements, I should be able to turn everything up and enjoy all the game has to offer, but maybe that is too optimistic. After I turned the graphics options down a bit, "Neverwinter Nights 2" ran just fine and never crashed. To be fair, a machine that can run "NWN2" at the maximum resolution with all the flourishes turned on may not exist in this dimension, Vista or not.
The Vista Games folder displays a wealth of information about each title
I wanted to try another high-end graphics game that is known to be a tad unstable, so I installed Bethesda's "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion". This is a game that continually crashes on my XP system at home, and always around the same place (when you exit the first dungeon and first get into the outside world). Vista did not add "Oblivion" to the Games folder after installing, so I searched through the help files for the best way to add it. Turns out it's just a matter of dragging the executable that starts the game into the folder, but it's one extra step that I shouldn't have to do. I now had an icon for "Oblivion" in the Games folder, but Vista did not populate any of the extra information about the game. I spent a few more minutes looking for ways to force the Games folder to hit the internet and update all information for all the games, but apparently there isn't a way to do that. I was stuck with a really ugly, blown-up version of the "Oblivion's" executable icon. Strangely enough, I checked on the machine later and "Oblivion" had been added to the Games folder with the box art, some ratings information, the publisher, and a version number of 1.0.0.0 which I doubt is accurate. The experience index score was still conspicuously absent. Perhaps this information is not available yet for legacy titles, so it's somewhat forgivable. After all, we are in the early months of this OS, so I do not expect everything to run like clockwork. If, in another year, I am still installing games onto Vista and getting incorrect information or no information at all from the Games folder, then it will be a problem for me. I was able to play through the first several sections of "Oblivion" with all its options set to the highest (including the outside world), and it ran beautifully. That is it ran beautifully right up until I quit the game and then it crashed consistently. I guess if you're going to crash, that's the best time to do it.
Since I tried an RTS and a couple RPGs, I wanted to try a first-person shooter for the next game. Rather than go with a recent release, I opted to try another legacy game so I chose Id's "Doom 3". The initial install went fine, but when I downloaded the latest patch, I was disappointed to find that the executable would not execute. The patch kept crashing during the install, so I was forced to play "Doom 3" in its retail state (just one step away from complete anarchy, I know). Unlike "Oblivion", Vista placed "Doom 3" in the Games folder immediately after install with a shot of the box and the same kind of information, however inaccurate. "Doom 3" did not have any experience index information, adding weight to my theory that the older titles will not support this yet. In order for this whole Windows Experience Index initiative to work, those numbers need to be on the boxes and they need to update when you install the game. It could prove invaluable down the road, but today it can be all but ignored until the software fully supports it. As far as playing "Doom 3", it ran like a dream without any crashing or graphical quirks.
This is just a small sampling of games obviously, but for our intended experiment, I think they did the trick. We wanted to simulate what a normal gamer might go through in order to play games on Vista, and the end result was just slightly more hassle than you would with XP. All the problems I had running these games on Vista, I've seen on XP machines as well just not as frequently. I have read that the NVidia drivers are still a tad unstable, so NVidia users may have more problems than I experienced. Also, I found it interesting that while both Alienware and Gateway are selling high-end gaming systems with Vista installed, Dell is sticking with XP. The budget-minded systems from Dell have Vista installed, but their gaming rigs don't even have it as an option yet. If you use your PC for gaming primarily, I see no reason to upgrade to Vista just yet. Sure, it's pretty to look at, and it has that "new" shine to it, but ultimately it's less stable than XP overall for gaming. The Vista games folder and the Windows Experience Index offer some promise for the future, but in order for us to really reap the benefits, all the publishers are going to have to be on board. Windows Vista will replace XP as the default PC OS in the world, there is no question about that, but there's no reason to adopt it early in this case.
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