Windows 7 Gaming on 7

[Abarbarian]

Well worth a look.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/10/22/windows-7-games-compatibility-testing/2

"Conclusions

Of the 60 games we tested only 12 of them couldn't be made to work; though the other way to look at that is that one fifth of all the games we tried out failed to work. It's kind of depressing that we can look at that statistic and think that it isn't all that bad, because it really is far from ideal.

To be completely fair though, there may still be ways to get some of these incompatible games running under Windows 7 which we just aren't aware of. PC gaming may be a difficult and truculent beast to work with sometimes, especially when it comes to compatibility and crashes, but it's also a platform with a very lively and knowledgeable community."

Looks like nearly all your favourite games will run fine Stean ones included.

 

[floppybootstomp]

No surprises there really, in fact I'm not sure they can justify the article. The greater majority of games that won't run in 7 are very old and they wouldn't run in Vista either.

So far I have installed in Win 7, and all run ok:

Steam:

Dark Messiah Of Might & Magic
Flat Out
GTR Evolution
Race 07
FEAR 2 Project Origin
Half Life
Half Life: Blue Shift
Half Life: Opposong Force
Half Life 2
Half Life 2: Episode One
Half Life 2: Episode Two
Left For Dead
Portal
Team Fortress Classic
Team Fortress 2

Bioshock
Call Of Duty 4
Call Of Duty 5
MS Flight Simulator: X
Fallout 3
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Tom Clancy's HAWX
Call Of Juarez DX10 Version
Wolfenstein

And I still got quite a few to install.

I wouldn't mind betting that if a game ran in Vista, it will run in 7.

The only games I'm disappointed won't run in Vista/7 are CoD2 (and that will actually run if you change settings to XP mode) and TOCA Race Driver 3.

 

[muckshifter]

I never believe all I read, actually, I didn't read that "article" as yet, probably wont.

I can say, however, that not only do my games work, they have actually improved ... I have no idea how, 'cos I'm using the same hardware ... but I have little niceties that if I turned on before would near cripple my in-game experience.

I will admit, I'm not a hard-core gamer and I do not have a games PC, heck I still using a 19" 1280x1024 max monitor ...

The "fact" is more surprising in that I also opted to install 64bit W7, and nice it is too.

I'm as pleased as punch, maybe as pleased as Mr F.BootStomp


;-)

 

[Abarbarian]

Posted to save some folk heartache and wasted time. Seemed like valuable information to me .

"More importantly, XP mode isolates the graphics drivers completely and doesn't allow 3D rendering at all. It is, in other words, completely unsuitable to improving games compatibility.

So, we didn't use it at all, and even if it were suitable for the task, it wouldn't be helpful information to all readers as it's not included in Home Premium anyway. Instead, when we talk about running in XP compatibility mode we're referring to the compatibility mode made accessible through troubleshooting an application; by right-clicking on it. This method, which also existed in Windows XP and Windows Vista, works on all hardware and does allow 3D rendering, but doesn't necessarily work for all applications.

Below you can see our first batch of results, which we've broken down over a few pages to make them easier to sort through. The games are listed alphabetically (A-Z) and further discussion of notable errors are available at the bottom of the page. It's also worth noting that the version of Windows 7 we are using is a 64-bit edition, which also creates some of its own errors with older games, but we feel 64-bit is what most people will be upgrading to."

"That's not to say that the XP Compatibility mode is useless though – as Call of Duty 2 can only be successfully installed and run with this setting. Without it it's impossible to install Call of Duty 2 without getting a string of errors which claim useful thinks like “Read error 000” and “Lib not registered”. It's worth clarifying that the game needs to run in Windows XP compatibility mode specifically too – we tried it in Windows 98 mode and got no joy. ""

 

[muckshifter]

err, XP compatibility mode is NOT present in windows home edition, which is the OS most people will get, use or buy ... a mute point to use.

Oh, this time I read a bit more.

 

[floppybootstomp]

I wasn't intending to install CoD 2 in Win 7 anyway (I have the Home Premium edition), but I did have it running in Vista

But - it's on my AMD machine, which I'm using XP on.