If you are a gamer you most probably worry about games for vista more than anything else.

This fact sheet posted at from 3dgamers, describes Vista for games capability:

Windows Vista gaming features include the following:

Instantly accessible gaming with the Games Explorer. Windows Vista makes discovering and enjoying favorite games easier than ever by introducing the Games Explorer. Accessible directly from the Windows Vista Start menu, the Games Explorer provides a single location for gaming activities and content. Users can launch games, view game ratings, see the last time a particular game was played, and more. The Games Explorer also makes it possible for publishers to keep gamers up to date by delivering the latest information about their game automatically.

Family Settings. Windows Vista enables parents to tailor their children’s games experiences, helping avoid content they deem inappropriate. Parents can permit access to games by specific types of content, by rating or even by specifying certain times of day that users have access to the computer. Family Settings works with the major location-appropriate ratings systems from around the world, such as the United States’ Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) systems.

New in-the-box Windows Vista games. Windows Vista includes brand-new games and completely rewritten versions of several classic Windows® games. New titles include “Shanghai Titans” (a mah-jong-style solitaire game); “Chess Titans,” a fully 3-D chess game; and “Purble Place,” an educational game aimed at the youngest Windows Vista users. All these games will take advantage of the enhanced graphics technology available in Windows Vista. Games that Windows users know and love, including “Solitaire” and “Minesweeper,” have received makeovers as well to take full advantage of the new capabilities of Windows Vista.

DirectX 10. The DirectX® 10 API leverages the new Windows Vista Display Driver Model to give developers tools to bring astonishing game environments to life. DirectX 10 includes features such as Shader Model 4.0, with new techniques that efficiently create more-realistic environments by maximizing the power of the latest video card technology. Support for visual features such as more-detailed terrain, realistic shadows, and complex fur and facial animations reinforce Windows Vista as a first-class platform for games and applications that are rich in multimedia elements. DirectX 10 is available only on Windows Vista, which also continues to support games designed for earlier versions of DirectX.

Xbox 360 wireless accessory support. In addition to natively supporting the popular wired Xbox 360™ Controller for Windows, Windows Vista is fully compatible with the new line of wireless accessories recently announced by Microsoft Corp. with the introduction of the Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows. The Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver for Windows enables wireless Xbox 360 peripherals — including the Xbox 360 Wireless Controller, Xbox 360 Wireless Headset and Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel — on Windows-based personal computers. This lets consumers enjoy racing games, sports games and games that can be best played with game controllers.

Bringing the Xbox Live experience to Windows Vista. New Windows Vista games such as “Shadowrun” bring the Xbox Live® experience to the Windows Vista platform. This includes a single gamertag, friends list, achievements, gamerscore and reputation. In addition, in the case of “Shadowrun,” gamers can compete across Xbox 360 and Windows Vista, providing a unified games experience on both platforms.

The Games for Vista

Below is a list of games that run on Windows Vista:

Microsoft Windows Vista Free Games:

Bejeweled 2, Bookworm, Astropop, Chuzzle
Solitaire
FreeCell
Spider Solitaire
Backgammon
Minesweeper

Purchase these games for Vista:

Age of Conan
Alan Wake
Crysis
Flight Simulator X
Halo 2
Hellgate
Shadowrun
Dark Messiah of Might and Magic
The Sims 2
Sid Meier’s Pirates!
Rise of Legends
Age of Empires III:
Battlefield 2142
Call of Juarez
Desperate Housewives
Sin Episodes
Crystal Quest
Bliss Island
Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved
Jewel Quest® II
LUXOR 2
Spinword
Steam, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source and Day of Defeat: Source
Roboblitz, Firewall, PhysX
Darwinia
Guild Wars/Nightfall
Lord of the Rings: Battle for Middle Earth II
Civilization IV/Warlords
Vanguard and UT
Unreal Tournament 2004
Ghost Recon
Doom 3
Prey
WOW
The Burning Crusade
Battlefield 2
The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
F.E.A.R.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Call of Duty 2
Company of Heroes
Gothic 3
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory
Neverwinter Nights 2
GameTap

Running these games for Vista

There should be no problem running these games for Vista; but you might encounter bumps during installation of startup of these games.

Some of the solutions for running these games smoothly include

1. When asked to update your driver, do so and Windows Vista should be able to locate device drives from the web without problems.
2. Run your application with elevated privileges. Right click on the icon and click “Run as Administrator”.
3. Sometimes, the games explorer shortcut does not correctly launch the application especially when using Steam client; run the application directly from the folder.

Key Takeway

Windows Vista is great for gamers, and even though the game may not run immediately, simple tweaks as mentioned above should do the trick.