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Now that Beta 2 has been around for some days, more and more tests are coming out. ExtremeTech did a special on games in Vista: installation, performance and the eventual problems were investigated.
We feel that Beta 2 is the appropriate time to start looking at compatibility and performance issues in Vista, and that goes for gaming (one of the big selling points of Vista) as well. So we spent the better part of a week installing a bunch of modern, popular games on the upcoming OS, noting what works and what doesn't, and trying to find some simple workarounds. Has Vista got game yet? Let's find out.
A lot of modern games are tested, like WoW, Black & White 2...
The conclusion: Overall, we're pretty happy with the state of gaming on Vista. This isn't a release candidate yet – we're still at beta 2. This is where most things should work, with only a few minor problems to work out between Microsoft, the games makers, and the hardware driver writers. On the whole, that's exactly where it's at.
...
So, while the current Vista gaming situation is encouraging, there is clearly still plenty of work to be done. Most games work, but there are some tricky bits with Punkbuster (run games as admin to work around), a big problem with StarForce copy protection, and some performance kinks to work out. With Microsoft proclaiming a "PC gaming renaissance" around the launch of Vista, they need to really deliver a fantastic experience, and it's not quite there yet. They need an A+ games platform, and it's a B- right now.
More here.