Instead, it's Battleforge, EA's card-trading strategy game. Not the most obvious choice, we know, but then, you gotta start somewhere.

A recent patch means the game now has "a higher frame rate and new ways of creating graphical effects, such as shadows and lighting", though with no DX11 cards on the market and Vista support not yet enabled, good luck trying to make that actually mean anything.

BattleForge becomes first DirectX11-enabled game [Big Download]

DirectX 11 confirmed for Windows 7 - Microsoft revised statement [PCGH, via Voodoo Extreme]

In another case of "Because it's there", some brave/misguided soul has gone to great lengths to get Windows Vista running on a PlayStation 3. How? Emulated via Linux, of course. That translates to blazing speeds, making the Microsoft OS boot in a mere 25 minutes. Notepad opens in just 12!! If you're interested in the techniques required to get Vista on your PS3, PS3HaX has a handy tutorial. Just think — you could be playing Minesweeper in just a few days, at single digit speed percentages! Impress your friends!

Vista running on PS3 & more BD-J homebrew [ via Gizmodo]

Gaming Performance: Windows Vista SP1 vs. XP SP3 [ExtremeTech]

ExtremeTech took a long, hard look at the improvements, not just on the file and operations side, but those that appeal to PC gamers. In addition to the requisite 3DMark and PCMark benchmarks, performance reviews against Company of Heroes, Supreme Command and Crysis provide insight. The good news? It's faster, with the exception of Crysis, which suffers under certain circumstances.

Bar chart heaven awaits upgraders at ExtremeTech.

Vista Shootout: Hotfixes Vs. SP1 [ExtremeTech]

The report from The Inquirer also states that the crack is rather simple, requiring only a few files to be rewritten to get the game working under the older Windows OS. Michael McWhertor

Vista-only game cracked [The Inquirer]

He told OXM, "There's repercussions here for the gamer. We're shooting our own people in the foot by not recognizing what these developers are doing. I worry about that. I'm not happy with the reviews either because I don't think they're comparing us apples to apples."

The OXM podcast staff asked Gitelman whether he had any input on the game's $60 price for a multiplayer only title to which Gitelman responded that Shadowrun has legs that could last for years. He first responded "I make games. I don't set prices in games. It's not part of my job nor is it my call."

He then followed up with:

The most important thing is the value of what you're getting, I think there is value there at the $60 price point. If you play just about any first person, next-generation shooter that's come out recently, you're looking at the single player game being about 10 hours. I've been playing Shadowrun for three years... You can see this game truly has legs. So, ten hours of gameplay for sixty bucks, plus some probably lame multiplayer they tacked on, versus Shadowrun that you can play, lets say, for years.

Obviously, Mitch has a point here, in that many of the games that have the best perceived value in the long term, may not be readily apparent after just a few days or weeks of gameplay. I continue to play plenty of games based on their skillfully honed multiplayer or more open-ended modes, titles like Advance Wars, Diablo II, Half-Life's various multiplayer mods like Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat, and StarCraft. Another Xbox game, Halo 2, was most widely well received not for its brief and (some say) disappointing single-player campaign, but for its strong multiplayer modes—the ratio of single-player to multiplayer enjoyment for most is heavily skewed toward the latter.

However, the precedent has been set by many of these games that a solid single-player mode, while not the most memorable feature, is still included. With Shadowrun at a new-gen premium price of $60 (or $50 for the Windows Vista version) many gamers will expect the precedent to be followed.

Unfortunately, most game reviews don't have an accommodation for publishing executive pricing blunders. Perhaps they should be held accountable for any failure at long term success FASA's shooter will have. I won't hold my breath.

What do you think? Are games unfairly scored on a scale related to their price point? Have any Shadowrun players out there felt that they've already "justified" their $60 purchases? Michael McWhertor

KOXM Episode 70 [OXM Podcast]

While FASA's choice of genre was the cause of much Shadowrun fan ire, impressions of the game have ranged from positive to post-orgasmically glowing. I, Mike Fahey and Mark Wilson have all spent time with the Windows Vista and Xbox 360 versions of Shadowrun at different points in the game's development, so make sure you check out our impressions.

Now we cross our fingers and hope those rumors of FASA's post-release demise were unfounded. Michael McWhertor

GameDaily has posted an excellent feature highlighting the concerns of casual devs in regards to Windows Vista game programming issues. In the light of the upcoming January 31st release of the new operating system, small developers are worried about the cost of making Games for Windows. One of the main concerns seems to be obtaining ESRB ratings, which are now required due to the parental control functions built-in to the OS, as reflected in this forum post on the Casual Game Developers SIG forums:

"I've read all the posts here and am wondering how is it that Microsoft is proposing to maintain the current grade push for independent content when the base costs for ESRB ratings are $2,000-3,000. That's like the complete art budget for a lot of startup developers."

While the article does feature small developers in favor of Vista, the general gist of it is that Microsoft's new baby will likely make it harder for casual devs to get their games made and played. Michael Fahey

Vista Not So Beautiful, say Casual Devs [GameDaily BIZ]

Eve Online is a game I desperately want to love: an MMOG that doesn't involve playing a bearded midget dressed only in his Underoos. I gave the two week trial a shot: I loved the imagination behind the universe and my Shodan-like ship A.I. But after the initial novelty wore off, I realized that most of my time was playing Eve Online was actually spent in another room entirely, reading a book. I guess that's swell for multitaskers, but I like games that actually require me to be around to play them.

Still, a lot of Eve Online fans should be interested by this Firing Squad interview with senior producer Nathan Richardson. One of the subjects touched upon are details about the upcoming expansion for Eve, including a slew of graphics improvements, better management of corporations, more organization tools for combat and better situational awareness. A lot of spreadsheet stuff, in other words. There's also going to be a Direct X 10 Version of Eve, called Eve Vista... you know. Eventually. Florian Eckhardt

EVE Online Interview [Firing Squad]

During a DirectX 10-related event in London, UK, Richard Huddy, ATI Technologies' software developers relations chief, said that Microsoft's Vista will integrate DirectX 10 and DirectX 9 APIs for different types of hardware, but the current Windows XP will not get DirectX 10 support, as suggested some rumours earlier. For end users this means that to get the most advantages of the new-generation graphics processing units (GPUs), the new OS will be required.

Microsoft is really trying to push Vista down the craws of gamers. Fair enough — those who can afford top-of-the-line, Direct X 10 capable video cards will certainly have beefy enough systems to run Vista anyway. Let's hope Vista is enough of an improvement over XP to justify the move.FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Direct X 10 Vista Only [XBitLabs]