The holidays are here, and that usually means spending time with family and friends. For some of you however, that might mean logging in heavy hours online mercilessly shredding your friends on some sort of virtual war-torn landscape. I thought I would take a moment to offer up a recommendation for 7 of the hottest new games that let you raid, frag and dominate on Windows 7.
DIRT 2 – Games for Windows – LIVE
Car racing has been around since the dawn of gaming. But when you add a mud-flinging off-road adventure to the mix and a host of ultra-cool rigs to choose from, you’ve got loads of fun for the racing addict in your house. DIRT 2 gets an extra power boost from DirectX 11 (Click here to learn about DirectX 11 and why it’s awesome).
Batman: Arkham Asylum – Games for Windows – LIVE
Straight from the pages of DC Comics to your PC screen, Batman: Arkham Asylum brings the intense graphics of Gotham City and Arkham Asylum together. In this action packed title, Batman faces down many of his toughest enemies, such as the Joker, Harley Quinn, Bane, Poison Ivy, and Killer Croc, who have taken over Arkham Asylum. This game is a must have for Batman fans like me.
Street Fighter IV – Games for Windows – LIVE
All of the classic Street Fighter characters, moves and graphics that had gamers spending huge amounts of quarters at the arcade are brought back in Street Fighter IV. This time it’s combined with spectacular 3-D environments and new moves that would’ve broken your wrist on the coin-ops.
Dark Void – Games for Windows
Fall into the Dark Void and you are in for the fight of your life against a seemingly insurmountable robot alien race. Use a cool personal jet pack to traverse a dangerous landscape with thousand foot cliffs and heavily armed killing machines around every corner. Load up and keep your finger on the trigger at all times.
Resident Evil 5 – Games for Windows – LIVE
Resident Evil is a classic single-shooter game that explores your worst fears of living through apocalyptic events. Resident Evil 5 takes you through lots of new challenges with fighting off brain-dead evil zombies. A new challenge for Resident Evil fans!
Zombie Killers unite! In Left 4 Dead 2, your faced with one of the best, most nerve-wracking “I’m surrounded-and-need-to-fight-my-way-out” challenge that I’ve seen in a long time. This is one that the gamer in your household will love playing with friends.
War-torn landscapes, nasty alien creatures, an arsenal of great weaponry and a puzzling story. Just what every single person shooter loves in a gaming experience!
Did you know that, all 25 of the top 25 selling game in NPD’s October 2009 report run on Windows – that’s something that no other platform can claim! As new games go through development, game shops are making Windows 7 a top priority because it features the innovative technologies in DirectX 11, which allow for faster and more realistic PC gaming experiences. Simply put – more awesome games can be developed using DirectX 11 and Windows 7.
Here’s what Chris Kingsley, CTO of game development studio Rebellion says about how they were able to deliver a great gaming experience using Windows 7 and DirectX 11:
At Rebellion we’re excited that Windows 7 and DirectX 11 allows us to create in our upcoming title ‘Aliens vs. Predator’ new, super immersive gaming experiences with state of the art HD Graphics for our customers.
For more on Rebellion’s upcoming Aliens vs. Predator from SEGA – click here.
Let me briefly get even geekier with specifics regarding DirectX 11. DirectX 11 brings key technologies to the table such as Tessellation, Multi-threading and DirectCompute that make it a hit with developers.
There are also Windows 7 PCs that are designed specifically for the power gamer. If you’re in the market for a new gaming rig, I’d recommend checking these PCs out:
- ASUS G51J
- Alienware M17x
- Alienware Area 51 (for you desktop fans out there)
When it comes to gaming on the PC – Windows 7 offers gamers a fantastic gaming experience. Game developers look to Windows 7 and DirectX for blow-your-hair-back powerful gaming. These 7 hot new games are ready and waiting for you to play on Windows 7 with more coming! Psst, you’ll notice none of these games are available on any other OS 😉