Mostly just a public service announcement. The Steam page for Supergiant Games' latest offering, the long-awaited Transistor, lists Windows 7 32-bit as a system requirement. I've thus far been able to play 24 minutes of the game just fine on Windows Vista 64 (9 GB RAM, GeForce Ti 560, just in case it matters, though it shouldn't.)
Now for the kvetching that isn't PSA. Yes, yes, I know: my OS is a relic, and it's Vista, 7's much-derided younger brother; one of the "odd numbered Star Treks" of Windows operating systems. But largely, Windows Vista 64 has done just fine by me, no more crash-prone or memory-hogging than any of half-dozen other OSs I've used in the past; it's also continued to play some XP-era games (like Fallout 3) that my wife hasn't been able to on her own Windows 7 desktop.
This is the second game I've played (the other being Double Dragon Neon) that claimed to require Windows 7 but actually played fine on Vista 64. And for now, Vista is still on the map, supported by Microsoft and used by an admittedly small but still significant number of Steam subscribers. Is it really too much to ask that developers at least test if their games will run on it? I have a Win 7 laptop as a hedge in case games don't run on my Vista desktop, but not everyone has that hedge, and Vista users shouldn't have to miss out on games or take a gamble that the listed requirements are wrong.
My two cents, anyway.
Now for the kvetching that isn't PSA. Yes, yes, I know: my OS is a relic, and it's Vista, 7's much-derided younger brother; one of the "odd numbered Star Treks" of Windows operating systems. But largely, Windows Vista 64 has done just fine by me, no more crash-prone or memory-hogging than any of half-dozen other OSs I've used in the past; it's also continued to play some XP-era games (like Fallout 3) that my wife hasn't been able to on her own Windows 7 desktop.
This is the second game I've played (the other being Double Dragon Neon) that claimed to require Windows 7 but actually played fine on Vista 64. And for now, Vista is still on the map, supported by Microsoft and used by an admittedly small but still significant number of Steam subscribers. Is it really too much to ask that developers at least test if their games will run on it? I have a Win 7 laptop as a hedge in case games don't run on my Vista desktop, but not everyone has that hedge, and Vista users shouldn't have to miss out on games or take a gamble that the listed requirements are wrong.
My two cents, anyway.