The pre-release test version of Service Pack 3 for Windows XP is benchmarking at 10% faster on office applications accord to this article. Again these are office app benchmarks, not gaming specific benchmarks.

Another interesting part of the article points out that Service Pack 1 for Vista (also in pre-release user testing state) provides no significant performance boost and that XP SP3 is "considerably" faster than Vista SP1.

Did people do this when DX9 came out? Did they argue that DX9 is useless and all we need is DX8? Deihmos

Nope. But then you didn't have to change OS's to upgrade to DX9. Additionally some of the big name early DX9 games were substantial steps forward in graphics (Far Cry, Doom 3, Half-Life 2).

DX10 simply increases performance(About 30% I believe) in comparison to DX9 when dealing with heavy shaders, lighting effects etc. Nothing else. The DX10 effects in crysis could be done in DX9, but it would take a larger toll on performance than DX10 would. onemic

That was definitely the marketing hype. But every benchmark I have seen so far (including Gamespot's Crysis benchmarks) has shown the opposite to be true. DX9 performs more efficiently on identical hardware than DX10. The article comparing Crysis in DX9 and DX10 also seems to show that there is no significant difference in appearance between DX9 and DX10. At the moment.

People are making a fair point that DX10 is still new technology and DX9 has had years to be optimized. Give Microsoft a few years to optimize and us a few years to upgrade hardware and we'll all be fine. I'm just sticking with DX9 as long as it's still breathing.

After looking at Gamespot's article comparing DX9 and DX10 in Crysis I'm more convinced that DX10 is not that big a deal and more inclined to hold off on upgrading to Vista until I am absolutely forced to.

It looks like there is almost nothing you can do in DX10 that you can't approximate in DX9 and DX9 still performs better (barely at low resolutions, significantly at high ones). I'm sure people will claim that they see significant differences between the two, but I see nothing that's gonna affect how much I enjoy a game.

It looks cool. It looks like fun. I'm gonna buy it.

It's not the second coming of Christ. The AI is not that great. It has cutscenes: LAME. And it seems to suffer from the Deus Ex dilema of making every problem solvable in six different ways = easy game. I could go on. Knitpicking is easy. But really only one question matters: is it fun? For me the answer is "yes".

I enjoyed this game a lot, but I have to attribute part of it to low expectations and then being pleasantly surprised. I liked the story, the acting, and the unique setting (like a Godfather movie) a lot. Its gameplay is a total ripoff of GTA, but hey GTA gameplay is great so why not do it again with a new game, new world, new characters. The difference between GTA and Mafia is Mafia does not have the side quests or excuses to explore, so it ends up playing very linearly. Also 2/3 of the game is spent in cars you could outrun (and outhandle) with your bicycle. Points for style and realism, but it can be frustrating.

Another difference between Mafia and GTA is that in Mafia the police actually enforce traffic laws (e.g. speeding and running red lights). Fun at first, tedious when you keep dying on the foot part of a mission and have to repeat the 30 MPH drive across the map to try again.

FUN SPOILER:

The police AI is a little spotty. They'll chase you for going through an intersection when the light is red, but they don't have a problem with you driving on the sidewalk (as long as you don't hit anyone). So if you're coming up to a red light you don't want stop for jump up on the sidewalk and drive around the intersection.

END OF SPOILER

I haven't looked at any of the mods so you guys are making me want to re-install this and give it another run.

the character in portal is Alex's mother imogreen26

Woah! I'm not sure I buy it, but very cool theory.

Read a blog post from a guy who uses a trackball instead of a mouse for gaming. He claims (once you get used to it) it's better because you can move faster than a mouse while still having fine control and because with a mouse you have to lift and recenter when you hit the edge of your mousing area. Sounded plausible. So two questions:

Anyone using a trackball for gaming and what are your impressions?

What brand/model recomendations do you have for trackballs?