Just Cause 2 won't run on XP
Eidos has revealed that Just Cause 2 will be a DirectX 10 only game that won't run on Windows XP.
The minimum requirements reveal that the game will need at least a Geforce 8800 or Radeon HD 2600 Pro to run, or an equivalent DX10 card with 256MB of video memory.
DRM-watchers will also want to know that you'll need an active internet connection to register the game after installation.
While the lack of support for Windows XP is unlikely to worry most bit-tech.net readers (what with the tech-savvy ways and spiffy hardware), it's still going to be a big problem for the majority of PC gamers. A quick glance at the latest Steam hardware survey reveals that Windows XP is still the OS of choice for the majority - 42.15 percent of Steam users, to be exact.
Check out the minimum and recommended system requirements below, then let us know your thoughts in the forums.
Minimum:
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Windows XP is unsupported)
- Processor: Dual-core CPU with SSE3 (Athlon 64 X2 4200 / Pentium D 3GHz)
- Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce 8800 Series / ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro with 256MB memory or equivalent DX10 card with 256MB memory
- Memory: 2GB RAM
- DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 10
- Hard Drive: 10GB of free drive space
- Optical Drive: DVD-ROM drive
- Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible sound card
- Internet Connection: Internet connection required for product activation
- Input: Keyboard and mouse (Microsoft Xbox 360 controller optional)
Recommended:
- Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows 7 (Windows XP is unsupported)
- Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz or AMD Phenom X3 2.4GHz
- Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTS 250 Series with 512MB / ATI Radeon HD 5750 Series with 512MB or equivalent DX10 card with 512MB memory
- Memory: 3GB
- DirectX: Microsoft DirectX 10.1 with Vista SP1
- Hard Drive: 10GB of free drive space
- Optical Drive: DVD-ROM drive
- Sound Card: 100% DirectX 10 compatible Dolby Digital 5.1 sound card
- Internet Connection: Internet connection required for product activation
- Input: Keyboard and mouse (Xbox 360 controller optional)
Discuss in the forums.
Previous Article
57 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyMore DX10/11-only games like this should create a significant change in the statistics and shift more PC gamers away from an ancient operating system and into the year 2010. Either upgrade to Windows 7 or upgrade (downgrade) to a current gen console.
Agree with you here. Win7 is much much better but considering most people will still only use their PC for Foozbook, MSN and Office there's not really a need to change. Win7 doesn't feature any killer apps. I think I remember a friend saying they're running out of ideas for a new OS and that they're only updating the OS for SKU purposes! (That's what he said, don't flame me!)
Steam surverys fail anyway, they dont take into account alot of other info we need.
Shouldn't be, since I haven't read their story. In fact, I try to avoid Kotaku as much as possible. I hate the site with a passion, tbh and will only be led their through a link from another site - which didn't happen here.
I still have a system sitting around with Win95.
Before my time here, but a quick google says no.
I loved it too, got my 1000 achievement points on my Failbox 360 before it died. Very much looking forward to the sequel and very glad they're not supporting XP.
i doubt this wil hapen with direct x11 cards becoming available at under £100 becasue of this i think directx10 days are numberd
Really? My gaming hardware is DX10 but runs Windows XP and I've never had a reason to pay to upgrade. I'm as tech savy as you get and have no real plans on paying money for zero extra features.
I've got nothing against Windows 7, its very nice on my laptop but there is nothing except a little eye candy that it could add to my PC. I'd say you're a brave developer to cut off 40% of your audience unless thats going to reduce your costs by 40%.
if you want this game there is a reason to upgrade, simples
Still got XP but in dualboot on another drive, so I can play both new and old games without a hitch.
So I think Eidos are looking at the PC userbase of the last three years which may have shipped with Vista from the off - and are targeting them rather than people with good specs but without Vista minimum. They're in business and have to perform for their new owners, so it's their decision. I didn't do my upgrade just for AvP or this game but because my graphics card was underpowered. Doing the upgrade will let me keep gaming and the next time it falls behind I'll just build another one or go to consoles.
Speak for yourself. I'm still running XP here and I don't have the money to waste on Windows 7 at the moment.
its all on there forums no AA in direct x 9 you must enable 10 or better for AA to work.
so 2 new titles both really require vista or above
win7 could be had for as little as £50 back on release thats when i got it.
Technically the 360 has its own version of the DX API which is not directly comparable with the pc version. However, I remember reading that it is somewhere between DX9 and DX10 (sort of a DX9.5), this would make sense given the hardware is somewhere between DX9 and 10.
I must admit I am not too bothered about JC2. I played the first one and thought it was decidedly average at best. My main pc is running Vista X64 so if I did wich to play it at least I can.
How many DX10 only games releases will it take before you upgrade?
Or are you going to wait until 2014 and the product end of life?
(*edit, this sounds more snarky than I intended, I meant it as a genuine question)
Until Just Cause 2 comes out who can say if it's the killer game that makes people desperate to move OS. I've got Win 7 and like it a lot. I'm dual booting less and less into XP. If games makers really wanted to make a seismic shift they would move to Direct X 11 only games.
In comparison, Vista/7 added a new network stack (and yes, wasn't everyone over the moon over the "massive" improvements it made to Internet access and LAN file copy speeds) and moved the graphics subsystem out of the kernel (resulting in slower performance - speed was why it was moved into the kernel in WinNT 3.51). Oh, and lots of eye candy (which Win2K/XP can also do with third party software) and a few UI tweaks (either present-but-not-in-your-face with Win2K/XP or doable with extra software, free in many cases).
The downsides, lest anyone forget, include more obnoxious "anti-piracy" checks, slower performance (in part due to greater use of redirection/emulation, in part due to design flaws) and (generally) an increasing price (Windows 7 Pro £219, Vista Business £289, WinXP Pro £260, Win2000 Pro £260,WinME £139, Win98 £162 - listing the "professional" prices since 64-bit Win7 Home Premium has an artificially low memory limit, 16GB versus 192GB).
As such the most logical migration choice would be to Linux using Wine for gaming - unlike Microsoft, the Wine project have no commercial interest in trying to limit access to DX10+.
The incredible improvements in the processing power of modern graphics cards, other PC hardware and drivers now, compared to when XP was first released, totally cancel out any valid reason to remain on XP even if you manage to get 2 extra frames per second in a particular game in XP.
However saying that more powerful hardware justifies more sluggish software makes as much sense as hiring a builder to extend your house and then an arsonist to burn it down.
The modern 'sluggish' software is 'sluggish' for a reason. It contains more features (including kernel security) that benefit the user.
It's like saying you won't buy a modern cellphone because it's operating system is 20 times bulkier, it requires more RAM, and the phone boots 20 times slower than a cellphone from 15 years ago. Even if you are going to benefit from all the modern applications and features (including the eye candy) that were not available in the past.
You wouldn't run a modern cellphone OS on 10+ year old hardware.
The objection about requiring more RAM and other hardware for newer PC operating systems is also backwards.
how about a little bit newer test that has 7 Vista and XP basically even. http://www.hardwareheaven.com/articles.php?articleid=137&pageid=10
The rest of us - i.e., the buying majority of the market, to whom OS makers cater - continue to appreciate the increased ease of use afforded by updated GUIs and the increased stability of 7 over Vista in particular. There are a whole host of other reasons I prefer 7 over XP and I'd add that increased hardware capability entirely justifies more taxing software - the entire reason I keep my computer upgraded is so that it can handle the increased demands of software. It's the same with my phone - my first Nokia could barely handle Snake II, but my iPhone runs an OS (technically a POS) that can run many hundreds of thousands of custom-designed programs that can do a million things the Nokia could not. In much the same way, for the average user - maybe not for the author of W98 For Dummies - Windows 7 can do many things W98 cannot. For sure, if software was exhaustively re-coded and optimized, maybe I wouldn't need hardware specification increases. But that would increase the cost of the software in comparison to the reduced cost of hardware. I'm just about happy with the balance as it is.
It's no surprise that game makers go where the money is, and if you won't buy a new OS, what reason do they have to believe you'll buy their games?
I will but am in no hurry. Just for the record the 25 million or so steam accts the biggest percentage still use xp so nobody else is in a hurry to jump to win7 either.
Except of course for the fact that Windows 7 is the only OS in existance that properly supports both SSDs and gaming.
About windows 7 using some more ressources than windows xp (or hell, since some people mentioned it windows 98), who cares? ever looked at how much faster hw got in the last 10 years?
To add to the... oh yes... no things you previously couldn't do on XP that you can do on 7.
It's inevitable more and more games wont be compatible with XP as we move forward, although I think it will be in slow progressions, as XP has such a high user base still.
True enough, but is one game I am interested in worth AU$470 (since realistically that's what the OS would cost me)?
No. Not even close.
Don't get me wrong, I know the industry has to move forward, a lot of the advances we have seen wouldn't have been possible if everything still had to run under Windows 95, but for me as a user, I have not seen enough reason to splash out such a large sum of money when I am happy with the current OS. Once my hardware is outdated and I need to upgrade, sure I will defnately move on but for the time being XP suits my needs, and if that means I don't play Just Cause 2 until 1-2 years down the track, it won't be that much of a loss to me.
What i dont understand is why some people upgrade their entire system spending a lot of money on topnotch hardware and still refuse to change OS, it dosent cost that much extra anyway when youre in the spending corner.
OS will surely have a much shorther lifetime than xp had thats a fact, and i dont care if i have to spend money on a new OS every 3-5 years, its just development. I spend so much money on upgrading anyway that the extra cost of a new OS dosent matter in the big picture. Can it do the things i want/need for the next 3-5 years, in my mind its money well spend and time to move on.
min fps is what matters in a game like crysis and if your above 30 all the time your good
if you had 33 on xp and 27 on win 7 i might grant you that one.
Problem is if you have such low fps its time for an upgrade anyway.
most peoples performance issues come down to 1 problem and that is hard drive. SSD vs normal hard disk even the fastest the change is massive. ( xp doesnt support SSD trim so you cant even go SSD)
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/xbox-360/2006/10/09/Just_Cause_Review/1
TRIM may not be built into XP as it is in recent releases of Linux or Windows but it can be implemented via third party utilities, until it is incorporated into the ATA specification. Once that happens, it should be a case of downloading updated ATA drivers for your OS of choice.