Unable to Comply, Building in Progress

I had the cheek to ask my company's Microsoft Partner Program Account Manager for some copies of Halo 2 for Windows Vista. Since Microsoft is providing us with VLK Vista Enterprise, might as well throw in some games, I don't really mind even if they are under "demonstration" licenses. All work and no play makes us Microsoft Partners a little..dull.

Anyways, that's just in jest, but I really did ask her, and no, they don't have games to give out in the Partner Program (too bad). Work related comments and views stated in this blog do not reflect that of my employers or my colleagues, or the company that I work in.

So if Microsoft doesn't want to give you games to play with in your office, what's the next best thing to do.. as in the legal thing to do, without resorting to piracy? Well, you can try out first person shooters (FPS) such as Quake III Arena (Q3A) and Unreal Tournament 2004 (UT2K4).

Their demo versions are pretty comprehensive with Q3A focusing on deathmatch and UT2K4 with its myriad of team play options. The Onslaught mode in UT2K4 deserves special mention, since it involves playing in teams, capturing power nodes across a pretty big map. Create a path of captured power nodes to the enemy base and destroy the power node within that base to win the match.

Not into FPS? Well, if you can get your boss to spend a little on one copy of Starcraft... you'll get people yelling: "You want a piece of me, boy?!" or "My life for Aiur!", in no time. You can perform spawn installations of Starcraft (from a single copy of the game) for the purpose of having some localised multiplayer action.


When all else fails, get a PS2, a projector and a bunch of games, now that's what I call living, I mean, working. All puns intended.

PC Gamers: Time to go Live!

Soon, PC gamers all around the world will be able to kick console gamer ass and take names, and school them in the proper way of playing First Person Shooters, that is with a MOUSE and KEYBOARD. Microsoft has announced that its Live online service will be available to PC gamers from May onwards with the launch of Halo 2 on May 8th. Yay!

This service, previously exclusive to the Xbox and Xbox 360 (and also a major selling point for these 2 consoles) will enable PC Gamers to play against their console counterparts and the best thing is, if you already have a Live account on your console, you need not sign up for another one for your PC.

Casual Gaming Delight

Casual gamers will be in for a treat when they use Windows Vista. This is because the operating system comes with, in my opinion, a nice collection of games that can and will keep casual gamers like me occupied for quite some time.

Some of these games are retooled classics such as Minesweeper and Solitaire but with way better graphics. Minesweeper in fact has some nice graphical effects coupled with better stats tracking which makes it a joy to play.

In addition to the classics, there are the new games such as Mahjong Titans and Chess Titans. Chess Titans is basically a chess game, rendered nicely in 3D. Mahjong Titans is best described as a game of match the tiles, but with really pretty graphics and engrossing gameplay, good enough for a game (or two, or three) when the boss is not around.