jcap and a few other standouts in the Halo PC and Halo 2 PC community have put their heads together and nailed down why Halo 2 for Windows Vista is a mess. I totally agree with these guys. Go read what they had to say: http://www.h2vista.net/forums/showthread.php?t=6854

Unfortunately, I can say that Shadowrun and now Gears of War (PC) are being handled the same way. Shadowrun, which is a mod of Halo 1 and was designed by Halo and Halo 2's lead designer, was a jewel of a game. It is my favorite first person shooter of all time. Unfortunately, the way Microsoft handled the game ruined the game for me and others. Halo 2 (PC) was the same way as you can read in the article above.

And guess what's happening now? Gears of War (PC) is in the same boat:

I having begun playing Gears of War (PC). It is riddled with problems just like Halo 2 (PC) and Shadowrun. I hope that the community will continue to express their disgust with the title support and Games for Windows - LIVE.

Several readers have sent news that the Games for Windows - Live beta has gone live (Games for Windows - Live is "XBOX Live" for your PC). Just to clear things up, you won't be playing UNO, HALO 2, or Shadowrun right now in the beta. You will be playing "Bug Bash" and get to check out the GFWLive UI.

If you signed up for the beta, check your email or connect.microsoft.com.

The Hired Gun team discusses Games for Windows - Live and its design over on their IGN blog. There is not much HALO 2 for Vista news. However, they do discuss dedicated servers a bit.

"This is how Halo 2 for Windows Vista provides a games browser that supports both traditional P2P based games as well as dedicated servers. The design of the Locator Service and dedicated servers in Games for Windows – LIVE was strongly influenced by the close design interaction with the Halo 2 for Windows Vista team.

They promise to soon blog about "Dedicated Servers and their playlists, stats exporting, and custom content with the Map Editor." Looking forward to that.