New PC Gaming person...need help.

I got a media center PC and want to play games with it along with all the other fun stuff like pics, downloadable content, etc.   First, how is the Xbox360 controller for playing PC games?.....I don%26#39;t want to spend $50 for nothing? I am trying to run some of my older games on Vista but seem to have some issues.  The compatibilty mode isn%26#39;t working for some of them.  Should I partition extra space and load 95 or can I use VMware. I am new to PC online gaming.....is there something similar to Xbox Live, etc? Thanks in advance. New PC Gaming person...need help.
Xbox Live=Xfire.New PC Gaming person...need help.
[QUOTE=''rogue_leader_5''] First, how is the Xbox360 controller for playing PC games?.....I don%26#39;t want to spend $50 for nothing?

[/QUOTE]pc-native genres like first person shooters, real time strategy and roleplaying games are always much better with a keyboard and mouse - k%26m can be awkward to adjust to, but it offers a much greater degree of control when you%26#39;re used to it - and, of course, pc games are designed to be played that waythe 360 pad is fine for most games, but if you%26#39;re going to buy one, you should really limit use to console-native genres - if you got a pc to play shooters, don%26#39;t bother buying a pad until you%26#39;ve at least spent a dozen hours trying out keyboard and mouseanother thing, while it may be pretty natural to play console games with the default control setup, the opposite is true of pc games - you can usually map any command to any key, so set the controls up in a way you%26#39;re comfortable with, set mouse sensitivity and stuff like that to things that feel right to you... 
[QUOTE=''rogue_leader_5'']I got a media center PC and want to play games with it along with all the other fun stuff like pics, downloadable content, etc.  First, how is the Xbox360 controller for playing PC games?.....I don%26#39;t want to spend $50 for nothing? I am trying to run some of my older games on Vista but seem to have some issues. The compatibilty mode isn%26#39;t working for some of them. Should I partition extra space and load 95 or can I use VMware. I am new to PC online gaming.....is there something similar to Xbox Live, etc? Thanks in advance. [/QUOTE]on amazon you can get a usb wired xbox 360 controller. it works on the pc. its only $20 
Xfire is like XLive, and it%26#39;s FREE!.....You dont really need the controller, just use the keyboard, it%26#39;s way better!
[QUOTE=''mikeneb430''][QUOTE=''rogue_leader_5'']I got a media center PC and want to play games with it along with all the other fun stuff like pics, downloadable content, etc.  First, how is the Xbox360 controller for playing PC games?.....I don%26#39;t want to spend $50 for nothing? I am trying to run some of my older games on Vista but seem to have some issues. The compatibilty mode isn%26#39;t working for some of them. Should I partition extra space and load 95 or can I use VMware. I am new to PC online gaming.....is there something similar to Xbox Live, etc? Thanks in advance. [/QUOTE]on amazon you can get a usb wired xbox 360 controller. it works on the pc. its only $20 [/QUOTE]after shiping and handaing ah about 40 so just go to gamestop and buy one for 30:) 
ok. Controllers are only good if you're playing third person games and whatnot. I dont know about the Vista compatibility issues and as for Xbox Live, not really, like the other guys were saying Xfire is similar but most PC games just have their own online community, like CSS has its own online stuff, AA also does ect.
The XBox360 controller is about the best gamepad available for the PC, but most PC games require a mouse and keyboard anyway. Vista won%26#39;t run many many games, they have a lot of compatibility issues. Then again, so does Win95, if you%26#39;re gonna partition off part of the drive for another OS, do it with either WinXP (only compatibility issue with really old games) or Win98. Emulators and VMware generally aren%26#39;t fast enough to run more recent games that are incompatible with Vista. As for XBox live type things, in the future, Microsoft will be rolling out the PC version of XBox Live, to be compatible with forthcoming games labelled as Game for Windows. Currently PC games don%26#39;t have a general overall compatibility system like XBoxLive though, each game has its own server browser and system.
[QUOTE=''LeeTheAgent'']The XBox360 controller is about the best gamepad available for the PC, but most PC games require a mouse and keyboard anyway. Vista won%26#39;t run many many games, they have a lot of compatibility issues. Then again, so does Win95, if you%26#39;re gonna partition off part of the drive for another OS, do it with either WinXP (only compatibility issue with really old games) or Win98. Emulators and VMware generally aren%26#39;t fast enough to run more recent games that are incompatible with Vista. As for XBox live type things, in the future, Microsoft will be rolling out the PC version of XBox Live, to be compatible with forthcoming games labelled as Game for Windows. Currently PC games don%26#39;t have a general overall compatibility system like XBoxLive though, each game has its own server browser and system.[/QUOTE] Thanks Guys for the advice.  Most of the 95 games have very lax requirements since they are old.