When Windows Vista came on the market, it brought with it free, built in AWESOME games that many non-Vista users actively wanted to get their hands on. Does Windows 7 provided this same level of fun gameplay?

I upgraded to Windows 7 from Vista fairly early in the cycle, because I was enthusiastic about what Windows 7 had to offer from a gaming environment. I was also looking forward to a new suite of free games to try out!

There are 27 games provided in the "Games" folder with Windows 7. These are often brand name games such as Scrabble, Yahtzee, Family Feud 3, Diner Dash, and so on. Yes they have classics such as Mah Jong and Solitaire, but the overall push seems to be towards the ones with commercial ties.

So as a test, I clicked on Zuma Deluxe. First an approval screen came up, and I clicked off on whatever legalese contract they displayed. Maybe they were taking my first born son? Then it went through a loading screen. Suddenly I got a scrip terror: "'_gameProductType' is undefined". That's not very encouraging. It looks like they want me to buy a full version? I clicked on "play" to see how far I could get.

I have to sit through a video ad - including audio!! - for Clinique while the game loads. This is getting worse and worse.

Still, once you get into the game, you can play through the full game. So your "price of playing" is that ad. I do have to say that the game hasn't been upgraded in terms of graphics! The graphics look very fuzzy and low quality for a Windows 7 machine. Surely they could have given the game a facelift for the new system? Also, the "currently sponsored by" layout makes it seem like soon you could NOT get access to a free game without paying the $7 to buy it. Also, the game seems to be online. So if you lost your internet connection for some reason, no more game.

I'm not very fond of this conversion to online-only, sit-through ads game version. Sure, I realize the previous games of Inkball and chess and so on weren't immersive MMORPG types of games, but they were still nice to have on the system. I am not keen on them removing those games completely.

What are your thoughts? Chime in in the forums to share your ideas!