Sometimes it’s tough being an early adopter, just ask a Vista user. Last week, Microsoft’s new operating system made news for it’s incompatibility issues with Apple’s iTunes. Now comes word that hardcore gamers are experiencing slowness and even crashes when playing certain XP-friendly games such as Counterstrike, Half-Life 2 and Doom 3 on their Vista-upgraded PC’s. This despite Microsoft’s promise that Vista would be backwards-compatible with DirectX9, XP’s graphic engine. Problematic software drivers and a lack of video cards supporting Vista’s DirectX 10 engine are being blamed. Fortunately top graphics chip makers Nvidia, Intel and ATI are offering drivers to assuage the situation.