• Everyone knows Microsoft is the developer of the world's most widely used line of operating systems, Windows. Many people don't realize that the company also has a game development and publishing branch known as Microsoft Game Studios which has released dozens of games, including hits like "Dungeon Siege" and "Asheron's Call."
  
  

Dungeon Siege

• "Dungeon Siege" is a 3D action RPG developed by Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft. The top-down view and click-to-attack controls make the game very similar to the Diablo series, but it has some unique features of its own. Players build up an entire party of up to eight heros, each of which can be leveled up with their own skills and ordered to move in formations to create a balanced party. To minimize the inventory management problems of Diablo, players in "Dungeon Siege" can purchase multiple pack-mules for the party, which level up along with the rest of the party to become tougher. Finally, level loading is handled in such a way that players never have to stop play to encounter a "load screen."
  
  

Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator

• The Microsoft Flight Simulator series includes two lines of games: a line of flight simulators for those who wish to practice the experience of commercial and private aviation on their own in sophisticated detail and the more action oriented Combat Flight Simulator line that simulates fast paced air battles of World War Two. The latest is "Combat Flight Simulator 3" recreates the air battles over Europe in 1943 and allows players to play as German, British or American pilots in a campaign mode that follows through to the conclusion of the war in Europe and allows the player to try out some of prototype planes, including the first jet fighters.
  
  

Asheron's Call

• "Asheron's Call" is a 3D MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) in which thousands of players live and adventure in a fantasy world over five hundred square miles in size. It was created by Turbine Entertainment and published by Microsoft. Players can craft items and own their own in-game houses. Besides random dungeons and personal quests, the game world of Dereth features an allegiance system in which players select a patron to whom they swear allegiance. In the allegiance system, patrons receive experience bonuses while their vassals receive guidance and assistance from more powerful characters.