Games for Windows FAIL

[Shamus Young]

Games for Windows FAIL

Wherein Shamus tries to use Games for Windows and finds that he cannot.

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[Mista Miggins]

Microsoft is really bad at this stuff.

 

[fix-the-spade]

You're forgetting Shamus, Microsoft told Valve that Steam wouldn't be possible for another ten years in 2003. We still have three years to wait before GFWL might be as good as Steam was at launch...


...dear God in Heaven...

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Microsoft just can't handle being beaten it seems.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

GFWL worked perfectly for me for this. I had trouble with freezing when the new Client first updated but I quickly found out that I needed .net framework 4.

After that I downloaded it and am enjoying AOE3 a lot ^_^

Can't wait for more daily deals!

 

[Sgt Pepper]

I've only tried to use GFWL once and that was for Fallout 3, kinda figured it'd be nice to have the achievements.

Sadly, every attempt to access GFWL seemed to end in locking the computer up. I didn't even bother to look for a solution, I just gave up on it.

So glad Bethesda switched to Steam for New Vegas.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

1)Newer use anything other than Steam on PC.
2)NEVER believe Microsoft and try avoiding their products.
Most sane people learned that long ago.

 

[OrdinaryGuy]

I've bought one game off GFWL and will never again. I had all of the same problems as the ones listed in the article. It took me all evening to get Batman:AA working with GFWL when I could have bought it on Steam and started playing within a couple hours.

 

[Aptus]

GFWL is so far behind Steam, Impulse and GoG that it's a wonder they are not announcing they discovered fire.

 

[LoganN]

So, uh, you know, Steam ran out of Keys for Risen just one week before Microsoft did with Age of Empires. It happens.

As for the rest of it, sure sounds like user error to me. GFWL uses half the resources on my computer than Steam does. It is strange that yours uses more. Then again, I don't have any issues with it at all, so it could have something to do with your setup. Oh well. I will continue to support Games for Windows, while you can continue to support Steam.

 

[omicron1]

I think MS is actively trying to sabotage the PC market. If they can convince everyone (or the average consumer, at least) that PC gaming is horrible and hard, they can make people switch to Xbox and make more money off 'em! ...Or so I presume the suits must be thinking.

So, uh, you know, Steam ran out of Keys for Risen just one week before Microsoft did with Age of Empires. It happens.

It happens only because digital distribution services are forced to work with physical copies of the games, rather than truly integrating the digital side of things. They take keys from physical copies, or keys sent to them by the publisher, rather than integrating the key-generation into Steam - and that makes things fail. The games industry needs to mature here - to start using all the tools available to them - if they want to grow.

 

[laryri]

I've bought one game off GFWL and will never again. I had all of the same problems as the ones listed in the article. It took me all evening to get Batman:AA working with GFWL when I could have bought it on Steam and started playing within a couple hours.

I bought Batman:AA on Steam. It makes you install GFWL anyways.

 

[mjc0961]

So, uh, you know, Steam ran out of Keys for Risen just one week before Microsoft did with Age of Empires. It happens.

I think the point there (and if it's not, it's my question) is why do you need keys for a digital download in the first place? You already made the purchase on an account, that should be enough to prove that you actually paid for the game.

Also one of the advantages of digital distribution over physical media is that you don't run out of stock. There's not supposed to be any going to Steam or GWFL and seeing an empty rack on a shelf or display case with a price sticker with the name of the game you wanted on it like you might see at Walmart or Target. You are supposed to be able to go there and download a copy no matter how many other people got there before you. Running out of keys that I can't figure out why you need one in the first place completely negates that advantage.

EDIT:

It happens only because digital distribution services are forced to work with physical copies of the games, rather than truly integrating the digital side of things. They take keys from physical copies, or keys sent to them by the publisher, rather than integrating the key-generation into Steam - and that makes things fail. The games industry needs to mature here - to start using all the tools available to them - if they want to grow.

Oh. That is stupid and completely pointless then.

 

[tkioz]

Similar thing happened to me, I clicked the link from this site, thought what the hell, after the 10th time I tried to get it to add to the shopping cart without logging me out of the site I gave up.

I tried Firefox, Chrome, and IE, none worked, every time I added to cart it would log me out of the site, logging back in didn't seem to want to work either, starting fresh and logging in didn't work either.

That's just plain pathetic.

I've got exactly one GFWL game, Dawn of War II, which I purchased on Steam, that made me install GFWL anyway (which was annoying but meh), and I can safely say that's the only way I'll get another one, if they force it on it through another service.

 

[Starke]

I think MS is actively trying to sabotage the PC market. If they can convince everyone (or the average consumer, at least) that PC gaming is horrible and hard, they can make people switch to Xbox and make more money off 'em! ...Or so I presume the suits must be thinking.

So, uh, you know, Steam ran out of Keys for Risen just one week before Microsoft did with Age of Empires. It happens.

It happens only because digital distribution services are forced to work with physical copies of the games, rather than truly integrating the digital side of things. They take keys from physical copies, or keys sent to them by the publisher, rather than integrating the key-generation into Steam - and that makes things fail. The games industry needs to mature here - to start using all the tools available to them - if they want to grow.

I believe it's keys sent by the publisher. So, both services can run out of keys for third party software. But, here's the absolutely hilarious thing. AoE3 is a Microsoft game. Meaning they ran out of keys for a FIRST party game. How is that even possible?

EDIT: never mind, it's possibly through the magic of Microsoft, I didn't think.

 

[Starke]

You're forgetting Shamus, Microsoft told Valve that Steam wouldn't be possible for another ten years in 2003. We still have three years to wait before GFWL might be as good as Steam was at launch...


...dear God in Heaven...

Wow, I did not know about that.

 

[somonels]

Microsoft fails since 2003, when they shoved out freelancer and left the franchise to die.
I was HYPED for the DoW2 until I discovered that thanks to MC Fail Corporation I was unable to play the game online due to some firewall issues. I could have subscribed to a separate internet connection but I would have had to pay 5 times as much for inferior speeds. I call that a subscription fee and flipped the whole thing off.

 

[Agiel7]

You haven't even scratched the surface of how bad GFWL is, Shamus. For us players who regularly play the multiplayer for Dawn of War 2, it's an abomination of the highest order.

The world's worst and most exploitable matchmaking system, bugs and imbalances that go unfixed for as long as months because of Microsoft certification, and an inexcusably clunky interface mars an RTS experience that I feel is superior to Starcraft 2. Thank god Relic has moved on to Steamworks for the next expand-alone (and an Eldar campaign, hoo-ray!).

 

[teh_Canape]

honestly, so far I never had any GFWL problems at all

well, must be because I buy the retail hard copies, since I don't have a credit card (or a card for any of the other methods of payment, valve should really look into that, or at least make the paysafecard system available in Argentina) and I can't buy them from Steam

....

but then again, I paid $250 for Modern Warfare 2 (guess what, it was in the 20% off sale) through Steam, so apparently I'm a retard