Dark Souls PC port to use GFWL

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
4,419
0
0
Unfortunately, im not kidding.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/11/prepare-for-gfwl-in-dark-souls-prepare-to-die/

Needless to say something like this happening now feels very much like being shot in the elbow, because seriously i would rather give up my right arm than put up with GfWL in a game thats so online-reliant.

Heres a new petition that may or may not get rid of it.

http://www.change.org/petitions/namco-bandai-and-from-software-release-dark-souls-pc-edition-without-games-for-windows-live#

EDIT: As of midnight GMT, the petition has reached about 4000 signitures.
 

Hazy992

Why does this place still exist
Aug 1, 2010
5,265
0
0
Why don't people like GFWL? I'm not trying to be a troll or anything, I'm just not a PC gamer so I have no experience with it. Why do people hate it so much?

EDIT: Thanks for the explanations guys, I can see why Dark Souls fans would be pissed.
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
4,419
0
0
Hazy992 said:
Why don't people like GFWL? I'm not trying to be a troll or anything, I'm just not a PC gamer so I have no experience with it. Why do people hate it so much?
To summarise:

From the petition letter said:
GFWL is unpopular, difficult to use, inconvenient, has terrible online support (a key feature in Dark Souls), and is downright unpleasant.
Given my past run ins with GfWL, i can back those claims up and im sure the 2800 people who have signed the petition as of this writing will agree with them too.
 

Gorilla Gunk

New member
May 21, 2011
1,234
0
0
Not going to lie, I do find it massively funny (and kind of sad) that there's already another petition to get rid of GFWL, not to mention a ton of people who probably did sign the petition saying they won't buy the game anymore.

If you guys keep making petitions for every little thing Namco Bandai might start to rethink this whole thing.
 

ResonanceSD

Guild Warrior
Legacy
Dec 14, 2009
4,538
5
43
Country
Australia
I just yelled about it here. https://twitter.com/#!/AdamJensenSI/status/190198698918166530

GFWL is the worst thing in gaming since Custer's Revenge.
 

II2

New member
Mar 13, 2010
1,492
0
0
Hazy992 said:
Why don't people like GFWL? I'm not trying to be a troll or anything, I'm just not a PC gamer so I have no experience with it. Why do people hate it so much?
I had to deal with it for awhile for Fallout 3 and Dawn of War 2 (w/o expansions) launched for PC... I lost money to it on a failed transaction to purchase FO3 Op Anchorage and had to deal with a bunch of tech support people to reauthorize my DLC purchase. Then it failed to download it properly, or run it without crashing.

Also, it caused a divide in the FO3 saves between regular saves and Windows Live enabled saves to account for Achievements, etc - incompatible with mods. I think the FO3 GOTY ED ditched Windows Live, unofficially, wisely, on Bethesda's part.

Dawn of War 2 was a less nightmarish experience, but it was a bummer to have to connect to GFWL to play and it was tightly linked to the multiplayer... Ranked matches were done through GFWL matchmaking and it was SLOOOOOOOOOW. Relic also stopped using it in the standalone expansions for DOW 2.

Basically, GFWL was a poorly optimized afterthought of a software bridge and networking platform that was an artifact of Windows Vista era thinking. Broken, DRM-y, slow, intrusive and ultimately dropped by the developers who embraced it.

Hope that explains the meat of people's grief with it without being a rant.
 

Fishyash

Elite Member
Dec 27, 2010
1,154
0
41
Hazy992 said:
Why don't people like GFWL? I'm not trying to be a troll or anything, I'm just not a PC gamer so I have no experience with it. Why do people hate it so much?
That's why you don't understand.

GFWL is a massive pain in the ass just gives a terrible service for online play.

Example: Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition for the PC. It uses GFWL.

Let's say I want to play a match online. I will ignore the crappy netcode for now, since I am not sure that is the same issue.

It will take me at least 10 attempts to connect to someone to initiate a game. Every time I am able to connect to someone, it just drops an error on me, saying I am unable to connect. It's absolutely terrible that I have to go through this unnecessary effort just to play a game of street fighter. I have to do this EVERY TIME unless I fight the same people multiple times.

That french person with perfect ping? Oh no I can't join that game.

EDIT: Might as well add that I also purchased SSFIV:AE on STEAM. So there's STEAM, and then there's GFWL on top of it. It's like some doubly annoying issue.

This is a massive turn off for me. I regret purchasing Super Street Fighter IV on PC for this very reason.

There may be hope however, despite the online being a very nice feature, Dark Souls has a very adequate offline play regardless, right?

Please, From Software, please rethink this. Please don't do this because it is extremely irresponsible to the potential consumers petitioning for this. Please don't blow it From Software...
 

Limecake

New member
May 18, 2011
584
0
0
I've actually used the GFWL platform a couple times on a couple different games, I can honestly say I am not a big fan of it and I'm one of the most forgiving people you'll meet.

It's just bad, I got disconnected a ton of times on every game and some games (The Club) wouldn't even run unless I downloaded a fan-made patch.

and while you're at it microsoft, why not release new titles in Games on demand, or at least make them cheaper than the physical copy of the same game.
 

hazabaza1

Want Skyrim. Want. Do want.
Nov 26, 2008
9,612
0
0
Taken straight from youtube:
"Games for Windows live?!?! WTF are they thinking? It's almost like they trolling PC players or alternatively just don't want the game's pc version to actually sell. Maybe it's a plot to rationalise a complete abandonment of pc platform in near future..."

Looks like the stupid is already coming.
 

AlternatePFG

New member
Jan 22, 2010
2,858
0
0
GFWL is certainly annoying, but I'll still definitely be picking it up on PC. The new content looks rad, even if it might end up as DLC on consoles anyway. Think you guys are overreacting a bit honestly, certainly GFWL is a nuisance, but I don't think it should be a deal breaker.

It's a lot easier for FROM to incorporate the online components of Dark Souls into GFWL which is very similar in framework to XBL, rather than Steam which would require them to do a total overhaul of the system.
 

The Artificially Prolonged

Random Semi-Frequent Poster
Jul 15, 2008
2,755
0
0
HAHA this a joke right? I mean no one would listen to what pc players want and then tie it to something gamers don't like. I mean you'd have to be an idiot to even suggest that right?... Right?

I'm calling that if port doesn't sell they will blame it on priacy and not gfwl.
 

Fr]anc[is

New member
May 13, 2010
1,893
0
0

I'm probably going to buy it either way, but I understand if some people feel absolutely no guilt whatsoever over cracking that piece of useless garbage software out of their game.

Also http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8365-Games-for-Windows-FAIL
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
6,651
0
0
As much as it sucks and I hate it, it will not influence my decision to buy this game. One needs to weight pros and cons. And GFWL is definitely not a big enough con to justify skipping this game. Unless it ends up being a bad port.
 

SargentToughie

New member
Jun 14, 2008
2,580
0
0
AlternatePFG said:
It's a lot easier for FROM to incorporate the online components of Dark Souls into GFWL which is very similar in framework to XBL, rather than Steam which would require them to do a total overhaul of the system.
Now, I don't know anything about the framework systems of the online component, and this may make me sound like something of an idiot for asking, but doesn't Steam link up with PSN now? Wouldn't that mean that they could potentially use the PSN code and just make some modifications to make it work for steam?

*dives into a foxhole in fear*

Captcha: geez louise... that's a great sign.
 

AlternatePFG

New member
Jan 22, 2010
2,858
0
0
SargentToughie said:
Now, I don't know anything about the framework systems of the online component, and this may make me sound like something of an idiot for asking, but doesn't Steam link up with PSN now? Wouldn't that mean that they could potentially use the PSN code and just make some modifications to make it work for steam?

*dives into a foxhole in fear*

Captcha: geez louise... that's a great sign.
Valve kind of linked PSN with Steam for Portal 2, but they never really did anything else with it. It had a friends system and cross platform play, but I'm not really sure if they didn't just do that to show that they can. Not to mention, Portal 2's Steam compatibility was something setup by Valve and Sony, so I doubt FROM would have access to the code they used. Whether or not it actually could work like that I have no idea, but I still assume porting over the code from XBL would be much easier for them in the long run.

Realistic expectations people, FROM has ported like 1 other game to the PC before.
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
4,419
0
0
Adam Jensen said:
As much as it sucks and I hate it, it will not influence my decision to buy this game. One needs to weight pros and cons. And GFWL is definitely not a big enough con to justify skipping this game. Unless it ends up being a bad port.
Thats the thing, if it wasnt for GfWL i would have bought it regardless of the quality of the port. I bought DMC3 on PC, and despite having no mouse functionality at all i still managed to beat the majority of what the game had to offer.

But now i need to look to something else to justify the purchase, and the extra content does not meet that 'something else' that im looking for. Heres genuinely hoping the porting doesnt suck now.
 

SargentToughie

New member
Jun 14, 2008
2,580
0
0
gigastar said:
Thats the thing, if it wasnt for GfWL i would have bought it regardless of the quality of the port. I bought DMC3 on PC, and despite having no mouse functionality at all i still managed to beat the majority of what the game had to offer.

But now i need to look to something else to justify the purchase, and the extra content does not meet that 'something else' that im looking for. Heres genuinely hoping the porting doesnt suck now.
You could just wait for the price to go down.

"I don't believe this product is worth me paying full price for, because of GFWL, however, I will pay for it at a certain fraction of that."

Everybody wins that way, and Namco can't really point the finger and blame piracy when they see that they actually get units sold once it actually goes on sale. Maybe it will teach them not to go with a format that PC gamers absolutely hate.
 

DementedSheep

New member
Jan 8, 2010
2,654
0
0
God damn it! It?s not a complete deal breaker but it definitely makes the whole thing far less awesome and reduces how much I?m willing to pay for it. If its a bad port as well I might end up not buying it, which would be a shame. GFWL is a pain in the ass to deal with, it?s buggy as hell and useless for online play.

And I bet that if this ends up flopping they are going to blame it on piracy.
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
4,419
0
0
SargentToughie said:
gigastar said:
Thats the thing, if it wasnt for GfWL i would have bought it regardless of the quality of the port. I bought DMC3 on PC, and despite having no mouse functionality at all i still managed to beat the majority of what the game had to offer.

But now i need to look to something else to justify the purchase, and the extra content does not meet that 'something else' that im looking for. Heres genuinely hoping the porting doesnt suck now.
You could just wait for the price to go down.

"I don't believe this product is worth me paying full price for, because of GFWL, however, I will pay for it at a certain fraction of that."

Everybody wins that way, and Namco can't really point the finger and blame piracy when they see that they actually get units sold once it actually goes on sale. Maybe it will teach them not to go with a format that PC gamers absolutely hate.
Thats whats really eating me worse than those parasite things i picked up in the Demon Ruins.

I want a PC version because i signed that petition for the porting to be done, that and unless Namco hears the strife over the GfWL, this port will release pretty much at the hieght of summer, where my boredom levels peak so badly that Lord of the Rings: Conquest begins to look like a good way to kill time.

Ill have to plan some timed game buying in an attempt to get around this.