Games for Windows FAIL

[skyfire_freckles]

Here's my GFWL story. I bought Fallout 3 from a meat store, and then the first few pieces of DLC from GFWL. Not long after that, I had to move, and my internet service wasn't available at my new address, so I had to change my e-mail address as well. I try to login and change my e-mail address with them; they send me back stuff saying they sent my changes to my old e-mail address. Finally I got on the phone with them. They don't change the first e-mail address you give them. That's right, folks: there was no way for me to play DLC I had paid for. They had absolutely no contingency for someone who lost their e-mail address. I demanded my money back. They refused.

I will never deal with them again. Not until they refund me for the DLC they stole from me.

 

[SextusMaximus]

Haha! I have games for Windows cause of my copy of Halo 2 PC. I bought Empire TW on Steam... and randomly GFWL locked me out of my STEAM GAME because it was compatible with Empire and I hadn't entered a Key Code.

Luckily enough, the Steam interface allowed me to bypass that stupidity straight away! Thank you Valve

Damn shame it didn't allow you to bypass your own stupidity. Empire Total War doesn't use Games for Windows LIVE. At all. In fact, none of the Empire games do. So uh, gg?

Grow up. Dare call me stupid? I merely assumed it was compatible with GFWL because it LOCKED ME OUT OF THE GAME, REQUESTING A KEY. The point still remains.

Next time, tell me something without hurting your own respect here.

I'm telling you you are wrong. Empire: Total War does not use Games for Windows - LIVE, in any way. It isn't even installed with it. It is a Games for Windows game, but not LIVE enabled. In fact, it is a Steamworks title. Games for Windows - LIVE doesn't run with it at all. If anything was locking you out, it was your precious Valve.

Stop with this ridiculous arrogance. The GFWL logo flashed on my Steam, it blacked me out and said that GFWL hadn't received my Key. Steam allowed me to bypass that problem. Also, if it wasn't Empire Total War, it would've been another Steam game which utilises GFWL. I'm not the only one who has problems with the service, so don't claim I'm "bullshitting". Just because you haven't experienced the problem (which is probably a result in your lack of faith of Steam) doesn't mean I couldn't have done.

This is the first time I've been compelled on the Escapist to tell someone to go and fuck themselves, so stop using bullshit phrases like "your previous Valve" and put forward your facts in a clear and non biased way.

 

[L34dP1LL]

Well Shamus, I always read your articles because they contain a lot of constructive critique, and touch base on a lot of points that need to be tended to, but this time it only seems as a whining rant.

 

[jebussaves88]

Am I the only one who hasn't had trouble? I;ve bought five games off the thing, and never had a worry with it. I kinda hope it can give Steam a run for its money, but as a client, it's early days yet.

 

[Sixties Spidey]

You have to give Microsoft credit. They can fail hard if you give them the right resources to make something halfway decent.

 

[LoganN]

Haha! I have games for Windows cause of my copy of Halo 2 PC. I bought Empire TW on Steam... and randomly GFWL locked me out of my STEAM GAME because it was compatible with Empire and I hadn't entered a Key Code.

Luckily enough, the Steam interface allowed me to bypass that stupidity straight away! Thank you Valve

Damn shame it didn't allow you to bypass your own stupidity. Empire Total War doesn't use Games for Windows LIVE. At all. In fact, none of the Empire games do. So uh, gg?

Grow up. Dare call me stupid? I merely assumed it was compatible with GFWL because it LOCKED ME OUT OF THE GAME, REQUESTING A KEY. The point still remains.

Next time, tell me something without hurting your own respect here.

I'm telling you you are wrong. Empire: Total War does not use Games for Windows - LIVE, in any way. It isn't even installed with it. It is a Games for Windows game, but not LIVE enabled. In fact, it is a Steamworks title. Games for Windows - LIVE doesn't run with it at all. If anything was locking you out, it was your precious Valve.

Stop with this ridiculous arrogance. The GFWL logo flashed on my Steam, it blacked me out and said that GFWL hadn't received my Key. Steam allowed me to bypass that problem. Also, if it wasn't Empire Total War, it would've been another Steam game which utilises GFWL. I'm not the only one who has problems with the service, so don't claim I'm "bullshitting". Just because you haven't experienced the problem (which is probably a result in your lack of faith of Steam) doesn't mean I couldn't have done.

This is the first time I've been compelled on the Escapist to tell someone to go and fuck themselves, so stop using bullshit phrases like "your previous Valve" and put forward your facts in a clear and non biased way.

I've put facts forward. Empires isn't a GFWL game. It has no intigration at all. Now you say it could be another game, okay. Except GFWL only works in-game. The 'logo' doesn't 'flash' and kick you out of a game for not having a key. If you don't enter a key you just don't sign in. It doesn't prevent you from playing at all, you just can't save until you sign in OR make an offline profile.

So you, you are bullshitting.

Experienced Points: Games for Windows FAIL

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

Read Full Article

GFWL is fucking terrible, to this day I still can't get the local client to connect to the internet properly on my comp. No settings to tinker with, NOTHING. Just a message saying "You might not be connected to the internet". I AM connected to the internet you stupid sack of shit.

Anyway you hit the nail on the fucking head with this article.

Sounds like a port forwarding problem. I bet you've heard that before, right?

 

[SextusMaximus]

Haha! I have games for Windows cause of my copy of Halo 2 PC. I bought Empire TW on Steam... and randomly GFWL locked me out of my STEAM GAME because it was compatible with Empire and I hadn't entered a Key Code.

Luckily enough, the Steam interface allowed me to bypass that stupidity straight away! Thank you Valve

Damn shame it didn't allow you to bypass your own stupidity. Empire Total War doesn't use Games for Windows LIVE. At all. In fact, none of the Empire games do. So uh, gg?

Grow up. Dare call me stupid? I merely assumed it was compatible with GFWL because it LOCKED ME OUT OF THE GAME, REQUESTING A KEY. The point still remains.

Next time, tell me something without hurting your own respect here.

I'm telling you you are wrong. Empire: Total War does not use Games for Windows - LIVE, in any way. It isn't even installed with it. It is a Games for Windows game, but not LIVE enabled. In fact, it is a Steamworks title. Games for Windows - LIVE doesn't run with it at all. If anything was locking you out, it was your precious Valve.

Stop with this ridiculous arrogance. The GFWL logo flashed on my Steam, it blacked me out and said that GFWL hadn't received my Key. Steam allowed me to bypass that problem. Also, if it wasn't Empire Total War, it would've been another Steam game which utilises GFWL. I'm not the only one who has problems with the service, so don't claim I'm "bullshitting". Just because you haven't experienced the problem (which is probably a result in your lack of faith of Steam) doesn't mean I couldn't have done.

This is the first time I've been compelled on the Escapist to tell someone to go and fuck themselves, so stop using bullshit phrases like "your previous Valve" and put forward your facts in a clear and non biased way.

I've put facts forward. Empires isn't a GFWL game. It has no intigration at all. Now you say it could be another game, okay. Except GFWL only works in-game. The 'logo' doesn't 'flash' and kick you out of a game for not having a key. If you don't enter a key you just don't sign in. It doesn't prevent you from playing at all, you just can't save until you sign in OR make an offline profile.

So you, you are bullshitting.

I said to put your facts forward in an unbiased way. Read what I said, GFWL flashed a logo at the top of the screen in game (which read out my login name and said the number of friends I had online), the screen went dark (I could faintly see the title screen) and it didn't kick me out, just locked me from interacting with the game, requesting a key. I didn't sign in, it signed me in.

Fix your attitude, sir.

 

[syltman]

Games for windows live is so shitty.

This is why you use linux

 

[Baradiel]

I had absolutely no problem with buying/downloading AOE3. I can honestly say I've never had trouble with a GFWL game.

I have more trouble with Steam client games than I do with GFWL, but to be fair, I have more Steam games.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Wow, I didn't have quite as much trouble, but I still had to do the TOS with xbox, go back, readd, recheckout, and after all that and trying to install it twice I didn't have a key and had to wait a few days for it... I hate GFWL so much...

 

[Fuselage]

I'd rather there not be any DRM at all.

Steam's fine and dandy and all that, but in the end, it's still yet another program that you have to install and sign into just to play your games.

For example, got a new computer, and decided to install a few games on it to see how it ran. Oh, Left 4 Dead sounds good!

Oh wait, I gotta download steam first. That's fine, it's like 50 MBs, right? Download that, sign into my Steam account.

What?

I have to download the goddamn game off of Steam's servers? On a dial up internet connection? You're fucking joking, right? What's the disc for?

Steam's got plenty of good deals, and it's not very invasive at all, but we're getting farther and farther from "Pop and Play" gaming, something I'd really love to see make it's way to PC gaming. And the bigger hassle a game is to play, the less chance I'll have of reinstalling it in the future, especially when gaming is supposed to be an "Escape" in the first place.

You're actually downloading the years worth of updates for L4D, they don't update the disc as far as I can tell.

 

[sunpop]

Should I be shocked by this? Because I'm not..

 

[DeASplode]

I saw the AOE3 for a dime thread. I logged in and then GFWL tried to charge me 27 quid.

 

[toapat]

Dawn of War was once on my list of games to get through one way or another (for about 5 minutes), but i read the back, saw the words "Games for Windows Live" and realized that any redeeming qualities of a game that I was expecting would be a disappointment or worth a single playthrough didnt exist.

games for windows live is not just a piece of crap, its a giant light consuming cancer on the face of all things glorious about PC gaming. there is nothing good in it, from the fact it lets the inferior consolfags play with the PC gaming Overrace, to the terrible distribution, to the failure of its matchmaking. now my issues with steam are more personal issues related to the fact i have never successfully played a game on steam

 

[djpobletay]

I purchased the same deal and the only problem I had was trying to remember my password for my windows live id. Maybe I was just lucky but it downloaded in an hour (few gigabytes) and runs perfectly. Just saying all cases are not like yours.

 

[Lord Honk]

I am so happy I refused this "offer" when I saw that I could only pay .10$ by either credit card or by buying an 800MS points card from a retail store. Nah, really not worth the hassle, let alone the obvious aftermath that I seemingly evaded.

My sincerest sympathy to all who fell for what Microsoft propagates as "charity".

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

The worst part is that some companies get the bright idea that using Steam and GFWL at the same idea is "great DRM". (See: Dead Rising 2, Dawn of War 2.) So you need to be logged in with two accounts at the same time - one of which is perfectly functional, the other of which is... yyyeeeahhhh.

Even though. I know we all expect a certain degree of polish from programs like this, but it's hard to read this like anything other than "Shamus has computer issues!" I can count on one finger how many programs that haven't needed serious tinkering to get working optimally, from Word to Steam to iTunes to Chrome. Maybe because it has "Microsoft" and "Windows" in the title we expect different - and even then, in what universe does that makes any sense?

I haven't had any serious issues with GFWL yet, but the games I have that require it I got from steam. I was seriously thinking of getting Gears of War for pc, should I, or avoid it now that I've read this?

I myself haven't received major issues from GFWL titles that you buy in-store, like Fallout 3 and Halo 2, but if I remember correctly, without update, Gears of War had a pretty crippling bug that made sure you couldn't play it if your computer's date was set past 2008. This article, however, was about the GFLW store and backend.

 

[Motiv_]

I'd rather there not be any DRM at all.

Steam's fine and dandy and all that, but in the end, it's still yet another program that you have to install and sign into just to play your games.

For example, got a new computer, and decided to install a few games on it to see how it ran. Oh, Left 4 Dead sounds good!

Oh wait, I gotta download steam first. That's fine, it's like 50 MBs, right? Download that, sign into my Steam account.

What?

I have to download the goddamn game off of Steam's servers? On a dial up internet connection? You're fucking joking, right? What's the disc for?

Steam's got plenty of good deals, and it's not very invasive at all, but we're getting farther and farther from "Pop and Play" gaming, something I'd really love to see make it's way to PC gaming. And the bigger hassle a game is to play, the less chance I'll have of reinstalling it in the future, especially when gaming is supposed to be an "Escape" in the first place.

You're actually downloading the years worth of updates for L4D, they don't update the disc as far as I can tell.

6 gigabytes of updates sure is quite a lot, but I'm not very tech savvy so I'll buy it. But what if I don't want to download the updates? What if I just want to play the game? Is that illegal or something? I'd rather just be able to stick the disc in my drive, install it, and play it.

My 2 cents.