Games for Windows FAIL

[kebab4you]

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!).

What's the problem with the match making system? (Has avoided DoW2's multiplayer for many other reasons.)

Also, remember everyone, GFWL started off as a pay service. Microsoft actually wanted you paying them 15 bucks a month for the privilege of being screwed this badly.

Ye I remember the Halo 2 PC version had that, why would I pay monthly to play an FPS(no matter how good or bad it is)? T.T"

13) One Microsoft rep suggests closing GFWL, and letting the game download "in the background." Wait, so when I close GFWL it's still running? It's not visible in the system tray, or on the taskbar, but it's there in the background eating CPU and bandwidth? Do I need to explain why this is a horrible setup and disrespectful of the end user?

Reminds me of Windows Media Player, except that horrid pile of shit not only runs in the background but CANNOT be ended. If you end the process it just restarts without your permission automatically.

Let's say you got a song playing in WMP and want to close it, using the [X] button. It will only minimize itself and you have to force close it threw the task manager which is bs...

 

[Tony2077]

gfwl the crappier version of xbox live

 

[Fatalistic]

Man, that really sucked.

Although, I really liked the comparison at the end. XD I laughed a lot.

 

[Bruden]

Funny, the only problem I encountered was the Product Key thing. Aside from that I've yet to have a problem with it, yes I needed an update but it literally took me straight to the page to get the update from with a big message going "you need this to make GFWL work!" So, yeah you had a terrible experience with it, but I have to wonder if it was your system that just plain hates you because aside from waiting 24 hours for a CD key I never once had an issue.

I do agree that a cd key for a digital download item is ridiculous, why it was needed I cant fathom but whatever it was probably just less work to leave it like that rather than fix it.

 

[murphy7801]

Microsoft is really bad at this stuff.

As much as I hate Microsoft there good some things really good but your right just not this.

 

[Choppaduel]

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

i lold. Steam ftw

 

[murphy7801]

Oh just buy steam for fuck sake let them handle there business as usual

 

[Analogfantasies]

I would have liked to have bought this game for 10 cents, but I made a very huge mistake. I tried buying it with a gift card with only a dollar left. MS still has that dollar tied up in authentication.

Ah well, I made a mistake, and I have to live with it. No biggie.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Or my experience DL gfwl click install, scroll through store and DL AOE3 30 min later i'm playing online. All this on a 4 year old laptop. Uninstall gfwl and i'm good to go.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Lol, I love it when you go on a tirade Shamus, because you still do it with intelligence and don't lose your cynicism.

Great article. I will stay the frak away from GFWL.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

When I put it in it told me to install a hotfix first. Maybe that fixed it.

 

[Exort]

I encounter problem for both stream and GFWL, from what I seen GFWL have more serious problem then stream.

 

[Gilgamesh00]

Great article, the first 10 steps or so also happened to me last weekend when I wanted to buy the same game. How naive of me to believe that, since they said they wanted to compete with Steam (lol), they would be able to sell to more than ~20 countries...

 

[Steppin Razor]

Meh, I've had issues with both services. I've had far less with GFWL than Steam, but that could be due to Fallout 3 being the only GFWL game I've ever really played for a long time, and I avoided the thing altogether with the Mod Manager. Steam on the other hand seems to go looking for the slowest server it can find to download updates from every second time I open the freaking program.

 

[stormcrow5]

I got it and it worked fine for me, couldent pass up 3 games for 10 cents

 

[Starke]

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

That's just it. They haven't yet.

 

[Starke]

Great article, the first 10 steps or so also happened to me last weekend when I wanted to buy the same game. How naive of me to believe that, since they said they wanted to compete with Steam (lol), they would be able to sell to more than ~20 countries...

And they wouldn't run out of their own software...

BTW: Awesome avatar.

 

[Milkman Dan]

Notice how they hardly ever fail to bill you, even if everything else crashes and burns.

Come to think of it, you can say that about a lot of services.

 

[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.

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

Damn.. Really? I actually bought it on Steam also a while back because I reformatted my hard drive and didn't feel like bothering with GFWL (it was on sale). As long as the install is done through Steam it's okay I guess but that kinda sucks.

 

[ekimekim]

My experience:
Click link. Go through TOS crap. Agree.
My parent's Live account is required to agree as well. I am over 18, but I wasn't when I made a quick throwaway xbox account (I don't own an xbox) 2 years ago for a school project.
I try to delete my account. I cannot.
I register a new email JUST to make a live account. I go through all the process, finally go to buy my game and...
THIS OFFER HAS EXPIRED.