Games for Windows FAIL

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

When a program "working perfectly" involves that program freezing up, you know you seriously need to rethink your business model.

I said worked perfectly for this.

This being the downloading and playing of AOE3.

 

[Something Amyss]

Not really. I'm sure some pirates like that they DO circumvent this crap, but probably not many actually intended it for that purpose. It just sounded like something good to shout. Maybe some dunce at Microsoft will spring to action because we're all afraid of piracy now.

More likely they'll just find some way to sue you.

 

[kebab4you]

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...

Nope, force closing through task managed doesn't work. Go try it for yourself, it will disappear and then a couple of seconds later it will be climbing up the list back to the highest processing power eater out of every programme. It has crashed my computer many a time with how horrid it is.

Ah, I didn't mean it like that, you have to force close it to make the video,song w/e that you got in WMP at the moment go away. But if you´re lucky there is like a 1/100 chance that it will do what it was meant to do. T.T"

 

[Sixties Spidey]

For the love of Cthulhu, email this to them! They might actually listen to you.

Are you shitting me? This is Microsoft we're talking here. Their customer service is so horrible they make Dell look like Gods.

 

[Mr Companion]

My first run in with GFWL was pretty bad. I bought a game, played a few hours, the game kept bugging me to log in to GFWL so I did. GFWL wouldn't let me make an account for reasons it wouldnt make clear. I decide to leave the login for now, only to realise I now cant play the signl player game because I dont have a GFWL account. I ask my older tecno genius brother who specialises in programming to help. He assumes I am a computer idiot who breaks at the slightest issue. Only he cant help either.

It takes about a whole day to simply make an account, in order to play a single player game. I cant even remember what was wrong or how we solved the problem.

Edit: OH and further more it was a game I bought on steam. GAAAH

 

[Lordmarkus]

Is it just me or does this guy have extremely high amount of problems with computers? I've used both GFWL and Fallout: New Vegas and never encountered any major faults or crashes.

 

[Anaphyis]

Man, this sounds awful... I've never tried it, but it's caused me to stay away from a couple of games.

Just to confirm, will I need GFWL to play BioShock, if I get it off Steam? Because I want to try it out.

Bioshock 1, no. Bioshock 2, yes.

 

[FalloutJack]

Not really. I'm sure some pirates like that they DO circumvent this crap, but probably not many actually intended it for that purpose. It just sounded like something good to shout. Maybe some dunce at Microsoft will spring to action because we're all afraid of piracy now.

More likely they'll just find some way to sue you.

Sure, sure. And after their database keeps them logged out, holds them with red tape, crashes, AND blue-screens...they'll rage-quit THAT idea in a hurry.

 

[RoyalWelsh]

Wow, the more I hear about GFWL, the more I stay away from it.

 

[Void(null)]

Lets not forget GDWL only allows you to install any game a maximum of 15 times, and every-time you add the same CD key to the exact same GFWL account it counts as an install.

Reinstall Windows? Need to re-add all your CD Keys. Uninstall the game and reinstall it? Need to add it to GFWL yet again even though its the same PC and yep... that counts as another install with no way to revoke licenses.

 

[mogamer]

This sounds like user error to me. I took full advantage of the sale (I even bought Bishock for $1.99 the day before) and the only problem I had was that I had to wait for a cd key for AOE3. I did receive mine less than 24 hours later. Of course I do keep my pc completely updated. .net is very useful, so I always keep it up to date on my pc. I have used GFWL before and even in the early days, didn't have any problems. The biggest problem with GFWL is when you install a game that uses more than one client (i.e. GTA IV or DOW II). Now that is a real pain in the ass.

 

[xqxm]

Microsoft are master trolls. Not content with having the shittiest console on the market, keeping the progress back even worse than the Wii, they have to crap out the worst digital delivery service for the PC as well. I guess they can go hang out with Blizzard, they also have a thing for ruining your mind with shitty services.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Yeah, I once tried to buy a game or update of some sort of GFWL and couldn't make any headway. I only ever played DoWII single player offline as trying to play online took an age to do anything. Now I have no trace of GFWL on my machine and I'm much happier for it, I only ever buy hardcopy or digital from 3rd party download stores.

EDIT:....Holy fucking shit...I've just had a look on my control panel, and somehow it's got itself installed on my PC...HOW?!? I never asked for it, I've never installed it...where the fuck did it come from?. It's going right now. RAAAAAAGE.

 

[Wes1180]

I couldn't even get to the part for to download it because of the terms and conditions that I apparently didn't agree to but I did... Oh well, one less ten pence for them XD

 

[bawkbawkboo1]

I had similarly bad experience when I bought Bioshock 2 off of Steam when it came out. The game randomly crashed at least four times before the GFWL patch came out, and then it didn't crash at all, leaving me to think that it was GFWL that caused the whole game to crash those times. At least they patched that, but that's still not a good sign that it was crashing the whole game consistently.

Here's a tip for people who don't want their CPU overheated by going to 100% for the duration of game patch downloads through GFWL: If you are on Win7, just go to the control panel, then Hardware and Sound, then Power Options, then change whatever plan you are on, then Advanced. Within this window go to "Processor Power Management" and then maximum state. Reduce that to about 50%. OK it, and then undo it after you're done with GFWL.

 

[I_am_acting]

GFWL is the shittiest thing i have ever seen, the only game i got with this was fallout 3 and after 4 HOURS i was finally able to save my games properly


this service is just unacceptable when compared to how well Steam runs by comparison

 

[Mangue Surfer]

Not to mention that GFWL is the less worldwide friendly service out there.

 

[theultimateend]

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.

You have a legitimate point.

They've managed to create an OS that runs fairly well on basically all of the essentially infinitely many combinations of PC parts you can put into a system.

That alone is grounds enough not to trust them.

 

[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

 

[Sicram]

I'll be astonished when GFWL actually works somewhat.

I'll be even more astonished if they'd actually keep PC and shitbox seperated. Yes, sure, fine for those who have that darn thing but as a PC player I don't give half a crap.

Also, the last lines really cracked me up!