Games For Windows Website is Live!

[Wolf Devastator]

And the site looks and feels great!

Click Here [http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/]

[http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-US/]

With 'Live Enabled' games I think it's definitely worth a try, especially if you are already and Xbox Live member.

Pricing is a bit high for some comparatively, but the daily deals will give me another place to check when looking for cheap games.

The site is nice but client feels very unpolished, especially when you try to re-size the window. I'm assuming they will be updating this, because the logo at the top is blurry and the window is eye-blinding white. The ease of use is also lacking, I certainly would like to know the prices of the games before I click on the link.

Rather unclassy of them for the look of their icon... (even though it's an improvement)

I personally hope they do well, adding more games and having sales would certainly help, but what can you expect from something just out of the gate. I like Steam, but I feel 'dragged in' due to there being no real competition for me to choose otherwise. If they integrate it with Xbox Live more they should have a very good chance of succeeding.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Unfortunately it still has a very long way to go...

The marketplace needs tweaking and its ridiculous age restrictions removed. The catalogue needs to expand a lot more and the client needs some changes too...

 

[Infinatex]

Plus paying over 400% more on some titles just doesn't' work for me.

 

[Wolf Devastator]

its ridiculous age restrictions removed.

Agreed, but Steam has the same problem. One time I input my age wrong and it wouldn't let me access any mature content until I closed the application and re-opened. Shouldn't these things know in our account how old we are?

 

[Hamster at Dawn]

The games in Game Room aren't free, you have to pay an extortionate amount for each one. The "packs" are free but these only give you the game demos.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Agreed, but Steam has the same problem. One time I input my age wrong and it wouldn't let me access any mature content until I closed the application and re-opened. Shouldn't these things know in our account how old we are?

I do agree Steam suffers from some age restriction problems.

But I tried to download Stalker from the GFWL client and it is rated 16... so why do I need to be 18 to download it?

Makes sense...

 

[Wolf Devastator]

The games in Game Room aren't free, you have to pay an extortionate amount for each one. The "packs" are free but these only give you the game demos.

Fixed. I'll assume you are correct, as that feels like something a game like that would do

 

[ThorUK]

That looks terrible... It's cluttered, overpriced and as with 90% of DRMs plain annoying. If the old site/client is anything to go by it will also be nigh-on impossible to navigate.

 

[Wolf Devastator]

That looks terrible... It's cluttered, overpriced and as with 90% of DRMs plain annoying. If the old site/client is anything to go by it will also be nigh-on impossible to navigate.

I thought it was easy to navigate. Now the client, THAT is terrible.

I see no clutter on the site, but when more games are added there will have to be changes to the sorting or else you won't be able to find anything without search.

Where'd you get the 90% DRMs figure from? I'm only curious, I haven't tried downloading anything yet, but if this is true that's rather annoying.

 

[aaaaaDisregard]

So they are still asking 20 bucks for 2007's Gears Of War and 50 for Fallout 3 (not GOTY edition)? The idea of using yet another digital distribution client with inferior (and console-centric) in-game ui just to buy same games for higher price sounds ridiculous.
They've got no chance with this unless they include it as part of Windows 8 or something.

 

[rsvp42]

The Xbox Live integration is the main perk here (for me). I was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded Dawn of War II from Steam and found that it all integrated with Live. When I heard that support for Games for Windows Live was dwindling, I was actually disappointed because I kind of like being in touch with people on Xbox when I'm playing other things. Plus a little healthy competition could help get the retailers off of Steam's back. Microsoft just has to not screw it up, which is the hard part.

 

[ThorUK]

That looks terrible... It's cluttered, overpriced and as with 90% of DRMs plain annoying. If the old site/client is anything to go by it will also be nigh-on impossible to navigate.

I thought it was easy to navigate. Now the client, THAT is terrible.

I see no clutter on the site, but when more games are added there will have to be changes to the sorting or else you won't be able to find anything without search.

Where'd you get the 90% DRMs figure from? I'm only curious, I haven't tried downloading anything yet, but if this is true that's rather annoying.

Well you posted a pic of the page, and to me that looks messy and confused. I hate collage splash screens, at least ones that look like that. As per the DRMs, as with 85% of statistics it's made up, though from the earliest (CD keys, Steam/GFWL or even disc-checkers), they all end up having incompatabilities with hardware or software: disc checkers have been known to wreck CD drives or refuse to recognise a legitimate game disc, Steam used to uninstall its' font make it unusable, etc. (not so much CD keys, but then those can be stolen or in some cases simple geneated). Not saying that GFWL has given me any particular trouble (although I think the policy of selling one-time use CD keys with game is rather annoying), merely that it's yet another thing that could go wrong and prevent you from enjoying your game.

 

[Wolf Devastator]

Well you posted a pic of the page, and to me that looks messy and confused. I hate collage splash screens, at least ones that look like that. As per the DRMs, as with 85% of statistics it's made up, though from the earliest (CD keys, Steam/GFWL or even disc-checkers), they all end up having incompatabilities with hardware or software: disc checkers have been known to wreck CD drives or refuse to recognise a legitimate game disc, Steam used to uninstall its' font make it unusable, etc. (not so much CD keys, but then those can be stolen or in some cases simple geneated). Not saying that GFWL has given me any particular trouble (although I think the policy of selling one-time use CD keys with game is rather annoying), merely that it's yet another thing that could go wrong and prevent you from enjoying your game.

Yeah I hate those gigantic splash screens too.

I know very little of DRM issues, so I'll let you be correct on that. It's never been a problem for me, not yet at least.

 

[LoganN]

It works great for me, except for the marketplace lag. Games are updated on the client, but not updated right away on the web. You see Fallout 3 for $50, when it is $20 in the client.

Overall, there are some good prices here. Some games are more expencive than Steam, like Section 8, and others are a lot cheaper, like Assassin's Creed 2 and Splinter Cell Conviction. It was also tied into MSN Games, it uses it to buy the full versions of those games, so that is a nice touch of cross-promotion.

 

[jebussaves88]

Just bought Arkham Asylum for £5.99 (I'm guessing thats about $10), and I have bought a few games from them before, namely Blacklight when it was £1.99 and Prince of Persia: SoT and Osmos when they were about 50p. I don't like it as much as Steam, but its worth keeping an eye on for once a week for deals, as some of them kick the ass off Steam. Batman has never been that cheap, plus its the GOTY.

But yeah, it needs integrated social features, and a prettier games library where you can view all previous purchases and feel like, yes, you do own them. These two things are what Steam does very well, and what Microsoft really need to catch up on.

 

[Weaver]

SO do you need gold for this or does a free account work as well?
If they could fix GFWL's random disconnection problems, laggy ass interface, 1995 style email messaging system, match making, voice quality, friend list limits and lobby join failures it might actually be an alright system.

 

[Wolf Devastator]

It works great for me, except for the marketplace lag. Games are updated on the client, but not updated right away on the web. You see Fallout 3 for $50, when it is $20 in the client.

I noticed that, which sucks because I'd rather use the website than that ugly client

The daily deals are great, and the weekly deal 'Osmos' for $2.50 is a decent price, I like the game, the replayability is decent. Sad that I missed the GTA4 deal, but the daily deals will certainly have me checking back every day.