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Unfortunately, Batman: Arkham City IS using Games for Windows Live (Eurogamer)
- Thread starter Mama Robotnik
- Start date
markot said:
Microsoft originally created GFWL in an unfortunate and failed attempt at monetizing online gaming on PC ala Xbox Live, complete with tiered Silver/Gold services. They suffered a huge backlash for doing so, accordingly, and eventually dropped the pricing model altogether. Unfortunately GFWL is still shitty in a myriad of other places. Shame it's tied to such a promising title, if this story ends up true.
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
The worst thing about GFWL is that one day the network just stopped working for me. It now throws an error every time I try to sign in - which means no cheevos, no DLC, no patches, and you need to save with an offline profile.
So I will not be buying this until it's on sale for something rock-bottom like $5, or if AMD gives it away like Dirt 3. Disgraceful service.
So I will not be buying this until it's on sale for something rock-bottom like $5, or if AMD gives it away like Dirt 3. Disgraceful service.
infinityBCRT
Member
Are you sure its GFWL and not a bug in Dirt 3? All GFWL is a set of APIs that are pretty similar to the ones used by Xbox. The actual data that goes into the saves is handled by the game itself.SalsaShark said:
darkwing said:
Sort of. You can make either an online or offline profile for your savegames. If you made an online profile for your save and then have issues connecting to the GFWL login server you will be booted from your game. I know this because at one point I had a bug in Dawn of War 2 that rendered the game unplayable because of exactly that issue. The experience really soured me on both GFWL and "always online" drm in general.
I've had some annoying problems with GFWL, but it's always been on a game by game basis. No problems with RE5, Age of Empires Online, Lost Planet 2 or Dead Rising 2. There's some stupid things about GFWL (like the patching system, and I imagine the certification process must be a pain for developers), but it's not as if other competitors are perfect. I still prefer GFWL to steam considering steam requires a bloated client running to start any game (and the fact you can't choose where to install any game).
infinityBCRT
Member
You could also say the same about every other PC game in general. Jeff Gerstmann was playing Quake 4 on Steam when they released it and somehow his save games stopped working or were deleted. There were so many instances of Test Drive Unlimited 1's saves getting corrupt. I have had so many instances of PC games in general getting corrupted save games.SalsaShark said:
Glass Rebel
Member
If this is true, I really don't get on what basis pubs decide if a game uses Steamworks or not. If I'm not mistaken, every single WB game in recent time has been Steamworks, why make an exception?
infinityBCRT said:
dude, just stop it.
Read this thread, read every thread about it on GAF, google it, or idk, open your eyes.
GFWL is a FUCKING SHITTY ASS TERRIBLE SERVICE.
If that's being subjective then its being subjective for fucking 90 percent of PC users.
Of course there are issues with every game about everything, but the importance here is the rate of them.
Its not the same fucking thing that Jeff Gerstmann lost his Quake 4 saves to hundreds of people losing GFWL progress on many different games.
I play a lot of PCs games and most are trouble free... except GFWL games. The only one I never had problems with was Dawn of War II. Dead Rising II wouldn't start at all, Arkham was a bitch to install and I lost my save, and Bioshock II kept refusing to log into my profile. Even when I finally got Bio 2 working, it would have occasional freak outs and swear I had never played the game before. I had to repeatedly try to log into my profile before it would finally take.
Cpt.Underpants
Member
GMG's response:
"Regarding Batman and GFWL: Eurogamer have an email saying it is, we have an email saying it isn't. One of us is wrong! We're going to wait until the official statement comes out and go from there! /Rob"
There is still hope
Probably Warner Brother's is confused about GFW and GFWL
"Regarding Batman and GFWL: Eurogamer have an email saying it is, we have an email saying it isn't. One of us is wrong! We're going to wait until the official statement comes out and go from there! /Rob"
There is still hope
Probably Warner Brother's is confused about GFW and GFWL
Cpt.Underpants said:GMG's response:
"Regarding Batman and GFWL: Eurogamer have an email saying it is, we have an email saying it isn't. One of us is wrong! We're going to wait until the official statement comes out and go from there! /Rob"
There is still hope
Probably Warner Brother's is confused about GFW and GFWL
called it
now we just need Warner to address it.. wich i really dont think it'll happen in a while
Guerrillas in the Mist
Member
Cpt.Underpants said:GMG's response:
"Regarding Batman and GFWL: Eurogamer have an email saying it is, we have an email saying it isn't. One of us is wrong! We're going to wait until the official statement comes out and go from there! /Rob"
There is still hope
Probably Warner Brother's is confused about GFW and GFWL
Yeah, sounds like a PR person got GFW and GFWL mixed up.
Right, but Eurogamer was fully aware not only of GMG's previous statement but also that it specifically said it was GFW and not GFWL. So they would have probably verified that it wasn't yet another possible mix-up. It wouldn't be very diligent of them otherwise. 'Course, anything's possible, and Eurogamer has been known to put up silliness.
Cpt.Underpants
Member
Glass Rebel
Member
Cpt.Underpants said:
Yeah, fuck em. I don't get why LotR: War in the North is Steamworks but this is not.
SpongeBob NoPants
Member
markot said:
Who? What? How? What the hell is all that about?
Glass Rebel
Member
Eusis said:
I don't care about Steam Achievements at all as long as it doesn't have this shit attached to it.
It didn't work with recent versions of GFWL. I only got it to work with the version that was delivered with the game, every other version just gave me an error message when trying to start the game.Reuenthal said:
That alone wouldn't be that much of a problem. The problem is that GWFL updates automatically. Every time I restarted my PC, I had to deinstall it and reinstall the old version again -- and when I was lucky the game run afterwards for a few hours.
So, theoretically it worked. Practically it was too much of a hassle for me and so I never finished the game.
FuKuy
Member
Cpt.Underpants said:
Oh Lord! WB should publish some OFFICIAL statement on the Arkham City website ASAP in order to clarify once for all this missinformation.
I'm very interested, because if the game is STEAMworks I would preorder right now. If the game is GFWL I would wait for a STEAM sale...
I remember losing Gears of War 1 saves when all I did was update it (for like the second or third time) and redeeming my Gamertag (again, for like the second or third time), it's a horrible service that's a pain to run.
I just don't understand why companies go for GFWL, yes I can see Microsoft paying them to but wouldn't you actually save more money by releasing it on Steam and get more customers?
I just don't understand why companies go for GFWL, yes I can see Microsoft paying them to but wouldn't you actually save more money by releasing it on Steam and get more customers?
Oh well...as I've said before on multiple occasions I don't have any problems with this decision. Been playing gfwl titles since they came out and I've yet to experience it screwing me over in any way.
Even with your hundreds of people complaining about it Salsa I don't see why I'd suddenly start hating on it. Maybe when it kicks me in the balls, steals my wallet and breaks my computer I'll jump on the hatewagon, but for now I'm totally fine with it.
Even with your hundreds of people complaining about it Salsa I don't see why I'd suddenly start hating on it. Maybe when it kicks me in the balls, steals my wallet and breaks my computer I'll jump on the hatewagon, but for now I'm totally fine with it.
Discotheque
Banned
I like Games for Windows Live due to the easy access from a xbox 360 controller hooked up to my pc and the improved graphics capabilities this service offers.
eXistor
Member
All I see is a technically superior game with achievements I can link to my XBL account and that's a good thing. Never had any problems with it tbh. I'm sure its bad reputation is deserved though and I hope I won't run into any problems this time. But for now, this suits me just fine.
90? It cant be that low >_< 97.5% at least.SalsaShark said:
GFWL is anti fun, it sucks fun out of games everytime the stupid bar pops up or it appears.
Its just bad software. That is the main problem, its not anywhere near what the others offer.
Microsoft is so.... schizophrenic about pc gaming, and gfwl comes from their fevered unmedicated dreams. They go from supporting to dropping to 'back with a bang!' to meh to rolling it back into xbox.com and crap. Whats next? Who knows? The only constant is that gfwl has always been a mess, its never been a good idea, and it stems from microsofts inability or inattention of the pc market and what people expect from their own damn software.
Im not saying microsoft should abandon pc gaming again. But they need to realise that gfwl is broken, a mess, and a huge hurdle that most gamers face in not only supporting their storefront, but also in buying games that use it >_>
I am sure I am not the only one that will avoid batman over this. I recently formatted and installed a ssd, I wanted to play the original batman, installed it on steam, tried to launch it, got into all the gfwl crap, needing to restart, reinstall client... etc... that I just gave up.
Time is something microsoft is fighting for with other diversions, and on the PC there are so many other options. I dont like steam because its valve, I like steam because it works, its functional, and steam and valve dont have an on again off again relationship with pc gaming. Steam was valves commitment to Pc gaming. GFWL was microsofts disdain for it, and the fact that it has barely improved since launch, while steam has added new features, and promises new ones and better ways of dealing with consumers... well, fuck em. Sorry to say it, but games are fun for me, and if something diminishes my fun, gfwl, ubisoft drm... etc... I look for my fun elsewhere, because there is plenty of it to be had on my pc. No matter how hard microsoft has tried to strangle it, and no matter how much contempt ubisoft displays for us. I am a consumer, my power is my money, and I choose to use it wisely >_<;
No one can say the proportion of PC gamers GFWL affects negatively, there isn't a fair unbiased study looking at that, all we have are anecdotes posted on forums. All you can say about those is that the vast majority of people only post about any service when things go wrong.
I personally have had no problems with it, likely due to the fact that I had a Xbox Live account already before GFWL was introduced.
I personally have had no problems with it, likely due to the fact that I had a Xbox Live account already before GFWL was introduced.
FuKuy
Member
GJS said:
In fact, switching from GFWL (Dawn of War II) to STEAM (DoWII - Retribution) boosted sales:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-21-steam-switch-boosted-dawn-of-war-sales
reptilescorpio
Member
What is the confusion? It certainly is impressive cosplay.Pikma said:
Holly Gafconfusion, Gafman.
Also hopefully GMG gets on the horn about this one. Especially since I pre-ordered last week.
TyrantGuardian
Member
I'm actually pretty sure that un/re-installing GFWL completely fucked up my previous Win7 installation. The OS suddenly triggered it's atrocious DRM on me, telling me that my legit copy of Win7 was in fact a pirated version! The only change I had made to my OS around this time was wrestling with GFWL.
It took a full OS re-install to fix. So yeah, there's that...
It took a full OS re-install to fix. So yeah, there's that...
Glass Rebel
Member
TyrantGuardian said:
But dude, the cheevos!