Columns This was meant to be a Fallout 3 DLC review

Did you read the rest of that paragraph? He meant they aren't big as far as head counts go, also added they are very good at what they do, and being bigger has inherent problems. So how did you go about shoe-horning your opinion out of that sentence fragment? If unconditional love for makes one a fanboi, what does unconditional dislike for something make you?

 

My deep-seated and lasting dislike for the entire concept of mandatory online activation is entirely conditional - on an EULA clause stating that said provision will be revoked by software update when the activation servers go offline for whatever reason. Of course it's very difficult to hold a company to a pledge to do something when they go bust, but this is much more likely to become an issue simply when they get bored of supporting activation servers for older games.

I'm not so much worried about losing games I want to play (though I am), as I am worried about the creation of a black hole in computer gaming history. It's amusing and enlightening to investigate older games - right through from ZX Spectrum stuff via Amstrads and Ataris up to old PC games from the 90s. If things continue to go the way they're going, this will not be possible with current games - in fifteen years' time, it will simply be impossible to run, say, Bioshock. It'll have vanished as cleanly as if it were never written. As someone who has an Amiga 1200 patched up to the VGA input on his monitor, I think that's a minor tragedy.

The companies don't care, of course, but in spite of the obviousness of the problem, they're not even pretending to care, which is the usual corporate reaction to unwelcome news.

 

Does anyone think that maybe this is the point? I'm no paranoid conspiracy freak but don't you think its odd that Xbox Live works great and GFWL is an unworkable pile of crap? I would have thought that the same team is working on both, but I'm willing to be corrected if someone has actual knowledge.

I'm no M$ H8r, but Microsoft isn't some innocent here (see below). It would be Microsoft business as usual if there was an agenda to FORCE gamers on to a locked-in platform and extort...sorry, extract the maximum amount of money from their customers.

It would require no paranoid fantasy to say that GFWL is borked deliberately, screwing over gamers and developers.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend_and_extinguish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty_and_doubt

 

Phil do what I'm doing, stocking up the Sinclair spectrums, Atari & Commodores Dragon 32's in the attic. There they can rest in peace till Gauntlet's heros can come alive again and of course Cuthbert.

Microsoft charge 40 pounds for a game for god sake.

 

I greatly appreciate you and all of the bit-tech folks always reading and replying to comments, which is why I usually ever bother to write up a comment. I completely concur about the macro/micro views and understand that your aim was not what I thought you implied.

 

I would agree with you except for the fact that there isn't a game out that can't be hacked. All of those activations can be bipassed, as long as piracy exists DRM will never win (ironically).

 

GFWL is the reason I will never be able to play GoW pc.

I basically lost $50 on that one.

 

In other news..... DLC was really fun!

 

Why is there a picture of an ugly guy on the front page of bittech?

 

Bit-tech is an equal opportunities employer

 

The one of your mum attracted complaints, even I complained for heavens sake.

 

lmao, better then my comeback!

 

GFWL is going to be one of those things i refuse to buy.

Fallout 3 and no exchanging saved games? im sorry, not bought.
GTA4 was a huge disappointment in not able to share my 100% saved game.
and DoW2 will not be bought by me.

XP was the perfect gaming platform where everything is simple and nothing is being configured by the "big brother".
Vista "Games" folder is a piece of crap, no one uses it and no one will ever want it taking up the few MB of hard drive space. (for the record, im using Vista, and i love it)

when will Microsoft learn that simplicity is what end user wants, NOT over the top holding-hand. eg, the Home group in Win7.

 

Awww you beat me to the your mum joke

Also - LOL

Also - double LOL at av

 

perhaps because the Downloads tab in FO3's menu was written and hasn't been updated for the changes MS has done to the marketplace for PC? Joe (and others who might be having trouble downloading Anchorage or any other DLC for GFWL) - hit your start menu, then look for a folder named "Microsoft Games for Windows - LIVE", it contains a shortcut titled "Games for Windows - LIVE". It'll load a screen that looks like the MSN Messenger Sign-In screen. Enter the email address and password associated with your LIVE account. Hit Marketplace and there under New Releases you'll see Operation: Anchorage. Purchase and it immediately starts downloading (which as the notice says, you can access from "My Media"). BTW, the update that FO3 downloads even mentions this client for the marketplace when it closes FO3.
i personally can't see why so many people are having problems with GFWL. it has worked absolutely flawlessly for me, as well as XBL in fact. the only complaint i have is that it can be a little slow to respond to mouseovers, and that not enough companies are putting their PC games out under GFWL. Call me an achievement whore, but its something i like and actually influences my buying decisions quite a bit.
i'll admit that the GFWL system is still a little clunky atm, even after the big update since the Halo 2 and GoW games, but its an application running on top of a game which is running on top of one of (now, or at least soon to be) 3 operating systems. ideally it would be integrated into the OS ala XBL, or at least part of the platform the game ran on, however it would be a bit complex, and something not many people will stand for (cries about lack of privacy etc will be heard, surely).
also, not sure why anyone was expecting their save games to be stored online. Everything is still stored locally (even with the xbox 360), lately alot of games have been very good about sticking it all in the "My Games" folder in your "Documents" directory. If you dualboot, just make sure your Documents both point to the same folder (can be set in the properties box) and that its a location accessible to both OSs (like a seperate partition/hard drive).

 

Viruk, dude, lots of us here (including me) pirated some (or all) of their games in their lifetime. It's a fact! Just like anyone stole an apple when he/she was 5years old.

But saying you steal a game just because u hate tre producer is the biggest bunch of bull manure ever! It's just like saying you steal a Zonda because you hate Pagani! Wtf is that?

Back onto other news: Please, Joe, update you photo

 

I like many others, went to a torrent site to get instructions to get it to work properly.

bought it legit, with enough points for the next pack, however if things do not improve I doubt I will be doing so for the final one.

 

GFWL had me wasting hours on end to get GTAIV multiplayer available... I could be signed in and yet it wouldn't be "signed in". Turned out in the end that GFWL insisted on using NETBIOS of all things... And I had to disable netbios protection in my firewall to finally get online in-game...
I wish GFWL would roll over on it's side and die. It's a prime example of MS trying to do a hostile take-over of a market they don't have a clue how to act on.
I used to adore Rockstar for GTA... Now I pity their greed and lack of quality awareness.

 

GFWL is indeed flawed but i did not have any issues getting it up and running. It also detected my account when I was installing the DOW2 Beta. I however noticed that in Fallout 3 the mouse pointer and icon highlighting is not spot on - they off by a couple of centimetes and I have to mis-click for the button to register the click. How does the GFWL team actually gather customer complains? Trolling forums?

 

I'm not supporter of "conspiracy theories" but I have to agree with you, absolutely. It seems that MS is trying to convert PC gamers to XBox. Maybe M$ felt too overconfident about GFWL & it's sway over PC gaming and purposefuly screwed it up too soon.

The word "extort" is actually the best description of xbox pricing system.