Games for Windows live.

[busydude]

Can you not simply copy the encrypted save files or the folder they are in (haven't needed to try myself)?

It does not work that way. You can copy/save them, but you cannot use them once your hdd is formatted. This can also be a PITA if you have two systems, I know a lot of people who game on two systems(Desktop at home, Laptop while traveling) as one cannot simply use those files to continue playing.

Common business practice. From WoW to the 360.

I can understand that in WoW and for xbox live.. as they are providing us a service and they developed a whole ecology around that. GFWL achieves none of that, there is absolutely no use for that piece of shit software to the user.

Never had this issue, but Batman AA takes a whole 10 seconds to load up...

Consider yourself lucky.

 

[Elixer]

It does not work that way. You can copy/save them, but you cannot use them once your hdd is formatted. This can also be a PITA if you have two systems, I know a lot of people who game on two systems(Desktop at home, Laptop while traveling) as one cannot simply use those files to continue playing.
.

There is a way to do it, but it is hideously complex, and requires tons of user tweaks, and even then, you got a 50/50 shot.

It is a pathetic savegame system with DRM for no real reason to have it.

 

[Arglebargle]

As always, my experiance with GFWL was such that I wouldn't play games infected with it if they were free.

 

[busydude]

There is a way to do it, but it is hideously complex, and requires tons of user tweaks, and even then, you got a 50/50 shot.

It is a pathetic savegame system with DRM for no real reason to have it.

Yeah, I tried a method and gave up after few days. It was really heartbreaking as I was racing with top teams in F1 2010.

That is only reason.. I refuse to buy F1 2011 and DiRT 3.

 

[Anteaus]

I do agree that the save game issue is a pain, but is it that bad? I'm absolutely not defending MS here as I agree GFWL is more burden than worth, but how many of you actually keep all of your saved games? Over the years I've occasionally kept them, but the vast majority of them were deleted for various reasons and I've maybe regretted a few of them.

The only exception being if you're an achieve whore, but then the answer to that is to just use an online account and save your games there, because whats an achievement worth if no one will ever see it?

 

[greenhawk]

I have avoided it after a crap run with a war hammer demo / free weekend.

Got it as a steam program, then had to install GFWL and create a account (a hassle but wanted to give the game a go).

Between the game dropping connections with other players, loosing sync with the GFWL servers (auto kick out) or steam itself stuffing up, I refused to by that game or any since.

They might have gotten better, but i've not purchased any games (or seen friends play) to care about finding out (when I keep seeing people complaining about it still).

Note, this is for the PC, the xbox should work regardless as if there was a problem with GFWL on it, then MS really stuffed the pooch.

 

[sandorski]

My GFWL nightmare: One day I went to play GTA IV(or Fallout 3..can't remember the exact game now) after Updating it. Everytime I went to Play, the Game would crash. So I started fiddling with Settings, Googling for Crash solutions, etc...nothing worked. After hours of frustration and no progress, I decided to try Updating GFWL. Should be easy, it provided an Update option, "can not connect", WTF? After 20 minutes trying to fix this, I just went to the Microsoft site and downloaded the latest....all problems solved.

This should not have happened if the POS were properly coded. Not only did it not Update, nothing gave any indication that GFWL was the culprit. Just HowTF does MS let this slip by?

 

[skipsneeky2]

LOL not to long ago i tried to reinstall Bulletstorm and well everything went fine,but it threw me into a update loop despite it being updated.

Then i got some random ass popup about some ms update that i needed and well i installed that but still,the game insisted i needed it,so i reinstalled the game to well,get the same exact bs.

2 more hours of the same nonsense and i said screw it,tossed that game right in the trash,and well i also purchased GTA4 and had issues with that title too and from now,i rather touch dogcrap then anything with gfwl on it again....

 

[Elixer]

I do agree that the save game issue is a pain, but is it that bad? I'm absolutely not defending MS here as I agree GFWL is more burden than worth, but how many of you actually keep all of your saved games? Over the years I've occasionally kept them, but the vast majority of them were deleted for various reasons and I've maybe regretted a few of them.

The only exception being if you're an achieve whore, but then the answer to that is to just use an online account and save your games there, because whats an achievement worth if no one will ever see it?

Yes, it is that bad.
They used DRM on all saves that ties your system to the savegame, so you can't even move it to another system (like a laptop) without doing major surgery. If you used online saves, then it wasn't that big of a deal, besides the fact that you always had to be connected, and if you travel or have connection issues, you are screwed.

It also really depends on the game, and if they have a sane system, or if it is one of those idiotic checkpoint console type things.
Take Batman:AA, it uses the checkpoint system, and there is no easy way to skip to the level you previously were on if HD crashed, or you reinstalled the OS. Then the user must play it all the way from start again. That isn't very much fun, if you only had 10% left or so.

 

[darkswordsman17]

It definitely is a glaring issue that Microsoft needs to address. Unfortunately, I think that will likely be more of an Xbox on Windows type of experience than a Microsoft integrated Steam experience.

Wasn't Microsoft supposed to be making some big changes to PC gaming with Windows 8?