The change is effective immediately, affecting all current GFW Live titles (such as Halo 2 and Shadowrun) as well as future releases. MS is also set to expand the service through a GFW Live Marketplace, due this fall. Like the XBL Marketplace, the PC-centric store will offer free and paid downloadable content, demos, and trailers (is this PC Live Arcade?)
In addition to these announcements, MS is working to make the GFW Live interface "much more PC friendly" (read: not like the Xbox 360's now deprecated "Blades" interface) along with reducing the technical requirements for developers. One criticism of the interface from the development camp has been that it must be built into every GFW title, rather than a stand-alone client such as Steam.
_thumbnail.jpg "i am 8-bit: 2008")
(Page 1) Reader Comments
Here's hoping.
Reply
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/07/01/mgs-europe-simultaneous-360-pc-releases-like-shooting-ourselves/
Its only fair that XBL users get the same benefits as the Windows users.
XBL for free!
So no games on live then.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Oh, we're talking about GAMES...
Reply
Reply
Reply
I played shadowrun on my 360 for a good 5 months and there were about 3 pc players i ran into over that time.
And before someone says thats cos shadowrun was a bad game, there were loads of 360 people on it and i enjoyed it, not as good as i hoped but damn better than any reviewer said. Teleporting through a wall, stabbing somone in the back, ressurecting your dead friend and then teleporting out again is so much fun for the record.
Reply
I think it's great and all that Microsoft finally got it through their skulls that they can't nickle and dime PC gamers like they can console gamers, but it's too little too late.
Steam is still the better service with many more games. The best thing that Microsoft could do is throw their support behind Steam.
Reply
Dont expect live to go free ont he xbox anytime soon. Theres millions of subscribers. I would love to stop having to pay $30 a year to play my xbox online, but I just dont see it happening at all. the 360 is closed, not open like a pc. We really cant create alternative servers or anything. Microsoft has us pinned against a wall, and their reaching into our pockets to get at our wallets. On the PC, theres no wall, so we can get away, so microsofts only choice is basically to make their service free.
gfwl is gfw but also allows gamers to earn achievements and if the game supports it, play cross platform with 360 users.
The only new thing about "Live" is its shitty 'blades' interface and the payment for it. They got rid of one of those problems, when they get rid of the blades interface they'll only be 5 years behind.
Steam isn't just a distribution service. It also has a unified friends list (which is better than GFWL and PC gaming has had for a LONG time, XFire), voice chat, and matchmaking is pretty much worthless on PCs due to the inherent benefits of dedicated servers.
Believe me, I have done GFWL from day one when I picked up Shadowrun for the PC. The interface was a friggin' mess, dedicated servers were a bitch to set up (what few there were), and it lacked a slew of other features that PC gamers have had for years. While Steam technically only provides online service for VALVE games, it still does it 1000% better than GFWL. I would much rather have another company work on their own service than use the attrocity that is GFWL. It's why I didn't pick up Universe at War and GoW for PC. I refuse to use an online service as shitty as GFWL on my PC.
Also, I can tell you that any excitement over cross-platform play is severly misplaced. PC gamers are limited to the same kind of limitations that console gamers would be limited to (meaning no dedicated servers, no custom content, no mods, etc). If Shadowrun demonstrated anything, it's that PC users don't like being shackled by the limitations of consoles.
Still, there are BETTER and FREE alternatives to it, there's no reason *anybody* would pay for GFWL. The comparison is moot, the net result is the same.. MOVE ON.
What's a good estimate on a PC that can run the latest games? I mean, pricewise.
Keep in mind, I'm running a PC with pretty low specs (Dell Dimension E510, bought just for the sake of doing my school work).
Reply
Gaming pc to play anything on the market if you buy prebuilt from dell, sony, hp , etc etc - $2000+
Do yourself a favour and learn how to build a pc. Its not as difficult as it may seem. Knowing the insides of a car is much mroe confusing. Theres really only like 6 or 7 main parts to a PC, and putting them together is like connecting lego blocks. Just google around to learn. It should only take a few hours of reading, and you will save yourself Hundreds and hundreds of dollars, everytime you need a new PC.
For like $800 you could go all top of the line. Not absolute top, but mostly the latest tech.
In between console generations PC gaming gets cheappp.
Reply
I hardly even play games online, and I've already paid for 2 years of Live. Funny on how I spend money on things I don't use (like half my damn video game collection, for example).
That's one thing where I like Nintendo and Sony's system better. Yeah, they're not as good as Live, but Sony is getting close...and they're free.
Eventually, I'll have to try this online gaming craze. I keep hearing things about it.
Reply
Reply
Oookay?
o.0
GFWL doesn't work because it only works across a few games.
One of the reasons I got out of PC gaming was because I got tired of having this same IM conversation with 12 friends in a row:
"Ok, so we're gonna play some Counterstrike, you down? Ok, now join the teamspeak server we're in, the IP is 24.132.038.289. What's that, you need the new client? Ok, go to the teamspeak website and click downloads -> updates -> 2.4.0.1.3b. Make sure you don't get 3a, that's not compatible. Ok, got it? Ok, now we're in a server called ~-Uncle Joe's 24/7 Dust-~. You in here now? No? Ok, that's a dash in front of the tilda, not two tildas. Got it? Ah, crap, the admin just turned on God mode. Forget it, we're going to go find a different server. I'll IM you the details."
Then repeat 12 times to get everyone together.
If there were a Live-like service, that worked across ALL games, I'd probably play a LOT more PC games, whether it was free or not.
But PC gamers are too set in their ways and their "we're too cool for console gamers and that xbox live crap" attitude to accept changes for the better.
Reply
This isn't 1999.
That's pretty much what you're asking for, and it already exists. Not to mention they'll be introducing a Matchmaking system in the fall when Left 4 Dead comes out.
If I'm in a Steam game, and someone I know is in Crysis, I don't know and can't contact them unless I call them or IM them and boot them out of their window.
And the 'join game' thing is assuming we're playing a game on steam. Again, all games.
Then there's voice chat to consider, and being able to go into private voice chat with friends without setting up a TS server, etc.
Steam would be fine, or Xfire would be fine, if everyone had them across all games. As it is, they're completely optional, and have endless restrictions as to what they have full functionality with.
I also have a $4 copy of shadowrun sitting around for when I have to buy a laptop for college that inevitably comes with Vista.
Reply