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Games for Windows Live - Yay! or Nay!
Battman23
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Games for Windows Live pricing was just announced and I have to say that imho it seems pretty fair. They are not forcing anyone to sign up to play PC-to-PC and if you already have a Live account you are good to go and can track stuff on your PC. Many people seem upset about, but I think they just see "Microsoft.... play online multi-player....$50" and they blow a fuckin gasket and don't read through everything.
See Kotaku article:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/games-for-windows/games-for-windows-+-live-gold-to-cost-50-244045.php
What are your opinions PA'ers?
See Kotaku article:
http://kotaku.com/gaming/games-for-windows/games-for-windows-+-live-gold-to-cost-50-244045.php
What are your opinions PA'ers?
Battman23 on
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Actually might be worth it just to giggle uncontrollably as mouse and keyboard totally owns controller.
I think the pricing is pretty fair. If they'd have said the gold membership for pc was free then xbox 360 owners paying for their online services would go mad.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Seeing ps2 games get pulled offline (metal gear for example just recently) is another reason the Xbox Live style system is the way to go at least for some games.
edit: Not to mention I'm happy they are not trying to screw existing Xbox Live subscribers. Since if I read that right we get it included.
In Microsoft's view, this is a win/win situation.
Gold Membership Features
• All Silver membership features
• Multiplayer matchmaking with friends
• TrueSkill™ matchmaking
• Multiplayer achievements
• Cross-platform gameplay
Some of those even sound worrying, multiplayer matchmaking with friends?
I see this failing pretty hard. That being said, as a live subscriber, I will mess around with this when I get Vista in a year or whenever.
Pretty much. Practically nobody who doesn't already have a 360 will do this.
Also, is it just me, or does the "Games for Windows" branding make anyone else a little queasy? It's not as if Microsoft needs to build the "platform" to fend off any competitors... or are there several hundred Mac games in development that we don't know about?
While I believe that a computer is still the ultimate platform for gaming, it makes sense that they're trying to make it seem a bit more 'consoleish', to attract people to it.
Hopefully these kinds of marketing strategies, as much as I hate them, help bring people back to the PC gaming market.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
but since they are together, that's a good thing
I still don't know how it really will be, but at least it's not near as bad as it seemed like when it was announced.
Does this mean that all "Games for Windows" PC games will have Achievements now? Am I reading that right? Is Microsoft gonna start forcing PC developers to add Achievements to all the games now?
If so, that would be pretty frickin' sweet.
If I didn't already have a Gold membership, I'd hop all over the free Silver thing just for all the Achievements.
Wont be long before EA/Ubisoft etc turn off their 'free' servers in favour of Live if this is in any way proven acceptable to PC gamers.
Imho.
You didn't read the article, right?
You can play MP games on pcs for FREE, you only need to pay if you want CROSS PLATFORM multiplayer.
As long as you only play pc-pc multiplayer, nothing will change, besides all the cool stuff from Live Silver.
...not so great for non-gold, non-xbox PC gamers.
Although I do have to agree with someone (ars OP?) that said that in the short run Live! is a great promoter for Microsoft's Vista, but in the long run it's not so much for the gamers.
Imagine when you buy a PC game in the future where the only way to get access to multiplayer is through Live service. Sure silver is ok, but putting restrictions on how you can play sucks. There are already good 3rd party alternative browsers for games out there but for me, a quick in game and out of the box multiplayer browser is all I need. Not some fancy match making service.
If you have Live Gold for the 360 already, you're set for PC Live.
Your gamertag will work on both platforms.
Nothing willl change for PC gamers. What you can do on Live Silver is already what you can do on Steam.
Actually PC to PC multiplayer is free... with game browser on silver.
It says it all right there in the press release
what I don't get is why this is so confusing for everyone
I'm hoping that developers jump aboard with this standardization of the PC as a 'console'.
Ugh, feels so dirty. Leave my computers alone.
But, you know. Business means that PC gaming will live on!
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Yeah, I'm well aware of that.
What I do want to know is if Microsoft is swinging their weight around to get all "Games for Windows" licensed games to have Achievements?
PC Achievements would be fantastic.
most of all, most of all
someone said true love was dead
but i'm bound to fall
bound to fall for you
oh what can i do
Well, for Shadowrun at least, the devs put a lot of effort into balancing KBAM users against gamepad users. I'd imagine most games that support PC vs. Xbox play would do this, or at least most of the games that will actually get lots of users.
The way I see it, the Gold subscription is mostly for Xbox users who want to play the occasional game on PC instead, and that's fine. Leave me with my server list for free and I don't care what you charge others for.
e-peen for adhd people.
http://www.gamersreports.com/article/37/
They see the words 'Pay' and 'PC Multiplayer' in the same press release and they're brains shut off and their mouths start leaking stupid.
There's also some pretty fun achievements.
The cool thing is that if the developer isn't a total failure they can motivate you to play the game in different ways. Ways you wouldn't have thought of.
Back in my NES days my father and I would play SMB and see who could get to world 2 with the least amount of coins. I imagine today that may be an achievement people would like to try for because it offers up a goal that you maybe never thought about.
For the last few years, more and more PC games have been made worse so they'd be easy to port to consoles. I can't imagine how much worse that's going to get if this cross-platform gaming thing ever takes off.
Don't think it will happen? It already is. Look at some of the dev blogs on the Shadowrun site about rebalancing aiming so that PC/mouse players won't have and advantage over 360/controller players.
Paying for this crossplatform gaming isn't just a stupid waste of money: it will ultimately hurt PC gaming.
And yes, I see multiplayer across different formats a bonus. My PC is pitiful and I don't use it for gaming, I have friend with GOOD pcs but no 360. To be able to play against them would be excellent. And for the price of a cheap night out, you really can't complain.
Then there's the old Mouse and Keyboard arguement, I hate to be the one to say this but...there ARE other games, not just FPS's. What about racing games? Personally I'd much rather play them on the 360 pad than on a keyboard? Footy games? Hell, even something like C&C works fine on the 360 pad. I'd love to be able to play Worms HD against some of my pc owning friends AND my 360 owning friends.
I see it as a -good- thing. And chances are they'll offer a 'free' Gold trial period like they do with the 360, people can see if it benefits them, if it does then pay up.
PSN: SirGrinchX
Oculus Rift: Sir_Grinch
Are there down sides? You bet but I think in the end its worth it. Hopefully it will also cause better gamepad support for pc games and perhaps keyboard/mouse support for the 360? At least maybe keyboard/mouse support for certain games.
Hopefully one of the downsides doesn't end up being the dumbing down of RTS games (supreme commander on a gamepad? Hell no) and the like.
That'll be the day.