The Annoyance Of Games For Windows Live

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

Sometimes Game developers set out with one task, and that task is to annoy me. To annoy me so much I actually wish to shout the word rage. Normally, these Games developers have a close link with Microsoft, and surprise surprise my latest rage inducing adventure even had Microsoft in the title!

Games for Windows Live was first packaged with the Windows version of Halo 2, Vistas gaming "Jesus". It's basically Xbox live on a PC. That means the friends, the private chat function and of course those lovely achievements. Oh, and of course the horrific payments that plague the console version of LIVE.

Earlier this year, I heard that LIVE was going to become free to use which sparked my interest. I've always like the cross platform features, especially as a lot of my mates have Xbox Live. So I grabbed a copy of Gears Of War (See yesterdays post) and decided to have a go. Eugh. Fiddly.

I love the game. It's well good. I like the cover system, the story and the fact that it's so full of testosterone it literally oozes from Marcus Fenixes eyes.  What bothers me is the bloody LIVE. I made an account and didn't sign it up for LIVE straight away because I couldn't be arsed to sign up for it. But yesterday night I decided to try and give it a go. Lo and behold, It took me an hour to get it sorted and I lost my game saves. Yea, I lost my game saves because if you sign up for LIVE you have to make new saves. BECAUSE THAT'S SO OBVIOUSLY THE SMARTEST THING EVER. Twats. 

So I started again, with my Live account and everythings been going pretty cool. Achievements, good story, being able to scream at a mate as he plays COD. It's all good. Kinda.

SO now I'm torn. Part of me hopes that cross platform play becomes norm, that Games For Windows LIVE dominates the PC gaming market. But another part of me wants Microsoft to shove the whole LIVE idea up it's arse and leave me alone with Steam.

Conundrums eh? 

What The Hell?

What in the name of Donkey Kong is that? Honestly I'm in shock. It doesn't look... Natural.

"So what exactly is new for the DSi? First off, the camera. The DSi features a .3 megapixel camera (640 x 480) which can be incorporated into games in addition to just taking pictures. But if you are using it to just take pictures, then you will have a photo editing tool built into the DSi allowing you to draw on the pictures or stretch and skew parts of the image. But how will those pictures be stored on the limited DS memory? That's where the DSi's SD card slot comes in. Using the SD card slot you can store pictures from the DSi's camera, but you can also store music and video to be played on the DSi. It will feature standard audio/video playback features such as fast forward and rewind, but also some unique features such as the ability to change the audio pitch. Also, to help with playing videos on the DSi the screen size has been increased. It's a small increase (3.25 inches now over the previous 3 inch screen), but the larger screen is still appreciated."

*wipes brow*. A DS with a camera, a larger screen, music and video playback as well as an SD card slot? Christ... Why?

I hate it when Nintendo do this. I really do. "Look at us!" they shout "We have shiny Apple like features for half the price!" Mystified I buy, then notice the blatant disregard for the hardcore market (Ie me. Since the SNES). 

Ah well.... I may buy.