Games for Windows Die

[Sofus]

Killing GFWL is the lesser evil if you ask me.

Yeah it would be somewhat sad not to be able to play games which currently use GFWL, but in all honesty, I would rather see the entire service die than have future games with that shit service. If the price for killing GFWL is that I lose the ability to play all the games which have used it... then so be it.

 

[Lunar Templar]

snip

Honestly, I don't care if it goes down, I already can't play the GFWL games I have (Both Arkham games, Dark Souls, DoW2) due to the non extant customer support. I would kinda like to know why I can't log in anymore after all.

If they are trying to fix it, I don't Envy the guy his job, and while good luck to him an all that, I'm not holding my breath for any worth while improvements. So yeah, lump me in with 'KILL IT' crowd.

 

[piinyouri]

So what about third party programs that purport to remove GFWL from the program?
Like how our installation of FO3is at the moment. If they ever did shut the service down, would we still be unaffected, or would it brick the game anyway?

 

[lacktheknack]

So what about third party programs that purport to remove GFWL from the program?
Like how our installation of FO3is at the moment. If they ever did shut the service down, would we still be unaffected, or would it brick the game anyway?

In FO3's case, it will make you move your save.

If you mod the thing and use the script extender (as you should), you're already bypassing the overlay (this was the case last time I used it), and won't need to change a thing.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

What about games that can be bought on Steam but still require GFWL, like the Dawn of War 2 series? With steam already running the games, would it be too difficult for Relic to work with Valve and patch out the GFWL and just let Steam launch the games?

 

[Darkness665]

Windows! Modular! I almost died laughing. What a concept! Shamus you are a funny, funny man.

Have you ever SEEN a trace of almost anything running MS code? Because modular does not cover the horror of intermingled code that is essential non-functionality of anything produced by the Bozos From Redmond (drum roll with a side shot). Horrible code, little to no awareness of security (despite their much PR-ed efforts) all driven by a need to make it only good enough to hit the closest milestone which never includes not actually crashing.

Now imagining the lower level dregs of MS programmers that generated the original will be replicated with the new team. GFWL is a low-level, low-life rip-off driven by marketing. They will not have access to decent resources. That company does not let good programmers go to crap projects.

Although, to be honest, good programming and Microsoft should have a punch line.

 

[Aleas]

I think I have an idea of where this is going. I noticed today that my GFWL achievements are showing up in the Xbox modern app(or metro or windows 8, whatever). So call me crazy but it sounds like MS will simply merge everything under the xbox name and end up with a big store that offers everything.

 

[PuckFuppet]

Smaller, less intrusive and more user control is better. Unfortunately I'm sure that the next iteration of GFWL will be even larger, more intrusive and give you little to no control over it.

 

[RicoADF]

I think I have an idea of where this is going. I noticed today that my GFWL achievements are showing up in the Xbox modern app(or metro or windows 8, whatever). So call me crazy but it sounds like MS will simply merge everything under the xbox name and end up with a big store that offers everything.

I suspected that as well, makes sense really to replace GFWL with their new system. Now how that effects windows 7 users.....

 

[piinyouri]

So what about third party programs that purport to remove GFWL from the program?
Like how our installation of FO3is at the moment. If they ever did shut the service down, would we still be unaffected, or would it brick the game anyway?

In FO3's case, it will make you move your save.

If you mod the thing and use the script extender (as you should), you're already bypassing the overlay (this was the case last time I used it), and won't need to change a thing.

Ah okay, that's good to hear.
And yeah we installed everything. Followed a guide to the tee, all that.
This isnt my first Bethesda modding experience. (Though FO3 behaves far differently then to say Morrowind or Oblivion then I ever thought it would)

I guess I was worried it was just "hiding' the UI for GFWL so if it ever did go out of commission it might still affect the games ability to play.

 

[Zetatrain]

Last time I checked you can create offline GFWL accounts, so even if the service goes down you can keep playing singleplayer games with little issue, unless GFWL requires a phone home before it will even work.

Dirt 3 for example will not store your SP campaign progress unless you have an online profile. Stupid, right?

Yeah its the same thing for Batman Arkham City. I fact if you have windows 8 there is a glitch where GFWL won't open for the game and you have to reinstall GFWL and download a patch.

 

[Matthi205]

The only game that I ever bought that used GFWL, was Fallout 3[footnote][EDIT]Oh god, got FlatOut and Fallout confused again.[/footnote]. And guess what, the service didn't start up at any point during the time I've played FO3.

In the end, GFWL was broken, and thanks to that, so where most games that used GFWL, if you didn't immediately find a crack for them.

What Microsoft should indeed do, is deliver a version of the main GFWL redistributable that makes all online account requirements disappear, allowing people to still actually play the games dependent on the service.

 

[octafish]

I don't think I've paid more than $5 for a game that runs GFWL, and while I might miss some of those games I could live with the system being scrapped. I'm sure there are some work arounds like the Fallout 3 one for at least a few of them.

 

[Andrew_C]

GFWL shutting down totally might not break as many games as you think. Fallout 3 modders made a fake GFWL dll that you drop in the Fallout 3 folder and the game runs happily without GFWL. As pointed out above Fallout Mod Manager and FOSE include it and enable it by default. This or a similar method would probably work for any GFWL game that allows you to save in an alternate, non-GFWL location. Some other games might be screwed, though.

This was probably the first mod released for Fallout 3, apart from the nude mods, of course.

 

[mad825]

People bashing again...

FO3 has no DRM, you can quite happily start and play the game without it ever running.

 

[Andrew_C]

People bashing again...

FO3 has no DRM, you can quite happily start and play the game without it ever running.

You must be very lucky, because without using one of the various methods to disable GFWL, GFWL is required by Fallout 3.