Games for Windows Live

Games for Windows - LIVE version 3.1 comes out 11/19/09

GFWLMod — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 23:57:00 GMT

What’s new in 3.1:
·         An update to the in-game client to support DirectX 11 for future titles, such as Dirt 2 from Codemasters.
·         An update to the downloadable Games for Windows – LIVE client software to make finding content for games easier.
·         Bug fixes.

Busy, busy.

GFWLMod — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:37:00 GMT

We've been busy around here at Games for Windows - LIVE and you may be noticing some changes coming up soon. Stay tuned, I'll keep you posted.

New faces on Games for Windows - LIVE Tech Support team.

GFWLMod — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:51:00 GMT

Hello All,

There are a few new faces that will be popping up helping with connection issues:

GF GHOST WL
GF GameQueen WL
GF SalemVII WL
GF Papa WL
GF Klidus WL

They have a theme!

Anyways, please welcome them to the family they know their stuff and should be shown the same respect as me... er... wait, they should be shown respect... there, that at least gives them a chance.

New user login error resolved.

GFWLMod — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 21:28:00 GMT

The new user login issue should now be resolved, I would like to thank everyone for their patience in this issue, and would like to extend my invitation to join us at forums.gamesforwindows.com.

Regards,
GFWLMod.

grumble

GFWLMod — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:35:00 GMT

As you all likely know by now we are experiencing some issues on the site right now and I have really not been as active and friendly as I used to be and wanted to say sorry for that. I tend to get a bit grumpy in cases like this, Since that is not your guys concern you need to throw rocks my way if I am being a lil less than awesome on a particular day. Thanks for sticking around though my fellow geeks.

Case of the mondays

GFWLMod — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:28:00 GMT

As it is Monday I am hiding from real work in a few games of Dawn of War 2 Last stand, ping me on LIVE if you would like to join me.

...and so it begins

GFWLMod — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:08:00 GMT

And thus began the end of days, for they gave the dyslexic misanthrope a blog. Apparently they want me blogging a bit, so i'll be occasionally commenting here about what's going on on our end of things, or seeing if I can grab some of you to play hooky with me and play some games. That, or just sharing how much of a ball of sunshine I am.

Games for Windows - LIVE version 3.0 is now available!

GFWModerator — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 23:11:00 GMT

I'm sure most of you have already noticed, but if you haven't please rush out and download it. Here's an article covering the major changes and upgrades, by our very own Eric:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-us/aboutGFW/pages/gfw3intro.aspx

Call of Duty World at War Map Pack 2 available for PC now

GFWModerator — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:32:00 GMT

I know I'm mega late on this since it released on like the 16th, but hey I had a root canal yesterday so I've been out of it lately! The Call of Duty: World at War map pack with the new maps, the imperial zombies, improved dog spawning, etc. is now available for PC users. I'm in the process of downloading it right now, but that jerk Abashima already has and is playing it, so he may or may not end up posting something about it, when he tears himself away from zombie bashing.

Resident Evil 5 for Games for Windows - LIVE

GFWModerator — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:59:00 GMT

Well, the cat is officially out of the bag since Capcom Europse has announced RE5 and put a box shot on their site including the Games for Windows - LIVE logo at the top. (Here.) This is one of those titles that has been bouncing around as a possibility for a while, and when I was first told that it was a go, I was really excited. I knew this was one of those titles that a lot of the community was very interested in, and Capcom has been amazing as far as integrating and supporting the Games for Windows - LIVE functionality. Honestly, I was kind of hoping that I might be able to break it to people first, but of course I'm far less important than Capcom Europe in the Capcom marketing plan, so I just have to come here and say that I'm really glad this game is going to include LIVE, and look forward to playing it on release.

I also want to tease a little and say that we do have some more titles that are just as exciting in the pipeline, and I appreciate the support the community has shown to our product and to these forums and I hope it continues!

Excellent Dawn of War II event this weekend!

GFWModerator — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:27:00 GMT

We had a good time on Saturday getting together to play Dawn of War 2! After some trouble getting everyone in the game (apparently as I was telling everyone to make sure they had the There is Only War stuff loaded, I did not myself!) we got a first game of the new 2v2 going, and through some act of fate my team was lucky enough to squeeze out a win in spite of me. Then Hazardbox (argh!) showed up and was on the other team for the next couple of days, really kicking the crap out of me with Tyranids, and my poor Orks just couldn't pull out a win after that, even with the help of my now two team mates, as we got enough going to have 3 on 3 games.

I enjoyed the new maps very much I must say, but I admit that I'm not nearly good enough or experienced enough to say whether or not the new balance changes had an effect on the matches - I don't even know the "old balance" well enough to tell the difference, unfortunately. However, I will be trying to fix that! I had a lot of fun playing with the community this weekend, enough so that I may start playing DoW2 a bit more regularly. So, if you see me online in DoW2, feel free to ask me for a game!

Winners of the Fallout 3 Sweepstakes announced!

GFWModerator — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 17:25:00 GMT

Hey guys, I know it's been a while since the contest took place and people have been anxious to see who the winners were, so here you go:

http://www.gamesforwindows.com/en-us/community/newsarticles/pages/fallout3sweepstakesenter.aspx

Empire: Total War is #1 in UK

Abashima — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 18:05:00 GMT

The folks at Gamasutra have an interesting tidbit:

Sega and Creative Assembly’s Empire: Total War has become the first PC title to hit the number one spot in the UK charts sinceFootball Manager 2008 (also published by Sega) in October 2007.

The epic historical war game topped both the individual and all-platform charts, becoming the fastest-selling entry in the series so far.

Full story here.

The first DX10-only game is...

Abashima — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:02:00 GMT

Stormrise. Which is also a Games for Windows - LIVE title, by the by! Huzzah!

Anyhoo, read more about this fact in an interview which you can read here!

Welcome (back) to the Jungle: Fragging and getting fragged in the Quake Live Beta

DarthVegan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 23:30:00 GMT

Before World of Warcraft ate up the lives of gamers, id Software’s first-person shooter Quake swallowed countless hours of free time in homes, offices, dorms and…well, anywhere there was a PC.

And, man, the fun ran deep. Nail guns, rocket jumps, being turned into slabs of bloody goo because of poor hand-eye coordination, the references to Nine Inch Nails and Lovecraft. Oh yes, it must be Quake. For you youngsters who didn’t grow up during the big FPS boom of the 1990s, Quake was perhaps the king of the mountain when it came to blowing up your online friends, thanks to a wicked multiplayer mode.

Quake was a massive hit when it came out in 1996, and it spawned a slew of fast-action FPS sequels which kept the spirit of in-your-face combat alive for more than a decade. Yes, there was a storyline, but really…it was all about multiplayer. Go mention Quake to any buddy, friend or co-worker who is in their mid-30s and you’ll likely hear stories about staying up all night in Quake deathmatches.

And that brings us to Quake Live, or rather the Quake Live Beta which opened its doors to the public today. Basically, Quake Live Beta is just an improved version of Quake Arena (which came out in 1999, ditching the plot for multiplayer fun) but Web-based. No software necessary. I heard about Quake Live last year, and I admit I had my doubts if Quake could be resurrected as a free (yes, free) Web-based fragfest.

Nostalgic for the old days, I decided to give it a shot. Signing up and downloading took a couple minutes, with about another five minutes or so for my machine to shake hands with the Quake Live servers. After that, I could jump right in to combat (read: get my rump handed to me) or practice against bots.

After a little while of playing, here’s what I came away with:

· Age has played havoc with my reaction time

· I’m absolutely not getting any work done in the office in the near future.

· The practice mode is ridiculously customizable.

· It’s not the prettiest game around, but the lower-grade graphics likely ensures that you won’t need a powerhouse PC to play this.

· It’s easy to jump in and play.

· A fair amount of online matches waiting for you, complete with icons to show you how many people are playing, what the match is (capture the flag, free for all, etc.), how challenging it will be, and more. I’m guessing that as the beta opens up there will be a lot more potential matches.

· Controls can be wonky and lag can bite you in the butt, especially in full-screen mode.

· It’s a beta, so everything is a work in progress. Still, QLB runs pretty well as an in-browser game.

· Finally, yeah….this is Quake in all its manic glory. Quake veterans will be cackling with glee as they relive memories of blasting opponents with nails, lightning, rockets, and grenades.

FWIW, I ran Quake Live Beta on a machine with 3.60 GHz Intel Pentium 4, Windows Vista, 4 GB RAM, ATI FireGL V3100 and IE7 as my browser.

The real test will come when more players descend on Quake Live. If the servers can handle the workload, Quake Live is going to be my next big Internet distraction, next to Facebook and MST3K episodes on YouTube.

But for free, this can’t be beat. Go check it out and see what you think. And if you run into a guy running around like a clumsy ox, say hi before you blow me up.

The inside scoop!

GFWModerator — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Unfortunately, the amount of inside scoops we're allowed to give is relatively small. I can't counterfeit anyone else's future info drops or press releases by saying too much about what's going on internally, I can't release info about anyone else's products and I don't really have a product... or so I thought. As I've been working on some things in the community space, trying to pull together ideas to make things more engaging for the end user, sitting in on brainstorming meetings about what we can do to bring more value to you guys from the forums and the site, I realized that I do have a product - this community! So, here's a little scoop I can give about what I'm working on, as well as a call for input on what else I should be working on. After all, not everyone's "product" can tell them what it most wants to do.

Currently I'm looking at ways to bring enough events online to justify a calendar. Like what xbox has basically, but probably not an event every day, at least to start. In the pursuit of this idea I'm looking at different ideas like having active community members host semi-regular events, in addition to the events that we run regularly (cross-plat, co-op, etc.) There seems to be interest internally on continuing the "game with team" style events, us getting together and playing with you guys, not as celebrities, but I'm sure more as punching bags. I've played with some of you, and I have a feeling that will turn into a pinata party with me being full of candy real quick, but probably also a lot of fun for all involved. Plus, things like "achievement nights" where you guys can get together and try to get some of the more difficult achievements.

For more "social networking" interaction, we have a Twitter feed as well as a Facebook profile if you're into either of those technologies, plus we've got the blogs here whenever I can tear time out of my day to work on this. You'll notice today's update comes right before a major release; can anyone say calm before the storm?

While all of that is well and good, it touches on what we think you think without really knowing what you think. So... what do you think? Let me clarify that question. What are some interesting content ideas you would like to see? What are some events you would like to see? Who do you think would be good community members for running events?

Comment away.

CoD:WaW patch—and a cautionary tale!

Abashima — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 23:06:00 GMT

There's a new patch for Call of Duty: World at War available now. It mostly addresses multiplayer issues but also has a new map, sort of. It's a daytime version of Makin.

But be careful with this patch. I downloaded it and played around with it a bit, then went back to my single-player campaign and was greeted with this error:

I had to restart the mission from the beginning and couldn't resume from my saved game where I stopped about halfway in. After I restarted and saved a new game things went swimmingly.

Dawn of War II: Intermediate Tips

GFWModerator — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:51:00 GMT

Alright, so I'm going to be writing an article about the Dawn of War II demo regarding strategy (expanding upon my previous article) with more intermediate tips. I've covered most of the basic movement and grouping information, as well as cover and flanking already, so I'm looking for more stuff of an intermediate level. What I mean is, strategy that goes beyond the basic, but doesn't require a lot of "uber micro" (i.e. micromanaging individual units.) I'm going to cover some of the soft and hard counters (this type of unit or weapon is good against this other type of unit) resource management and upgrading, tiers, commander wargear, and directional armor. What are some other things you'd like to see touched on?

This will probably be the last "generic" article I write, and after that I'll focus more on a race or two (Eldar and Ork possibly) for future articles, and get more in depth. Beyond a certain point, a lot of tips and tricks are race specific. So, please post your recommendations on the forums!

L2P

Abashima — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 18:40:00 GMT

My latest article is up, about our adventures here at Games for Windows - LIVE learning to play Warhammer 40: Dawn of War II.

Read! There are pictures! :)

Coming soon I'm going to put up an article about turrets. 'Cause, you know...turrets!

Dawn of War II

GFWModerator — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 17:49:00 GMT

Man, am I having fun with this. It has definitely been too long since I really played an RTS (Starcraft was the last) as I've spent more time on TBS like Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic (yes, that old thing) and King's Bounty (PLAY THIS GAME) in recent years. The return to RTS was a pleasant surprise for me, in that it removed the parts that I have always felt were better suited to TBS (like resource/building management - I need time to plan cities, alright!) and made a more action-oriented playstyle the norm. It is odd going from the Starcraft mold of anything less than the most uber micro meaning that an early rush is going to cost you economy, to the DoWII feeling that anything except rushing is going to cost you economy. The different feel of a more mutable battlefield and less of a need for base defense really makes micro shine in this game.

I have been playing the offensive Eldar, and the Hive Tyrant Tyrannid, and both are fun in different ways. Eldar is nice because I really enjoy using the ranged units with the cover system (that almost nobody seems to use online, thus using it provides you with a pretty big advantage) and the hero has an AoE attack (2 pretty quickly if you train immolation) so that early game you can really break down the bunches of small tyranids that seem so popular in a lot of people's rush strategies. The Hive Tyrant is nice because I can give him charge, and get a few Carnifexes (Carnifii?) and the hero and give them all charge and really clear a battlefield if there's a gridlock on one of those important central victory points.

I haven't really played any annihilation yet, just the victory point mode, but I've done 3v3, 2v2, and 1v1, and they're all fun in different and cool ways, plus I enjoy most of the maps. All in all, a really enjoyable last few days of playing, I recommend anyone who enjoys RTS games (or even people who don't!) give this game a shot. Available now in the Games for Windows Marketplace, or through Steam.

As always, comments are welcome...

Dawn of Awesome!

Abashima — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 22:44:00 GMT

The Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II multiplayer demo out on the Games for Windows - LIVE Client. Three cheers!

Eager for blood, we (myself, GFWModerator, RMEC, and Bradden) all played several games this afternoon (Seattle time) and learned much about waging war on the edge of the galaxy.

And I must say: Rocks! We were all very impressed with Dawn of War II and how fun it was. For a few of us, it'd been about a thousand years since we played an RTS (I prefer turn-based). Not to worry, we picked it up pretty quickly.

Since there weren't any tutorials or documentation or anything we decided to hold some battles against some computer opponents on Easy level. This gave us the luxury to read all the tooltips and experiment with different troop types and loadouts and generally figure out what was going on.

After some larnin', we set out to hammer each other for real. More on that later... ;)

Prologue

GFWModerator — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:03:00 GMT

Most everyone who talks to me or interacts with me via this site really only gets "moderator mode". Occasionally I'll step outside of that role and make some semi-personal statements, but for the most part, it is "look here for help on x" or "please don't say y." Finally, I've been given a little chance to express myself outside of those bounds and hopefully give people a little better understanding of me as a person and how I got to where I am. So, here it is, I guess.

How did I get this job? Completely by accident, to be honest. I had recently moved up to the Seattle area (Redmond, actually) and was looking for a job, and Microsoft inevitably comes up. At first, I wasn't even considering Microsoft seriously (even though it is someplace I've always wanted to work) because I was operating under the assumption that a degree would be #1, and there probably wouldn't be anything I was qualified for that I would also be interested in. I did some interviewing around, and then someone called me about a position dealing with the games division. Wow, I thought, this could totally be a way for me to fulfill a dream I've had since I was just a kid and work on video games. I think everyone who has played games extensively has that little corner of the mind pipe dream about how sweet it would be to get paid to play or make or even just talk about games.

Let's be clear though - my interests in games don't begin and end with Games for Windows, or even the broader scope of PC games. I've been a longtime player of board and card games, I even play miniatures games. I have fond memories of sitting around with my family playing Monopoly, Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, all sorts of dice games like Zilch, card games like Spades. I started a bridge club in high school! I was always just that type of nerd. Oh, and don't even get me started on Pen & Paper RPGs. I've always had games as a primary interest, and have always been seeking out new games to play, and on a broader note, new experiences. Which brings us back to our story of how I got started here.

I got scheduled for an interview, came in and did my interview, and apparently my experience with moderation (which is fairly broad but nothing of special interest,) technical support, customer service, and my passion for games impressed someone enough to offer me a position. So it all started, I came in and got training, worked and pushed to even get the forums up in the first place, helped everything get implemented and tested to prep for the release, the integration of gamertags, etc. I definitely can't say that I was solely responsible (there is a large list of names on that) but I was definitely one of the formative and driving forces - which perhaps explains why I am so concerned for the well-being of the forums.

Regardless, as I continue writing a blog and trying to come up with interesting topics to cover, you will likely find a very strong slant towards games - be they board, card, dice, mini, pen and paper, or video in nature. I like to play games, I like to talk about games, and I like to encourage other people to talk about games - so please, feel free to talk about games! Comments are welcome.