Microsoft: We Need to Step Up PC Gaming

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Ugh, the comments here suck.

First of all, GFWL may have been bad at first. Now, it is a solid platform that is growing constantly. As for scook9 saying it doesn't work for Halo 2 or Gears of War on Windows 7, he is wrong. Both MIGHT have a few issues after a fresh install, but a manual patch will get them both working. Halo 2's problem was being the first GFWL game. It was attached to a specific version of GFWL. Gears of War's issue was Epic not knowing that the license would expire after two years. A manual patch fixes both of these issues.

Second, Age of Empires is NOT a browser based game. It is a full fledged Ages game. It will have all the features the previous Ages games had, and more.

Next, Microsoft Flight isn't a 'clunky' PoS. Flight Sim is one of the biggest franchies on the PC. It still sells to this day. Flight is the next step for the series.

About the Halo and Gears of War ports. Microsoft has to balance what they do. Previously, they have been focusing on the 360. Obviously, now they are spreading that to the PC and Windows Mobile as well. Halo and Gears of War can stay 360 franchises for all I care. Microsoft has to sell multiple platforms, and by bringing those to the PC, they weaken the 360. Not bringing them does NOT weaking the PC. I'd love it if they did come to the PC, but I understand why they won't.

Kudo made a stupid comment about FPS games on the PC. He does not reflect Microsoft's PC gaming devision in any way. He has nothing to do with Games for Windows. His comments are to be expected from a console gamer.

The closing of some PC studios(FASA, Ensemble, ACES) happened during a recession. They had to do it. Those studios were losing them too much money. Obviously, they themselves are not upset about it. Ensemble went on to make Robot Entertainment, and is producing the next Age of Empires. FASA went on to Smith and Tinker, and is working away at the next Mechwarrior, rumored to have cross-platform support with the PC and 360. Many members of ACES are said to be working on the new Flight as well. Microsoft just had to change how it developed games, ie less internal studios.

Microsoft isn't coming to the PC because they are losing money on the 360. The 360 made a net profit of 1bil in 2009. They aren't going to nickle and dime PC users, you can base this on the fact that Age of Empires is free to play, and will only charge for expansion pack size DLC later. It has, at the moment, over 25 hours of free gameplay.

I look forward to whatever Microsoft has in store.
 
[citation][nom]hellwig[/nom]I had to install Games for Windows Live! to get Kane and Lynch working (even though I bought it off Steam). When you start the game, you get a splash screen for Kane and Lynch that says "Press SPACE to start...". When you press space, the stupid Games for Windows overlay pops-down and won't relinquish control of the interface. You have to close the overlay, which is made more difficult by that fact that it doesn't seem to recognize the mouse.Its stupid issues like this (on top of other, more serious issues) that just kill some programs from the start. Why would I consider using Games for Windows if the overlay in my games won't allow me to play my games (if you can't get something simple like an overlay working, do I really trust you do to anything else)? I've never had issues with Steam's overlay that I recall.2 Words: Microsoft. Halo was supposed to be that game for the PC 12 years ago. Instead, Microsoft needed a big title for their new console, and bought Bungie for the Halo IP (a game that had not yet been released). Now Microsoft needs another Halo for the PC? Maybe they should have left Halo alone in the first place, and never bothered entering a console business that cost them billions.[/citation]


True. I read in an interview with then head of MS's Entertainment and Devices division, Peter Moore, that their main focus for entering the console market aside from "bringing the PC into the living room" (some "PC" Xbox is; actually it reminds me more of an Apple product), was to "crush Sony". I hope Sony kicks their ass back to PC software for good.
 
Why the console makers have not allowed for keyboard and mouse games boggles my mind. You have the capability to have RTS games without any loss of utility and simply ignore them.

That said what amazes me is the PC ignores anything innovative. Why not include voice commands? Instead of having to type on the keyboard use voice commands to actually build things or combine the two. Graphics do not make the game. They help to a point, but far too many games are 10 hours or less of play and they stop because the models require too many polygons or they ran out of time.

As far as ports. I think it is stupid to port a game with save points and doing the stupid mini games where you have to press or move in a certain direction. Allow you to save anywhere. Restarting a level or having to fight a big boss repeatedly does not aid enjoyment, but it does increase frustration. I remember playing American Mcgee's Alice and the ability to save throughout the game helped tremendously.
 
It's ridiculous that this discussion is even being brought up. Most people who have pcs would play games if they knew what was out there. Problem is most casual gamers don't know of steam. All Microsoft has to do is this: Buy steam. Leave it as is for about a year or so except make the online community part of live. Make it a MANDATORY part of windows in a sp release. You instantly have the biggest console on the planet, and slowly will have probably the biggest online gaming community on the planet.

And this all isn't Microsoft's fault. There's a lot of confusion about what games are playable on the pc because for years oems were okay with saving costs buy not putting a graphics card in a computer, which is what the pc industry really needed much more than quad cores. Hopefully with Amd's new chips that will change.
 
And all this about not good enough games or lack of innovation or anything else along these lines is not important. There are plenty of 'killer apps' and still a lot of innovation but it just goes by largely unnoticed. Pc gaming has declined first because of lack of accessibility and thus a lack of support.
 
omg. i hate statements that make Halo seem like the second coming of Pong. Halo was NOT genre-defining. in the genre of FPS games Halo was sub-par at best. the reason it was such a huge success is because Mircosoft figured out a way to optimize hit detection to compensate for the controller's lack of precision. THATS ALL. naturally this opened the console crowds eyes to the world of FPS games. in reality, FPS games were optimized and perfected long before Halo ever came along because they quite clearly were meant to be played on the PC. Fable did the same thing for RPG games. a more streamlined interface plus some crappy graphics and voila! now u have an RPG game the console crowd can relate to. however, the common PC player will tell you that the best RPGs feature a very comprehensive HUD and beatiful art direction to suck you into the fantasy world. I dont know how Microsoft hopes to redefine genres that have, for many years, been leaps and bounds ahead of what they consider to be their precious console crown jewels. give me a break Microsoft. if you want to do something for the PC crowd, stop peddling GFWL. then give Intel a call and tell them to stop shipping PCs to big box stores with shitty graphics controllers in the chipset. cuz thats whats really been slowly killing PC gaming over the years.
 
Either what they choose to do is fine by me, its always an interest. Always figured i'd get Halo for the PC sometime, the first one, and now that Reach is it, really left in the dust when it comes to things but still. As long as they dont discontinue previous titles they've made for the pc think they'd be fine.
 
[citation][nom]jazz84[/nom]As much as I dislike MSFT, I think this is a refreshing step in the right direction. I'd like to see, for instance, a PC version of Kinect. It's pretty clear that with the vastly different control schemes, the PC and Console multiplayer markets will need to remain segregated, but innovation in the gaming world should remain cross-platform IMHO.[/citation]

It's in the works from what I hear. Back in 2009 when Kinect was introduced, several of the articles stated that the Windows Team had expressed interest. Since as far as I can tell it is just connected with a proprietary version of USB to the Xbox, it will probably make it's way over to Windows.

Now, I can tell you this right now, I don't have room in front of my PC for that kind of thing, but my TV which is hooked up to my Xbox does.

Overall, I think that this is a good thing. I love my Xbox and I use it for most of my gaming, but as a result of a recent free upgrade of my Gfx card and figuring out how to overclock properly my CPU I now have a high end gaming rig. It will be nice to have the choice and the option to mod my favorite game from the 360 on PC. That's what I did with ME2.
 
[citation][nom]robochump[/nom]The main issue is piracy! Game developers know this and tend to go where the money is...consoles! True PC platform is the best but what good is it if many games are played for free because of easily hacked copies? Only solution is to code a anti-piracy software but gamers tend to bitch about it. So what is a game developer to do? Personally I have had issues with GFWL because 1/2 the time it fails and I cant even play the damn game! A more solid anti-piracy solution is needed overall.[/citation]
I have heard that Steam is effective, so if all PC game devs went strictly with Steam or a similar service it would help a lot. Disc based media is the easiest to hack and the hardest to protect. On PC at least, digital Distribution is the best solution for Piracy that I see.
 
Gears of War 2 & 3
Some new interesting games
+all the old games. I want Microsoft to put some of the old games on window live, like the mechwarrior series.
 
[citation][nom]knownballer[/nom]It's ridiculous that this discussion is even being brought up. Most people who have pcs would play games if they knew what was out there. Problem is most casual gamers don't know of steam. All Microsoft has to do is this: Buy steam. Leave it as is for about a year or so except make the online community part of live. Make it a MANDATORY part of windows in a sp release. You instantly have the biggest console on the planet, and slowly will have probably the biggest online gaming community on the planet.And this all isn't Microsoft's fault. There's a lot of confusion about what games are playable on the pc because for years oems were okay with saving costs buy not putting a graphics card in a computer, which is what the pc industry really needed much more than quad cores. Hopefully with Amd's new chips that will change.[/citation]

Nope, I don't trust Microsoft to handle steam. Steam at its core is a distribution platform. Microsoft would turn it into something else, a perverse shadow of its former glory.

All it really has to do is pitch Games for Windows Live to Valve.

Not to mention I don't think Valve would ever allow it. If you have read some of the stuff from them, it is pretty obvious that they don't like people torquing with their stuff. I don't mean mods, I mean novels, movie adaptions, and comics. They are too controlling to let Microsoft take them over like Bungie did.
 
The problem is that Microsoft exclusive a lot of games for Xbox to compete with Sony and Nintendo in console market.

It will come back to hurt Microsoft and the whole PC industry at end. Why buy new video card if there is no worthy game? Some people don't even see the point to buy pc if they are only browser internet, receive and send email.
 
The problem is that Microsoft exclusive a lot of games for Xbox to compete with Sony and Nintendo in console market.

It will come back to hurt Microsoft and the whole PC industry at end. Why buy new video card if there is no worthy game? Some people don't even see the point to buy pc if they are only browser internet, receive and send email.
 
It is about time that the PC gamers get noticed once more. Why are we spending hundreds if not thousands of dollars on our computers, to run 'word'?
 
Designing such a game is the easiest thing in the world. Getting someone capable to even hear an amazing concept is a godly feat indeed. I've got a concept to make an EVE sized Mechwarrior MMO, but who would take up my concept? Certainly not Microsoft... their brain trust is kaputz.
 
[citation][nom]pete68[/nom]Please make games that work, don't crash, run out of working memory, mess up graphics in general. I especially like Far Cry 2, which you didn't make, but it messes up my Windows7x64 machine. Make it work on W7 with no problems. Second Steam half life are good(mainly they work on my I7-920, W7x64,) but how about a FPS like FC2, say in Central America, or Columbia, fighting drug cartels, etc. Make it free roaming, jungle, coastline, waterfalls, rain, etc. like FC2. Much better than aliens and robots, IMO. I want to build another super duper PC but when my favorite game, FC2, has one problem after another, I'm holding back. Good luck!![/citation]
Really i don't like aliens and crap but i do LOVE hl2 and i also liked fc2.
Okay i will give you my 2 bits about all this.... First off my windows 7 witch i bought doesn't work so i called their tech support... after 3 hours talking with someone that didn't understand me or vice versa, activated my win7 and gave me the cd key i asked for for 50 fliping bucks. Later i needed to use it after reinstalling windows AND IT DOESN'T WORK!!!

Piracy is due to games being to expensive. Steam rocks. Microcrap sucks. Steam gives us awesome sales. And even tho we have to have steam running to play our game, steam itself mostly doesn't get in our way and in fact it helps us.

Crysis is the first fps i played and Half-Life 2 is the second and i thought that this was the ultima of gaming, really good U.I.s, a bezerker graphics engine and an awesome story. This was in 2007 and ever since then i hate Microcrap for steeling everything the pc was and could have been. And yes i know that they weren't the only ones responsible. Its more like Far Cry 2 was the farewell to TRUE pc gaming.

Microcrap is the only company that "DOES NOT CARE" about what people thinks of them and what people says about them. They make an advertisement cover around them to make other people to think that they r the greetest X3. What their talking about here is another ploy and "IF" they actually start making a bunch of games and start working on the pc, its all gona turn out like that turd colored mp3player they made. The only hope i have is for vscape.
 
I'm anxious to see all the changes they are making to the Flight Sim series. I hope they incorporate detailed imagery from hi-res satellite data like they use for Bing maps. I would really love to "buzz" my house and others', LOL!
According to the latest info on the Flight website, it sounds like they're going to offer additional content via an integrated GFWL marketplace - just hope they include some free mods/skins and content from other developers such as Abacus. I also get the impression there will be an "arcade" setting for people who just want to fly, and not actually simulate the entire experience. I think that will bring a lot of casual pilots to this software!
 
There's a lot of things Microsoft isn't doing that it should. They shouldn't have made Xbox Live a pay to play model, for one. But, that's the Xbox. There hasn't really been any stride to improve the gaming experience on PC. Steam is the closest thing we have for that. The useless games folder doesn't count.

On another note, Audio needs to be completely revamped. OSX has Core Audio, and it's great. We need something more advanced, something with more options. I should be able to play audio through whatever I have connected without disabling something else, i.e. if I have my movie streaming to my TV via HDMI, it should go to the TV instead of my computer speakers... etc.
 
[citation][nom]omenowl[/nom]Why the console makers have not allowed for keyboard and mouse games boggles my mind. You have the capability to have RTS games without any loss of utility and simply ignore them.[/citation]
I think the PS3 does allow a keyboard and mouse, but I'm not sure. The XBox doesn't because Microsoft doesn't want to create a type of "PC Lite" product that will compete with its flagship Windows operating system.
 
What Microsoft needs is a new, genre-defining game like Halo for the PC, something so mind-blowing addictive that console gamers will drop their controllers and buy new PC gaming rigs with Windows 7 pre-installed.
Click to expand...

Cannot agree more !!
 
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