Gears of War, BioShock Added to GFWL Download
Microsoft is working on stocking quality PC games in Games for Windows - Live, including the original Gears of War and BioShock.
If you haven't checked out Microsoft's Games for Windows Live service for the PC lately, you might be in for a little shock. When the stand-alone client was first introduced last year, only a few PC games were available to purchase and download including Viva Pinata, Fallout 3, Shadowrun and a few others. Now the service offers 49 games to download--but only 9 demos to test drive. Go figure.
The latest additions to Live's Games on Demand library includes the original Gears of War title from Epic Games, costing $19.99 or 1600 Microsoft Points. Other new releases are BioShock for the same price, and the original Max Payne for $9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. Take note that gamers won't need to pre-purchase Microsoft Points in order to buy and download a title from the Marketplace--the client allows for credit card payments and code redemption.
In looking at the hardware requirements, Gears of War will need 12 GB of hard drive space, a 2.4GHz Intel or 2.0GHz AMD processor, 1 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X700 card to run the game--low requirements indeed. As for BioShock, PC gamers will need 8 GB of disk space, a 2.4GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor or compatible, 1 GB of RAM, and a Nvidia GeForce 6600 or ATI Radeon X1300 card.
Outside these three new additions, gamers can purchase and download LEGO Harry Potter, Age of Empires III, Batman: Arkham Asylum, GTA IV: Episodes from Liberty City, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, and many more. Don't have the stand-alone client? Go get it here.
Steam, Battle.net, GFWL, Impulse, competition is great because we get some great prices.
Only 49 games? I own more than that on Steam. It might be worth it if they offered something not already on Steam, but there's no good reason to use it right now. Is this the same system they use for X-Box live? Not that I own an X-Box, but do GFWL and X-Box live interact (i.e. with points, friends, etc...), or are they completely unrelated services? Knowing microsoft the two aren't anything alike (except they can use the same Live! ID).
Last week I bought the half life 2 pack for a measilie 7 bucks.
Correction: almost every day!
I agree but I'm still not getting a GFWL account any time soon... they already get enough of my money.
they are absolutely crazy if they expect to get anything by selling Bioshock for $20, Steam has put it on sale for $5 for AT LEAST 3 times in the past year
yeah i like competition, but microsoft is not making steam break a sweat... they need to bring out halo 3 for pc and maybe then it'll stand a chance, but the UI for GFWL is horrendous.. open game, sign in, 'this game requires update' [WHOOP DE FREAKIN DO], you update, the game closes, then it needs to update on your desktop [explain the redundancy please], then sign in AND U FINALLY GET TO PLAY... i like steam better, download, and play. updates are done during the download
Because they may like one offering of an online service but not the other. For a good example, read up on Dawn of War 2. The devs used both Steam and GFWL. The reason they did that is the better distribution and acceptance of Steam, but they didn't like the Steamworks matchmaking system, so they used the GFWL one.
Most online services come with special features, so devs will mix and match sometimes.
To answer your questions, Yes your XBox live ID and Windows Live ID are the same ID's just like all other Microsoft services. Secondly yes GFWL and Xbox Live do interact with each other you can communicate with friends and earn achievements. Only addition I would like to see is the ability to send messages without being in a game.
Wow Gamespy is still going? I remember using that for my first week or two of online gaming before discovering ASE and dumping it for that, this was back in the days of MoHAA.
Oh Yahoo why did you kill my ASE