Steam, GFWL, Origin? Does honestly matter?

Axleuk · 30 Dec 2011 at 08:44

Approx 6 weeks ago I decided to get back into PC gaming after having an XBox since release. My main motivation was 'quality' and price.

I've had a steam account for some time now but only set one up to claim the free games that were appearing every now and again. But, these past few weeks have seen me build my collection so rapidly that I could play a new game every week and be busy for the next few years. Just can't resist a bargain.

Now then, it appears that steam is not the only distribution point for downloadable PC games. Origin and GFWL to name a few but it seems people have hang-ups with these? Why?

OK, steam has a great client with some fantastic features but is that what gaming is about?

The story, visuals and challenges are just some of the things that attract me to a game...not the client I need to play it through.

Why do people have issues playing games across different clients?

malachi · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:13

I don't, as long as its priced appropriately and I can access the games whenever I want then I don't care which client I use to download the game.

Kosmiche · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:19

I don't have issues with gfwl as a shop, its the ingame overlay that sometimes refuses to work, loses game saves and is generally just a mess.

Origin again as a shop is fine imo, but does not integrate with bf3 well enough which was supposed to have spearheaded origin's launch.

Steam has been out far longer than both of these and has had more time to get rid of bugs etc. I think if you think back to steam's launch it had problems, although at least it integrated with its own games much better than origin/bf3.

Liampope · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:20

I started with Steam, it works perfectly, and I'd much rather support a developer like Valve than an organisation like Microsoft or EA, for example. So I've absolutely no need or desire to look for an alternative to Steam.

cjbagnall · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:23

I use steam and think its great, I also use Origin just for BF3 and its buggy as hell, so I will not get anymore games for Origin until they sort it out.

Mordifordmiller · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:28

People like the convenience... the only problem is some people seem to have OCD and will only buy a game if it's available via Steam.

Truth is, Steam has done a huge amount for PC gaming and has definitely been a driving force in keeping it alive (when you consider popularity of consoles and decline of PC retail). However, using Steam for all your games is to me putting too many eggs in one basket.

platypus · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:37

The only thing I object too is having multiple platforms, but no I guess it doesn't really matter.

Antar Bolaeisk · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:41

I despise GFWL, it's such a waste and offers nothing of value. My many complaints against it include forcing you to update or else you can't play your game. It forces you to update when you launch your game making you wait an undisclosed amount of time before you can play. It only signs you in when you're playing a game, there's no way to interact with people outside of a game so no messaging or adding friends while on the desktop. A lot of the websites for GFWL are the xBox live websites, there's not even an attempt to dress them up a bit. The only time I ever bought a game from it (Age of Empires 3 for 1p) it refused to install it as I was trying to put it somewhere other than the C: drive which it couldn't cope with (I don't know if this has been fixed). It also doesn't allow me to download the games I've activated against my Live account.

What's worse is that Microsoft have the ability to make a great service, they've had IM's for years, all they needed to do was dress one up a bit and they'd have a messaging client so you could be online without being in a game. Automatic updates is built in to Windows since XP so why couldn't that be used for also automatically updating games and the GFWL client.

It quite simply offers nothing of benefit and regularly gets in the way.

As for Origin, I really haven't used it yet but the first thing it got right was allowing me to activate games against my account and download them. It seems a bit bloaty but also seems like a genuine attempt to make something useful.

Steam of course is the one we all know and love, although it wasn't always like that. Back in the day it was another layer to have to fight through in order to play a game (admittedly I was on ISDN at the time so had a crap connection). Nowadays I buy 99% of my games through them as they offer a fantastic service. I would like to see more pre-loading though, very useful feature.

Final8y · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:46

I have no issues with GFWL or Steam, Origin on the other hand can be another matter at times, the latest being that i did a fresh windows install and even a fresh Origin and BF3 download to be safe.

I fire up BF3 and get kicked by PB, i use PBupdate.exe for BF3 and still get kicked and notice what was partly obscured something about the PB.exe can not be found so i started up BFBC2 in steam it installed the PB.exe and all was well i then fire up BF3 and no more kicks.

AWPC · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:49

I prefer GFWL and never ever had a problem with it but now its going away so Windows 8 is going to have native support for it which is way worse as MS are trying to force developers to use it that way which means potentially a lot of future PC games will be nothing more than 1:1 360 ports running on Windows 8 which is way worse than having GFWL as a client :eek:

Like most players I buy the games I like the out of game client is of little interest anyway it just gives control to the company making it as your tied to their services!

Zero Pope · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:53

GFWL is the one that irritates me the most, it's buggy, slow and as already mentioned won't let you play without slow updates. I also had a big problem with Dirt3 not saving my games properly. It took an evening of messing about to get it resolved in the end.

rhysduck · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:58

Steam beats all the others with its hands tied behind its back. Blindfolded.

Steam has done so much for PC Gaming and its community its idiotic not to support it (if you can see what its done for us obviously and have been actively using it for some time). I would happily donate to Valve as a developer to encourage further development and support for the platform and its games. It works flawlessly, the platform is simple and understandable. The in-game overlay works perfectly and is tidy. It also boasts some considerable customization. That's what people/gamers want

GFWL is *****. Simple. Ive always had problems with it and the look and feel of the overlay is just a mess.
Origin as many have said before me just does not integrate with BF3 in the slightest. And to know I have to play SWTOR through it is just another negative. It works ok, but when it doesn't... it's like a world war

Of course, thats just my opinion.

Skepticx · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:59

Liampope said:
I started with Steam, it works perfectly, and I'd much rather support a developer like Valve than an organisation like Microsoft or EA, for example. So I've absolutely no need or desire to look for an alternative to Steam.

Agreed.

Steam works. Its has lots of games. I dont need gfw or origin and i hate GFWL so much in game, always refuses to cooperate.

Witcher1979 · 30 Dec 2011 at 09:59

Antar Bolaeisk said:
I despise GFWL, it's such a waste and offers nothing of value. My many complaints against it include forcing you to update or else you can't play your game. It forces you to update when you launch your game making you wait an undisclosed amount of time before you can play..

Where did you get this from? This is why people have offline profiles, if you sign in then yeah same as xbox you have to update. Offline profile you dont have to update, again same as xbox. Hence why I have two accounts, offline and online. So if you hated it that much you would only use your offline profile.

Addicted · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:03

voorhees1979 said:
Where did you get this from? This is why people have offline profiles, if you sign in then yeah same as xbox you have to update. Offline profile you dont have to update, again same as xbox. Hence why I have two accounts, offline and online. So if you hated it that much you would only use your offline profile.

Going offline (so you cannot speak to friends) to avoid an update is NOT a solution I'm afraid, your logic is way off.

platypus · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:10

Skepticx said:
Agreed.

Steam works. Its has lots of games.

Except when it doesn't of course. Eg on release of a new popular game when the servers can't handle the capacity, and you can't unlock the game straight away, or on busy periods when you can't even download things due to servers being overloaded..

Qel · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:11

rhysduck said:
Origin as many have said before me just does not integrate with BF3 in the slightest. And to know I have to play SWTOR through it is just another negative. It works ok, but when it doesn't... it's like a world war

Having not bought Swtor through Origin I'm not sure exactly how it works but pre-launch they said it is not required and box copies certainly don't prompt you to sign in or anything. But I assume you've tried running the Swtor launcher/exe without signing into Origin already.

At the very least you could just login to the Swtor site, download the client again and play without Origin if it bothers you having Origin running?

On topic, as others have said Valve have done a lot for PC Gaming, although many were against Steam when they forced us to use it for HL2 but overtime people have gotten used to it, although you still see plenty of hostility to it in some circles.
Origin seems ok, obviously nowhere near as good as Steam yet and I wish you could change names on it as with Steam but ultimately if it can be a competitor thats a good thing for us as both services will need to continually improve.

GFWL however is just a frustration and a waste of time and money.

Witcher1979 · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:13

Addicted said:
Going offline (so you cannot speak to friends) to avoid an update is NOT a solution I'm afraid, your logic is way off.

Sure it is, live is based on what the xbox does. Do not expect to do things xbox live cannot. If xbox live allowed you to chat to friends online without updating games when playing, sure you can moan about it. But as you can't................

But we PC users can chat to people in other ways without needing to sign into live.

rhysduck · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:14

platypus said:
Except when it doesn't of course. Eg on release of a new popular game when the servers can't handle the capacity, and you can't unlock the game straight away, or on busy periods when you can't even download things due to servers being overloaded..

I'm really not surprised with Steam having approx 20million plus active users.
Thats a hell of a lot of traffic to deal with during Sale times...

It doesn't bother me to be honest, I've never had problems unlocking games. Downloading them yes, but nothing that can't wait a little while.

qel said:
Having not bought Swtor through Origin I'm not sure exactly how it works but pre-launch they said it is not required and box copies certainly don't prompt you to sign in or anything. But I assume you've tried running the Swtor launcher/exe without signing into Origin already.

At the very least you could just login to the Swtor site, download the client again and play without Origin if it bothers you having Origin running?

Apologies, I wasn't aware that you could run SWTOR WITHOUT Origin.. That makes me want SWTOR even more!

gronf · 30 Dec 2011 at 10:15

Don't mind me