Games for Windows Live! - May 8th

[Abooie]

Not sure whether to post here or windows gaming or both; we need a new forum for cross plaform gaming!

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/...ve-launches-May-8th-with-Halo-2-on-Vista.aspx

Good news PC Gamers! The award winning Xbox Live experience will be extended to Games for Windows fans on May 8, 2007 with the launch of Halo 2 for Windows Vista. In addition I have a few details of how ‘Games for Windows – LIVE’ will work for existing Xbox Live Gold and Silver members. Remember…it’s one unified service, so current Xbox LIVE Gold members will automatically have access to Gold features on ‘Games for Windows — LIVE’ titles.

Here is how things will look on the Games for Windows side in terms of features:

Silver Membership Features
Single gamertag
Common gamer profile
Common gamerscore
Single player achievements
Private chat via text and voice
Common friends list and online presence
PC only multiplayer including browsing a list of active PC games

Gold Membership Features
All Silver membership features PLUS
Multiplayer matchmaking with friends
TrueSkill matchmaking
Multiplayer achievements
Cross-platform gameplay

Full official announcement here .. http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2007/03/14/542900.aspx

 

[McDaniel]

I read your Gold XBL will work with GFW also, and vice versa.

So my McDan1el account would cross over and work with GFW and any achievements etc.. earned would reflect on my gamercard

 

[Abooie]

To add... with their plans for cross platform arcade games (buy it once, play it on PC or 360) we can all whore points at work now as well!

 

[Abooie]

I read your Gold XBL will work with GFW also, and vice versa.

So my McDan1el account would cross over and work with GFW and any achievements etc.. earned would reflect on my gamercard

Aye. That's the idea, one account.

 

[Doug]

From the look of the screenshots, the Live client is built into the games front-end. I was hoping it would be a separate app, like XFire or Steam. Looks good, none the less.

 

[Abooie]

I swear I saw some demo from last year which showed a messenger style client built into the Vista sidebar (so it will be a gadget?)

I've recently had to get a new laptop which has Vista and Aero so I'm lucky. Does anyone know if this all works with XP?

 

[McDaniel]

I swear I saw some demo from last year which showed a messenger style client built into the Vista sidebar (so it will be a gadget?)

I've recently had to get a new laptop which has Vista and Aero so I'm lucky. Does anyone know if this all works with XP?

Think it might be a Vista service, i also recall Live Messenger with it built in, think it was the E3 MS Conference

 

[JUMPURS]

Am i the only one worried about this being bad for xbox live??
There are enough hackers and cheaters with the 360, but it will be 100 times easier to hack a game on the PC

 

[McDaniel]

Am i the only one worried about this being bad for xbox live??
There are enough hackers and cheaters with the 360, but it will be 100 times easier to hack a game on the PC

It could be a problem for the cross platform games

 

[JUMPURS]

It could be a problem for the cross platform games

It could also be an issue if folk deciude to go in a bad mood and manage to do DoS hacks on the servers etc, as we all know PC users like to break and find holes in MS products

maybe i am overly paranoid.

 

[McManicMan]

well my 1st thoughts was that achievements on the PC would be a darn sight easier to hack and do. Nothing and i mean nothing has not been cracked, warezed ec,ect that runs on a PC

 

[Emlyn_Dewar]

Yeah, I'm not really convinced about them trying to sort of bridge console/pc gaming. I really dislike the idea of cross-platform gaming purely for the fact that there are so many morons who will just hack the **** out of the system.

 

[rp2000]

Sod the hackers, what about the unbalanced gameplay from mouse keyboard players playing against people with controllers?

The 1st game is Halo 2 does that mean people playing on 360/xbox1 will be able to play with PC players?

I haven't read too much about this Windows Live anywhere thing as it is Vista specific at the moment, which I don't have installed, or plan to in the near future.


rp2000


Edit: Does anyone know where there is a list of what 360 owners can do with Silver & Gold membership? I am not sure of the restrictions but i am sure some of the things listed under Silver for PC users is Gold only for 360 owners.

 

[McDaniel]

atm only Shadowrun is cross platform, Halo 2 isn't afaik - the balance is meant to be quite well done though, but if your that worried get the PC Version. No doubt you can filter to console/pc only games

 

[rp2000]

atm only Shadowrun is cross platform, Halo 2 isn't afaik - the balance is meant to be quite well done though, but if your that worried get the PC Version. No doubt you can filter to console/pc only games

Not worried in the slightest Don't have Windows Vista so not really an option for me, plus I never play PC games (apart from YetiSports ).

Sounds like the cross platform in that case will be for new games, not old ones. Not such an issue as I guess they can "tweak" the control methods for new games.

PC hacking will be the problem, like Bonjour, said. Someone who likes achievement points enough will hack it eventually. Someone will eventually get pirate versions of live anywhere games working on the platform. The PC is a very problematic platform for games, in this respect.


rp2000