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Live For Windows Coming in May
Several outlets are carrying the news that Live for Windows is coming in May to a PC near you. The announcement carried confirmation of a similar pricetag for Xbox Live, as well as details on some new titles. Halo 2 will be releasing right around the launch of the service (slated to go up May 8th), and Shadowrun will follow quickly sometime in June. Gamasutra has an interview with Xbox Live general manager JJ Richards on the subject, and 1up offers a bit of commentary with the news. Though when asked about it last week Microsoft reps seemed extremely confident, it still remains to be seen whether PC gamers will pay for what they've always gotten for free.
I thought this said "Live without windows for a day"
I got all excited. Maybe it was some kind of contest...
If you're interested in this, you may also be interested in a controller to keep your play styling the same as if you were on a console.
Could be cool if they allow PC v. Windows matchmaking. Watching how the console owners fare compare to their PC brethern would be quite interesting.
--sugarman--
So $50 a year to invite my friends to a game I'm playing, receive e-peen achievements, and play an FPS game against someone holding a controller? Sounds like a great deal...
Reviewing just the first hour of video games.
Does it have Punkbuster or something similar?
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
Windows Live lets you play against Xbox 360 Live subscribers.
However, Windows Live is Windows Vista only, so you can't play against people using Windows XP. Well done, what an impressive cross platform system!
I know 10 or so people who I've occasionally played online with on Windows using XP/2k, and don't know a single Live subscriber. I don't have much incentive to get Windows Live, do I? YMMV, of course.
I quit!
Yeah, the experience is pretty much the same playing the PC version as the console version: crappy. Both have elements that work better on the other, but overall, it's designed to the least common denominator, so it runs poorly on all systems.
So on the consoles you find yourself needing to get an add-on keyboard to be able to effectively communicate with anyone, while still needing to use the controller to play the game, as the game's designed to be played from just the controller. On the PC, then, you're minus a controller, and really need to buy one to easily control the game, since despite the fact that it's an MMORPG, the controls are still designed around using a controller.
(For example, the menu is opened by pressing '-' on the numeric keypad. This makes the game unplayable on most laptops, since most laptops don't have a numeric keypad. Apparently you can change this binding through the menu, which you access by pressing '-' on the numeric keypad...)
In the case of FFXI, the experience is made even worse on the PC by the fact that the game is designed to run at 640x480, which apparently is either the PS2's native resolution or close to it. You can't change this on the PC - while you can set the UI to run at any resolution, it simply scales the world to match, so all you get by running the PC version at 1280x1024 is teeny-tiny unreadable text combined with a giant stretched, blurry world. As an added bonus, since consoles don't have to worry about other apps grabbing focus away from them, FFXI actually crashes when it loses focus. However, display problems shouldn't apply to future console/PC titles, as high-def consoles are now the norm, and run at resolutions comparable to PCs. But different displays play a role in making the PC experience different from the console experience.
The biggest problem remains the controller. PCs don't have a standard controller, other than the keyboard. Even the mouse comes with many different capabilities. (You can usually rely on a scroll wheel and two buttons - unless, of course, you want to support Macs.)
So while a console game will have controls designed from the console it's released from, PC games are almost always designed around a keyboard and mouse, with lousy gamepad support. Ultimately, a game will either run better on either consoles or PCs, or it will run really poorly on both (the route FFXI takes).
I sure hope you can choose to NOT play with PC users. The WHOLE reason I don't play on-line with my PC anymore is half the people used super bots and/or tricked out keyboard/mice. Consoles level the playing field and make it about skill again. Just my 2 cents.
so now we have to pay m$ $50 a year unlock all things in there new games. To get stuff that in the past you just need to buy the game to get.
M$ better not do the same thing to a MMORPG game I don't thing that people will want to pay for vista + $60 for the game + $15 a month + $50 a year + pay for points to get some in game content.
we are supposed to pay even more for Live?
Nuh uh.
Too much fluff, not enough there.
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So, FF XI doesn't need a gamepad. In fact I have no idea how people can continuously switch between keyboard and gamepad while playing.
I highly doubt games like WoW, EQ2 and Vanguard will be effected by this at all. As their online services are run by Blizzard and SOE.
And I thought Valve launched it two years ago.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
Microsoft is coming out with all kinds of excuses for force people to buy Vista. They are trying to make anything new they create artificially incompatible with XP. Xbox Live, DirectX 10, HDCP... There is no technical reason why these things can't work on XP, they just don't. It is very frustrating. Frankly, it is what makes the Mac look attractive. Apple goes out of their way to ensure compatibility. Microsoft goes out of their way to ensure INcompatibility. I wonder how long before somebody makes a hack that lets these things run on XP?
...that pc gamers around the world will ban together and tell Microsoft that no, we will not pay for what we used to get for free. But I have huge doubts this will happen, as a high enough precentage of MS's audience isn't even spending their own money, but spending their parent's money...Even if they only have 25% of the market pick up the service, then it will have paid for itself and set a business model for others. *sigh*
For instance, voice across the entire system (not just in-game chat) without having to worry whether the person is using TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, or Skype.
A single username across the entire system, meaning you can be sure the "HappyGodzilla" you play in Halo 3 is the same "HappyGodzilla" you got teamed up with in Shadowrun. This also greatly assists with getting rid of griefers and jerks.
I'm not necessarily saying it's worth $50, but to say that Xbox Live offers nothing is disingenuous if not outright wrong.
Comment of the year
Wow! So teens can curse me out even more - and I get to pay for it?
... because you know they'll jack their parents account names.
Just think, I'm subsidizing more trash talk in games
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Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I'll assume that you meant PC vs. console. :) There are several games where friends and relatives of mine have a mixture of PC and console versions and would love to hook up together.
I know that EA is at least considering the idea. I subscribe to several, on-line surveys. Last year I got one that was specific to EA asking me a bunch of questions regarding my feelings about connectivity between consoles and PCs -- what kinds of games would I play in such an environment, how often would I play, the obligatory question on whether I'd pay more to go on-line against console users as well as PC users, and so forth. All of the questions were specific to on-line connectivity between various architectures.
But even before that, some friends of mine and I were wondering why PC/console connectivity hasn't really become an option yet. As long as the maps and gameplay are the same and both the PC and console use the same "language" to talk to each other, there's no reason why it couldn't happen.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
For instance, voice across the entire system (not just in-game chat) without having to worry whether the person is using TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, Skype or Live.
Microsoft doesn't have a monopoly like on their console. They may be offering something slightly better but with such a price and already developed and estabilished alternative solutions they'll have a hard time getting marketshare.
For instance, voice across the entire system (not just in-game chat) without having to worry whether the person is using TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, or Skype.
Nope, but for $50 we can worry about if they are using TeamSpeak, Ventrillo, Skype or Live.
A few things failed to be mentioned so far, one is that if you have Xbox Live Gold, you have Windows Live Gold also, without paying anymore. There are also free Windows Live silver accounts that do not have match making and achievements, but still let you play your PC games online. The idea of cross-platform play between my Xbox360 and my PC is pretty sweet in my opinion. Although this is definitely a sales play for Vista, its a smart move on Microsoft's part.
Wait, what? I played at 1600x1200 and the game looked gorgeous, very crisp.
Also, I actually REALLY liked using a PS2ish controller to play it, and was disappointed when I got into WoW and found that I couldn't use one.
I can pay $50 a year and get this "no worry" situation you talk about, OR, I can download two free programs for games that don't have voice chat built in.
And who cares if the username is consistent across games? The only way it matters is if you're trying to keep your friends together and in that case you'll know their "new" username anyway.
While Live is novel for consoles (feature previously only heard of in PC games), WE ALREADY HAVE IT ON THE PC. The fact of the matter is that the ONLY thing that MIGHT be worth looking at it for is the skill matching, and that's not worth $50 a year. If they want wide adoptation on the PC, they're going to have to lower the price by about half.
That's actually a feature in my book.... Well not the "worrying" part. I don't worry about it.
I just don't talk to anybody through voice chat unless we're logged into the same private server. I don't want to talk to any random squeaker who doesn't know what 'noob' means, but uses the term ever 20 seconds because they're fairly sure it's derogatory.
I have been waiting for this day for many, many years. Now I can shove a virtual rocket down the throats of everyone who's ever claimed that in an FPS game, they could beat a keyboard & mouse player with a joystick. That might be worth the price of admission right there.
And thus the the MS's tail lights get even more distant from all non-Windows OS's.
Remember back in the day, when people could actually delude themselves into thinking OpenGL was superior to DirectX?
And who could remember all those top-rate, cutting... NO!!!... BLEEDING edge FOSS games? Not me, that's for sure.
First Vista lands with the one-two punch knockout combo of Vista and IE7. Now Microsoft is just kicking Lunix in the head while they're down... it's like Rhino vs. Baby. It's not even a contest. Bad form, Microsoft, bad form.
Don't they understand they need to charge $150 for every point-release improvement to the OS, like Apple does? How do they expect Lunix and the Apple monopoly to catch up when they just keep improving their product like this... and FOR FREE?
Oh wait. Ehem... "Windows is only a monopoly because they force everyone to use it". Ok, now I fit in.
So if a game is available for both Windows and Linux and the Windows version support Windows Live would linux and windows folks still be able to play together? I don't mean Windows Live support for Linux but will they just be able to play on the same servers together?
On another note, I wish different consoles could play together when the same game is released for them.
...is to finally put to rest the raging "is a keyboard and mouse better than a gamepad" FPS flame wars.
:)
If Halo2 PC is compatible with the Xbox/Xbox360 version, you're going to see a lot of very pissed off Xbox/360 players getting pounded into the ground by a 15 year old with a mouse.
hookers and grits.
Xfire is free. It automatically downloads updates/patches for your games. It automatically tells you when your friends are online, what server they're on, what teamspeak server they're on. It lets you automatically join your friend's gameserver. It lets you automatically join your friend's teamspeak server. It lets you voice chat or text chat with your friends.
I'm just saying. I will not be spending $50 to get what I already get for free. BTW, some games (Battlefield2, etc) have very good voice chat built in. For those that don't, I love teamspeak (Speex codec sounds great at 12kbps)
Sweet so I can pay 50 bucks for a crappy port of Halo 2 that is coming out 3 years after the game came out on the OLD xbox (Halo 1 PC still burns me). Then I can pay 50 bucks so I can have some colored star next to my name and play online? And to do all that I have to upgrade my PC to Vista? Yeah, right... 300 bucks to play a 3 year old game.
Seriously, is everyone at MS on drugs these days? I do run Windows exclusively, I do run the newest hardware, hell I make a living writing MS code. Will I be running Vista? No. Will I feel special when you release a 3 year old game and charge me extra to play in ranked games online? No. Whoever is pushing this platform strategy is a frickin idiot.
In fact the more of this crap they pull, the more likely I am to never install another MS product again. If they try to make online WinPC gaming live exclusive, I'll stop playing PC games. Not like there are many that are worth my time anyway...
Wait a second. You want their new software with new enhancements to run on an older system that didn't have any of them? That isn't backwords compatibility, that would be forwards capacity for XP. MS can run programs that were written as far back as the DOS age. That's backwords compatability.
Can programs written for MAC OSX be run from a computer running Mac 9? That's what we're talking about.
"...it still remains to be seen whether PC gamers will pay for what they've always gotten for free."
See, it's comments like this that keep slashdot from being taken as serious as other bigger news sites. The posts are biased and that one quoted line shows the submitter didn't even read what he was talking about. Live Silver accounts are free and give more than what PC gamers have ever experienced before. If you don't want to pay for Gold, fine. Super. You're not missing anything you haven't done before. Microsoft is not charging PC gamers for what they've always gotten free. BIAS!
Oh wait, that's Windows Live OneCare. Seriously, though, if they call all their products "Live", who's going to be able to tell what's what?
I know 10 or so people who I've occasionally played online with on Windows using XP/2k, and don't know a single Live subscriber. I don't have much incentive to get Windows Live, do I? YMMV, of course.
This may be due to the fact that you play on Windows, and that Live, as in TFA, not being released until May. YMMV, of course.
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
This guy's just a shill for Microsoft. Ignore him. And ding the people who mod him up.
I think the poster is referring to Xbox Live subscribers.
You say that like it's a bad thing ....
Well, I'm not really keen on trash-talking by other players, or spam selling on the trade channels, no.
I can see how it's nice to have voice chat, but having seen what passes for chat in most games, I think I'll pass. I get sick and tired of using Ignore, quite frankly.
Don't see why I should have to pay extra for that.
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Guess what, even though Vista is shit I still managed to run a 10 year old Windows app on it. Try running an OS 9 app on your new Macbook Pro and you quickly realize what an idiot you are. Apple fanbois are dipshits.
Yep - I meant Xbox Live for 360, of course, since that's the other platform I could potentially be playing against.
This is all anecdotal evidence anyway, so lets move on...
-2008
Ah, but some games may be Live-only, and you won't be able to play against your buddies running Vista unless you get on Live as well for some games, I'm sure (i.e. When you install on XP, it won't use Live, but if you install on Vista it will force you to use Live as it's available and warns you about being more "secure" or some shit)... MS will leverage whatever it can to get you to buy Vista.