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Steam - There's a sale on

choddo

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Super Craig

Super Craig

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It's not the app store Craig. All Valve really do is provide a distribution channel (and the DRM). You wouldn't blame amazon for the bugs in New Vegas, would you.

I can see where you're coming from, but I don't agree. Steam is much more like PSN and Xbox Live than it is Amazon. The nature of the PC means that you'd never guarantee that the games were bug-free with a Valve QA process, but you'd at least stop blatantly broken games like that being put up for sale.

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Garwoofoo

Garwoofoo

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I removed "Miscrosoft Games for Windows Live - Live Redistributable" and "Miscrosoft Games for Windows Live - Live" then installed the file linked.

Rebooted, and tried to load up Batman AA again. Got the same error :(

What happens if you try and load the separate GFW Marketplace from your start menu?

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JPR

JPR

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It's not the app store Craig. All Valve really do is provide a distribution channel (and the DRM). You wouldn't blame amazon for the bugs in New Vegas, would you.

It's a bit of an odd situation, whilst I agree you can't blame Valve as you wouldn't Amazon I do wonder if they could do with some sort of quality control, at least with older games. As has been mentioned before older games on Steam aren't always reliable and in some cases just don't work. At times it very much feels they've been dumped on by the publisher just to make some money off the name, it's better to buy from GOG if the option exists.

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Fragmaster

Fragmaster

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I removed "Miscrosoft Games for Windows Live - Live Redistributable" and "Miscrosoft Games for Windows Live - Live" then installed the file linked.

Rebooted, and tried to load up Batman AA again. Got the same error :(

Hm does it give any kind of error at all, or are you stuck in the endless cycle of downloading profiles and updating GFWL?

And do you have any other GFWL games that are still working?

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Mike

Mike

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Hm does it give any kind of error at all, or are you stuck in the endless cycle of downloading profiles and updating GFWL?

And do you have any other GFWL games that are still working?

The error:

gfwl.jpg

I've disabled windows firewall, and its still the same.

I've no others GFWL games to try :(

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hoot

hoot

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Enjoying Flotilla, very nice presentation, love the piano music and the humour is pretty good too. Here's my current progress (demo version).

post-6745-062417100 1293025389_thumb.jpg

The Swan said to me "I think you're confusing me with someone who accepts bribes", which was a fair point, I'm always getting swans and geese mixed up. :facepalm:

So, regrettably, he had to die.

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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It's a bit of an odd situation, whilst I agree you can't blame Valve as you wouldn't Amazon I do wonder if they could do with some sort of quality control, at least with older games. As has been mentioned before older games on Steam aren't always reliable and in some cases just don't work. At times it very much feels they've been dumped on by the publisher just to make some money off the name, it's better to buy from GOG if the option exists.

They don't need quality control, they just point you towards the developer.

I've fallen foul of it myself, and I agree they should probably provide some kind of 'known issues' page which you see before you buy the game. But from day one they've never controlled the content or quality of anything on Steam, besides what they've developed themselves. It just isn't like Valve to impose any kind of authority on these things, anyone who has complained to them about a specific game knows the only response you get it 'ask the developer', same as you would with any other retailer. That's why amazon, play, shopto and so on all have disclaimers saying they can't provide any technical support for any PC games bought from them. I'm sure Steam has a similar one too somewhere.

The comparison with GOG isn't fair because the point of GOG is to take good old games that don't work anymore and make them work, which benefits the user and makes some money for the developer or owner of the license. That's the service they provide. Steam is different, it's just a shop that allows you to buy games from developers digitally. You're not buying it from Steam, you're buying it from the developer through Steam, like any other shop.

They could do more though, there's no reason why they couldn't take a more Apple-like stance and insist that everything is checked before it gets released. Or take a pro-consumer stance against developers who inadequately support their products. But why should Valve do this instead of the developers? It's not like testing for a small pool of devices, as is the case with the app store. You're talking endless hardware combinations, it's probably not even possible for one organisation to test that many games rigorously. Valve themselves run the hardware survey once a month, which helps them with their own development, and is a lot more than most developers bother to do.

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Spacehost

Spacehost

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If Valve took such a stance there'd be a lot less older games up on Steam. I prefer the current, albeit imperfect, situation.

Hats off to developers like Rebellion who have done things like rewrite AvP2000 to run properly through Steam on modern PCs, but I doubt its something every developer can do, never mind wants to.

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Fragmaster

Fragmaster

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I do think Good Old Games is a good example in the support they provide for games. I bought the Interstate 76 pack though, and ended up having lots of problems with warped colours, they didn't have a clue. So it's not all roses.

I think it simply boils down to the age old problem computers have always had, there are thousands of variants of every single component and thousands of variants of software packages on top of that. Of course there will be problems, I think after PC gaming for this long I have accepted that. It, for me, is simply one of the disadvantages on top of what is a very large list of advantages to PC gaming.

What isn't good is that developers have a shitty attitude to think that because they tested it on their laptop that everything is fine.

Also I'll add, what seems to work is that if a company releases a shit game, full of bugs, and makes no effort to fix anything.. people will moan. They will fill the forums with whining and the company thus sells less. Whereas on the other side of things, on the Steam forums for games which actually have developers taking part in discussion and replying to posts, those types of developers garner a lot more respect from me.

It doesn't take much to have some sort of positive rapport with customers in any industry, I don't see why it should be any different with games.

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JPR

JPR

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I agree that developers should be the first port of call and GOG aren't the fairest comparison as they where set up with a specific aim. But Valve are making money of these products so they do have some responsibility, as much as I don't like the way it works if you buy a faulty product in a shop it's them you go back to and they're the ones that have to sort it out. Valve aren't always perfect though, I think it was Jagged Alliance 2, that didn't work at all the developers got it working with a patch, gave it to Vavle and few months later it still hadn't appeared, they ended up giving away working non Steam versions of the game. Of course it would have all been better had the game worked in the first place before being put on sale.

I do think though on their side with regards to this and in general Valve could do with improving their customer support, does feel as if Steam has gone through a massive growth and left support lagging. Just being able to get a refund would be a big help or for those older games without a demo maybe a guest pass that allows you to see if it will work beforehand.

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NecroMorrius

NecroMorrius

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JPR, I'd say Valve's responsibility ends with making sure you can buy the game properly, have it delivered promptly and to be able to access it whenever you want. Plus making sure that Steamworks is implemented properly, that patches are delivered on time, that the Steam servers and Steam services are working and so on. These are all the things that fall into their remit, and they could improve all of these. The actual game itself should be treated like a blank pellet which they do not get involved with.

I'd agree that if something is completely fucked, they should stop selling it until the developer sorts their shit out. To use the Amazon analogy again, Amazon pulled that paedophilia book recently after all the complaints, but they didn't start rewriting it and examining it and engaging in a dialogue with the author on behalf of their enraged customers.

I completely agree that their support should be better, too.

If you're stuck between a hands-off distributor and a disastrously amateurish development team (the gaf thread for the Oddworld pack is stunning) I really feel for you. It's a pain.

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Wiper

Wiper

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'Anti Half Life' is probably the silliest combination of words I've ever seen on these hallowed pages.

Oh, come now, I've been posting my drivel for years now, I'm sure I've managed far sillier word combinations in the past - particularly when talking about Half-Life!

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CandyBob

CandyBob

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I'm embarrassed to say that I've never played the Witcher until now, and what an odd, odd game. It's wonderful obviously, but the english translation and acting are just, mental.

Looking forward to more mental when I get home. There's some hot witch totty that just won't put out.

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Wiper

Wiper

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Ah well you can't be as bad as Scottcr ;)

Aye, I guess I was saved from that fate by all the games companies I ever loved dying horribly (Looking Glass Studios, Ion Storm Austin) or becoming a shell of their former selves (Sega). So instead I just cry over what could have been, and rail against what is. Hmm.

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phresh

phresh

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For anyone who bought Bad Company 2 you can add the code to EADM and register it as the digital deluxe version* thus getting Vietnam for free.

Hopefully EA won't be able to filter the codes out as I can't download it until tonight.

*It gives the option to register the standard version or the digital deluxe version, make sure select the latter!

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cavalcade

cavalcade

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I removed "Miscrosoft Games for Windows Live - Live Redistributable" and "Miscrosoft Games for Windows Live - Live" then installed the file linked.

Rebooted, and tried to load up Batman AA again. Got the same error :(

Remove the GFW client again.

Update/Install .net Framework. Even 4, which it says it doesn't need, but actually sort of does occasionally. Run windows update and download every update to the framework, including point fixes.

Reinstall GFW-L.

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