Games For Windows Live Rant

After setting up Dark Souls: Prepare To Die, which I am enjoying very much and will write about a little later after I die a few more dozen times, lol, and remember to get a screen shot.  I am making progress which is very satisfying.   Most of the early deaths were due to not being familiar with the gamepad after so many years of not using one, and luckily I already had a 360 gamepad that I bought last year for another game and never used so I didn't have to go out and buy one.

All the later deaths are because the game is brutally unforgiving, which I'm loving, the combat is awesome and I need to practice more.

BUT I'm about to have a raging apopleptic fit over Games For Windows Live.

GFWL...doesn't even deserve it's full title.   What a rage inducing piece of crappy software.  Many people hate STEAM but I'd have that any day than the debacle I went through with Live.  In fact I've never had a problem with STEAM and I've used it since the Half Life days.

OK, so I install the game and have to setup a Live account which I knew the game would have but wholeheartedly wish it didn't.  I really wanted the game so I'm not complaining about not knowing about it beforehand.

The login is your email address which is pretty easy you would think, but no, it wouldn't accept that and kept telling me either my email or password was incorrect.   I tried more than half a dozen times until I discovered it wouldn't accept my email address which is from the largest ISP in Australia for heaven's sake.

So I had to change it to my Yahoo address which was accepted.   I then get an email at said Yahoo address to verify the email so when I try to do that I get a blank page OR a Live page saying there's a problem and "Try again later."  Later is two days ago with several attempts until I finally searched Google and found out how to get them to send me another confirmation email, which actually worked.

Stupidly, I ticked the boxes to auto log me into the game so I don't have to enter the details every time and now when I start the game I see another person's user name flash by at the top of the screen and I seem to be logged as that person in the game.  I cannot find out how to change the auto login for the game despite extensive searching and the Live help files don't say anything about it.  I can login to the Live site with the correct details but can't change that bit, so who bloody knows.

When I get over my rage I MIGHT reinstall the game although I don't want to and see if that fixes it, but I'm not hopeful.

Edit:  Sorted this out or at least found out it is my account but not the user name I provided.  At least I can play the game so I suppose it's something. 

This is THE last game I will ever buy with GFWL no matter how much I want it.   I'm going to try and setup an offline account which will probably mess with my saves but I'm not that far in so I can live with it as long as I can actually save offline.

Big Brother Is Watching Indeed

Well we shouldn't be surprised at this.   The Australian Government has passed new Cybercrime laws to enable unprecedented access to our information.  1984 here we come.  That's the book by George Orwell for anyone unfamiliar with the term.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four

It can be argued that if you're doing nothing wrong you don't have to be worried, but let's see how long before this is misused.

http://au.news.yahoo.com/technology/news/article/-/14642453/amended-cybercrime-bill-passes-senate/

In case the article is changed or the page moved I'm quoting it here. 

"New Cybercrime laws have passed the parliament, allowing the government unprecedented access to our information. What do the changes mean for you?
Phone carriers will soon have to store text messages, emails and other data to help police fight cybercrime.
Government legislation that will allow the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and foreign law enforcement agencies to seek communications data under warrants cleared the Senate on Wednesday.
The bill allows for increased co-operation between local and overseas cybercrime investigators, extends the scope of existing Commonwealth computer offences and brings Australia into line with the Council of Europe Convention on Cybercrime.
Attorney-General Nicola Roxon hailed the passage of the bill.
"This will help combat criminal offences relating to forgery, fraud, child pornography and infringement of copyright and intellectual property," she said in a statement.
During the Senate debate on Wednesday, Australian Greens senator Scott Ludlam raised concerns about stored data being given to foreign countries for use in criminal cases involving the death penalty.
But cabinet minister Joe Ludwig argued the federal police had strict guidelines about the level of co-operation it provides to foreign agencies.
Senator Ludlam argued there was a need for laws to catch up on technological developments so authorities could net tech savvy cyber criminals, however, privacy protection should not be completely sacrificed.
He pointed to the location data from mobile phones as an area in need of privacy safeguards.
Opposition legal affairs spokesman George Brandis said Senator Ludlam's concerns about privacy were laughable because he was a key supporter of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who had published thousands of diplomatic cables.
In doing so Assange had disregarded the privacy of those mentioned in the cables.
The Senate passed government amendments to address 12 out of 13 recommendations from the joint select committee on cyber-safety, covering privacy protections and assistance to foreign agencies.
The amended Cybercrime Legislation Amendment Bill 2011 will go back to the lower house for approval."

Dark Souls - Prepare To Die

Finally!   I've been waiting for this game, watching Youtube videos and reading about it for ages and now I have it in my hands.   Picked it up today from EBGames and it includes a hi precision gaming mouse, a beautiful artbook, poster, soundtrack and behind the scenes disc...all for $68.00 Australian.

I just got home so haven't installed it yet, and I'll post my impressions a bit later, but I'm excited to actually play this game.  I'm not a newbie at combat games of this type and this might be me for a bit with this game, but I can't wait to get into it.   

 I'm afraid Skyrim is going on the back burner for the foreseeable future, probably until a game of the year edition comes out in a year or so if I even care by then.  I have no intention of buying Dawnguard or any other DLC until, and if ever the bugs are actually addressed by Bethesda and their treatment of the PS3 players is sorted out to their satisfaction.    I must say I'm surprised and dismayed at them this time round and their forums, (particularly the PS3 section) are running hot with complaints that are not answered.  I'm not going into all that here though as anyone can read up for themselves, but I do know if their next game uses the Gamebryo engine, even tweaked as the Creation engine, I won't be buying any of their buggy games in the future.

I just hope they don't screw over Arkane Studios with Dishonored.  One of my favourite games in years past was Arx Fatalis and that was a game well ahead of it's time.  I'm tempted to pre-order Dishonored, and probably will unless I can resist the temptation and wait for user reviews. 

Anyway, I'm now about to install Dark Souls and see how far I get before I die. 

Addit:  Well that was quick.  Even though EBGames was allowed to sell it from today (23rd August) it seems I can't play until Friday 24th when Windows Live says it's actually released.  Oh well, at least it's installed.
I called EBGames to let them know in case they get calls from angry customers...lol.