games-for-windows-live posts

This past Thursday, Microsoft's latest PC operating system, Windows 7, was finally made available to the public via upgrades or new PC's pre-loaded with the OS. We've already talked about what PC gamers should know about Windows 7 and given you a history of Windows PC gaming. We've asked if you should even upgrade to Windows 7 and even given you the opinions of many game developers if they think Windows 7 will boost PC gaming. Now we want to do some speculation and maybe give Microsoft some advice on how they could take the opportunity to improve PC gaming now that they have a fresh new OS to play with.

Check out our ideas for Microsoft after the jump:

It's the day before Microsoft unleashes Windows 7 to the world at large and their latest operating system for PCs has gotten a lot of praise compared to Windows Vista, which was released with tons of performance problems and compatibility issues.

But what if you want to upgrade your existing PC or even buy a new one? The big question for you is whether an upgrade to Windows 7 is right for you. We try to give you the 411 in this latest feature.

Stardock head man Brad Wardell isn't afraid to state his opinion on pretty much any subject so in a recent Shacknews interview (conducted at PAX 2009 last month) it's no shock to hear him talk about Microsoft's efforts to promote PC gaming via their Games For Windows Live service.

Wardell stated he intended for Stardock's upcoming fantasy RPG Elemental to be a Games For Windows Live title. However, he adds that he found the conditions of working with Microsoft to be too hard. He states, " . . . if you want to use Games for Windows Live to update your game, you have to go through [their] certification. And if you do it more than X number of times, you have to pay money." Ultimately he says, "If Games for Windows Live maintains that strategy and they take over, I'm done. I'm not making PC games. I would be done." We don't think that's likely to happen, however, since many major PC game titles have bypassed Games For Windows entirely,

As we approach the launch of Windows 7 later this month, Microsoft naturally wants to show off some of its new features. As our sister site Joystiq reports, one of those features is multi-touch technology. In a chat with director of Windows consumer product management Perri Munsell it's mentioned that Microsoft wants to showcase games that use multi-touch features. Munsell is quoted as saying,"Cause multi-touch by itself? There's no magic there. Multi-touch with a great partner application? That's where the magic exists" No arguement here.

Munsell also talked about the recently revealed self-certification process that Microsoft has put in for upcoming Games For Windows titles. As expected, the idea behind such a move was to get smalller and independent games to have a "Games For Windows" label on them. That should increase the number of games that have the label in the near future. Of course we are sure Microsoft would love it if the major players in the PC game industry (Valve, Blizzard) had a Games For Windows label as well.

Last week, Batman: Arkham Asylum was released for the PC and quickly got its first free downloadable map pack. Tomorrow, publisher Eidos intends to release a second such free map pack for the super hero action game. The Prey in the Darkness Map Pack will be available exclusively via the Games For Windows Live Marketplace for the PC version.

One of the two new maps will be titled Heart of Darkness and is a Combat FreeFlow level where the Caped Crusader will fight off enemies at the Arkham Pumping Station. The other new map is an Invisible Predator level called Hothouse Prey where Batman will take out his foes silently in the Abandoned Glasshouse. Hopefully there won't be any issues with getting these levels available to download like there were last week with the first map pack.

Update: According to this Eidos message board post, it looks like this DLC will NOT be released for the PC after all. There's no word as to why this decision was made but we will try to find out some more info.

Update 2: Eidos sent over a press release announcing that the map pack would be exclusively for the PS3 only in the US and for the Xbox 360 and PS3 in Europe.

As promised, Eidos has made available the first free downloadable content for the just released PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The Insane Night Map Pack is only available from the Games For Windows Live Marketplace and is about 110 MB in size. The pack was released on Thursday but apparently there were some issues with some gamers being able to complete the download yesterday. Those problems appear to be addressed as we had no issues downloading and installing the map pack.

Just a reminder: the free map pack contains two new Challenge maps that are available to play immediately when installed in the game. One map, Totally Insane, takes place in Arkham's records room while the other, Nocturnal Hunter, has Batman trying to stay in the shadows while also taking out enemies.

Microsoft launched its Games for Windows marketing and certification program for PC games around the time of the Windows Vista OS launch. Since that time many publishers and developers have participated in the Games For Windows program but many others (most notably Valve, Blizzard and EA) have passed on offering their games for Games For Windows certification.

This week Microsoft announced new guidelines for developers and publishers to have their PC games certified for Games For Windows, including a way to certify their titles themselves. That should allow more PC games get that Games For Windows label. The new requirements were made in part to get PC games ready for the launch of Windows 7 next month. Games For Windows titles in Windows 7 must support the OS's parental control and ratings features, support for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and more.

As August comes to a close and we enter what is traditionally the busiest time of the year for PC gaming, we are looking back on the past 31 days to pick out what we believe were the top 10 news stories of the month for PC gaming. It was a time of new game announcements (thanks in part to Gamescom) but a lot of the news came from Blizzard's own event BlizzCon.

News stories we picked for the top 10 included the sad news of layoffs and even complete shutdowns of game developers, the release of a new version of a PC gaming client and word that a two year old console game might be released for the PC in an "AO" rated version. We also threw in a couple of extra news stories that, while big, didn't quite make the top 10 list.

Click on the image above to continue reading The Top 10 PC Game News Stories For August 2009

Leave it to Microsoft to not promote their next major update for their Games For Windows Live clients. However the 3.0 version of the PC gaming service is indeed now available for download at Microsoft's web site (there's no auto-update available as of the time of this post).

Aside from a brand new color scheme and art style there's not much that's been changed in the stand alone client's user interface. However, posts on the Games For Windows message boards indicate the in-game client for Games For Windows Live does have some new features such as being able to add Microsoft Points in the game itself to purchase add-on items. You can even change your GamerTag for a "mere" 800 points.

[Thanks to TheWax for the heads-up]

Update: The Games for Windows web site has now been updated announcing the 3.0 version is now available

When Games For Windows Live was first announced one of the most hyped features was its potiential to allow PC and Xbox 360 players to actually play against each other in multiplayer matches. However the cross-platform feature was only used in a few games and has largely been ignored by most Games For Windows Live titles.

The upcoming sci-fi shooter Section 8 will be offering something that is rarely seen in games. According to a new chat in Gamasutra, developer Timegate Studios will allow Xbox 360 players a way to create a dedicated server via the PC for their games. PC gamers won't be allowed to join the server so there will be no true cross-platform play available. However having an Xbox 360 server for Section 8 run on a PC will allow the game to support up to 32 players versus the normal 16 players.