I wanted to play a quick game of FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage yesterday. I've had the game for a while but I had not played it before so I thought I would check it out and maybe get a few good races in.

Okay, so I don't remember how long the installation took as I had installed it before (thank God), just hadn't had the time to actually play it. The first thing that happens when I click the icon to launch the game is like the billionth nonskippable DirectX installation I get with a PC game. The small window told me that this was 1 out of 5 required things that it wanted to install before launching the game so I left it to do its thing. Not much else I could have done anyway, the only other option was "cancel". 10 minutes later I check back and it's finally done.

I click the icon to launch the game since apparently it wasn't going to launch itself. Nothing happens. I keep trying to make it run but to no avail.

After checking multiple threads on Steam Forums I find the reason for my game not running, and a solution. Games for Windows Live. Which is dead. The game won't run without it. Not even offline.

I follow the link on the site to the new alternative, Games for Windows Marketplace. After downloading and installing this program I don't even want for this one game the installer asks me to run it but I accidentally click "close". No biggie, I just go to my Quickstart to run it from Programs. The window it opens is nothing like the one I just closed. This one has two checkboxes for settings, a couple of Windows links, an OK button to continue and a Cancel button to quit. OK closes the program. Links are dead. Checkboxes do nothing. This is the only related program I can run after the installation.

Only solution: install the program again. Now I click "launch" instead of "close". I get the "sign in" window that I wanted to see and check if I actually have a Windows Live Marketplace ID for some reason. My usual password and email combination result in an "unknown error" so I click "create new account". Link is dead. All links on the window are dead apart from one...

Open browser again, go to the Windows Live Marketplace webpage, create a new account. Email already in use. I figure I must then have an account for unknown reasons and sign in through the website. Works perfectly. Now that I have signed in on the browser version it stops giving me the "unknown error" on the program and I can sign in. Again.

Run the game, finally get a setup window. After some tweaking I launch the game. It runs and all is good. Well, only until the opening video ends and it wants me to sign in to Windows Live Marketplace through the game. Again.

This time I don't even get a mouse on the screen for who knows why and have to TAB my way through everything.

"Oh, hey, you are running an old version of our program and need to update it so you can actually play the game." Click update, wait for the update, install the update, game closes. Window pops up that tells me I have to restart my computer to apply the changes.

Click "no". Fuck this. I spent an hour to make a game run only to end up having to reboot my system to play the game.

In this time I could have just popped my copy of FlatOut 2 to my PS2 and get all gold in a full cup. All I wanted was a couple of races. Wasted time and didn't even get to play the thing.


Moral of the story: People who keep saying playing on a PC is somehow better are idiots. You can take your lame slogan and shove it.

Honestly, only if you REALLY need to have the most perfect high end graphics and fps should you get a gaming PC. 800€ spent on PC. My PS2 cost me a whopping 25€.

Oh, and before someone tells me "but that was just one game", NO. Shut your dirty mouth. I've had to do this ritual dozens of times with games both old and new. For the most not even once but multiple times, every time I either get a new computer or update/fix my current one.

Now tell me about how that latest game you just got looks so much better on a PC than on a PS4/Xbone.

Yeah, GFWL is pretty bad. Don't understand why certain companies force some Always Online DRM and then act surprised when someone just pirates it because they hate that hassle.

To be honest, Games for Windows LIVE is pretty shitty and the only good thing that came out of using it is the ability to link your profile to Xbox.com.

But other than that, yeah there will be more technical problems but PC just is a better platform. It's more of a fact than an opinion. The level of output that your graphics card on a PC can do makes like PS4 and Xbox One already look outdated and I'm someone who is far far more rooted into console gaming that PC. I have a gaming PC. I don't really care too much for PC gaming. But I like being able to play games in 1440p with 16x AA, with the highest lighting effects and make use of DX10 etc makes the experience a lot better.

Again, I'm someone who always prefer consoles but I'm not going to disagree with the obvious fact, PCs just are better systems for playing games.

Out of curiosity, what are you specs?

(07-02-2014, 06:30 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote: The level of output that your graphics card on a PC can do makes like PS4 and Xbox One already look outdated[...]I like being able to play games in 1440p with 16x AA, with the highest lighting effects and make use of DX10 etc makes the experience a lot better.

(07-02-2014, 04:56 AM)Mass Distraction Wrote: Honestly, only if you REALLY need to have the most perfect high end graphics and fps should you get a gaming PC.

Seriously. I don't care for any of that stuff. I just want to play games.

(07-02-2014, 06:30 AM)BumblebeeCody Wrote: Out of curiosity, what are you specs?

I don't even remember but I'm running some pretty dated hardware. This computer was built like 5-6 years ago. Back then this was da bomb. To be fair, the game I was trying to run here was released around the same time so that was not the problem. I'll do some checking for ye...

I have like 4Gb or RAM, GeForce 9800 GTX+ and my OS is Windows 7 Something Something edition. Processor is an Intel quad core, no idea what the name of it is. As far as my HDD goes, I forgot what company it was from.

(07-02-2014, 07:03 AM)Mass Distraction Wrote: I don't even remember but I'm running some pretty dated hardware. This computer was built like 5-6 years ago. Back then this was da bomb. To be fair, the game I was trying to run here was released around the same time so that was not the problem. I'll do some checking for ye...

I have like 4Gb or RAM, GeForce 9800 GTX+ and my OS is Windows 7 Something Something edition. Processor is an Intel quad core, no idea what the name of it is. As far as my HDD goes, I forgot what company it was from.

For future reference:
Start > Run > dxdiag.
That'll give you your specs. In all honesty you're using a GeForce 9 series which isn't quite low on the benchmark tests. I still don't understand the thinking behind those cards. That being said this could be any problem. Though I don't doubt that GFWL gave you some serious BS irritation. PCs do come with some serious annoyances that consoles don't. When it comes to performance though, PC master race is hard to disagree with.

(07-02-2014, 03:58 PM)BumblebeeCody Wrote: For future reference:
Start > Run > dxdiag.

It's not that I wouldn't know about that, it's just that I always forget what that last thing was :P

(07-02-2014, 03:58 PM)BumblebeeCody Wrote: In all honesty you're using a GeForce 9 series which isn't quite low on the benchmark tests. I still don't understand the thinking behind those cards. That being said this could be any problem. Though I don't doubt that GFWL gave you some serious BS irritation.

To be fair I have never had any problem with my graphics cards, except for the times they have actually broken down. And while in this instance it was indeed GFWL that gave me problems, that's only one of the many I've had in the past with dozens of other games. I absolutely hate going through all kinds of arduous crap when all I want is to play a game for a while.

(07-02-2014, 03:58 PM)BumblebeeCody Wrote: When it comes to performance though, PC master race is hard to disagree with.

I find the whole "master race" argument easy to disagree with. I don't care for the perfect performance and graphical quality. At all. Like... Not even in the slightest. I would rather just focus on having fun with the game.