Games for Windows Live

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Does anyone else get really frustrated with the Games for Windows Live service? I have one game that uses it, and every single freaking time I have tried to play it for the last few months I have had to update Games for Windows Live first. I have the best internet connection money can buy for my area and it takes me about 10-15 minutes to get the update, during which time I can't play the game. It would be less annoying if the updates weren't every second day, weren't so large in download size and if the service didn't have the updates as mandatory before you could log in.

I have most of my games on Steam, which I've never had a problem with whatsoever, I don't know why Games for Windows Live isn't more like Steam. With Steam updates I don't even notice it's updating, I only get a popup after it finishes downloading an update in the background so it can restart, which takes about 30 seconds.

Thankfully, I've never tried any.

Don't think I'd have much luck with it anyway, isn't it Vista-only?

The biggest thing I personally dislike about Games for Windows Live is that it's not even optional. Now, this wouldn't be a problem if say it wasn't in the way at all, but it very much is. You barely see Steam in all while in game, not to mention the interface isn't bloated at all. Then if you buy a game that uses Games For Windows Live on Steam you get stuck with both interfaces popping up. (Take Fallout 3 as an example)

That was the original plan, and at Vista's debut Microsoft released one semi-alright but heavily old game (Halo 2) and a very crappy game (Shadowrun) so this predictably gained very few sales. Also they were patched by third parties to work on XP as they do on Vista. So, due to this, future titles such as Gears of War that use the service were made compatible with Windows XP as well.