About Steam and Games For Windows LIVE

So when I borrowed my cousin's Gears of War, it required (and installed) Games For Windows LIVE. I only had one problem with playing that game, and it was it failed to bookmark the chapters that I finished properly. I have since finished Gears Of War (PC) a last year.

When I bought The Orange Box, it installed Steam into my system and I found out that I had to download all The Orange Box games from Steam. Done that and I have long since finished all The Orange Box games, except of course for Team Fortress 2.

Now, the problem with Games For Windows LIVE are these:

1.) It installed in CHINESE.

2.) I can't seem to find a way to change the language to English.

3.) I installed the latest version, hoping that the first 2 problems would be solved with an update.

4.) Updating GFWL actually gave me another problem: I cannot access GFWL. It doesn't install any shortcuts ANYWHERE. It isn't in the desktop, not in the Start Menu, not even in the Games portion of the Start Menu (Vista Ultimate). The only way for me to access GFWL is to install it again and check on the "Run GFWL" box upon reinstallation.

Any insight as to why GFWL is so dumb?

The problems with Steam is this:

1.) I have fully downloaded and and even backed up all The Orange Box games.

2.) But now it is downloading YET AGAIN (not the full games that run up to gigabytes of data, just around less than 1GB of data this time. But still...).

Why does it do this? I mean, is it updating these games again? Hello, I mean does that mean that my backups of The Orange Box Games are no good anymore?

Moderator's Note: Censor bypasses removed. Please avoid doing that in the future.

Yes your backups are no good anymore, they constantly got patches recently, not only TF 2, but CS:S, HL 2 and Ep 1 too, you already knew the answer so...

As for your LIVE problem, no idea, from what I know the only way for it to install in another language would be to chose that specific language when it installs. Uninstall LIVE get ccleaner, get rid of unused dlls and registry files, install the latest version form the MS LIVE website and..hope for the best.

Yes your backups are no good anymore, they constantly got patches recently, not only TF 2, but CS:S, HL 2 and Ep 1 too, you already knew the answer so...

As for your LIVE problem, no idea, from what I know the only way for it to install in another language would be to chose that specific language when it installs. Uninstall LIVE get ccleaner, get rid of unused dlls and registry files, install the latest version form the MS LIVE website and..hope for the best.

DanielDust

Ok, same problem. There seems to be no shortcuts to ANY GFWL stuff. I need to access this damn thing directly. Any idea where the GFWL exe files are?

About Steam: But I finished the games already? What the heck are the updates for?

[QUOTE="DanielDust"]

Yes your backups are no good anymore, they constantly got patches recently, not only TF 2, but CS:S, HL 2 and Ep 1 too, you already knew the answer so...

As for your LIVE problem, no idea, from what I know the only way for it to install in another language would be to chose that specific language when it installs. Uninstall LIVE get ccleaner, get rid of unused dlls and registry files, install the latest version form the MS LIVE website and..hope for the best.

VicGI

Ok, same problem. There seems to be no shortcuts to ANY GFWL stuff. I need to access this damn thing directly. Any idea where the GFWL exe files are?

About Steam: But I finished the games already? What the heck are the updates for?

[QUOTE="VicGI"]

[QUOTE="DanielDust"]

Yes your backups are no good anymore, they constantly got patches recently, not only TF 2, but CS:S, HL 2 and Ep 1 too, you already knew the answer so...

As for your LIVE problem, no idea, from what I know the only way for it to install in another language would be to chose that specific language when it installs. Uninstall LIVE get ccleaner, get rid of unused dlls and registry files, install the latest version form the MS LIVE website and..hope for the best.

TerrorRizzing

Ok, same problem. There seems to be no shortcuts to ANY GFWL stuff. I need to access this damn thing directly. Any idea where the GFWL exe files are?

About Steam: But I finished the games already? What the heck are the updates for?

[QUOTE="TerrorRizzing"][QUOTE="VicGI"]

Ok, same problem. There seems to be no shortcuts to ANY GFWL stuff. I need to access this damn thing directly. Any idea where the GFWL exe files are?

About Steam: But I finished the games already? What the heck are the updates for?

Captain__Tripps

Ah, so my backups aren't so useless. Still, I'd like to backup the most recently updated versions, wouldn't you? Dang Team Fortress 2 update is 700+MB big. Holy...!

[QUOTE="Captain__Tripps"][QUOTE="TerrorRizzing"] ? what the heck are the backups for? Steam updates the source engine games often, sorry.VicGI

Ah, so my backups aren't so useless. Still, I'd like to backup the most recently updated versions, wouldn't you? Dang Team Fortress 2 update is 700+MB big. Holy...!

Geez! That would take 5 minutes to download! :|

I can't help you with GFW but Steam I can. Valve constantly updates there games with new content, which is most likely what you are seeing. To see what is being updated/added just go to the News for the game.

[QUOTE="VicGI"]

[QUOTE="Captain__Tripps"] You can re-install from backup, then just have steam update what has changed. Useful if you have a slow internet connection, or really even if you have the fastest internet possible its still faster to re-install from disk.Johnny_Rock

Ah, so my backups aren't so useless. Still, I'd like to backup the most recently updated versions, wouldn't you? Dang Team Fortress 2 update is 700+MB big. Holy...!

Geez! That would take 5 minutes to download! :|

Maybe to you. But not to me. ISP's here in the Philippines insist on "milking" the populace with pathetic offers and services (compared to our neighboring countires like Singapore, etc).

GFWL works fine for me on my one PC and on the other, it can't download updates so I have to manually download them, Which is no problem. I don't really see what people have against it.

GFW works fine for me on my one PC and on the Other, it can't download updates so I have to manually download them, Which is no prblem. I don't really see what people have against it.

Sta1k4r

Nowadays you can't game with 512mb of RAM, that's not enough for the Windows and how is 50mb a problem for an 160 HDD?

I don't like LIVE, I don't care about it, but those specs are not for a PC that is able to play games, office, maybe, just maybe movies, but not games.

Nowadays you can't game with 512mb of RAM, that's not enough for the Windows and how is 50mb a problem for an 160 HDD?

I don't like LIVE, I don't care about it, but those specs are not for a PC that is able to play games, office, maybe, just maybe movies, but not games.

DanielDust

i neither like GFWL nor care about it, either. but the question still remains, why put up with it if it has no use? because the developers said so? if the developer or publisher wants me to use it, they should put something worthwhile in it for me. not say "here is a great game, and for you to play it we are gonna shove a piece of crappy software down your throat, enjoy!".Kh1ndjal

[QUOTE="Sta1k4r"]

GFWL works fine for me on my one PC and on the Other, it can't download updates so I have to manually download them, Which is no problem. I don't really see what people have against it.

Kh1ndjal

Thanks man, I now understand And You are almost 100% right... But Achievements which makes you 99% right but at least it isn't the new Ubisoft DRM... Always connected to the internet my ASS.

[QUOTE="Johnny_Rock"]

[QUOTE="VicGI"]

p>

Ah, so my backups aren't so useless. Still, I'd like to backup the most recently updated versions, wouldn't you? Dang Team Fortress 2 update is 700+MB big. Holy...!

VicGI

Geez! That would take 5 minutes to download! :|

Maybe to you. But not to me. ISP's here in the Philippines insist on "milking" the populace with pathetic offers and services (compared to our neighboring countires like Singapore, etc).

Its not only isp problem . I have pretty good connection , not the best , but i can download at ~5-7MB/s speed. Now any time i try to download the game from steam , i get ~500-600 kb/s . Problem is that Valve has decent servers only i US , and dont care too much about other places...

GFWL works fine for me on my one PC and on the other, it can't download updates so I have to manually download them, Which is no problem. I don't really see what people have against it.

Sta1k4r

The GFWL shortcut is in Start -> All Programs -> Microsoft Games for Windows Live folder

If for whatever reason you don't have that program group, here's the shortcut. "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Games for Windows - LIVE\Client\GFWLive.exe"

That's on Windows 7 64.. obv look a little different depending on your OS.

I had a lot of issues trying to get GFWL working for Universe at War... there were two versions of GFWL, the original one that required patching that never seemed to work, and an updated version that I didn't need to download any patches for.

Great discussion so far.

Nothing like new info based on actual user experience.

Keep it coming guys.