Ever since I saw Games for Windows Live and found out that Microsoft would allow Silver members to play online for free, I was very excited to see that some of the games I wanted were supporting it (Gears of War, Halo 2, Lost Planet: CE), but there are not many games on GFW Live at all. Personally, as long as Microsoft doesn't force PC gamers to pay to play, I'm ok with it. I can do fine and well without paying monthly just for online multiplayer achievements in Gears of War that I may never really even get to, seeing as it would take more than a month, which is the free GFW Live Gold trial that comes with the newer Live games.

But another reason I don't plan to pay for GFW Live gold, especially right now, is the fact there are scant to none games that support the damn thing. Why should I pay for a service that doesn't have a decent amount of games backing up the monthly payments? Would I be getting my money's worth? Not with this library. There are plenty of GFW games, but here's another issue: NONE of them have ACHIEVEMENTS like their Live counterparts. You think that Microsoft would include achievements in all of their games, and not just the ones on live. Maybe they could include the Live interface for all the GFW games and maybe add a patch for achievements for some?

I just want something to justify why I'm getting a certain game over the PS3 counterpart, when the PS3 will be coming up with trophies soon, and Microsoft obviously wants to attract their PC gaming audience. So why not have all the games support achievements? Even achievements for Tomb Raider Anniversary on the PC would be nice. At least I'd feel that collecting all those artifacts, unlocking everything without cheating, and time it took to find some of those items would have been put to good use.

I don't think it would kill Microsoft to add achievements to the PC games under the GFW name like they do with the games for Xbox 360. Maybe there's something I'm not taking into account here. Maybe companies are currently unable to add it to the games. Even still, couldn't Microsoft provide the framework for the companies to include it in their games? Or have a download for PC gamers to use once they've gone over the game with the company to create achievements, so that the achievements are already there and ready to be unlocked when the person buys the game?

Maybe I should explain my thought more clearly: Have a Live component download where you can create your account and gamertag outside of a game instead of in it. Microsoft would have the achievements for a specific game ready for said game's launch day, OR the company developing the game would send the achievements to Microsoft to upload on live. Figure something out so that all GFW games that come out now have achievements in them. Seeing as I am not in Microsoft's position, or any of the other companies, I suppose I will never understand. But at least I can ponder, and hope.

What do you think?

~TJ

UPDATE: Here's a list on Wikipedia of GFW games with tallies that state what each game has (Live, Achievements, etc.) Look at this and you'll see how scarce Live PC games with achievements are:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Games_for_Windows_titles

However, I am very excited that the upcoming Crysis stand alone expansion will support GFW Live and have achievements. Sweet.

Just got Gears of War for the PC. Feel free to add me.

~TJ

If you've got a PS3 and GTA IV, add my S/N and we can do some multiplayer madness. I wish I got GTA before the game night...figured I'd miss it but oh well. I never laughed so hard in my life when I was playing Multiplayer free mode.

~TJ