Games and Windows 7 : Games for Windows - LIVE (part 2) - Accessing Games for Windows - LIVE from within Compatible Games

2.2. Accessing Games for Windows - LIVE from within Compatible Games

You're really only participating in the best of what Games for Windows - LIVE offers when you're playing a compatible game, which still amounts to a pretty small selection of titles. Most game developers today are forgoing the Games for Windows - LIVE program and simply doing their own thing. Or, they're signing up for the less inclusive "Games for Windows" logo program instead. These games supply some of the benefits of Games for Windows -LIVE but none of the online capabilities. That's not to say that you can't play these games online. It means that these games aren't tied into Microsoft's Live network in any way.

Clearly, a better way to handle this would be for Microsoft to create a pervasive Games for Windows - LIVE client, available via Games Explorer and Windows Live Messenger and elsewhere in Windows, which could be accessed both inside and outside of Live-compatible game titles. But since you don't have that kind of seamless experience, we will instead examine what you do get.

Boot up a Live-compatible title like Quantum of Solace, Fallout 3, or Grand Theft Auto IV and you can access the Live service by pressing the Home button on your keyboard, as shown in Figure 5.

As you can see, this is a reasonable facsimile of the Xbox Guide, which you access on the Xbox 360 when you press the Xbox button on the controller. From here, you can access your Gamertag's Gamer Profile, as shown in Figure 6; your Messages, Friends, and Players lists; a Private Chat area for one-on-one voice conversations; and Settings, which includes Voice, Notifications, and some other features. (The Xbox 360 offers additional functionality, such as Vibration, Themes, Active Downloads, and Shut Down, most of which are specific to the Xbox 360 console.)

Figure 5. The Live experience in Windows requires a compatible game and supplies much of the functionality Xbox 360 users are familiar with.

Figure 6. Your Gamer Profile provides information about you that is accessible to others on Live.

Unlike with the 360's Xbox Dashboard, you no longer see virtual Xbox 360 controller buttons throughout the UI. Instead, the Games for Windows - LIVE Guide is now more PC-oriented, and designed primarily to work with the keyboard and mouse. That said, you can in fact use an Xbox 360 controller with Windows 7 and with the Games for Windows -LIVE interface, and the controller buttons all work similarly to how they work on the console. (The red "B" button is "Back," for example.) However, on Windows, you can also press the corresponding keyboard key (like the b key) to perform the same actions, which is handy and logical, especially for those without Xbox 360 controllers, which is most PC gamers, we'd imagine.

The Games for Windows - LIVE experience provides some interesting functionality, including the following:

• Accessing and modifying information associated with your Gamertag: You can view your Gamerscore, Rep, and other related info, access overall and individual game Achievements (see Figure 7), and so on. Account management occurs outside the client: If you access this option, you'll be presented with an IE browser window.

  Figure 7. You can look up all of your game Achievements, whether they occurred on the Xbox 360 or on Windows.

  

• Friends: This is the list of people with whom you have created online relationships. As with the Xbox 360, this list is ordered with those who are currently online at the top, followed by the remainder of your Friends listed in alphabetical order. You can see what your online Friends are up to (which game they're playing, or other Xbox 360 experiences they're enjoying, such as Windows Media Center or browsing the Xbox Dashboard).

• Messages: Here, you can access messages sent through the Xbox Live/Games for Windows - LIVE network. These messages are e-mail–like in nature, as shown in Figure 8, but can include audio and video messages in addition to normal text messages (the latter of which are limited to 255 characters).You can create new text and audio messages from the client, but not video messages. You can send and approve Friend requests as well.

  Figure 8. It's like e-mail, but you can only access and send these messages from an Xbox 360 or a Games for Windows - LIVE compatible game.

  

  NOTE

  Okay, you can actually access some of these messages from Microsoft's web-based interface as well, found at www.xbox.com. Note that some messages sent from older Xbox games can only be accessed from within those games. This is less of a problem than it used to be, but some classic Xbox games—notably Halo 2— are still quite popular for some reason.

• Players: This is the list of Xbox Live/Games for Windows - LIVE users with whom you've competed recently online. As with the Friends list, players who are currently online appear at the top of the list. All the normal functions are available, so you can submit a player review, file a complaint, mute them, send a message or invite them to a private chat, or send a Friend Request.

• Private Chat: Here, you can engage in up to five separate one-on-one audio chats with Friends and other players. This requires an Xbox 360 controller with an attached headset or any Windows-compatible microphone.

• Settings: In this submenu, you can configure your Voice options (playback and recording volume, plus access to sound hardware and a Mute Microphone option); Notifications (even more limited than on the 360: You can toggle Show Notifications and Play Sound only); and other features, such as the Guide key, which is set to the Home key by default.

Looking at the big picture, it's hard to escape the conclusion that Microsoft has delivered the absolute minimum here: Games for Windows - LIVE provides a single online identity with a unified contacts list that combines people you communicate with on the Xbox 360 and the PC. So much other obvious functionality is missing in action. For example, there's no way to change a Gamertag picture to any picture you can access from the PC. And you can't access the tremendous Xbox Live Marketplace from the PC at all, though Microsoft is arguably working toward some of this functionality in its related Games for Windows -LIVE Marketplace and Zune Marketplace . There are few downloadable games, and certainly nothing like the popular Xbox Live Arcade titles.

In any event, Games for Windows - LIVE is here, and if you're a dedicated gamer, it's still worth looking into, especially if you're an Achievements fanatic.