Age of Empires III for $0.10

Already have the original DVD version. Now I have the full collection.
 
This is what I was waiting for to install this thing. I hope I don't regret it.

Edit: Anybody else confused as to why this costs $40.00 in the first place?
 
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Thanks. My father was just asking me to find him a copy since he lost his DVD. He never had the expansions. Hopefully it is as easy as Steam though knowing Microsoft it won't be.
 
you can also use ur MS points wich is 10 points. I dont like GFWL either but for 10 points this is a steal
 
For those that don't know, you have to buy through the GFWL application to get the price. Also, bioshock is $2.
 
450 said:
Why does everyone hate GFWL?
Click to expand...

I'll explain why...

Until 10 min ago, [email protected] was my login ID to GFWL...

Log in 10 min ago, it forces an update... After that, it immediately stops working, and won't let me login...

Wrong ID... I know my ID's right? Okay, went through their website by clicking on the GFWL client and changed my password... Sent my confirm e-mail, etc...

Go back to GFWL client... password still not working, wrong ID...

Wrong ID?

After 10 min of trying everything, I forced my login to [email protected] (all lowercase)

Yes, that worked!

Never mind that capital T worked 10 min ago, and that if I log-out, the sign-in info is back to defaulting to Tolyngee, which does not work...

I finally just figured out that if I tell it to "forget profile", I was finally able to make it forget Tolyngee and accept tolyngee as default...

Until I created a new profile, it was seeing tolyngee = Tolyngee, and would default back to Tolyngee which no longer works, but did work 10 min earlier...

MS products are utter, utter, utter crap...
 
Maybe that ain't so bad after all...

30 min ago I was half asleep, and was planning to just quickly pay a dime and buy the game and go to bed...

But after having to dick around with my login for 20 min to be able to buy the game, I'm all liquored-up and pissed off now...

Game's even done downloading already, so may as well play it. Thanks MS, worked better than coffee!
 
Im confused, what are they Microsoft points? I have some achievement points I guess? Theres a "G" next to them... are they worth anything?
 
If this was steam I'd eat it up right away but meh, I already have the Dawn of War and Call of Duty games which I'd much rather play then Age of Empires.
 
450 said:
Why does everyone hate GFWL?
Click to expand...

Well, there's a lot of reasons. It has it's good aspects (cross platform stats/friends list between PC and 360), but for the most part it's a buggy mess and redundant waste that feels like an obstacle to be overcome rather than a convenient service. I'll just recount my most recent encounter with GFWL:

I picked up Batman: AA a while back during a Steam sale. It installs, I open the launcher, set my graphic settings and start the game. I paste the key into SecuRom for activation. So far, so good. I get into the game and GFWL pops up, telling me it needs to install (I didn't currently have GFWL installed since I hadn't installed any of the games that require it since my last reformat which was quite a while back). A progress bar comes up, sits for a minute, then closes the game. It continues to install for a couple minutes, then says I need to restart the computer. I roll my eyes, then let it restart while wondering why GFWL needs to restart the computer when no other game or game client does.

Anyway, the computer pops back on. I load up Steam and launch Batman, thinking that the hassle was over with and I could just play. I get in, it asks me to log into a GFWL account. I enter my account info (which I've had since the launch of GFWL, though I hadn't used it in a couple years). No good. At this point, I'm tired of waiting and I just want to play. I create an offline account and jump into the game. I play for a little while (and enjoy it) before closing it out to get some work done. The next time I start the game up, it lets me know that since I am using an offline account that if I reinstall the game or install it on another computer I won't have any of my saved content. I had some time to kill, so I decided to try and get my account working.

Went through all the steps, no luck. Said screw it, and just created a new one. Had to close the game. Re-launched and was prompted to give my key again. Wouldn't allow me to paste it, so i had to type it out while switching back and forth from the steam overlay (so I could see my key). It accepts, and I have to restart the game AGAIN. Finally got in, and started playing. I thought all was good and I wouldn't have to worry about it again. Now I could just play. Then I decided to hook up my game pad (a PS2 controller with a dual USB adapter) instead of using the mouse and keyboard. The left stick was inverted, and the right stick was rotated (left was up, up was right etc), but that is an issue with the game it's self, not GFWL. I closed out and edited the config file to get it sorted.

I then relaunched the game, GFWL auto logs me in, then abruptly logs me out. I try to sign back in, no dice. I restart the game, same thing. I decide that being able to have access to my saved content between computers/formats isn't worth the hassle, so I try using my offline account, no luck. Every time I log in it immediately boots me out and the little window pops up to let me know that I wont be able to save my game. After screwing around with it for entirely too long, I figure out that it was the game pad. It would let me log in as long as it was disconnected. I later figured out that it was all because I had the controller plugged into what the computer was reading as the #2 slot of my USB adapter, and for whatever reason GFWL didn't like that (Batman would play fine, I just couldn't log into GFWL and thus couldn't save the game).

Now it's all sorted, and it runs fine... but it really wasn't worth the effort for a service that I have absolutely no use for (especially since I am using Batman through Steam, and SecuRom was used for DRM). That's what I don't like about GFWL. It's a pointless piece of software that just seems to get in the way. If you wan't to keep in touch with your XBOX Live buddies wile on the PC or have your computer game achievements listed along side your XBOX achievements, then you might have a use for it. I don't need, nor care about either of those things, so I have no use for it. Even if it ran flawlessly, I wouldn't want it because it is simply taking up space. But it doesn't run flawlessly.

You'll have some people who say they've never had a problem with it, as with almost any maligned software. I wish I could say the same... but I can't. Unfortunately, I fall in to the majority of people who have had nothing but headaches with GFWL since it's inception. It's not just blind, irrational hate because it's a Microsoft product. There are real reasons why people despise it. What I posted above is just my latest experience with it. I'm sure if I were to install another game that required it, there would be less hassle as half of it was installing and setting up an account. But it's still buggy software, and problems are going to pop up that I don't have to deal with on other game clients. I'm going to post a link to a recent discussion on another board. The question was asked (by an acquittance of someone on the GFWL team), "Why does GFWL suck, and how can it be improved?". The disscussion covers most of what is wrong with GFWL, and why people don't want to use it. It also points out that the GFWL team doesn't even KNOW what is wrong with their client, and why it is inferior to platforms such as Steam (all the while crying about a Steam monopoly lol).

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=404721

Sorry for the novel. I suppose I could have just said "GFWL Sucks!" and been done with it. :p
 
Krieger91 said:
Im confused, what are they Microsoft points? I have some achievement points I guess? Theres a "G" next to them... are they worth anything?
Click to expand...

Nope. You have to buy Microsoft Points. It's like their own currency. The basic idea is that you can only buy them in bundles (like say, 250 points at a time which runs you $25), but the price of games doesn't ever add up to the points you have in your account. So in order to buy a $20 game, you have to buy $25 worth of Microsoft Points, and will have $5 left in your account after your purchase. They try and work it out so that you will always have unused points sitting in your account, that way they get money for essentially selling you nothing. Not that Microsoft is the only company doing it... it's a pretty popular system for selling DLC.
 
450 said:
Why does everyone hate GFWL?
Click to expand...

Because lots of people, including myself have had problems with it. When I installed Batman last year, something went wrong and not only did Batman not work properly after that, all other GFWl games I had installed at the time (which were working properly) stopped working as well. RE5, Red Faction 3, SF4 and Batman, all went to hell because of GFWL.

And the worst part? Not even God himself can help you troubleshoot a problem with GFWL should you be so unfortunate as to get one. Their forums are worthless, their knowledge base articles are worthless, their support is worthless. The system was down for me until they finally did a full patch for the GFWL service (which I might add is very rare).
 
Is it worth it? I tried running the gfwl client I have from batman and gta.. and it crashes?
 
Krieger91 said:
Is it worth it? I tried running the gfwl client I have from batman and gta.. and it crashes?
Click to expand...

Worked great for me. Just like steam IMO. So much hate but it runs just like steam on my PC (though faster).

See the marketplace, see the games, change setting. That's it. Windows 7 64-bit here.
 
This game don't use the GFWL that everyone is thinking of, it's just the market place. Kind of like steam to buy games. Their is no Live thing like in Batman and the likes.

This is a great deal. Unlike Steam I don't have to have the market place window open to play my games :).

Don't get me wrong, I'll use both Live and Steam. Most of my games are on Steam though :).
 
3 games...10 cents? Now if they would have done this on day one...

That being said. Not bad at all. I really like that I don't need the client running to play games. Not bad at all.
 
I already had a GFWL account from buying Batman AA for $10 or something aways back so grabbing AOE3+expansions was a steal for me too.
Just looked at my receipt and laughed at ".10cents for game and .01 cent tax.
Total charge to AMEX card $.11":)
 
If I could just buy the game and download an installer, I'd be all over this. As it stands, you need a GFWL account, an XBOX Live account, and a Live account to get the game, as far as I can tell. Too much hassle for a game I'll probably play 5 times.
 
I made an account and I find AOE3 and it says to me. "Infelizmente esta oferta está disponível somente para assinantes Xbox LIVE Gold."

WTF?
 
Spetsdod said:
If I could just buy the game and download an installer, I'd be all over this. As it stands, you need a GFWL account, an XBOX Live account, and a Live account to get the game, as far as I can tell. Too much hassle for a game I'll probably play 5 times.
Click to expand...

Uhh...All of those accounts are the same bloody thing. A Live account encompass ALL of MS' services.
 
Spetsdod said:
If I could just buy the game and download an installer, I'd be all over this. As it stands, you need a GFWL account, an XBOX Live account, and a Live account to get the game, as far as I can tell. Too much hassle for a game I'll probably play 5 times.
Click to expand...

Well, to give MS a little credit, I was delighted to find that after having bought and downloaded the game through the client with some hassle, there is no need to start the client again to play and no GFWL inside the game itself.
 
Derangel said:
Uhh...All of those accounts are the same bloody thing. A Live account encompass ALL of MS' services.
Click to expand...

Yeah but the way MS has it setup is confusing and just overall hard to understand imo. I tried to login at GFWL and it told me I had not agreed to updated xbox live terms. I was thinking WTF I do not even own a xbox. So before I even get onto GFWL I have to go to the xbox live website and login. I do this and accept the terms and see what games I have there, turns out FO3 and GTA4 are counted under My Xbox. Its just confusing as hell imo.

On a side note, you do not need points to purchase.
 
infect0 said:
Yeah but the way MS has it setup is confusing and just overall hard to understand imo. I tried to login at GFWL and it told me I had not agreed to updated xbox live terms. I was thinking WTF I do not even own a xbox. So before I even get onto GFWL I have to go to the xbox live website and login. I do this and accept the terms and see what games I have there, turns out FO3 and GTA4 are counted under My Xbox. Its just confusing as hell imo.

On a side note, you do not need points to purchase.
Click to expand...

Yeah it's retarded, I ended up signing for Xbox Live and it signed me up to Brazil for some reason when I clearly picked Canada.
 
Fuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkk.

So I download the game then try to install and it asks for a cdkey? Where the fuck am I supposed to find the cd key?

Under downloads I know you can View Game Keys for the game but mine says No key assigned....ffs.
 
infect0 said:
Fuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkk.

So I download the game then try to install and it asks for a cdkey? Where the fuck am I supposed to find the cd key?

Under downloads I know you can View Game Keys for the game but mine says No key assigned....ffs.
Click to expand...

Update:

They ran out of keys.

"Due to the overwhelming success of the Age of Empires III sale, we have temporarily run out of keys to unlock the game. You can still buy the game at this amazing price and you will get/see a key in the next week. When new keys are added to the system you will be auto-assigned a key, there is no need to call support or take any other action from your end. We will post here on the forums when the keys are available and the next time you click 'View Game Keys' for the game you should be assigned one.

Thank you for your patience and we hope you enjoy the game."

http://forums.gamesforwindows.com/p/15700/135170.aspx#135170
 
I've never had any issues with GFWL. People look for things to complain about.
 
I hate GFWL, its broken and useless! It has not benefitted the games it came bundled with in any way shape or form. It doesnt even have a chat function, wtf?!?! I'm really pissed off with the pisspoor xbox centred bloatware that it forces on PC Gamers, we dont want any of that shit!
 
chaikovski2002 said:
I hate GFWL, its broken and useless! It has not benefitted the games it came bundled with in any way shape or form. It doesnt even have a chat function, wtf?!?! I'm really pissed off with the pisspoor xbox centred bloatware that it forces on PC Gamers, we dont want any of that shit!
Click to expand...

AOE3 doesn't use GFWL.. Come on people.

PS: Steam hasn't benefited any game that requires it either. Like GFWL its just a layer of DRM.
 
THAT IS SUCH BULLSHIT.

I went through the process of trying to purchase it and it kept giving me errors. Then I try again a few minutes later and it's back to full price.

totally ghey.
 
Just wondering if the people having trouble with the GFWL client crashing are running xp?
 
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