A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on Games for Windows as a sample for a job application. It centered around a small pet peeve in GFW Live integration in Codemasters' exceptional rally racer, Dirt 3. A few things have changed since then and now, making the old piece slightly outdated. Even so, the problem persists.
And it all starts with a triangle...
Dirt 3 is great. Really great. I have a personal fondness for racing sims, and Dirt 3 exceeds expectations each and every time I fire it up. It even finds a way to transcend the depressing and frustrating 'quick-port' feeling of every multi-platform racer made since a time currently beyond my recollection. Sure, a lack of mouse use to navigate menus kills me every time, but once I get past the console-centric annoyances, it feels right on PC. Grid didn't. Dirt 3 does.
However, there is such a thing as going too far.
Or maybe it's not going far enough. I guess it depends on how you want to view PC gaming's tradgecomedic blight. On one hand, using Games for Windows Live acknowledges Dirt 3 is, in fact, a game on PC. Seems obvious, but tell that to Crysis 2 and the other under-featured PC portlettes sitting on my hard drive. On the other hand, GFWL is just about the most un-PC thing you could possibly engineer. Either way, Dirt 3 uses it, and somehow finds a way to make it even more obnoxious.
The second you hit the main menu, Dirt 3 starts shoving DLC down your throat like a vulgar analogy. It reminds me of some sort of Idiocracy-esque future come to life. First off is the caution-sign exclamation-point icon, unmistakable, next to the Live menu. Simple enough; unobtrusive and straight forward. Now, just in case you manage to miss that gem, at the bottom of the same screen is a banner bearing the same alert icon, telling you new DLC is available. It then cycles through every piece of content for Dirt 3, regardless of age. Ok, Codemasters, I get it. I cannot fault you for making a game in this crass, 'nickel-and-dime' era. This is the age of the microtransaction, and we must all endure. Yet, somehow, even the logo and banner aren't enough. You had to throw in the announcer.
That's right. No longer is screaming at our eyeballs enough to shill digital crap. You have to literally scream at us. It's like that fairy from Zelda somehow got a job at a car dealership. "Hey! Buy this! Hey! HEY! Buy this!"
The thing is, this isn't what irks me. I've come to deal with it. Some of it may be that Dirt 3 is fun even with a dude hounding me to buy stuff. It could be that some of the DLC makes worthwhile additions. New cars and paint jobs are a dime a dozen, but to add new racing circuits? Monte Carlo tracks? Sign me up. That guy can call me 'cupcake,' or whatever my in-game call sign is, till he's blue in the face. No no, what gets to me isn't what they're selling or how aggressively they sell it. It's how they implemented it.
The core single-player experience in Dirt 3 is subdivided into a series of race seasons, visually represented by a set of rotating pyramids. Each race series is a face of the pyramid, which unfolds to help show your progress at a glance. Finishing first in each race in a series turns that pyramid section the most satisfying gold. Finish each section, and you have a lovely gold floating tetrahedral with which to bore your friends and loved ones. Blah blah blah. Why does any of that matter? Because when Codemasters added their DLC, they TOOK MY GOLD TRIANGLES AWAY!
Codemasters, in a single stroke, un-completed my game. Instead of keeping content neatly contained somewhere, they just tacked on races to existing series. This recalculates the completion of the series, stripping me of my superficial, yet hard earned, shiny pretty pyramids. Yes, I hear you, discerning voice of obvious reason. "Quit your bitching," you say, "and just finish the new races and get your vain reward back."
You would be right, but there is a crucial detail missing: I didn't buy the DLC. Dirt 3 patched in the new races, messed with my progress, and locked me out till I finally break down and throw $10 worth of Microsoft Monopoly money at my monitor. A few days ago they added another set of races, further undermining my progress and bringing the 'cost to complete Dirt 3' to 1200 fun bucks.
It comes down to this: Dirt 3 is the embodiment of progress in the wrong direction, not just for itself but for PC gaming as a whole. Games for Windows Live is dead. Or, at least it should be dead. In a landscape dominated by Steam, the expectations of how an integrated digital content delivery system functions have risen far beyond what Microsoft provides with GFWL. The reality is that Steamworks is beyond anything Microsoft would even bother to take the effort to create, so it's recent slip into internet obscurity is, in my mind, the acknowledgment of its obsolescence. Surprising? Not at all. Any PC game enthusiast could have called this after seeing what a disaster Shadowrun was.
What surprises me is how a game that makes a great effort to shine on PC so thoroughly integrates the dying GFWL. Dirt 3 is a great step forward for Codemasters on the PC front, but the use of Live is a leap in the wrong direction. It undermines the progress they have made. Not only that, I cannot help but blame it for undermining my progress as well. I want my games to see support post-release. I love seeing PC ports receive the same content as the consoles. These things add to the experience. Taking away my sense of accomplishment does not. Dealing with Games for Windows does not. It is progress in the opposite direction, and I would hope the creator of so many racing games understands the perils of going the wrong way...
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