Although Street Fighter 4 isn’t the first game I’ve played that uses Games for Windows Live, it’s the first game I’ve played that makes significant use of it. And while I’ve heard others’ complaints about GFW Live often enough in the past, this is the first time I’ve really experienced it personally.

I set up my Games For Windows Gamertag a while back, when I wasn’t sure that I’d ever really be using it much. I first used it when I played Fallout 3 and got a number of the game’s achievements. That’s probably when I first realized that there were a number of things, such as setting up an avatar, that can only be done if you actually own an XBox. What reason does Microsoft have for disallowing GFW users from selecting an avatar or using a custom gamercard image? As a GFW Live user, you have a choice of 28 images. Even the crappy selection of images on the Playstation 3 is better than that. And when I choose to compare achievements with an XBox user, it always shows me with zero achievements in the two GFW games where I do have actual achievements. That one’s just a bug. Some programmer needs to get on that shit and fix it now.

And whose idea was it to insist that you use an XBox interface with a PC? To back out of screens in Street Fighter, I’ve got to push “B”. I initially tried to hit escape, but that maps to the XBox’s start button. That means that to continue the game after I lose a match, I’ve got to hit escape, which is exactly opposite of the behavior I’d expect. Anyway, I need to navigate all the screens by pushing “A”, “B”, “X”, “Y”, escape, and the right and left control keys. Way to go, Microsoft.

When I set up my Games for Windows account, I chose “ghowley” as my ID. In retrospect, I could’ve done better. And now I find out that if you want to change your ID, Microsoft makes you pay them for it. What a supreme bit of douchbaggery on Microsoft’s behalf!

And here’s another thing. Microsoft lets you select a 21-character motto. I chose “I like turtles”. Seems innocuous enough, right? When try I enter that, GFW tells me “Please enter an appropriate motto.” What??!? Are they filtering on the word “turtle”? Doing a quick google search, it seems that you’re also unable to use the words “geezer”, “Linux”, “Japan”, “god”, “Buddha”, “poop”, “halo”, or “xbox”.

Lastly, the thing that made me decide to write this article. Games For Windows voice chat. It doesn’t work for me. Two different microphones, tweaking settings both in the GFW voice options and in my control panel, and I still can’t get it to work. I see other people using it – maybe you need a special Microsoft-approved headset.

Maybe I’ll go back to playing Team Fortress 2 on Steam, where the voice chat works, the achievements display, and I can use a photo of myself for my avatar.

Even if you’re not a fan of Steam like I am, they’ve got a deal this weekend too good to pass up. Four games for $9.99 – that means you’re getting some great games for $2.50 each.

Three of the four games here are ones I’ve talked about before on this site, and they definitely fall within my “keepers” category. Firstly, Far Cry. This is the original PC version, far different from the console versions. Even if you think you might not like it – it’s only $2.50!

Secondly, Beyond Good and Evil, which I’ve raved about far more than I ever should have. I won’t gush more in this post, but it’s worth significantly more than the $2.50 you’d pay for a box of string cheese. I’ve bought four copies over the years, and played it 5 times.

Third, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. While it had its minor annoyances, I really enjoyed the gameplay. I got the game, which was originally $50, for $12.50 at Target and jumped for joy at my bargain-hunting prowess. Later, I got another copy on the cheap from Steam. But I paid more than $2.50.

Lastly, IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946, which is some kind of flight simulator. No idea.

Anyway, if you’ve not played these games, I’d seriously jump on Steam’s weekend deal here.