Windows 8 CP and Gaming (Or, Why Won't My Games Work?!)

[Darrian]

I had this problem with the Dev Preview, as well, but I knew it wasn't meant for general consumption so I didn't make a big fuss over it. Now, however, it's just starting to get annoying. One of the big selling points of Windows 8 is that it can run all the same programs that Windows 7 can with no problems. However, this is clearly untrue if you're a gamer.

Now, while I used to steer clear of digital distribution, I've been using Steam for over a decade now. Because of that this may be a Steam issue, but I do not think it is. Many modern games will not work or will not work correctly, and here I'm going to detail 3 games that are particularly bugging me.

Bioshock 2 will not run at all. The launcher won't even launch. I think this is a securom issue, but since I get no errors whatsoever I cannot be sure. Yet Bioshock runs with no issues.

Batman: Arkham City runs, but the GFWL client does not load in the background. In fact, I believe this is an issue with every single game that uses GFWL. Some of them, like Arkham City, will run, but the client cannot be loaded and thus you can't sign into GFWL and play online. Also, since you're not signed into your GFWL profile, I believe that it's automatically forcing the use of a local offline profile, so you can't load your old save games.

Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition will not run. It crashes immediately upon launch. Street Fighter IV runs fine, aside from the previously mentioned GFWL issue. I'm not sure what's going on here.

The thing is, I'm sure if I went down all the games in my library I would find many more that cannot run or will not run correctly if they require GFWL. This is particularly distressing since GFWL is a Microsoft program. Yet I see no one else asking about solutions to these issues. Is nobody using Windows 8 a gamer? If anybody else has experienced these headaches and has discovered any sort of solution I'd love to know about it!

[dafin0]

if you are running the DEV preview then that is why most games wont work. install the customer preview instead.

[Darrian]

I am running the Consumer Preview.

[c3ntury]

I can confirm that GTA IV doesn't work (due to GFWL I suspect?).

But Skyrim, Total Shogun War 2 and Mass Effect 3 worked brilliantly.

Bioshock also crashed for me mind you.

[Darrian]

Yeah, I had no trouble with Skyrim or ME3, either. I think this is mostly a problem with GFWL games and possibly securom games.

[Omen1393]

I would expect most games to work by release, I remember that when I was on the Windows 7 beta, most games didn't work. Punkbuster didn't even support Windows 7 until september of 2009 I believe.

[Darrian]

I don't recall having much trouble with the Win 7 beta. If anything, perhaps a few games needed to be run in Vista or XP compatibility mode. Running games on Win 8 using Win 7 compatibility mode does not make them work. Anyway, I do not expect everything to run well until the final release, I know I'm using a beta product. I'm just amazed that nobody else is reporting any of these issues, when I know they are probably having them, and if nobody says anything now they aren't likely to get fixed until well after Win 8 is released with some sort of patch. However, if anybody knows of a workaround to get them working now, that'd be great, too.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

Indeed Omen. OP, don't forget that every time a piece of software crashes on WIndows 8, it sends an error report. These are extremely critical during an OS beta as it allows them to focus on the issues that most people are seeing. So make sure you choose to send error reports when prompted.

That said, don't forget that Windows 8 is in EARLY beta. The CP was it's progression from Alpha to Beta. Things like this are to be expected, and you can be sure that the Games for Windows Live stuff will be fixed maybe by RC, but certainly by RTM. In fact, isn't all the live stuff going to be built into Windows 8? I bet they'll patch all the GFWL games so they utilise W8's built in Live functionality.

Getting annoyed by the fact that beta software has bugs (shock horror!) is just stupid.

I'm just amazed that nobody else is reporting any of these issues, when I know they are probably having them, and if nobody says anything now they aren't likely to get fixed until well after Win 8 is released with some sort of patch.

Who says we aren't reporting them? Do you even have the connect beta feedback tool installed? I use it every time a piece of software crashes on W8, AND I send an error report. Do you? I don't see the point in complaining about crashes in a forum that Microsoft doesn't keep track of.

[Darrian]

I'm not complaining about the bugs or crashes. I'm wondering why nobody else is talking about the issues they're having and wondering if anybody has made any progress in getting these games working, so I started this thread so people could report if they're having similar troubles and what solutions have been found, if any. This forum is usually abuzz with issues like these, yet with Windows 8 everybody is mysteriously silent unless they're bitching about the new start screen.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

Fair enough then.

So far I've had minimal issues. Only Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 (and Yuri's Revenge) from the "First Decade" pack have failed to work for me. I've reported both to Microsoft through the feedback tool.

[ToneKnee]

Sick of reading threads like this with every single Beta pre or post about Games/Applications/Some other crap that doesn't work.

This is a consumer preview or in other words, an open beta like Windows 7 had. The final goal for RTM is for everything to work this is why we have betas/dev previews so developers and so on can work out bugs. By installing a dev preview or beta you then agree to accept that somethings _will_ be broken, not work as it should or work just fine. If you have issues, go back to your previous install and wait for RTM or at least, for developers of the products/games you have a problem with fix this issues at hand.

[Eric Veteran]

Right-click on the games in the Steam client, select Properties, then go to Local Files and click "Verify integrity of game cache."

I just tried BioShock 2 and it works fine, as do all my other GFWL games.

You also may need to update the GFW runtime... http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=5549

[theyarecomingforyou]

Sick of reading threads like this with every single Beta pre or post about Games/Applications/Some other crap that doesn't work.

If you're sick of reading them then don't. Everybody is aware of the risks and issues associated with running a pre-release operating system - in fact this forum is dedicated specifically to discussing such pre-release software. There are many people - myself included - who are running the Windows 8 Consumer Preview as their primary operating system and enjoying it. The vast majority of games and software run flawlessly and the operating system itself offers many very worthwhile improvements over Windows 7.

GFWL games work fine in Win8, as I was playing Bulletstorm earlier without issue. I also loaded up Bioshock 2 - which required activation beforehand - and it launched without issue. And I buy all of my games on Steam, so it's not a conflict there. The only games that I've had issues with are Crysis 2 (only works in DX9 mode) and LA Noire (doesn't work at all). I'm running the nVidia 301.10 drivers and they're working flawlessly, even though they're not officially for Windows 8 as the official drivers don't support the GTX680.

[notuptome2004]

All the games you , mentioned run fine on my system even GTA 4 runs great as i have it running right this moment every game i own runs on windows 8 CP just fine steam or regular DVD based installs Edit: to the above poster LA Noire works fine on my system

system:

core i7 2600k stock

GTX 470 stock

16gb of ram

[McKay]

I play a tonne of games with the Consumer Preview and have had no issues, however I haven't tried playing any of the games you listed so I don't know if you're having bad luck or Windows 8 CP won't run them.

[Darrian]

Right-click on the games in the Steam client, select Properties, then go to Local Files and click "Verify integrity of game cache."

I just tried BioShock 2 and it works fine, as do all my other GFWL games.

You also may need to update the GFW runtime... http://www.microsoft...ls.aspx?id=5549

I've had the latest GFWL installed, and I've tried verifying the cache and when that didn't work, uninstalling and reinstalling, but still no dice. :( I also have the latest drivers and directx installed. I'm using 64-bit Windows, but I was running Windows 7 x64 as well with no issues, so I'm not sure that is a factor or not.

[azspeedbullet]

Did you manually install the games for windows live client, older directx redistributable package and the visual c++ redistributable 2005/2008/2010 packages? When i installed the new ridge racer game, the game did not work in the beginning until i manually install all of those (note: some games will fail to install these right away, and you sometimes have to run as admin the install files)

[lalalawawawa]

I bet they'll patch all the GFWL games so they utilise W8's built in Live functionality.

No, they won't. GfWL is a piece of **** and needs to die faster.

[Darrian]

Did you manually install the games for windows live client, older directx redistributable package and the visual c++ redistributable 2005/2008/2010 packages? When i installed the new ridge racer game, the game did not work in the beginning until i manually install all of those (note: some games will fail to install these right away, and you sometimes have to run as admin the install files)

Yes, everything has been installed. This isn't really a case of the games being installed properly or the prerequisites not being installed. They simply won't load the GFWL client in the background when they launch and in the case of Bioshock 2 and SSF4AE they won't launch at all or they crash immediately after launch. I think BS2 has something to do with securom (I think that the GFWL issue is separate, and it would just not load and force me to use an offline profile save, which would be fine with me if I could get it to run) and I think SSF4AE strictly requires GFWL to load and crashes when it refuses.

I don't think this is "just" a GFWL problem. I think it has to do with the way Windows 8 now handles programs' associations. For instance, I've installed SPlayer for my video playback, and associated it with all video file types, but Windows 8 refused to see the association until I opened the context menu on a video file and told it to "open with>splayer." Firefox is my default web browser, yet when I click on a link in another program it automatically launches it in IE instead of Firefox. There are many, many examples of minor irritations like these, but once you get used to them they're easily overlooked. Like with the file associations, once you tell Windows to open a filetype with a program, it tends to remember to use that program as the default in the future, so you only have to fix it once. This is somewhat different, though. Is Windows blocking GFWL from running? Is it having an issue with Steam and the way its DRM works? I suspect that if I used cracked executables they'd probably work, but I can't seem to find a crack for Bioshock 2 (and if you know where to get one, please don't try to help me, that kind of thing will get you in trouble around here).

No, they won't. GfWL is a piece of **** and needs to die faster.

I mostly agree with that. I don't think it's total crap, but I think it's a low priority for Microsoft and they don't really care all that much about updating it. I certainly don't seeing a "metro" replacement app anytime soon, and even if they make one, I'm not sure how that would integrate with the older games that run on the desktop; the two types of apps seem to be mutually exclusive.

[spaceelf]

I suspect the Xbox Live functionality in Win8 is meant to supersede GfWL at some point, but we shall see.

I didn't personally have any problems with GfWL so I can't help much. I only couldn't run several games full screen. o.o

[Eric Veteran]

I've had the latest GFWL installed, and I've tried verifying the cache and when that didn't work, uninstalling and reinstalling, but still no dice. :( I also have the latest drivers and directx installed. I'm using 64-bit Windows, but I was running Windows 7 x64 as well with no issues, so I'm not sure that is a factor or not.

Not sure what to say then... I'm using Windows 8 x64 as well. I had a few games that did nothing when launched after I copied my Steam folder over but verifying the cache fixed 'em.

[Darrian]

Ok, now I feel like an ass. I do not know why it didn't work initially, as I made sure GFWL was installed, got the latest installer and made sure it was up to date, and had all these issues as I've detailed in this thread. However, it's solved. I uninstalled GFWL completely and then reinstalled it and now suddenly everything is working perfectly. GFWL loads when I load a GFWL game. Bioshock 2 loads. SSF4AE no longer crashes after loading. This is so bizarre, but now I feel like an idiot for making such a big deal out of it. I should have tried that before starting the thread. I went back from the Dev Preview to Windows 7 and stayed away from Windows 8 until the Consumer Preview because of this exact same issue and I likely could have saved myself a couple of formats if I'd just tried that months ago. I'd still like to hear from people if they have trouble getting a game to run on Windows 8 and what kind of errors they're getting, if they're luck enough to get an error.

[spaceelf]

Saints Row 3 wouldn't even load the launcher. Sims 3 I had to set to Win7 compatibility mode or it'd load with some bizarre settings.

Everything else either worked or would only load up in window mode.

[farmeunit]

Sick of reading threads like this with every single Beta pre or post about Games/Applications/Some other crap that doesn't work.

This is a consumer preview or in other words, an open beta like Windows 7 had. The final goal for RTM is for everything to work this is why we have betas/dev previews so developers and so on can work out bugs. By installing a dev preview or beta you then agree to accept that somethings _will_ be broken, not work as it should or work just fine. If you have issues, go back to your previous install and wait for RTM or at least, for developers of the products/games you have a problem with fix this issues at hand.

I think he was more than polite, and said he was understanding of the issues, just curious.

Quit being a jerk. The forums are for asking questions and discussions. Don't read it if you're sick of it.

[Subhadip]

Ok, now I feel like an ass. I do not know why it didn't work initially, as I made sure GFWL was installed, got the latest installer and made sure it was up to date, and had all these issues as I've detailed in this thread. However, it's solved. I uninstalled GFWL completely and then reinstalled it and now suddenly everything is working perfectly. GFWL loads when I load a GFWL game. Bioshock 2 loads. SSF4AE no longer crashes after loading. This is so bizarre, but now I feel like an idiot for making such a big deal out of it. I should have tried that before starting the thread. I went back from the Dev Preview to Windows 7 and stayed away from Windows 8 until the Consumer Preview because of this exact same issue and I likely could have saved myself a couple of formats if I'd just tried that months ago. I'd still like to hear from people if they have trouble getting a game to run on Windows 8 and what kind of errors they're getting, if they're luck enough to get an error.

This is a Beta release, problems are not just expected but guaranteed. If you are using Consumer Preview you have a gentleman's agreement with Microsoft that you accept that things will go wrong and if they do, you should report it to Microsoft. Your first post clearly has the tone of someone being disappointed with a final release they paid for rather than a beta and this stems from the fact that you have wrongly assumed it is built for general consumption, it is most certainly not. It is called "Preview" for a reason. If you are expecting a completely functional and stable OS, you should definitely stick with Windows 7 and wait till Windows 8 is released.

As for games, everything works fine for me except Crysis 2 in DX11 mode.