The birth of the Games For Windows line this year has been both a blessing and a curse to many developers. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than Petroglyph’s Universe At War. Working under the GfW label has allowed them to utilize the X-Box Live online system, granting PC vs. 360 play, as well as the uber GfW media campaign to build hype for their newest title. 

Unfortunately, there is a heavy price to pay for allowing GfW to be your stepdad. Microsoft requires all updates and patches that contain executables to go through a lengthy certification process. The beta for UaW has been online since late August, but still has not received one single patch. The result is, for all intents and purposes, a dead beta. The near constant Live disconnects, black screen of death, lag and other bugs has left more than a few beta gamers disillusioned, to say the least. Including this intrepid gamer.

On top of that, you have the PC RTS gamer outrage of having to purchase a gold XBL account in order to utilize quick and ranked matches. Two things that, until now, had always been free for PC gamers. While their 360 counterparts seem to be taking it in stride, the PC gamers are hardly pleased. They’re actually kinda mad. Mad as in a David Banner, “you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry” mad is more like it actually.

Petroglyph, a Sega owned company, has been forced to push back the release date, which was originally October 30th, to early December. There is still not so much as a vague hint of when, or if, we will ever see a patch. This is just down right awful. Beta testing is the key to releasing quality, polished products, and gamers have come to expect a decently balanced, semi bug free game, upon release. The train wreck that was CnC3 online proves just how painful waiting for a game to fix problems, that a good beta would have, really is.

For now, gamers wait. The patch we have been waiting for apparently addresses a whole host of problems and is supposed to be an almost complete overhaul of the version being used in the beta. Too bad all that’s on the developer side. Gamers had little to do with any of these improvements. Besides some obvious bugs and balance issues, the beta has contributed little to improving the game, since, well, we can hardly play the damn thing!

The fact that a large number of people, like myself, are even attempting to play and give feedback on this crippled game speaks volumes about its potential. In the world of cookie cutter RTS games, UaW is a much needed breath of fresh air. With three 100% unique factions, an impressive storyline and truly innovative game mechanics, UaW should have been one of the RTS bad boys of the holiday season.

If only the certification process would speed up so we could help ensure its greatness! Grrrrrr…Hulk smash! At this point, many of us are starting to get the impression that should the patch ever arrive, we will have only a few weeks, if we are lucky, to add some polish before the game is released. Too bad PC gamers will have to endure the added expense of paying for services they never had to before and the irritation of sharing our universe with the XBL hooligans.

XBL hooligans is a fair price to pay IMO, should this game finally get its legs under it. Though, the thought of future patches for UaW and other Games For Windows titles enduring the same brutal lag time scares me even more than my girlfriends cooking!

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