Sins is the #1 Game at Games for Windows

Ahem... The word I am looking for here is: WooT !!

 

but why does the Games for Windows webpage for Sins list Pivotal Games as the developer?

Good call, I just sent their webmaster an email correcting them as a concerned and highly satisfied customer.   

Nice, while at the site i noticed "Universe at War." I quickly researched the game, and man how does crap like that get made? I mean the gameplay may be good, no idea personally, but from the story itself it seems like a total cheeseball of a game.

Cool. Except for one issue...

Funny you should say that - I've been keeping an eye on the release of that game (not intending to buy it, though) because apparently a lot of the crewmembers from old Westwood (as you know, the developer of THE first RTS game as we know it - Dune 2) moved to UaW's developer since the takeover by EA; notably Frank Klepacki, composer of the C&C (up to and including RA2) and Dune games)...
Please correct me if I'm wrong!

yep, universe at war was created by former westwood employees.

I'm not quite sure why Astax thinks it's so bad though. Each race plays completely and different from each other - A LOT more different than even Starcraft. If anything, Petroglyph Studios should be given huge kudos for attempting that (and the nightmarish balance issues than ensue). One race essentially comprises of a couple mobile bases which are uber strong and raze everything. You upgrade these as you get resources. Another race allows for almost instantaneous travel around the map and is able to swarm. The last race can switch its entire army on the fly between two different modes. The last race also doesn't gather resources but generates them from its own base.

The only crappy part is how they attempted to leverage the whole games for windows movement and attached it to the garbage flung over from the xbox known as Live. The fact that there exists a service that requires a monthly payment for something PC gamers are used to getting free (eg. steam, battle.net) is ridiculous. Microsoft can take that damn business strategy and shove it. I'd never pay a monthly subscription just to have access to achievements.

A quick disclaimer - I don't work for Petroglyph. In fact, I work for EA, so please don't take my words as some biased wash as I have absolutely no vested interests in Petroglyph.

What do you think of EA? They seem to release a lot of buggy games due to tight and non-negotiable release schedules, and treat their employees like crap, or so I have read.

Edit: that was addressed to "Shadowofadoubt"

Good news, that. It's been so good to see the positive reviews too, I was going to feel pretty dumb for talking up the game so much before release if it turned out otherwise.

On Games for Windows though, the whole idea is pretty flawed, but at least it's an attempt to help PC gaming, which as a whole, in it's current state isn't doing too great (even the industry realizes this, if there's need for a "PC Gaming Alliance" there's issues going on). But trying to just port an X-Box Live type format to PC gaming probably just won't work, because PC gaming culture is pretty different than consoles (PC gamers expect free online play, patches, mods and all the rest). Figuring out how to appeal to more of the existing market and keeping them with the PC as a gaming platform will probably be the key to saving it.

But the problems PC gaming is facing is probably for another time and place.

The storyline of the campaign is indeed rather reminiscent of a lot of cliché sci-fi movies, but that also has its charms. Although Humanity looses for a change.

The gameplay itself isn't all that bad, but the thing that really keeps the game down is as mentioned earlier Games for Windows Live as a requirement for online play. The basic online game is available for the free Live Silver accounts, but all the achievements and match-making stuff is Live Gold, ie, it costs a monthly fee to use. Which to most PC gamers is a deadly sin. (and who can blame them) I have the game, and unit balance is an issue, but that's no surprise with the massive differences between the 3 sides. Given time, they could balance it out.

And indeed the sound-track is all Frank Klepaki, its unbelievably good.

BTW if you're interested in the sound track of game, i recommend visiting this site where its posted as a free download by Petroglyph.

It depends on what team you're on. The people I work with are all quite nice. I sometimes get work that results in long hours, but the game industry is simply like that... although because EA is so strict with deadlines, I suppose it's slightly worse.
All in all, I find it a good place to work. It's a little bureaucratic and because of it, creativity tends to get damped on its way up the decision tree.

Just sent a bit of feedback to Games for Windows on the error on their Sins game page
(wrong developer listed, although the publisher is correct)
Took me 4 attempts, since their Spam-filter was bouncing my messages all the time due to the word Sins being tagged as obscene language. Finally managed it without naming the title of the game (not an easy task) and added some feedback on the strictness of their filters while i was at it.

I think that's wrong (on Games for Windows's part, not yours :P); why would the word "sin" be considered obscene language? Because it describes an act of evil? Because it's related to Christianity and the other Semitic religions? Gimme a break.

My thoughts exactly, and stated as such in the message i finally managed to squirm past that filter. They should atleast add their game titles to the "allowed" list of their filters.