In reply to your edit, I don't notice the same behavior. When I'm not signed in, I can't save. But maybe if I'm signed in and then lose it, it will work. Who knows.
I am finally confident in saying will not buy another one of these games that require the Windows Live or full online support. I was really excited about Bioshock 2, but then I played for a bit and couldn't save. That fucking pissed me off. I had a bad attitude about the game from then on.
It's interesting. Before, DRM was kind of noticeable only to technical people (I mean, I didn't encounter any functional issues with Fallout 3), but the concept of being connected to the internet and not being connected are pretty well understood enough to the average player that I hope more regular players realize this is just absurd.
I agree. I played Red Faction Guerrilla for a bit before realizing I needed a Windows Live account to save, so I had to restart. Never mind that it took me forever to even sign up to windows live because of some issue with it updating (and a good fifteen minutes of googling why it wouldn't update in the first place) - I felt really frustrated and cheated and would have scrapped playing the game because of it, except I'd already paid for it. I will never ever buy a windows live game again, though.
What annoys me is that DRM does NOT (and never will) stop piracy, yet the paying customers get screwed over while the pirates get a nice DRM and hassle free game to play for free.
More amazing is that requiring Live to save doesn't in anyway enhance the gameplay. It's not like you can play this game wherever you want and have a shared pool of saves.
At least Valve has the decency to keep your game purchases on file so you can install from scratch again with any hassle. The DRM needs to be a tradeoff, bother me a bit, but give me a useful feature.
I am finally confident in saying will not buy another one of these games that require the Windows Live or full online support. I was really excited about Bioshock 2, but then I played for a bit and couldn't save. That fucking pissed me off. I had a bad attitude about the game from then on.
It's interesting. Before, DRM was kind of noticeable only to technical people (I mean, I didn't encounter any functional issues with Fallout 3), but the concept of being connected to the internet and not being connected are pretty well understood enough to the average player that I hope more regular players realize this is just absurd.