Welcome to Xbox %$@&block.

[the bat kite]

Press ENTER key to play. I do that.

Then it's "Loading.....Please Wait." Several seconds later a black window pops up: "Welcome to Xbox. Let's Get You Signed In." NO OPTION TO SIGN IN, EVER. I do have the Xbox app, BTW. But no sign in, in that black box, and that means no game for you. Also, I am stuck there with that #$@&blocking page and have to restart my computer to even use it again. Sure, I can click on my Windows start icon and go...somewhere, like the Xbox app, but the game's intro music just keeps on playing over it.

I spent two hours troubleshooting this very expensive game and had to give up to protect my sanity. I was *this close* to punching the monitor. Steam does not support the games they sell, though probably making a billion dollars a year off of us gamers, and Forza 4's customer service did not help. They gave a do not reply kind of *you figure it out URL menu of choices* - little more than an auto-response.

I bought nearly all the DLC for this game too. I'll have to eat that loss, alot of cash. Steam did refund my basic game money, but all the DLC packages are mine forever, uncompensated, and now naturally of no worth.

[the bat kite]

Originally posted by Jahy:

Usually that black box indicates XBox Identity app is missing. Are you perhaps using Windows 10 LTSC? :aos2kyoko:

No about LTSC. I have the Xbox app, and am signed-in (I'm not sure about the term "identity") and I have the Xbox gaming bar installed.

I got a refund on the basic game.....but I made the mistake of buying it AGAIN. Same problem exactly. Now Steam says I've played an additional, second time around, 2.7 hours, even though I've never logged-on/in even once. Xbox app says I've played for 7 minutes!? Wot? I've even somehow earned two experience tokens/icons for not playing the game for even one second!

The Steam file integrity has been checked and rechecked. It's installed on my computer. I see all the many many files. The publisher, Microsoft, will not allow a paying customer ($60) to play at all unless they first sign-in to Microsoft's Xbox _____ The game forever "loads," cannot be discontinued at any time. It never gives you a sign in to Xbox portal on the home start-up page.

As for my vulgar use of C**kblock in the OP, I apologize. However, Forza 4 is supposed to be the biggest and best out there for everyman car (and of the exotic parts of the UK, right?) enthusiasts to fantasize about having a ton of sexy cars as your own to drive in a big beautiful open world the developer made for them - you.



Thank you for your response.

[the bat kite]

The game is unusable for me on Steam. ...around $40 straight down the toilet. Thanks Steamy Microsoft.

I play it now, as of today, on Microsoft's Xbox site itself using a new Game Pass membership. I repurchased the DLC. I didn't have to repurchase the basic game because the files are on my computer ( I guess). Little of this makes sense to me. Buying all that DLC again from them is a humiliating kick in the wallet.

I never once logged-in for a single second, but in all my MANY attempts to sign-in with Xbox I ran up too much time "playing" the game to qualify for a Steam refund for the game they sold to me. They're the richer for it all. Must be nice to be a Steam shareholder, right?!

No customer service keeps their operating expenses low.

I got five award tokens from FH4 for my $90 while I ceaselessly troubleshot this stupid STEWPID game flaw. So the game intuitively knew I would have demonstrated excellent driving skills if I had ever actually played it.

I had to eat all of the DLC I bought here on Steam. Note to self: never buy a game's DLC package until you see, first, that the game launches - works - on Steam.

I own this game's DLC, with the exception of the Legos one and Treasure Island. Most of the FH4 DLC is mine, but is now now useless, and now nonrefundable. JOY!

[room217au]

incidentally, your microsoft account username/password also works for Xbox Live.
I discovered this quite by accident.
But you only need the MS account login to play.
You need Xbox Live to play online.
Yes, it's weird.

[the bat kite]

Thank you.

[room217au]

Originally posted by cajindian:

Thank you.

Did you get it sorted? Can you play Forza now?

[the bat kite]

Originally posted by room217au:

Originally posted by cajindian:

Thank you.

Did you get it sorted? Can you play Forza now?

Thank you for asking. I cannot play it from Steam. However, when I bought the game from Steam (a *second time, after getting a refund on the faulty first one I attempted to start), it did download the correct files to my computer.

But it would not allow me to sign in to Xbox. It completely stalled on the start page just as it did on the first purchase.

My Millennial tech savvy nephew! was able to get My Xbox Game Pass Membership and/or other Xbox apps to jump-start the game over there. Did it rewrite the same Steam files from the second purchase of the basic game?? Xbox didn't charge me another $60. (*whew*).

It's confusing. I am not a long time gamer. No. I'm not hip to how to manipulate things on my PC. I bought a gamer's pc about a year ago.

So the game started on Xbox's site, because, I guess, it's files matched exactly "Steam's" FH4 files in my computer. ... I began to play the game for the first time.

But the DLC was not downloaded to my PC when I bought it on Steam. Steam has it. (Why does Steam have it, and I do not!?) So, I lost the use of all that I bought. That was somewhere between 40 to 50 dollars, because I began with the standard game and picked and chose what I wanted in DLC additions. I wanted almost everything! I should have bought the deluxe game, but I think that was $100. I didn't save much money at all by selecting most, but not all, of the DLC the game has, total.

I don't have an interest in Legos or the Treasure Island, but I bought, up front, the rest of the game's DLC. I did not like to have to rebuy what I already have on Steam.

The game looks like it lives up to the great reviews I saw again and again and again on youtube channels. I'm having fun. It's my first FH game. The game is an amazing accomplishment, isn't it? I'm also starting to think I want the next FH5 game that will drop in about three weeks. The reviews and gameplay that you can check-out in numerous pre-reviews on youtube reveal a very impressive Mexican adventure for all gamer gear heads to enjoy. :)

I feel confident the Deluxe FH5 $100 game will run OK on Xbox's site.

EDIT TO ADD: Over on Xbox game pass, I did buy Fortune Island and the James Bond cars for FH4.
I'm pleased with them.

[the bat kite]

EDIT TO ADD: I did eventually ask for a refund after the 2 hour point. (7 so-called hours) A participant on a similar thread where some lucky Steam customer who, like me, was getting absolutely nowhere in signing-in on Xbox (they did had the Xbox app(s), had advised me to try getting a refund anyway.

I explained to Steam customer service's refund bots that I had never been able to log on even once - had zero hours of use of the game Steam sold to me. But that sort of crucial fact that is on MY SIDE always means nothing to Steam "customer service." A bot denies you without any consideration of what you write to them. *They do want your input, right? ...but they want alot more your money for a/the do nothing game they sold to you.*

Two hour limit! What a sucky greedy policy. I somehow! had seven hours of play, they measured. How?! I played NEVER, having been c&%$blocked from FH4 by Xbox and Playground Games' doing. I never saw anything of FH4 except the musical opening page.

Somehow Steam thought it legit to keep on giving me driver accomplishment icons, although I never did anything in FH4. Wow.

I have a desktop icon to remind me of the no service no playtime no refund experience Steam delivered via bots in customer service.

This huge videogame seller - a massively money intaking company - is a business failure in one single crucial area, again and again: they don't stand behind what they sell you AT ALL. Not at all. Not ever. *They lazily, automatically, 100% of the time, pass the blame entirely to game designers and publishers as they go about counting their huge stacks of our money.

Just imagine Amazon NOT allowing returns and refunds, virtually no questions asked. They'd be unpopular very very quickly. Imagine if Steam was as liberal in their return policy as Walmart. Walmart. Wouldn't that be nice? Jeez, Steam is simply all about never ceasing, never caring, sales; the bottom line for shareholders and executives in the company.

The don't care, won't budge, customer service bots require less than real human beings' meager wages. Real customer service representatives could, if Steam allowed them to, to take your difficult circumstances into consideration and give you a fair deal - a fair deal on a Steam-sold game where they counted up as if gameplay hours of you just making fruitless attempts, and your more knowledgeable friends' makings of attempts, to simply start the dead game?!

How does Steam reckon time??

How does 0 seconds of game use become 7 hours of game use?

[the bat kite]

One last quip since I have uninstalled this game on Steam, now.

Isn't it odd that whenever I spend a bunch of credits to max-out a vehicle of some sort, my wealth is sort of socialism-like given to my AI competitors too! They all get free stuff. It sure looks like the faster I go with my car, by paying for it, the other AI car owners I had been racing one day earlier now have the same upgrades done to them for free. Hmm. *This makes it less fun to improve your car.*

I had hoped a faster car, of mine, would mean I'd pass some of these AI I had been losing to before.

[room217au]

Originally posted by cajindian:

How does Steam reckon time??

I'm assuming Steam records the time the game was launched, and then again when it is unloaded from RAM. This info, like achievements, is kept at Steam.
You can change the AI skill at the start of each race, using the Difficulty Settings.

[the bat kite]

Originally posted by room217au:

Originally posted by cajindian:

How does Steam reckon time??

I'm assuming Steam records the time the game was launched, and then again when it is unloaded from RAM. This info, like achievements, is kept at Steam.
You can change the AI skill at the start of each race, using the Difficulty Settings.

But what does game launched mean? If it never begins then a clock should not start. Steam gets this. The policy of 'you are playing' when in fact that you are not is pure Steam. No, you aren't past the opening page, but instead are trying like mad to chase down every way you can think of to get the game to begin. You have posted on Steam's community discussion board. You have looked for dev's pinned threads and other customers having similar problems with that game. You have called upon people more skilled than you are to help. I called-in a nephew and later a family friend. Tech savvy guys.

It was absolutely stuck in loading limbo and nobody knew why.

The 2 hours disqualification for the game's cost and all that DLC you dropped tens of dollars on is designed by Steam to quickly and careLESSly separate gamers from their money. I was trying to get THE GAME to let me *sign in with Microsoft's Xbox app(s), the sole operator of FH4's publisher.*

Steam have no tech services, which is very irresponsible for a company that is richer than God is.

I cannot beat the new racer AI cars. Usually I come in no better than 9th place, and more often than that it's 12th place (last). I crash along the way, coming to a complete stop, and every last SOB driver, all these that never make an error; they pass me and are gone like the wind then.

I have ordered the next game set in virtual Mexico (Xbox game pass for $100) to be available on Nov. 5, when it soon thereafter began to sink in that I might always suck at FH. Why would game 5 be any better a time? It was an impulsive purchase.

I have many racing games, because I "love" racing cars and trucks and buggies and dirt track sprints, motorcycles, etc. Some I gave up on in long-standing frustration, uninstalling them...erasing files on my pc so I wouldn't be tempted to play those again. I had no success with Dirt 4, but I do still have Dirt 5 right now. I had two Milestone motocross games, but I had no success with the 4th game, but I kept the 3rd game.

[Sysgen]

I had an issue after when I had to log in again and it appeared to hang but ultimately after logging out and back in to the Xbox PC app it cleared up.

[room217au]

Originally posted by cajindian:

I was trying to get THE GAME to let me *sign in with Microsoft's Xbox app(s), the sole operator of FH4's publisher.

Then the executable had started.
You should be talking directly with the dev, Microsoft. Steam is distribution.

American Truck Simulator is quite good, just sayin' ;)