I just got it a gift from my secretary (everybody bribes me with games nowadays...) and when I opened it I didnt know to grin or to toss it into the garbage (and she noticed too my lack of enthusiam) because of all the horror stories I have heard of the intrusive DRM in this game. To this day I cannot burn a DVD in my laptop after installing in it Silent Hunter 3 so I am kind of scared of installing this thing on my gaming PC. I know the game is pretty good, but I′d like some opinions or if there is a away to remove the DRM and still have the game play or something....

Just play it. GFWL is annoying for five seconds when you first start the game and you can pretend it doesn't exist the rest of the time.

Once you've got the account set up you can just ignore the applications. You don't need to be online or signed into them either.

Unless you need to backup or transfer your saves. I didn't backup my whole GFWL profile when I formatted my computer, only my GTA saves, and I could never access them again.

You just need to drag the saves into the the new save folder it creates the first time you save after starting a new game. If you just drag over the old folder it creates a new one anyway and then you need to throw them in there.

I've carried my saves between three different computers that way with no problems.

Unless you use the same profile you saved them with it won't read them, they're encrypted.

Did your forget you GFWL profile login info? I never had to carry my profile over, I always just logged into my GFWL account once it reinstalled, played a new game up until the first save, then dragged my saves into the new folder (Users/Name/AppData/Local/RockstarGames/GTA IV/savegames/user_########).

The guest profile key is different each time, so a new computer will not be able to read the old files without the old key.

Guess I'll just keep enjoying the fact that it has mysteriously always worked for me.

Edit: Did you buy it through Steam? Don't know if that is a factor in why it hasn't given me trouble? If so, maybe CABRON should just activate his key through Steam?

To OP: Let me tell you something, DRM will be the least of your problems when you get to play GTA4.

Do you use the guest profile? I did buy it on Steam, but the problem lies with GFWL and I'm not the only one who's experienced it.

It doesn't run that bad as long as you have a decent PC. I never really understood the criticism of the PC port.

The pc port was terrible. I have a very good rig, and I can't even add a few quality car mods before the whole freaking game starts popping taxis everywhere. Even without mods, if you play the game for too long, the game's memory seems to fry, since it starts to get missing textures.

It was terribly optimized, typical of a ported game.

I got GTA4 for PC last year cheap and didn't experience any DRM troubles or performance issues. That said, I didn't really care for the game, I thought the main character was very unlikeable and didn't care much for the story, and driving around without any particular goal wasn't fun either, so eventually I just stopped to play it.

When it comes to raise-havok-in-a-city games there are plenty of other games I enjoy more, especially Saint Row 3, Sleeping Dogs and The Saboteur.

I think some of the patches improved the performance.

When I first set up GFWL I just used the same login as I had been using for Xbox Live, not a guest profile.

Thats what I was afraid of...well at least there is no starforce thing lurking in the shadows...I will play the game at least to give it a try thanks for the answers guys

Its a great detailed game. In my view, it captures the feel of a real city with warts and all, better than any game I've ever played. Unfortunately, the bad optimization tarnishes the fun a bit.