The following is an account of my recent (as in today) experience with trying to play the new Games For Windows Live demo, Dawn of War II.

This is not a joke or exaggeration in any way.

Step 1 – Install Games for Windows Live (OK, this is expected).
Step 2 – Download Dawn of War II demo.
Step 3 – “Install” Dawn of War II demo (‘cuz…you know…I didn’t want to play it or anything…just download it).
Step 3.1 – Install Steam. (Aaaaawhaaa?!)
Step 3.2 – Update Steam.
Step 3.3 – Let Steam “install” Dawn of War II demo (nope, this doesn’t install it either…just downloads the base gameplay files).
Step 3.4 – Let Steam update Dawn of War II demo.

At the time of this writing, Steam is telling me I can play the demo in 27 minutes (my connection is 15Mbps through Time Warner, and I’m averaging consistently around 14Mbps for the update process; in other words, as much as I’d like to blame it on them, this one is NOT Time Warner’s fault).

Oh, and for a kicker, I can now completely close Games For Windows Live, since it won’t be doing anything for me from this point forward.

I know I’ve been pretty hard on the PS3 for a frustrating install pause for updates and demos, but compared to this, the PS3 is the most streamlined experience one can have.

I am thoroughly destroyed by the death of PC gaming.  Hold me.

Update: After this intense ordeal, I attempted to launch the game, only to receive this error:

Can someone explain to me why TWO different gaming app front-ends didn’t catch this before making me go through all of the above?  I realize my video card isn’t really ready for today’s gaming (or yesterday’s in some cases), but honestly…