So.. some of my findings (in offline mode, because reasons)
- The game still has a GFWL logic (you can see this when you try to delete saves), that somebody clumsily wrapped with Steam API
- It has no clue of wherever the save is. Querying and writing is handled by Steam process
- The key file is
remotecache.vdf:
- if you modify saves with Steam running, when they get passed to the game they'll be "damaged"
- if you delete it with Steam running... nothing change (it's probably even stored in memory)
- if you delete it (and restart Steam), a new one is created. But the only file mentioned is profile.bin, and game can't see anything else
You can do something by:
- making sure there are the specific save#.sgd entries of the save game files you need in the remotecache.vdf (they have to be created manually in-game)
- then Steam has to be closed
- do what you have to do
- Reopen steam (and here I believe here it mercifully updates hashes and all)
- profit. Maybe.
Or perhaps you can trick the vdf file. "size" is the size in bytes. "sha" is the SHA-1 hash. "time" and "localtime" look suspiciously similar to unix time
In online mode some additional variables come into play (like -the game that queries- Steam that queries cloud before everything)..
and I guess the trick explained in the article may be the only hope
EDIT: I wonder if this Steam update couldn't have solved something