With The Witcher 3 there was a lot of hype built around it being an open world game, so I went into it expecting something more like Skyrim with less of a requirement to do quests and such. But since it’s quite narrative driven, if I’m going for story I feel that I might as well play the original Witcher games first before moving on to The Witcher 3 (if I decide to invest the time in that universe).
Everspace and The Long Journey Home both look like decent space games that I’d like to try at some point. Hyper Light Drifter looks interesting too; I’ve wishlisted it for now. I picked up Ori and the Blind Forest on GOG a while back and it’s been great.
I’ve just bought some of the recently released Neo Geo games which are fun; I hear that these aren’t the best versions of the games, but they’re a good example of the GOG team improving the games themselves by adding Galaxy features.
Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma: Dark Arisen was just released on GOG. Another quite recent big budget RPG, released as late as 2012. Along with SNK, it’s great to see more Japanese publishers joining GOG recently which has been a large hole in their lineup up until now. I would love to see Sega release some of their classics on GOG.
Bethesda just released some of their older games also. Not sure why they didn’t go ahead and release Skyrim. I can’t imagine it is still selling so many copies that they would lose out on it being DRM free.
It could be that they’re staggering the releases to give the Oblivion-era games their time in the spotlight.
Skyrim also has built in support for downloading mods, functionality which I imagine would be harder or impossible to duplicate on Galaxy at the moment.
Here’s a free copy of Alan Wake’s American Nightmare on GOG for anyone who wants it (I already have it in my library). First in, first served. The code expires on June 27.
GOG have just added cloud saves to another batch of games. I like the way they continue to add cloud saves to older games, including those which have never had cloud saves before such as Far Cry and Jade Empire (not even on Steam). GOG really is the definitive place to pick up classic PC games.
Now that GOG Galaxy has been out for almost two years, what do people think about the service?
Personally, while I’m impressed by what they’ve achieved, I’ve found I still use Steam quite a lot, even for some games available on both platforms. The main reason is cloud saves, a number of GOG games still lack them, and it’s unwieldy manually managing saves when you have a large collection and are also a dabbler. I also like earning achievements, as a record of what I’ve done (for the same reason I take photos when on holiday).
But for older games that never had cloud saves (and in some cases achievements) on Steam, the GOG versions are definitely my preference. The older Bethesda games, Dragon Age: Origins, Far Cry 1 & 2, Metal Slug 1-3, the list is quite extensive now.
I think it’s a really convenient way to download your games and keep them updated without having to deal with the hassle of the website. If I had to choose between Steam and Gog, I’d always go for the Gog version of the game. With steam dropping support for Windows XP, it’s not really a long term solution for playing games on existing hardware. As someone who enjoys keeping and working with older PC builds, having a DRM free solution for game purchases compatible with older hardware is incredibly convenient. I’m not sure how compatible Galaxy itself is with older rigs, but it’s great to use as a download manager for game installers themselves, because downloading them through a browser is a pain.
That’s a good point about Windows XP that I hadn’t considered. In our throw away society, I’m glad that enthusiasts like yourself are making use of older hardware.
That said, I tend not to hold on to older hardware, generally owning one desktop or laptop at a time with a modern OS installed on it. So of more concern to me is that these older games get patched to work on modern operating systems (which GOG has a track record of doing). I am also a little concerned that both PCs and Macs will switch their processors from x86 to ARM with no compatibility layer (which would be a problem for both Steam and GOG); if that happens, I may just have to get a seperate x86 machine to run my Steam and GOG collections on.
That said, these types of games are the exception, rather than the rule. But it’s nice to see some of the most visually impressive PC games available on GOG.
New games haven’t been the exception for a while now, they no longer even claim the gog means “good old games” afaik. Granted actual AAA games don’t often want to have DRM-free versions at launch, but tons of other more indie-esque games get there in a timely fashion these days. It’s sad tbh, I wish they still pushed for old games to be re-released legally like that, there are tons missing still. They still do at times but not like in the early days where it was their whole schtick. Nightdive and others fill in some blanks too.
I was referring to big budget games specifically as the exception, but yes the indie game lineup on GOG has grown significantly. They changed their name from “Good Old Games” to “GOG.com” a while back once they expanded beyond older games, keeping the GOG part (and domain) as a nod to their origins.
Which older games would you like to see re-released on GOG?
Galaxy could really use a Big Picture mode. That is the one area where Steam still has a clear advantage.
Mechwarrior games up to 4: Mercenaries, Starsiege/Tribes games, Noone Lives Forever games, Starlancer/Freelancer, loads. Some we know who owns the rights, others not, but the point is nooone took up the mantle to actually chase down the companies involved and make it happen. They would be better as enhanced editions for modern OS in addition to original versions under dosbox or other types of emulation where applicable of course. Still waiting for Nightdive to bring us Powerslave EX already too.
Galaxy needs to bring back the community tab, I barely visit since they removed it and it’s sad as plenty game forums are good with dedicated users posting guides and mods and fan patch stuff.
While I own them everywhere else, I would love official DRM free versions of some of Sega’s classic games. Would settle for an official DRM free installer of the Mega Drive classics. I own the old CD version for PC called Sega Classics Gold Collection (and ripped to ISO) and I have the No-CD patch for that, but a simple installer would be nice.
I would second the No One Lives Forever games. Would love to see some GOG treatment with updates to get them working well without having to have all the community patches. I believe the issue with that is nobody knows where the original code is right? That or the actual owner is unknown.
In my experience plenty gog oldies still need fan patches and stuff to play optimally (or have great gameplay altering mods that they obviously can’t offer as the default). Ie the dgvoodoo2 wrapper for SWAT3. Even if they technically just about run without. Thief 1 & 2 are two games I think they’ve integrated fan patches in (NewDark engine upgrade and such), but again not fully (get TFix and T2Fix). And I guess stuff like the System Shock Enhanced Edition but that was Nightdive, not gog, and it’s always best to also include the game in its original state for purists or whatever possible reason one may prefer it for this or that. It’s not a huge issue though, it’s really just the ability to get them/own them that matters for many, especially if the games were nowhere to be found previously. Ports of console oldies would be great too.
I’d just suggest you acquire/keep the roms from the collections you own backed up, physically and/or digitally and play them in your emulator of choice. That’s what I do usually, if possible (the Samurai Shodown Collection sadly doesn’t have easy to extract roms, I wanted to get the V Perfect rom to play in RetroArch), like for all the Quake and Doom oldies that are ported far from optimally so it’s best to just use ZDoom or whatever. You can set it all up how you like then back that up so it’s one click if you need to “reinstall” them at some point. Or just keep them in specific folder structures so every time you install or update RetroArch or whatever emulator you just direct it to that same path you always unpack them in.
Many Steam games don’t actually use any DRM and you can play them outside Steam by copying the folder wherever and then uninstalling from Steam, though I don’t know if that’s the case with the Mega Drive classics. You can try it and see I guess (and you won’t have to redownload them if it doesn’t work if that’s a problem, you’ll just put the backed up folder in the right Steam directory, then try to download it and it should detect the existing files and only download what’s missing before finalizing the setup).
The Sega classics on Steam do include the roms. They are weakly encoded and there is a freeware conversion program out there that will decode and rename them to .md files. I have done that as well, I just would like a Windows and Linux installer that I can run and play without all the added steps.
