GOG Summer Sale

[BFG10K]

http://www.gog.com/

I'm personally waiting for more games to be added to their CD-Key reclamation page.

 

[rivethead]

Wow. All three D&D Enhanced Edition games for $23.97 (or $7.99 each). That's the best deal I've seen on those (BG1EE has been $4.99 on Steam, so lower on an individual basis).

Very good deal.

 

[Tweak155]

Can't remember if I've bought anything from GOG before although I've heard of it. Do the keys always work for Steam or do I have to verify somewhere?

 

[wanderer27]

Can't remember if I've bought anything from GOG before although I've heard of it. Do the keys always work for Steam or do I have to verify somewhere?

The games are on their Site.

You download and install them from their Site.

They're DRM Free, meaning the installer you download can be used on any Computer without validation or needing to connect to a Website anywhere.


If you don't have an Account with them already you can get 15 free games just for joining.

Here are the free games :

http://www.gog.com/games##sort=bestselling&price=free&page=1



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[Tweak155]

I didn't ask if the keys work for Steam because I care about DRM. Thanks though - I'll take that as a no.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

they also have their own client available now.

 

[DaveSimmons]

I didn't ask if the keys work for Steam because I care about DRM. Thanks though - I'll take that as a no.

Correct. GoG does not use Steam. You download DRM-free full installs from them. There is no phone-home or activation step. They have their own client for downloads and patching but you do not need to install or use it, you can do the downloads in a browser.

You can install from the downloaded files 20 years from now on any future PC you buy even if GoG went out of business before then.

GoG is owned by CD Projekt Red, the developers of the Witcher series.

 

[BlueWeasel]

Lichdom Battlemage for $5? That's somewhat tempting.

 

[wanderer27]

they also have their own client available now.

Yeah, I'm thinking I saw somewhere that it is somewhat compliant with Steam, in that it can access Steamworks and some other online type functionality.



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[Tweak155]

Correct. GoG does not use Steam. You download DRM-free full installs from them. There is no phone-home or activation step. They have their own client for downloads and patching but you do not need to install or use it, you can do the downloads in a browser.

You can install from the downloaded files 20 years from now on any future PC you buy even if GoG went out of business before then.

GoG is owned by CD Projekt Red, the developers of the Witcher series.

Thanks for this explanation.

 

[motsm]

The enhanced IE games are tempting, but I guess my disc versions are still fine, since they never fixed the path finding, and not having an IWDII or PT version. Grimrock II should be great though, the first was really something special.

 

[Craig234]

Missed the first day, darn. Already have everything I want in today's sale except maybe the WWI game.

Would have got the lichdom battlemage for $5 you mention but it's $40 now.

 

[Red Storm]

The enhanced IE games are tempting, but I guess my disc versions are still fine, since they never fixed the path finding, and not having an IWDII or PT version. Grimrock II should be great though, the first was really something special.

I thought the latest patch for BG2 did fix pathfinding?

 

[tidy]

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[sweenish]

It's not a weird policy, it's how old games expected to be run.

Not running those games as admin will break them. With that said, if a game doesn't require admin, they tend not to ask for it.

Could you highlight the differences you're talking about? Without details, I assume everyone is lying.

 

[tidy]

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[angminas]

I went to install Galaxy, their game launcher, but I found this in the TOS:

6. Injunction. Because Company would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this Agreement were not specifically enforced, you agree that Company shall be entitled, without bond, other security or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect to breaches of this Agreement, in addion to such other remedies as Company may otherwise have under applicable laws.

To me, this sounds like they can charge me whatever they want on the premise that I violated the TOS, and they don't have to prove damages or that I did anything wrong. Is that what it actually means? I don't recall seeing something like this before.

 

[BFG10K]

Retail versions of games like The Witcher and STALKER never needed to be run as admin, and the GOG versions still run if you disable run as admin, so why do they do it at all?

Because some people install games to C : \ Program Files. In fact IIRC their installer defaults to that location.

You can take the user.itx from a retail game and use it with the GOG version, and that seems to result in full detail graphics, but if they broke one thing who knows what else they might have broken. I'm staying with the retail installation to be safe.

They didn't "break" anything. It was obviously intentional, and also likely for compatibility reasons. They certainly didn't do it for fun.

 

[tidy]

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[greenhawk]

Retail versions of games like The Witcher and STALKER never needed to be run as admin, and the GOG versions still run if you disable run as admin, so why do they do it at all?

They probably do it as a easy fix for most issues in older games as in earlier windows versions, the user was a default admin. It was not until after win XP IIRC that the admin account / rights became a separate thing for home users.

 

[motsm]

I thought the latest patch for BG2 did fix pathfinding?

I believe it mostly did, but they haven't fixed it in Icewind Dale, or Baldur's Gate. From doing some research just now, the last official mention of it is them basically saying they can't find a way to fix it. Guess I can take those off my wish list.

 

[Lonyo]

I went to install Galaxy, their game launcher, but I found this in the TOS:

6. Injunction. Because Company would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this Agreement were not specifically enforced, you agree that Company shall be entitled, without bond, other security or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect to breaches of this Agreement, in addion to such other remedies as Company may otherwise have under applicable laws.

To me, this sounds like they can charge me whatever they want on the premise that I violated the TOS, and they don't have to prove damages or that I did anything wrong. Is that what it actually means? I don't recall seeing something like this before.

Send them an email and ask them to clarify.
When they were updating the main GoG ToS, they put it to users, and there were some areas where users had problems with the draft wording and they modified it.
If you have a problem with the ToS wording or want to get it clarified, they will probably actually respond to your query.

 

[BFG10K]

What happens in that case? I haven't installed a game that location sine Vista, but I thought the only consequence was that Windows puts some dynamic files in a VitrualStore directory.

Write access can be denied to certain files, especially on XP systems running non-admin accounts.

That isn't going to cut it. It's not "obviously intentional" at all.

Do you have any coding experience at all? How do you suppose those settings magically adopted reduced quality (while still keeping fully legal engine values) as they worked on completely unrelated code (e.g. removing DRM).

It's just as likely they screwed something up inadvertently, which can frequently happen in these re-released legacy games (for example, the Unreal Anthology version of Unreal Gold needs a community fix to restore online compatibility, and Ubisoft re-released Age of Empires containing a broken update that again needs a community fix to roll it back). QA is never going to be particularly rigorous for re-releases like this, and mistakes happen.

What are you talking about? Age of Empires isn't even on GOG!

Firstly, what compatibility issues? As I said, the game still works with the retail ini swapped in.

The game still works on your single system? That's fantastic. Except GOG doesn't have the luxury of solely targeting your system. Does it also work on 2007 hardware with the latest drivers on XP?

Secondly, making a bunch of silent changes to default ini values that directly results in degraded graphics, without mentioning it in any release notes, would be unacceptable whether it was done to address "compatibility issues" or not.

If the original settings caused problems in their testing, they're perfectly justified in doing so.

Why do you think they removed hardware acceleration from the X-Wing games?
Why do you think they bundle older versions of nGlide to replace OpenGL and Direct3D wherever possible?

Are these "bugs" too?

If the game doesn't work, are you going provide support/refunds for their customers? Of course not. Given GOG offers a 30 day guarantee for non working games, you can be sure they're going to do everything possible to make sure it works.

 

[BSim500]

Unless there is any evidence to suggest that it was done deliberately for "compatibility reasons", then I'll be treating that as exactly what it is: unfounded speculation. Firstly, what compatibility issues? As I said, the game still works with the retail ini swapped in. Secondly, making a bunch of silent changes to default ini values that directly results in degraded graphics, without mentioning it in any release notes, would be unacceptable whether it was done to address "compatibility issues" or not.

Except for stripping out DRM, nearly every tweak GOG does is for compatibility reasons. Sometimes they'll adjust an .ini if not doing so will cause glitches (eg, severe shadow flickering on some type of hardware). Sometimes they'll disable ALT+TAB and the Windows key for old DirectDraw based games if not doing so will cause the game to lock up upon switching back. Sometimes they'll set it to run as Admin (especially if installing to Program Files). IIRC, they had to disable hardware acceleration in The Longest Journey as it resulted in missing objects / textures, etc. Pre Win95 stuff 16-bit DOS games needs DOSBox, etc. "Runs too fast" CPU speed patches, widescreen patches, FOV patches, even whole new renderers (eg, DirectX 7 games that can be patched to use DX 9-10).

The reason you may not see a difference on your 780Ti is some issues are architecture / brand specific. Eg, in NWN1, you have to turn off "Shiny Water" or you get onscreen corruption on some AMD GCN cards, but it works fine on with nVidia cards (even Maxwell's). Likewise games with a certain version of "binkw32.dll" are much more finicky with modern AMD Catalyst drivers (which is out of GOG's hands) which can cause cutscenes to not trigger. In NOLF1, water textures can turn black but only for Intel HD2500/4000 Ivy bridge iGPU's. Many more examples out there. Just because you don't see a difference on your 780Ti doesn't mean others with different hardware aren't.

GOG often disable / tweak settings on the not unreasonable opinion that casual gamers with finicky hardware might not even be able to run it and be not tech savvy enough to edit ini files, whilst geeky minded gamers will typically poke around in .ini files anyway. As BFG10K said though, they don't do this stuff for a laugh or to deliberately annoy people. If you bought your game recently and are having serious issues, just get in contact with support. They'll try and help you resolve it, and if there's no resolution they'll offer a refund if it's within 30 days of purchase.

As for those having "teething" issues with the new GOG Galaxy - it's entirely optional. You can still download games the "old fashioned" way without requiring any "launcher". Just click on "Account Library", then the game, then the title under "Game downloads" and it'll download as a regular .exe file in your web browser. Literally done in 3 clicks.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Another note about the Galaxy front end. It is only used for management. You don't have to have it running once your game is installed in order to play your games. Just a bit of fyi.

I highly recommend using it for downloading/installing though. I was never fond of the multiple files that GOG has. This simplifies it quite a bit.