Getting into Steam was pretty painless...

[Rick Dangerous]

So after years of foot dragging I finally got a steam. It works well and is a pretty intuitive program and game launcher. Digital games are nearly worthless to me....but....I can't help like i'm getting a good deal if i'm only paying .97 cents for a game when some of the crazy sales going on.

 

A few questions:

 

-How would you integrate a game you didn't buy on steam into the launcher?

 

-How is GOG in comparison as far as ease of use goes? Seems more up my alley as far as the retro catalog, but harder to get games to run?

 

Anyway, seems like many games don't need a particularly powerful machine to run on, and lots of good legacy titles. For anyone who's been holding out i'd say go for it.

 

Cheers'

Edited November 30, 2018 by travistouchdown

[+Gemintronic]

Not a full answer but GOG has some sweet free classic games. Everything is DRM free so you don't have to worry about being online.. or, having one computer online with Steam blocking another game (or requiring Steam to log out of it).

 

You could test out GOG without a $ investment is what I'm getting at

[KeeperofLindblum]

 

1.How would you integrate a game you didn't buy on steam into the launcher?

 

2.How is GOG in comparison as far as ease of use goes? Seems more up my alley as far as the retro catalog, but harder to get games to run?

 

 

1. In the Steam application, there's an option (I believe under Games) that let's you add non-Steam games to the library menu. Of course, all this does is add the shortcut and nothing else.

 

2. a. GOG's application works pretty much exactly the same as Steam's, but it's a bit different of a layout. IMO, they feel exactly the same to use.

b. Afraid I haven't played a lot of "legacy" titles on GOG, but from what few I have, they seem to have already been pre-configured to just work on Windows. You might have to do some minor tweaking here and there, but I don't think anything drastic. Probably the same amount as you'd do on a game to optimize it for your own PC and experience.

 

EDIT - Also, as Gemintronic said, GOG has quite a few free games you can get if you'd like to test it out. Last I remember, you get like 10 free games just from making an account. (They're all older titles.)

Edited December 1, 2018 by KeeperofLindblum

[+wongojack]

When sales hit, the Steam prices are lower, but GOG gives you the freedom of non-DRM bound ownership. You don't need GOG Galaxy (their Steam-like client) to play GOG games, but from my experience, GOG Galaxy works almost exactly the same as the Steam client, and as others have mentioned, there are several free games you can just add to your library on GOG for free (Ultima IV). You might as well create an account on GOG and try out Galaxy to see how you like it.

[Flojomojo]

They're both great and are just about the only way I play PC games nowadays -- there are a few exceptions, but it's nice having things in just a few places.

[Reaperman]

I greatly prefer steam for its ease of use and interesting ecosystem--for examples, the workshop, forums, friends list, cards/store, badges/levels, etc. That said, I think the modern gog games are also a solid option, and while I view it as a distant second, it is still my #2 choice. I haven't actually tried their launcher, since I go for the installers, but hear good things, and I like that its DRM-free, so I can archive my games for later. I also like 'gog connect' which allows linking of a steam account, and during certain promotions, if a steam account owns a game, they add it to your gog library too.

Now that's just plain neighborly.

 

However, while I like gog's modern stuff, their oldies aren't worth the trouble, IMO. What follows is my usual 'gog oldies' rant:

 

 

Many of the older gog games are poorly configured dosbox crap, or poorly wrappered directx stuff, and though I give them another try about once a year, I can't recall many times when their games have achieved 'good enough' status. Their control configurations are often substandard, and the seem to have not mastered the 'original aspect ratio upscaled for modern displays' trick, opting to either let modern displays deal with scaling 640x480, or allowing modern resolutions, but stretching the 4:3 games to 16:9, with all the problems you'd expect from doing that.

 

Frequently there are better configs and fixes in gog's own forums, which poses the question of why they don't periodically repackage their products benefiting from the input of their users. If I'm doing as much work as I do to get them running better--I might as well start with my original media and leave gog out of it.

 

 

Edited December 1, 2018 by Reaperman

[Austin]

Steam FTW. Welcome to the club!

[MrMaddog]

I love the Steam client for launching PC games because it does add a modern Xbox-like environment to my gaming PC. And of course I can add non-Steam games to it as well. Not only that but I can even launch other digital storefronts like GOG Galaxy and Origin from Steam...

 

GOG Galaxy is also good but I use it for older games since they're configured to run on modern PC's. What I don't like abnout it is you can't add other games without using a seperate program and even then the games only show up on the side bar and not the main library.

 

To be honest though, I don't like the actions of Valve as of late since they like to cater to "toxic" gamers above everyone else. Thankfully there are other sites like the Humble Store where you can buy games and redeem the codes on Steam w/o dealing with Valve directly.

[CatsGamesWhatever]

Unless you have a really strong want to play a game right away my suggestion is to avoid so called "steam sales". People say they are great but my own experience finds them very lackluster.

My preference is Humblebundle. They give out a package of games monthly for a fixed cost. They also have various "bundles" of games throughout the year (they basically give out a steam key or the launcher)

I have over 222 steam games and I don't believe I paid over $100 because of humble (and I don't subscribe monthly either just buy what I am interested in).

They also gave out free games all the time which is a nice bonus.

[Reaperman]

This talk of steam sales reminds me of one of my favorite things--the steam wishlist. I currently have just under 750 games on my wishlist, so when there's a sale, I can browse the sale prices of games I actually want, and not the stupid list of popular games on the front page. Additionally, chrome plugins like (enhanced steam) allow me to see the historical lowest ever prices on games, current lowest price for the steam key around the net, and how many times a game has appeared in bundles from the major bundle sites--right in their steam store pages. It also shows me the games with 3rd party DRM, helps me sell trading cards, and allows me to sort my wishlist in a variety of ways, including 'by discount %.'

 

One big weakness with steam, is they make it hard to sort through games you already have, or find older games in the store you don't know the name of. I use two important tools from the same place (public steam profile required):

• (This) will allow filtering of your library by tags, for example sci-fi+rpg+turn-based
• (This) does the same thing for wishlists

I highly recommend putting your steam account into them, and bookmarking the resulting page.

 

Also, (here) is a great tool for finding the steam games with the highest discounts, and (here) is a depressing calculator for the value of your account and how little you play them. Sigh.

 

I even have a worse playtime ratio than this. It's inflated due to card farming.

 

 

 

For super-cheap games, the bundle sites work fine. I also recommend DIG, which among other things is a place to sell keys you don't need. Because of that, it's also a place to buy super cheap keys out of the various bundles around the net, if the bundle only has one or two games you want. I'll often buy the 'bottom $1 level' of a bundle, and go to dig for the one extra game I wanted from the $10 tier.

Edited December 2, 2018 by Reaperman

[HammR25]

I'm not sure how much of Enhanced Steam is going to work in a couple of months when the API servers are permanently taken down by the guy running it.

[+wongojack]

This talk of steam sales reminds me of one of my favorite things--the steam wishlist. I currently have just under 750 games on my wishlist, so when there's a sale, I can browse the sale prices of games I actually want, and not the stupid list of popular games on the front page. Additionally, chrome plugins like (enhanced steam) allow me to see the historical lowest ever prices on games, current lowest price for the steam key around the net, and how many times a game has appeared in bundles from the major bundle sites--right in their steam store pages. It also shows me the games with 3rd party DRM, helps me sell trading cards, and allows me to sort my wishlist in a variety of ways, including 'by discount %.'

 

One big weakness with steam, is they make it hard to sort through games you already have, or find older games in the store you don't know the name of. I use two important tools from the same place (public steam profile required):

• (This) will allow filtering of your library by tags, for example sci-fi+rpg+turn-based
• (This) does the same thing for wishlists

I highly recommend putting your steam account into them, and bookmarking the resulting page.

 

Also, (here) is a great tool for finding the steam games with the highest discounts, and (here) is a depressing calculator for the value of your account and how little you play them. Sigh.

 

I even have a worse playtime ratio than this. It's inflated due to card farming.

 

 

 

For super-cheap games, the bundle sites work fine. I also recommend DIG, which among other things is a place to sell keys you don't need. Because of that, it's also a place to buy super cheap keys out of the various bundles around the net, if the bundle only has one or two games you want. I'll often buy the 'bottom $1 level' of a bundle, and go to dig for the one extra game I wanted from the $10 tier.

 

 

Neat!

 

I knew about the filters, but didn't know about the value site. Here's mine. I don't really feel THAT bad about it:

 

[digdugnate]

just call me Rusty Shackleford...

 

 

[Rick Dangerous]

All very interesting info, thank you!

 

Will check out GOG and give it a whirl just for interests sake.

[S1500]

What annoys me about Steam is the fact that you might have more than 1 computer.

 

And also, why does it need daily updates? It's not that big of a deal of an app.

[Flojomojo]

What annoys me about Steam is the fact that you might have more than 1 computer.

 

And also, why does it need daily updates? It's not that big of a deal of an app.

I don't see how that's an annoyance. You can install Steam games to many computers, but you can only play from one at a time. If you're logged in from two different locations, say your powerful desktop PC and your weedy laptop PC, you can stream from one machine to another. The Steam Cloud will transfer your game saves between machines without you having to manage it.

 

 

The "updates" are probably doing something with the encryption/security/DRM while you wait.

[digdugnate]

i don't guess I've tried to play games from two machines logged in under the same account with Steam- sometimes I forget to turn off my desktop Steam client and i launch it on my work laptop and Mrs. Digdug complains that she can hear the notifications on my desktop.

 

My wife has her Steam library shared out with our son; except for some login weirdness, it works pretty decent but I don't think they can play the same game at the same time when he's accessing her library.

[moycon]

Steam is awesome!!

 

That's all I have to add.

 

That and wongojack just raised the bar. 711 games!!?? I thought I was cool with 345 game. Now I know better.

[+wongojack]

Steam is awesome!!

 

That's all I have to add.

 

That and wongojack just raised the bar. 711 games!!?? I thought I was cool with 345 game. Now I know better.

 

Check Reaperman's post (click the spoiler) to really blow your mind.

[power]

signed up for Steam to install Half-Life 2 (launch so 15 years ago), never looked back. Only 400 games so not too crazy.

Edited December 5, 2018 by power

[moycon]

 

Check Reaperman's post (click the spoiler) to really blow your mind.

 

Reaperman is my hero.

[Reaperman]

Reaperman is my hero.

 

This is the first time that has ever been said about somebody whose embarrassingly large collection of DLC packs for 'deep space waifu' all count as individual games.

[Gentlegamer]

Someone gift OP Bad Rats.

[Duke75]

-How is GOG in comparison as far as ease of use goes? Seems more up my alley as far as the retro catalog, but harder to get games to run?

 

IMO old games are easier to run on GOG compared to Steam because GOG actually does try to pre-configure them for you. I still usually adjust dosbox or ScummVM to my liking, but at least it's more like minor tweaking, whereas Steam's mentality is more like "We got your money, now you make it work, sucker." (Unless the publisher takes the setup GOG tested and just resells it on Steam ) One major downside about GOG is that, like all other stores, it's tiny compared to Steam, which means that a lot of publishers are happy to release games on GOG and then completely ignore it when it comes to stuff like patches. Because Steam is where all the money is, publishers always make sure the users there get updates first and always, but GOG/DRM-free users are frequently left in the dust. And then there's just the fact that a lot of publishers are still terrified of the whole DRM-free thing, so don't look to GOG in general for really major releases. If GOG does get a AAA game, it's usually because the game is seen as being used up after a few years on Steam and therefore safe to put up on a DRM-free store.

[digdugnate]

 

This is the first time that has ever been said about somebody whose embarrassingly large collection of DLC packs for 'deep space waifu' all count as individual games.

Ha! I have 'Hatoful Boyfriend' so I'm not gonna judge.