Good Old Games, is it any good?
I noticed that site called Good Old Games sells digital download of Gabriel Knight 2, so I was wondering does anyone has experiences about them. I'm always bit sceptical towards digital download distributors which I don't know, because I fear that they might discontinue the service for which I have paid at some point or another or are otherwise untrustworthy (sometimes I'm almost as paranoid as Bosco).
So I was hoping to hear if anyone has bought old adventure games from them and do you have positive or negative experiences.
So I was hoping to hear if anyone has bought old adventure games from them and do you have positive or negative experiences.
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I've been using Good Old Games for, according to the site, 435 days. I love it. It's everything I want in a PC gaming distributor.
There is no DRM. The install files do not phone home, ever. The very barest of all possible protections is used, that is, you have to be signed into your account when you click the download link. And that's it. The installer does no activation check or anything. You can save the installer, and run it offline. There's no limit on downloads, no activations. Just log in, download the installer, and that's the last you'll ever hear of GOG.
Also, all the games work beautifully on modern PCs. If something doesn't work, you have tech support and a message board community. I can't speak to the quality of the tech support, considering I've never had an issue that required them.
Also, I like being able to get PDFs of the manual, MP3s of the soundtrack, and the other supplemental extras they include. They're generally not anything particularly special, but they're nice to have, especially considering that a lot of old PC RPGs really required a good read through the manual before you created your character.
I've had a really, really good experience with GOG so far. I'd recommend them to anybody in a heartbeat, easily.
Is it possible they'll go down? I suppose. That's a possibility with any of the download services, it's a fact of life and whatnot. But with GOG, you can burn the installer to a disc, or keep it on a hard drive somewhere, and it will work fine when you get back to it. Also, considering that their library has been expanding at a pretty good rate, I'd guess their business isn't outright failing at the moment.
Most of their games, more like.
While I generally approve of GOG, there has been two cases where games have been removed from sale and (AFAIK) their downloads removed (specifically, Colin McCrae Rally 2005 and ToCA Race Driver 3. Considering the latter is still available to buy off Steam, it's a case of publisher being dumb). That sad, they seem to be exceptions rather than the rule, and any backed up exes will still work.
They also do very easy installs for Beneath A Steel Sky,in case you can't get your head around ScummVM.
Buy games from them.
Do you need a gamepad to play BG&E? I love that game and it'd be great to be able to play it again without having to dig out my xbox from storage.
There is gamepad support, but I don't know how good it is. My pad was acting up when I played it, so I went through the whole game with mouse and keyboard. Worked well enough.