Friday, September 12, 2008
RPGs Available at GOG.com
The GOG.com (Good Old Games) beta ("early access") started a little bit ago. The store officially opens to the public very soon, but you can still get in on the beta from what they say.
Looking over the list of RPGs available (or coming soon), I am fairly impressed. They only have 28 games (as of this moment), plus six more on the way "soon", but six of them are in their RPG category, including:
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics
Invictus: In the Shadow of Olympus
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader
Stonekeep (coming soon)
Okay, I am not sure I'd call all of these RPGs, but still... it looks like a good showing for retro-RPG goodness.
Some other interesting titles (to me) available or coming soon include Operation: Flashpoint GOTY edition (one of my all-time favorite games), Descent: Freespace and Freespace 2 (perhaps the best of all the Wing Commander / X-Wing clones), F/A-18A Super Hornet, Jagged Alliance 2: Unfinished Business (which I never heard but heard RAVE reviews about), and the Descent series.
I hope this turns out really well for them. On a personal level, I'm thrilled to see some of these great games being added to the "long tail" of games industry. It's difficult to find legitimate copies of these kinds of games without going through a subscription service like GameTap - so this could be a great opportunity for gamers.
Labels: Biz, Mainstream Games, retro
- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:43 AM (Permalink)
Comments:
Links to this post:
<< Home
I'm in the beta, and it's pretty incredible so far.
Well, incredible for a digital distribution site selling old games. They're cheap, they download fast, they work. I suppose they don't come with free kittens, though. :(
Sure, I got a code for a free game with my first purchase (and that's one nice thing - emails arrive pretty much instantly, whereas other stores have had me waiting up to half an hour...), but free game != free kitten.
I'm hoping to eventually see the Wizardry series on there. And the infinity engine games. And, and, and... I'll avoid the list.
Regarding GameTap, it's not available everywhere, and it's DRMd to hell and back, which makes mods virtually impossible to use, IIRC. GOG? The forums for each game have lists of recommended mods, map packs, unofficial patches and utilities, posted by GOG staff and stickied.
Even the little things are nice. Games come with downloadable wallpapers, avatars, manuals and mp3 soundtracks (not everything for every game, but still), and when you register there are 18 options for gender, in case you feel you're more of a gentleman or a dude than a guy, or prefer grrl to lady, or simply want to be a jedi.
GOG is love.
BTW, Stonekeep is released on Tuesday, according to the announcement today. No date for Flashpoint yet, but if it's not announced next Thursday it'll probably be the Thursday after.
Well, incredible for a digital distribution site selling old games. They're cheap, they download fast, they work. I suppose they don't come with free kittens, though. :(
Sure, I got a code for a free game with my first purchase (and that's one nice thing - emails arrive pretty much instantly, whereas other stores have had me waiting up to half an hour...), but free game != free kitten.
I'm hoping to eventually see the Wizardry series on there. And the infinity engine games. And, and, and... I'll avoid the list.
Regarding GameTap, it's not available everywhere, and it's DRMd to hell and back, which makes mods virtually impossible to use, IIRC. GOG? The forums for each game have lists of recommended mods, map packs, unofficial patches and utilities, posted by GOG staff and stickied.
Even the little things are nice. Games come with downloadable wallpapers, avatars, manuals and mp3 soundtracks (not everything for every game, but still), and when you register there are 18 options for gender, in case you feel you're more of a gentleman or a dude than a guy, or prefer grrl to lady, or simply want to be a jedi.
GOG is love.
BTW, Stonekeep is released on Tuesday, according to the announcement today. No date for Flashpoint yet, but if it's not announced next Thursday it'll probably be the Thursday after.
# posted by 
: September 12, 2008 1:54 PM
: September 12, 2008 1:54 PM
Wow - it sounds like it really is a something that's been put together by gamers for gamers (to borrow the old Interplay slogan). I haven't tried out the service yet (still playing Wiz 8 in the spare time I can pull together - don't need another distraction...), but I am impressed.
Sounds fantastic! I'll be checking it out.
...no free kittens == a very good thing. But do they come with free badgers, that's what I wanna know.
...no free kittens == a very good thing. But do they come with free badgers, that's what I wanna know.
> Anonymous said...
>
> GOG is love.
If I were in viral marketing I'd use your text as a shining example.
>
> GOG is love.
If I were in viral marketing I'd use your text as a shining example.
# posted by : September 12, 2008 8:43 PM
: September 12, 2008 8:43 PM
Nothing against GOG, but aren't Freespace and Freespace 2 both available for free, legal download? I mean, it's possible there's a value-add with GOG, but free and legal is a pretty hard thing to fight...
# posted by : September 13, 2008 9:58 AM
: September 13, 2008 9:58 AM
As I understand it, the source code for the games is available for free, but not the content. So you can have the underlying game engine, but not the game.
Kinda. It's... dubious.
The source code is freely available. The actual games are not... except that the EULA lets you give copies of the game to a friend... except that that EULA may not be the actual EULA. This might be of interest: http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Freespace_2_EULA_Issues
Basically, the EULA on the installer is an older version than the one actually installed, and the one installed with the game doesn't let you give the game away to friends.
Most people just shrugged and invoked the standard ethical abandonware argument, that even if it's not legal it's fair, since there's no way to buy a legal copy of the game, but now there is.
The most popular version at present is the FSOpen/Source Code Project setup, which improves the FS2 engine and ports FS1 to it as well. Apparently this, and the mods it comes with, do work using the files from the GOG version of the games, so at least you don't miss out on improvements by buying it.
Full disclosure: I'm the anonymous calibrator hinted was a viral marketer.
Fuller disclosure: I'm not a viral marketer, and I've happily used the free SCP version of FS2 for ages.
tl;dr: To me, really cheap, legal download beats free, legal improved engine download plus free, dubiously legal game files download.
The source code is freely available. The actual games are not... except that the EULA lets you give copies of the game to a friend... except that that EULA may not be the actual EULA. This might be of interest: http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Freespace_2_EULA_Issues
Basically, the EULA on the installer is an older version than the one actually installed, and the one installed with the game doesn't let you give the game away to friends.
Most people just shrugged and invoked the standard ethical abandonware argument, that even if it's not legal it's fair, since there's no way to buy a legal copy of the game, but now there is.
The most popular version at present is the FSOpen/Source Code Project setup, which improves the FS2 engine and ports FS1 to it as well. Apparently this, and the mods it comes with, do work using the files from the GOG version of the games, so at least you don't miss out on improvements by buying it.
Full disclosure: I'm the anonymous calibrator hinted was a viral marketer.
Fuller disclosure: I'm not a viral marketer, and I've happily used the free SCP version of FS2 for ages.
tl;dr: To me, really cheap, legal download beats free, legal improved engine download plus free, dubiously legal game files download.
# posted by : September 13, 2008 10:35 AM
: September 13, 2008 10:35 AM
:)
Well, I'm not buying the Freespace games because - uh - I already own them, still have the discs handy, played both games at least three times through each (plus fan mods and some fan-made games made with the engine), designed multiple missions and campaigns for it, and consider the games pretty much the best of their type as far as gameplay and engine are concerned. Story-wise... blah... but they were absolutely brilliant games that I played a ton.
All that being said, I know of many people who made me look like a total n00b by comparison.
And now I feel like re-installing the dang things. Again. Which I really can't afford to do. But dang they were good.
Well, I'm not buying the Freespace games because - uh - I already own them, still have the discs handy, played both games at least three times through each (plus fan mods and some fan-made games made with the engine), designed multiple missions and campaigns for it, and consider the games pretty much the best of their type as far as gameplay and engine are concerned. Story-wise... blah... but they were absolutely brilliant games that I played a ton.
All that being said, I know of many people who made me look like a total n00b by comparison.
And now I feel like re-installing the dang things. Again. Which I really can't afford to do. But dang they were good.
> [viral] Buy Sacrifice and Giants instead, then [/viral]
:P
Now that's the spirit!
;-)
Post a Comment
:P
Now that's the spirit!
;-)
# posted by : September 13, 2008 2:37 PM
: September 13, 2008 2:37 PMLinks to this post:
<< Home
