Over the years, game retailers GOG have drifted from almost purely offering classic oldies to welcoming more and more modern blockbusters onto their storefront. In one sense, they've turned from a game preservation champion into a slightly dustier, DRM-less Steam. Now, though, GOG have declared a renewed focus on not just selling aged games, but on tweaking more of them to work on non-aged hardware. And you'll be able to tell which games have got this restoration treatment from a fancy badge plastered on top of them.
]]>It's deeply frustrating and disappointing when games get pulled from store shelves due to licenses expiring, and too few ever return. So it's great news that almost four years after Sega stopped selling Obsidian's fascinating spy thriller RPG Alpha Protocol on Steam due to music rights expiring, it has returned to sale on GOG. I'm always surprised that Alpha Protocol hasn't reached serious cult classic status because, as much as parts are distinctly wonky, the globetrotting sneak-o-shooter fizzes with ideas for intense dialogue, branching plot, and reputation systems with consequences. You do feel like a spy going up against the world, backed up only by shifty allies and a ridiculous pair of giant sunglasses.
]]>While cloud gaming is very much not at a point where I want it to be the main way I play games, if I ever will, I do appreciate having the convenience as an option. Being able to play a game away from my PC can be handy. So it's neat that GOG have announced they're teaming up with Amazon to make select GOG games playable through the Amazon Luna cloud gaming platform "soon". Sure, I might be tempted to take a nice stroll through Night City while slouching about with my laptop that absolutely cannot run Cyberpunk 2077.
]]>Digital storefront GOG is experiencing "technical issues" related to an outage at their storage provider and content delivery network (CDN). As a result, people may be unable to download and update games purchased through the store via both GOG.com and their GOG Galaxy client.
]]>When I look outside my window I just see a bunch of mist and rain. The only way I know spring has in fact sprung is from the other yearly indicators: Easter eggs stacked en masse in the aisles of supermarkets; pictures of bunnies, chicks and daffodils everywhere; and digital storefronts doing seasonal game sales. GOG kicks off their Spring Sale starts today, with literally thousands of games discounted, some up to 90%. It's running until April 3rd, and to give you a place to start we've highlighted some of our favourites on our GOG page.
]]>GOG has decided to scrap their GOG Connect service, which allowed users to claim a limited selection of games they already owned on Steam for free. The service was quietly killed off at the beginning of this year and removed from GOG’s site, which didn’t go unnoticed by frequenters of the GOG subreddit. GOG confirmed the closure of Connect to RPS fan site PC Gamer, saying “for a long time nothing really happened there, so we've decided to shut it down”. Fair enough.
]]>Rodent-starring action RPG Ghost Of A Tale is free on GOG for 72 hours to mark the kick off of the storefront’s Winter Sale. The offer runs out on December 15th, although you’ll need to agree to receive marketing emails to nab the game. It's a story about a music-loving mouse searching for his wife in a medieval world populated by anthropomorphic animals. If you’ve not seen Ghost Of A Tale in action before, or just forgotten in the intervening four and a bit years since its release, have a watch of the trailer below.
]]>The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has been released and re-released several times and is available for almost anything that plays games at this point. As of two days ago, it's even now available DRM-free from digital retailer GOG.com. The GOG release is "entirely playable offline" and includes all the Anniversary Edition content "without the need for Creation Club access."
]]>GOG started highlighting classic games again recently under the Good Old Games label, a nod towards its original moniker. Well, two more old-school games are releasing on the DRM-free storefront today: Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. The arrival of the latter kicks off a sale on Warhammer games. While you’re deciding whether you like digital versions of the little toy troopers or not, cast your mind back to the misty days of 2004 and watch the trailer for Dark Alliance 2 below.
]]>CD Projekt have thrown the doors open on the GOG Summer Sale today, and hiding in plain sight is Creative Assembly’s space survival horror Alien: Isolation. The scary stealth ‘em up is the first of a series of games published by Sega that are going DRM-free on GOG. Two Point Hospital and Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine – Anniversary Edition will be joining the store at an unspecified date too.
]]>Hot on the heels of The Wheel Of Time finding a load of new fans through a live-action series, GOG and Nightdive Studios have dug up and re-released a 90s FPS set in Robert Jordan's fantasy world. GOG are also using this opportunity to revive Good Old Games, their original name, albeit only as a store category for games they consider both old and good. This is one of them, they say. Is it? I know it's old, but is it good?
]]>Hey, you, you like roguelikelike roleplaying 4X strategy doodads with card-based combat? You interested in a game we said was "An imperfect thing that I can't help but feel affectionate towards"? Of course you do, course you like knobbly weird games. So don't miss your chance to grab a copy of 2019's Thea 2: The Shattering free for keepsies as part of GOG's ongoing Spring Festival. You have two days to nab it.
]]>As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, more games companies have decided to suspend some business with Russia. In the past few days, Activision Blizzard, Epic, and CD Projekt (including GOG) all announced plans to stop selling games or stop selling things in games to Russia, joining a list which also includes EA and Microsoft.
]]>Profits from the next seven days of sales from This War Of Mine and Slipways will be donated to the Red Cross to support people affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Both developers posted the announcement on Twitter today, with GOG joining in by saying that their share of sales of both games will also be donated.
]]>Video game sales are less of a novelty now that a giant sale is running on one store or another almost all the time but hey, this just means you can get cheap games almost all the time. This week, look to GOG for your game shopping, where their 'We Love Games' sale has over 3000 things going cheap. Discounts include 50% off Cyberpunk 2077, 60% off Disco Elysium, and 80% off The Witcher 3 GotY. Not bad!
]]>GOG, the digital game store, has updated their homepage to provide new ways to search and filter available games. That includes sorting games by price, filtering by genre, and a brand new tags system.
]]>The latest free game giveaway in GOG's winter sale is an unexpected one for the festive season, but perhaps a game which captures the feeling of being trapped at a seemingly endless Christmas lunch with awful relatives: I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Nothing says 'bad family Christmas' like being tortured for 109 years by a sentient supercomputer which nuked humanity and keeps only five people alive to torment. The 90s point 'n' click adventure game is a grim one (so grim!), but one which does have its fans.
]]>If you've not yet enjoyed the splendid real-time tactical squad action of Shadow Tactics: Blades Of The Shogun, here's your chance. GOG started their Winter Sale today, and for the first 48 hours they're offering Shadow Tactics free for keepsies. They plan to give more games away free later in the sale. Also they have discounts and things.
]]>Alright bargain-hunters, here's another one for you: GOG's Black Friday sale has now started. It might not be as big as Steam's sale (check out our Steam Autumn Sale recommendations) but GOG's games are (mostly) DRM-free, and many of their good discounts are the same. Deals include 90% off Shadow Tactics, half-price Cyberpunk 2077, 80% off The Witcher 3 GotY... yeah, these will do nicely.
]]>This Friday is dubbed Black Friday in the USA because it's a dark time, when people will literally be maimed or killed in the crush to buy cheap televisions. The lowest ebb of the year before Cyber Monday brings to the light of redemption to the world when kewl d00dz hackers hack the planet. But it does bring cheap video games. GOG have already started a small "Pre-Black Friday sale", with good discounts including 50% off Disco Elysium and 50% off Cyberpunk 2077. Hmm. I might recommend it at that price?
]]>GOG has kicked off their 2021 Games Festival, which runs from today (August 19th) until September 2nd. GOG is promising "releases, announcements, 1200+ deals", and so far all three components appear to be in place - including 20 demos of recent or upcoming indie titles - nice! Here are some of the highlights from our roving correspondent.
]]>GOG is running a French Sale at the moment, offering up to 90% off games made or published by French studios. Among the highlights are the Dishonored and Prey series from Arkane, Absolver from Sloclap and The Surge from French publisher Focus Home Interactive, amongst others. And as usual, all of the games are provided DRM free, and often with a plentiful offering of extra content like wallpapers, soundtracks, manuals and so on - delightful. Locate your nearest croissant and coffee, and join me on a tour of these Frankish fancies.
]]>Alright driving game folks, here's an agility test for you. Absolute Drift is free on GOG until midday on Saturday. I believe in your ability to come in clutch and punch the redeem button before the countdown clock ends. This arcade-y racer has you test your drifting skills in free roam challenges and event challenges to the beat of some sweet tunes. GOG are offering the freebie alongside sales on lots of other driving and racing games in their ongoing summer sale.
]]>Tear your eyes away from all the upcoming E3 and E3-adjacent summer showcases for a moment, folks. Lest you forget, summer also brings game sales on games you can actually play right now, instead of games you'll play three years from now. GOG have kicked off their mega summer sale, starting off with some limited-time game and DLC bundles only available for the first 48 hours. Beyond that, you've got until June 28th to pick up your favorites from any of the other thousands of games that are on sale.
]]>GOG are holding a Polish Games Festival this week, with savings of up to 90% on loads of games from Polish developers, including Frostpunk, Observer: System Redux, Dying Light and Yes, Your Grace, and even some brand-new games such as Ghostrunner and The Medium. The sale runs until May 10th, but an extra wrinkle in this year's festival is that if you buy a game and sign up to GOG's newsletter, then you'll also receive a 15% off voucher on peripherals from the Razer Store.
]]>For years, Nvidia's GeForce Now app has been telling me I can play The Witcher 3 on its cloud gaming service. Trouble is, I own a GOG copy of the game, not the supported Steam version. It's been a minor irritation ever since I reviewed all the major cloud gaming services last year, but happily, my frustrations have now been soothed, as Nvidia are finally beefing up their support for GOG games on GeForce Now, starting with four entries CD Projekt Red's popular Witcher series arriving today.
]]>With February 14th fast approaching, GOG have kicked off their We Love Games sale, slashing the prices of over 2500 games by up to 92%. Among them are some of the biggest games from the last couple of years, including Control's DLC-packed Ultimate Edition, Disco Elysium, and Metro Exodus and there's even a small saving on old Cyberpunk 2077 as well, marking its very first official discount. Read on below for our selected highlights.
]]>Merry Christmas, it's time to hop in a mech and trash a city. For 72 hours, digital games store GOG are giving away Brigador free for keepsies, and it's well worth grabbing. Brigador's an isometric shooter about blasting through a futurecity in a variety of customisable mechs and other vehicles, going stealthy if you want or deploying massive munitions if not.
]]>Earlier today, the developers of the horror game Devotion announced it would return to sale via GOG on Friday. It's been unavailable for purchase since early 2019 due to an in-game joke at the expense of Chinese president Xi Jinping. Hours later, GOG have released their own peculiar statement reversing their decision to release it.
]]>Quite a lot of folks are looking to get their hands on CD Projekt Red's big neon RPG Cyberpunk 2077. Unlike GPUs and consoles, there's an infinite supply of digital cyberpunk downloads to be had so you don't need to make any transactions in Night City back alleys to play it. Be careful who you buy from, warn GOG, the digital game retailer owned by the same parent company as the game's developers. Some fans have already been disappointed by fake product keys bought from third-party retailers.
]]>GOG are giving away Europa Universalis II for free right now as part of their Paradox Interactive 20th Anniversary sale. Both the sale and the giveaway are running until 2pm BST on October 24th, so make sure you add the classic strategy game to your GOG account before then if you fancy picking it up. There are also some great deals to be had on Paradox's wider catalogue, too, including up to 75% off big hitters such as Stellaris and Battletch, so read on for our sale highlights.
]]>Hitting that 2020 mood bang on the nose, GOG today added Silent Hill 4: The Room to their catalogue. Konami's 2004 horror game is about a fella stuck in his flat, so desperate to get outside that he crawls through a mysterious hole in his bathroom wall and tumbles into nightmarish worlds filled with the horrors of himself. Been there, pal. Silent Hill 4 has not been readily available (well, legitimately) on PC for years, so it's good to see on pop up GOG.
]]>You'll soon be able to buy games off the Epic Games Store from inside the GOG Galaxy client, as part of GOG's plans to expand their launcher's built-in store. No, this does not mean Epic exclusives will be coming to GOG's own store. Yes, you will still need an Epic account. Yes, it is a bit weird, but I suppose adding new stores fits with GOG Galaxy's goal of being the launcher and library encompassing all other platforms and libraries.
]]>Solid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, and all their wacky mates return to PC today with re-releases of the first two Metal Gear Solid games popping up on GOG, after years hiding in boxes. The stealth series was clunky but ahead of its time in a lot of ways (and I'm as alarmed as anyone by how prescient their politics now seem) so I'm quite curious to see how the vintage tactical espionage action actually holds up. It's not going to be super-great, is it, but I'm game. GOG have dug up the original Metal Gear too.
]]>It's Quakecon At Home this weekend, and to celebrate this year's socially distanced Bethesda fest, GOG and Green Man Gaming are holding a huge sale with lots of tasty game deals. Chief among them is 56% off Doom Eternal over at GMG, and 75% off Prey for would-be GOG-ers, so read on below for our pick of the very best deals from each sale.
]]>GOG are having a big sale celebrating French game devs and publishers this week, offering up to 90% off loads of games made in the region. Running from now until July 20th, that means big savings on the back catalogue of Focus Home Interactive, which includes games like A Plague Tale: Innocence, Vampyr, The Surge and Call Of Cthulhu, as well as tasty discounts off titles from Dishonored dev Arkane and loads more. Read on for our top deals picks.
]]>Cyberpunk 2077 may not be out until November now, but if you’re twiddling your thumbs waiting for something to fill the void before it drops, then GOG’s new Red Ultimate Collection pre-order bundle could be just the thing, as it also includes every Witcher game for their lowest price yet.
]]>If you haven’t finally cracked into The Witcher 3 after three months of lockdown, perhaps you never will. Still, this latest offer from GOG might make you rethink, as from now until June 23rd, they're giving away free GOG copies of the game to anybody who’s bought it on other platforms, such as Steam, Epic Games Store and Origin – even PS4 and Xbox One copies are eligible. Best of all, your save file and achievements will transfer over, too.
]]>Lookit that. We're in mid-June already, which means that the first big game sale of the summer is about to get a sendoff. GOG's summer sale will wind up after the weekend so you've got just a few days left to score those deals. As part of the last hurrah, GOG are offering Hitman: Absolution free to keep. Snag it before Monday, June 15th.
]]>GOG's Summer Sale is in full swing at the moment, but just in case you needed another reason to dive back in to their big sack o' deals, they've just added a new Witcher collection that gets you all five games for £20 / $27, plus a bunch of free games, including Thimbleweed Park's Delores Mini-Adventure, so grab 'em while you can until June 15th.
]]>Back in the late 2000s, digital rights management - more commonly known as DRM - made itself difficult to ignore. CD copy protection programs such as SecuROM infamously limited the number of times players could install games like Bioshock on their PC, while Assassin’s Creed II required players to maintain a constant internet connection despite the fact it was a singleplayer game. At the time, this was a bit like asking people to play Assassin’s Creed II with a vase balanced on their head. Unless you’d invested in a highly stable, fibre-optic neck, at some point that vase was going to come crashing down.
Today, it’s easier for DRM to fly under the radar. Between the popularisation of digital stores and service-model games, and the fact that people today are generally a lot more online in their daily lives, anti-piracy solutions can be bound to games in a way players never notice or readily accept. But that doesn't mean that the issues surrounding DRM have been resolved - it only means we talk about them a lot less.
]]>Ah look! Summer's on, which means that both I and my wallet are about to start sweating. Me because of the oppressive humidity and my wallet because of my oppressive desire to own Dragon Age: Origins on five different storefronts for reasons I cannot explain. GOG have spun up their summer sale machine and would ya lookit that, Dragon Age: Origins—and many other RPGs and not-RPGs—are indeed on sale. Have at it 'till June 15th.
]]>You, there, stop that. You've got new videogames to play. Good Old Games has just launched free demos for Desperados 3 and the System Shock remake, along with a handful of other upcoming games. I've already had a sneaky play of both tactical cowboys and cybernetic spaceship loners, so I can already tell you they're worth your time. Aren't I good.
This is also another chance to check out Carrion, a horror game where you are a horrible mass of sticky tentacles.
]]>The open beta for GOG's new game launcher has gotten another update that, among other things, will let you link and surf the libraries of your subscription game services. Update 5 for GOG Galaxy 2.0 has a few other features like custom executables and sorting titles as well.
]]>GOG's Spring sale begins today, and there are lots of free Witcher goodies up for grabs to kick things off. Alas, The Witcher games themselves aren't free as part of the goodie pack (although they're all heavily discounted as part of GOG's Witcher Universe Collection bundle), but it does include lots of Witcher soundtracks, comics, art, wallpapers and a video of some Witcher music being played at The Video Game Show concert. You'll need to get 'em quick, though, as the goodies pack is only available until 2pm UTC tomorrow (March 18th). Read on below for some more highlights.
]]>I'm Alice0 and I'm here to say, some great Bethesda games are out in a DRM-free way. GOG this week added the Dishonored games and two of the new Wolfensteins. That's some lovely gaming right there, so I'm just briefly highlighting it for people who prefer their games without DRM. They've got hefty discounts for one week to celebrate the launches too.
]]>Hot off the heels of Steam's Lunar New Year sale, GOG have finally put the finishing touches to their respective cheeseboard of Lunar New Year game deals as well. But wait, there's more! In addition to the many hundreds of Lunar deals to be had, GOG will also be serving up a bunch of recommended deals horoscopes based on your Chinese Zodiac sign. Read on for more details and some of the sale's biggest highlights.
]]>Today in News I Thought I Might Never Write And Am Wholly Delighted To, we can now easily buy Westwood's 1997 Blade Runner adventure game. GOG, the virtuous vendor of vintage video games, have somehow untangled the rights and are selling it. Right now. For £7. I have already bought it and started the download. Blade Runner is one of the very rare decent movie tie-in games and I remember it fondly. I hope so much that I am not crushed.
]]>Now you've had almost a fortnight to recover from the dealbalst of Black Friday and Steam's autumn sale, here come GOG with their (premature*) Winter Sale. Thousands of games and bits are discounted on the DRM-free digital games store until Boxing Day and, to entice people in, GOG are offering a freebie. For the next day, you can grab Wasteland 2 for free for keepsies on GOG. This is inXile Entertainment's 2014 post-apocalyptic RPG, a crowdfunded sequel to the 1988 post-apocalyptic which later inspired Fallout. For free!
]]>After months of invitation-only testing for the shiny new version of their client, digital store GOG today launched GOG Galaxy 2.0 into open beta testing. More than a downloader and launcher, the optional client tries to draw together game libraries, friends lists, achievements, and more from loads of different stores and even consoles into one single place. You can admire virtual shelves full of all your games, see what all your pals are up to, and feel like the chief of cheevos when admiring all your accomplishments. Here, the video below explains it.
]]>Like a sudden smattering of doves, John Woo Presents: Stranglehold has been given fresh life on GOG today. John Woo's kinda-sorta 2007 sequel to 1992's Hard Boiled, Stranglehold is a videogame action flick that gunned to be one of Woo's best. It's got Chow Yun-fat diving through the air in slow motion (sorry, "Tequila Time"), pistols akimbo. It's got dozens of faceless goons to murder, levels packed with pillars bursting like dust-filled balloons. There are doves! Hundreds and thousands of doves! That's all you need, right?
Someone confirm that for me. Please. I've never seen a Woo film.
]]>If you're short of something spooky to play this Halloween week (Halloweek?), hit Steam and GOG to see what's going cheap in their spooky sales. Launched today, they've got oodles of ooky discounts between them. Since almost everyone else has gone home for the day and I'm the one writing this post, I'll drop a few recommendations of my own then shuffle off.
]]>You don't need your deals herald to tell you that wordy isometric RPG Disco Elysium is finally a thing you can buy, did you know that to celebrate the release of ZA/UM's intriguing debut, GOG are giving away a free copy of Stygian Software's equally word isometric RPG UnderRail with every purchase? I thought not. Hurry, though, as this deal won't last for long. Read on for more details.
]]>For the last couple months, GOG has been gathering feedback on the GOG Galaxy mega-games-launcher from its crew of closed beta testers. Today they've opened the gates and let out what they've been working on, the monolithic-sounding GOG Galaxy 2.0 Atlas Update. The update includes a whole lot of organizational possibilities, a Marie Kondo feverdream of clean, tidy sorting options and search tags. GOG, it seems, is angling for this to become your main hub for keeping track of every single release from past, present, and future.
]]>Seeing as DRM is a real barrier to the preservation of our cultural history, it's only fitting that the dead-language-translating archaeology 'em up Heaven's Vault is now sold on GOG too. The virtual vendors of vintage (and virgin) video games had originally rejected Heaven's Vault and declined to stock it, but this week chucked a uey and admitted they were wrong. If you want it DRM-free, get at it. GOG's curation is baffling but hey, here's another good game now on their store.
]]>Star-stuffed nineties adventure game Toonstruck is as free as a bird, now, and this bird you can grab in the GOG sale. Go on. Grab that bird. Hold it in your powerful fists. That thing's ancestors were dinosaurs, don't you know? You have basically captured and now have total power over a dinosaur. You have not only outlived every T-Rex to ever exist, but now have almost total say in the fate of its ancestor. Take that, all dinosaurs. Turn your all-conquering eyes towards this bit of Toonstruck footage I found on the internet below:
]]>Though summer is weeks away, DRM-free digital games store GOG today kicked off their summer sale. So people will go along with this ridiculous 'summer' charade, they're bribing us all with a free copy of Obduction, the latest explore-o-puzzler from Myst developers Cyan Worlds. Don't worry, pals: if you squint you can still click the button for a freebie without sullying yourself with false summer. Oh, also, loads of video games are discounted right now because it's a sale, yeah?
]]>The sad saga of Telltale's fall is due one last tragic chapter. GOG have just announced that all of the defunct choose-your-own-adventure studio's games will be de-listed next Monday, May 27th at 11am BST. That includes Telltale's own games like Puzzle Agent, and all three seasons of Sam & Max adventures, as well as licensed games like The Wolf Among Us, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Batman, and the excellent Tales From The Borderlands. The last of which has already been removed from Steam, though publisher 2K Games are working to bring it (and it alone) back, as reported by Eurogamer.
]]>Always ones to have their eye on new niches, GOG - once focused on the preservation and distribution of old DOS games - have just announced that their Galaxy launcher is getting an overhaul. Galaxy 2.0, as they're calling it, claims to keep track of your entire games library whether it's on Steam, Epic, GOG or even consoles, and act as a universal launcher for PC games. An ambitious new feature, and if it actually works it could be a useful piece of software to have around. Sadly, we'll be waiting a while longer, as GOG have only just started taking beta testing sign-ups for the new version here.
]]>Every year on the 4th of May, Star Was fans celebrate America's National Bird Day and how our avian friends inspired George Lucas to invent spaceships. You'll see Warries swooping through the streets, arms outstretched as they shriek like a Tawny Indiana Eagle (which famously inspired the TIE Fighter). Others spread their fingers to mimic the x-shaped wing profile of the Lothian Gannet (which inspired not only X-Wing spaceships but the 'live long and prosper' gesture of their pilots). GOG, well, GOG being a digital games store, their way to celebrate National Bird Day is discounting a load of old Star Wars games.
]]>Warcraft may now be a well-regarded name in cinema, but it actually began life as a video game. Cinephiles can explore these origins today in re-releases of Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and Warcraft II, two games seminal within the genre we ludophiles call 'click on men to tell them to go fight the other men right now'. Welcome to the world of video games, filmfaces, you're in for a wild ride.
]]>Blizzard's seminal 1997 action-RPG Diablo has risen again, this time with a re-release on GOG. Diablo had so far only been sold in boxes, coming as actual physical items you need to touch rather than pure electricity coursing through your taps, and Blizzard stopped manufacturing it long ago so finding the game has been difficult/expensive/of dubious legality. Now here it is, up on GOG, in both a "vanilla" version with fixed Battle.net multiplayer and a fancified edition with resolution upscaling. Some classic Warcraft will follow too.
]]>Digital games store GOG will soon stop offering customers store credit equivalent to how much less their purchase would cost in North America, a scheme they call Fair Price Package. It's GOG's solution to the prickly problem of regional pricing, which often means people outside North America end up paying a higher price in their native currency. GOG have themselves been paying for these rebates, which they claim average 12% of the game's price and go up to 37%, but say they can no longer afford to do that. This is a mite concerning given rumours surrounding GOG's recent layoffs, though GOG say it's to help them secure more releases by giving developers a better cut of sales.
]]>GOG, the DRM-free games store owned by CD Projekt, have confirmed they laid off "around a dozen" people last week. GOG say it's no problem, they're just reorganising, and that they're hiring more than they let go. One of the affected employees has whispered that these layoffs made up 10% of GOG's staff, and that the company may be in more financial trouble than they publicly let on. All we know for certain is that some folks have been shown the door.
]]>Stardock's Star Control: Origins has been pulled from sale on Steam and GOG following a copyright claim from the lead developers of the first two games in the spacefaring RPG series. Stardock did file a preliminary injunction to preemptively block any such attempts from Fred Ford and Paul Reiche III, but a judge denied that. By releasing Star Control: Origins despite knowing that the copyright was contested, the judge ruled last week, "the harm [Stardock] complains of is indeed of its own making." Stardock claim they'll need to lay off some staff now that income's halted.
Update: Stardock are now selling Star Control: Origins direct through their own store.
]]>The digital storefront GOG has yet again tweeted something horrible and stupid. In a (deleted but widely screencapped) tweet on Monday, GOG used the #WeWontBeErased hashtag. The tag is being used in protest of Trump administration's plans to rewrite the legal definition of gender to strip legal protections from those who have changed theirs. Co-opting the tag to promote themselves didn't go down well. The company has since issued a worryingly unapologetic retraction, but this time seems to be the breaking point for some users and even studios selling on GOG.
]]>Fast and messy Wolfenstein-ish retro FPS Project Warlock is out now. First from Buckshot Software and a temporary GOG exclusive, this is an old-school FPS that takes inspiration from a lot of genre peers, but primarily Doom. Big swarms of expendable monsters, a booming double-barrel shotgun and maze-like levels packed with secret areas. Set across five shareware-inspired worlds with a new look and set of enemies in each, it's pleasantly nostalgic but backed up with some nice modern-day lighting and particle effects. Below, the launch trailer.
]]>Old-school first-person shooters will always be my jam, and Project Warlock has already got my foot tapping. It's a retro FPS by Buckshot Software with chunky Wolfenstein-inspired blocky maps, but more modern-styled combat, and due to make its debut (as a timed GOG exclusive) this Thursday, October 18th. While it's hard to get a feel for the game without playing around with its weapons and grungy pixellated monsters, the launch trailer below definitely looks and sounds the part.
]]>The rude, crude Shadow Warrior 2 is free to grab on GOG for the next two days. Flying Wild Hog's shooter is a big messy slab of old-school FPS'ing infused with painful jokes (which frequently made me giggle), some Borderlands-ish stat juggling, procedural encounter generation and lots of monsters and cyborgs to mulch.
Adam Smith gushed profusely in his review, calling it "anarchic, excessive, ridiculous, occasionally spectacular and almost entirely wonderful". After winning over Firewatch and Superhot in a vote today, GOG are giving it away for 48 hours, celebrating the store's 10th anniversary . Get it here and tell your friends - it's co-op too.
]]>The store formerly known as Good Old Games is ten years old, and GOG is celebrating by slashing prices on a bunch of games, as you do. The site has also been revamped with a new, wider and roomier design, and there's a vote happening now to decide what game they'll be giving away on October 4th - Shadow Warrior 2, Superhot or Firewatch? Take your pick.
GOG invited RPS's crew to pick a few showcase games. While not all of them are discounted, we think that our list of Good Games For Better People is a nice look at the softer side of videogames. Romance and relationships get top billing, although if you like to mix in a little violence, half of Dragon Age: Origins's best dialogue happens while everyone's dripping with fresh demon blood.
]]>Update: GOG are now offering refunds to anyone who owns NMS there, even if they're beyond the 30-day guarantee. GOG take great, finger-pointing pains to say that "Hello Games chose not to offer refunds over missing game content to our users" and this is "entirely at GOG's own cost". I have found it's often best to brew a cuppa, have a ciggy, or stroll round the block before making snippy proclamations.
Space pootler No Man's Sky added online multiplayer in its long-awaited Next update yesterday, but what I'd missed--and don't remember hearing about in advance?--is that this is only for the Steam version of No Man's Sky. Citizens of the stars who bought the game DRM-free on GOG have received much of the Next update, with all its prettying-up and frigate fleets and new missions and whatnot, but not multiplayer. Online play is not in the GOG version yet, and isn't expected until "later this year."
]]>In Noclip's latest documentary, Danny O'Dwyer and his crew follow the path from CD Projekt's origins as a little-known Polish games distributor to running one of the better known games stores. GOG may just be 'Gog' now, but they used to be 'Good Old Games', updating and returning forgotten games to sale and competing against piracy both well-meaning and otherwise.
]]>Credit where it's due, while GOG aren't quite as retro-focused as they used to be (now playing the role of a more traditional games store) they've still got that magical touch for making older games work on newer systems. Until today, Cyan World's genre-defining Myst adventure series has been incomplete on PC.
One of the big promises of Cyan's big collector's edition kickstarter in April was that GOG would be updating the third and fourth games in the series to run nicely on modern machines. Today, they delivered in full - the story is complete, and unabridged once more.
]]>Nobody of even 10% sound mind would argue that Escape From Monkey Island, the fourth in Lucasarts' gaggle of madcap, piratical use x on y 90s/00s adventures, is the highlight of the series. Some people of at least partially sound mind, including our John, might argue that it's not the worst either. In any case, the collector urge is a powerful one - Escape has for some time been exclusively available via GOG, but perhaps the news that it has all of a sudden gone DRM-free will sway the minds of the Steam-or-bust crowd. And perhaps the news that the entire Lucas-Monkey family is currently discounted by over 50% will lure in those seeking a bath of calm nostalgia after the sound and fury and E3.
]]>A week ago, GOG launched their Summer Sale and asked us to pick out some games for an RPS Collection page. We selected some games of supreme quality and life was good.
Now, as the Summer Sale range finishes this weekend, GOG have given us 350 free games to give away. There's a broad selection of games available and among the 350, there are 20 copies of strategy gem Into The Breach, which Alec gave a big recommended sticker to in his review.
To be in with a chance to win a lovely free game, just enter using the handy widget thing below.
]]>Enough of this 'E3' and its video games tomorrow; what about video games today? Reader, I have good news: not only are a number of video games out and playable right now (at least one hundred, I'm told) a great one is being given away free for the next two days. GOG are continuing their summer sale celebrations with free copies of Ziggurat, 2014's wizardly roguelikelike first-person shooter.
"It's the closest thing to a first-person Binding of Isaac I've ever played," our dearly-departed Adam (RPS in peace) said in his Ziggurat review. High praise indeed!
]]>Maybe my perception of time is getting a bit wonky in my old age, but didn't we just finish Spring Sale season a week or two ago? No matter - cheap games are always in style. GOG's summer sale opens with a giveaway of Goldhawk Interactive's solid X-Com tribute Xenonauts. GOG also asked us to pick a few favourites from the sale, so check out our list on GOG.
]]>If you've played through The Witcher 2 and The Witcher 3, you've spent hundreds of hours with the character of Geralt of Rivia. But have you ever taken the time to go back to the beginning? I... absolutely have not. But I played enough Witcher over the years to have encountered people and quests from the first title that I had to fill in via Wiki work later. So I can see the value in going back to figure out where they all came from.
Today (and possibly tomorrow, there's no end point listed), you can get the first game in the series for free from GOG, along with a card keg for Gwent -- which contains five free cards. The process should only take one minute of your time and we have the details below.
]]>GOG has added user profiles, continuing the DRM-free digital games store's cautious steps in introducing Steam-like social features. If you want to share your GOG gaming activity with the world, post pictures, compare achievements, and all that, you now can. If you don't want to share with the Internet, well, the privacy settings will let you turn off much--but not all--of it.
]]>In this hectic modern society, lists are the best way to keep track of desires and obligations: shopping lists, to-do lists, playlists, blacklists, whitelists, hitlists, shitlists... heck, this here is a listlist. It's wishlists that GOG are celebrating today, having launched a sale on 150-odd games and DLCs that they say are among the most-wishlisted items on the store. These include The Witcher 3, Planescape: Torment, The Witness, Hyper Light Drifter, Grim Dawn, Darkest Dungeon, and other peachy video games.
]]>It's about time we boarded up the windows here in the RPS treehouse for the weekend, but we leave you with a little gift, although admittedly a second-hand one.
Presumably in an effort to drum up interest in the (quite good) Dungeons 3, Realmforge Studios have been giving away the second game in their Dungeon Keeper-ish series a lot lately. If you missed the chance to pick it up last year in Humble's giveaway, GOG are offering their DRM-free edition of the game here for the next day or so.
]]>The DRM-free digital game store GOG have reversed a baffling curation decision and started selling Opus Magnum, the wonderful machine-building puzzler from the studio behind Spacechem and Shenzhen I/O. GOG had initially declined to stock the game and gave developers Zachtronics a mysterious explanation that it "did not pass our internal curation system". Given that Opus Magnum is one of the best PC games of 2017 and that GOG already stocked several similar Zachtronics games, y'know, it was weird. With digital stores drawing different lines in the virtuasand over which games they will and won't stock, this stuck out as an unexpected casualty of curation.
]]>Oxenfree is my favourite game of 2016. Unfortunately I didn't play it until the very end of 2016, so didn't know to bellow about it when the time was ripe. The time, people, is ripe once more. Oxenfree, the best game of last year, is free right now on GOG! Oxenfree, you might say, if you were a twerp.
]]>Oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful, and since we've no place to go: buy games low! Buy games low! Buy games low! Which you can now do DRM-free on GOG, as the cyberstore today launched their big winter sale. To start, they're giving Grim Fandango Remastered away for free. Free!
Normally at this point I'd chase everyone around the RPS treehouse until they picked out some games, but GOG have already come by with a big stick so you can see our recommendations on their site. Try to guess who picked which games.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
No, seriously, have you? I'm asking because I did about twenty years ago, but I've scarcely seen it or heard it mentioned since.
]]>Game preservation is a subject near and dear to my heart. Growing up with PC games (I didn't get my first console till my teens), I lost count of how many floppy disks I've seen lost to the natural magnetic entropy of our world. As such, it's always worth celebrating when someone untangles the red tape and strikes a deal in order to re-release some of the games I grew up playing.
This week, GOG raided the vaults of Epic Megagames. Back before the studio developed humility and dropped the 'Mega', the Unreal Engine giants were big on the PC shareware scene, and now you can experience both Jazz Jackrabbit games and Epic Pinball for yourself through the combined magics of DOS emulation and fan-patching. Just be warned that nostalgia is a fragile thing, and fond memories may crumble when exposed to the harsh light of the modern day.
]]>We've hit the mid-point of the week and the see-saw of time is about to tip forward and hurtle us towards the weekend at an alarming rate. Perhaps more ominously, we will also be hurtling towards the litany of PC gaming Black Friday deals that are headed our way in a fortnight's time.
Before then, however, the deals aren't slowing down one bit and there's another big batch of digital deals to check out right here, right now. Everything from this week's release of Nioh to Cities Skylines and even the absolute gem that is Jagged Alliance 2 is represented across a variety of sites, so consider this a convenient mid-week digital deals roundup if you like. Let's get to it, shall we?
]]>We might be drowning in big-budget games this month, but GOG reckon that you should spare a thought for the venerable old gems that brought us here. They're doing another of their giveaways today, and this time it's a double: Castle building/besieging RTS Stronghold HD, and A.D. 2044, a Polish point-and-click adventure from 1996 that I must admit no familiarity with.
I know! Let's make this an adventure in international videogame history: Come join me as we read through A.D. 2044's plot synopsis after the jump, after a little look at Stronghold HD.
]]>Somehow, our lad Geralt's video game adventures have turned ten years old this week. That's ten years of slaying monsters as the silver fox with cat-eyes. Ten years of werewolves, dragons, unicorns, romances and politics, usually all at the same time. Ten years of articles debating how much sex in a video game constitutes too much.
To celebrate the series' tenth anniversary, you can pick up all the games in the franchise (as well as the various bits of DLC) with some hefty discounts this week. These offers are available at GOG if you like your games DRM-free, Humble if you'd like to kick a few pennies towards charity while you buy or Steam, if you like to keep things as simple as possible.
]]>Over at GOG, the reduced-price trips down memory lane continue, only this week there's a whole lot more X-Com. Specifically, this week's GOG sale range focuses on a lot of 2K's older franchises, particularly from the strategy genre. The entire original run of X-Com games can be found here for less than £2 / $2 each, which is nigh-impossible to not recommend. Then there is the 2004 version of Sid Meier's Pirates, a game I've poured more hours into than I really want to think about, and much more.
]]>Despite having hosted a range of discounts each and every week of the year so far, GOG clearly feels like it's never enough. As of yesterday, the site launched the Big Deal Sale, offering over 200 titles with discounts of up to 90%.
Besides the on-the-nose title of the sale itself, there are a number of historically low prices on selected games involved here as well, including Little Nightmares with 40% off, Tacoma with 20% off, Obduction with 40% off, and more. Also, Her Story is 75% off and available for less than the price of a coffee, so you should probably pick that one up because it's wonderful. The sale is on this week and due to expire at the end of the weekend, fill yer boots.
]]>This week, GOG is offering up a trio of free games when you spend $5, $10, and $15 in its Weekly Sale range. You'll get to pick which game you want when you hit each tier and the codes will be sent out via email next week. The games up for free are Kyn, Tropico Reloaded and Breach & Clear: Deadline Rebirth, and the Weekly Sale features some pretty good discounts on some pretty nice games, including The Banner Saga 1 & 2, Dungeons 2, and Urban Empire.
]]>To coincide with the launch of the 'Bastard's Wound' DLC chapter of Tyranny, Obsidian and GOG are offering up to 60% off of the various editions of the game today. The sale, at the time of writing, has only a matter of hours left on it.
]]>It's never been easier to buy things you don't want. Back in the day, random purchase enthusiasts would tour village fêtes to play lucky dips and tombolas. Hardcore 'luckers' (as they called themselves) would even visit Argos to order random item numbers. Now with subscription services delivering boxes of tat to your door monthly and loot crates offering random skins for video games, it's never been easier to buy things without even knowing what they are. Digital store GOG are in on the fun too, today launching another 'piñata' sale where £2.39 buys a random game.
If you don't want to do any of that, you can simply swing by for a free copy of Deadlight: Director's Cut.
]]>Homeworld: Cataclysm, the standalone expansion to Relic's splendid spacefaring strategy game, has popped up on GOG after years of not being sold anywhere. Though the original Homeworld and its sequel were rereleased and remastered in 2015, playing Cataclysm has been the preserve of pirates and that 'physical media' rabble. No more! Homeworld: Cataclysm can be yours for £7, though it is now renamed Homeworld: Emergence because Blizzard have since swiped the "Cataclysm" trademark for that World of Warcraft expansion.
]]>Those wild rebels of GOG have once again denied the majesty of the astronomical calendar, launching their big summer sale while it's still spring. Over one thousand games are discounted, and buying anything will also get you a free copy of Rebel Galaxy - a spaceship shooter our Brendan liked enough for it to be a fair freebie. If you don't know where to start with such a huge sale, hey, check out the picks we put together for GOG.
GOG have also once again launched GOG Connect for a bit, letting people get DRM-free GOG copies of certain games they own on Steam.
]]>Update: Er, GOG say they got a bit mixed-up and over-generous with the sale. Some of the games are now more expensive. Details follow at the bottom of this post.
GOG have launched a big sale on their catalogue of DRM-free Star Wars games, with discounts of 77% on everything from X-Wing to Jedi Knight. Several of them are fantastic video games. Some are good. Others are, y'know, they're Star Wars, which is fine if you're into that I guess. Point your star-killing peepers this-a-way.
]]>It's Saints Row a go-go round GOG today as the store celebrates more of Volition's wacky open-world crime 'em ups arriving DRM-free on its virtual shelves. Some Saints games have been on GOG for ages but now the lineup is complete with the addition of Saints Row 4 (the one where you're the President of the USA) and Gat out of Hell (the one in Hell). To mark this Saint-o-rama, Saints Row 2 (possibly still my favourite Saints Row) is free for 48 hours. And folks who own Saints Row games on Steam can add them to their GOG account to get DRM-free versions. GOG are holding a sale too.
]]>Cloud saves and built-in screenshotting -- two of my favourite Steam favourites -- are coming to GOG Galaxy, the optional client from the virtuous virtual vendor of video games. Never needing to hunt down and back up saves or install FRAPS (or whatever the heck kids use these days) is still such a wonderful convenience. These features and more will come to GOG Galaxy when it officially leaves beta with Update 1.2 in April. Galaxy will even offer cloud saves for some old games not built to support them. I still mourn lost Planescape: Torment saves so this sounds grand.
]]>You'd think I should have learned that spring follows winter but no, spring is almost here and here I am surprised again. GOG are so keen for spring to arrive that they've launched a spring sale a fortnight early (astronomical seasons rule ok). Over 500 games are on sale from today through to Sunday, including some real crackers. GOG don't just do old games these days, remember. It's a good'un with good games at good prices. I've picked out a few from the megalist myself but please do share your personal picks in the comments too.
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