I haven't ever gamed a lot in my life but its been a long time…
Reading a bit lately it seems a lot of games are now done via clients with Steam being the best, GOG for old games and Origin then i also hear about Humble Bundle and other gaming sites on Oz Bargain.
Can someone explain Pros and Cons of each, i dont know what is good or what to stay away from.
I am not playing High End 2015 games just more so last ten years.
Many games sold on Humble Bundle, GOG and the like are delivered via Steam keys, which are unique serial keys that redeems on Steam only.
Origin and Uplay is a competitor to Steam, where their stores have games exclusive to their platforms. Most despise those two due to adding unnecessary layers to launching a game. e.g If you bought Far Cry 3 on Steam and launched it from there, Uplay would then open and require you to log in. In short, both Steam and Uplay has to be launched to play the game.
exactly what silverrat23 said, there are IndieGala and BundleStars are also great HumbleBundle style shops.
Ah i see thanks,
That sums it up a lot.
I like the concept of the steam key via other sites purchasing it if its a good deal.
My next question would be.
When you have a choice for GOG or Steam or Origin for a game, if they have it all for a similar price or say Origin has it for 5 bucks cheaper etc, is it more an OCD thing on who to get it with?
When you have a choice for GOG or Steam or Origin for a game, if they have it all for a similar price or say Origin has it for 5 bucks cheaper etc, is it more an OCD thing on who to get it with?
Most like to stick with Steam, since it's better to keep everything in one place - as opposed to having games scattered across Steam, Origin, etc. So yes, it's a little "OCD".
buy them where they are cheapest, and add them to your Steam library and launch them all from the steam browser - I did not know paying more than you needed to was a symptom of OCD.
You could also grab a client clled Raptr, which gives you points for playing games to spend of a variety of things, can optimise most popular games for your system, and will record your gameplay so you can share it with friends, you can also launch your games from the client.
People resent having to install several different clients to play games. Some games you buy on Steam, for example, forces you to install uPlay (Ubisoft's client) to run the game. Assassin's Creed and the Far Cry series are examples. Some EA games cannot be purchased outside of Origin. Dragon Age Inquisition & The recent Battlefront game for examples.
Personally, while I understand the why people complain, once you have installed and logged into these clients then it doesn't really take that much time to get into the game you've launched. I think it is somewhat similar to console exclusivity except it's not like you have to buy specific hardware to play the game just use some specific software. I think it's dumb, but perhaps this is the only way competition in this space will work: specific publishers creating and perfecting their own platforms and then selling 3rd party games.
I just buy whatever is the cheapest; I've no loyalty to any platform or client.
The beauty of steam, is that you can add almost any game to your games list, and launch it from the steam browser, I launch my Uplay, Origin, Arc and Battlenet games all from my steam browser.
It still opens the other client which is the real annoyance. It is good for organisational reasons, though.
I only have about 1/2 a dozen games installed at any one time so I just have the icons on my desktop. :)
I would by from humble bundle store. Often games come with steam key and drm free. This is good if you want to show someone a game that they should get. You can't lend a steam game, but you can lend a drm free game. Part of your purchase will go to charity too.
Humble bundle is good for indie developers because many people will buy their game through a bundle, when they otherwise would never buy their game. This means developers get a little bit if money from people who would not have bought their game otherwise, and a bigger audience.
If you visit isthereanydeal.com you can attach your steam wish list, and they will notify you when games go on sale at many different stores. Most stores sell keys redeemable on steam.
From another who dabbles a bit in gaming after many years in the wasteland (now addicted to fallout4), Steam is easy to use, and it keeps a list of what games (and your game keys) you own together in your online account, so just like smart phones if you get a new device you just log into the account, and choose which of your games/apps you want to install….no hunting for discs, keys etc. I forget my Origin login (well ok…i suck at bf4) so if I had the choice, I would always register games through steam.
I just look for the steam icon - then when you buy a game, paste the code into steam and it recognises your game immediately and starts downloading. All patches and updates are done through steam automatically.
Humble bundles are great, but all of a sudden you have 45 games, only 3 or 4 installed, and not enough spare time to checkout the others :)
anyone got a genuine link to download the GOG gaming client?
The reason why we have these digital distribution platforms and why we need to run their software to play these games is because of a neccessary evil called DRM. DRM prevents game piracy and illegal copying and redistribution of games, by ensuring that the copy you own is yours only and not stolen from somewhere else.
Steam is a the sole game distributor for many AAA titles and publishers. The publishers choose which distributor they want to go with — Steam is the choice for many because it provides DRM (which prevents piracy), a wide playerbase, advertising, multiplayer lobby / matchmaking, achievement tracking and all sorts of other stuff. If I had to pull figures from my arse, I'd say 80% of titles nowadays are sold and distributed on Steam.
If you want to play the Call of Duty series for example, ever since COD4 you have to use Steam to even launch the game so you're not really given a choice.
Origin is another minor (or should I say, major) game distributor, and they have their own exclusive titles. Mainly Bioware (who makes Dragon Age, Mass Effect), EA Games (Battlefield, Dead Space series) etc.
GOG is a DRM free distributor and seller. They sell DRM free games (many of which are games that used to be sold in optical disk format) and impose no restrictions on when you can play the game and how many computers you install the game on, but they have a very old selection of games. So nothing too recent in their library.
Humble Bundle is a site that sells games in large quantities, with a charitable spin behind it. They typically don't digitally distribute, but they do offer you links to download the game if it's a DRM free title, and a Steam product key if the game is a DRM game. They use a pay-what-you-want model and the more you pay the more games you will get, and you can elect to donate none or all the money to a certain charity.