It’s been floating around in beta form for the best part of two years now, but GOG Galaxy is finally set for a fully-fledged launch. The confusingly named Update 1.2 adds a swathe of new features as GOG.com seeks feature parity with the likes of Steam, Origin and Uplay.
The big one for fans of Good Old Games is the inclusion of Universal Cloud Saves, automatically syncing your progress between different machines. From my personal experience GOG games are the sort I’m more likely to take for a spin on my laptop due to their low system requirements, so it’s going to be nice to get an easier way of transferring progress than emailing myself the save. Unfortunately GOG.com has said it will be “supported games only”, so it’s looking as if games will have to be retroactively updated with the feature.
GOG Galaxy 1.2 also includes a Steam-style overlay which can be brought up using the familiar Shift + Tab control. From here users can chat with friends, check out their in-game achievements and look at notifications.
Other features include desktop notifications, bandwidth limiting, downloading scheduling, screenshot capturing, achievement rarity and more. For the most part this is already all available on Steam, but GOG Galaxy is at least creeping closer to feature parity. At this rate it’s going to have more features than Steam within a year or two.
To keep things a little under check, GOG Galaxy 1.2 also lets you fully customise your client. You can pick and choose which you features you want, creating a personalised, decluttered experience.
I have to say I think it sounds decent, and anything which can lean a little more pressure on Valve is a good thing in my books. Steam has been a little too stagnant as of late, despite a number of glaring issues, and no other client can hold a candle to GOG's anti-DRM leanings. What do you make of the changes? Have we got a valid Steam competitor on our hands? Let us know!
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PC Specs
Hope this means it'll store Witcher 3 saves,no?I'm tired of moving around nearly 3 GB of saves from 2 years ago.
PC Specs
More options, the better
PC Specs
I like GoG Galaxy alright, but I rarely use it. Once you have a game downloaded from GoG you can launch the game without GoG Galaxy running. So I rarely launch GoG Galaxy except when I get an email notification for a sale and I want to actually buy and download something. Hooray for no DRM being attached to the games. :D
PC Specs
no DRM > DRM
GOG > Steam
(yes I'm aware steam library is bigger but it's about the nobel idea)
PC Specs
It doesn't say here but the 'new' client is now out for those who "opted to test upcoming updates", the rest of users will get it in april ;)
PC Specs
i support the GOG but steam have a multi region price list thats kinda helps me a lot i hope gog does that to
PC Specs
It's not about competition, it's about integrity. I refuse to buy from any platform which doesn't provide DRM-free games, if people enjoy getting screwed by Steam and alike though, be my guest.
PC Specs
How you getting screwed?
PC Specs
Steams, origins, uplay etc.. all sell games with drm, which means that when you buy a game on their platform, you're not really buying it but renting it for an unlimited amount of time. Gamers should take a stand against it imho.
PC Specs
It is the way it is... And this all started because of people stealing games online. The first line of defense was the CD-KEY. That started way back in the late 90's. Then KEY generators started getting around that. Then DRM was born and it was simple at first without game clients. Well, that was eventually fooled. So then, we now have game clients, and with them it is really hard to steal the software. Steam and Origin will never go away no matter what you do my friend as it is as part of PC gaming as the sun is to the sky...
PC Specs
I do like to use GoG, but I have over 120 games on Steam, so I buy my games from Steam to have my games in same platform.
PC Specs
This is cool but shame i don't use it a lot so .. I still only use stream most of the time !
PC Specs
Me neither. I used to boot it every now and then to update witcher 3, which is my only game with GoG. And that's just because that's where I had to redeem my free copy. I keep an eye on GoG though, but still haven't found a game they offer that I actually want.