Requiring Secure Boot provides us with features that we can leverage against cheats that attempt to infiltrate during the Windows boot process. It also lets the Battlefield Positive Play team use its own features and related dependent security features like TPM to combat other forms of cheating, the most relevant of which include:
Kernel-Level Cheats and Rootkits
Memory Manipulation and Injection
Spoofing and Hardware ID Manipulation
Virtual Machines and Emulation
Tampering with Anti-Cheat Systems
It feels very anti-linux, and I don’t like it, but with a good number of hours in BF6 so far, I have yet to run into an obvious cheater so maybe it works.
The problem isn't even software running on the host machine anymore. Cheaters have long since moved to using a different machine running ocr software and handling input, then it just sends mouse and keyboard inputs based on what it sees. It's all of the advantage of esp hacks and aimbots of yore, all while being 100% undetectable as all the game sees is generic peripherals and no code other than legit code running on the main machine.
Yeah, losing the ability to run games in a VM adds a bit of complexity to the setup, but you can still plug a capture card into a raspberry pi and let it do the aiming/firing and just look like an l33t gam3r in the stats.
None of this even touches on DMA hacks that read host memory over a bus like PCIe, but that's getting into some complexity far and above the average cheating kid. Unfortunately plugging in a couple cables and flashing an SD card is pretty trivial for someone wanting to get more headshots.
It didn't though, those types of hacks have been around forever. It's how people cheat on consoles without risking bans for modded lobbies and trainers.
I want to be clear, the cheats are just as easy as they have always been to use, particularly if you throw money at them. These kernel modules and invasive anti-cheat mechanisms are far more effective at exfiltrating data and destroying privacy than they are at preventing aimbots.
They even game me a refund after I bought KOTOR 1 without realising it was an EA game, saying I wanted to get a refund because I was boycotting EA.
I did comply with the less than an hour playtime for refunds, so they might have given it regardless, but it's nice to know they accept refunds labelled as boycotts.
It's getting rare to own anything. Everything is just a temporary license or subscription or even if you own the thing it's dongled to the vendor and when the vendor is in a bad mood or goes bankrupt your thing can't be used any more...
I'm far too old to play the "everything is rented" game. I refuse to participate and I'm stunned anyone else does.
OTOH, I brought up how Trump/Project-2025 is dismantling NOAA on neighborhood.com, rather crucial to us on the Gulf Coast, and had this (heavily paraphrased) discussion with Karen:
"I PAY for my weather app! Don't care if you can't!"
"Uh, where do you think that app gets it's data?"
"Not arguing with an idiot!"
And that was the day I learned that people pay monthly fees for free data. (I heartily recommend Weawow. Free, does everything I want except tide tables.)
I also learned that Project 2025 is a conspiracy theory and I'm an idiot for believing in it. Live and learn!
Weawow is a free (and ad-free) weather app enhanced by beautiful weather-related photos taken by photographers around the world. The photos reflect the current weather at your location, … so you can decide whether you'll need your umbrella or your sunglasses when you go out. The Weawow marketplace also allows you to promote and sell your beautiful photos to people around the world … . With many data sources …, you'll be able to judge upcoming weather conditions for yourself. You free from the stress of annoying advertisements, there are no tracking mechanisms to monitor your actions. Through beautiful weather photos that transcend borders, people can forget about conflict, and we contribute to world peace. When people see a photo of a golden sunset sinking over the horizon, they will surely feel calm and gentle. I declare that through Weawow, I will contribute to the development of human civilization and world peace. The Weawow is sustained by user donations. If you like the Weawow and want to support the Weawow project, please donate to us. Of course, this is not mandatory, so please feel free to use the app.
It’s still the modern media format. They sell them beside checkout lines! Piracy aside, there really isn’t any other way to own your media, at present. Everything else is a rescindable contract. How do you propose people own their media? Are stores selling flash drives of movies now, and I haven’t noticed?
Bro, I've got like 25 hours in the Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster, on my Steam Deck and laptop.
Yesterday, an update caused the game to launch with a black screen. So I tried a few different Proton versions, before I start getting a new error.
I take a look at the discussion board for the game on Steam... Fucking Denuvo considers each version of Proton to be a separate "activation" and it will only allow five BEFORE LOCKING YOU OUT OF THE GAME FOR 24 HOURS.
I have never really given a shit about Denuvo before, but this is so fucking infuriating. I paid for this game. I've already played 25 hours of this game. Now I can't fucking play it?
Unbelievable. Denuvo is fucking trash, and I guess now I'm one of those people who avoids it.
I guess you were testing with multiple versions of Proton to see which one works the best? Otherwise, doesn't make sense to have changed 5 versions in 25 hours.
If you were testing as such, the game publishers should be paying you for doing their job of quality testing.
Maybe they did and didn't like that I used the technically incorrect term "quality testing", instead of "performance testing", which would be appropriate for this case.
Or maybe they just didn't like me saying that the one benefitting from said testing should be paying equivalent value to the one putting in the work.
Its not fuvking cool. I wish i could just ask for shit and hand over points or whatever and get stuff by making stuff¹, but thats not the fucking shit-abyss dystopia we live in.
¹making stuff is the best! If you try to do it for points you will be fucked, and also it all gets stolen.
It sounds like gog is pretty great, with their DRM free software.
I'm generally indifferent towards steam but I'm under the impression that they've contributed a lot to the recent developments in Linux gaming compatibility, and this has removed a pretty big hurdle for people who want to move away from windows, and I just think that's swell.
There will likely never be an official GOG Galaxy client for Linux, judging by the company's utter disregard for Linux users. It was the most requested position on their community wish list, and they just removed it saying they have no plans on adding Linux support.
Keep in mind Heroic is completely third-party and lacks official support. So if a game you paid for stops working on your Linux system - you'll receive no support and no refund.
It's a few cosmetics and some "pre-order" style weapons that are references to Witcher. Nothing substantial. There have been mods to unlock them without Galaxy since forever, and despite all the improvements, CP2077 still benefits greatly from some mods. You're really shooting yourself in the foot playing vanilla.
CDPR's business decisions around the game exploited their employees and socially conscious consumers. I don't like white/green/pinkwashing and don't like when people give money to companies that do it
They also said the game art with the massive gock was criticising corporations that fetishise trans bodies, and then they gave honorable mention in their cosplay contest to a cis woman who stuck a glowstick down her pants. CDPR is the corporation fetishising trans bodies
Half or more of all the games Amazon gives away through Prime are actually just GOG keys. If you already have Prime for some reason or another, you should be redeeming those free GOG keys.
Is it only available in US? Im in Germany and it seems that it is not available for me.
Edit: Just checked. Couldn't login though phone due to Amazon always willing to change location. But on PC worked out. Got Fallout New Vegas ultimate edition, xcom 2 and and civil III and IV for free. There were also some free games there but I'll pass on these.
THAT SHIT IS EPIC! Thank this community to showing me these. Been Prime user for a long time and havent reedemed a single game until today :@
TBH I'm too addicted to achievements to use GOG (AFAIK you can get achievements on GOG if you use their launcher, but it doesn't work on Linux). I'm going to regret that later for sure ...
I wish games would host their own downloads like Factorio. Managing keys and such is probably not worth it since they can use Steam, GOG, or even Itch, buts it’s just so nice to be able to download stuff without a middle man.
I’m just glad I only play 2 games instead of the hundreds I’m reading about in these comments. I didn’t even know that was a thing people did!
I don't play hundreds, but I do play dozens, and yeah, being able to just set 5 or so to download in the background when I'm running low is nice. I mostly play through single player games and uninstall when I'm done.
That said, I also really like how Factorio did it. I bought it directly from them way back in 2012 or something, then they gave me a Steam key, and I can still play the game today with all the updates more than 10 years later. They only made one DLC in the meantime, and that's basically a new game, so I'm totally happy with that.
GOG does have its issues and controversies, but it's still the only online gaming store with conditions I find acceptable. If the game is not available DRM Free, I don't need to play it.
Lutris downloads files from GoG using their API, which has heavily throttled download speeds. It was going to take 19 hours for CP2077 to download using Lutris.
Downloading the 50 pieces individually from GoG through the browser took under and hour, but was quite annoying.
If you don't play any large games, you might not have noticed, but Lutris and GoG do not work very well together.
I always download the offline installers and install them via the generic "install from executable" option. I've actually never used the features for downloading games from online game services on Lutris. The whole reason I buy from GOG is I can download the offline installer and never have to deal with anyone else's servers after that point. It works excellently.
Lutris communicates with GoG through their API, which is heavily throttled for downloading games. CP2077 was going to take almost an entire day to install using Lutris alone.
Going to the website and downloading the pieces myself was much faster, but then of course I needed to manage the rest of the install.
Small games are fine since you won't feel as much pain on the download step.
I've only bought one game from GOG. It was Morrowind and I'm playing via OpenMW. Good experience over all. Though I didn't use the installer or the executable that came with the game.
I really want to see more FOSS reimplementations of game engines come into existence. Wine is fine and all, but I'd much rather have a native FOSS engine.
That reminds me that Morrowind is currently discounted in GOG and I've been meaning to buy it and play it via OpenMW ever since I heard about the latter ...
I do love Steam, but at the same time, it required me to intall significant 32 bit support on my system. It's just sitting there, using 2GB of RAM and 20% of a cpu while the window isn't even open.
If only they gave a shit about their users enough to respect their requests for official Linux support. Various forms of this made 3 of the top 5 requests on their community wish list. Which they casually deleted and told people to use wine/proton.
This is not a consumer-friendly company. It just so happens that their consumer-oriented decisions led to profits. The moment this is not the case, they immediately change course every time. Same might be true for Valve, but at the very least we can clearly observe them sacrificing extra profits for a tiny minority of Linux users.
GOG is still mostly fine for Windows builds of games. You can support the devs and get DRM-free copies to store indefinitely. However, we shouldn't blindly praise them and ignore the obvious bullshit they take part in.
I disagree. It depends how you define 'malicious', but in any case I strongly condemn this practice.
CDPR is perfectly happy to pretend they're consumer-friendly whenever it requires no actual work and brings profits. But the moment they have to spend a cent on changes to actually fulfill their users' wishes (which they themselves published a wish list for, mind you) - it gets absolutely shit on and the users are told to stop bothering them.
This is nothing but a clear display of what kind of company this is. People keep praising them for doing so much for the users. Meanwhile Valve has been losing money for years, just to help a handful of Linux gamers. No corporation is your friend, but if you really want to go with the 'least evil' option - just buy the game on Steam and then pirate it for indefinite storage.
I get your frustration, but Valve effectively prints money. They don't need to care that Linux makes up less than 3% of all users, and they aren't supporting it purely out of the goodness of their heart either, as they have direct incentive to do so through improving the Steam Deck.
Valve isn't spending money or time tracking down rights holders of games that can't legally be bought anymore. For all the good Valve does with Linux and Proton, there are games still being sold on Steam that simply do not work on modern machines. Steam leaves fixing that up to the devs.
We're also just going to ignore Valve's massive hand in popularizing the microtransaction laden lootbox hell? Team Fortress 2 has been an absolute money printer for them, and they've only brought that forward into all their other multiplayer games since, while doing nothing to curb all the gambling shit that has cropped up around things like CSGO skins. Or how about early access, never release "scams"?
I'm not convinced that any of that make Valve evil, but my point is that both of these companies aren't your friends.
GOG isn't just tossing stuff up on their storefront like Valve, they actively sort out how to get these games working on modern hardware and package it up in a way that is seamless for the average user. Unfortunately the average user is on Windows, and they don't have the microtransaction mountains of money to burn pursuing Linux right now. That sucks.
As far as deleting the wishlist items? They answered it already.
Most importantly, a public wishlist isn't a contract, and a company giving an answer you don't like doesn't make them evil.
I'm not happy about it, but this good vs evil, "this just shows the kind of company they are" shit is taking things pretty damn far.
Regional pricing is usually set up by the developer. Contact the developer of your favourite games and they may consider regional pricing, provided GoG allows them.
The site itself only accepts a limited amount of currencies, it's even missing a few of the worlds most major ones. I think it's most likely a limitation on GoGs side.
That's surprising. I wonder of it's actually not supported, or if companies just don't bother to set it up? Seems weird they would do it on one platform and not the other though.
Maybe I'm not old enough but I don't remember a time before game DRM, when it was physical games they required you to have the disk inserted to play. The only difference was they were easier to crack and less invasive without online requirement.
I remember everyone freaking out when Spore was gonna have SecuROM that limited it to like 5 installs on a disc, and you were gonna have to ask EA for more if you needed them.
Some of the oldest DRM was weird little cipher wheels or puzzle books required to answer a challenge every time the game booted before it would actually start.
I dare say what GoG is doing is better than we've ever had it!
Reading this just unlocked an ancient memory. There was some DOS game that was included in a big pack of cds in sleeves that came for free with the pc my mom bought in 1993 (I think). I could never play it because none of those cds came with manuals and the game required the last word of manual page 5 or something to actually open.
A lot of games just came with a key printed on the user manual or the disk packaging, which was just an alphanumeric code the user entered during game install or on first launch and which was validated algorithmically (no "phone home" to check a database of installs).
Some games did required the disk to be inserted to play: the floppy, CD or DVD were mastered with strange characteristics that could only be there in mastered read-only media - this was especially easy in CDs and DVDs as the read-only ones were literally stamped - and could not be replicated in recorded media, so they worked like a physical key that allowed only one instance of the game to run at any one time. I would say this was a form of DRM, but non-intrusive since it didn't try to take over parts of the OS and only affected that game when it was running.
The era of highly intrusive DRM whose impact went beyond the game itself started in the 00s when the use of the Internet became widespread, i suppose partly because taking over the OS and blocking other programs is the cheap-ass solution for the problems of cheating in online games (the costly solution involves proper game server and systems architecture design and is more computationally demending on the server side) and online gaming was becoming big during that decade (for example, WOW is from 2004) and partly as a counter to how the Internet made it much easier to distribute first game keys and later game cracks so really all it took to subvert "game keys" or the physical-media-as-a-key was for somebody out there putting on the Internet the game key code they got when they bought the game or cracking the game and then posting that on the Internet and suddenly hundreds of thousands or millions of people could bypass the game "protections".
The stuff we see in Steam is basically a centralized online keycheck, so the kind of thing which became increasingly common in the early 00s, only this one is more intrusive because it will check the key EVERYTIME YOU LAUNCH THE GAME, whilst the original key checking (both the earlier algorithmic check and later the "phone home" online checking) only checked once, either during install or at first launch, so with the Steam version you have less freedom: in the old days, algorithmic key check meant games could be installed and run entirelly offline, plus you were able to install the game in more than one machine, whilst online validation did require online during install or first launch but never again after that so you could play offline forever from then onwards, whilst the Steam kind at best only lets you be offline for a certain time period and then requires online again to revalidate.
The stuff in GOG is mainly how it was way back in the 90s before even game keys or, at most (and only for a handful of games), you get a game key which is validated algorithmically on install or first start, thus online is never required and nothing restricts you from installing the game in more than one machine (which is absolutelly legit if they're all your machines and you only ever play the game in one of them at a time).
Yeah I remember having a copied Spyro game on the PS1 back in the 90's where the fairy would warn you in game that it knows it's been pirated and will fuck with the game to stop you from being able to finish it.
Not actually sure what it did as I never got very far, as I was a dumb kid only interested in charging around and breathing fire at the scenery.
That's an odd thing to get hung up on. I buy more from Steam because the client is way nicer on Linux and they actually release interesting features for it. I could buy from GOG through Heroic, but they why should I expect them to properly support me on Linux when they don't even bother to explicitly support Heroic (they do profit share, but that's not quite the same), much less port Galaxy?
I personally don't see piracy (i.e. boycotting) as a reasonable reaction here. It sounds more like you're looking to justify piracy a deal looking for an excuse.
Why do you desire a Linux client?
I myself don't want to have to open an extra software from the distributor, just to play my game.
It might then end up adding extra constraints like not being able to open multiple games at the same time on your multi-monitor setup.
For the same reason I wouldn't want a Linux client on Windows. It's not made for it.
Valve/Steam can do it. Is there some excuse or reason why it's unacceptable?
And Steam is downloaded the same on nearly every distro. The package is just an install script that translates any differing filesystem layout between distros. It all comes from Valve.
I'm trying to say, "Why have a client in the first place?"
I keep GoG games and I am happy getting to keep the offline installers and not having to open an extra GUI thing before running my game.
I would love being able to run my Steam games without having to open Steam.
Now maybe you see some value in Steam giving the Achievements system and notifications to online-friends about your activity, but is it really required?
If your point is about using the GoG Linux client to run Windows games on Linux:
Yes, it's a big deal. Steam can do it, but GoG is much smaller
Lutris
I don't buy GoG games that don't have a native Linux download and I use the Linux installer, so again, I see no merit in having yet another app.
I use heroic because I buy games that don't have a native Linux version, and because some of the games I own are going to get updated. Also, cloud saves. Having a platform I can easily see and immediately install my purchases from is nice
Ah right, I had forgotten the cloud saves. Those are actually a real value addition to consider using an extra client.
For updates though, I am happy to just re-download the offline installer whenever it gets released.
Of course, I am not buying from GoG, the kinds of games that won't work unless constantly updated.
Do you really keep track of it? I have like 20-30 games installed, and they update in the background. I don't have to think about it and just play whatever strikes my fancy.
I almost always used the windows version on Linux too. Personally I install via the exe installer like a caveman lol, but you can add your GOG account on Lutris and other programs to make it easier. Just found out about Minigalaxy, looks nice might try it.
It ain't great that there isn't an official Gog Galaxy for Linux. But we're still super grateful for the lack of DRM.
It's rare for me, but yeah, it does happen. I usually try Epic Games Launcher, Lutris, then Steam. If it doesn't work with any of those, I ask for my money back.
Know your enemy
Requires TPM 2.0? Wtf??
Tense Penile Member 2.0. Some refer to it as a rock hard dick.
I read that in Matt Barry's voice and so should you
Why does a game need a tpm
According to EA
It feels very anti-linux, and I don’t like it, but with a good number of hours in BF6 so far, I have yet to run into an obvious cheater so maybe it works.
The problem isn't even software running on the host machine anymore. Cheaters have long since moved to using a different machine running ocr software and handling input, then it just sends mouse and keyboard inputs based on what it sees. It's all of the advantage of esp hacks and aimbots of yore, all while being 100% undetectable as all the game sees is generic peripherals and no code other than legit code running on the main machine.
Yeah, losing the ability to run games in a VM adds a bit of complexity to the setup, but you can still plug a capture card into a raspberry pi and let it do the aiming/firing and just look like an l33t gam3r in the stats.
None of this even touches on DMA hacks that read host memory over a bus like PCIe, but that's getting into some complexity far and above the average cheating kid. Unfortunately plugging in a couple cables and flashing an SD card is pretty trivial for someone wanting to get more headshots.
That sounds like the anti-cheat is working then. The entire point is increasing the barrier of entry to cheating.
It didn't though, those types of hacks have been around forever. It's how people cheat on consoles without risking bans for modded lobbies and trainers.
I want to be clear, the cheats are just as easy as they have always been to use, particularly if you throw money at them. These kernel modules and invasive anti-cheat mechanisms are far more effective at exfiltrating data and destroying privacy than they are at preventing aimbots.
At least you're warned about the bullshit requirements for a particular game.
Reminds me of what fdroid and aurora-store do, warning the users of potential "disgusting" features. That's respect for its users
I like that fdroid is "this doesn't meet what our users expect from our service, here's why, and here it is anyway if you want cancer"
And most of the time, it's pretty palatable cancer too. It turns out most don't bother uploading to FDroid if their app is truly bad.
Pretty common in flatpak managers as well
We always knew that battlefield would be like that. It's an EA product after all.
I'm genuinely amazed it doesn't have day one microtransactions, maybe that's going later.
There will be a season one battle pass with skins, but the guns, maps, etc. will be free.
Do you think Dice have something on an EA CEO, or maybe they think this won't do well after 2048 or whatever it was called.
Yeah, don't need to read further. I just avoid their crap on reflex.
They even game me a refund after I bought KOTOR 1 without realising it was an EA game, saying I wanted to get a refund because I was boycotting EA.
I did comply with the less than an hour playtime for refunds, so they might have given it regardless, but it's nice to know they accept refunds labelled as boycotts.
It's getting rare to own anything. Everything is just a temporary license or subscription or even if you own the thing it's dongled to the vendor and when the vendor is in a bad mood or goes bankrupt your thing can't be used any more...
I'm far too old to play the "everything is rented" game. I refuse to participate and I'm stunned anyone else does.
OTOH, I brought up how Trump/Project-2025 is dismantling NOAA on neighborhood.com, rather crucial to us on the Gulf Coast, and had this (heavily paraphrased) discussion with Karen:
"I PAY for my weather app! Don't care if you can't!"
"Uh, where do you think that app gets it's data?"
"Not arguing with an idiot!"
And that was the day I learned that people pay monthly fees for free data. (I heartily recommend Weawow. Free, does everything I want except tide tables.)
I also learned that Project 2025 is a conspiracy theory and I'm an idiot for believing in it. Live and learn!
Privacy vibe check passed
:D surely:
New app idea - do this, but with the person's own photo library!
Yis that sounds like a quick iOS shortcut for a basic version!
It's all gotta get commodified
That's how bad things have become. People don't even realise what it's like to own something.
I’ve been asked what a dvd is by a teenager. When I amended and said Blu-ray, they still had no clue. It’s only going to get worse.
It’s still the modern media format. They sell them beside checkout lines! Piracy aside, there really isn’t any other way to own your media, at present. Everything else is a rescindable contract. How do you propose people own their media? Are stores selling flash drives of movies now, and I haven’t noticed?
I don't even own a player, for either format. Got 800 movies and years of TV shows on a pair of mirrored drives, backed to Google Drive. :)
20-years ago my ex-wife was talking to another women in line at Walmart, "Me too! We get all our movies from aXXo! He's the best."
And somehow people forgot they could steal media with impunity. :(
IMO we only let them think it was theft because they couldn't do anything about it. Who di they think they are to say what I do with my stuff?
cookie for high quality reframe
Bro, I've got like 25 hours in the Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster, on my Steam Deck and laptop.
Yesterday, an update caused the game to launch with a black screen. So I tried a few different Proton versions, before I start getting a new error.
I take a look at the discussion board for the game on Steam... Fucking Denuvo considers each version of Proton to be a separate "activation" and it will only allow five BEFORE LOCKING YOU OUT OF THE GAME FOR 24 HOURS.
I have never really given a shit about Denuvo before, but this is so fucking infuriating. I paid for this game. I've already played 25 hours of this game. Now I can't fucking play it?
Unbelievable. Denuvo is fucking trash, and I guess now I'm one of those people who avoids it.
DRM is never for the benefit of the consumers.
Thanks for the heads up, was going to get that for my wife to try. I'll just spin up the ISO instead.
The game itself is outstanding (but I may be biased since the original is one of my favorite games of all time)
I agree. Said ISO is an image of the PS1 disc which is safely in its case :D.
Ahhh ok.
Worth checking out the remaster, even if you pirate it. Tons of qol improvements, and pretty good VA
Final Fantasy Tactics Remaster has fucking denuvo in it? What the fuck? Does it have multiplayer or something?
I know. Not that I'm aware of, no.
Happened with the new DOOM too. I just wait for AAA games to remove DRM as a precaution.
I guess you were testing with multiple versions of Proton to see which one works the best? Otherwise, doesn't make sense to have changed 5 versions in 25 hours.
If you were testing as such, the game publishers should be paying you for doing their job of quality testing.
I don’t think anyone read your last sentence lmao
Maybe they did and didn't like that I used the technically incorrect term "quality testing", instead of "performance testing", which would be appropriate for this case.
Or maybe they just didn't like me saying that the one benefitting from said testing should be paying equivalent value to the one putting in the work.
Paid for your product like a little corpo slave bitch. Got what you deserved.
You dont own it unless you take it.
Fuck... So cool....
Its not fuvking cool. I wish i could just ask for shit and hand over points or whatever and get stuff by making stuff¹, but thats not the fucking shit-abyss dystopia we live in.
¹making stuff is the best! If you try to do it for points you will be fucked, and also it all gets stolen.
Oh no, I was talking about you
Great comment, thanks.
I mean act like a whiny bitch get made fun of like you're a whiny bitch
I'm not whiny!
Only replying to this, bud:
You shouldn't have given those parasites money. That was bad.
Did I misunderstand what happened?
It sounds like gog is pretty great, with their DRM free software.
I'm generally indifferent towards steam but I'm under the impression that they've contributed a lot to the recent developments in Linux gaming compatibility, and this has removed a pretty big hurdle for people who want to move away from windows, and I just think that's swell.
They could try to offer a proper Linux Galaxy client, though. Especially since CP2077 locks some minor things behind being launched from Galaxy.
There will likely never be an official GOG Galaxy client for Linux, judging by the company's utter disregard for Linux users. It was the most requested position on their community wish list, and they just removed it saying they have no plans on adding Linux support.
heroic game launcher?
Keep in mind Heroic is completely third-party and lacks official support. So if a game you paid for stops working on your Linux system - you'll receive no support and no refund.
That's what I use but save syncing is still in beta and the absence of the (admittedly minor) Galaxy-exclusive stuff in CP2077 kinda irks me.
i rarely use it, so i am not familiar with the lack of festures.
i just wanted to throw the name out as it wasn't mentioned yet
There is some CP2077 content you only get through GoG Galaxy ?!?
It's pretty minor (stuff like a t-shirt with the Galaxy logo on it) but it's kind of annoying that it's locked.
It's a few cosmetics and some "pre-order" style weapons that are references to Witcher. Nothing substantial. There have been mods to unlock them without Galaxy since forever, and despite all the improvements, CP2077 still benefits greatly from some mods. You're really shooting yourself in the foot playing vanilla.
can you list some of those necessary mods?
Well that sounds like a problem for Cyberpunk players, who I have no respect for
CDPR's business decisions around the game exploited their employees and socially conscious consumers. I don't like white/green/pinkwashing and don't like when people give money to companies that do it
They also said the game art with the massive gock was criticising corporations that fetishise trans bodies, and then they gave honorable mention in their cosplay contest to a cis woman who stuck a glowstick down her pants. CDPR is the corporation fetishising trans bodies
A fair point, although I wasn't aware of much of it when I bought the game. I still play it because, well, the money's already spent.
Half or more of all the games Amazon gives away through Prime are actually just GOG keys. If you already have Prime for some reason or another, you should be redeeming those free GOG keys.
This.
I hate Amazon, but I'm subscribed to Prime and I'm getting a lot of free GOG keys.
I wondered why some guy on my Discord kept giving out tons of free GOG keys. Guess it's probably that?
I have so many games I might not have even thought to go out and buy because of this.
Amazon is doing what now? Well, I'll be damned. That's never been made apparent to me.
They have been doing it, quietly, for years and they have given away amazing titles too.
Is it only available in US? Im in Germany and it seems that it is not available for me.
Edit: Just checked. Couldn't login though phone due to Amazon always willing to change location. But on PC worked out. Got Fallout New Vegas ultimate edition, xcom 2 and and civil III and IV for free. There were also some free games there but I'll pass on these.
THAT SHIT IS EPIC! Thank this community to showing me these. Been Prime user for a long time and havent reedemed a single game until today :@
If you're still on Reddit at all (or ever were), r/GOG has a weekly thread where people post codes they're not using so others can claim the game.
It's like Pokemon. Collecting is the game.
"and lease on steam"
This hurts to read considering my hundreds of games on steam 🥲 I want to stay in denial and pray for no enshittification
Thanks for sharing your story ♥️
I would love to buy all my games from gog, but they lack steam's regional pricing in my region, so most games are 4x the price on gog.
You try being happy about it when a game costs $240
Eh, games I can pirate. It's the hardware prices that concern me.
Would a VPN to USA work?
If the issue is a lack of regional pricing, changing regions won't have any impact.
If the worst should happen, I will sail the seas to reclaim my ownership.
When you don't earn dollars, it's a lot of money.
GOG is awesome!
TBH I'm too addicted to achievements to use GOG (AFAIK you can get achievements on GOG if you use their launcher, but it doesn't work on Linux). I'm going to regret that later for sure ...
There is a reimplementation of the Galaxy Communication Service that allows you to get achievements, leaderboards, etc.
Heroic Launcher has it bundeled automatically.
https://github.com/imLinguin/comet
Heroic is so freaking... Well... Legendary. :D
games should just make an in-game achievements checklist that coorsponds with what steam would have shown. that's all steams in anyways, a checklist.
It's more than a checklist though. You can see how many players got that achievement.
it's a public checklist. majority of games, that doesn't matter though.
I feel you.
Let's stay in denial together 🫂
I wish games would host their own downloads like Factorio. Managing keys and such is probably not worth it since they can use Steam, GOG, or even Itch, buts it’s just so nice to be able to download stuff without a middle man.
I’m just glad I only play 2 games instead of the hundreds I’m reading about in these comments. I didn’t even know that was a thing people did!
I don't play hundreds, but I do play dozens, and yeah, being able to just set 5 or so to download in the background when I'm running low is nice. I mostly play through single player games and uninstall when I'm done.
That said, I also really like how Factorio did it. I bought it directly from them way back in 2012 or something, then they gave me a Steam key, and I can still play the game today with all the updates more than 10 years later. They only made one DLC in the meantime, and that's basically a new game, so I'm totally happy with that.
GOG does have its issues and controversies, but it's still the only online gaming store with conditions I find acceptable. If the game is not available DRM Free, I don't need to play it.
I love having to individually download all 50 parts to a game and write my own install script (the GOG experience on Linux).
Heroic works pretty well.
I can second this.
You- you what????? Why. Lutris. Just use lutris, holy shit.
Lutris downloads files from GoG using their API, which has heavily throttled download speeds. It was going to take 19 hours for CP2077 to download using Lutris.
Downloading the 50 pieces individually from GoG through the browser took under and hour, but was quite annoying.
If you don't play any large games, you might not have noticed, but Lutris and GoG do not work very well together.
I always download the offline installers and install them via the generic "install from executable" option. I've actually never used the features for downloading games from online game services on Lutris. The whole reason I buy from GOG is I can download the offline installer and never have to deal with anyone else's servers after that point. It works excellently.
Maybe this was true five years ago, but with heroic I've never had any setup issues.
There's like 5 managers that support one click install on Linux. Why are you pretending to live in the stone age?
How common is that? I have maybe 5 games from GOG and none of them are like this.
Lutris communicates with GoG through their API, which is heavily throttled for downloading games. CP2077 was going to take almost an entire day to install using Lutris alone.
Going to the website and downloading the pieces myself was much faster, but then of course I needed to manage the rest of the install.
Small games are fine since you won't feel as much pain on the download step.
Seriously. I pretty much only buy things off GoG nowadays. I can back it up to my own storage, and take it wherever I want. High-five to GoG.
I've only bought one game from GOG. It was Morrowind and I'm playing via OpenMW. Good experience over all. Though I didn't use the installer or the executable that came with the game.
I really want to see more FOSS reimplementations of game engines come into existence. Wine is fine and all, but I'd much rather have a native FOSS engine.
That reminds me that Morrowind is currently discounted in GOG and I've been meaning to buy it and play it via OpenMW ever since I heard about the latter ...
I do love Steam, but at the same time, it required me to intall significant 32 bit support on my system. It's just sitting there, using 2GB of RAM and 20% of a cpu while the window isn't even open.
I love gog. Sure it means I need to pay (a small amount) for some decades old stuff, but it will work perfectly every time.
If only they gave a shit about their users enough to respect their requests for official Linux support. Various forms of this made 3 of the top 5 requests on their community wish list. Which they casually deleted and told people to use wine/proton.
This is not a consumer-friendly company. It just so happens that their consumer-oriented decisions led to profits. The moment this is not the case, they immediately change course every time. Same might be true for Valve, but at the very least we can clearly observe them sacrificing extra profits for a tiny minority of Linux users.
GOG is still mostly fine for Windows builds of games. You can support the devs and get DRM-free copies to store indefinitely. However, we shouldn't blindly praise them and ignore the obvious bullshit they take part in.
I imagine that we Linux users are a very small share of their users. I don't see anything malicious in it.
I disagree. It depends how you define 'malicious', but in any case I strongly condemn this practice.
CDPR is perfectly happy to pretend they're consumer-friendly whenever it requires no actual work and brings profits. But the moment they have to spend a cent on changes to actually fulfill their users' wishes (which they themselves published a wish list for, mind you) - it gets absolutely shit on and the users are told to stop bothering them.
This is nothing but a clear display of what kind of company this is. People keep praising them for doing so much for the users. Meanwhile Valve has been losing money for years, just to help a handful of Linux gamers. No corporation is your friend, but if you really want to go with the 'least evil' option - just buy the game on Steam and then pirate it for indefinite storage.
I get your frustration, but Valve effectively prints money. They don't need to care that Linux makes up less than 3% of all users, and they aren't supporting it purely out of the goodness of their heart either, as they have direct incentive to do so through improving the Steam Deck.
Valve isn't spending money or time tracking down rights holders of games that can't legally be bought anymore. For all the good Valve does with Linux and Proton, there are games still being sold on Steam that simply do not work on modern machines. Steam leaves fixing that up to the devs.
We're also just going to ignore Valve's massive hand in popularizing the microtransaction laden lootbox hell? Team Fortress 2 has been an absolute money printer for them, and they've only brought that forward into all their other multiplayer games since, while doing nothing to curb all the gambling shit that has cropped up around things like CSGO skins. Or how about early access, never release "scams"?
I'm not convinced that any of that make Valve evil, but my point is that both of these companies aren't your friends.
GOG isn't just tossing stuff up on their storefront like Valve, they actively sort out how to get these games working on modern hardware and package it up in a way that is seamless for the average user. Unfortunately the average user is on Windows, and they don't have the microtransaction mountains of money to burn pursuing Linux right now. That sucks.
As far as deleting the wishlist items? They answered it already.
Most importantly, a public wishlist isn't a contract, and a company giving an answer you don't like doesn't make them evil.
I'm not happy about it, but this good vs evil, "this just shows the kind of company they are" shit is taking things pretty damn far.
Considering the Steam Deck exists, which necessitates Linux support, I'm fairly certain Valve is actively making profit from Linux support.
Which is a perfectly fine thing to do, and I really like it. But it's not exactly altruism that's driving their investments
It's not altruistic, but it's also not the behavior of a publicly traded company lol
Valve is a privately owned company though?
Yes, exactly.
No regional pricing though. GOG is outrageously expensive in my country compared to steam.
Regional pricing is usually set up by the developer. Contact the developer of your favourite games and they may consider regional pricing, provided GoG allows them.
The site itself only accepts a limited amount of currencies, it's even missing a few of the worlds most major ones. I think it's most likely a limitation on GoGs side.
That's surprising. I wonder of it's actually not supported, or if companies just don't bother to set it up? Seems weird they would do it on one platform and not the other though.
It's just how games used to be before the age of enshittification began
Maybe I'm not old enough but I don't remember a time before game DRM, when it was physical games they required you to have the disk inserted to play. The only difference was they were easier to crack and less invasive without online requirement.
I remember everyone freaking out when Spore was gonna have SecuROM that limited it to like 5 installs on a disc, and you were gonna have to ask EA for more if you needed them.
Some of the oldest DRM was weird little cipher wheels or puzzle books required to answer a challenge every time the game booted before it would actually start.
I dare say what GoG is doing is better than we've ever had it!
Reading this just unlocked an ancient memory. There was some DOS game that was included in a big pack of cds in sleeves that came for free with the pc my mom bought in 1993 (I think). I could never play it because none of those cds came with manuals and the game required the last word of manual page 5 or something to actually open.
A lot of games just came with a key printed on the user manual or the disk packaging, which was just an alphanumeric code the user entered during game install or on first launch and which was validated algorithmically (no "phone home" to check a database of installs).
Some games did required the disk to be inserted to play: the floppy, CD or DVD were mastered with strange characteristics that could only be there in mastered read-only media - this was especially easy in CDs and DVDs as the read-only ones were literally stamped - and could not be replicated in recorded media, so they worked like a physical key that allowed only one instance of the game to run at any one time. I would say this was a form of DRM, but non-intrusive since it didn't try to take over parts of the OS and only affected that game when it was running.
The era of highly intrusive DRM whose impact went beyond the game itself started in the 00s when the use of the Internet became widespread, i suppose partly because taking over the OS and blocking other programs is the cheap-ass solution for the problems of cheating in online games (the costly solution involves proper game server and systems architecture design and is more computationally demending on the server side) and online gaming was becoming big during that decade (for example, WOW is from 2004) and partly as a counter to how the Internet made it much easier to distribute first game keys and later game cracks so really all it took to subvert "game keys" or the physical-media-as-a-key was for somebody out there putting on the Internet the game key code they got when they bought the game or cracking the game and then posting that on the Internet and suddenly hundreds of thousands or millions of people could bypass the game "protections".
The stuff we see in Steam is basically a centralized online keycheck, so the kind of thing which became increasingly common in the early 00s, only this one is more intrusive because it will check the key EVERYTIME YOU LAUNCH THE GAME, whilst the original key checking (both the earlier algorithmic check and later the "phone home" online checking) only checked once, either during install or at first launch, so with the Steam version you have less freedom: in the old days, algorithmic key check meant games could be installed and run entirelly offline, plus you were able to install the game in more than one machine, whilst online validation did require online during install or first launch but never again after that so you could play offline forever from then onwards, whilst the Steam kind at best only lets you be offline for a certain time period and then requires online again to revalidate.
The stuff in GOG is mainly how it was way back in the 90s before even game keys or, at most (and only for a handful of games), you get a game key which is validated algorithmically on install or first start, thus online is never required and nothing restricts you from installing the game in more than one machine (which is absolutelly legit if they're all your machines and you only ever play the game in one of them at a time).
Yeah I remember having a copied Spyro game on the PS1 back in the 90's where the fairy would warn you in game that it knows it's been pirated and will fuck with the game to stop you from being able to finish it.
Not actually sure what it did as I never got very far, as I was a dumb kid only interested in charging around and breathing fire at the scenery.
it's how indie games are
I'll buy when there's a native linux client.
Until then, "arr, maties!"
...and no, I'm not having a morality discussion about piracy. I do it full-well knowing it's wrong.
Just use Heroic. A native linux client would just be worse and proprietary.
That's an odd thing to get hung up on. I buy more from Steam because the client is way nicer on Linux and they actually release interesting features for it. I could buy from GOG through Heroic, but they why should I expect them to properly support me on Linux when they don't even bother to explicitly support Heroic (they do profit share, but that's not quite the same), much less port Galaxy?
I personally don't see piracy (i.e. boycotting) as a reasonable reaction here. It sounds more like you're looking to justify piracy a deal looking for an excuse.
I'll leave it there, but that's my read here.
Why do you desire a Linux client?
I myself don't want to have to open an extra software from the distributor, just to play my game.
It might then end up adding extra constraints like not being able to open multiple games at the same time on your multi-monitor setup.
For the same reason I wouldn't want a Linux client on Windows. It's not made for it.
Valve/Steam can do it. Is there some excuse or reason why it's unacceptable?
And Steam is downloaded the same on nearly every distro. The package is just an install script that translates any differing filesystem layout between distros. It all comes from Valve.
I'm trying to say, "Why have a client in the first place?"
I keep GoG games and I am happy getting to keep the offline installers and not having to open an extra GUI thing before running my game.
I would love being able to run my Steam games without having to open Steam.
Now maybe you see some value in Steam giving the Achievements system and notifications to online-friends about your activity, but is it really required?
If your point is about using the GoG Linux client to run Windows games on Linux:
I don't buy GoG games that don't have a native Linux download and I use the Linux installer, so again, I see no merit in having yet another app.
I use heroic because I buy games that don't have a native Linux version, and because some of the games I own are going to get updated. Also, cloud saves. Having a platform I can easily see and immediately install my purchases from is nice
Ah right, I had forgotten the cloud saves. Those are actually a real value addition to consider using an extra client.
For updates though, I am happy to just re-download the offline installer whenever it gets released.
Of course, I am not buying from GoG, the kinds of games that won't work unless constantly updated.
Do you really keep track of it? I have like 20-30 games installed, and they update in the background. I don't have to think about it and just play whatever strikes my fancy.
No, I just don't update them. The offline installers don't come up as often either.
Also, I only have ~5-10 GoG games.
I think they might be talking about having to use wine or something? They'd be wrong, but that might have been what they meant.
It really is great if you're on Windows, but I've run into issues installing GOG content on Linux.
I almost always used the windows version on Linux too. Personally I install via the exe installer like a caveman lol, but you can add your GOG account on Lutris and other programs to make it easier. Just found out about Minigalaxy, looks nice might try it.
It ain't great that there isn't an official Gog Galaxy for Linux. But we're still super grateful for the lack of DRM.
I haven't. Works great with Heroic Games Launcher.
Just about everything works fine with the default settings in Lutris.
It's rare for me, but yeah, it does happen. I usually try Epic Games Launcher, Lutris, then Steam. If it doesn't work with any of those, I ask for my money back.
it is literally the main thing I miss about windows
greentext reads like it was written by that old Chad-PS3 console... not sure famous it was but he referred to wiimotes as dildos
Fuck, I know what you are talking about. Chad Warden. Had to show him to a friend recently lol
He's all about that PSTriple!
Chad Warden wipes his ass with $600
Gog is awesome? But it has a game launcher now i have to use if I wanna play homeworld cataclysm.
If they only localized the prices as much.