Topic: GOG - Update: Jagged Alliances games and Disciples games = 50% off (Reply 76)

[MysterD]

I got in too.  I'm probably going to get Fallout and Fallout 2 and Sacrifice, though not all at once.  I was not impressed with the Interplay catalog.

Isn't the Fallout saga enough? heh!

It would be great for those who don't have PS:T, BG series, and Icewind Dale series, those would get added by Interplay.

Curiosity factor -- has anybody around here played Freespace series stuff?
And if so, how was it?

[Quemaqua]

The Freespace games are very good.  Sy will tell you that Freespace 2 is hands-down the best space combat game in the history of gaming, and it has more or less ruined all similar games for him because none of them are as good.  I'm not as much an aficionado on that stuff, but I can certainly vouch for the quality.

[MysterD]

Well, hell -- that's some pretty high regards for Freespace.

I really liked Starlancer; Freelancer even more so; and I liked X3: Reunion the best out of what I've played for space-sims.

I might have to eventually let those join my GOG Purchase club, in due time!

[Xessive]

The Freespace games are very good.  Sy will tell you that Freespace 2 is hands-down the best space combat game in the history of gaming, and it has more or less ruined all similar games for him because none of them are as good.  I'm not as much an aficionado on that stuff, but I can certainly vouch for the quality.

Easily man! Freespace was incredible and 2 set the bar even higher! I'd love to see a third instalment of Freespace.

As far as space sims go I think most are focused on total space culture simulation like Freelancer, Darkstar One, and X3. While the combat in those games is reminiscent of Freespace it's just not the same.

[scottws]

Freespace 2 is like a skin mod of TIE Fighter.  Seriously, the game is a complete rip-off of TIE Fighter in every way.  Still, it's actually the better game.  If you thought TIE Fighter was the best space sim ever, you'll probably like Freespace 2 even more.

[Quemaqua]

The Descent games are on there too, and to this day no game has ever been made that really plays like those do, be it the first two or the third.  I think they hold up quite well, and I'm an absolutely rabid fan of the series.  If you never had the chance to check those out, they're still completely worth seeing.  The first looks fairly dated, but all the really unique robot designs are still iconic, and those from the 2nd game are cool as well.  3 took them in a new direction, but I loved most of the designs there, too... once made a wallpaper with every single robot from each game.  I wish I hadn't lost it... it was awesome.

[idolminds]

They just went open beta. If you've been wanting to check it out, now is your chance. They also added some new games.

[MysterD]

Disciples: Sacred Lands and Gothic 1 will be joining GOG soon

[Quemaqua]

Awesome!  I highly suggest everyone try them.  They're a great service with a great community (which I really, really hope survives the transition to open beta, and again when it goes live... please God, don't let the idiots take over...).

Also, I'd really love to try the first Disciples.  I'm a huge fan of the second game, and looking forward to the third, but never did try the first.

[MysterD]

Interview w/ Lukasz Kukawski of GOG

Strategy Informer: How many games to you currently have in your catalogue?

Lukasz Kukawski: At the moment we have almost 90 Good Old Games available in the catalogue. We'll be hitting the milestone of 100 games very soon and we're going to do it in a big way, so stay tuned!

Oooh...I wonder what will number 100 be and if there'll be and nice special offers around that time!

Strategy Informer: What do you do to make sure these golden oldies are fully compatible with modern technology? Has been any games you haven’t been able to upgrade? What about Windows 7?

Lukasz Kukawski: The compatibility with modern OSs is aside of the lack of DRM another great feature that we offer on GOG.com. It's very frustrating that most of the classics are very hard or even impossible to run on your modern, lightning-fast computers. That's why our programming team is making its magic tricks to guarantee that all games available on GOG.com will run smoothly on both Windows Vista and XP as they were originally developed under those systems.

Also some of our games, as you've probably seen, are wrapped up with DOSBox or ScummVM that help with the compatibility issues. We're in constant contact with the teams behind these projects and we receive a lot of help from them that we're grateful for.

Some games require a lot of work from our programmers so it takes time to release it, but we do what we can to bypass all the problems and release a smoothly working game. We had some issues with WaxWorks that required some real magic from the programing team, but they did great job and the game, after being visible in the upcoming section for couple weeks, has been release and received a very warm welcome from our community.

As for Windows 7, the system is still in beta and we haven't tested our games on it yet, but we received information from our users who played GOG.com versions of the games under Windows 7 and they worked fine.

Strategy Informer: What games to consider ‘old’ enough to feature in your catalogue? What’s your cut-off point?

Lukasz Kukawski: As for how old game should be to appear on GOG.com, there's no specific rule for it. Simply saying we release games that aren't new, so don't expect the new Dawn of War or Empire Total War. The shelves in game stores are too short to have all games on them, that's why a game that is 6 months old is sometimes hard to get. We want to offer games that are hard or even impossible to find in retail, that's why aside of games like Stonekeep, Simon the Sorcerer you'll also find the newer titles like TOCA Race Driver 3 or Unreal Tournament 2004. But still these are all Good Old Games.

Strategy Informer: You've just announced that Ubisoft will become a supporting service for Good old Games. Can you briefly explain what that means for you and your customers?

Lukasz Kukawski: First and foremost it means we're expanding our games catalogue with the addition of great titles from Ubisoft.

But aside of adding more Good Old Games, we're signing one of the biggest game publishers in the world! This deal means the idea of GOG.com, including the DRM-free approach, is accepted by a company which has such big influence on the gaming industry. It's a huge step for us and we're really excited about it.

Strategy Informer: Do you think this will be a major breakthrough for your service? Do you hope that other bigger publishers will follow suit?

Lukasz Kukawski: I think that the agreement with Ubisoft will help us in terms of showing other companies that even a major publisher is accepting the DRM-free approach and are willing to trust gamers. I hope this will make other publishers look at GOG.com as a great way to sell their back-catalogue games.

I was very happy to see PoP 2008 PC not have any DRM -- kudos to Ubi.
And kudos to Ubi for bringing some of their games over to GOG in the DRM-free fashion.

Strategy Informer: Can you tell us which games exactly that you will be adding to your catalogue from this deal?

Lukasz Kukawski: With the announcement we're releasing Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and IL-2 Sturmovik 1946. The coming soon section is expanding with the addition of Beyond Good and Evil, Heroes of Might and Magic, Far Cry, Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. We have also some games that we're keeping in a secret for now.

Strategy Informer: Some of the older Ubi games were infamous for including the Starforce DRM software, will that be removed before they are added to the catalogue?

Lukasz Kukawski: All games on GOG.com are free of any DRMs. That's what makes us so different from other digital distribution services and what are we proud of. There's no reason it would be different with Ubisoft games. That's great news, isn't it?

Strategy Informer: What are your thoughts on DRM?

Lukasz Kukawski: We are all gamers at GOG.com and frankly saying we hate DRMs implemented in games. We don't think DRM is the best way to fight piracy. You won't find any copy protection that haven't been broken, so this won't stop pirates from getting the games the illegal way. DRM is more of an obstacle for legitimate buyers than people who pirate games, because if you get the pirated version you'll get it stripped from all forms of copy protection and you can do with the game whatever you want.

But if you've bought the game legally then you have to register the game on-line, play it on specific number of computers, install some additional trash-software, etc... And that's not helping. We think that the best way to fight piracy is to offer good games in a reasonable price with cool additional content.

Strategy Informer: How easy/difficult was it to secure this arrangement with Ubisoft?

Lukasz Kukawski: It took us a while to finalize everything, but it went pretty smooth. Our business development team really did great, taking care of everything from the very beginning. There are always lots of things that must be done and take some time if you're signing a contract. And if you're signing a deal with such big international company like Ubisoft it may take even longer, but we have everything finalized and now we can share the great news with all GOG.com fans!

Strategy Informer: How hard was it to get all of the extra and exclusive content for the games?

Lukasz Kukawski: You have to give credit to our brave and good looking product team for the bonus content. They're digging up archives, warehouses full of weird stuff and even the whole internet in the search of cool content. Sometimes we receive the stuff from the publishers, but most of things that you can download with the game have been found by us. For very old games it's sometimes to find even boxarts, but somehow we manage to get everything done.

Cool.

Strategy Informer: Do you think it will be possible to eventually bring some console classics to GoG? Would that be feasible for you guys?

Lukasz Kukawski: It's hard to say at the moment. Right now we want to bring all the classics from the vast and rich PC gaming history. There are thousands of great games that need to be revived for the games all around the world. The console games are being brought back by services like PSN, XBL or WiiWare. But who knows, when we'll finally get all the games we want form the PC market, maybe we'll add console classics.

Oh, that'd be very interesting -- to see some companies that had consoles games that have not made their way to the PC come here.

I bet Que would jump for joy if Konami and GOG hooked up to bring the only Silent Hill to the PC that hasn't arrived here -- the original Silent Hill. That was one of the best SH's, if you ask me.

[scottws]

Cool.  They're getting IL-2.  I might have to finally pick it up.  But it probably means another $70 or something spent on a flightstick.

[MysterD]

1 Year Anniversary of GOG.
Sale going on -- Buy one Interplay game, get one FREE.

So, Here's the list of games...

All priced at $5.99 below...
Fallout
Fallout 2
Fallout Tactics
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
Sacrifice
Descent + Descent 2 Bundle
Descent 3 + Expansion Bundle
Freespace + Expansion Bundle
Earthworm Jim 1 + 2 Bundle
MDK
Freespace 2
Redneck Rampage Collection

[Quemaqua]

Everyone buy Sacrifice if you don't own it already.  Seriously.

[MysterD]

Realms of Arkania series -- which is based off the The Dark Eye ruleset, which Drakensang uses -- has made its way to GOG.com.

Realms of Arkania 1 and 2 Bundle is up on GOG for $5.99 right now (together).
ROA 3 will be coming soon.

Over 70 awards won and more than 5 million units sold world wide - we're proud to announce Realms of Arkania RPG series on GOG.com. Grab the first two installments, packed in one bundle, for $5.99 now!

The Realms of Arkania 1+2 pack consists of the games Blade of Destiny and Star Trail. They're both role playing games, based on an actual pen-and-paper RPG system. Similar to the Ishar or Might and Magic series, the games let you lead a party of characters through a 3D environment of towns and dungeons. What makes this game unique among other RPGs are its turn-based combat system, which uses an isometric view and an extensive and detailed statistics system that defines every hero. Both games offer you days of gameplay and, once you finish Blade of Destiny, you can export your party to its sequels. Both games are solid titles in their own right and must-haves for any fan of classic RPG games.

[Quemaqua]

I was really tempted to get those, but man, I just don't have the time...

[MysterD]

Timer gone up for a countdown.
Something's coming to GOG in 5 days and its counting down.
Saying to "Expect the unexcelled."
There's a space background, too.

On the GOG forums, a lot of speculating has begun.

[scottws]

Hmmm... maybe LucasArts' space shooters?

[idolminds]

Thats what I was thinking. Which would be huge news if they got LucasArts on board.

[MysterD]

Thats what I was thinking. Which would be huge news if they got LucasArts on board.

I'd love to see LucasArts go to GOG.
I'd like to see Jedi Knight series; Jedi Outcast; and Jedi Academy go to GOG.

Of course, love to see the LA Adventures go over there, as well.
OMG, If only Grim Fandango made its way to GOG...

[idolminds]

Hint on twitter: The return of incredible karmic awareness.

EDIT

Heh, the thread on gog where people are guessing had a good one for this hint. Take the first letter of each word...

[Cobra951]

Their games?  Certainly not the company?

[idolminds]

Yeah, just their games.

[MysterD]

Troika's games are coming??!!?!
AWESOME.

Troika's now defunct - most went other places, such as Obsidian, Bioware, Blizzard, or other RPG companies.

[Cobra951]

Right.  After falling into the Wasteland completely in Fallout 3, I decided to do a little digging into its background.  Along the way, I learned about Leonard Boyarsky, who worked on the FO games at Interplay, then went on with coworkers to found Troika.  Interesting history.

Also somewhat related, while I play FO 3 here, I'm also playing FO 1 at Sandy's.  I got FO 1 and 2 in one of those old 2-game packs (cardboard, jewel-case sized, one game shows on each side).  They never worked right on my PC (lousy support for 8-bit paletized textures on Nvidia FX 5900), but they work perfectly on her laptop.  So I'm going through the first game for the first time ever.  I just collected the water chip.  Completely different experience, and seems crude to me even allowing for its age.  (Zelda 3 is 5 years older.  Secret of Mana is 4 years older.  Yes, I know it's a different genre.  I'm referring to technical achievement and mechanics, with more primitive hardware to boot.)  But still very engrossing after I was done swearing at the interface and invisible boundaries.

[scottws]

I bought FO1 and FO2 on GOG.com shortly before FO3 came out.  I couldn't get into FO1 at all.  Like you, I found it very primitive.  Everything seems so slow and stilted at it just wasn't any fun for me.  I never played FO2.

[Quemaqua]

They definitely take a little getting used to.  They hearken back to an era of PC gaming long past, and they weren't fantastic technical achievements even in their heyday, like you said.  But there's some really, really fucking good gaming in there once you get past all that.  There are some unofficial patches that fix bugs and stuff, too.  If you head over to the GOG forums, i believe they have some stickied threads from the staff that talk about some of the patches and mods.

[idolminds]

Its Activision.

First releases are Gabriel Knight and Arcanum. Now, this may not be terribly exciting, but once you look at the games Activision has it becomes very interesting. Such as....Interstate 76. Man, if they got that game up there I would love them forever.

[scottws]

Wasn't Gabriel Knight a Sierra On-Line/Entertainment game?

[MysterD]

Its Activision.

First releases are Gabriel Knight and Arcanum. Now, this may not be terribly exciting, but once you look at the games Activision has it becomes very interesting. Such as....Interstate 76. Man, if they got that game up there I would love them forever.

Awesome news that classic Activision stuff is there.
And yes, Arcanum is awesome - if you loved Fallout, you'll likely love this.
Plus, I can't stress enuff how great Arcanum's soundtrack is.

[MysterD]

Wasn't Gabriel Knight a Sierra On-Line/Entertainment game?

Yup.

When Sierra was selling some IP's some years back, Activision bought a handful of Sierra's IP's - which includes both Gabriel Knight and Arcanum.

[Pugnate]

Am I the only one who doesn't get the hype and would never buy anything off of GoG?

[wizall]

I'm kind of with you there, Pug. I love going down memory lane, but I don't really consider playing through this stuff. I don't think, anyway. I don't want to ruin the nostalgia.

I have to admit, taking another crack at Arcanum is tempting...especially now that it's all patched up.

[Quemaqua]

It's really on a case by case basis for me.  I certainly don't jump at everything that comes onto GoG, but it's a really good service.  I've never had a single problem with any of the games I've gotten there, at least that wasn't already a problem with the game before.  They do a really good job of whatever it is they do to make these things work properly and without too many problems, and a lot of it is really cheap.  I don't understand why you'd never buy anything from them.  They're doing a really good job, I think.  Classic games at cheap prices updated to run on modern systems, all with a really helpful and generally less dipshit-ridden community, some seriously competent staff (who in my experience are often on the forums for different games posting stickied threads about mods and addons, community patches, etc.), all within a clean, functional framework, with no DRM whatsoever.  What's not to like?

[MysterD]

What Que said.

[MysterD]

Another Activision game joins GOG.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption joins GOG at $5.99.

[MysterD]

Just got an e-mail today from GOG.
Interplay games on sale this weekend:

$4.19 per game
Giants: Citizen Kabuto
MDK
MDK2

[MysterD]

All Disciples and Jagged Alliance games are 50% off.

[Pugnate]

It's really on a case by case basis for me.  I certainly don't jump at everything that comes onto GoG, but it's a really good service.  I've never had a single problem with any of the games I've gotten there, at least that wasn't already a problem with the game before.  They do a really good job of whatever it is they do to make these things work properly and without too many problems, and a lot of it is really cheap.  I don't understand why you'd never buy anything from them.  They're doing a really good job, I think.  Classic games at cheap prices updated to run on modern systems, all with a really helpful and generally less dipshit-ridden community, some seriously competent staff (who in my experience are often on the forums for different games posting stickied threads about mods and addons, community patches, etc.), all within a clean, functional framework, with no DRM whatsoever.  What's not to like?

I don't doubt the service. From the interviews I've heard of these guys, they really love their GoG website, and are committed to provide great value. I have tremendous respect for the way they have gone about things, and how they haven't whored themselves out. They've actually been honest about their shortcomings as well, which makes me think they are the genuine article. I hope they achieve tremendous success in this as well as their Witcher games.

The point is that I can easily see myself buying atleast 10 GoG games in an instant, if I let myself go...

At the same time, I can also see myself not giving my purchases more than a few minutes each. Plus that money adds up. I'd rather use the $60 I'd spend on 10-15 GoG games on two to three year old PC titles.

There are just so many games out there now... on the consoles as well as the PC that I'd rather spend time with than play games I've already been done with back in the day.

To give you an idea, just off the top of my head, here are games I have installed that I haven't played more than 20 minutes of, that I plan to come back to eventually...

Far Cry 2
Fallout 3
Dragon Age's expansion
Little Big Planet

Games that I haven't even started yet:

Demon Souls
Crysis Warhead
Company of Heroes' 2nd expansion
L4D2
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Uncharted 1
Uncharted 2
Killzone 2
Bayonetta
Darksiders

edit:

Metal Gear Solid 4


Games that I have played a big chunk of, and need to get back to:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Final Fantasy 13
The Witcher

Game I am currently playing:

Alan Wake

Plus there are a ton of older games that I have, that I haven't either started, or need to come back to. Games like the Lord of the Ring RTS titles, Age of Empires III and its two expansions, Chronicles of Riddick (the new one)... that Star Wars RTS.

Anyway... I am sure there are plenty I missed mentioning.

edit:

Is it depressing that our lives are about this shit hehe.

[MysterD]

I don't doubt the service. From the interviews I've heard of these guys, they really love their GoG website, and are committed to provide great value. I have tremendous respect for the way they have gone about things, and how they haven't whored themselves out. They've actually been honest about their shortcomings as well, which makes me think they are the genuine article. I hope they achieve tremendous success in this as well as their Witcher games.

The point is that I can easily see myself buying atleast 10 GoG games in an instant, if I let myself go...

At the same time, I can also see myself not giving my purchases more than a few minutes each. Plus that money adds up. I'd rather use the $60 I'd spend on 10-15 GoG games on two to three year old PC titles.

There are just so many games out there now... on the consoles as well as the PC that I'd rather spend time with than play games I've already been done with back in the day.

To give you an idea, just off the top of my head, here are games I have installed that I haven't played more than 20 minutes of, that I plan to come back to eventually...

Far Cry 2
Fallout 3
Dragon Age's expansion
Little Big Planet

Games that I haven't even started yet:

Demon Souls
Crysis Warhead
Company of Heroes' 2nd expansion
L4D2
Battlefield Bad Company 2
Uncharted 1
Uncharted 2
Killzone 2
Bayonetta
Darksiders

I haven't even installed Crysis Wars (MP portion of Crysis: Warhead).
Though, I did finish Crysis: Warhead - SP portion.

I liked Far Cry 2, but it could've been better than it was. Side quests are just..."meh" and often repetitive. Main stuff's good, though - and I would've liked to ran into The Jackal more, too. I'm glad they fixed the nasty corrupt saves and rescue buddy bugs that plagued the game.

I ain't even touched Dawn of War - Gold Edition (Disc); Dawn of War: Dark Crusade (Impulse); COH; COH: Opposing Fronts.

Games that I have played a big chunk of, and need to get back to:

Batman: Arkham Asylum
Final Fantasy 13
The Witcher

I ain't finished Batman: AA either...awesome game, though....

Game I am currently playing:

Alan Wake

Plus there are a ton of older games that I have, that I haven't either started, or need to come back to. Games like the Lord of the Ring RTS titles, Age of Empires III and its two expansions, Chronicles of Riddick (the new one)... that Star Wars RTS.

Anyway... I am sure there are plenty I missed mentioning.

edit:

Is it depressing that our lives are about this shit hehe.

I also have LOTR: Conquest; LOTR Online - Mines of Moria: Special Edition; Riddick: Dark Athena (new one); and Star Wars: Empire at War - Gold.

That doesn't even touch some of the other stuff I began but never finished AND stuff I never installed list...

Crazy, eh?

EDIT:
Some of the GOG stuff I ain't even touched includes Dark Star One and Fallout: Tactics.
I'm waiting for Blood 1 and 2 to go on sale...

[Pugnate]

...

edit:

My point was to explain why I am not so interested in GoG... not start a discussion we've already had before on the quality of these games etc.