ArsGeek

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of Good Old Games (GOG.com).  I’ve been hearing a lot about it as well so I decided to finally check it out and what I discovered was a little slice of gamer heaven.

Let’s start with some of the problems of modern gaming - issues that I have at least, maybe you’ll agree with some of them.  First of before anything else is the state of the software.  Buggy releases which feel like nothing more than late beta stage games, crippled with DRM and support that consists of the user doing all of the footwork.

Then you have the blammo, rinse, repeat of modern gaming.  Everything is turning to RTS or FPS.  That apparently is all the choice you get from most major publishers.  Shoot, reload, repeat.  Spore attempted to break free of that model and turned into a miniature version of all of the above.  It’s either a non-fulfilling RTS or a non-fulfiling FPS (First Person Eater?).  When you do finally get to space. . . well lets just say it’s not as open ended as I would like.  It’s a great toy, it’s kinda a lousy game.

It’s also a $50 toy.  Paying $50 for something you can’t return, that may not work as advertised and that you can only install 3 times without a hassle?  Ouch.  Sadly, that’s quickly becoming the norm in the industry of big game publishers (or as I like to call it, EA).

Lastly, we have the system requirements hurdle.  I like upgrading my PC as much as the next guy but it takes time, patience and most importantly, money.  I quickly run out of all three.  Which means within a year of getting a near-uber system, I’m faced with games that I can’t crank up to max.  It’s not the biggest problem but it can be frustrating - perhaps I should just grow and learn to accept it but the part of me that looks at the price tag has a hard time doing that.

Not all of these problems come with all of the modern games - there are good games out there but they seem to be few and far between.

Just as all of this is starting to eat away at me (again) enter. . . Good Old Games.  Simply put, this is a portal from which you or I can purchase older, highly rated games with XP and Vista installers and no DRM for $6 to $10.

With only two publishers on board for the beta (Interplay and CodeMasters), GOG is already a fantastic place to visit.  Fallout, Fallout2, MDK, and a bunch of other games.  I’m already nodding along and smiling as I walk down memory lane and look at games I couldn’t even get to run on Vista.  Except now, I can.  GOG packages their games with installers for XP and Vista and I believe they even had a custom version of Dosbox for very old games.

When games have expansions or updates, often GOG will package these right along with the game.  Nice! I know that my gaming rig will run them as well.  Hell, my wife’s 6 year old laptop will cruise right along with all of these games.

At the two price points of $5.99 or $9.99 this isn’t an investment in a game, it’s an impulse buy.  Not only that, it’s an impulse buy I’m pretty sure I’ll enjoy, already having fond memories of the game in question.  Or, I can try a game I’ve always wanted to but didn’t have the wherewithall to play previously.  If it stinks, I’m out six bucks, not sixty.

And the best for last - it’s all completely 100% DRM free.  That means that if I blow away my computer four times a year and reinstall the OS, I can reinstall ALL of my GOG.com purchased games again.  As many times as I want.  Without complications.  Yay!

You can still ask for a beta invite at Good Old Games if you’re interested in checking them out.  I’d highly recommend it!

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