With the use of Heroic game launcher, I’m wondering if you all preferred to play your GOG version of games over the Steam version. I can go either way but sometimes I pause and think, having two copies of the same game, one on steam and one on GOG, which one would give me a better gaming experience. For example, I may choose the GOG version because I don’t have to deal with pre-shader work being downloaded every so often and support DRM free gaming, owning my games. Take the game files anywhere I go. I can just into my games. Yet, Steam achievements and seeing the game’s metadata is always life: seeing the game info, store page, community stuff about the game, and more all there. So what do you chose? GOG game or the Steam game.
“Having to deal with pre-shader work” that you mentioned is a good thing. Without it, games will stutter more. And you always have the option to skip it or disable it entirely.
But otherwise, it’s a classic delimma:
Gog games does not have it. But it works fine.
Yes, a lot of games work fine without precompiled shaders. Others, like Apex Legends or Rocket League, are a complete mess (at least for the first few minutes of gameplay - it used to be much worse but DXVK 2.0 helped a lot with this). You’ve probably just only tried the games that work fine.
Have you tried with the newer Mesas (like in SteamOS 3.5)? Apparently it shouldn’t be a problem anymore with the new shader compiler.
I wonder where zoom platform and itch.io fit into this
Steam personally, I respect GOG offering DRM-free games, but steam does so much good for the Linux community that they’ve earned my loyalty.
Also Steam lets developers offer their games DRM free, most developers just want DRM if it’s an option. Here’s a list of DRM free games on Steam.
Don’t you still need to use the Steam client to install those games? I’ve never seen an option on the website to download the game files directly like GOG does.
Yes, but once the game files are downloaded you can run the game without opening steam or copy the game folder to other machines.
For example I copied my Caves of Qud install onto a thumb drive, and that lets me play at work.
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Same, I like the guarantee of when I buy something, I own it. Years down the line if something happens to some servers outside of my control, assuming I keep the content on a hard drive somewhere, I’ll still have it.
Is game on Steam? Steam.
Is game not on Steam? Game does not exist.
Life is easy.
GOG
Just the hability to have my entire collection in a backup disk I can keep in my drawer, to install and play with no need for an internet connection makes all the difference.
Bonus: no DRM
I’ve chosen Steam because I already had most games there before knowing about gog.
However I feel like I’ll end up regretting that decision one day 😨
Lutris because it handles both and more.
Pre-Shaders are the real Deal thats why i bought Cyberpunk twice.
It ran but stutters were hurting the Performance to much.
For many Games its no problem.
Do gog games stutter? I don’t recall having that happen to me.
It only happened if shaders were generated.
How do you get gog games to work? Is it all set up or do you need to do something like look for Linux games or set as non steam game or etc?
Heroic for gog games. They run wine so that’s what you pick most of the time. Download the latest win and proton stuff in heroic.
Are there any good tools for incorporating third party games into Steam, like what Steam ROM Manager does for emulators?
Bottles lets you easily add games installed in it to your steam library
I switched to GOG for a while when the shovelware on Steam became way too prevalent. I preferred GOG’s more curated storefront and migrated most of my library over whenever there was a sale. But now the situation has flipped. Steam has gotten pretty good at burying the shovelware while GOG’s front page is often filled with anime porn games.
So rather than set up Heroic I just pick up any games I’m missing from Steam on the cheap when I can. It’s a shame because I used to really like GOG Galaxy.
On PC (Linux). I prioritise Steam.
But if the game is much cheaper in other launchers that can be used with Lutris. Like Epic. That doesn’t stop me from getting it there instead.
