elkston
Sentinel
I've come to the realization that Steam just works better than Good-Old-Games (GoG) when you're dealing with new releases.
When games first come out, it is inevitable that there are going to be a series of patches and DLC released over maybe the first 6 months to a year of its launch. Steam's automated patching and installation of these updates is so much more hassle free than GoG.
The GoG direct download ("classic installers") method only supports incremental patches. Lets say your game starts at version "A", and then you come back later to see that the latest version is "D". In order to patch your game to get to level "D", you'll need to download and install patches "B", "C", and "D".
With cumulative patches, all changes and content from previous patches is included in the most recent patch. So in this example, a "D" cumulative patch would contain all the changes in "B" and "C", and you'd only have to download and install "D". GoG distribution system does *NOT* work like this!
To compound the issue: GoG actually *removes* patches after a certain period of time.
So lets say you play a game for a while and take a break because you want to wait until they get the kinks worked out. If you come back at patch "E", there is no guarantee that GoG will also have patch files "A", "B", "C", and "D" still there to download. After a while, they will remove "A", "B', etc…. Meaning that if you wait too long between patches, you are screwed and your only recourse is to re-install the game.
The only way to get the "latest" in GoG without using patches is to download everything from scratch again. Now, granted, with much better Internet speeds these days this isn't that bad. But recall that you also have to go through the local installation process again.
Either way, having updates just "work" like Steam is much more hassle free. I bought Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Bard's Tale 4 both on Steam this time. Turns out this was a wise move due to the insane amount of patches these games received.
I haven't even really started on Pathfinder in earnest. I created my char, played the intro a bit and put it aside. But I know that when I am ready to come back and play for real, I can just fire up Steam and it will update the game to the latest with no hassle.
Now I realize the GoG has Galaxy -- which is their own distribution system that automates updates similar to steam. I don't use Galaxy because I use GoG to have access to direct downloads that I can store and archive locally.
That brings me to what GoG *is* best for. And that is for recent games that have reached maturity and their lifecycle and for older games. If a game is fully patched up, and has all its DLC released….Then that's a good time to use GoG to get a ready-to-go, patched up, mature version of a game that you have local access to at all times.
Technical Note:
I don't know for sure if it is the developers patch system OR GoG that is mandating use of incremental patching for the releases.
I only know that I've only *ever* seen incremental patches on GoG.
When games first come out, it is inevitable that there are going to be a series of patches and DLC released over maybe the first 6 months to a year of its launch. Steam's automated patching and installation of these updates is so much more hassle free than GoG.
The GoG direct download ("classic installers") method only supports incremental patches. Lets say your game starts at version "A", and then you come back later to see that the latest version is "D". In order to patch your game to get to level "D", you'll need to download and install patches "B", "C", and "D".
With cumulative patches, all changes and content from previous patches is included in the most recent patch. So in this example, a "D" cumulative patch would contain all the changes in "B" and "C", and you'd only have to download and install "D". GoG distribution system does *NOT* work like this!
To compound the issue: GoG actually *removes* patches after a certain period of time.
So lets say you play a game for a while and take a break because you want to wait until they get the kinks worked out. If you come back at patch "E", there is no guarantee that GoG will also have patch files "A", "B", "C", and "D" still there to download. After a while, they will remove "A", "B', etc…. Meaning that if you wait too long between patches, you are screwed and your only recourse is to re-install the game.
The only way to get the "latest" in GoG without using patches is to download everything from scratch again. Now, granted, with much better Internet speeds these days this isn't that bad. But recall that you also have to go through the local installation process again.
Either way, having updates just "work" like Steam is much more hassle free. I bought Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Bard's Tale 4 both on Steam this time. Turns out this was a wise move due to the insane amount of patches these games received.
I haven't even really started on Pathfinder in earnest. I created my char, played the intro a bit and put it aside. But I know that when I am ready to come back and play for real, I can just fire up Steam and it will update the game to the latest with no hassle.
Now I realize the GoG has Galaxy -- which is their own distribution system that automates updates similar to steam. I don't use Galaxy because I use GoG to have access to direct downloads that I can store and archive locally.
That brings me to what GoG *is* best for. And that is for recent games that have reached maturity and their lifecycle and for older games. If a game is fully patched up, and has all its DLC released….Then that's a good time to use GoG to get a ready-to-go, patched up, mature version of a game that you have local access to at all times.
Technical Note:
I don't know for sure if it is the developers patch system OR GoG that is mandating use of incremental patching for the releases.
I only know that I've only *ever* seen incremental patches on GoG.