Our very own Finkbug, making hearty use of the intertubes and Steam Chat, alerts the Tap Newsroom that Good Old Games has shut itself down.
Run by a branch of The Witcher creator CD Projekt, GoG offered, well, good old games re-optimized to run on modern machines. At a bargain price. Without DRM. A number of Tappers were great fans of the service, while others – including myself – supported it philosophically but never found the time to delve through its riches. Now I feel vaguely guilty, like the fact that I only ever bought Septerra Core from the place is why it’s gone tits vertical in the driveway.
UPDATE: Wikipedia (and others), meanwhile, suggest that the whole thing is a stunt to announce the launch of the “official” GoG (it’s always been in beta so far). What could it mean? We’ll have to wait and see. If it’s bad news, thank you to CD Projekt for trying. If it’s good, well, that’d be cool.
UPDATE UPDATE: it’s looking more and more like this is a dumbasstic marketing stunt. Someone somewhere thought running an ad saying “John Romero is about to make you his bitch” was a good idea too. I wonder if it’s the same person.
Send an email to the author of this post at steerpike@tap-repeatedly.com.
Oh… my God… Whaaaat? How??? I mean… DAMN!!! I loved GoG. This is just… devastating. From the Twitter comments I gather that having no DRM was the problem. Which kinda makes sense. On the other hand I don’t recall ever seeing GoG sourced games posted on any Warez site. This is really really horrible. Horrible.
What?! But, but… I just bought a game from them a couple of weeks ago and I haven’t even had a chance to play it! How can this be?!!
:whine:
According to NeoGaf, it’s a marketing stunt.
If true, one of the stupidest to grace the planet.
I got wind of this yesterday quite early on. My first reaction was the same as Meho’s and coupled with the Arcen Games news as well as Frictional Games’ reporting less than satisfactory sales of Amnesia: The Dark Descent I was one sad panda. After a little digging though it seems that something bigger is going on. We’ll have to wait and see.
OK, mystery solved. They are indeed going from Beta Stage to proper business. Tomorrow we learn what that means. As long as their games stay DRM-free I will even accept a separate launcher.
It seems the whole internet is awash with nerd rage over this PR blunder. So you lost access to your games for a few days – big fucking deal. Cry some more. GOG assured everybody from the moment the site closed that they would soon be able to download their purchased games again.
For how good GOG’s service has been for the last two years I’m amazed at the about turns some people are (apparently) making on the company. I don’t think it was the best way to go about the relaunch but for fucks sake people, get some perspective.
I think it was an idiotic ploy, but Gregg has a point. It’s not like they shaved a puppy.
Kyle Orland noted that as dumb as the stunt was, it got the press chattering about GOG for almost a week. Lots of attention, whereas just emerging from beta wouldn’t make headlines.
Still, I see it along the lines of the “make you his bitch” ad. It’s just not the brightest way to do things. In the long run, though, I don’t think it will hurt GOG at all. And they are a very important service, in my opinion. World needs access to the classics.
Have you guys watched any of the videos they’ve been posting on the site. It’s all kinds of awkward.
Yeah, I watched about 20 seconds of each video until I felt embarrassed to be alive.
I didn’t realise they’d posted more up. I could only stomach about 20 seconds of the monastic apology before killing the window. Very awkward.
Well, the counter at GoG’s site reached zero but the website is now reporting HTTP 500 Internal Server Error. If they wanted this to be a triumph of guerilla tactics, it backfired like fuck!!!
It’s up now and you know what? As a graphic designer I think GOG.com is probably the most beautiful digital store I’ve ever used. It’s teh pretty.
It was a stupid stunt (although the net result was a ton of press), but I’m glad they’re back. And they’ve got Baldur’s Gate.
Yep, they’re back on and apologising for their server breaking down under the weight of traffic, heh. I guess their marketing stunt worked after all even though it was TEH stupid.
As for Baldur’s Gate, I don’t know about you guys in America, but over here that game is available in stores in a package with all the expansions and BGII for small money, so I am NOT going to buy it from GoG (I already have the mentioned package plus, of course, BG is always installed on my machine). Now if they can get us Torment, THAT would be seriously awesome.
Meho, now that you mention it it’s entirely possible I have that pack of which you speak. This could involve moving several ridiculously heavy plastic bins filled with games to find out, though. I really, really, REALLY need to set up a database for all my games.
*sigh*
Behold, Planescape: Torment
All Hail.
HAIL!
While we’re here, I want everybody to convince my brother to play it. My words and daily beatings are not enough.
He STILL hasn’t played it? After all the beatings?
You’re dead to me, Lewis.
Steerpike, it’s not about playing it; it’s about finishing it. My beatings can extend to you as well. Granted they might not be daily, but they will be there, journeying across the Atlantic in a large crate labeled “Knuckle Sandwiches and Cans of Whoop-ass”.
May as well include me in the beatings as I never finished it either.
This place is going to be a blood bath…
Surely there are people who I don’t have to beat?
I saw the news headline and thought of you Gregg, you terrible person! I’m going to but it!
Lewis: stack wisdom instead of strength. The secret weird WRPG in Tormenty.
He’s all talk Fink. He says that to me all the time, through tears of insolence.
Save some beatings for me, Gregg. I’ve not even begun Torment. I have no other excuse than that ages-old one I won’t bother uttering.
You don’t have to beat me Gregg. I loved that game but seriously…I don’t know if I’d play it again. Still, those who haven’t played it all the way through once must don cones of shame for the rest of the day.
Heh. I’m buying Torment just out of support to everyone out there even though when it comes to playing I have a modded release that features higher resolution graphics and wide screen support. Still, it’s well worth ten Euro.
Or even dollars, as it were… Daymn, what a bargain for SUCH a game. I think I’ll throw Arcanum in too even though I have a boxed copy here…
Meho’s got the right idea regarding the mods. There’s a great guide here outlining the various things that can be done to improve the experience without dramatically altering it. I’m mot sure whether GOG implements these as standard though, I suspect not.
“I think I’ll throw Arcanum in too even though I have a boxed copy here…”
I picked it up from GoG and it’s nearly unplayable. In large chunks of the game, like, oh, the inventory screen, the cursor moves so slowly you can one mississippi two mississippi the pixels.
Arcanum was always a crumpled wreck of a game but that felt new.
Argh. I wish I read this before hitting the “purchase button”. Arcanum was pretty messy when it came out, yeah. I was hoping GoG would be selling us a patched, cleaned up version. Oh well…
But anyway, are we talking about System Shock 2 hitting GoG in the coming days? Because it surely would sound logical, eh? I have that game in a hires mod as well, but would still buy it.
A cleaned SS2 I’d certainly buy. That game–a personal favorite–had one heck of a bug. Stupid game ending unbreakable window.
Let me know how Arcanum goes. Been curious if old wreck + DOSbox GoG fairy dust + oddities of my system = flameout. I remember the original as buggy and badly designed but not full of UI sedatives.
Whoa, there are some great looking mods for System Shock 2 now. Makes me wish I hadn’t completed it. The SHTUP mod looks like it has been improved since I last played and good lordy, look at those new weapon models. I’m still not convinced by those pseudo-sexy Rebirth midwives though.
I have a CD copy of Planescape. I’ve started games many times, played for countless hours… and never finished it.
Same goes for BG2… I’m ashamed, though sounds like not alone.
I call for the posting of a poll. Who’s actually finished Planescape?
I could have sworn they were going to release Icewind Dale next though…
You guys pick anything else up there? I bought a copy of The Longest Journey and played it through since the re-launch.
First adventure game I’ve played in a million years. The story totally hooked me though (Thanks Gregg for suggesting it oh so long ago.)
I finished it, but I remember disagreeing with and disliking the ending. This was in the age before constant online help and I know now that I wasn’t stacked in wisdom and intellect enough to get all the best options or even find a solution to all the quests (although I’m certain someone can call me out on that). Hard to imagine a game so tilted towards one set of skills in this day.
Yeah I agree Helmut, the game does benefit from a very specific character build (intellect and charisma). Having said that, I’ve only played it once so I might be wrong.
@Armand: did I recommend that? I bought the game off of GOG a while back but I haven’t played it yet! I heard very good things about the story though.
I also bought Sanitarium and Freespace 2, which again, I haven’t played yet…
I was barely into Torment and someone mentioned I should really put points into Intelligence. Once I saw how I could talk my way out of and through situations I really started pumping it up. Never would have noticed on my own though.
Ahhh, Freespace 2. That one’s a keeper.
I bought Freespace 2 off GoG sometime last year. It’s turned out to be “one of those games.” One of those games that was critically acclaimed in its time, but I find impossible to go back to. I missed the “it” period, and it’s very hard to digest now.
I don’t know if that’s just me.
Me, me, I finished! But heaven forbid, not vanilla. My Planescape had a boat load of mods.
Gregg: We’d been discussing well written games and you brought it up. I’d seen it many times before, but I guess it was the last little push. It’s well worth it even if you use a walkthrough (which could help actually.)
I used to love Freespace 2. I have played it perhaps six times all the way through plus a few more times partially. This is a game you need to play for 20 hours just floundering and then restart, in order to get good enough to enjoy them. I bought the first one from GOG and went back to FS-2 afterward and somehow the entire nature of the genre has little appeal anymore. The missions can be complicated and difficult and filled with little tricks that take eons to discover failure by failure.
I’ve read here: http://twitter.com/thatbarnettblok that this fellow is trying to release Wing Commander for DOSBox for free. Since the good folks have released the source to FS-2, a better alternative to WC-Free might be the FS remake here: http://www.wcsaga.com/ , if’n y’all falla.
By the looks of things the FSOPEN project for Freespace 2 is the bees knees. It updates the game, vastly improving the graphics and sound for modern machines as well as other fixes and functional improvements. The original Freespace and Wing Commander have also been converted to the updated engine. Woo!
@Armand: hahaha, well I’m glad I wasn’t wrong, even if I haven’t played it and don’t remember saying it!
It’s only fitting you mention it alongside Planescape: Torment as well.
Armand’s pleas have been heard: Icewind Dale