First Impressions: Good Old Games
My computer happens to be stuck in this weird gaming purgatory. On one hand, I can’t play a lot of older games that I grew up with because my computer is too new.
On the other hand, I can’t play many new games because I happen to be too poor to afford to upgrade. This usually means that I’m stuck playing Peggle, Sam and Max and Audiosurf.
It was with this in mind that I signed up for the “Good Old Games” beta test. For those of you unfamiliar with what the service is, here’s the rundown: G.O.G. is a digital distribution center for a large number of old games published by Interplay and Codemasters.
Games cost between $5.99 and $9.99 (with a majority costing $5.99) and are DRM free. All the games on the site have been re-worked so that they will work with both Windows XP and Vista.
Hit the jump for our full thoughts on the service.
The site’s interface is fairly simple to navigate. With the current limited catalogue, browsing through all the games on the site was done fairly quickly and it was easy to find what I wanted to purchase.
There are a multitude of filters on the site to make it easier to find what want, yet as it is a beta, there were some that did not work at all (when I searched for Bioware games, nothing came up, yet they have games on the site).
In addition to all of this, the site has a fairly interesting forum community. Each game on the site is given a forum.
This allows for specialization to occur within each forum and means that if you are having a problem with a game, they will most likely be able to help you easily. It’s a small touch, but it’s a definite plus.
Now, all this is fine and good but it doesn’t mean jack unless there are good games on the site. Well, Codemasters and Interplay haven’t been known to be the friendliest publishers, but there are some definite titles from them that are helping to sell the site.
One of the clear selling points at the moment is that the site has the first two Fallout games and Fallout: Tactics. Of course, with the upcoming release of Fallout 3, they are clearly banking on the idea of having people play the original games first.
While a great deal of focus has been given to the Fallout series, no game is ignored. Games such as MDK and MDK 2 have their own life on the site and even newer games like I.G.I.2: Covert Strike have front page ads.
Again, there seems to be a certain focus on each game on the site. They even advertised, with a great deal of pride, that the “Redneck Rampage Collection” was coming to the site.
The purchasing process is fairly simple and painless. You simply create an account on the site, choose what games you want to buy, enter your credit card or PayPal information and the game is yours.
The current selection of games, however, is fairly small. As of this writing, I counted around 36 games that were available, with 5 more “coming soon”.
When you buy a game, it is then added to your account. You can then go to your account page and download your game any number of times. This means that if you wanted to put the game on your home computer and your work laptop, there’s nothing to stop you.
When you buy a game, however, you usually are not just buying the game. Each game that I’ve seen on the site includes, at the least, a manual. Many games, however, include wallpapers, artwork, and even the games soundtrack, meaning that for $5.99, that purchase of Descent 3 is probably worth it.
The real tell, however, is how well the games actually play. On my fairly low cost laptop PC, games ran fine after one or two launches. The first launch of Fallout 2 ran, but its color palate was completely screwed up.
Although the first run of the game didn’t run correctly, the game did run fine after another launch. In addition, sounds were off, or sometimes not present at all, in both Earthworm Jim 1 and 2 and the default control schemes were somewhat archaic.
Good Old Games is shaping up to be something really incredible. With classics Fallout and package deals like “Descent 1 & 2” for $5.99, it’s hard to deny that this is a service is really important.
While some services may give you these games, none of them sell them so cheap with absolutely any DRM along with any number of extras.
First Impressions: Good Old Games
Source: By Talking About Games at http://talkingaboutgames.com/
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