For starters, Origin has a storefront boasting an impressive list of games that aren’t published by EA, from big names like CD Projekt, Ubisoft and Capcom, through to smaller indie publishers like Playdead and Kalypso (that said, EA games are hugely foregrounded). In its favour, it’s a more feature-rich enterprise compared to similar clients from Bethesda and Ubisoft. This is Electronic Arts’ dedicated client: you’ll need to have it installed if you want to play a modern EA game.
Still to come are achievements, cloud saves and much more, but as of July 2019 it’s still pretty barebones and, frankly, not a great deal of fun to use. It has a very long way to go before it can rival Steam, but whether you like it or not, the Epic Games Store is here to stay and it has improved a fair bit over the months. Who could have thought a mere game launcher could be so contentious? Well, it doesn’t help that Epic Games started snagging exclusives before its launcher had virtually any useful functionality to speak of: it didn’t even have a search function at launch. But the Xbox app is definitely a satisfactory experience, with a decent library, a bargain subscription service, and a sleek interface. It’s heads and shoulders above the Microsoft Store, obviously, which by the way is still a going concern if you fetishise lousy software. The social aspect has text and voice chat, providing access to any friends you have using a Microsoft account (which is one and the same with your Xbox Live account, nowadays), but it’s definitely no replacement for Discord. The library isn’t as big and the functionality isn’t great, though is compares favourably to the Epic Games Store launcher. But the app is also a store and launcher, meaning it’s useful if you want to buy games outright and never touch the subscription service.įirst thing’s first: it’s no Steam. As a result, booting the app takes you straight into the current Game Pass library, which at this point is pretty decent. Microsoft rolled out the beta version of this Xbox launcher alongside the launch of Xbox Game Pass for PC. We'll just need to see all those big ideas come to fruition. Toss in all the open source extensions the community makes, and GOG Galaxy 2.0 could very well top this list some day. Cross-platform chat and friend functionality have been promised as well. Features that close launchers once an associated game closes are on the way too. You can even launch games from other launchers within GOG Galaxy 2.0. GOG Galaxy 2.0 won't get rid of other launchers entirely, but its library management tools and integrations collates every game from every library and allows you to mess with any sort of metadata, images, and tags you like. The closed beta for GOG Galaxy's next evolution is gathering attention for its promise to 'unite all launchers' in the embrace of a gentler, more versatile launcher. If you’re into indies, old games and… The Witcher 3, it’s feasible that you can start your library here, rather than on Steam. The lack of heavy-handed algorithmic personalisation, combined with GOG’s internal curation, means you’re hardly going to encounter something as dire as a Unity asset flip on the front page of its store. Whatever the case, it’s clear GOG has aspirations for its client, and it’s definitely a less fussy and complicated affair than Steam. This is limited to a tiny handful of games at present, and it’s hard to say whether the project will gain traction. Meanwhile, an initiative called GOG Connect aims to help you transition your Steam library to GOG, assuming you prefer the Galaxy browser.
There are fewer games from blockbuster publishers - so don’t expect anything modern by EA, Ubisoft etc - but GOG is famously a stickler for curation, as a recent report about a Zachtronics game initially not making the cut demonstrated. Of course, GOG is no longer exclusively about retro games: the storefront has a huge selection of modern indie games, not to mention CD Projekt’s catalogue (they own GOG, didn’t you know). GOG Galaxy is especially great if you’re into running these older games: if you own Simcity 2000 and open it from the client, it’ll automatically boot DOSBox and the game seamlessly.
Download steam client games free#
Since a lot of these games required DOS emulator DOSBox to run, each purchase would come bundled with that free software.
Download steam client games Pc#
Good Old Games was originally conceived as a storefront for DRM-free retro PC games, the type that you’d once have had trouble buying, let alone running.