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:
Yeah this is so hard
I wonder where zoom platform and itch.io fit into this
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.
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.
Is game on Steam? Steam.
Is game not on Steam? Game does not exist.
Life is easy.
I own most of my games on GOG these days. I still lease my games on Steam on occasion, because I do love the ecosystem and that my spouse can play my games easily.
But now I’m thinking of the end game. One day after Gabe steps away from Valve and appoints his replacement, that replacement will also need to step away. Eventually, Steam will go public, and their vision will change.
For now though I’m not too worried about Steam, but it does make me reconsider where I buy my games from. Ever since Ubisoft had that server shutdown notice a few years ago that would have rendered some of my digital DLC for my physical disc of Splinter Cell Blacklist on Wii U unplayable, I’m now very cautious about ownership of all my media.
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.
🏴☠️
Gog doesn’t force gog galaxy on games that don’t need it and offers standalone installers.
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
for convenience 90% Steam. But, some gog games works OOTB with Heroic
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.
GOG for offline games, Steam games that are online multiplayer or can benefit from cloud saves.
steam for new games gog for my old favourites
Lutris because it handles both and more.
Prefer Heroic’s interface on Steam Deck, or at least last I compared.
Also, why use Steam on Lutris on Steam Deck, when Steam Deck is already showing all your Steam games? Control install locations or something?
For anything not Steam, Lutris.
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 😨
I choose gog
On the one hand, no DRM and competition pushes me towards GOG. On the other hand, my Steam Deck pushes me to Steam. Yes, Heroic Launcher is amazing for Linux gaming, but I’ve encountered a few games that didn’t behave right. Dragon Age: Origin is the biggest offender with the DLC just not activating out of the box on GOG.
Even with heroic?
Are there any good tools for incorporating third party games into Steam, like what Steam ROM Manager does for emulators?
Lutris, I’d say. You can login in Lutris to gog, and it pulls all your games, so you can choose. Since they are already identified, you can choose specific lutris installation scripts for them. Then it’s about as simple as right click on the lutris game - add Steam shortcut.
Bottles lets you easily add games installed in it to your steam library
