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GOG News and Updates 2011

How different is this version of Crusader from the PSX version? I already played that version quite a bit and I'll just get Alpha Centauri instead if Crusader looks exactly the same
 
Htown said:
Yeah, can't speak for the shooters, but Sands of Time is amazing. Unless there's some kind of problem with the PC port, it should be recommended.
The pad support is a little shaky in Sands of Time but it's otherwise a great port. Very unlike the Beyond Good and Evil port.
 
ShortDarkAndUgly said:
How different is this version of Crusader from the PSX version? I already played that version quite a bit and I'll just get Alpha Centauri instead if Crusader looks exactly the same


The controls are really hard to get used to, so much so that I'm probably gonna give up on it.
 
Anyone else unable to get Alpha Centauri running on Windows 7 64-bit?

It shows the Firaxis loading screen, then crashes with a "terran.exe has stopped working" pop up. Running in compatibility mode doesn't seem to help, either.
 
ShortDarkAndUgly said:
How different is this version of Crusader from the PSX version? I already played that version quite a bit and I'll just get Alpha Centauri instead if Crusader looks exactly the same

Well, it looks significantly better, doesn't have all the color bleeding and is 2x the resolution. Controls may be worse, but I don't think they're completely unusable you definitely need some tolerance for quirky controls, but as you know, the game is pretty sweet. I've never actually read if anything was removed for the PSX version, other than the much lower quality graphics.

Alpha Centauri's probably the better buy, if you played Crusader, as even the better graphics still are lacking.

HK-47 said:
Also Minsc, you should mention to play Ur Quan Masters in place of SCII on the master list.

I should, thanks. I never did get the final word on whether buying SC1+2 through GOG supports Toys for Bob at all, some people were asking a while ago. So sweet of them to release the code for the game.


Zefah said:
Anyone else unable to get Alpha Centauri running on Windows 7 64-bit?

It shows the Firaxis loading screen, then crashes with a "terran.exe has stopped working" pop up. Running in compatibility mode doesn't seem to help, either.

Did you try the link suggested in this post?
 
Minsc said:
Lack of bundled expansions is a growing trend with these EA releases, damn licensing issues. I think SMAX added quite a bit to SMAC too, shame, but it won't stop me either. Hopefully they bundle it in down the road.

As one who has played more SMAC and SMAX I would like to say yes it did, you got new science, buildings, weapons(?) and factions. However the new factions was horrible unbalanced and did not have the deep background as the original seven. To be honest I do not think you will lose too much just playing the original game.
 
DMczaf said:
I love the Buy 1 Get 1 sale during the holidays, thats where I usually do a lot of my GOG damage.
There was no sale like that last year. Last year's "GOG.com Holiday Celebrations" promo was 50% off around 300 titles.

Only times I can remember there being a Buy 1 Get 1 sale was during the initial early access closed Beta period in September of 2008, where for every purchase you got a free game from a select few from Interplay's catalog, and then the one year Anniversary of that when they did the same exact thing. December of 2008 they did do a buy 2 games for $9.99 and get any $5.99 game free deal though, maybe you were thinking of that?
 
Minsc said:
Or is it a case of something like the Sierra produced Diablo: Hellfire, where even Blizzard is stuck in legal hell and can't get the rights to bundle it with Diablo? That's what I figured anyway, but if EA 100% owns the rights to them, at least that increases the chances of them surfacing later.

I'd rather just have seen it at the 9.99 price point with the expansions myself, I doubt they'll sell the expansion separately, have they done that for any title to date?
Why would there be a legal issue for Diable Hellfire? I mean, Sierra made it, and Sierra was owned by the same company as Blizzard was at the time. Since then both were sold multiple tiles, until they ended up as part of Activision and Sierra was shut down. Where do the legal issues come in?
 
Minsc said:
Do you want a true masterpiece of interactive novel (literally, 800,000 words - over twice as long as your typical Robert Jordan 600 page tomb), a classic FPS that plays like a space sim (joystick preferred, kb/m is serviceable i think), or a older but awesome puzzle/action game with a bit of a curve for controls?

All of the above? Although I think I'll get Planescape first.
 
Each of those games is good. Torment holds up the best, especially with the resolution mod. And it helps that it's the best story-driven RPG ever. Descent is unique to this day although it's held back by the ridiculously low resolution of those old DOS games, and the joystick mapping is tough with DOSBox. Crusader is pretty awesome if you can get used to the controls.
 
epmode said:
Each of those games is good. Torment holds up the best, especially with the resolution mod. And it helps that it's the best story-driven RPG ever. Descent is unique to this day although it's held back by the ridiculously low resolution of those old DOS games, and the joystick mapping is tough with DOSBox. Crusader is pretty awesome if you can get used to the controls.

DXX-Rebirth adds high resolution support and makes joystick compatibility much easier. Works with Descent 1 and 2.
 
cicero said:
There was no sale like that last year. Last year's "GOG.com Holiday Celebrations" promo was 50% off around 300 titles.

Only times I can remember there being a Buy 1 Get 1 sale was during the initial early access closed Beta period in September of 2008, where for every purchase you got a free game from a select few from Interplay's catalog, and then the one year Anniversary of that when they did the same exact thing. December of 2008 they did do a buy 2 games for $9.99 and get any $5.99 game free deal though, maybe you were thinking of that?

B1G1 is a strict subset of 50% off, so it works regardless. (IE for any set of purchases, B1G1 is an equal or worse deal than 50% off, mathematically.)
 
HK-47 said:
Sands of Time is one of the greatest 3D platformers of last gen, while Ghost Reacon and Rainbow Six defined the tactical shooter genre before it was butchered.

Unless someone knows of something wrong with these versions, they are all highly recommendable.
Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon do not come with the expansion packs, and you can't install them from another source with the GoG versions. Not a huge deal for Rainbow Six, but a deal breaker for Ghost Recon, in my opinion.
 
Sinatar said:
DXX-Rebirth adds high resolution support and makes joystick compatibility much easier. Works with Descent 1 and 2.
You don't even know how much I love you for this post. God I love modders.

edit: ...Does anything like this exist for X-Wing/TIE Fighter? oh please oh please

edit edit: I just tested this. It's PERFECT. Oh my god best day ever.
 
epmode said:
Each of those games is good. Torment holds up the best, especially with the resolution mod. And it helps that it's the best story-driven RPG ever. Descent is unique to this day although it's held back by the ridiculously low resolution of those old DOS games, and the joystick mapping is tough with DOSBox. Crusader is pretty awesome if you can get used to the controls.

I picked up Planescape because I need something to cleanse the palette after forcing myself through Red Faction 2. I take it I can just look on the Planescape GoG forum for the widescreen hack?
 
This is going to be an info dump, I just hope if helps someone:

If you have a recent Nvidia card, you might run into trouble with Torment. The other Infinity Engine games run well but Torment is special. Occasional slowdown, transparances might be wrong, the fog of war might not look right, character sprites may be doing the moonwalk, etc.

This is a common issue that Nvidia never bothers to address so there are a LOT of potential fixes. As far as I can tell, nothing will work perfectly. To hopefully save you some time, I'll post the way I do it. My method will probably end up with occasional mouse trails but this is infinitely preferable to the other problems you might have.

(Other people may talk about D3D Windower; I kind of hate playing in a window and the fullscreen D3DWindower hacks never worked for me)

//------------------------

In XP, open dxdiag (start > Run > "dxdiag") and turn off DirectDraw acceleration before running the game. That's it. Just make sure to re-enable it when you're done.

In Windows 7, there's no easy way to do this so you're going to need help.

Download and install the Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=24da89e9-b581-47b0-b45e-492dd6da2971
(ApplicationCompatibilityToolkitSetup.exe)

Run the 32-bit version of the program
Click New
Right-click on the newly created database > Create New > Application Fix
Name it whatever you want and point it to torment.exe
Choose None
On the next page, scroll down to ForceDirectDrawEmulation and check it
Finish
Go up to torment.exe on the top right and click Run Program
Click on the floppy disk icon to save the database somewhere, then right-click on it and Install

Now torment.exe will start as though DirectDraw acceleration has been disabled and you won't have to bother with this again.
 
Speaking of Planescape, I've run the widescreen patch but now everything except the gameplay occupies the upper left side of my screen at what is likely the applications original resolution. The movies, the title screen, the menus, everything but the gameplay, is this typical?

I'm running Planescape on an Nvidia GTX 480 and it looks like it's working without any issues. I have no frame of reference, but nothing looks out of sorts.
 
jaundicejuice said:
Speaking of Planescape, I've run the widescreen patch but now everything except the gameplay occupies the upper left side of my screen at what is likely the applications original resolution. The movies, the title screen, the menus, everything but the gameplay, is this typical?

Did you do this also?

http://www.shsforums.net/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=683

It's right after the widescreen mod link in that link I gave you.
 
Edit: This is why I love PC gaming. I'm sitting here running fan made patches to add in modern screen resolution support, patches so the user interface functions properly with that increased resolution, patches for bug fixes and tweaks for a game that came out over a decade ago.
 
LovingSteam said:
Does GoG usually have a summer sale like Steam?

They had no Spring sale this year (which is what they had in the past), so I'm hoping they'll start a summer sale to match Steam.
 
Mimir said:
Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon do not come with the expansion packs, and you can't install them from another source with the GoG versions. Not a huge deal for Rainbow Six, but a deal breaker for Ghost Recon, in my opinion.

Hmm I didnt know they were expansionless.
 
LocoMrPollock said:
The controls are really hard to get used to, so much so that I'm probably gonna give up on it.
What's wrong with the controls? I loved Crusader back in the day and would love to play it again after, well, more than 15 years -- I don't remember much about it.
 
A Black Falcon said:
Why would there be a legal issue for Diable Hellfire? I mean, Sierra made it, and Sierra was owned by the same company as Blizzard was at the time. Since then both were sold multiple tiles, until they ended up as part of Activision and Sierra was shut down. Where do the legal issues come in?

Maybe they don't then. There was a time when Blizzard was selling Diablo without Hellfire, which sucked, and I found really weird. Couldn't imagine any other reason why they didn't include it, as the new classes and dungeons were neat. Now they just don't sell Diablo 1 at all anymore, shame, it was still a great game. Always enjoyed the randomness to the quest structure.

jaundicejuice said:
Edit: This is why I love PC gaming. I'm sitting here running fan made patches to add in modern screen resolution support, patches so the user interface functions properly with that increased resolution, patches for bug fixes and tweaks for a game that came out over a decade ago.

You should really follow this guide to a T before you get too far (as you have to start over when you change mods, and there's some amazing ones).
 
Sloane said:
What's wrong with the controls? I loved Crusader back in the day and would love to play it again after, well, more than 15 years -- I don't remember much about it.


Really bad tank controls that are poorly implemented and not very responsive to boot. Still the game looks pretty awesome. I might try making an xpadder profile for it, I dunno.
 
Minsc said:
Maybe they don't then. There was a time when Blizzard was selling Diablo without Hellfire, which sucked, and I found really weird. Couldn't imagine any other reason why they didn't include it, as the new classes and dungeons were neat. Now they just don't sell Diablo 1 at all anymore, shame, it was still a great game. Always enjoyed the randomness to the quest structure.

I don't really care much about Diablo 1 personally, but I've also noticed that Blizzard doesn't sell WC1 or WC2 anymore. They start at WC3. Which is very unfortunate, because WC2 has absolutely seminal single player games and was really well designed. It's also an awesome relic of the time before StarCraft where it was acceptable to make an RTS game with symmetrical player nations/races rather than asymmetrical but balanced ones. Very different time.
 
Glad I got my Battlenet Editon of WC2 then. Hadn't even realized that they weren't selling it anymore.

As for Hellfire, I don't think it was ever up to their standards, since they didn't make it themselves, so maybe they just act like it doesn't exist.
 
Minsc said:
You should really follow this guide to a T before you get too far (as you have to start over when you change mods, and there's some amazing ones).

Err, I should probably stop playing, I've almost hacked my way out of the mortuary, and redo the tweak patch. I didn't add these tweaks...

You SHOULD install:
- Save Nordom! Tweak

You SHOULD install:
- Maximized HP Per Level for TNO and Party
- Maximized Friends Spell
- These are very minor changes.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I don't really care much about Diablo 1 personally, but I've also noticed that Blizzard doesn't sell WC1 or WC2 anymore. They start at WC3. Which is very unfortunate, because WC2 has absolutely seminal single player games and was really well designed. It's also an awesome relic of the time before StarCraft where it was acceptable to make an RTS game with symmetrical player nations/races rather than asymmetrical but balanced ones. Very different time.

Huh, I thought it wasn't until SC that they started making each side distinct yet balanced. Then again I was very young when I played WC2.
 
jaundicejuice said:
Err, I should probably stop playing, I've almost hacked my way out of the mortuary, and redo the tweak patch. I didn't add these tweaks...

You SHOULD install:
- Save Nordom! Tweak

You SHOULD install:
- Maximized HP Per Level for TNO and Party
- Maximized Friends Spell
- These are very minor changes.

Yea, I guess not to a T... I really just meant the main packages are all worthwhile (at first it sounded like all you did were the widescreen/Ghostdog fix). I'm not a fan of maximized HP or Friends spell, but the point of the game is for the story and choices, not the combat, so either way, they're not a big deal.

I wouldn't restart for any of those above tweaks, as long as you have the main fix-pack and a couple of the other ones, you'll be as good as you can be. The game's one of those games where you should save often, and save in multiples (don't use the same save for hours at a time).

Stumpokapow said:
I don't really care much about Diablo 1 personally, but I've also noticed that Blizzard doesn't sell WC1 or WC2 anymore. They start at WC3. Which is very unfortunate, because WC2 has absolutely seminal single player games and was really well designed. It's also an awesome relic of the time before StarCraft where it was acceptable to make an RTS game with symmetrical player nations/races rather than asymmetrical but balanced ones. Very different time.

Warcraft 2 and all the expansions were very much like AoE 1/2 and its expansions to me in that sense. They even both shared the occasional cheesy FMV like in Starcraft. I'd love for W2 Beyond the Dark Portal and the original to show up as DDs one day again.

I had fun with Warcraft 2's map creator too, it was simple enough to use, like a HoMM map editor, and you could do some fun levels with it.

Warcraft 2 also had the boats, which I think the third didn't?
 
coopolon said:
Huh, I thought it wasn't until SC that they started making each side distinct yet balanced. Then again I was very young when I played WC2.

Yes, that's what I mean.

Prior to StarCraft, if you had two sides, they were the same*. That was balance. StarCraft changed it up in that regard. So WC2 is neat because it pre-dates that change which became almost universal after that point.

*90%+ the same.
 
Trying to think how differences played out back in RTSes of that era. I think each of the Dune 2 factions had one, maybe two distinct units? I believe the early Warcrafts only differed in terms of the spells the casting units had? Or were they the same at heart? I never really used those much.

Command & Conquer had a reasonable level of differentiation, though. They don't fundamentally play differently, unlike Starcraft, but there was a good number of different units between the sides.

Edit: On that note, could C&C be part of the EA deal? I'd not really considered it, but it strikes me as a natural fit.

And now I'm wondering where the rights to the Eye of the Beholder titles ended up. GoG are in comfortably with Ubisoft - who own SSI, as far as I'm aware - but I wonder if they needed Westwood as well to be able to release them. Lands of Lore, too.
 
Yea WC all the units had a unique look and unique spells but were functionally identical.

C&C however had a lot of variation.
 
mclem said:
Command & Conquer had a reasonable level of differentiation, though. They don't fundamentally play differently, unlike Starcraft, but there was a good number of different units between the sides.

GDI vs NOD units (wow, I thought there were more, there's only like 6-7). There were similarities, but also some decent differences. NOD had faster units, GDI had better air and the Mammoth tank.

Edit: It's missing some, the basic ones, machine gun, engineers, and the sonya/commando unit. Guess it's not a complete list, but it's a nice visual reference.
 
Minsc said:
GDI vs NOD units (wow, I thought there were more, there's only like 6-7). There were similarities, but also some decent differences. NOD had faster units, GDI had better air and the Mammoth tank.

Edit: It's missing some, the basic ones, machine gun, engineers, and the sonya/commando unit. Guess it's not a complete list, but it's a nice visual reference.

There's a separate page for the common ones: http://www.r1ch.net/old/c&c/common.htm

That said, I could have sworn the Commando was GDI only (unless you captured a barracks)

Edit: Ah, there's a footnote about that. Available to both factions in multi.
 
Minsc said:
Warcraft 2 also had the boats, which I think the third didn't?

Yes, WC2 had boats/naval warfare. They've never really done that again have they.

Stumpokapow said:
Yes, that's what I mean.

Prior to StarCraft, if you had two sides, they were the same*. That was balance. StarCraft changed it up in that regard. So WC2 is neat because it pre-dates that change which became almost universal after that point.

*90%+ the same.

You think that's a good thing? Especially in SP? SC blew me away because all of a sudden the sides weren't just color/texture swaps.

Just out of curiosity I tried registering my Battle.net edition of WC2 on Battle.net, it doesn't accept the CD key. I guess SC was the first one they started doing that on.

mclem said:
Edit: On that note, could C&C be part of the EA deal? I'd not really considered it, but it strikes me as a natural fit.

That'd be awesome just to get them working flawlessly on vista/7. They've actually given away C&C and RA for free for awhile now, but they are huge pains in the asses to get running. I tried installing my old copy of RA awhile ago, I could never get it uninstalled. Didn't get rid of it until I reformatted.
 
coopolon said:
You think that's a good thing? Especially in SP? SC blew me away because all of a sudden the sides weren't just color/texture swaps.

It's just a neat historical note. Like, a different way things could have gone.
 
coopolon said:
That'd be awesome just to get them working flawlessly on vista/7. They've actually given away C&C and RA for free for awhile now, but they are huge pains in the asses to get running. I tried installing my old copy of RA awhile ago, I could never get it uninstalled. Didn't get rid of it until I reformatted.

All the copies from the Command & Conquer - The First Decade run perfectly under Windows 7 64-bit (includes C&C / Covert Ops, C&C Tiberium Sun / Firestorm, C&C Generals / Zero Hour, Red Alert / Counterstrike / The Aftermath, Red Alert 2 (omg epic intro) / Yuri's Revenge, and the oddball C&C Renegade. Was a steal and a half when I picked it up for $30 years back, even if it does eventually come out cheaper. What's nice is there's nocds for the box set, so you get an all-in-one (pack) fix.
 
Minsc said:
All the copies from the Command & Conquer - The First Decade run perfectly under Windows 7 64-bit (includes C&C / Covert Ops, C&C Tiberium Sun / Firestorm, C&C Generals / Zero Hour, Red Alert / Counterstrike / The Aftermath, Red Alert 2 (omg epic intro) / Yuri's Revenge, and the oddball C&C Renegade. Was a steal and a half when I picked it up for $30 years back, even if it does eventually come out cheaper. What's nice is there's no cds for the box set, so you get an all-in-one (pack) fix.


Yeah it's like $15 on amazon with free shipping.
 
Stumpokapow said:
I don't really care much about Diablo 1 personally, but I've also noticed that Blizzard doesn't sell WC1 or WC2 anymore. They start at WC3. Which is very unfortunate, because WC2 has absolutely seminal single player games and was really well designed. It's also an awesome relic of the time before StarCraft where it was acceptable to make an RTS game with symmetrical player nations/races rather than asymmetrical but balanced ones. Very different time.
Yeah, Blizz REALLY should still be selling Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition. They still run the BNet service for the game last I checked, why not make the game available? It uses a CD-key, so that's not an issue. And as you say it's a great classic, still one of the best RTSes ever made. People should still be able to get it.

As for Warcraft 1, it's not nearly as good as Blizzard's other RTSes and has some interface issues (having to hold the mouse button down on the edge of the screen in order to scroll is kind of annoying, there's no map editor, etc). Even so though I liked it at the time, and it's a kind of interesting game even if it's dated compared to the later titles. It should be available on something like GOG.

Minsc said:
Maybe they don't then. There was a time when Blizzard was selling Diablo without Hellfire, which sucked, and I found really weird. Couldn't imagine any other reason why they didn't include it, as the new classes and dungeons were neat. Now they just don't sell Diablo 1 at all anymore, shame, it was still a great game. Always enjoyed the randomness to the quest structure.
I looked at the jewelcase and Hellfire was developed by Syngergistic Software and published by Sierra. I'd imagine that Sierra and Blizzard would have the rights, though, not the developer, so I don't see where a legal issue would come from... though such things do happen, look at how the Syndicate and System Shock games have legal issues keeping them off GOG even though you'd think EA wouldn't have any such problems.

As for Blizz not selling Diablo 1, yeah, as I said above it's really too bad that they won't sell WC1 or 2 or Diablo 1 anymore.

Minsc said:
All the copies from the Command & Conquer - The First Decade run perfectly under Windows 7 64-bit (includes C&C / Covert Ops, C&C Tiberium Sun / Firestorm, C&C Generals / Zero Hour, Red Alert / Counterstrike / The Aftermath, Red Alert 2 (omg epic intro) / Yuri's Revenge, and the oddball C&C Renegade. Was a steal and a half when I picked it up for $30 years back, even if it does eventually come out cheaper. What's nice is there's no cds for the box set, so you get an all-in-one (pack) fix.
It's so insane that they managed to fit all of those games onto one DVD... how did they do it, compression?
 
coopolon said:
Y
That'd be awesome just to get them working flawlessly on vista/7. They've actually given away C&C and RA for free for awhile now, but they are huge pains in the asses to get running. I tried installing my old copy of RA awhile ago, I could never get it uninstalled. Didn't get rid of it until I reformatted.

There's a C&C fan community that actually had C&C95 patched with various community patches which made it was easy to install.
 
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