Gamers are familiar with terms such as rights management (DRM) and the concept of always-online games. Steam competitor GOG Galaxy says no to both. Several AAA launch titles such as 2013’s SimCity were heavily criticized because of a mandatory “always-online” policy and DRM, which effectively shut down the game if the developer’s servers are having technical issues. According to Joshua Derocher of Destructoid, “SimCity is a decent game if it worked right, but the online dependency, forced multiplayer, and DRM ruin it.”
GOG (once known as Good Old Games) launched an open beta of GOG Galaxy, a game-distribution platform that seeks to rival Steam with one main selling point: no DRM. “DRM-free means no copy protection, online checks, or any other annoyances,” GOG said on their website. “It’s all about just you and your games and movies. You should feel you own the products you buy,” they said.
GOG was also adamant about bringing big-name franchises to the platform. “With GOG Galaxy, we can start bringing new, big games to GOG.com,” said Piotr Karwowski, VP of online technologies. “The first major release will be The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which will offer automatic updates, achievements and stats. We’re getting ready to release and fully support even more AAA titles in the future,” he continued.
Much like Steam, there will also be a friends list, game time tracking, achievements, and chat. There will also be an online multiplayer and matchmaking solution that utilizes cross-platform play; those who bought the game on Steam can play against those who bought the game on GOG Galaxy, and vice-versa.
“For us, quality trumps quantity. We meticulously think about every feature and how can we make it better,” says Karwowski. “We also know that people want to have freedom of choice, so GOG Galaxy and its features are not forced on you. Making it optional is the best motivation for us to make it better; we want it to be so good that you’ll actually want to use it.”
Gamers can try out the GOG Galaxy open beta here. The platform is currently available to Windows and Mac OS X users, and a version for Linux is in the works.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.