PC gaming - where to get the games?

[Raza]

@muldoonthief

Second, if I roll the dice and buy a game where I’m below the recommended reqs, and it turns out to look play like crap on my PC, do I have any recourse?

GOG.com has a technical issue return feature:
http://www.gog.com/support/policies/terms_of_use

[magnusblitz]

Aside from all the recommendations for online stores like Amazon or platforms like Steam/Origin… you can still buy games in brick and mortar stores. Target, Best Buy, Walmart, Gamestop, etc. The PC sections aren’t as large as the console ones, but they still have them.

[Chronos]

Quoth Johnny Bravo:

Steam is going to be your one-stop shop for most of your games. A lot of times, buying a digitial copy of a game from Amazon or elsewhere actually means being given a code that lets you download the game through Steam.

Often, this is even the case for games you buy off of a store shelf at the mall (together with a disc that has nothing but a copy of the Steam client on it).

Since nobody else has mentioned it, there’s a small but significant gap in the various online services people have mentioned. Blizzard runs their own online service, which currently supports a mere four games, soon to be five. So if you’re interested in World of Warcraft, Starcraft II, Diablo III, or Hearthstone, you’ll have to go through them. Otherwise, don’t bother.

And in my experience, you can usually go down to about 75% of the “minimum” system requirements for most games, for everything but memory usage and hard drive space (those two are pretty absolute). The game will look terrible, but it’ll probably still be playable. Of course, this depends on you finding ugly games acceptable, and even then, you’re taking a risk.

[Doug_K]

@muldoonthief

I just built myself a new PC to replace my 14ish year old desktop, and for reasons mostly unknown but including the excellent prices + rebate on amazon, I including a Radeon video card so I can do PC gaming. Now I need to know where to buy games -clearly you don’t hike down to CompUsa or Microcenter and buy disks any more. Do I just set up an account on Steam? Other sites? I see there’s a thread about game sales - any advice as to when games go on sale, etc? Thank you.

I think CompUsa is no more, but you can certainly still hike down to Micro Center, or WalMart, or Target, or GameStop, or Best Buy and buy disks (if you have one near you, of course). Our Alco store even has PC games, although they’ll be out of business in a few weeks.

[muldoonthief]

Hopefully last stupid question:

I’ve still got the disks for a bunch of old games - like the two Thief games, original half life and expansions, etc. Are the versions on those games on Steam just the originals, or have they redone the graphics or anything - i.e. is there anything about them superior to the original that make them worth $3?

[Jophiel]

Generally no, unless they are called “Game HD” or something similar to suggest that they’ve redone graphics. Many old games on GOG.com are modified if necessary for smoother running on modern systems, if required, but usually not enhanced in terms of graphics, UI, content, etc.

[silverfish]

One thing, if you have retail copies of some games, including all valve games, you can register them with steam, so you don’t need to pay for them again.

Here’s the list:

Steam Support :: Retail CD Keys

Also note:

Opposing Force CD-keys cannot be registered through Steam. Opposing Force was included in a retail Half-Life package. The Half-Life CD-key included in the package will unlock all of the games in that package, including Opposing Force

So, if you have a half-life package including Opposing Force, then if you register half-life you get everything in the package, but you can’t register a stand alone Opposing Force.

[Disgruntled_Penguin]

@muldoonthief

Two more stupid & related questions -

Is there a chart anywhere to compare relative GPU and CPU capabilities? I’m looking at Shadows of Mordor, which has listed as recommended requirements AMD FX 8350 and Radeon HD 7950. I’ve got an AMD FX 6300, and a Radeon R9 270, so I don’t know if I’m at 90% of the recommend, or 70%, or 10%.

Second, if I roll the dice and buy a game where I’m below the recommended reqs, and it turns out to look play like crap on my PC, do I have any recourse? Is there any 12hr or 24 hr return policy?

I’m beginning to remember why I bought a console a decade ago…

As a data point I just bought this game. I installed it and played it at default settings. God this game is gorgeous and it ran smoothly enough for me.

I have a pentium g2020 and a radion R9 280 with 6g of ram. So, I have a slightly better video card and according to cpuboss our systems are too close to call on the processor.

Turns out default graphic settings are all maxed. I wouldn’t worry about not being able to play this game with your system if I were you even if you have to crank the graphics down a touch for your comfort.

I bought the card in the summer and I am about to upgrade the motherboard. Does anyone have any suggestions for a good gaming board that works well with this card?

just benchmarked the game from the options menu. I averaged 66 FPS ranging from 19 to 277. Even the benchmark test looked awesome.

[Rachellelogram]

Steam, word of mouth, free trials, game reviews. There are whole youtube channels dedicated to game reviews, check one out.

From my experience, World of Warcraft has a free trial (up to level 20, last I checked) and is a great game. The South Park Stick of Truth game is awesome, I’m a gamer and I’ve never met someone who didn’t enjoy it (unless they disliked South Park in the first place). And pretty much anything by Telltale is a good bet.

[muldoonthief]

Just wanted to thank everyone for the advice. I’ve already bought more games than I have time to download at what appear to be really good prices. Now I’m just waiting to see how cheap “Shadow of Mordor” gets.

And thanks for the advice about activating old games through Steam - I dug up my old Half Life platinum disks, plugged in the code and now have an extra 8 games to download.