Steam or Steam Alternative?

[SullyMcGully]

So, I've decided to do what everybody else around here seems to do and get into Falcom. Specifically, I'm looking to start with Trails in the Sky. As I want to be able to get my full Falcom experience on a single platform and they don't make Legends of Heroes games for Nintendo systems, I'm going to be getting into PC gaming. As I have never done this before, I'm wondering what the best way to do this is. Should I go with Steam, or one of those other companies that nobody has ever heard of?

Frankly, I would prefer a real-life CD/DVD disc medium, but those seem to have fallen out of style for PC gaming. I do like being able to actually own what I pay for, and I have sketchy internet so maybe a cloud free, low-DRM option is my best bet. But then again, I have multiple computers and it would be great to be able to play on any of them, which fits Steam better. It doesn't help that a lot of these computers are on their last leg. I would hate to lose my progress or lose the game entirely should one of them go to sleep and never wake up. 

As you can probably tell, I don't know a lot about this. What are your opinions? Are any of my worries actually valid, or are these all problems nobody actually has to deal with? How is it that you do PC gaming? 

Thanks for the advice!

[Zanarkin]

I would say steam, cause that tends to be compatible with most of the Humble Bundles you can get which is where i get most of my games. GOG is another good option, and the games from GOG are DRM free.

More about the two here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/4xcq05/gog_vs_steam/

I replaced my old laptop and was pleased to know that most of my games had been saved by the steam cloud. Sunless Sea is the only one I am aware of that wasn't on the cloud. But I was lucky to be able to turn on my old laptop and copy the save file onto an USB for transfer.

I also tried playing on offline mode in steam for a bit when i first started, but I haven't used it since. Never really had an issue with internet, so I can't really say how much the DRM affects single player games in offline mode.

 

I have never used GOG. 

[Slumber]

GOG's the best alternative, IMO. Plus, it's the platform of CD Projekt. They make games I like nowadays, while Valve doesn't. So it feels a bit better to give them money.

But I have no idea if Falcom games are on the platform.

Edited August 10, 2017 by Slumber

[Jedi]

All the current Falcom games with Steam ports are also on GOG 

https://www.gog.com/game/the_legend_of_heroes_trails_in_the_sky

[Tryhard]

From my experience, Steam tends to be cheaper if that's an issue, usually because there's many different sites outside of Steam that might sell you a Steam key on sales.

There's no real issues with GOG, though.

[Reality]

Some steam games, especially older games, can store save data locally even if they use the cloud for other things. This shouldn't be problem with Sky or Cold Steel though.

I probably wouldn't try to run PS3 era games on a "computer on it's last legs" 

I like steam more and more for my PC games because I have a history of being careless  with my computer and like being able to re download it at short notice without going through the hassle of the disc installation. 

I've read that many people (without knowing it) value steam as a "game's manager" and hence they'll even set their non-steam games to the steam library. It's probably alien to MAC users etc (it's actually quite simple to make  a game manager from scratch) , but it is a really helpful additional service if you don't play PC games much. GoG does not really provide this as its "library" function is not as convenient mostly due to having to go through 2 step menus to launch or install games.

In either case both are low enough DRM that you can simply set steam or GOG to "log up on power on" and then set the games as desktop shortcuts or whatever without ever really interacting with them. You can play installed games offline without any trouble this is just to minimize the chance of Cloud not catching save data.

[Sentacotus]

Seconding GOG as a decent alternative.  As for getting physical media on PC that can be rather tough to do now in days.  Most of the time if not always if PC games are released on a disc and all the disc does is boot up Steam to download the game from Steam.  Sometimes its literally just a box with a key.  Last physical PC game I got was the Orange Box and Starcraft II (Terrans).  I'm not exactly counting Fallout 4 since that was a disc that pretty much did nothing but open up Steam lol.

 

 

Oh and Origin sucks.

[Elincia]

As everyone as mention, Steam should probably be your go to client for PC and GOG as you secondary. 

All games on GOG are DRM free and they have a lot of retro titles that Steam doesn't. Hell, a lot of games are even better optimized on there vs. Steam. Fallout 3 for example is guaranteed to work on Windows 7 or later on there, while the Steam version (or any other version) won't even boot up. 

So yeah, I would definitely recommend sticking with those two. Your other options are Origin and Uplay. Haven't used Origin, but Uplay is garbage.

[Lon'Kill]

On 8/9/2017 at 11:38 PM, Slumber said:

GOG's the best alternative, IMO. Plus, it's the platform of CD Projekt. They make games I like nowadays, while Valve doesn't. So it feels a bit better to give them money.

But I have no idea if Falcom games are on the platform.

^This. One game bought from GOG, one day less to wait for CyberPunk: 2077