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[JaseC]

I'm jumping on Thief Gold. Any ETA on the sequel? Presumably it can't be far off.

In my experience it is a minority of games that actually don't require steam.

Yes, but that doesn't negate the fact that Steam itself is not DRM.

And as already stated, there is additional drm built in because you need steam to properly install games even if you don't need steam to run them. Even a lot of old games need steam to run.

Steam being required to install Steam games is hardly DRM. Once you have downloaded the client-free games, there's no need for Steam at all. In such cases Steam functions as nothing more than an installer.

It is hardly a misconception to say steam is drm when a significant portion ( I would say vast majority but haven't tested every game so can't) of games on steam are drmed...including valve's games.

But it is, especially when the decision to tether games to the Steam client is one left entirely up to the publisher, rather than something inherent in the service itself (something which "Steam is DRM" implies utterly).

Anyway, this is neither here nor there, so in the interest of the thread it's best we agree to disagree.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Today's release is Thief Gold for $9.99.

$5.99 would have meant a guaranteed sale, but still very tempted.

 

[MrOogieBoogie]

Holy fuck, Thief Gold?

AMAZING game. So, so good.

 

[peakish]

Thief, yessss.

Steam being required to install Steam games is hardly DRM. Once you have downloaded the client-free games, there's no need for Steam at all. In such cases Steam functions as nothing more than an installer.

Can you install games without logging in with an account? If not, it's DRM. (I actually don't know - I've tried the backup feature sometime and it launches the client for logging in but I may be missing something.)

 

[JaseC]

Can you install games without logging in with an account? If not, it's DRM. (I actually don't know - I've tried the backup feature sometime and it launches the client for logging in but I may be missing something.)

Do you also consider the GoG.com website DRM? After all, you can't download the installers without logging in to your account. You can make the argument that the installers can be backed up after the first download, thereby removing the need to access the website, but then the same is true of downloaded client-free Steam games and the Steam client.

Edit: To directly address the question, the answer is "no".

 

[epmode]

God I love GOG. This game was actually kind of difficult to find before now!

edit: Wait, it was on Gamersgate? I could have sworn I didn't see it there when I looked about a year ago.

I really, REALLY hope this works with the widescreen mod on Win 7 64. I kept running into trouble with that. It would work one day and would refuse to install the next time.

 

[mclem]

Didn't realize it was on gamersgate before now, thought it would be a GOG first!

Thief II, I believe, isn't on any service. Here's hoping GoG have that as part of their deal!

Odd thing about the Eidos deal: The first three games are ones that are also available elsewhere. I don't think that's a universal rule - I suspect it's because Eidos's biggest names happen to be the ones they've already arranged distribution deals for, whereas the more interesting, obscure titles are the ones that have been passed over previously - but it does mean I'm more excited about the titles to come *after* the initial rush rather than the huge big-name ones.

Are the early Tomb Raiders available anywhere? That's a massive name, but it's not one I think I've actually seen on any DD sites before.

 

[peakish]

Do you also consider the GoG.com website DRM? After all, you can't download the installers without logging in to your account. You can make the argument that the installers can be backed up after the first download, thereby removing the need to access the website, but then the same is true of downloaded client-free Steam games and the Steam client.

Edit: To directly address the question, the answer is "no".

Sorry, I backtracked the conversation a bit and noticed that it began with "not all Steam games have DRM" which I agree with. I do consider the client (and hence service) itself DRM if it doesn't offer any way of installing my games without logging onto the service. And yes this is different from downloading your files onto a computer and suffering no restrictions on how to move or install them as GOG offers (I basically see their storage of the files as an extra service besides giving you the file).

 

[archnemesis]

I'm pretty sure I still have Thief somewhere in my basement, but I'll totally rebuy it once it's below $5.

 

[peakish]

I'm pretty sure I still have Thief somewhere in my basement, but I'll totally rebuy it once it's below $5.

Same for me, it should be worth it if they've fixed the problems with running it on modern PC's but I can't justify the higher price point for something I already own.

 

[Easy_D]

I hope they put the Soul Reaver titles on there . I'd buy the first day-1

 

[JaseC]

Sorry, I backtracked the conversation a bit and noticed that it began with "not all Steam games have DRM" which I agree with. I do consider the client (and hence service) itself DRM if it doesn't offer any way of installing my games without logging onto the service. And yes this is different from downloading your files onto a computer and suffering no restrictions on how to move or install them as GOG offers (I basically see their storage of the files as an extra service besides giving you the file).

I can understand that, but I don't agree that the difference is, in practice, large enough to label it a discrepancy.

I'm pretty sure I still have Thief somewhere in my basement, but I'll totally rebuy it once it's below $5.

Come to think of it, I don't think I have any old PC game boxes these days.

 

[Mimir]

The version of Thief on GamersGate is The Dark Project, which is missing a bunch of content from Gold. This is still a major exclusive for GoG.com.

 

[peakish]

I can understand that, but I don't agree that the difference is, in practice, large enough to label it a discrepancy.

Re: The client or the DRM free games themselves? Having to log onto a service (which may or may not exist forever) versus having the option to keep your install files whichever way you want (as in owned by you) is a huge difference for me. Trust no one!

In the other case you can of course back up your game files yourself which is always nice even if not explicitly advertised by Valve.

Edit: Fuuu, some experience problems with movies still. Though it may be easy to fix? http://www.gog.com/en/forum/thief/movies_not_working

 

[SparkTR]

The version of Thief on GamersGate is The Dark Project, which is missing a bunch of content from Gold. This is still a major exclusive for GoG.com.

Thief Gold is also the version that has trouble running on modern systems, I'm interested to see how much they've fixed it for this release.

 

[Jenga]

actually im waiting on impressions on how well they adapted thief gold for modern OS's

seeing as i actually have the damn game, im only concerned with how well it runs and how easy it is to set it up with 1080 res and whatnot

 

[EdgecrusherLSU]

That almost makes me wish i hadn't pulled the trigger on the original release. Almost.
What better reason for another play through than new content?

It says that anyone who bought the Witcher 2 will get the update for free though, unless I am misreading it.

 

[JaseC]

Re: The client or the DRM free games themselves? Having to log onto a service (which may or may not exist forever) versus having the option to keep your install files whichever way you want (as in owned by you) is a huge difference for me. Trust no one!

I mean that I consider the act of logging into Steam, downloading a client-free game and then backing it up not all too far removed from the GoG.com equivalent.

In the other case you can of course back up your game files yourself which is always nice even if not explicitly advertised by Valve.

Valve also don't advertise the client-free games. I suppose that's in their best interest, though, since the natural assumption is that Steam games require the client to run.

 

[mclem]

It says that anyone who bought the Witcher 2 will get the update for free though, unless I am misreading it.

I think he's just saying that it would have been fun to have the new content for the first playthrough.

 

[Stallion Free]

Thief Gold is also the version that has trouble running on modern systems, I'm interested to see how much they've fixed it for this release.

I hope they did since I have only managed to get my copy of OG Thief to work and Gold refused to do anything other than crash.

 

[Lord Panda]

Star Trek TNG: A Final Unity ... come on GoG and bring it!

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

Just bought Thief Gold, loads and runs great with no tweaking at all Only thing i have noticed is no intro movie played (i think there was one ?), and clicking the "Intro" button does nothing, im guessing its to do with the video codecs they used at the time (i had problems back when it came out with them). My specs -

AMD X4 640
4GB DDR2
GTX 480
Windows 7 64 Bit Pro

 

[SparkTR]

I hope they did since I have only managed to get my copy of OG Thief to work and Gold refused to do anything other than crash.

I managed to get Gold working after 4 hours of troubleshooting, it still crashes if I try to change some settings in the menu.

Has anybody tried the game yet, how does it run?

 

[peakish]

I mean that I consider the act of logging into Steam, downloading client-free game and then backing it up not all too far removed from the GoG.com equivalent.



Valve also don't advertise the client-free games. I suppose that's in their best interest, though, since the natural assumption is that Steam games require the client to run.

Fair enough. I concede.

 

[Jenga]

Just bought Thief Gold, loads and runs great with no tweaking at all Only thing i have noticed is no intro movie played (i think there was one ?), and clicking the "Intro" button does nothing, im guessing its to do with the video codecs they used at the time (i had problems back when it came out with them). My specs -

AMD X4 640
4GB DDR2
GTX 480
Windows 7 64 Bit Pro

nice

in-game cutscenes run though right?

should be compatible with darkloader and thief 2 textures too im assuming

 

[Mimir]

Just bought Thief Gold, loads and runs great with no tweaking at all Only thing i have noticed is no intro movie played (i think there was one ?), and clicking the "Intro" button does nothing, im guessing its to do with the video codecs they used at the time (i had problems back when it came out with them). My specs -

AMD X4 640
4GB DDR2
GTX 480
Windows 7 64 Bit Pro

From the link peakish posted:

This is how to fix the videos :

1. Using your run command type CMD

If you dont have the run command there in your start menu in the search bar type command and select command prompt

2. You will now have what looks like a black DOS window open.

3. In that window type :

regsvr32 ir50_32.dll

then press enter

Now you can close the command prompt and start the game, your videos will work now all the time as this is not just a temporary fix. This fixes any games that use the Indeo codec like System Shock 2 & Thief

The regsvr32 ir50_32.dll command seemed to do the trick (but I had to run CMD as an administrator and do "cd c:\windows\SysWOW64" before running it) - when running the game as an administrator. For some reason they don't work when the game is run as a normal user

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

nice

in-game cutscenes run though right?

should be compatible with darkloader and thief 2 textures too im assuming

Nah none of them run :/ Looks like its been brought up on GOG too -

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/thief/movies_not_working

The suggested fix didnt work for me, says the DLL does not exist.

 

[Rekubot]

Ogs - you need to change the directory first. See the last quote in the post above yours.

 

[Minsc]

The version of Thief on GamersGate is The Dark Project, which is missing a bunch of content from Gold. This is still a major exclusive for GoG.com.

From the description, three new campaign missions with 5 new enemies didn't sound like that big an expansion to me, but you seem like you're more knowledgeable as to whether the content from the Gold edition merits noting.

Edit: Fuuu, some experience problems with movies still. Though it may be easy to fix? http://www.gog.com/en/forum/thief/movies_not_working

I'd give it a few days for the smoke to clear, these types of problems can either be isolated (maybe the user having trouble is just missing a codec of sort or something), or easy enough to fix and GOG will then update the .exe installer. I'm pretty hopeful this game will get a little more attention than average.

 

[DodgyGeezerFella]

Ogs - you need to change the directory first. See the last quote in the post above yours.

Ahaa so i did, i then ran the game as Admin and hey-presto working cut scenes Although running in admin must have changed where the save files were kept my other one disappeared.

 

[peakish]

I'd give it a few days for the smoke to clear, these types of problems can either be isolated (maybe the user having trouble is just missing a codec of sort or something), or easy enough to fix and GOG will then update the .exe installer. I'm pretty hopeful this game will get a little more attention than average.

Cool, I suppose I'm just a bit extra worried about this game since it's been so hard to set up properly for me before and that it'd be too much for the GOG team to handle. From the solution to that particular problem it seems like something simple for them to fix in the installer.

 

[Jenga]

if they have it working right out of the box i'd pay $20 for the privilege of a thief game i don't have to mess with for a few hours to get working

i'd pay $60 for the same thing with thief 2

 

[Suairyu]

From the description, three new campaign missions with 5 new enemies didn't sound like that big an expansion to me, but you seem like you're more knowledgeable as to whether the content from the Gold edition merits noting.

Unless you've completely memorised it, a late-game Thief level takes hours to complete. At least, they did for me when I was a plucky teen. I love how super-hard and organic the stealth is in this game.

And colour me genuinely impressed that the only problem people are reporting with the GoG release are indeo video codec problems. Congrats, GoG!

Hopefully the other two Thief games get a release soon. The second game is obviously stealth perfection. No game has ever bettered it. The third gets a lot of flack due to not being quite as good as the other two, but it still has its qualities. Rather famously, Kieron Gillen wrote a ten-page dissection of a single level of it for PC Gamer. And it actually got printed.

 

[epmode]

Yeah, Gold is a pretty major upgrade from the vanilla release. And I'm glad that I wasn't crazy when I couldn't find it on the DD sites a while back.

 

[Kuran]

I've been playing SSI's Ravenloft games. (Namely Stone Prophet) and they really, really, really deserve a place on GOG.

 

[mclem]

I've been playing SSI's Ravenloft games. (Namely Stone Prophet) and they really, really, really deserve a place on GOG.

I'm somewhat surprised they aren't already - they seem to have everything required now to release all those D&D titles. So much good stuff, too. Eye of the Beholder, Pools of Radiance, Ravenloft games, Dark Sun games, Dragonlance games, Unlimited Adventures...

 

[Hambone]

I might as well open my pockets and let GOG reach in, and take my money when they want to. Consider Thief Gold purchased when I get home.

Here's hoping Thief II is not far behind.

 

[Guerrillas in the Mist]

Rather famously, Kieron Gillen wrote a ten-page dissection of a single level of it for PC Gamer. And it actually got printed.

I remember reading that years ago. Still possibly the best piece of video game journalism I've read.

 

[walking fiend]

Holy fuck, Thief is available? HOLY FUCK!!!

GoG is now at a new level.

 

[mclem]

Holy fuck, Thief is available? HOLY FUCK!!!

GoG is now at a new level.

Honestly? GoG's been on the top level of awesome ever since the end of the Beta (and the utterly foolish shutdown...). The Beta closed in September 20, 2010; a year and a half (or so) ago. Since then, they've had:

Infinity Engine games, including Baldur's Gate 2 and Planescape Torment
Age of Wonders
DRM-free Witcher 2
Sierra adventures
Infocom adventures
Realms of the Haunting
The Last Express
A sneaky way to get around regional pricing/censorship (which they had to later revoke, but the intention's sound)
EA - Ultima, Alpha Centauri, Wing Commander, Crusader...
Rollercoaster Tycoon
Little Big Adventure
Square Enix/Eidos


...that's been quite a year (and a bit). And that's just the highlights that appeal to me!

 

[gabbo]

I'd give it a few days for the smoke to clear, these types of problems can either be isolated (maybe the user having trouble is just missing a codec of sort or something), or easy enough to fix and GOG will then update the .exe installer. I'm pretty hopeful this game will get a little more attention than average.

Will it be possible for them to roll the codec .dll fix into the installer? Already owning thief on cd means I can hold out until they get this thing running pristine out of the box

 

[charlequin]

Today's release is Thief Gold for $9.99.

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaay.

Another one bites the dust! At this point we're really getting down towards just System Shock, NOLF, and a giant pile of LucasArts titles in terms of "classic PC games that you can't legally buy anywhere."

 

[SparkTR]

Will it be possible for them to roll the codec .dll fix into the installer? Already owning thief on cd means I can hold out until they get this thing running pristine out of the box

They should roll in the DDFix as well, it's essential for playing the game on modern systems.

 

[Spectacular Dr Dawg]

Yes! I always wanted to play Thief. I hope they can get Soul Reaver and Anachronox up there.

 

[Lothars]

I've never played any of the Thief games but have always heard great things about them, This is considered purchased and I can only hope that Thief 2 is coming.

 

[Mimir]

Looks like Thief II should be coming soon:

No, my bad. It's the solution we used for Thief 2 but apparently not applicable for TG.
Right now, DDFix is the easiest way to bypass the bug but I'm looking into it.

 

[Of All Trades]

Does Gold modify the amount of gold required to finish a level when playing on Hard? I found that to be the one real flaw of Thief (don't remember if Thief 2 had the same problem) as I wound up spending far too long in some levels looking for some random bit of treasure. Particularly the undead ruins where things were scattered.

Alternatively if there's a way to mod down that requirement that'd be great.

 

[Suairyu]

Actually my one problem with all three thief games is that there aren't enough levels where you're doing some simple thief work. It all gets too conspiracy too quickly.

 

[JaseC]

Looks like Thief II should be coming soon:

Now give us Grim Fandango and System Shock 2 (ha ), for only then can I die a happy man.

 

[mclem]

Reading that thread: The Dark Engine Resolution Patch has an unfortunate acronym.