GOG is continuing to grow and is becoming more of a competitor to Valve's Steam service. While CD Projekt, maker of GOG, has some ways to topple Valve in the PC market, the company is also slowly gaining ground with new releases and good practices. It's a fantastic bit of kit for anyone who wants to purchase and play games using digital media, but without all the constraints that can come with DRM protection. All the games on GOG are DRM-free.
Making a start
Before we do anything, we'll need to install GOG Galaxy, the main client for GOG. Here's how to do that:
- Head to gog.com.
- Click "Download GOG Galaxy."
- Create an account while you wait for the download to finish.
- Run the downloaded installer file.
- Run GOG Galaxy.
- Log into your account.
Once you have everything set up and are logged into the client, you'll be greeted by the store page. Just like Steam, this is the default location the platform will send you to each time you visit. Take a moment to have a look around. If you find it familiar to the main website, you're not wrong. It is simply a wrapper, and everything works as you'd expect from using the official GOG website.
The suite is very easy to use. Store and Library tabs at the top take you to the main store and your personal game library, respectively. Titles listed on the left sidebar are installed and ready to play for convenient access. Lastly, your account name in the top-right allows you to access various social features in GOG Galaxy. Here you can set up your account profile and add friends.
As well as editing your information, it's also required to have a valid form of payment tied to your account, be it a credit card, debit card or PayPal. When you make purchases from the store, GOG Galaxy will ask which option you'd like to use to pay for everything in your cart. The client also makes use of wallet funds, which can be acquired by making purchases in local currency that doesn't match USD pricing (another great feature).
Handy tips for GOG fans
Kiss DRM goodbye
There's no need to have the client open to play games you've bought. You don't need to sign in or activate any offline mode, because everything can be run in offline already. Magic!
Enticing deals
GOG offers weekly deals on titles that will aid anyone looking to bolster their library without spending too much. Keep an eye out for discounts on the storefront or in marketing material. We also cover new games and promotions right here on Windows Central so be sure to remain tuned to our feeds.
Two steps forward
It's strongly recommended that you enable two-step authentication on your account to help keep everything safe and secure. It's easy to achieve this by clicking on your account name in the client and hitting "Settings & Privacy."
Connect all the things
GOG Connect is a service that allows you to add games from your Steam library to GOG. This relies on developers and publishers to allow for such a transfer to occur, but it is a handy tool to kickstart your collection.
