PC Owners Thread

Steam is modifying its review system again. Now, games that were gifted to people don't count towards a game's overall score.

This has been met with rather critical response, as many people point out that they were gifted games by friends and thus aren't just promo copies that usually garner positive reviews.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/593110/announcements/detail/563352991934009789

I don't really have a problem with this. It takes away the score impact of games that were gifted by the developer for positive reviews and the people who gift games to their friends were probably a small enough percentage of the total sales that it isn't going to have much impact on overall scores anyways.

This stuff isn't going to matter for games like Fallout 4 that sell millions of copies. It might for those terrible games Jim Sterling talks about in his videos though. Those kinds of games aren't going to sell a ton of copies so a developer gifting copies for positive reviews can have a big impact on their average rating.
 
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My "physical" copy of Mass Effect Andromeda showed up today. I know a lot of companies are including a single, 8GB DVD with their physical releases even though the actual game is 50GB+ but EA isn't even doing that. This is literally an empty box with a download code in it. I guess it really isn't that much worse than other companies including a small fraction of the total install file since a substantial download is required in both situations though.

I don't actually care about this. I already downloaded the full game yesterday to play the Origin Access trial. I just thought it was funny. Even when I do get games that come with a single 8GB DVD like DOOM I still just enter my key and download the whole thing anyways. It's easier than installing part of it from the disc and then having to stop part way through and enter your key to download the rest. The only reason I even buy physical copies is because the 20% Amazon Prime discount doesn't apply to digital purchases.
 
EA has been doing this for a while. I agree it's weird to bother with the charade of a physical release if literally all you're doing is providing a code. The idea of still having a disc(s) was so that the user would install the game and then use the code to activate, whereas now its a code to activate AND install.

EA's not the only one doing this. Konami did something similar with MGS V when they shipped out a disc that just contained the Steam installer on it.
 
GOG Galaxy received a big update which appears to coincide with it coming out of Beta.

https://www.gog.com/galaxy

This sounds like a nice improvement. I have been using GOG Galaxy since The Witcher 3 came out even though it isn't required. It was mostly fine but it was missing some nice features that Steam has had for years. The big ones for me are cloud saves, screen shots, and the overlay.

When I first started playing The Witcher 3 I was disappointed that I couldn't take screen shots of the amazing looking landscapes in the game. Shadow Play didn't have this built in at the time either which seems crazy considering that it allowed you to record gameplay.

I also thought it was weird that GOG Galaxy had achievements but there was no notification system to let you know that you unlocked them. I would just sometimes notice that I unlocked a couple after I exited the game. The new overlay features should fix that.

Cloud saves have obvious benefits too.
 
With the Saints Row Games being on GoG now, it means that they are now eligible for the GOG Connect program, meaning you get a free GoG version if you own it on Steam. This includes 2,3,4, and GooH. Note that this is only good I think until next Tuesday, so hurry so you don't miss out.

https://www.gog.com/connect
 

I'm sure this is being done to cut down on the third party websites that are selling things in the form of Steam gifts. I constantly see people posting about being scammed when they pay for something and then don't receive the Steam gift they were promised. It makes total sense to me to cut down the gift system to people you are actually friends with on Steam instead of being able to send them to anyone with an email address.
 
FYI to everyone:

So the big joke used to be that Steam gift cards cost more on Amazon than what they were worth. However, it appears that this has been resolved and now cards are priced what they're worth. Handy if you have some Amazon credits that you want to convert to Steam credits.
 
So the new Creators Update has been unleashed upon us. Anyone noticing any weird behavior with their PCs?

For me, my audio devices drop down stopped working at one point. I had to reboot my machine.

Another issue is that now for some reason my networked PC isn't showing up in my networked devices. I can still access it by putting in the file path, but it's weird that it doesn't show up directly there anymore.

My Game DVR also got re-enabled. Had to shut that off manually.

All these issues were on my newer gaming PC.
 
Normally at E3 game companies will show off demonstrations of their games that never end up being what is actually released, even on the top of the line hardware. Doom 2016 gave a middle finger to that trend and actually showed IMPROVEMENT from E3 to release. In case I needed yet another reason to love my GOTY of 2016.

 
The developers of the new game Rime challenged people to try and crack their DRM, promising that if it was done that they'd remove it. 5 days later it was cracked and now has been removed.

https://www.engadget.com/2017/06/02/rime-drm-hackers-crack/?sr_source=Facebook

It should be noted that the PC version was marred with performance issues that were caused directly by the Denuovo DRM, once again leading to the question as to why we still are using using this crap.
 
Cool. Origin didn't bother me too much but that was mostly because I rarely play a game that requires it. It's nice to see them finally try to bring their client up to the level of their competition.
 
It appears that the Monthly Humble Bundle has also added a game subscription service similar to EA Access and Xbox Game Pass, where you'll get access to a bunch of games that you can play, on top of the games that are released every month. The selection is rather small to start, but they said it will grow over time.

It should be noted that the majority of these games starting off are "Humble Originals," meaning they're very low tech indie games. Doesn't mean they're BAD, but don't expect a buffet of top rate indie games to start with.

Humble Monthly Trove
 

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