While I know that a good many people who visit VOG are already into PC gaming, this thread is mainly geared towards those that may be new to the community and/or may consider getting into PC gaming. While I won't profess to be an "expert" on PC gaming (folks like Bobby Blackwolf, Loki, & Skie know
way more than I do), I will, however, pass along what pertinent info along that will be most useful. Here goes nothing....
1) Like most modern consoles made by Sony or Microsoft, there are some PC equivalents to XBL or PSN (i.e. -providing network gameplay, a digital storefront, etc.). The biggest, best, most well known one is Steam (
www.steampowered.com). While it's ran by Valve - the people that have brought us The Orange Box - they do carry titles made by other publishers/devs. The 1 major reason why Steam is so big/popular with PC gamers is due to their massive, quarterly sales (one for each season). During these sales, it's common to see games discounted heavily.... 50%, 75%, 90%, or even 95%! You can even create a wishlist of games that you're interested in. This is helpful for 2 reasons. One being that if a wishlisted game goes on sale, you'll be notified via email. Additionally, on occaision there is a chance that someone on your friends list will see that a given game has been wishlisted & send it to you.
Aside from Steam, I recommend using Good Old Games (
www.gog.com) to suppliment things. While GOG isn't quite as good as Steam, it does have its advantages. First off, their games.media are DRM-free. For some people, DRM is a major problem. Secondly, while a good portion of GOG's games are also on Steam, on occasion there is an advantage to getting the GOG version - namely because GOG has the tendency to give out digital extras (such as soundtracks, artbooks, etc.) with games.
2) If you are going to buy games from services such as Steam or GOG, ideally you should wait for a sale. As I mentioned before, Steam's well known for their sales. If you hold off on your purchases until there's a sale, your gaming dollar will go much further. The
only time I'd buy something at full price is if you're preordering a game that you know for sure that you'll like
and there's some kind of incentive to preorder that you feel is worthwhile (like free DLC, a free soundtrack, etc.)
3) Make use of Humble Bundle (
www.humblebundle.com). Humble Bundle routinely collects money for misc. charities & in turn give out bundles of books, games, etc. as PBS-style thank you gifts. Typically there are multiple bundles going on concurrently, plus their store, so it helps to look around. Typically speaking, buying 1 of the various bundles is far cheaper than buying the games individually on Steam. Additionally, on occasion they have bundles that include games that you can't even buy via Steam. An example would be the relatively recent (from the time I type this) Neo Geo Bundle. While a few of the games could be redeemed/played via Steam, the vast majority weren't available through Steam. In that case, you just downloaded the games directly from Humble Bundle.
4) Finally, I suggest regularly visiting Epic Bundle (
www.epicbundle.com). This is essentially a deals news aggregate site. Whenever a service or website has a sale on games (or giving away games for that matter - & believe it or not, that happens more often than you'd think), Epic Bundle will write up a short post with any necessary links.
I hope that people will find this info useful. I will add more info when I can, but I ran out of time today to do so. Nonetheless, if anyone else in the VOG community with PC gaming experience would like to contribute to this, please, by all means, feel free to do so.
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