I noticed a lot of people giving this grief because there are a lot of DLCs for the game that don't come included with the base game. While I do agree that Paradox's DLC structure is pretty irritating, you need to know that the reviews calling the base game "unplayable" without DLCs is just unfair & dishonest. Yes, the DLCs add quite a bit to this game. I highly recommend grabbing most of them. However, in my experience, the base game is fully playable (and enjoyable) and the DLCs merely enhance the core experience. For example, a DLC like Way of Life is a great one to grab if you want more means of roleplaying. However, it's only necessary if you want to go really deep with the RPG mechanics. Others like The Reaper's Due are great if you want a harder challenge with added realism regarding death mechanics. The list goes on. So yes, the DLCs are absolutely recommended but I do not consider them to be requirements. I pumped close to 100 hours into the core game before I even considered buying DLCs. I think people get used to the experience with the DLCs and then forget that they don't HAVE to have them to enjoy the game, especially when the game itself is a freebie. Now, I'll briefly explain why I love this game. As an RPG fan, a royalty nerd & occasional scholar of medieval history, the Crusader Kings games allow me the opportunity to combine those into one really solid grand strategy game. Unlike most games in that genre, CK2 is mostly about building a dynasty, rather than an empire. Sometimes, building a strong dynasty with great connections is better than having a powerful military. You truly get to roleplay as a royal family and I find that extremely unique & enjoyable. At the end of the day, it's a free game. Is it perfect? No. Should some of the older DLCs be included with the base game? Yes. However, are they a requirement? Absolutely not. The core experience is enough to justify a $20 price tag but you get it for free. Why are you complaining about that?
It's nothing particularly crazy in and of itself. All this does is allow modders greater depth in the sorts of mods they can create. However, thanks to this, the mods the game is getting are essentially addressing every single gripe people had with the base game and then some. All you have to do is look up a video or two showcasing all the ways you can tweak the game to your liking and voila, you have the Cyberpunk 2077 that you (reasonably or unreasonably) expected. What's more is that, thanks to the way it works with Galaxy, you can quickly go right back to the vanilla game with the flip of a switch, without the need to do separate installations. I hope that companies like Bethesda take note for this, as it'd save everyone a LOT of headache if every game was this simple to mod. I've been playing and modding Bethesda's games since I was a kid and I can't tell you how many times a feature like this would have spared me hours of frustration when I really just wanted to play the game (with or without the mods). It's also great if you just wanted to start fresh and it means that nobody will be left waiting for mod updates when Phantom Liberty drops. So yeah, if you like the base game in any way, I highly recommend downloading this and taking a look at some of the awesome stuff the community has released so far!
The first Dishonored was a masterpiece blend of immersive sim & stealth gameplay, with its charmingly distinct "whalepunk" world and a literary-scale plot of revenge for an entire empire. Dishonored 2 picks up a few years after that story, where Emily Kaldwin is grown and on the throne of the Empire of the Isles, with the previous game's protagonist Corvo Attano being her protector & closest ally. You get to choose which character play as and each one of them has their own distinct playstyle. Corvo's abilities tend to take on a more direct approach to things whereas Emily's abilities are more about manipulating the environment and the people in it. In terms of gameplay, EVERYTHING was improved here. The controls are top-notch and never make you feel like your character isn't going where you want them to. The various forms of powers, combat and maneuverability are all smooth & fine-tuned. The way you, as the player, can interact with the environment is also amped up with greater opportunities than before. The thing I love most about this franchise is how you're always given the choice on whether you want to be stealthy, go in guns blazing or do a balance of the two. You never really feel forced to do one or the other. This makes for a really immersive... well, immersive sim, and it ensures that it remains a fun experience. Another awesome element of the franchise is its game world. Its late Victorian aesthetic, the technology powered by whale oil, even the Empire of the Isles itself: it's all superbly interesting and Dishonored 2 is no exception. While the first game had a better sense of atmosphere, this game's environments are absolutely gorgeous. This is aided by the fact that the game has some of the most beautiful, stylized graphics even by today's standards. My only real complaint is regarding the level design, where a few missions feel somewhat unfair. Other than that, Dishonored 2 is absolutely a worthy heir to the throne that the first game left behind!
I'm not necessarily against offering some goodies as paid options (though I preferred it when we got everything with the base purchase). That said, charging $25 for an art book? I don't know if GOG, the developers or both are responsible for that pricing but that is absolutely absurd. I doubt even hardcore fans of the game will pay that much. Either way, that's NOT acceptable.
I'm a fan of CDPR and have been since about late 2018 or so. While the rough launch of Cyberpunk definitely did harm the trust some had in them, I never really felt like they did anything that was worth abandoning them over. Sure, I was frustrated, but I knew they were still that consumer-friendly studio full of fellow gamers that they've always been. Are they perfect? Absolutely not, nor should we expect them (or anyone else) to be. Have they proven themselves to actually give a crap about us? Definitely. As such, any time I have the opportunity to thank them for generosity, even if it's for something as simple as giving us some extras related to their games (which sometimes gets locked behind a "deluxe edition", even here on GOG), I make sure that I give them credit where credit's due. If you love CDPR's games, this pack includes goodies that you can't get through owning their games on GOG. This includes exclusives like wallpapers for the Cyberpunk next-gen upgrade. However, if I'm not mistaken, it also includes some content that has been included in past goodie packs, so it's not 100% new. Even so, the existence of goodie packs on GOG -- whether for CDPR's games or from other studios -- is one of many reasons why this platform remains my favorite place to buy, play and talk about games. Getting this stuff for free, it just helps to add to the feeling of being a valued customer, almost like a thanks for sticking with the studio even when they went through a rough spot where everyone seemed to think they were the antichrist of gaming. For that, I thank CDPR in return. Thanks for sticking with your games, trying to improve them even when everyone seemed to be against you. Thanks for always trying YOUR best to give US amazing gaming experiences. As long as you keep making great games and keep trying to ensure we have great experiences with them, you'll always have my support.
It's funny, I literally JUST wrote a review for this game on Steam, only to see it came to GOG as well. I'm down with it, though, as I'll always take games on GOG over other platforms when given that choice! There's a high chance that if you have been on GOG for a while, you're part of the audience that'll absolutely adore this game. Many of us can agree that shooters from the early 2000s had a special spark to them that made them truly unique. That spark has, for the most part, been lost in the decades since. Perhaps it's nostalgia but I'm not so sure about that because even today, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory has that spark. This game comes from the era before tactical strikes, before battle royales, back when the goal was to be both fun AND believable. As such, this game has a fantastic blend of elements you'll find from both the arena shooter genre and some of the more objective-based elements present in later shooters. Combat itself feels slightly floaty like an arena shooter, but the map layouts and objective gameplay make you feel more like you're a soldier than an athlete in an arena. This blend is done so well and the result is that Enemy Territory is just a straight up FUN experience. Add to that the fact that it has countless custom maps and mods, as well as fully player-run servers, and you get a game that allows a lot of player freedom. Whether you play the more traditional objective-based maps or goofier maps like the legendary Cortex, you're always going to have fun and you'll never be lacking in choice on what sort of gameplay you want to get. Then, there are QoL mods such as ET Legacy, which help to bring the game up to speed with the modern age. No matter what, because it's open source, you can pretty much choose how to approach this game. To summarize, if you enjoy old school shooters, you really have to play this game. There really aren't any words to describe just how much of a blast it was to play this, both in LAN and online matches!
Ah, Skyrim... if you haven't played it yet, you've certainly heard countless stories and all the love that RPG and open world fans pour on this game. It's the game that defined an entire generation of open world games (including The Witcher 3). The Elder Scrolls franchise is outright legendary for its freeform gameplay and sandbox freedom and Skyrim took that freedom to new territory. Previous Elder Scrolls games were a bit more difficult as they were a lot closer to a tabletop RPG translated into digital form. Skyrim released as the series was gaining mainstream attention, however, so Bethesda streamlined a lot of elements to make things more accessible. Many of my fellow long-term fans were upset by this decision but personally, I thought it was fine. Because of this streamlining, players are able to just PLAY: play however they want and not have to worry too much about crafting their character build. While this did reduce replayability a bit, I've put over 1k hours into the game across all versions and I still find it thoroughly enjoyable. Skyrim takes place in a beautiful fantasy world inspired by ancient Norse culture and has a truly epic, world-shattering story... but you never even have to follow that story. You can play the full length of a normal game takes just by doing whatever you want to do. Want to be a soldier? Join up with one of the two military factions. A mage? The College of Winterhold. Want to just create a family man working a trade to provide for his loved ones? Also 100% viable. This series epitomizes the true meaning and potential of a roleplaying game and Skyrim is absolutely no different in that regard. This game truly has something for everyone, and that's just in the base game. The three DLCs add a lot more opportunity and many more hours to enjoy. Now that the game is DRM-free, none of my fellow GOGers have any reason to skip out on this game! If you like open world, sandbox games, you owe it to yourself to buy this ASAP!
Skyrim is often memed for its re-releases but let's be honest... this game is more than worth playing, no matter what. Because of the character limit, however, I have to be a bit brief. If you've never played Skyrim or an Elder Scrolls game before, imagine this: you complete an introductory quest that sets up the world and your character, and then you're released to do whatever you want. When I say "whatever", I mean it: the TES series is notorious for its unparalleled freedom to play how you want. The unofficial motto of the series is "live another life in another world" and that's spot on. Skyrim takes that freedom to new heights and it does so in a deeply intriguing, beautiful fantasy world inspired by ancient Norse/Viking culture. With a classless skill system, this game really does unleash your potential to do whatever you like with the game world, whether you want to follow the epic main quest, join a guild, roam the world as a freelancer or even set up a family and live as a tradesman; you are literally without limits. With the Special Edition, the now eleven year old game got a significant facelift, with better lighting & shaders and performance upgrades. More than that, though, it added cross-platform mod support through an in-game mod manager. It also received the much-maligned (unfairly, I might add) feature called Creation Club, wherein Bethesda partners with prominent modders to release official micro-DLCs to keep the game alive long-term. The Anniversary Edition upgrade, however, is where it's at. To celebrate the game's decade milestone last year, Bethesda released this upgrade so that players could get all of those Creation Club micro-DLCs in one purchase. As such, the Anniversary Edition is THE way to play the game as it adds so much more content on top of the base game and its three major DLCs. To top it off, it's now DRM-free, truly making it the final boss of Skyrim releases! Buy it ASAP if you enjoy open worlds and RPGs!
