How to game again?

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renswic

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OK today I picked up a gaming laptop today and honestly its been 10 or so years(stopped about the time steam took off) since Ive used a PC for games.

How does it work now, I've noticed that its nearly all digital any providers better then others? Games I plan on playing are Skyrim SE(and older Elder Scroll games) and Knights Of The Old Republic.

Laptop is a Asus ROG G771 running Windows 10
 
The last physical game I bought(Fallout 4) only came with about 1/3 of the game on a disc and the rest had to be downloaded form Steam, well in theory at least because it just downloaded the whole thing. So yeah, digital distribution is pretty much the way it works now.

Steam is the big one but you won't find any recent EA games on there because they're on Origin(EA's service) and some games can be bought on Steam or as Steam keys but require you use another client as well like Uplay for for Ubisoft games or Rockstar Games Social Club for Rockstar games, those games can usually also be bought for just the publishers client. GOG is another digital distro service that has mostly older games and CD Project Red(sister company) games, their claim to fame is DRM free games and they have a client you can use to download games or you can download standalone installers from the website.

There are many websites that sell keys for Steam and the other services, some are authorized and buy their keys from the publishers while others are grey market sites that often sell keys bought cheap in poor countries and sometimes have sold keys bought with stolen credit cards. Some good authorized sites I've used are Humble Bundle, Greenman Gaming, Gamersgate, Amazon, and Fanatical.
 
There are a bunch of different digital content providers, but Steam, Origin, GOG, Uplay, and Blizzard are the biggest players in that space. Steam is the largest by far and if you only want to use one it's the de-facto choice...although it does occasionally require side installs of Uplay and Origin for Ubi and EA franchises.
 
Most of us are stuck on Steam since we have large libraries and big investment there. If I was Starting fresh though, GoG would be the way to go. They're more player friendly, always opting for DRM free. Bringing back old DOS games to playable states. Things like that make you want them to succeed against the increasingly Apple like Valve.
 
EA Origin Access is a treasure trove for $30 a year or $5 a month with no minimum months for someone in your shoes.

https://www.origin.com/usa/en-us/store/origin-access

Basically any EA game over six months old and back to the beginning (think Dungeon Keeper or Command and Conquer through Battlefield 1) can be played for free through Orgins.

It’s fantastic for LAN parties. Pay $5 one time and get full access to 100+ mainstream EA titles for that whole month.

Other than that - Steam is my long time favorite. Steam’s annual summer sale started today — lots of good deals!!!
 
Conman said:
Most of us are stuck on Steam since we have large libraries and big investment there. If I was Starting fresh though, GoG would be the way to go. They're more player friendly, always opting for DRM free. Bringing back old DOS games to playable states. Things like that make you want them to succeed against the increasingly Apple like Valve.
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Couldn't agree more.
 
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Get Skyrim SE on Steam. (because you have to)

Get KotOR and the older Elder Scrolls on GoG.

Profit.
 
horrorshow said:
Get Skyrim SE on Steam. (because you have to)

Get KotOR and the older Elder Scrolls on GoG.

Profit.
Click to expand...

Thais the plan. Got Steam installed and setup. Will have to wait until next week for Skyrim(Hoping the sale is still on).

Set up GoG last night and have been enjoying the hell out of KOTOR 2(my favorite non console game of all time). Will grab KOTOR 1 and Oblivion as time passes as well.

Im rather liking the idea of digital only, no disks to lose or have destroyed by little ones
 
horrorshow said:
Get Skyrim SE on Steam. (because you have to)

Get KotOR and the older Elder Scrolls on GoG.

Profit.
Click to expand...
KotOR is good but don't waste your time Elder scrolls games. Get a good game like the Witcher 3 and thank me later.
 
vegeta535 said:
KotOR is good but don't waste your time Elder scrolls games. Get a good game like the Witcher 3 and thank me later.
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I may try it. Right now im about games ive missed and cant play on consoles(sorry but cpu is better for those)

Edit KNOTR for $4 on Steam, snagged it
 
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renswic said:
I may try it. Right now im about games ive missed and cant play on consoles(sorry but cpu is better for those)
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If your G771 is using a GTX 860M video card, you'd be WAY better of buying Skyrim: Legendary Edition instead of SE.

It'll run 3x better and you can mod it to look just as good as SE (if not better)

For reference, running Skyrim: SE is like running Fallout 4.... Which I guarantee you an 860M can't do.
 
horrorshow said:
If your G771 is using a GTX 860M video card, you'd be WAY better of buying Skyrim: Legendary Edition instead of SE.

It'll run 3x better and you can mod it to look just as good as SE (if not better)

For reference, running Skyrim: SE is like running Fallout 4.... Which I guarantee you an 860M can't do.
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Im used to PS4 versions, was assuming mods were se only as in the xbone and ps4?
 
renswic said:
Im used to PS4 versions, was assuming mods were se only as in the xbone and ps4?
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You don't need SE for mods on PC. I would head over to Skyrim Nexus* for mods and skip the steam workshop mods, the nexus mod manager makes it about as easy and unless things have changed drastically Nexus has more AND better mods.

*Skyrim SE Nexus for SE but I agree with the suggestion above.
 
Yeah, Skyrim: Legendary Edition is definitely the way to go considering your 860M graphics card.... (it's basically a GTX 650 ti)

www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/the-elder-scrolls-v-5-skyrim-legendary-edition-pc $13.39

Here's a quick and dirty list of essential mods to get you started:

(be sure to install the free High Resolution Texture Pack DLC first)

Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Patch
Unofficial Skyrim High Resolution Patch
SkyUI
SkyrimHD Texture Pack (I would recommend installing "Lite" considering your 860m)
HD Enhanced Terrain - Blended Version
A Quality World Map
Alternate Start - Live Another Life

FYI, don't worry, the High Resolution Texture Pack DLC and SkyrimHD play together just fine. (SkyrimHD overwrites the High Res DLC textures when applicable etc)

Once everything is installed, download LOOT and sort your load order.

Done. :)
 
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https://loot.github.io/


Conman said:
Most of us are stuck on Steam since we have large libraries and big investment there. If I was Starting fresh though, GoG would be the way to go. They're more player friendly, always opting for DRM free. Bringing back old DOS games to playable states. Things like that make you want them to succeed against the increasingly Apple like Valve.
Click to expand...
I would also recommend GoG over Steam with one caveat, Steam Workshop mods are only available on Steam (sometimes authors are nice and also upload elsewhere).
 
horrorshow said:
Yeah, Skyrim: Legendary Edition is definitely the way to go considering your 860M graphics card.... (it's basically a GTX 650 ti)

www.cdkeys.com/pc/games/the-elder-scrolls-v-5-skyrim-legendary-edition-pc $13.39

Here's a quick and dirty list of essential mods to get you started:

(be sure to install the free High Resolution Texture Pack DLC first)

Unofficial Skyrim Legendary Patch
Unofficial Skyrim High Resolution Patch
SkyUI
SkyrimHD Texture Pack (I would recommend installing "Lite" considering your 860m)
HD Enhanced Terrain - Blended Version
A Quality World Map
Alternate Start - Live Another Life

FYI, don't worry, the High Resolution Texture Pack DLC and SkyrimHD play together just fine. (SkyrimHD overwrites the High Res DLC textures when applicable etc)

Once everything is installed, download LOOT and sort your load order.

Done. :)
Click to expand...

Im looking forward to real mods after a few months of the PS4 ones that Sony nurfed to a 2gb limit. Any good quest related ones?
 
Falskaar
Beyond Skyrim: Bruma
Helgen Reborn
The Forgotten City
Undeath

That should get you started....
 
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renswic said:
Im looking forward to real mods after a few months of the PS4 ones that Sony nurfed to a 2gb limit. Any good quest related ones?
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I've used all of the quest mods shown in the image below - have a read up on them on https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition and see which ones - if any, appeal to you.

SkyrimSE_quest mods.jpg


...also in addition to the mods mentioned by horrorshow, I've also used "Sulfur and Fire - trial of mehrunes dagon "

Generally I look a mods based on number of endorsements on Nexus Mods. If people have taken the time to positively endorse something - it's usually not really bad. It might not be great either, or appeal to your tastes, but typically the highly endorsed mods are above average (as a minimum).

...enjoy :)
 
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muz_j said:
I've used all of the quest mods shown in the image below - have a read up on them on https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrimspecialedition and see which ones - if any, appeal to you.

View attachment 83780

...also in addition to the mods mentioned by horrorshow, I've also used "Sulfur and Fire - trial of mehrunes dagon "

Generally I look a mods based on number of endorsements on Nexus Mods. If people have taken the time to positively endorse something - it's usually not really bad. It might not be great either, or appeal to your tastes, but typically the highly endorsed mods are above average (as a minimum).

...enjoy :)
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Ill take a look. Having problems signing in. Been about 10 years since I used them for Oblivion mods, know my user name. Dont have access to any of the 3 emails I was using then, email sent to support pleading my case
 
Will the mods listed as speical edition work on the legendary edition?
 
renswic said:
OK today I picked up a gaming laptop today and honestly its been 10 or so years(stopped about the time steam took off) since Ive used a PC for games.

How does it work now, I've noticed that its nearly all digital any providers better then others? Games I plan on playing are Skyrim SE(and older Elder Scroll games) and Knights Of The Old Republic.

Laptop is a Asus ROG G771 running Windows 10
Click to expand...

I prefer Steam, mainly because of the ease of use and the Workshop. The Workshop provides a lot of extra content and customization for games I play: XCOM/XCOM2, Total Warhammer 1/2, etc.
 
Check cleared. Got the key for the legendary edition. Will install tonight when free from work.


Super excited to play too. The mods I've looked at look so much better then console
 
Welcome back to the fray! I've found that PC gaming is all around the most powerful, most enjoyable, and has the widest libraries spanning every genre from tiny indies, to AAA projects from massive studios, to unique crowdfunded endeavors!

As everyone has said these days the vast majority of games are digitally distributed on PC whereas even physical boxes you may purchase come with a game key inside to authorize download and bind to your account, no different than online purchase. Steam is the 800lb gorilla in the marketspace and "platform" to to speak, and its application is more than just a game store but also offers a wide variety of community features and other assets for users and developers alike. With a handful of exceptions, most games are released on Steam. If you have an old school Steam account from playing games more than 10 years ago you're in luck - it will still work for you so you can jump right back in. Steam also has some of the greatest ancellary features and has been instrumental in PC gaming development through tech like Steamworks (allowing devs to have access to achievements, multiplayer, and other features), Steam Workshop (integrated user-created content and mod support) and having created Steam clients for Mac and most notably of all Steam for Linux plus the SteamOS Linux distribution with a gaming focus. Some claim that "Steam has DRM" but this isn't necessarily true - there are many Steam titles that do not include any sort of DRM. However, Steam won't stop developers/publishers from adding their own DRM like SecuROM or Denuvo atop it ; this is usually noted on the game's page on Steam if 3rd party DRM is added.

Aside from Steam, GOG is the largest "general use" (as opposed to publisher specific) game store and platform out there. GOG, which is developed and maintained by the team behind The Witcher titles, started out as a place to sell "Good old games" testing them to work on modern OSes but subsequently started supporting new releases as well. One of their main features is that there is no DRM of any kind on their platform, so you will not see many titles from larger publishers that insist on DRM. There is the optional GOG Galaxy client to be used if you wish for automatic updates, community, and other "steam like" features. GOG has a lot of good features but as they are a totally different environment than Steam, most games only give a Steam key or a GOG key (or in some cases no GOG key option at alll). The biggest downside on GOG is that this means devs must separately update their GOG version of their title and in some cases there are limitations - for instance lack of multiplayer with Steam players of the same title and/or lack of Steam Workshop (ie Steam modding auto downloading and other features) support, which can make the GOG version feel inferior even when it commands the same price. This does not happen on all cases, but I would certainly be aware and its one thing that stops me from championing the platform as a true "Steam alternative" with parity features and experience. Hopefully in the future there will be more adoption of compatibility features between them.

Next come the publisher specific clients and storefronts. As the name suggests, these are places that focus on the content of one particular publisher and require their client to access it. Some of them also have games from other publishers available but I do NOT recommend buying them on any of these if they're also on Steam and/or GOG. Some of the best known here are Activision/Blizzard's "Battle Net" - which hosts Blizzard titles like Warcraft and Starcraft series and a few choice Activision titles like Destiny 2. As Blizz has always had their own independent launchers this is not a bad thing and they don't intrude or push other titles at least. Electronic Arts (EA) has their Origin client and Origin Access program discussed above; I personally wish they kept releasing their titles on Steam. Ubisoft's UPlay is something of a special case in that it is its own store with many keys for Ubi titles (ie Assassin's Creed, FarCry etc..) activating directly upon Uplay, however they also sell their same titles via Steam. Steam version of Ubi games still require and actually launch UPlay after launching the game on Steam! Uplay is noteworthy for being one of the most integrated platforms in that UPlay achievements award Points that can actually be redeemed for in-game content - a novel idea .It is worth noting that 3rd party key sellers typically sell the Uplay direct versions of Ubi game keys as opposed to Steam ones, but Uplay is used on any Ubi title no matter where it comes from. There are others who have self-contained platforms (ie Epic Games has a launcher that is mostly used for Unreal Engine stuff and their main title, Fortnite), which can be frustrating when there are so many incompatible, competing platforms. Many games do keep things stand alone, such as the crowdfunded MMO

Lastly, there are the various 3rd party vendors (plus indie devs who sell keys for their content directly on their website, be it activating locally or via Steam etc) that sell game keys. I'll use the term "key seller" here for any party that sells game keys that activate on other platforms or download directly. This market is a fantastic feature for PC gamers as it means lots of opportunities to get great games at huge sale prices - the kind of prices that rarely come to consoles! Most sites sell keys that activate on Steam because that's pretty much the dominant platform, but sometimes there are also keys that redeem on GOG, platform-specifics like Battle.Net / UPlay / Rockstar, or in some cases even offer direct downloads in addition. I highly suggest looking into the following sites...

HumbleBundle (Humble Store) https://www.humblebundle.com/ - The legendary bundle seller has launched their own key selling store! Frequent sales, even larger discounts for Humble Monthly subscribers (Want more info on Humble Monthly? check out my reviews and PM if you have any questions), and generally verified as a top tier site. Don't forget their Bundles too - they're still some of the best!

GreenManGaming - https://www.greenmangaming.com/ - Another great keyseller that often has major sale events, as well as frequent discount codes that are applied either store wide or on a few titles; larger, individual discounts are sent to those on their mailing list. This is somewhere you can usually get at least 20%-25% off new or even pre-order, big name titles! Definitely worth a look with frequency.

IsThereAnyDeal - https://isthereanydeal.com/ - This is an excellent comparison shopping site that shows deals on a wide variety of approved game key sellers, as well as active discount codes for them. Search by game, see what deals are at the top etc. Some of the sites I've already mentioned are included, but there are also many others.

"Assorted verified key sellers" - These are mostly sites listed on the previous ISAD site, Amazon, Razer Game Store, Fanatical, and others are all worth looking into. Just be very, very careful as some of these sell keys for other regions like the EU, so be sure when you're purchasing you're not just doing so in the currency of your choice, but also buying a key for your region. Likewise, if you're looking to get special edition or pre-order content be sure it is actually included in the listing, don't assume that just because you're pre-ordering from the site you'll get that content as some sites are basically buying keys locally in their home countries.

CDKeys - https://www.cdkeys.com/ - Key reseller. Sometimes has great deals and the keys are valid, but just be aware of what I said above in the "Assorted" listing (ie they have a lot of MMO game keys for EU region, so make sure you pick up something that says Global etc.) . There are many "unverified" key-resellers out there like CDKeys, who are not always purchasing directly from publishers but from other sources instead, sometimes thanks to global pricing discrepancies. The vary in "shiftiness" but CDKeys is one of the most long standing and reliable within this "grey-ish" market; single vendor resellers like them are often considered more secure than "marketplace" type sites.

G2A and Kinguin - " grey marketplace" type site, where any user can sell game keys for any game. Sometimes you can find inexpensive and high quality, valid keys here but you have to be smart and aware as occasionally some users try to be shifty and whatnot. Buying from sellers with high reputation ratings (an ebay/heatware style system of sorts) and/or electing to pay a little extra to G2A or Kinguin themselves for "insurance" in the case of a bad key can both help. Again be wary of keys that are non-Global or not in your region, but some purposefully buy them and then use a VPN to activate the game and retain big savings; this is an "advanced" procedure that should be heavily researched before attempt. Many do not feel tit is a good idea to support these types of sites, but I thought they should be mentioned for completion's sake.

So that's a general overview! There are specialized vendors as well (ie itch.io sells indies exclusively, some other sites do nothing but bundles like IndieRoyale), but generally that should more than get you started. Hope this will be somewhat helpful and feel free to ask any questions!
 
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The best solution would be to create an account on Steam and purchase them as they are on summer sale at the moment and one more thing once a gamer always be a gamer don't worry just start playing.
 
Xaeos said:
Welcome back to the fray! I've found that PC gaming is all around the most powerful, most enjoyable, and has the widest libraries spanning every genre from tiny indies, to AAA projects from massive studios, to unique crowdfunded endeavors!
<Snip>
.
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Wow great reply with a ton of good info, thanks thanks much.

Pretty much going to stick with Steam and GoG for now and use the CD key site(had no problems with the Skyrim LE key I got from there)



Been loving playing on a PC again. Did a quick play through of KOTOR 2 to get a feel for it and moved to Skyrim as soon as I had everything set up, with slight annoyance to the speeds of non premium nexus membership. Going through and DLing mods I'll want to try and trying a new style of build class.

The Forgotten City was awesome, one that I tried and quickly gave up on the xbone last year, also got a pirate ship for a house. Friggn loving it.
 
renswic said:
Wow great reply with a ton of good info, thanks thanks much.

Pretty much going to stick with Steam and GoG for now and use the CD key site(had no problems with the Skyrim LE key I got from there)



Been loving playing on a PC again. Did a quick play through of KOTOR 2 to get a feel for it and moved to Skyrim as soon as I had everything set up, with slight annoyance to the speeds of non premium nexus membership. Going through and DLing mods I'll want to try and trying a new style of build class.

The Forgotten City was awesome, one that I tried and quickly gave up on the xbone last year, also got a pirate ship for a house. Friggn loving it.
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Happy to help! . Sounds like you've got a handle on the mods situation with Nexus! Oh don't forget that they used to (not sure if they still do) have a "lifetime" premium membership for a one-time payment! It may be worth it if you plan to use NexusMods sites with any frequency, using the open-source NexusModManager for large downloads, etc..

If you are looking for any suggestions or have questions just let me know!
 
RanceJustice said:
Happy to help! . Sounds like you've got a handle on the mods situation with Nexus! Oh don't forget that they used to (not sure if they still do) have a "lifetime" premium membership for a one-time payment! It may be worth it if you plan to use NexusMods sites with any frequency, using the open-source NexusModManager for large downloads, etc..

If you are looking for any suggestions or have questions just let me know!
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Loving it so far. Hard to be leave ive delt with consoles for so long. Hopped on my Skyrim on the ps4 to see what a mod was(to find in pc) and holy crap long loading screens. Only big complaint I have is how massing a 17in gaming laptop is. Not much use outside of its stand other wise its been awesomeness.

Crowbar said:
Try humble monthly.
Quite good games for a modest fee.
Check out: https://hardforum.com/threads/humbl...-release-date-7-6-18.1963715/#post-1043738357

RanceJustice does an excellent job of reviewing humble's games!
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Ive been looking into it. Picky about games though so im slightly iffy about it
 
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