what's a good online store that sell PC games and accept paypal?

Happy Hopping

Supreme [H]ardness
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Jul 1, 2004
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I normally buy the game that c/w CD / DVD. I am hoping if there is 1 on line retailer that sells most of them, so I can order it via paypal, and have them mail me the CD/ DVD

if not, I can go w/ an online retailer that allows download of the manufacturers' games, and accept paypal as payment.

I prefer not to go to each manufacturer's website, and buy them 1 at a time

any suggestion for a few names?
 
If you don't care about having the physical disks, most online stores take PayPal. Steam, Epic, GOG, etc.
Ditto with gray market resellers like CDKeys and GMG.
 
Games these days pretty much come to market as unfinished betas first that are rushed by the game developer’s upper management and the developers then are forced to finish up the really glaring bugs/issues via a continuing series of huge multi-gigabyte patch's that completely invalidate whatever game content there was on the original CD/DVD media.

That’s why I stopped buying games on physical media long ago - you are just buying something that needs to be completely gutted and replaced using downloads. Steam makes it much easier to just buy everything you want in one spot. Not saying to not be you and swim against the stream, just that there isn’t really a lot of choice out there for what you are looking for. Your best bet for an all in one site for physical media is Amazon... but then they don’t do PayPal. Good luck!
 
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Welcome to 2021 everything is digital for PC games just because the game is easier to update and distribute. Even Walmart sells empty boxes with codes in them.

The pros for digital distribution is stuff like refunds and cheaper prices for the consumer and updates.

If you really want hard copies if the game you can buy a PS5 but even that method is met with constant updates.
 
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Welcome to 2021 everything is digital for PC games just because the game is easier to update and distribute. Even Walmart sells empty boxes with codes in them.

The pros for digital distribution is stuff like refunds and cheaper prices for the consumer and updates.

If you really want hard copies if the game you can buy a PS5 but even that method is met with constant updates.
Pretty much this. Even if a game comes with a disk it's not going to contain all the game data on it. With game sizes the way they are now and Blu-ray not penetrating the PC market you're going to need to ship your games on up to 17 DVD. It would make more sense to ship on USB from both a cost and shipping perspective, but publishers get most of their sales from digital these days anyway so it's not financially prudent to do so.
 
well, I saw a game review at youtube, the guy bundled 5 games together in 1 review. And they are all old games, so if they don't c/w the DVD, that's fine. But I want to play it off the internet by myself. Doesn't Steam requires you to constantly login or play w/ their Steam software online or something like that?

Surely there must be a way to just buy or download the game and play it off line w/o any Steam software or 3rd party software
 
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well, I saw a game review at youtube, the guy bundled 5 games together in 1 review. And they are all old games, so if they don't c/w the DVD, that's fine. But I want to play it off the internet by myself. Doesn't Steam requires you to constantly login and play online or something like that?
No, you can play singleplayer games in offline mode just fine on Steam. You'll need to download them first, of course.
 

All digital goods are delivered via the Steam desktop application.​


Steam and your games will be available for download at the end of the purchase.

then what exactly is the above means? I don't want to download their steam desktop application.
 
If you don't want to install Steam (or similar services like Epic, Origin/EA, Battle.net, and so forth) you're going to struggle to play most modern games.
Indeed. Even the physical copies you get will require you to install the appropriate launcher, as that is what is used for DRM by most games these days.
 
There are very few games that don't require some sort of client these days. If you want to either manually download everything and install it manually, and/or have the option of using an (official) yet open source client I suggest - https://itch.io/ . They are pretty much only for indies, but they do a good job and some games purchased here even come with a Steam key as well. Personally I find Itch way better than GOG in certain ways (ie Linux support, FOSS client , among others). There are also some other circumstances such as Humble Store is a reseller of keys but sometimes, if a title offers an offline installer (usually only indies etc) it offers them as well. Also subscribers to Humble Choice get access to the "Trove" of direct download titles as welll.

Ultimately its going to be very, very hard to play major titles - especially AAA/AA ones - without using a client. Of all the 3rd party, general-use platforms/stores/clients I can easily make the case that Steam is by far the one that deserves your business in terms of policy , features, and more. Between Steam and Itch you'd have a lot covered there (optional - if you want to buy games from certain publishers like Ubisoft or Rockstar you'll need to use their clients. Even if you buy them on another platform that client launches their client etc), and you'll do even better if you use GreenManGaming, HumbleBundle / Store, Fanatical, and all the other "legit" key resellers (ie if the game is on Steam, you can buy the game on Steam itself, but in some cases you can also buy it on Humble, or GMG etc... who have different sales at different times) visible on IsThereAnyDeal you can end up saving a ton - I rarely if ever buy a game even on day 1 without at least a 20% discount!

If you'd like to discuss at further length just let me know, but things are quite different today. Many launchers are just exploitative or greedy with no real player benefit, but there is also a lot of misunderstanding of how things work. Best of luck ,but depending on what you want to play it will be hard to entirely avoid a client / launcher of some sort - without just resorting to cracked pirated titles for offline play!
 
So a lot have changed since the days of say Doom or Virtua Fighter 2 then. What's the purpose of having a client? What happens to the old days when you buy a CD and install it, and run it off the internet? As since I bought Virtua Fighter 2 for PC, I haven't bought any new games. And in the past 5 years, I play this game from Kings:



I have 400 more levels to go before it ends at 3950 for desktop PC.

So let's pick a game say Astebreed. What exactly is the step by step to Buy, install and play this game?

And from places like G2a.com, are they any good? they lure me to either buy it from a John Doe 3rd party dealer, or force me to buy it w/ something called "Buy With Plus"
 
So a lot have changed since the days of say Doom or Virtua Fighter 2 then. What's the purpose of having a client? What happens to the old days when you buy a CD and install it, and run it off the internet? As since I bought Virtua Fighter 2 for PC, I haven't bought any new games. And in the past 5 years, I play this game from Kings:



I have 400 more levels to go before it ends at 3950 for desktop PC.

So let's pick a game say Astebreed. What exactly is the step by step to Buy, install and play this game?

And from places like G2a.com, are they any good? they lure me to either buy it from a John Doe 3rd party dealer, or force me to buy it w/ something called "Buy With Plus"


Indeeed, much has changed. I'll get to the purpose of clients in a moment, but the old protocol of buying a disc, install, and run it offline is essentially defunct. The vast majority of game sales today are done digitally where you are either given a key for a platform like Steam (or Battle.net, Rockstart launcher, Ubisoft Connect, EA Origin, GOG etc..) which you register with an account on that service and then have permanent access to downloading the game and playing it, or you buy a key that is activated on the game's stand alone launcher/account directly (ie MMOs like Final Fantasy XIV or a title like Minecraft) ; rarely in the cases of some indies like those sold on Itch you buy access to the download for the latest game client , download and install/unzip and play. The vast majority of major titles though use some sort of client and have a "cd key" that you register upon it.

Its worth noting that a given game's features (ie multiplayer availability, support/ease of use for mods, game version or updates etc) MAY differ at times - generally I think leaning towards Steam is the way to go for most titles as it has the most comprehensive feature set and support. Its worth noting that a lot of people (and some stores) use "DRM-free" to mean "Direct download without a client", but that isn't necessarily accurate as there are many games that may use a launcher like Steam yet there is no DRM ; in many cases if you used Steam to install these titles you could go to its install location and launch the game from the executable. Likewise, there may be games where they "expect" to have Steam running etc.. but that isn't because of some DRM thing to keep you from playing it, its because the developers used Steam's multiplayer and other community aspects so they wouldn't have to build their own account system from scratch and code a multiplayer P2P or server based setup on their own etc. Its also possible to use Steam (and some but not all other launchers) in an "offline mode" that, so long as you registered the game's key and installed/launched once online so Steam can say 'Yep, this is a legit copy properly installed", you can then set Steam to offline mode and - barring online features of course - it works flawlessly. There's quite a bit more nuance to this and it might be confusing but let me know and I'll try to help . Ultimately, its a LOT easier if you're comfortable finding some launchers/platforms with which you are comfortable.

So a game like Astebreed. First, you have to figure out if the game is only available on one platform/launcher/store or if it is on multiple. As each platform is independent and keys purchased that register and unlock on one platform will not grant you access to the same game on another, its important to decide which is your preference. (Note: there ARE 3rd party open source launchers like PlayNite that don't take the place of official accounts or keys on things like Steam, GOG, Itch, Battle.Net etc... but are designed to act as a single place to launch them all. That's another topic though). So for Astebreed, the game is on Steam, GOG, or on the Humble Store it sells a version that is direct download (they call this DRM free but its as we discussed above) but does not come with a key for Steam or GOG (which is a little unusual given many titles on Humble or Itch with direct downloads also grant a Steam key as well). You can search for a title on a given platform via both a client if you have it installed, or via the website (ie doing this I found that Astebreed is NOT on Itch ) for instance. Here are a few links to the Astebreed page on each of the 3 platforms that support the game.


https://www.gog.com/game/astebreed
https://www.humblebundle.com/store/astebreed-definitive-edition

(note: the forum here pops Steam links out into a graphical representation of that page and its content as media)

Its worth noting a couple of things first, the Steam version has "Steam Trading Cards" under features which are a community feature (people can earn them by playing the game and use them to level up their Steam accounts, unlock customizations, and sometimes even sell rare one for real money on the Steam Marketplace!). You don't need to bother with this at all if you wish, but I thought i'd mention it as some find the wealth of community features Steam has to be quite desirable (they can range from things like Achivements and badges to cards to more important things like support for multiplayer, Steam Workshop support for modding and more). I mention this simply to contrast that by playing the same game on GOG or the direct download version via Humble you wouldn't unlock these cards - they're a function of registering a Steam key for the game. Next, you will probably notice that the price is WAY different on Steam at the moment , with a 75% discount taking it down to only $5! This is because of Steam's sales - lots of other platforms and 3rd party stores have their own sales at different times and they can be ways to get games at drastic discounts - even brand new ones!

Now , you could just purchase the game directly from either of these 3 storefronts and we could move onto installing, but before I do that lets talk about the other option - 3rd party "key seller" sites. These are sites that sell keys that activate on Steam or other platforms that will confer exactly the same game as if you purchased it directly, but often at a big discount - the main reason for purchasing elsewhere. You asked about G2A - it and sites like it such as Kinguin are "gray marketplace" key sellers where they allow 3rd parties to sell keys, ebay-style through their platform. Especially if you're "new" to this I'd stay away from them - there are some good deals out there but a lot of them are predicated on keys that may be out of region and may need a VPN to activate or play, not to mention some of the shadier things like people selling stolen keys that get blacklisted etc. They're not "bad" sites entirely but they do require a lot knowledge to deal with properly and I suggest staying away from them - these days, the deals for keys meant for developed regions like US / NA or EU etc... are usually no better on there vs other sellers. There are " gray direct" key sale sites too (like cdkeys dot com) that are much more reputable as you're dealing with a direct vendor not a whole host of 3rd parties - sometimes these can have deals but again, watch the labels for regions and compare prices. What you'll want to stick to for the most part are what I call "legit / authorized key sellers" - these are those that have a history of getting their keys by legit means including direct from the developers. These are sites like...

https://www.humblebundle.com/store
https://www.greenmangaming.com/
https://www.fanatical.com/en/

and others. They have their own sales and promos and clearly label what platform each key they sell supports (ie you'll see the Steam icon showing they'll selling a Steam key for a particular game etc). However, almost all of these "legit / authorized keysellers" are listed on a very helpful site called "Is There Any Deal?"

https://isthereanydeal.com/

ITAD collects all the various first and 3rd party legit vendors for a given game and keeps track of what was the biggest discount ever on a given title, what the biggest discount is currently, and what site it can be found at, among other things like if a game was included in a "bundle". Note that the site is not perfect - for instance, its Astebreed search page shows a difference between the Astebreed Definitive Edition (which it says can be found on Humble, GOG, or Fanatical ) but registers the Steam version separately as just "Astebreed" (despite the fact that it has been updated to the Definitive Edition when it arrived). However, ITAD is a great resource for finding game deals and gauging price changes overall, as well as providing a list of legit key vendors you can purchase from with confidence. Note that following links on ITAD to vendors usually give a commission/referral to ITAD, just so you know. Oh, ITAD also has a browser extension to provide pricing information - ITAD Everywhere is the small feature variant ( https://everywhere.isthereanydeal.com/ ) and Augmented Steam has even more ( https://augmentedsteam.com/ ) - both have Firefox and Chrome/ium addons and are all open source so you know they're not shady.

So now you have enough information to decide where you'd like to buy Astebreed Definitive Edition. Each store has their own checkout and you can use things like credit cards, paypal, and in some cases gift cards (Steam gift cards put cash in your account) to make your purchase. If you're buying from a 3rd party keyseller, what you'll have at the end is very much like the CD Keys you used to remember and often, a link to how to "activate" it , binding that key to your account on that platform. You can do this all on the web in most cases, as sites like Steam, GOG and the like usually have a "Redeem a game key/code" feature somewhere; many times you'll need to log into your account for that platform however, first. You will put the key into that redemption link (copy paste usually works) and are often given a "You're signed in as USER ACCOUNT X , are you sure you want to register GAME Y to this account?" dialog where when accepted, it is not bound to your account! Now, if you are buying directly from the platform owner like Steam or GOG, you won't need to copy a key anywhere - when you finish checkout it will register the game to your account used to make the purchase. In this particular case, I'd suggest buying direct from Steam as currently they have an extremely large discount on the title among other reasons.

Now you have the game purchased and associated with your account - time to play! It should go without saying that you'll need to have an account for Steam, GOG, Itch or whomever you'd be associating these keys ; you probably made one for purchasing or upon registering the keys. Each account works a little differently, but you can change things like display names , paswords, and email addresses, but some other things may be fixed ; just know that in general you'll want a single account for each of these platforms which will be the repository for all your games. In most cases, each major store/platform has their own client which is (mostly) required in order to download and play their games. There are also some where the clients are "optional, but may have less functionality if you don't use them" like GOG and Itch, and a handful of occasions where you'll just direct download the installer (which with the exception of either self-contained launchers like Minecraft or MMOs we discussed above, or indies/older titles manual install usually means less features and no support for things like automatic updates or cloud saves). So when you download a client of some sort ( Steam, GOG Galaxy, Itch ) you'll just need to install the client and then run it (it may self-update), giving you the chance to log-in with your platform account (ie Steam account) to which you either bought direct or registered the game key you picked up from a key seller.

Upon logging into the client you'll see a number of different elements, from things like accessing their related Stores, community features, configuration/options (some clients have some really impressive features, Steam has both an in-game overlay plus a system to allow you to play local multiplayer titles with people over the Internet, for example!) but if you're ready to play head over to the Library where you'll see all games registered to that account. In most cases this have tons of options for filtering and arranging your collection, but in general titles that are on your account but are not installed look one way (say, grayed out) and titles that are installed look different (brighter). Since you just bought Astebreed Definitive Edition, you'll need to click on it and then choose to Install it on this PC. Depending on your Internet speed it will take a little while to download and install the title,, but you'll see a progress percentage displayed next to the title's name. When it is ready, all you need to do is click Play and you're ready to go! If you chose to buy on Steam you'll be able to see a lot of game features in the library such as Achivements, and youll probably unlock a few Cards as you play over the first few hours ; most games support Cloud Saving meaning that your save games are backed up to Steam cloud so even if you uninstall you won't lose them without manual backup. Right clicking on the game's title will give several options including Properties (where you can see where it is installed, that the Steam Cloud is in use for save backup, among other features). The Library page will also show community stuff too, like screenshots, videos, and reviews that others playing Astebreed Definitive Edition have made , as well as info if any of your Steam friends have played it and the like. However, its just a matter of clicking "Play" when you're ready to go and when you're finished and quit, the (in this case Steam) client will back up your saves, and keep the game updated (Astebreed is older so it won't be getting lots of updates but for new titles or those in early access this is important - you can of course also turn this feature off and just have them notify of updates but only download when you desire).

So I know thats a giant wall of text but I hope it will help get you started. Have any questions or wish me to explain other things in more detail, let me know! Enjoy!
 
I haven't buy any game since Virtual Fighter 2

But after all these decades, i want to go back to it
 
I haven't buy any game since Virtual Fighter 2

But after all these decades, i want to go back to it

Are you this guy? https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/man-living-alone-on-island-to-leave-after-32-years/ar-BB1g3RMJ

You're going to have to accept the fact that a game launcher of some kind will need to be installed. Disc's are long gone. Steam is, very arguably, the cleanest/safest option but they don't carry everything. Welcome back to gaming, the waters a turbulent and murky.
 
On [H] since 2004 but isn't aware of how Steam works, something is fishy.
 
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