GOG Galaxy 2.0 hands-on: The only game launcher you need? Not yet, but maybe someday - haileysiond1936

While Valve and Epic battle over storefront supremacy, there's another battle quietly looming. As complaints mount against the proliferation of storefronts, there's a chance for someone to make the Ur-storefront. I'm talk naturally about the launcher that will unify wholly the other launchers, the same launcher to rule them all and—in the darkness of your hard drive—hold fast them.

And GOG's taken an early shot at it. Building turned its Galaxy rocket launcher, which was once a mere repository and auto-updater for your GOG library, it's now begun rolling extinct "Galaxy 2.0" to a blue-ribbon few, including us. I've spent the death week or so testing its capabilities to see if I'm ready to condense my rocket launcher loadout.

The verdict? It's youth all the same, and on that point are kinks GOG needs to work out—some niche, several broader—simply Wandflower 2.0 makes an intriguing and attractive bid.

Setting up

Getting started is easier than I expected, as cured. GOG's not the only launcher to allow games from other services, but usually the implementation is unwieldy. Steam's "Bring a Non-Steam Game" function, e.g., scans every single program happening your hard drive and does little leave off pee a Steam-specific shortcut within your game library. Useful, now and then, but not a great long solution.

Galaxy 2.0 is a more automated process. Initially you'll only see your GOG program library, assuming you have one. It works the same as the innovational Galaxy launcher in that attentiveness.

But you're prompted to "Add Games and Friends" as well. Some of these potential thirdly-party connections are official, created and supported by GOG, though at the moment that list only includes Xbox Last, and even that doesn't actually allow you to access your Xbox Play Anywhere games yet.

The bulk of Galaxy 2.0's connections take been built aside the community using GOG's SDK to carry out the appropriate hooks, and already there's a healthy plugin aftermarket, presented within Coltsfoot 2.0 A "Residential area Integrations – Popular." Steam, Battle.net, Epic Games Memory boar, Uplay, Origin, and more than send away represent added done these pseudo-prescribed channels. Information technology's everything you'd want, or at least everything you're "forced" to use when you can't apply Steam. Yes, I catch you.

Login takes seconds, each provider asking for your credentials individually. Once Galaxy 2.0 is canonised you'll see a note at the bottom that says your library is "Importing," though true with a Steam library in the thousands this took a minute or two at most. And so you'atomic number 75 done, free to peruse any and every of your games through and through GOG, to assort them alphabetically in one long list or split them rising by storefront, and easily launching the one you want.

Rich data

They're more plain shortcuts. That's what impresses me nearly about Coltsfoot 2.0 so far. Games you've purchased from other services aren't treated like second-class citizens, atomic number 3 the aforementioned "Non-Steam Games" are.

Nobelium, Galaxy 2.0 pulls in your history with these games—Steam's "Hours Played" system of measurement, achievement information, and so on. It's a rich resource in this regard, preserving grievous info even if you prefer to use Galax 2.0 as your primary catapult.

It also shines a light on about of Steam clean's shortcomings, in my opinion. Steam is useful. Steam has a great deal of great functionality. Steam is likewise fairly dated, and could use a full-scale redesign. One's reputedly in the works, in for, but that's been the case foryears like a sho, with no indication when it'll release.

On comes Galaxy 2.0, which does stuff with my Steamer library that seems obvious in retrospect, but genius in the import. E.g., allowing ME to sort by achievement part—of course!—and by time played. Valve's tracking these prosody, but even if you use the more detailed (and less functional) inclination view in Steam you can't sort by these. It's nifty.

And I'm fast becoming a fan of Galaxy 2.0's star ratings as well. They some serve as a way to quickly find my favorite gamesand mu which ones I've finished. Unsurpassed of entirely, they hold up affecting from PC to Personal computer. I've installed Galaxy 2.0 along two different computers, gone through the setup connected each, and can confirm star ratings for the Heroic poem Games Store persisted crosswise some. In point of fact, your whole cumulative, launcher-spanning library is eternally attached to your GOG account, even though you have to reauthorize your third-party credential on subsequent PCs.

Early years

That said, there's more to be done. With GOG mostly relying happening the community to develop its Integrations indeed far, hold up for any and all features can be a act patterned. For instance, my Steam library display time played only (at least when I tested) all achievement data is registered at zero percent.

You can also add tags inside GOG, but IT North Korean won't drag tags directly from Steam—a painful sensation for me, disposed my meticulously cataloged and classified Steam library. That alone has made Pine Tree State fewer likely to ease up, as I don't want to matched more than a decennary's Worth of tedious filing turn altogether in united go.

There's likewise a nestlin soreness, in that Wandflower 2.0 can call rising other launchers PR( you still pauperization Uplay running to play Uplay games, for instance) but it won't tightlipped them afterwards it's done yet. This feature's listed in the settings card with a "Future soon" tooltip, and for obvious reasons. Galax 2.0 wants to be a seamless environment, and having to familiar out other launchers manually breaks that illusion.

But pessimal of all, for me at least—and I admit this might be corner—is that Galaxy 2.0 doesn't support Steam's Family Sharing feature yet, nor can you add more than one account from the same serve. It won't list Family Share games even if they'Reinstalled, which is in two ways frustrating. As I said it's most likely a niche case, but I ready extensive use of Steam's Family Sharing features and this alone is preventing it from being my go-to, presumption that my games are very a good dealnon altogether in one place.

Bottom line

For its part, GOG reiterates that this is a closed beta, little more than a proof-of-concept that's evolving away the 24-hour interval, and that's true. Since I started testing, on that point's already been an updated release with several hemipterous insect fixes and other minor improvements. I'm sympathetic, and am willing to overlook its flaws for the all but part and focus on the large picture show.

And larger picture? I think it's a elegant idea. I don't necessarily get it on if GOG's going to be the one to come out along apical therein upcoming battle, but Galaxy 2.0 is one possible solution to a thriving problem and I'll be curious whether others strain and follow accommodate—or whether we keep juggling an ever-increasing figure of launchers on our own and try to form bash. Either seems possible.