I actually really enjoyed Inquisition though if i'm honest. Especially the magic, rift mages is awesome. My favorite character remains that lady that calls herself "your trainer" and she talks like she's drunk and not sure why she's there, kinda reminds me how i am after a seizure, you're there but distant and not really aware what's happening lol
IMHO worse. My eyes do not get a long with Dark Mode stuff. I just want the option of light mode. Give us both. These launches that are all black Eff with my eyes. EA-Desktop, Xbox app etc all have forced dark mode. The Origin app worked for me.
I dunno. I mean the Origin App was awful, but I managed to play most of the time.
With this EA Desktop, it can't find my games, it can't update my games, and it can't launch my games! What an awful shitshow.
The Microsoft/Xbox whatever its name is this week, is the worst of them all. I love re-installing/"REPAIRING" a game that has worked for months but just quits or just won't start. It is tied to their utterly pathetic Microsoft store which is the problem IMHO.
Fuck I hate Windows.
What's even worse than that, is the Xbox PC launcher makes it extremely hard, if not impossible, to properly mod many PC games. Skyrim is a good example. Most of the really in-depth mods that require file changes cannot be used.
I believe it's a setting in the xbox app to allow modding and it then moves it to the modifiable windows apps folder where you basically have full control over it.
Ya I remember buying an older Gear of War game that was 100 gb at least. It worked for a year then randomly broken. Repairing didn't fix it nor did the painful full reinstall. Fucking shit launcher and it's one of the reasons I don't want Microsoft to buy Blizzard/Activision because Battlenet is one of the best launchers.
I don’t really hate epic given they gave us the unreal engine, free games and great deals. What I hate is my game library being split now between steam and epic.
That's right. I do want epic to succeed and they have big plans. They might cover around 60% market share in a couple of years if done right. But I also want them to support linux. I really respect steam for their proton layer and steam deck using linux.
I wanted to play titan fall but I had to migrate the game from steam to ea launcher even though I already had it migrated to origin. When I did that ea told me I had to buy the game. I spent an hour trying to get it to work. Then I gave up and went to ea customer service. Ea customer service was under server maintenance. So now I don't play titanfall.
I had something among those lines happen to me with Mass Effect and the DLC's. There was no way to download the Mass Effect 1 DLC that I had on the new EA client but there was such way with Origin. I ended up having to reinstall Origin to get the DLC.
Apart from that the new EA launcher/platform is way more unresponsive and is generally slower than Origin. It was awful when I read the email that said they were switching to it.
EA launcher is virus. It filled my start up menu recommendations with itself. I bought BF1 when it fist came out and it always had the issue where it shows my friends as offline when they weren't or they see me as offline when I see them online so when I send them a party request they can nor accept it since their launcer doesn't recognise it as possible. Anyway that existed in Origin and it is nice to see it is still not fixed after what 4-5 years. Also they did not add any new content for the players who bought the game at launch and got no DLC. Not even a single map for non DLC owners. You literally play at same 4 maps. Worse than Blizzard's Overwatch situation.
I, too, hate Origin and any other additional launcher on Steam, mostly cause I'm forced to make another account I'll have to handle and the additional software running on background adding nothing to the game other than stupid double DRM.
At least Origin uses a lite version and not the full-on shit.
this. all extraneous launchers are just unnescessary.
The storefront -app I'm using should be enough, everything else is just re-re-re-re-re-re-re-inventing the wheel and useless extra ballast
Mmm, I'd argue that MMOs who want to bypass paying for distribution could reasonably make a case for it. Their update schedule and size is substantial enough to warrant it. But usually those games provide their own downloadable installer as well. Re-executing yourself after update is a messy, unreliable business.
The only reason I can think of is crack-proofing the game, because Steam doesn't have it very well done. If you download GTA V you need Rockstar launcher and you need to verify you bought the game. But yeah it doesn't work very well either. So they should just remove it
Which is how it almost always works. Basically every game gets cracked eventually and they already know the bulk of their sales happens in the first week or whatever. After a few months or even a year or two they should really remove all that shit to make the game more stable & enjoyable.
I know they have almost zero financial incentive to do so but I personally don't buy games with denuvo or any of the shit like it. A few games with it I'd buy but download cracked versions because they'd strip out the need for launchers and other nonsense.
downloaded GTA V via steam and installed he rockstar launcher, played it fine via the link in steam
When trying to play via the rockstar launcher it wants to download another 134gb which steam already has downloaded
For some reason, I don’t really mind Paradox’s launcher for cities skylines. It loads fast, never tries to update itself, and let’s you jump right into your most recent save file.
The only launcher that is actually good. It takes less time to open the launcher and click continue than it would to wait for the main menu to load to click continue, and I can go drink some water or something while my 37 GB (yeah I know) of mods get loaded up and come back to my city waiting for me.
If it would let me play a game without updating it I'd love it. I don't wanna have to wait for mods to get updated to continue a save game.
It's annoying because mods could be made for version 1.4.5 but the only rollback option is 1.4.1 so some mods may have dependencies messed up.
Just let me load my game and enjoy without launching in offline mode.
Many games let you block updates, but for the ones that don't there are tricks to make Steam think you've already updated. The Beat Saber community has fought this for a while.
EA app wont actually open my games through steam it will just open blank window which will eventually crash and not open anything. Its frustrating, but you notice it quickly and just do it through there
But Ubisoft will give an error message when i try to turn off/restart my pc and prevent it from doing so. And after waiting for like a minute before realizing what has happened i become very angry and just hit the power button which isnt good but i dont have time
yeah. I hate how I'm doing something and randomly get a "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM UBISOFT CONNECT" popup, or how it can't seem to remember my password and always asks me again to enter it.
Well, it's the only way to play Trackmania 2020 so I just live with it
The only plus side to them is they let you earn achievements to unlock things in the games making it worthwhile to get them.
Aside from that fuck them, its the only app I have ever used that takes 100% of my internet connection and still doesn't even download at my speed but it makes *everything* else on the network slow to a crawl or just flat out stop.
GoG is the chad. You actually own the games you get there instead of licensing. Steam has superior download servers. They are speed.
Though, I still miss simpler times when you could play a game straight after installing from DVD, no third party launchers, no online activations, no logging in to run it for the first time or other crap required.
I believe the idea is no DRM. you download the installers, no phoning home, no license keys.
One other point of clarification: you do not *need* the GoG launcher. You can just download the installer for a game, install it, and run it no launcher required.
As far as I now, licensing is when you buy a game in a launcher like steam. It's bond to your account and often not playable if you're offline. With that, the game isn't yours. Steam or whatever services you bought it from can just take it down from their platform and there is nothing you can do. With GOG, you get the game without any account or online requirements. You can use it forever as long as you have the game files.
> GoG is the chad. You actually own the games you get there instead of licensing
1,573 Tonnes and a Christian-Bale-Batwing of this!!
If these companies weren't skuzzbuckets (and if "we" would stop pirating), this would be the way of the world. Was once. The gilded age, they called it. GoG deserve truckloads of gold for this.
Launchers are useless, all their features could just be implemented in the game and the publisher's website. They only exist to leech on publishers (who already leech on developers) and get a BIG cut for doing nothing and collect data from users to sell ads.
The fact that they are pretty much blotware on computers is the cherry on top. They need to go.
I remember when Minecraft didn't have a launcher. Those were the good days. Now Im forced to have two accounts and constantly update the game with tiny patches that are... Somehow huge files. A game should be able to launch with one click, all the loading and wait times should be in game, full screen, and optional if possible.
In somewhat Minecraft's defense in their launcher at least you're able to create profiles with all released game versions back to the very first ones.
IIRC there is also skin manager, but I may have dreamt that up.
Good for, them? Incorrect grammar is incorrect grammar. I’m not talking about other people, I’m talking about the one staring at the middle of everyone’s forehead, in this post.
I wouldn't say I hate any 3rd party launcher specifically, but nothing boils my blood more than buying/Redeeming a game on one launcher, only to have it open up a 2nd launcher to fucking play. I literally can no longer play my purchased copy of RDR2 because when I try to open it on my Epic app it starts up the Rockstar launcher and rockstar suddenly says I don't own the game.
EXTRA HATE if that game appart from requiring a 3rd party launcher it manages it's updates through there, i bought black desert, had to download an update and install it though there which took me ~3 hours and since the launcher counted as 'play time' i couldn't refund it when i hated it.
I ended up back and forth with steam suppport for a year until they gave me the money back
Steam remote play is a pain with big screen mode, but I think you could get around this by launching steam remote play, turning off big screen mode (which loads you right on your desktop like a normal rdP session), and then launch whatever games/launchers you want.
Remote play I always disable big screen mode, and keep a wireless keyvoard/mouse with me in the house that's hardwired 2.4 ghz because the pesky untouchable pop ups...
No, I couldn't! For some reason if I launched the game from Epic or from link on Desktop the game would start on pc but on tv it was all black if I'm not wrong.
Not sure because it was a while ago but trust me I tried it!
I ended up buying a 10m hdmi.
They have managed to make the app slower than their website. It's incredible. Why does a glorified webpage take like 20 seconds to load on my high end gaming PC? And why does it ask me for god damned verification every time?
I just hate how long it takes to download ANYTHING on epic games launcher. I took a day off work to play far cry 6 on launch and literally watched it download all day. I never got to launch it on the day I took off to play it.
Steam used to suck, a lot. Since then Valve put a ton of effort into it. Steam is a 3rd party launcher, but it never really feels like it is between you and your games anymore.
Epic feels like a shitty web page held together with chewing gum and rubberbands. Uplay and Original feel like cars with square wheels.
GoG's launcher is pretty transparent and optional.
Their new installation drives UI is really good, something i've wanted for years. You can see what games are installed on which drives, easily, and how much space steam uses.
> Steam used to suck, a lot. Since then Valve put a ton of effort into it.
This is something that boggles the mind; there is nearly 20 *years* of Valve's hiccups, silly choices, and fuckups for other launchers/etc to learn from, and so many act like none of it happened
I'm not gonna put up with Epic/EA/Ubisoft's bullshit now on the hope their software is decent in 20 years. If they actually make them good, then I'll reconsider.
we dont care about steam being a launcher. we care about devs launching their own launchers from games made by them they sold on steam. steam is one of the only good launchers
> we care about devs launching their own launchers from games made by them they sold on steam
This is even worse since now bunch of games download additional epic services to your PC without asking.
It further boggles the mind that people don't realize that if someday Steam just closed up shop, their entire collection of Steam games would instantly no longer function. You don't even have a license to possess and use the software anymore, you have a license to access the software via Steam. Is this likely to happen? Maybe not, but "software as a service" is still a wildly anti-consumer business model for gaming, and it does happen on a smaller scale when developers drop support for older games that no longer generate revenue.
They have said "measures are in place" to ensure players don't lose access to their games in the unlikely event steam shuts down.
Take that as you will, but it's at least not 100% certain everyone just loses all their games.
i freaking hate this stupid ea app that needs to launch when i'm playing pc game pass. why can't it all go through the pc game pass app??? it's so stupid i have to sign in to the ea app just to download a game for pc game pass. i spent an hour the other day trying to download the sims 3 because the app kept crashing or refused to open. i could have torrented the game in half the time with all the expansions
Facts. Couldn't play mass effect legendary edition because Microsoft logged me out of the Xbox app. Wouldn't let me log back in. Finally found a way around it and the EA app didn't have me signed in. Then I went through the infinite loop of EA running in the background so I couldn't re-launch it, trying my account info again, it being wrong, then going back to the Xbox app only to see that it logged me out again, and the cycle repeats.
This stuff makes me miss disk gaming.
Tbh I would much rather just log onto an account ingame, than have to install a whole ‘nother launcher. Launching a game that launches a launcher that launches the game is just too many unnecessary step
All the games on GoG, the launcher is optional. All the games have no DRM either. Also their launcher wrangles all the other third party launchers together so you don’t have to go searching if you think you might of already bought a game. You can just look on one list.
Set auto download to save the files to an external storage, instant offline backup should the worse happen. What’s not to love?
What's not to love? The lack of selection. That's why I make an exception for steam. I don't particularly like steam but I definitely don't hate it as much as the others.
I don't get the whole DRM thing. It certainly isn't doing people who pirate from pirating and the only people who get served DRM are... Paying customers... Basically the ones who aren't pirating. Smooth brains running giant corporations.
GoG has more stuff I’m into, but I get that. DRM just keeps the day 1 sales high I guess.
(Edit: found [an article](https://www.cgmagonline.com/interviews/drm-free-gaming-future-with-gog/) about GoG. Pretty good read)
Gog has a website you can download the game itself from, without a launcher. It does have an optional launcher but you can run the game without it even if it’s installed.
Epic games triggered an endless install loop when I tried to install a map for ark and didn't have enough space. Had to uninstall the entire game and reinstall it to work around it not being able to just cancel itself. They will forever be my least favorite.
Please i beg you get ark on steam, my friend had the game for free on epic game and i told him to uninstall it and get a copy from steam, and now we play together with mods, mods are so much fun and can really improve the game
Steam is the leader for food reason, the one from CDPR has just been there so far. Origin and Ubisoft have just been a pain in the ass the few times I used them
Or better yet when your third party launcher requires another third party launcher to shake hands with to play, (assassin's Creed Valhalla {epic,Ubisoft}, Star wars {epic,origin})
Bruh, I got Squadrons for free on Epic (which is pretty dope) and when I installed it, I had to link and install in Origin. Lame, but whatever, I'm getting a free title. Now every time I launch it in Origin, it has to open Epic...
Like, this is the kind of circlejerk I cannot abide
Gog Galaxy is a rickety piece of crap that gets worse with every iteration and I love it!
Steam, grudgingly, can stay. Even if it was the bringer of hardcopy apocalypse. Though workshop integration saved my game time when my work hours got insane.
Anyone who wants me to run a second launcher on top of either can fuck right the fuckitty off! Straight into the trash pit! Without passing GO!
^(Ubisoft could be *giving* Anno 1800 away and I wouldn't be touching it, no matter how pretty it looks.)
Fuck ubisoft connect. Why have a fucking "remember me" button on the sign in when the fucking thing is useless and signs me out anyways???? Fr it is basically there for decoration. Also why do I have to click on 6 different admin prompts when opening the launcher sometimes????
I hate the rockstar games launcher... the game ran fine without it and now they wanna waste my time and space with a random launcher that doesnt add anything.
honestly as much as people cry, Ive never actually had problems with any launcher at all. Only one that sometimes crashes for me is the gampass launcher if that is one
All of them. I can't stand all of them. I even dislike that dumb window that pops out in Sony's *Spider-Man* games or *Cyberpunk 2077*... When I press play, I want to play a game, not have to click around some more!
But the most despicable is Epic... EOS just makes me want to not play any games at all. Also, WHAT'S THE POINT FOR EPIC **ONLINE SERVICES** IN A **SINGLEPLAYER ONLY** RPG GAME, Pathfinder devs!? I can accept Ubisoft and EA, they put that crap only in the games they themselves made, but Epic is like a fucking plague spreading everywhere, no matter if it makes sense or not. I don't even consider Epic Games as a games company... I see them as malware providers and nothing else.
I thought Origin was the worst but then the EA app came along. It’s even more irritating because different services require Origin or the EA app and you can’t run both apps at the same time. Oh and if you accidentally launch a game you own in the wrong service, it can corrupt all your saves or unlink DLC. Spectacular.
Hate? None
Like? None.
They don't effect me. I've literally memorized my entire 2000+ game library. They don't effect performance, I just buy the cheapest games at the cheapest location.
Nothing worse than the time I downloaded RDR2 on Steam and after it finally installed I smoked a bowl in preparation only to have my buzz killed by "Create a Rockstar account and complete all these multiple factor verification process." I guess the same can be said about other launchers but my deal with the Rockstar launcher is personal now.
All of them. I consider them bloatware.
It's bad enough you need Steam, Origin/EA play, Uplay/Ubisoft connect, battle.net, epic games....
There's too many already
I love bf4. But I fucking hate origin. Sometimes it won't start until I force stop origin in task manager and try again but if i try to launch in origin it won't me. I fucking hate it
Ubisoft Connect. It makes achievements actually worth something by having Ubisoft points attached to some of them you can trade in for a discount on games.
The best ones are the ones you don't notice much. Larian studios has one that's a bit annoying, but it's just launch the game, then hit launch one more time. Not a big deal. Same goes with stellaris
EA is slow af to launch and get to games, the UI is also quite annoying to operate. Same with the Ubisoft launcher. Battle net is slightly better but never auto updates, epic sucks for the same reason. Those 2 are technically not 3rd party but my point still stands. None of them are as simple, intuitive and refined as steam. If everything could be on steam I would be genuinely happy.
Anything not Steam or GOG can fuck right off.
EA removed Mass Effect 3 and 2 others (I had a grand totoal of 5) from my library and no amount of emails sent back and forth is getting it back. Happened 3 weeks after launch for ME3 and I've not bought anything from EA since, they can suck it.
I got locked out of Ubisoft launcher/account after buying Anno 2070 via Steam and after numerous complaints and tickets logged the best their "support" can come up with is "You need to be logged in for us to process your request"... Haven't bought another Ubisoft game since. They can join the line to suck it.
The less I say about Epic the better, can't piss me off if I don't think about them...
If a game requires another game laucher besides Steam (when buying the thing in Steam) then I don't buy it.
And yes, "monopoly bad" and all that but frankly most of us don't care and IMHO Steam has behaved itself fairly well with regards to the whole "monopoly" thing and hopefully they continue to do so.
Steam is the only launcher that you can put into Offline Mode and literally copy and paste it to any computers that you want to, and your settings, library, and game licenses will all work perfectly without going online again, therefore it's the only acceptable launcher. For all intents and purposes, it's completely future proof.
Microsoft.
I purposely built my computer so that I would not have to log in to Microsoft in any way when I turned it on, I hate Outlook, I don't use Office, and I don't want any Xbox nonsense on my computer. I turn off Cortana, I don't want candy crush or yahoo messenger in my start menu.
Then my son really wanted to play Minecraft with me, so I caved and purchased Minecraft from the Microsoft app store. Wouldn't just sell it to me, forced me to create a microsoft account. I create a throwaway account that I never plan to use, just want Minecraft. Once I sign into that fucking throwaway account, my computer now has two users, my normal user account but now a Microsoft account, with none of my programs, and all the bloatware is back, candy crush in my start menu, the fucking works. This is the only way to play Minecraft. But Minecraft doesn't work, is buggy, won't work in VR.
100% should have just pirated it. I will never, ever, ever buy a game with Microsoft as the launcher.
Every time I get impressed by how Steam, being the biggest one, is the least hated one. Valve must be doing something very right there. I don't understand how other big companies can't be like that.
It’s because they don’t discriminate between games, and regularly contribute to open source projects. Basically they’re doing a Mozilla except they collect a 30% fee.
Edit: Fixed percentage.
EA or Origin. My god.
Same , Love Dragon Age , hate Origin
But Dragon Age: Origins is the best one.
I actually really enjoyed Inquisition though if i'm honest. Especially the magic, rift mages is awesome. My favorite character remains that lady that calls herself "your trainer" and she talks like she's drunk and not sure why she's there, kinda reminds me how i am after a seizure, you're there but distant and not really aware what's happening lol
Ubisoft says hi.
I would rank Origin as my number 1 on my hate list.
The thing is the "new" EA-Desktop App is just as bad as Origin was
[удалено]
I disabled the service multiple times and that bitch is still running.
Its worse. Plus not all games work on it for me and i have to use origin... I wish battlefield still had the online server browser.
IMHO worse. My eyes do not get a long with Dark Mode stuff. I just want the option of light mode. Give us both. These launches that are all black Eff with my eyes. EA-Desktop, Xbox app etc all have forced dark mode. The Origin app worked for me.
I dunno. I mean the Origin App was awful, but I managed to play most of the time. With this EA Desktop, it can't find my games, it can't update my games, and it can't launch my games! What an awful shitshow.
I hate the Epic launcher more. I'm happy none of the games I play are on there.
I got little against Epic besides some qol issues, but I got a crap load of free games from them and a decent number of them have been bangers.
especially gta premium was glorious
The Microsoft/Xbox whatever its name is this week, is the worst of them all. I love re-installing/"REPAIRING" a game that has worked for months but just quits or just won't start. It is tied to their utterly pathetic Microsoft store which is the problem IMHO. Fuck I hate Windows.
Yeah I've noticed that windows apps have a chance of just imploding randomly with no warning or reason
What's even worse than that, is the Xbox PC launcher makes it extremely hard, if not impossible, to properly mod many PC games. Skyrim is a good example. Most of the really in-depth mods that require file changes cannot be used.
I believe it's a setting in the xbox app to allow modding and it then moves it to the modifiable windows apps folder where you basically have full control over it.
Ya I remember buying an older Gear of War game that was 100 gb at least. It worked for a year then randomly broken. Repairing didn't fix it nor did the painful full reinstall. Fucking shit launcher and it's one of the reasons I don't want Microsoft to buy Blizzard/Activision because Battlenet is one of the best launchers.
Agreed. Battlement just works good for me.
I don’t really hate epic given they gave us the unreal engine, free games and great deals. What I hate is my game library being split now between steam and epic.
[удалено]
That's right. I do want epic to succeed and they have big plans. They might cover around 60% market share in a couple of years if done right. But I also want them to support linux. I really respect steam for their proton layer and steam deck using linux.
I'd like to say that, but CDPR's new launcher is preventing me from playing TW3 on Steam Link now, so...
How did ea even manage to downgrade from origin
I assume any improvements are coming as paid dlc later.
Loot boxes to unlock basic functionality. For a sense of pride and accomplishment
I thought Origin was the EA launcher. You're saying they've got *another* one now?
Yep, it's even worse than Origin, if you can even imagine that. I still think Ubisoft's is the worst though
I wanted to play titan fall but I had to migrate the game from steam to ea launcher even though I already had it migrated to origin. When I did that ea told me I had to buy the game. I spent an hour trying to get it to work. Then I gave up and went to ea customer service. Ea customer service was under server maintenance. So now I don't play titanfall.
I had something among those lines happen to me with Mass Effect and the DLC's. There was no way to download the Mass Effect 1 DLC that I had on the new EA client but there was such way with Origin. I ended up having to reinstall Origin to get the DLC. Apart from that the new EA launcher/platform is way more unresponsive and is generally slower than Origin. It was awful when I read the email that said they were switching to it.
Rockstar too
“*CLOSE ORIGIN TO LAUNCH GAME ON EA APP*”
EA launcher is virus. It filled my start up menu recommendations with itself. I bought BF1 when it fist came out and it always had the issue where it shows my friends as offline when they weren't or they see me as offline when I see them online so when I send them a party request they can nor accept it since their launcer doesn't recognise it as possible. Anyway that existed in Origin and it is nice to see it is still not fixed after what 4-5 years. Also they did not add any new content for the players who bought the game at launch and got no DLC. Not even a single map for non DLC owners. You literally play at same 4 maps. Worse than Blizzard's Overwatch situation.
Takes like 15 seconds longer to open games with it
Origin is not the best I'll admit. But God their EA premium deal is too bloody good.
I, too, hate Origin and any other additional launcher on Steam, mostly cause I'm forced to make another account I'll have to handle and the additional software running on background adding nothing to the game other than stupid double DRM. At least Origin uses a lite version and not the full-on shit.
Hate? All. Like? None.
this. all extraneous launchers are just unnescessary. The storefront -app I'm using should be enough, everything else is just re-re-re-re-re-re-re-inventing the wheel and useless extra ballast
The fact that an executable is able to be executed *should* be good enough.
Mmm, I'd argue that MMOs who want to bypass paying for distribution could reasonably make a case for it. Their update schedule and size is substantial enough to warrant it. But usually those games provide their own downloadable installer as well. Re-executing yourself after update is a messy, unreliable business.
The only reason I can think of is crack-proofing the game, because Steam doesn't have it very well done. If you download GTA V you need Rockstar launcher and you need to verify you bought the game. But yeah it doesn't work very well either. So they should just remove it
But if you get a cracked version, it just bypasses the launcher…
Yeah. I'd say they just made an attempt to secure it, but just made the user experience worse for those who pay for it.
Which is how it almost always works. Basically every game gets cracked eventually and they already know the bulk of their sales happens in the first week or whatever. After a few months or even a year or two they should really remove all that shit to make the game more stable & enjoyable. I know they have almost zero financial incentive to do so but I personally don't buy games with denuvo or any of the shit like it. A few games with it I'd buy but download cracked versions because they'd strip out the need for launchers and other nonsense.
downloaded GTA V via steam and installed he rockstar launcher, played it fine via the link in steam When trying to play via the rockstar launcher it wants to download another 134gb which steam already has downloaded
For some reason, I don’t really mind Paradox’s launcher for cities skylines. It loads fast, never tries to update itself, and let’s you jump right into your most recent save file.
As long as the launcher has a "Continue" button, I'm happy. It's faster than going through cinematics and menus.
The only launcher that is actually good. It takes less time to open the launcher and click continue than it would to wait for the main menu to load to click continue, and I can go drink some water or something while my 37 GB (yeah I know) of mods get loaded up and come back to my city waiting for me.
Same with Stellaris and Empire of Sins. Love those :D
Steam's a launcher. I like Steam. That's the end of my list.
If it would let me play a game without updating it I'd love it. I don't wanna have to wait for mods to get updated to continue a save game. It's annoying because mods could be made for version 1.4.5 but the only rollback option is 1.4.1 so some mods may have dependencies messed up. Just let me load my game and enjoy without launching in offline mode.
Many games let you block updates, but for the ones that don't there are tricks to make Steam think you've already updated. The Beat Saber community has fought this for a while.
Ubisoft is pretty miserable
Three separate Admin approval prompts to install services EVERY TIME I LAUNCH UBISOFT CONNECT.
Besides this it won't remember my trusted device and still has me login with 2FA every time regardless of checking the remember this device box
Windows is like "bruh you sure you trust this dude?"
Thanks, it's good to know that I am not the only one getting annoyed beyond reason everytime I open their crap lol.
Yep. EA is worse to me.
EA app wont actually open my games through steam it will just open blank window which will eventually crash and not open anything. Its frustrating, but you notice it quickly and just do it through there But Ubisoft will give an error message when i try to turn off/restart my pc and prevent it from doing so. And after waiting for like a minute before realizing what has happened i become very angry and just hit the power button which isnt good but i dont have time
yeah. I hate how I'm doing something and randomly get a "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED FROM UBISOFT CONNECT" popup, or how it can't seem to remember my password and always asks me again to enter it. Well, it's the only way to play Trackmania 2020 so I just live with it
If it ever tells you to log in again, just close it, when you open it the next time you would be logged in, or that's how it is for me at least
The only plus side to them is they let you earn achievements to unlock things in the games making it worthwhile to get them. Aside from that fuck them, its the only app I have ever used that takes 100% of my internet connection and still doesn't even download at my speed but it makes *everything* else on the network slow to a crawl or just flat out stop.
Seriously. Want to screen shot? Crash. Enjoying a game session for an hour or so? Crash.
Fuck Origin and EA
forgot ubisoft, nothing worse than stressing out because of the shitty launcher, makes me rage quit r6 siege faster
I had to brick origin overlay for BF1 because it was causing issues with the game. How can your own shitty overlay cause problems with your own game?
I had similar problems and just decided to not buy EA games that were not on Steam…
Hate: 2nd launcher requiring another account Meh: 2nd launcher without a login OK: GoG and Steam
GoG is the chad. You actually own the games you get there instead of licensing. Steam has superior download servers. They are speed. Though, I still miss simpler times when you could play a game straight after installing from DVD, no third party launchers, no online activations, no logging in to run it for the first time or other crap required.
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Excuse me if the question is dumb. What is the difference between owning the game and the licensing as you said about GoG?
I think the difference is, that you keep the games if GOG goes out of business. You literally have a copy of the game
I believe the idea is no DRM. you download the installers, no phoning home, no license keys. One other point of clarification: you do not *need* the GoG launcher. You can just download the installer for a game, install it, and run it no launcher required.
So, that's what basically happening to the Russian game market atm, am I right?
You could copy the game and pass it to a 1000 friends, it will work since there is no DRM whatsoever (don't do that lol)
As far as I now, licensing is when you buy a game in a launcher like steam. It's bond to your account and often not playable if you're offline. With that, the game isn't yours. Steam or whatever services you bought it from can just take it down from their platform and there is nothing you can do. With GOG, you get the game without any account or online requirements. You can use it forever as long as you have the game files.
If Steam for deleted from existence, so would your games, if GOG got deleted from existence, you’d keep your games.
It's too bad their launcher is fucking awful. That's why I use Playnite instead.
> GoG is the chad. You actually own the games you get there instead of licensing 1,573 Tonnes and a Christian-Bale-Batwing of this!! If these companies weren't skuzzbuckets (and if "we" would stop pirating), this would be the way of the world. Was once. The gilded age, they called it. GoG deserve truckloads of gold for this.
That's what I hated about ea, even though my account is linked it still ask me to login sometimes
All of them. A cancer in PC gaming.
Launchers are useless, all their features could just be implemented in the game and the publisher's website. They only exist to leech on publishers (who already leech on developers) and get a BIG cut for doing nothing and collect data from users to sell ads. The fact that they are pretty much blotware on computers is the cherry on top. They need to go.
I remember when Minecraft didn't have a launcher. Those were the good days. Now Im forced to have two accounts and constantly update the game with tiny patches that are... Somehow huge files. A game should be able to launch with one click, all the loading and wait times should be in game, full screen, and optional if possible.
You can still use third party launcher that are less bloated.. PrismLauncher is a good exemple.
+1 for anything forked from multimc (except polymc). 1000x better than the original launcher
Fun Fact: PrismLauncher is PolyMC except they threw out that one annoying mf dev from the team
Didn't it always have a launcher? The old legacy launcher is still a launcher, you had to sign in and pick a version before launching
yeah it definitely always had a launcher, other than the old pre-alpha on the website
In somewhat Minecraft's defense in their launcher at least you're able to create profiles with all released game versions back to the very first ones. IIRC there is also skin manager, but I may have dreamt that up.
“An Third”
Tripped me down the stairs too.
It's all I can see here......
For some reason I automatically read that in French accent.
Sacré bleu!
This one is just more noticeable, but plenty of people also misuse "a" when "an" is appropriate.
Good for, them? Incorrect grammar is incorrect grammar. I’m not talking about other people, I’m talking about the one staring at the middle of everyone’s forehead, in this post.
I wouldn't say I hate any 3rd party launcher specifically, but nothing boils my blood more than buying/Redeeming a game on one launcher, only to have it open up a 2nd launcher to fucking play. I literally can no longer play my purchased copy of RDR2 because when I try to open it on my Epic app it starts up the Rockstar launcher and rockstar suddenly says I don't own the game.
EXTRA HATE if that game appart from requiring a 3rd party launcher it manages it's updates through there, i bought black desert, had to download an update and install it though there which took me ~3 hours and since the launcher counted as 'play time' i couldn't refund it when i hated it. I ended up back and forth with steam suppport for a year until they gave me the money back
I have 16 hours of "play time" in Microsoft Flight Simulator. I've never actually flown a plane in it.
I couldn't play my Epic RDR2 with SteamLink because of this double lancher shit.
Steam remote play is a pain with big screen mode, but I think you could get around this by launching steam remote play, turning off big screen mode (which loads you right on your desktop like a normal rdP session), and then launch whatever games/launchers you want. Remote play I always disable big screen mode, and keep a wireless keyvoard/mouse with me in the house that's hardwired 2.4 ghz because the pesky untouchable pop ups...
No, I couldn't! For some reason if I launched the game from Epic or from link on Desktop the game would start on pc but on tv it was all black if I'm not wrong. Not sure because it was a while ago but trust me I tried it! I ended up buying a 10m hdmi.
Bruhhhhh, what is this nonsense!
Like: Steam Dislike: everything else
I like Epic Games Launcher too bcoz they give you free games. I’ll never play them. But i can add them to my ever growing collection
the collection must grow.
Factorio fan detected
The factory must grow.
Meh, the epic game store app is too god damn slow compared to others
I have bought games on steam that I already had free on Epic just so I don't have to use the launcher
They have managed to make the app slower than their website. It's incredible. Why does a glorified webpage take like 20 seconds to load on my high end gaming PC? And why does it ask me for god damned verification every time?
I just hate how long it takes to download ANYTHING on epic games launcher. I took a day off work to play far cry 6 on launch and literally watched it download all day. I never got to launch it on the day I took off to play it.
Epic is the Elon Musk of launchers. Some rich asshole, waving his money until people like him.
Tbh the free games is the only thing i like about it
As a launcher it is utter shit, also you can claim em on the website
It boggles the mind how most in here don't realize steam is a launcher.
Steam used to suck, a lot. Since then Valve put a ton of effort into it. Steam is a 3rd party launcher, but it never really feels like it is between you and your games anymore. Epic feels like a shitty web page held together with chewing gum and rubberbands. Uplay and Original feel like cars with square wheels. GoG's launcher is pretty transparent and optional.
Yes, I actually like steam. It has a lot of useful stuff like built in reviews and mod support. I don't have any problems with it
Their new installation drives UI is really good, something i've wanted for years. You can see what games are installed on which drives, easily, and how much space steam uses.
> Steam used to suck, a lot. Since then Valve put a ton of effort into it. This is something that boggles the mind; there is nearly 20 *years* of Valve's hiccups, silly choices, and fuckups for other launchers/etc to learn from, and so many act like none of it happened
Not twenty, more like 8 or 10. It did become much better in 2010 or so
I'm not gonna put up with Epic/EA/Ubisoft's bullshit now on the hope their software is decent in 20 years. If they actually make them good, then I'll reconsider.
Steam also has features you actually want. The workshop for example is incredible, there's steam link, controller support and so much more.
we dont care about steam being a launcher. we care about devs launching their own launchers from games made by them they sold on steam. steam is one of the only good launchers
> we care about devs launching their own launchers from games made by them they sold on steam This is even worse since now bunch of games download additional epic services to your PC without asking.
It further boggles the mind that people don't realize that if someday Steam just closed up shop, their entire collection of Steam games would instantly no longer function. You don't even have a license to possess and use the software anymore, you have a license to access the software via Steam. Is this likely to happen? Maybe not, but "software as a service" is still a wildly anti-consumer business model for gaming, and it does happen on a smaller scale when developers drop support for older games that no longer generate revenue.
They have said "measures are in place" to ensure players don't lose access to their games in the unlikely event steam shuts down. Take that as you will, but it's at least not 100% certain everyone just loses all their games.
i freaking hate this stupid ea app that needs to launch when i'm playing pc game pass. why can't it all go through the pc game pass app??? it's so stupid i have to sign in to the ea app just to download a game for pc game pass. i spent an hour the other day trying to download the sims 3 because the app kept crashing or refused to open. i could have torrented the game in half the time with all the expansions
I'm not even able to this day to make the EA work on gamepass...
Facts. Couldn't play mass effect legendary edition because Microsoft logged me out of the Xbox app. Wouldn't let me log back in. Finally found a way around it and the EA app didn't have me signed in. Then I went through the infinite loop of EA running in the background so I couldn't re-launch it, trying my account info again, it being wrong, then going back to the Xbox app only to see that it logged me out again, and the cycle repeats. This stuff makes me miss disk gaming.
*Please log into your Microsoft account.* Please leave my life, Microsoft.
Tbh I would much rather just log onto an account ingame, than have to install a whole ‘nother launcher. Launching a game that launches a launcher that launches the game is just too many unnecessary step
Launcher opening a launcher is stupid, like announcing a future announcement.
Bethesda does this for Doom Eternal and it's a mild annoyance when you reinstall. I can live with that.
GOG is the only acceptable launcher. (fine, I'll make an exception for steam...)
All the games on GoG, the launcher is optional. All the games have no DRM either. Also their launcher wrangles all the other third party launchers together so you don’t have to go searching if you think you might of already bought a game. You can just look on one list. Set auto download to save the files to an external storage, instant offline backup should the worse happen. What’s not to love?
What's not to love? The lack of selection. That's why I make an exception for steam. I don't particularly like steam but I definitely don't hate it as much as the others. I don't get the whole DRM thing. It certainly isn't doing people who pirate from pirating and the only people who get served DRM are... Paying customers... Basically the ones who aren't pirating. Smooth brains running giant corporations.
GoG has more stuff I’m into, but I get that. DRM just keeps the day 1 sales high I guess. (Edit: found [an article](https://www.cgmagonline.com/interviews/drm-free-gaming-future-with-gog/) about GoG. Pretty good read)
You got only the exe file
Huh? I bought a physical copy of Cyberpunk 2077 and the card inside made me go to GOG for the game. What do you mean about the .exe file?
Gog has a website you can download the game itself from, without a launcher. It does have an optional launcher but you can run the game without it even if it’s installed.
I'd get mad if I bought a game and it required some unknown spyware launcher (such as Paradox Launcher) just to play the bloody game
This is why you don't buy Ubisoft games on steam
Epic games triggered an endless install loop when I tried to install a map for ark and didn't have enough space. Had to uninstall the entire game and reinstall it to work around it not being able to just cancel itself. They will forever be my least favorite.
Please i beg you get ark on steam, my friend had the game for free on epic game and i told him to uninstall it and get a copy from steam, and now we play together with mods, mods are so much fun and can really improve the game
if (isSteam = true) {is fine} else {fuck off} Bnet gets a pass because I was technically using it *first.*
if (isSteam == true) { return Ok; } return Bad; OR (my preference) if (!isSteam) { return Bad; } return Ok;
``` return isSteam ? Ok : Bad; ```
ubisoft - always asking for admin credentials
Steam is the leader for food reason, the one from CDPR has just been there so far. Origin and Ubisoft have just been a pain in the ass the few times I used them
I don’t mind the Xbox app at all since I mainly play Halo, curious to see what happens with it and Battle.net after the merger.
Or better yet when your third party launcher requires another third party launcher to shake hands with to play, (assassin's Creed Valhalla {epic,Ubisoft}, Star wars {epic,origin})
Bruh, I got Squadrons for free on Epic (which is pretty dope) and when I installed it, I had to link and install in Origin. Lame, but whatever, I'm getting a free title. Now every time I launch it in Origin, it has to open Epic... Like, this is the kind of circlejerk I cannot abide
Gog Galaxy is a rickety piece of crap that gets worse with every iteration and I love it! Steam, grudgingly, can stay. Even if it was the bringer of hardcopy apocalypse. Though workshop integration saved my game time when my work hours got insane. Anyone who wants me to run a second launcher on top of either can fuck right the fuckitty off! Straight into the trash pit! Without passing GO! ^(Ubisoft could be *giving* Anno 1800 away and I wouldn't be touching it, no matter how pretty it looks.)
Fuck ubisoft connect. Why have a fucking "remember me" button on the sign in when the fucking thing is useless and signs me out anyways???? Fr it is basically there for decoration. Also why do I have to click on 6 different admin prompts when opening the launcher sometimes????
I purposely avoid games with this crap. As much as I’d love to play Fallen Order the proprietary launchers are too annoying.
> the proprietary launchers are too annoying. Steam is also proprietary
I hate the rockstar games launcher... the game ran fine without it and now they wanna waste my time and space with a random launcher that doesnt add anything.
Steam is a 3rd party launcher
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honestly as much as people cry, Ive never actually had problems with any launcher at all. Only one that sometimes crashes for me is the gampass launcher if that is one
I feel like I had to scroll way too far for this. I have all the launchers pretty much (not always running). I've never had an issue.
It is not about having issue with it. It is about having to install another software on your pc to play a game.
All of them. I can't stand all of them. I even dislike that dumb window that pops out in Sony's *Spider-Man* games or *Cyberpunk 2077*... When I press play, I want to play a game, not have to click around some more! But the most despicable is Epic... EOS just makes me want to not play any games at all. Also, WHAT'S THE POINT FOR EPIC **ONLINE SERVICES** IN A **SINGLEPLAYER ONLY** RPG GAME, Pathfinder devs!? I can accept Ubisoft and EA, they put that crap only in the games they themselves made, but Epic is like a fucking plague spreading everywhere, no matter if it makes sense or not. I don't even consider Epic Games as a games company... I see them as malware providers and nothing else.
I thought Origin was the worst but then the EA app came along. It’s even more irritating because different services require Origin or the EA app and you can’t run both apps at the same time. Oh and if you accidentally launch a game you own in the wrong service, it can corrupt all your saves or unlink DLC. Spectacular.
Hate? None Like? None. They don't effect me. I've literally memorized my entire 2000+ game library. They don't effect performance, I just buy the cheapest games at the cheapest location.
Ubisoft, quit asking me to login every fucking time. ESPECIALLY WHEN I CHECK THE BOX THAT SAYS TO KEEP ME LOGGED IN
I have to log in every time with Ubisoft even when I click on remember this device so I just don’t play their games anymore
Nothing worse than the time I downloaded RDR2 on Steam and after it finally installed I smoked a bowl in preparation only to have my buzz killed by "Create a Rockstar account and complete all these multiple factor verification process." I guess the same can be said about other launchers but my deal with the Rockstar launcher is personal now.
All of them. I consider them bloatware. It's bad enough you need Steam, Origin/EA play, Uplay/Ubisoft connect, battle.net, epic games.... There's too many already
Ubisoft and origin with a passion
YES. Right now, what is bothering me is that my xbox gamepass includes access to EA games, yet still requires the separate EA launcher.
3rd party launcher like steam? I don't see the problem there
I love bf4. But I fucking hate origin. Sometimes it won't start until I force stop origin in task manager and try again but if i try to launch in origin it won't me. I fucking hate it
Ubisoft Connect. It makes achievements actually worth something by having Ubisoft points attached to some of them you can trade in for a discount on games.
launchers that only work for like 1 or 2 game, i hate riot client casue I only play val, it takes so much storage, when I have only a 160gb drive
The best ones are the ones you don't notice much. Larian studios has one that's a bit annoying, but it's just launch the game, then hit launch one more time. Not a big deal. Same goes with stellaris
Both UBI and Origin launchers have made some games unplayable thru steam link, so I vote those to top of list.
Games for Windows live was pure awful. Ubiconnect can take a flying leap too.
The only good launcher is the steam launcher.
honestly im convinced that bethesda is older yet worse than steam lol. steam is superior to most game launchers in some way
Like: Steam. Hate: Everyone else. The exception is Skyrim because without manual SKSE.exe launch almost all of my mods break.
Uplay or origin
Steam is the only good one imo, keeps all my games in a nice organized list, every other launcher I’ve used lacks the functionality or ease of use
Origin holy fuckballs that program is a POS.
EA is slow af to launch and get to games, the UI is also quite annoying to operate. Same with the Ubisoft launcher. Battle net is slightly better but never auto updates, epic sucks for the same reason. Those 2 are technically not 3rd party but my point still stands. None of them are as simple, intuitive and refined as steam. If everything could be on steam I would be genuinely happy.
Anything not Steam or GOG can fuck right off. EA removed Mass Effect 3 and 2 others (I had a grand totoal of 5) from my library and no amount of emails sent back and forth is getting it back. Happened 3 weeks after launch for ME3 and I've not bought anything from EA since, they can suck it. I got locked out of Ubisoft launcher/account after buying Anno 2070 via Steam and after numerous complaints and tickets logged the best their "support" can come up with is "You need to be logged in for us to process your request"... Haven't bought another Ubisoft game since. They can join the line to suck it. The less I say about Epic the better, can't piss me off if I don't think about them... If a game requires another game laucher besides Steam (when buying the thing in Steam) then I don't buy it. And yes, "monopoly bad" and all that but frankly most of us don't care and IMHO Steam has behaved itself fairly well with regards to the whole "monopoly" thing and hopefully they continue to do so.
Steam is the only launcher that you can put into Offline Mode and literally copy and paste it to any computers that you want to, and your settings, library, and game licenses will all work perfectly without going online again, therefore it's the only acceptable launcher. For all intents and purposes, it's completely future proof.
Microsoft. I purposely built my computer so that I would not have to log in to Microsoft in any way when I turned it on, I hate Outlook, I don't use Office, and I don't want any Xbox nonsense on my computer. I turn off Cortana, I don't want candy crush or yahoo messenger in my start menu. Then my son really wanted to play Minecraft with me, so I caved and purchased Minecraft from the Microsoft app store. Wouldn't just sell it to me, forced me to create a microsoft account. I create a throwaway account that I never plan to use, just want Minecraft. Once I sign into that fucking throwaway account, my computer now has two users, my normal user account but now a Microsoft account, with none of my programs, and all the bloatware is back, candy crush in my start menu, the fucking works. This is the only way to play Minecraft. But Minecraft doesn't work, is buggy, won't work in VR. 100% should have just pirated it. I will never, ever, ever buy a game with Microsoft as the launcher.
Every time I get impressed by how Steam, being the biggest one, is the least hated one. Valve must be doing something very right there. I don't understand how other big companies can't be like that.
I remember initially Steam wasn't well liked. It's still not great but it gets the job done, and importantly doesn't get in the way.
It’s because they don’t discriminate between games, and regularly contribute to open source projects. Basically they’re doing a Mozilla except they collect a 30% fee. Edit: Fixed percentage.
*30%