What to say about the site redesign ... well, I just *shrug*.

In one thing GOG is consistent in its web design, namely in its ignorance of user feedback and making it worse and worse for desktop users. It is clearly designed for tablet usage and another push to convince the users to use the Galaxy client.

Cannot say more than

On the bright side, it is still not slow like molasses like the Fanatical web site :)

me too.

There's something else I need to get off my chest.

So far I've tried to point out comparatively specific things about the redesign I had a gripe with. I figured that's all I can do for now, so just lean back, see where this is going, and who knows, maybe I'm overreacting. Happens to me sometimes. Maybe it's a first shock and the redesign will grow on me.

But the exact opposite is happening.
The more I look at it, the more it strikes me as sterile.
The large empty spaces.
The uniformity.
The lack of words.

The News section we had up until now wasn't just useful for seeing new releases and specials at a glance. It was also a dialog. Everything was communicated. And no, I didn't read everything, but it also didn't feel like it was all marketing speech, there was a trace of pride and customer engagement and it was visually very prominent.

And that's gone now.
Instead it's only tiles with games everywhere.
They look like ads now.

It's so weird, because roughly in the space where we had that dialog is now the Discovery section. Where you tell me what other customers bought. It's like you couldn't wait to tell me about how cool the book you're reading is, and now you're just showing me a bestseller list. It feels cold.

Probably seems ridiculous and vague, but to me it feels like everything is a bit more distant now - and not just in terms of how far I have to scroll.

A few days ago the front page had a hint of your favourite boutique, where you're a regular and had a little chat with the owner, who personally told you about the cool new shit he had in store.

Now it's a vending machine.

You hit the jackpot. That is the intended development target for their website, not any other browser.

I don't like the feeling I get when I consider that the things that I am seeing here are in any way related to CD Projekt RED.

I've never been one of the yahoos who thinks of them--or any company--as angels, but nevertheless...

Looks exactly the same to me when compared to Firefox. All Galaxy is, is essentially Chrome.

You miss the point. We'd have a basic secure site that does the job. For all the flashy things you still have that option without it breaking for the rest.
This isn't a cosmetic change like swapping left are right menus that grows on you. Filters get in the way of browsing the games, titles are no longer visible unless you hover over them, hovering brings up a video that consumes bandwidth, the news section can be confused with games. The list can go on but this is the loss of core functionality. I don't know what GOG was thinking. I haven't even looked at the sale as it's just all too confusing and too much effort. This might go down as one of the most unsuccessful sales in the history of GOG.

It has become another bit more like Steam. In the bad sense.

Yes, the dialog and the engagement and somehow the feeling of being more than customers, part of a community and yes, glad customers too, happy to participate in a fair exchange of hard-earned cash, and time building up and supporting the community, with advice, reviews and whatnot...

All that for games well cared for, as well as the time spent on the part of the people who run the store as they nurture the community.

Does every online store need trying to appear as impersonal as Steam or Amazon?

In real, analogic life, where do you prefer to buy your books, clothes, vegetables...?

Would you be happy being served 100% of the time by robots?

Those who were there while all the events in the triumphalistic recapitulation of the annyversary were developing, can you imagine a parallel timeline with the things that GOG has been losing in these years? Time to draw another inflection point as of october 2018?

That describes not just the current layout changes, but in general all of the changes around here in the last couple of years.

And now, a meeting between past and present GOG.

It's one step forward, five backwards. It has its good points, like the reviews being much better. But the whole thing is so zoomed, so large that it feels strange to navigate. It's Steam but cuter and as broken.

I disliked not having the the game name in the tiles, not all images have the game name easily readable and in the exact same location. It's also strange that sometimes the tiles don't show the prices, like when it offers to buy the whole series.

A couple of thoughts here.

One, I spend little time on GOG's website, and sadly, less money (due to being broke).

Two, I intensely dislike the new layout.

Below I list my detailed first impressions (based on a couple of games, among them Shadow Warrior 2 and Witcher 2).

When I click on a game, I used to see a nice, tidy, compact page, with a small screenshot menu (with videos not autoplaying). Right below this was the feature I used most (after looking at the price and the sale percent)--the "goodies." Following this was the game description. Finally I got to the reviews (which I rarely read, and only when I was really torn over whether or not to purchase a game). I really liked this layout. It was compact and useful. Everything I needed was on one screen (or maybe two or three if I really wished to read the description at length).
But that is what was, not what is now.

I now immediately see what is essentially a full size version of the icon--NOT GOOD. This includes the ability to watch a video that I have absolutely no intention of watching. I never watch a video of the game unless I enjoy the pictures.
I also see an expanded "Price/Add to Cart/Wishlisted (or not)" box. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, I almost quit using steam when they debuted the new wishlist until such time as they introduced the compact view to the wishlist. To make a long story short, I am very sensitive to websites that have a huge layout with tons of whitespace. I am regretting not getting a 17" laptop already, only due to lost vertical space. My 15" laptop has zero extra vertical room I can comfortably afford to give up. I already refuse flat out to use sites where you have to scroll for days on end to read one article due to the number of ads, pictures, or white space.

I hate webpages being zoomed in. If I wanted it larger, I would make it larger with the zoom buttons which are standard in every browser. Shocking, I know. :P

I scroll down and I see a list of pictures spanning the width of the screen. No biggie. They could be smaller, but I don't really mind--it saves the trouble of clicking on them to see them.

Next, I see a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong description with no option to hide most of it. THIS IS VERY BAD. If I wanted long descriptions, I would go to steam and click the "read more" button. What is even WORSE is that the description includes PICTURES. Here is a little hint for you, GOG--if I wanted to look at the pictures I would click on the pictures to expand them. Maybe that is why I didn't click on the old screenshots on many games?
To be clear: descriptions are nice, helpful, and needed--when they have an option to condense them so you can skip them, when they have no pictures, and in this case, when they are after the list of Goodies (ie GOG exclusive perks)

Frankly, seeing screenshots or videos in the game description is to me, in a word, repulsive. To choose a few of more words, it is disgusting, stomach-turning, and hated (by me). The fact that the text is a larger font is annoying, but livable.

After swallowing my bile at the description not having a "show more" button and being collapsed by default, and at it having pictures in the description, I see to my horror the line item "Popular Achievements." Why do I, a user who does not and will not use the GOG Galaxy, and who does not care about what special things others do in the game, want this? If I truly cared what others did in-game I might play multiplayer games. With one exception, I do not. I never have. I never purchase games for their multiplayer functionality. I play them for their singleplayer storyline or replayability. I play them for my enjoyment. I NEVER purchase games for their achievements. Seeing "Oooh, look 38.84% of the community has reached 500 upgrades" is something that frankly, wastes my time and does not impress me favorably. In fact, it does the opposite. If this was off on a sidebar, and not smack-dab in front of my face, it would be a different matter. There I could ignore them entirely unless I really wanted to see them or was reasonably bored or had free time.

After this I get to the one thing--excluding price--that I most like about the GOG store pages--the list of goodies.
They used to be directly underneath the screenshots and above the description. Other than being DRM-free, and an offline installer, the main reason I buy anything from GOG is the extra goodies that the steam version does not have, or at least doesn't mention having. Many of my purchases or wishlisted games earned their spot because of the Goodies list. When these were visible on the same page as the price and screenshots, I could often really tell if the game was worth my money or attention at the moment, or if the reverse was true.

Then I get to the system requirements--sometimes useful, depending on the era of the game I am looking at. At any rate, having it in the sidebar was nicer. I can read two columns at once. It saves space. Again, the sysreqs take up way too much real estate on my screen.

After this I get to the "series" and the "you may like these products." They are sometimes useful, totally in the wrong place, and often completely ignored, regardless of content. At any rate, the spot for these is next to the "purchase" button so that you can see the rest of the series (and maybe spend more money before checking out). A column can show more in the same space than a row can without having to hit "left" and ":right" arrow keys, thus you get more adverts for less end-user work. Again, some games have made it onto my wishlist because I saw them on the side.

Finally I get to the reviews. Maybe they were broken, maybe not. I honestly have no clue. The old reviews helped me make decisions for and against the games. Often I trust reviews far more than I trust descriptions. The thing is, you can make a description say pretty much anything, but the reviews will reveal often the truth about a game and whether the game lives up to the hype.
Honestly, by this point I thought I had reached a mobile version of GOG by mistake. By in large, desktop users seem to hate stuff put in solely to help mobile devices. I have absolutely nothing against mobile devices themselves. However, I strongly dislike sites that focus on mobile devices to the exclusion of PC use. I also do not care for sites catering exclusively to touchscreens with huge tiles. Yes, it is a trend. Not all trends are worth emulating. Some trends drive people away.

My recommendations for how to fix this?
First, greatly reduce the pre-allocated size of the main screenshot or video when you load a game's webpage. Enable one to see the screenshot, the price, and maybe a bit of the gallery all at once.
Secondly, requiring no more than one "Page Down", show the list of the goodies. These are one of the main selling points of your products--don't bury them.
Third, PUT A "READ MORE/COLLAPSE" button on the description, and STRIP the descriptions of screenshots--put those screenshots with the other screenshots above the description.
Fourth, return the franchise list to being next to the description, under the price.
Fifth, move the category "Popular achievements."
Sixth, hit the "zoom-out" button on your keyboard a few times so that you can actually see the webpage. :P

Thank you for reading this.

~~Edited to remove some unnecessary, non-constructive criticism.~~

My main issue is that no longer DLCs and relevant games appear on the same page. For example the recently released Stellaris. I went to the store page, added the game and while there is a ton of DLC that I might want to add, WHERE IS IT? Why don't they appear on the same page as they used to? I am going to have to hunt down to pay more money? Insane.

Actually for Stellaris it's there, under features, assuming GOG likes your browser. For some other games it isn't though.

It only appears on the standard edition. Not Nova or Galaxy edition.
I added in my basket the Nova edition and there is nothing, no DLC etc anywhere in the store page.