Here's my problem

I think that GOG giving you your game is pretty cool, so I'm trying to switch over. I bought Fallout New Vegas (the best game ever made) on GOG and installed it. I also have it on steam.
Whenever I went to play the GOG copy (I had steam and GOG copy installed) it would play it through steam. It basically created a shortcut to the steam version even though the whole game is installed.

I tried uninstalling the steam version.
no dice
It says install at the start menu now, even through gog

I tried signing out of steam
still no luck


any help?

Are you by any chance using GOG galaxy to install and run the game?

I am but I haven’t linked my steam
Does that matter?

That's pretty mysterious. Do you have a little button to the left of "overview" on the game page in Galaxy?

It should look like this: https://pasteboard.co/MJUeVTdYtLjO.png

When you own a game on multiple stores that button lets you choose which version to play.

Yeah, the overview button isn't the important bit, it's the button to the left of it that matters. Do you have that?

If not, the only explanation I can think of is that Bethesda left some steam stuff in the GOG version of FO:NV and it's starting Steam up. Try looking in the installation folder of the GOG version for any files that mention steam, e.g. steam.dll and so on.

Galaxy is stacking identical games but one of them always takes precedent over the others in the stack. If you want to use another one, you need to tell Galaxy which of the two versions it is supposed to start. Right click on the game in your library and select the GOG version to make it the active one. Install/Play should then link to the GOG version instead of the Steam version

The best thing to do, is uninstall the galaxy client completely. Then download the normal offline installers.

https://i.imgur.com/N7vy0vb.png

The OP has said they haven't linked their Steam account to Galaxy. Unless they're mistaken, I think there's something else going on. See above. Unless the OP is mistaken, this is not a Galaxy issue and they'll have exactly the same problem after spending all that time uninstalling and reinstalling.

I think the problem might be something similar to this thread:
https://www.gog.com/forum/general/akibas_trip_undead_and_undressed_is_a_steamrip

The offline installer is... offline. Not online. Meaning, it can't detect a steam version online, and so won't use a steam version.

If she installs the offline version, and uses the startup icon GOG places on her desk, there should be no problem.

Yeah this sounds like a borked steam_api.dll (which should be inert). Not the first time.
If using zonealarm (or a similar) software firewall with program control its usually easy enough to block.

The offline installer is offline, but if the publisher/GOG left a steam DLL in the game directory it'll still look for and start Steam. This is not a new thing and is nothing to do with Galaxy.

Also, the offline installer means the installer is self contained and installs offline. It doesn't mean the installed game is uncapable of connecting to the internet...

See Sachys's's post or the thread I already linked to.

think the solution here would be to uninstall the steam version and see if it works properly after.

Edit: save files are under "my documents" or "my games" so should be fine
O___o

I think they said they tried uninstalling the Steam version, but if we're correct about a rogue steam_api.dll that won't help as what's happening is the GOG version is calling out to Steam which is then running it as if it's the Steam version. Same thing as what happened in that thread I linked to except this is probably less a deliberate thing and more an oversight. Uninstalling Steam itself would probably solve the problem, but that's not really a viable solution assuming the OP wants to use Steam for other games.
Sorry, *S'achy's

I think you should looking for solution on steam. Search "how to run games without steam launcher" and you should find answer. I think I've read about some trick that might be helpful to you when I was looking for a way to run the game from the box where there was no warning that steam is needed to play. That was years ago, sorry I can't be more helpful.