Games that haven't received an update for years will still use GOG's old method of naming (the installers' version and not the in-game version), hence why they show up differently.

As for a database, GOGdb should have you covered.

Ah is that's what's going on? Well that's annoying. Thank you for the link

Another question. If a game has DLC, do I have to download the new versions of the DLC installers as well?

Almost always. If the base game gets an update, usually any DLC installers will, too, if for no other reason than for maintaining compatibility with the new build of the game.

Ah, well shoot.
I guess I have more downloading to do then.

Not entirely true I believe.

If for instance you download a fully updated version of a game, then usually yes, the DLCs may need to be updated to match.

However, if you only downloaded patch files, you should in theory only need to make sure the DLCs are installed before applying any patch file(s). Patching should update whatever is already installed ... subject of course to whims of the DEV.

That said, it can become painful having to install a game and DLCs in the correct order each time, perhaps applying several patches to keep everything correctly matching. So DLCs which are usually small in file size, are not that onerous if so, to just get the latest version of.

Well, if GOG actually released patches instead of forcing people to download the entire game again to update, that would be cool. But in most cases they skipped patches or didn't leave them up for a long period of time so that even the most diligent people may have holes in their patch library. And often they just put up the new version installer because fuck customers with slow internet or who don't want to use Galaxy.

Yep, plenty of annoying holes in my backups due to missed patches and GOG's flawed update notification system, and lack of backup archive ... or at least one accessible by customers.

I'd say the issue is down to the provider, and not GOG so much, unless GOG are engaging in storage space saving.

As you kind of say, the current regime where you often have to download the whole game again after each update, is a waste of time and space and truly annoying, especially if you have web connection issues and don't buy into the Galaxy method. Many of us just require a simple downloader, and don't want to tolerate anything other than that, especially the complexity and bloat and drain on resources. Not everyone plays the games on the PC they download on or use to browse the GOG store. Many like me, have a PC dedicated to gaming, and many of us don't even engage in online multiplayer, so don't even access the web with that PC. All that is a big part of why we use GOG in the first place, but now .......