I was recently made aware of GOG.com through Witcher 2's promotional advertising, which allows you to get the game from GOG.com. Poking through the site, I saw it has some great older games that I've been wanting to play, namely Baldur's Gate 2.

Unable to find it on Steam or D2D, I figured why not support Witcher's sister company.. I bought the game and downloaded the GOG downloader. Things were going great until the downloader froze at about 2GB and stopped responding altogether. I tried pausing the file, and nothing responded; I couldn't move the window, or even close it. I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the GOG downloader, and the thing starting back up at 2GB/2.3GB progress, despite the previous files no longer existing... Now the file is "complete", but obviously corrupt and incomplete, but I have no idea how to clear the game and redownload it. Looking through the support, it looks like I'm going to have to jump through a lot of hoops to get the game I paid for. I've already spent way more time and effort than I've wanted to try and get this game to work. I feel like it would have just been easier to torrent it. I guess it serves me right.

I am steering my friends away from this site and definitely not buying Witcher 2 from here. I can't imagine trying to download a game that large from this installer.

I'm sure people love the DRM-free format, but at least on Steam I can reliably download my games with no hassle.

Exactly what is this whine supposed to accomplish?
Not trying to be a d*ck, I'm really curious.

Did you try downloading using your browser?

I haven't used the downloader for a long time, so I don't know much about that.

I'm sorry you're having problems with the downloads.

You can download the games using your browser, you don't need to use the downlaoder.

To delete the files you've downloaded with gog's downloader, start the downloader, click on the options button to look up the directory where the downloader stores the files it downloads, then go to that directory and delete them.

Download via browser.

GoG should just scrap the download tool alltogether, it's completely superfluous since there's no DRM tied to the games anyway, and it's a piece of crap to boot.

Oh, and you know, ask around before you curse everything to damnation. Maybe there's an easy solution to your problem.

Sorry to hear you had some problems, but most of us don't and are both very happy with GOG and the games it sells. Also, it sounds to me like you didn't even bother to simply download the file with your browser, which generally works much better than the optional GOG downloader. Lastly, GOG breaks large games into 2 GB chunks (roughly), so if it got "stuck" at 2GB, chances are it wasn't really stuck, but actually done downloading that particular file.

Im sorry you have had trouble with the site. Normally the downloader is fine, it is rare to come accross problems like that, I would ask that you give it another try though.

As for steam I have to disagree with them being hasslefree, I bought DOW2 Chaos Rising from them and it took 2 weeks to be able to play it,

I would also like to point out that steam is a glorified rental system, you do not actually own anything except the right to play the games. GOG on the other hand you do own the game and its DRM free so you can easily back it up ect without any legal issues ect.

As for piracy. Please do not torrent games ect, with GOG some of the revenue gained by your purchase here goes back to the licence owners and thus into more developement (thats what I like to think happens with it anyway). Without funding the industry will suffer.

Welcome to the forums.

First... Bad internet connection != bad digital distribution service. --- ignore this line

Second... You would have the same problems downloading something else. --- this too.

Third... Steam is hardly "convenient" and "perfect" as most people seem to call it these days. I like my games set the way I want, thank you. Not how some "gods" tell me to.

Fourth... whatever mate, I'm going back to studying.

EDIT: Added something, removed something... Fak mi, I have an exam tomorrow, dunno where my head is.... -_-

Didn't he say the GOG Downloader stopped responding, not that the download stopped...?

As others have mentioned, the downloader is pretty crap, and it's unfortunate that a problem with it was your first experience with GOG. I'd recommend simply downloading it via your browser, as I've never run into any issues doing it this way. Hopefully this will work fine and there won't be any other problems you run into. Also, the community here tends to be quite helpful, so if you do run into any additional problems just posting a question in the forums will usually get you answers pretty quick.

How does that matter? It may be optional*, but it still is an official part of GOG -- the site and the service as such. And it's a piece of shit. With the GOG logo stamped on it.

[* For some people, the downloader is actually not optional at all, because their internet connection is bad. Which isn't that uncommon.]

Yea, gonna remove that part. Somehow I missed the "GOG downloader stopped". Just saw download stopped, as with, normal downloading through a browser.

I'm expressing my dissatisfaction as a first time customer; this "whine" is my first impression with GOG.com and I think if they want to attract new or return customers, they need to know about it and remedy this. I realize the downloader is "optional", but given that they suggest using it for larger size games, it was recommended. I certainly wouldn't expect my browser to be a more reliable method of getting the game.

I'm sorry if I'm not jumping for joy at, likely, your favorite place to get games from, but it was a pretty miserable experience for me.

On a positive note, I was really impressed with the sleek look of the site/icons/forum/color scheme etc. Everything about GOG.com seems slick and professional, but the downloader was anything but.

No worries, mate. Try downloading from your browser, these days browsers are quite capable of keeping the connection up. I haven't used a downloader, accelerator or whatever for like, always. Never had problems downloading anything (and I'm on a wireless connection).

Tip: Never rely on a software that relies on another software / platform to function properly. Especially if that platform is not mature enough yet (talking about you, AIR).