jjsimp: So, the "hate windows 8" crowd wants the OP to purchase $100 version of Windows 7 and try to install it. For some people it's not that easy to install a windows OS. And going from a Windows 8 OS, down to any other OS usually has a couple of other curveballs thrown in (ie locked bootloader)
I don't like Windows 8 any more than most, but having someone spend $100 just because you hate the metro interface is a little silly. There is always Classic Shell or start8 if you do not like the metro interface.
Besides most of the the programs from Windows 7 should work on Windows 8. I wish I could help, but I do not have any of those games or Windows 8.
Exactly this. As far as I can tell, downgrading from preloaded Win8 to Win7 is not always quite that straightforward, unless you know exactly what to do. In the ASUS ROG forums there are lots of those problem stories trying to downgrade from preloaded Win8.
And overall it just shouldn't be necessary. I _think_ Haegemonia Gold is now the first game I've tried which works on my Win7 installation, but flatly refuses to run on Win8 (I have a perfect setup to test the compatibility between Win7/Win8, as I have both installed side-by-side on the same PC).
Since it apparently "works" (but asks for CD-key) if you skip the GOG (wrapper) installation part, it suggests that GOG just has to change something in their wrapper. Or in the worst case, they are using some unofficial crack for the game which has some odd issue with Win8, in which case it might not be so simple.
I've seen some minor quirks in some other games, like in GTA 3 (Steam version) I have the odd "invisible menus" bug which does not appear for me in Win7. But there is a simple workaround for that (pressing "Print Screen" button repeatedly brings the menus opaque for some reason, LOL! I just came up with this workaround accidentally.), and I also saw on Steam forums someone reporting the same problem also on Windows 7. So it might not be specifically a Win8 issue anyway, even though I only see it there.