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General discussionDDigital Download v CD: Which is better?(52 posts)(52 posts)
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Posted April 09, 2016
I was thinking of buying Tropico 4 and the DLC Pack at a cost of £25 in total. That's quite an investment.

I understand that it is DRM free with no activation or internet connection needed to play unlike the Steam version. I don't like DRM or online connection play. But stillwant the freedom a CD provides.

However, as I only receive a digital download over the internet, what happens if my computer needs to be wiped or I want to play Tropico in 5 years time (bearing in mind I bought my Homeworld Classic CD in 2002 and I'm still playing it in 2016?

I understand that a code I redeemable but is that the case if you switch PC's or lose data etc?

Also, I have a separate hard drive module HDD, if I save Tropico files on that, will that act as a back up without needing to come on to GoG again?

Thanks for any advice you all can impart.
Posted April 09, 2016
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Ahmed1y: I was thinking of buying Tropico 4 and the DLC Pack at a cost of £25 in total. That's quite an investment.

I understand that it is DRM free with no activation or internet connection needed to play unlike the Steam version. I don't like DRM or online connection play. But stillwant the freedom a CD provides.

However, as I only receive a digital download over the internet, what happens if my computer needs to be wiped or I want to play Tropico in 5 years time (bearing in mind I bought my Homeworld Classic CD in 2002 and I'm still playing it in 2016?

I understand that a code I redeemable but is that the case if you switch PC's or lose data etc?

Also, I have a separate hard drive module HDD, if I save Tropico files on that, will that act as a back up without needing to come on to GoG again?

Thanks for any advice you all can impart.
You can download it and redownload it as many times as you want. You can make as many backup copies as you want, and they will always work, offline, without any need for anything else, on any PC. You can have a HDD full of nothing but copies of it :) Whatever you feel like.
Post edited April 09, 2016 by Breja
Posted April 09, 2016
If you want it on your shlef then go for physical edition but if you just want to enjoy it then go for Gog'sdrm free version.
Posted April 09, 2016
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Ahmed1y: I was thinking of buying Tropico 4 and the DLC Pack at a cost of £25 in total. That's quite an investment.
Beyond what has already been said, note that GOG often has sales including this game (e..g -80% in December 2015, -75% in January 2016). So if if you're not in a hurry you could save a lot of money by waiting for a sale.
Posted April 09, 2016
When I first joined GOG, I used to burn the downloaded game installers to DVDs to keep a permanent, totally offline and portable backup. Nowadays, I keep an external hard drive loaded with my games. I have now gone through at least five major PC hardware upgrades or HDD replacements and three different OSes and have not lost a single game. Point being, whatever advantage disks might have had over digital downloads in portability is eliminated by proper backups.
Posted April 09, 2016
If you have a physical CD copy of Tropico 4, will the GoG DLC pack work with it?
Posted April 09, 2016
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Ahmed1y: If you have a physical CD copy of Tropico 4, will the GoG DLC pack work with it?
Nope

EDIT - unless Tropico is one of those games that is cross-redeemable on GOG (disk comes with a GOG code). I don't know if that is the case.
Post edited April 09, 2016 by cogadh
Posted April 09, 2016
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Ahmed1y: I was thinking of buying Tropico 4 and the DLC Pack at a cost of £25 in total. That's quite an investment.
The Steam version had a price glitch that made it $0.19. People happily trade their stockpiled copies at around $2 of items each. So that's a hefty price to pay just to have it DRM-Free.

Also don't worry about losing data. Just back games up on external drives or usb flash drives. Ideally you'd save the installer and then make backups of your saves.
Posted April 09, 2016
i prefer physical media myself
Posted April 09, 2016
... see deez... ...

...





...
Posted April 09, 2016
Physical media is great when you are young, but when you get older your memory is shit so you can never find the disc, and even if you do, your vision is shit so you can't read the damn thing to see if it's what you want, and even if you can, your memory is shit so when you do finally read it you can't remember what the hell you wanted it for.
Posted April 09, 2016
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tinyE: Physical media is great when you are young, but when you get older your memory is shit so you can never find the disc, and even if you do, your vision is shit so you can't read the damn thing to see if it's what you want, and even if you can, your memory is shit so when you do finally read it you can't remember what the hell you wanted it for.
Literally the opposite - that's digital libraries. I have bought the same games a few times because I forgot I had them already on Steam/GOG/Wherever...

Hey, this game looks cool and it's on sale! <BUY>

Later... hmmm. I think I already have this.... yep.
Posted April 09, 2016
CD DVD or blue-ray is always better to have a physical copy.. Digital is more convenient.
Posted April 09, 2016
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cogadh: When I first joined GOG, I used to burn the downloaded game installers to DVDs to keep a permanent, totally offline and portable backup. Nowadays, I keep an external hard drive loaded with my games. I have now gone through at least five major PC hardware upgrades or HDD replacements and three different OSes and have not lost a single game. Point being, whatever advantage disks might have had over digital downloads in portability is eliminated by proper backups.
Only thing I'd add is make sure it's on at least 2 different physical drives. Either external, mirrored raid, or the install files stored on your computer as well. Physical drives will fail, it's not a question of if, but when. If you have it saved in two different places you can always replace the bad drive without losing any data.
Posted April 09, 2016
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cogadh: When I first joined GOG, I used to burn the downloaded game installers to DVDs to keep a permanent, totally offline and portable backup. Nowadays, I keep an external hard drive loaded with my games. I have now gone through at least five major PC hardware upgrades or HDD replacements and three different OSes and have not lost a single game. Point being, whatever advantage disks might have had over digital downloads in portability is eliminated by proper backups.
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Sielle: Only thing I'd add is make sure it's on at least 2 different physical drives. Either external, mirrored raid, or the install files stored on your computer as well. Physical drives will fail, it's not a question of if, but when. If you have it saved in two different places you can always replace the bad drive without losing any data.
Indeed. I was oversimplifying earlier, but I actually have a "GOG downloads" directory on my PC that I manually keep up to date and is automatically backed up weekly with all my other personal files to the external drive connected to my router. If ever I have a drive failure, the GOG installers are never more than a week old. It would take a total catastrophe, like my house burning down, for me to lose my GOG stuff. Even then, it would only really be lost if GOG coincidentally went out of business on the very same day. I consider the GOG site a backup of my backup, rather than the primary source for my games.
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Community
General discussionDDigital Download v CD: Which is better?(52 posts)(52 posts)
(52 posts)