jiegodose: Can I have multiplayer sessions between different platforms?
Yes. Owners of the GOG version can play multiplayer games with owners of the Steam version.
jiegodose: Is the game updated as in Steam? Or do I have to look forward the updates and manually install them?
This is more complicated; on GOG you have the choice between using the Galaxy client or using the DRM-free offline installers. With the Galaxy client, games can update themselves automatically, as soon as new patches are available there. With the regards to the offline installers, GOG is usually rather slow to update them (sometimes it takes more than a week after the patch was released for the Galaxy client), and they also do it inconsistently: Sometimes they provide a patch to download and apply to your existing installation, sometimes they only update the installers, so that you'd have to re-download and re-install the whole game. So if you don't mind using the "optional" Galaxy client, you're probably better off doing that than using offline installers, and you should be fine.
Sadly there is a significant difference between the service on Steam and on GOG regarding NWN EE. GOG gets all official patches just like Steam, but on Steam you also get access to the so called development builds, which are like mini patches, while you don't get those on GOG. Take a look at the
update history on Steam and compare: Everything named "Stable" also arrives on GOG, everything named "Development Build" is skipped for the GOG version. So the Steam version is currently at v8193.17, while the GOG version is at v8193.16. Ususally the development builds are just minor changes, and this year there were a couple of stable patches already, ensuring that the GOG version is not too far behind. But it's happened in the past that Beamdog only released development builds and no stable patch for a whole year, which meant the GOG version was more than a year behind.
That's something serious to consider here. Usually I'd recommend GOG over Steam, but in this case I'm not sure I can, because for NWN EE, update priorities are: Steam > GOG Galaxy > GOG offline installers,
BUT Buying the game on GOG has one advantage over buying it on Steam, in case that's relevant to you: On GOG you get the old original game, NWN Diamond Edition, as a free bonus when you buy the EE. On Steam you only get the new EE version. Although generally the EE tries to be compatible with all the old mods, there's a chance that some of them might only work with the original NWN Diamond and not with the EE anymore.
- So if you put great store in the game always being up-to-date, you don't mind DRM, and you can still wait for the next sale, I'd say better get it on Steam then.
- If, on the other hand, you put great store in custom content and mod compatibility, you are interested in getting the original version of NWN as well, you prefer DRM-free installers, and/or you want the game NOW for a cheaper price, get it on GOG.
