So some are treating this like it is an entirely brand new re-release. The truth is these games have been re-released also previously on GOG a few years back. Same exact games. The ones on Steam are no different in terms of the way they look and play. The one major thing the Steam versions have going for them however which would make a good choice for people who are wondering which versions to get are that the Steam ones are more streamlined in overall presentation. The games on GOG come as separate entries in your library. Things such as manuals, guidebooks, codebooks and other content are all downloaded manually on GOG. Some items even have to be extracted after being downloaded as they download in zip files. And then it would be a little cumbersome to search for the necessary documents when you need them each time. What GOG does have going for it though is that they are 100% DRM free titles.

Now where Steam shines as mentioned before is how streamlined they are with these games. You get a unified launcher for the gold box games. any games you own in the series will show up in the launcher. so you could launch say Archives Collection One and play Pool of Radiance instead, or maybe Al Qadim, as long as you own those also. Furthermore, documents, code wheels, and everything are accessible right in the launcher. no need to hunt them down. It's recommended to play in a windowed mode to have access to both the game and the launcher for your necessary resources, but the launcher has you covered with a variety of windowed resolutions to make things look nice. GOG on the flipside would require you you to manually go into dosbox to fiddle with these settings as the basic launch only gives you either fullscreen or a tiny window if you alt tab out. It can still work the way you want, but for those not looking to waste time setting things up and get right into the games, the Steam version has got you covered in the best way.

So some are treating this like it is an entirely brand new re-release. The truth is these games have been re-released also previously on GOG a few years back. Same exact games. The ones on Steam are no different in terms of the way they look and play. The one major thing the Steam versions have going for them however which would make a good choice for people who are wondering which versions to get are that the Steam ones are more streamlined in overall presentation. The games on GOG come as separate entries in your library. Things such as manuals, guidebooks, codebooks and other content are all downloaded manually on GOG. Some items even have to be extracted after being downloaded as they download in zip files. And then it would be a little cumbersome to search for the necessary documents when you need them each time. What GOG does have going for it though is that they are 100% DRM free titles. Now where Steam shines as mentioned before is how streamlined they are with these games. You get a unified launcher for the gold box games. any games you own in the series will show up in the launcher. so you could launch say Archives Collection One and play Pool of Radiance instead, or maybe Al Qadim, as long as you own those also. Furthermore, documents, code wheels, and everything are accessible right in the launcher. no need to hunt them down. It's recommended to play in a windowed mode to have access to both the game and the launcher for your necessary resources, but the launcher has you covered with a variety of windowed resolutions to make things look nice. GOG on the flipside would require you you to manually go into dosbox to fiddle with these settings as the basic launch only gives you either fullscreen or a tiny window if you alt tab out. It can still work the way you want, but for those not looking to waste time setting things up and get right into the games, the Steam version has got you covered in the best way.