Best client
Origin. I can buy games, install games, and launch games on it at any moment in time as long as an internet connection is up. Something that Steam with its massive history of being a video game selling platform still cannot do after a decade and a half.
Galaxy 2.0 is shaping up to be good, but the current one's UI is not too intuitive.
B.net for me feels like less of a launcher and more like a giant self-promo.
Epic can be good, but currently, it is too much feeling like an alpha still.
UPlay… I just don't like it. Back then it never wanted to work/connect for me, did not bother since then.
I never saw the Bethesda Launcher, so no comment there.
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Origin. I can buy games, install games, and launch games on it at any moment in time as long as an internet connection is up. Something that Steam with its massive history of being a video game selling platform still cannot do after a decade and a half.
You mean Steam's enforcing of games being up-to-date when playing on-line? Or that Steam only allows to start games on one machine, one OS user account, at the same time?
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I mean that Steam servers can still randomly decide to not work and they have no redundancy or backups. That it is scheduled to go down every week (tell me one global online service beyond Steam that still does that). That its servers can still just decide that they are not in the mood to transfer data and you can pray that switching fixes it. That its post-install scripts can get hung up indefinitely to this day, preventing game launch. It is the only still existing platform I know that ever does this.
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As a 7 year Steam user, I'm curious and have some questions:
I mean that Steam servers can still randomly decide to not work
What kind of servers?: Store, chat, download, multiplayer, workshop, cloud saves?
I personally have only had rare issues with the chat, and then rare store issues, especially when seasonal sales start. I've only ever played one game with Steam-hosted multiplayer servers and it seemed ok.
and they have no redundancy or backups.
With what exactly? There's lots of different download servers in major regions. I've used download servers from US west to east coast with no problems except restarting a download on a game's day 1 launch with 200K players downloading at the same time. I dont think they'd recently open up their multiplayer network (servers aside) free to devs if it wasnt redundant.
That it is scheduled to go down every week
At what time? I know that 10am Pacific Time is when stores & sales get updated, but I've never experienced Steam going down.
That its servers can still just decide that they are not in the mood to transfer data and you can pray that switching fixes it.
I've never had that issue with cloud saves. Referring to Steam hosted multiplayer servers?
That its post-install scripts can get hung up indefinitely to this day, preventing game launch.
What OS do you have? With Win 7 and 10 such a hang has happened to me a few times ever, and only once did I need to validate files/reinstall because post-install scripts kept failing. They've consolidated the shared runtimes and DX install packages so they're not duplicated over games.
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What kind of servers?: Store, chat, download, multiplayer, workshop, cloud saves?
Yes. :) By that, I mean any of those. Most usually the community servers and the storefront. The CS:GO servers are always up. That underage online casino is the only thing they seem to have built good redundancy for, so it is never down.
With what exactly? There's lots of different download servers in major regions.
The community and the storefront. They have servers for game files all over the world, but only one per region for the store and apparently one globally for the community.
At what time? I know that 10am Pacific Time is when stores & sales get updated, but I've never experienced Steam going down.
Just last week at that scheduled time I had a community server outage for over 10 minutes. As usual.
I've never had that issue with cloud saves. Referring to Steam hosted multiplayer servers?
No, to game download servers. I am switching between three all the time because at random intervals they decide to upload at 10 kB/s or have 5-minute 0 kB/s periods before sending data again. And only them. No other service, including other game stores, ever do this.
With Win 7 and 10 such a hang has happened to me a few times ever, and only once did I need to validate files/reinstall because post-install scripts kept failing.
It happens on any Windows versions. Currently, the New Vegas boards yet again have a bunch of topics like that because that game is especially prone to do it.
By the way, reinstall unnecessary and an overkill, you just need to delete the InstallScript.vdf file and run the game again. It is a Valve script file format, but like the Steam code itself, it is a buggy mess. Again, no other platform does this and somehow they work and launch games just fine. I have no idea why Valve isn't throwing it out.
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The poll explicitly states "GOG Galaxy", not just "GOG", so I wouldn't count this option as "no client" 👀
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My top five:
I still prefer no client. I use GOG Galaxy mainly as an easy way to download offline installers and the extras, but I do use it if the game has Galaxy specific features like achievements.
Out of all the clients though, I still find Steam the least intrusive and it has the most features. I keep the client in small mode only showing games I have installed. Having a web browser in the overlay is very useful, especially when playing games like RPGs where I like to take notes. I open a Google doc in the overlay and can switch to it with the press of a button to write down notes.
All the other clients like to have big fat pictures/icons/banners/tiles, which when you have lots of games becomes a pain to navigate. Their overlays only show you your friends lists and game information like achievements. Galaxy has a list mode with three different sizes. Uplay also has a list, but it's only available in one size, with or without icons and doesn't show many games per "page." Origin only has three different sizes of tiles available, the smallest of which is still to big for me, and I only have a little over 30 games there. If I had 700+ games on Origin as I do on Steam, Origin would be a nightmare to use.
As I said above, I use Steam in small mode. It takes up a small part of the bottom right of my screen and I have it sized to show 32 games in its window. If I resize the other clients to the same size as Steam, Galaxy in list mode at its smallest size shows 20 games (12 in the smallest grid setting). Uplay in list mode shows 12 games, 8 in list mode with icons, and 6 in the smallest tile mode. Origin can only show 6 games in its smallest tile mode.
Another thing I don't like about Origin is that it insists on setting its helper services to automatic startup and running them all the time, where the others set them to on demand and will start them when needed and stop them after closing the client.
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I would vote for "I don't give a damn, but the microsoft's client is terrible and who worked on it should feel ashamed"
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I think the Origin is the best client. It looks good, works well with no bugs as far as i know. The settings all work nicely and no trouble like on Steam. It also has prices in SEK which is really good, makes games cheaper than on Steam. Also really good and cheap offers.
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