Gog Galaxy 1.1 with rollback and new installation options

Everyone is on Steam it seems these days if they are gaming on PC but there are several other platforms available besides Steam. There is uPlay and Origin for instance which are managed by Ubisoft and EA respectively.

Gog is different from all these platforms as it does things quite different. Initially launched as a platform to resurrect old games so that they can be played on new versions of Windows, the service has evolved over time to become more than that.

One of the unique features of it is its strict no-DRM policy. You can download any game from the service and install it on your local system without having to install a third-party client first.

That does not mean that Gog is not offering one. The company's Galaxy client is an optional program that customers can install on their systems to benefit from additional features.

We reviewed the initial beta version of the client when it launched which was rather bare bones at that time. Today's update to version 1.1 changes that by introducing a number of new, interesting and even unique features to the client.

Rollbacks have been integrated into Galaxy which enable you to remove patches from games. While it is often not necessary to do so, patches may introduce issues at times and the rollback option ensures that you can go back to a previous state to continue playing it.

While you can still disable auto-updating to enable rollbacks on game profile pages in the client, you can do so now as well during installation.

Another interesting option added to the latest version of the client is the ability to switch interface languages.

Many games are offered in different languages, English, German and French for instance. While Galaxy may offer you the English version of a game by default, you can now select the desired language during installation of the game.

In addition to that, you may pick a different default directory for it and disable auto-updating as well which enables the rollback function. The client highlights the required disk space as well on that page now.

Another improvement is the option to pause and resume downloads and installations of games at any time. If you need to bandwidth elsewhere for instance, you can simply pause the download and resume it at a later point in time.

The team added several options to Galaxy 1.1 that improve how you use the client. You may start games with a double-click on them in the sidebar which improves that process significantly.

If you have friends on Gog, you may use the new friend search to find them easily and add them to your list of friends.

Note: You need to enable "receive preview updates to test upcoming features" in the Galaxy client to update to Galaxy 1.1 Beta.

Closing Words

Gog Galaxy is completely optional. If you don't want to use it you don't have to, but the features that get added to it may make it worth it in the long run as it improves the installation process and provides you with one-click access to all installed games.

If you have not tried Gog yet you should give it a try if you are interested in games. I for one prefer to buy games on Gog over Steam and other services.

Now You: Do you play games? On which platform?