Our Picks from GOG’s Big Spring Sale – Ars Technica

Many of the staff are big fans of the GOG game market, mainly for two reasons: the games are DRM-free, and there are many classic DOS games from the 80’s and 90’s.

GOG has been running its annual spring sales for a few days now. This time, we’ve worked with GOG to curate the Ars Technica anthology list. These are discounted games hand-picked by Ars staffers Samuel Axon and Lee Hutchinson that we think Ars readers might enjoy—assuming you haven’t already played them.

If you haven’t, discounts during this sale period range from 20 percent to 75 or 80 percent. Since they are mostly classics, they are generally not very expensive to begin with.

And they are all, of course, without DRM. You know, we like this approach. helps make your games portable across devices; There are no online requirements, there are no restrictions on the number of instances you can run simultaneously, and of course, it helps with long-term software maintenance efforts.

If you’d like to help support Ars, you can purchase these games directly through each game’s link below – Ars gets a discount on every purchase of these games made here.

Worms: Armageddon

Zoom in / Worms: Armageddon

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Worms Armageddon It really needs no introduction. He remembers gorilla? what about scorched earth? The Worms franchise has taken this budding game and turned it into something polished, professional, and full of personality. Between Team 17’s trademark British humor, impressive arsenal of weapons, and abundance of customization options, disaster It was arguably the pinnacle of the Worms franchise.

This Windows title is at 80 percent off, which brings the price down to just $2.99 From $14.99.

Limited edition Might and Magic 6-pack

Zoom in / Might and Magic 4 + 5: The World of Xeen

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For more than a decade, tile-based, first-person dungeon crawlers have been synonymous with RPGs on PC. There are many classics in this vein – you can’t talk about genre without mentioning Charm—but at this point, you can probably claim that the most popular series is Might and Magic. This bundle includes the first six games of the Might and Magic series, incl Book 1And portals to another worldAnd Tira IslandsAnd Xeen worldAnd Zen swords (and the mega mashup of the two Xeen games), and Mandate of Heaven. For the previous games in this collection, you’ll have to get out the graph paper — but for many of us, that’s like crawling under a warm, cozy blanket.

Originally priced at $9.99 for a six-game bundle, it’s now a PC game $2.49a savings of 75 percent.

Frostpunk: Game of the Year Edition

In this city survival strategy game released in 2019, players try to keep the lights and heaters on by carefully using their resources in an alternate version of the 19th century. They keep a city in the midst of an apocalyptic global cold by enacting morally questionable laws and making tough decisions that are sure to be universally unpopular with the starving, freezing citizens. It may be a modern title – nothing less – but it builds on the late ’90s city sim classics and combines them with a cool alternate history aesthetic. in addition to difficult—another basic tenet of the good old games.

Originally priced at $48.99, the game is now 72 percent off and is currently on sale. $14 at GOG.com for Mac and PC.

Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition

It was launched in 2020 on PC after the release of 2017 PlayStation 4. Horizon Zero Dawn It is a graphical display that still manages to work on many older systems. While its core gameplay is standard open-world fare – go here, watch a cut-scene, go there, kill some bad guys, do some miscellaneous quests in variations around a sprawling map, etc. – the franchise’s popularity among Ars editors (talk Most of the guys on the team reported it heavily on Slack) It has to do with attractive sci-fi settings and concepts. If you love open world games at all, this is a must have.

This Windows title is now available for $16.49 on GOG.com67 percent off its regular price of $49.99.

Rim World

Three survivors of a crashed space plane begin building a colony on the edge of space in this sandbox simulation game inspired by… firefly And Dune. Apart from the sci-fi angle, this game is known for its amazingly deep systems, interactions, and simulation. Like the game that inspired it (Dwarf castle), it’s scary to get in, but give it a few hours to settle in your mind, and it’ll be a few more hundreds of you before you know it.

Originally priced at $34.99, you’ll enjoy a modest 20 percent savings, lowering the price to $27.99 On sale in the spring at GOG.com for Mac, PC and Linux.

Riven: The sequel to Mystery

Zoom in / Riven: The sequel to Mystery

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Well, we’ve all played almost all of them mystery. The graphic adventure game prequel made one of the most compelling arguments for CD and spawned an entire genre that continues to this day. It was probably the first computer game to be ported to mainstream popularity.

But not as many people play tornAnd here’s a controversial statement for you: It’s better than mystery. The music is great, the environments rendered feel like an alien world that’s at once surreal and utterly real, and the puzzles are beautifully designed and compelling – and we’re not talking about the nonsensical “use chicken on a reel” solutions of some other adventure games. These make sense in the world they’re set in, with a bit of abstraction.

torn is now $2.39down from its list price of $5.99 for Mac and PC.

Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Zoom in / Star Trek: Bridge Commander

Starship simulation games are almost as old as PC gaming itself — some of us remember the old Star Trek mainframe, after all. While there have been quite a few commercial stabs at the genre in the Star Trek universe (Starfleet academy And Klingon AcademyFor example), Bridge commander It is one of the best and most immersive. It is one of the latest games based on next generation Period, believe it or not, this is the latest Star Trek franchise you’ve got from space.

Star Trek: Bridge Commander is now $7.4925 percent off its original price of $9.99 for PC.

tyranny – Standard Edition

Baldur’s Gate. Icewind Dale. Plane doom. tyranny Stands tall among the greats in the analog CRPG tradition. Made by Pillars of eternity And Fallout: New Vegas Developers Obsidian Entertainment, This Software Offers A Twist: You’re the villain — well, sort of. It’s a complex morality story with interesting characters and even more interesting choices. Does it have the best turn-based combat system ever? No, but that is not the point. Prepare to read a lot It’s well written dialogue, though.

tyranny Now discounted by 75 percent, with the price raised from $29.99 to $7.49.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Strains

Vampire: The Masquerade – Strains

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Part of the same proportions and proportions tyrannythis older title adapted the popular pen-and-paper role-playing franchise about vampires – you guessed it – into a classic 3D RPG full of great dialogue and immersive systems that draw inspiration from the likes of system shock And Ultima Underworld. If you played computer games in the late 90s and early 2000s, you probably know about this game and its influences. But this is the time to reconsider, because the franchise will soon be resurrected in the world of PC gaming for the first time in ages.

blood sucker for Windows is now 50 percent off its list price of $19.99, making it just $9.99 On sale in the spring.

Wing Commander 1+2

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wing commander retailers to $5.99 For Mac and PC.

Ars Technica’s picks on GOG

If you want to refer back to this list later after the sale is over, GOG has put together a landing page for this Ars Technica Group On their website you can visit at any time.

Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from the links in this posting through affiliate programs.

Listing image by GOG