Five Major PC Games Get Discounts And Go DRM-Free On GoG

pc gaming — A young man playing computer games. Reuters/Stringer

Ever the champion for DRM-free games, CD Projekt Red’s digital distribution store for PC Games, GOG has announced the addition of five, high profile titles to its catalog of DRM-free titles. The newly added titles include “Saints Row 2,” “Saints Row: The Third,” “Metro: Last Light Redux,” “Darksiders 1” and “Darksiders 2.”

The announcement was made on the GOG official website, and represents the first time any of these titles have been made available DRM-free. To commemorate the release, the games are offered on sale with generous discounts ranging from 50-75 percent off. The team at GOG also performed optimisation on the notoriously buggy PC port of “Saints Row 2,” to ensure it runs well on modern PC’s.

“Today we do our part to unchain five major titles (each brilliant in its own way) from every tiniest bit of DRM that they've ever known. That means they're being released completely DRM-free for the very first time, right here on GOG.com,” reads a statement on the website.

Three of the five releases are published by German-based Deep Silver, so it’s perhaps a little strange that “Metro: 2033 Redux” was excluded, considering the fact that it’s sequel, the excellent “Metro: Last Light Redux” is part of the deal. The highlight of the releases is arguably “Saints Row: The Third,” an open world crime simulator which helped catapult the series into the public consciousness, and establish an identity for the franchise distinct from the “Grand Theft Auto” games that inspired it.

Also excellent choices are “Darksiders” and “Darksiders 2,” developed by the now defunct Vigil Games, in cooperation with comics legend Joe Madureira. Both titles feature action-adventure combat, platforming and puzzle solving similar to Nintendo’s “Legend of Zelda” series. Originally published by defunct publisher THQ, Nordic games acquired the IP rights shortly after the publisher went bankrupt.

Those angling for even more “Darksiders” can take solace in the fact that the game’s new owners appear eager to continue development of the franchise, as reported by GameSpot in May 2014. However, it’s unclear what involvement writer and director on “Darksiders 1,” Joe Madureira will have on the project, as Polygon reports he’s working on turning his “Battle Chasers” comic into a videogame.