Better lay low for now.. Otherwise it will be huge issue if PAS rule the country..

Digital game retailer Good Old Games has denied that changes in its privacy policy have any link to the recent Australian censorship of The Witcher 2, the forthcoming game from sister company CD Projekt RED.

As we reported recently, there has been speculation that a move by the company to cease tracking its customers’ regions based on IP addresses (instead allowing them to specify their own location) was specifically designed to allow Australians to purchase the uncensored edition of the game.

Trevor Longino, the head of PR and marketing at Good Old Games, denied the allegations, telling Gamasutra that the policy change "has nothing specific to do with Australia in particular. Our new policy simply reflects the way we think global digital distribution should be."

"We're not stupid, of course and realize that some users may abuse this to obtain a version of a game that is not approved by their local Certification Board," he said.

"GOG.com has always been about giving our users the power of choice; if they willingly choose to violate their local censorship laws, we can't condone that," he explained.

"Given how easy it is to circumvent the protections that most retailers use (like geo-IP location), no one can control it, and we don't think our approach is inherently more open to exploitation than any other. We trust our users not to pirate our games, and we trust that they won't abuse this new feature either," he added.

The explanation doesn’t hold much weight with commentators like Tim Colwill, who runs the lobby site R 18+ Games.

"I think it's a great move by Good Old Games...everyone knows what it's really about, but as long as GOG continues to deny it, they can't really call them on it," he told Gamasutra. "It's very politically charged at the moment for GOG's PR people, I imagine.”

Colin Jacobs, of Electronic Frontiers Australia, says that the move by GOG "highlights the absurdity of the current system," which refused to classify the game because it fell outside of the maximum MA 15+ rating. He says that, legally speaking, GOG and its Australian customers have nothing to fear.

"There's still a difference between buying a box overseas -- or getting something by mail order -- and downloading it," he said. "The former is importation, which is covered by laws dating back to time immemorial. This includes censorship laws. Downloading, on the other hand, is not covered. You can still face penalties for owning illegal content (such as child pornography), but not for downloading unrated content."

Australian customers need not fear that fibbing about their location will lead to any repercussions from GOG: the company has no way of verifying a customer's location anymore.

"We don't make money by spying on our users," said Longino. "As part of this, we're no longer keeping their IP addresses geo-IP information on record. We don't need the info, so why keep it?"

Less publicized has been the other side effect of GOG’s policy change –- the ability for any customer to choose the region with the lowest prices. This again appears to be a win for Australians, but also for Europeans, as games are frequently sold in both regions at much higher prices than in the US and UK.

The Witcher 2 is currently the only game offered for sale by GOG where the price varies according to the region it is purchased from. The company says that the higher prices in Australia and Europe are the result of "legal obligations with distributors," and they already offer what they call a "Fair Price Package," which compensates Australian and European customers with store credit.

"By releasing The Witcher 2 DRM-free on GOG.com, by offering our Fair Price Package, and by respecting and trusting our users, we're making a solid test case for treating PC Gamers the way they would like to be treated," said Longino. "This has performed very well for us so far, and it looks like it's going to continue to make waves in the community as we keep growing."

Given this philosophy, it’s not hard to envisage the scrapping of regions as the next logical step, a public pretense kept up only for the sake of those retail distribution contracts. Whatever the case, no-one seems to be complaining.

Even our craziest promos have to end someday. That time is coming up with The Witcher 1: Enhanced Edition's crazy 50% discount for the first two weeks after its release on GOG. Here's your last chance to get the first episode of the Witcher saga DRM-free for half the price! The two week promo ends tomorrow 24th of May 10:59 GMT (6:59 AM EDT), so if you haven't picked it up yet, make sure you do!

Can raptor be played say Hrap or something? Would love to play it on an arcade stick rather than controller pad.... ahh the memories.

how? any luck?

how? any luck?

Stainless Games, the independent developer known for creating classic vehicular mayhem titles Carmageddon and Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now, have announced that they've reacquired the rights to that franchise and are in pre-production on a proper successor:

    "Carmageddon has returned to its Indie developer roots, and the time is right to bring the game to a new audience.” said Patrick Buckland, CEO and Stainless co-founder. “Originally an ambitious title that tested the hardware limits of its day, we’re excited that the game will finally get the showcase it deserves on today’s platforms.”

    “Carmageddon: Reincarnation will feature the same black humour and comic violence that made the original game such a success.” said Neil Barnden, Executive Director and Stainless co-founder, “All the laughs, the crazy power-ups, and extreme destruction will return. We will make sure the existing fans get what they want and expect from a Carmageddon game, and a new generation discovers the delights of sliding into a Cunning Stunt.”

    “I was in the war!” Patrick added.

Carmageddon: Reincarnation is being created as a digital download for release sometime in 2012. It seems Stainless is looking for a partner/publisher to help make that happen.

CD Projekt-owned classic games-on-demand service Good Old Games has added Electronic Arts to its list of publishing partners, the company announced Thursday.

Over twenty-five PC games have been licensed from the publisher, with three -- Wing Commander: Privateer, Dungeon Keeper and Ultima Underworld 1+2 -- available immediately.

Three more games will be made available by the end of the month: Crusader: No Remorse, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Magic Carpet.

While the remaining titles were not announced, CD Projekt was careful to clarify that two of its most requested titles, System Shock and Syndicate, were not part of the deal, explaining that "the rights to those games are scattered between a lot of people, so it's quite a huge legal puzzle."

The Good Old Games catalog currently sits at over 325, with 40 announced publishers on board, the company said.

You may recall that earlier this year Electronic Arts shut down a number of Ultima IV remakes, but wouldn't publicly say their reasoning for it. After all, EA was well aware the game was widely available on the Internet for a long time, and several indie developers had made remakes or reworked the old code to work better on modern operating systems. Today they revealed why: because they wanted to give it away free as part of its 30 year anniversary of the series.

To that end, EA and BioWare Mythic are offering a free PC download of the classic RPG Ultima IV, one of the most heralded RPGs in gaming history. The download is available at the newly launched Ultima heritage site, www.UltimaForever.com.

For now, the Ultima Forever website offers the download for Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar, and some slight information on EA's MMO Ultima Online. Hopefully they will offer more information on other classic Ultima games as well as Ultima Underworld in the future.

And on a related note, Good Old Games is offering classic PC editions of Ultima Underworld and Ultima Underworld II. The games  have been re-mastered for current PC operating systems and are available today on GOG.com. Additional re-mastered Ultima titles will be available on GOG in the future. Wing Commander: Privateer and Dungeon Keeper are also available today. In all, 25 classic EA games are coming to Good Old Games.

But but... www.UltimaForever.com turned out to be an invalid website.

Gaming industry’s legend invites you to play a game that was way ahead of it’s time.

Try this masterpiece by the one and only Sid Meier. In Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri you’re one of the survivors of the UNS Unity, a seedship designed to colonize a far star system. You wake up after the long cryogenic sleep and discover that someone murdered the ship’s captain. The crew divides into groups of adversaries, of which you choose one of the seven survivor factions. Ally or wage war with them for supremacy over the new planet. With lot’s of customization, research and deep gameplay possibilities you can tweak every part of your units, armors, weapons, you name it! And with tons of useful technology to research in different categories (Conquer, Explore, Build and Discovery) you have many ways to achieve your goals. Choose your faction and play the ultimate Civilization in space!

3D Realms spin-off Apogee Software is offering its legacy content in a new digital storefront launched this week, including titles in the Duke Nukem and Rise of the Triad franchises.

The online store is operated through e-commerce solution provider Digital River, which also runs digital game storefronts for THQ, Capcom and Electronic Arts, among others.

The company is positioning the new store as a return to its roots: the original Apogee Software distributed its games digitally under a variant of the shareware model, offering the first "episode" of each title for free and charging for the follow-ups.

"Apogee fostered young development teams creating a global audience through its digital distribution platform," said Apogee CCO Terry Nagy. "Apogee will continue its tradition by providing a platform for new developers to access a global market...our online store being the first step in this direction."

The store currently offers the same titles the publisher distributes through CD Projekt's Good Old Games store, namely Duke Nukem 3D, Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project, Rise of the Triad: Dark War, Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold and Blake Stone: Power Strike, for $5.99 each. The shop also offers all of the games in a collection with extra bonuses for $19.99.

As the last release from the first batch of the huge deal with Electronic Arts, we’re giving you a chance to become a wizard that needs to save the world.

Magic Carpet is an extraordinary action shooter game from the acclaimed Bullfrog Productions. All magic wielders are battling between themselves for the most valuable resource (no, not oil) - mana. Casting huge meteor showers or invoking a terrifying thunder storm, one could summon a castle in the middle of an ocean or just create a volcano right on top of this little harmless village. If you’re not the type of guy that likes to let the hell loose you could always just throw fireballs here and there or just summon a massive skeleton army to plow your way through the plethora of hostile creatures. Apart from other wizards and genies fighting you over the oh so precious mana, you’ll encounter various fantasy monsters ready to devour you (like a hydra or a dragon) or convert mana into more monsters (like the crabs do ).

Apart from this awesome flying-carpet action you can slow down a take a look at the normal lives of the townsfolk to admire the normal day to day activities that the AI performs. And if we’re on the subject of AI, the one controlling the opposing wizards is exceptional even when looking from today’s perspective.
If you ever wanted to live the life of a carpet-zooming wizard now you can! Want to do much more than just sing-along “A Whole New World” with the prince and the princess? Then this is the game for you!

Double Fine Productions now owns the publishing rights to its cult hit 2005 action-adventure game Psychonauts, and will directly benefit from all future sales.

That is according to senior gameplay programmer Anna Kipnis, who Tweeted the news on Tuesday afternoon.

According to separate Tweets from Kipnis, the publishing rights for the game "reverted" to Double Fine, and she suggested that its contract with previous publisher Majesco has expired.

Note that the only change here is Double Fine's ability to publish the original game: the actual IP rights to the Psychonauts franchise belonged to the company from the beginning, and it is free to create additional games in the series.

In the near future, all digital sales of Psychonauts -- including those on Steam and the Xbox Live Marketplace -- will directly benefit Double Fine, according to Kipnis.

[Update: Double Fine head Tim Schafer has clarified this new arrangement to Gamasutra, saying that while rights have reverted, the company is not yet going to receive all the money for the game. Kipnis' Twitter post was the result of "an excited team member jumping the gun a little bit." Schafer told us this in an email:

"It's true the publishing rights have reverted to Double Fine, but there are some more deals that need to be worked out and contracts that need signing before that actually means anything, financially. After that's all squared away, we will have some fun stuff to announce! (And no, it's not Psychonauts 2.)"]

hmm...tempting...does steam version of fallout 1+2 is the same as gog??
i know gog version usually superior...but i would very much preferred it on steam...

We’re back with Funbox releases and today we have a game that will not only satisfy your need of great retro games, but also can be enjoyed by the youngsters.

Litil Divil is an action adventure game with unique comic design and memorable characters thanks to which the game aged gracefully. As Matt the unlucky devil, you have been sent to a hellish maze from which you have to retrieve the Mystical Pizza of Plenty. The gameplay consists of two key elements: the first one is the maze in which you have to find gold, equipment and various rooms filled with puzzles or action sequences. The second element is when you reach an interesting point in your pizza-seeking perambulation and either have to solve a puzzle or beat a minigame. Even judging by the title you can easily see that the game is kid friendly, so this can be the perfect opportunity to inculcate your kiddos with an appreciation of the Good Old Game

yay bought fallout 1, fallout 2, fallout tactics on gog.

spent many hours on those game in the past.

now i spending usd 8.97 for all 3 games.