To start off, I should probably lay out what it is that Good Old Games, or GOG, does. GOG is a site where you can download DRM-free copies of classic PC games that will be compatible with Windows XP and Windows Vista. Since you are just buying the games, there is no subscription fee for the site. Think of it more as an online store than as a service like Gametap. Although, you do need to create an account for the site in order to buy games, but it's mostly used for keeping track of your purchases so you can download again games that you've already bought. Also, since you actually own each game that you buy, you can download and install the game as much as you want, just like if you had bought a retail disc of the game.

And as an online store, GOG works excellently. When you click on the catalog to search for a game, you are instantly greeted by a sidebar telling what the current week's 10 best selling games are, along with a central menu telling the top rated games of the current week as well as the most recently released games. The central menu animates as you flip through the game options, and all menus display boxart for the games to give you a better sense of the games. Using the central menu you can narrow your game search by genre, which will then display the weekly top rated and recently released games for that genre. If you want to widen your search there is an option to view the entire site's game catalog, which can then be narrowed by genre, rating, price, publisher, developer, or alphabetically. Again, boxarts are shown to help you search, which personally I really appreciate since I'm not as familiar with most of the older PC games. Of course, if you know what game you're looking for, you can skip all the lists and just type the name of the game into the search bar at the top of the site.

Once you've found the game you're looking for, the game's individual site has all sorts of helpful information. It shows the game's genre, download size, original release date, developer and publisher, system requirements, the blurb from the back of the box, screenshots, all of the information you could possibly want about the game. It also includes reviews written by other GOG users. This is one of the perks of GOG having usernames. After you've played a game, you can go on the site and write up your own review with a rating out of 5 stars. It's a common feature for most online stores, but I found it especially helpful here since I'm unfamiliar with most of the games so reviews by other gamers are greatly appreciated. I should also mention that each game's page tells what bonus content you can download once you've bought the game. Every game lets you download the manual, but most games also offer bonus content like production artwork, hi-res wallpapers, and some even the game's soundtrack. Of the five games I've bought so far three of them, Fallout, Fallout 2, and MDK, have included the soundtrack, and all of them have artwork and wallpapers. It's a great and unexpected bonus that shows that the people running GOG are actually passionate about these classic games, and not just trying to make a quick buck.

GOG's name isn't just for show. Even though the site is still in beta, which means their library of games are still being built, with what they already have they live up to the "good" in their title. For most, games like Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics will be the main draws for buying from GOG, but there are many more. Some other highlights include the Descent series, Freespace 1 and 2, Giants: Citizen Kabuto, MDK 1 and 2, Sacrifice, Stonekeep, and many more. I've tested out all of the games I've bought on both a Windows XP and Windows Vista computer, and they all work perfectly. It's hard to fault GOG for not having more games yet, and the games that it does have are great, but I can't help but think of the possibilities for other games it should offer. Even just the Lucasarts library of adventure games like the Monkey Island series and Grim Fandango would make me the happiest gamer you ever did see, but I can't be too greedy since this is still just the beta. GOG is constantly updating its library of games, so it's probably just a matter of time until the other games I want appear, but you hear me GOG? Bring on the Lucasarts adventure games and you have a convert for life.

Now, it's great that GOG offers all these great classic games, but the whole thing hinges on the price. So far there appears to be two prices for games on the site: $5.99 and $9.99. Now, what if I told you that all of the games I've mentioned so far are in the cheaper $5.99 category. Well, they are. Having mostly played console games, I'm used to $10 being the sweet spot price for downloadable games, so being able to get Fallout for $6 seems like a steal. The general rule about which games are at which price revolves around the game's original release date. Games released in the year 2000 and before are priced at $5.99, and games released after the year 2000 are $9.99. I asked a representative from GOG if there were any plans to add more price points either above $9.99 or below $5.99 and the response was that GOG is currently very happy with just the two prices. And I'd say they have good reason to be happy.

There are two other minor details that, though small, made a big impact on me when I was shopping on GOG. First, when you delete a game from you shopping cart the page doesn't reload. I don't know why it bothers me so much on other shopping sites, but I hate it when I remove something from my cart and the page needs to completely reload. Well, on GOG when you select to remove a game the game disappears from your cart, but in real-time on the page without any reload. Why big sites like Amazon.com are unable to do this when GOG can do it in beta baffles me, but it makes the shopping process much smoother and is greatly appreciated.

The other detail is one that is of particular interest to us as gay gamers. When you fill out your user profile for the site, one of the spots to fill in is gender. Unlike most places that would just have a simple male or female option, GOG has 18 choices for gender, with several choices non-specific to either gender. The choices range from guy, gentleman, lady, and girl to funky monkey, Jedi, ninja, and pirate, so no matter how you identify you'll be able to find some way to express yourself. I'm a Jedi by the way.

Overall, Good Old Games is a great site that lives up to the promise of its name. While I'd love for it to offer even more games, it's only because what they do works so well. This is also still only the beta, and they're updating their game library every week, so it's just a matter of time before they are offering all of the classics. I'll keep you all posted for when Good Old Games is ready to come out of its beta closet. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go beat two Fallout games before the third one comes out next month.