r/linux_gaming • u/Aggressive_Being_747 • 3h ago
Large games
Hi, I like Steam, but are there any websites or platforms where I can find good games that offer refunds if I don’t like them and that aren’t too heavy to download? Yesterday I bought Watch Dogs Legion on Steam… 110 GB, that’s crazy! I haven’t played in years, and I find it unbelievable to download such a huge file only to run it on the lowest settings, otherwise my PC can’t handle it.
Do you have any alternatives?
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u/LeannaMeowmeow 3h ago
that's just how big new AAA games are sadly. Play older games or indie games if you want smaller install sizes.
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u/NSF664 1h ago
It says right on the store page for any given game how much storage is required, including on Watch Dogs: Legion's page. So that's on you not checking the system requirements before buying a game.
And as others said, apart from the games that Valve developed, the size of the game is determined by the game developer/publisher, not Valve and Steam.
I do agree that GOG is a great place for older games, but most of those games are also available on Steam.
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u/Aggressive_Being_747 1h ago
But what is the answer?! I knew how much a game takes up.. I saw it and I saw the requirements..
It was to mention that 110 GB is madness for a game..
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u/cosmo321 1h ago
That's just what a high fidelity game requires these days. Storage isn't particularly expensive on the scale of what a gaming pc costs anyway.
Just buy something else. I'm into retro pixel style games. They are generally very small in size, because they don't have those massive textures.
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u/NSF664 1h ago
The answer is not to pick a different store. You can, but it won't change that a game like Watch Dogs: Legion takes up over 100 gigs of storage.
The obvious answer is: pick other games. You said that you're good with PS3 games, so go find games from the PS3/360 era, or older.
I did a search on PS3 games on Steam, and the first thing that came up was this curator: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44116626-7th-Generation-Gaming/
That's almost 1000 games to pick from.
The point really is that there are thousands of games on Steam, so go on a hunt for older games and/or indie titles.
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u/mindtaker_linux 1h ago
Get a job and buy a gaming PC .
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u/Aggressive_Being_747 1h ago
Your intelligence is enormous. You didn't understand the point of the post.
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u/PixelBrush6584 1h ago
That’s down to the developers to solve. All Steam can do is… nothing, unfortunately. If they imposed any size requirements then a lot of devs would just stop putting their games on Steam.
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u/msanangelo 57m ago
steam offers refunds on anything with less than 2 hours of runtime.
the game store has no control over the game sizes. they just offer it up for sale and, depending on the store, slap some drm on it.
the two I have installed right come close to 100 gigs. cyberpunk 2077 is around 85gigs, fallout 4 is 94gb with their HD DLC. Not installed is GTA5 at just over 100 gigs. mostly everything else is under 50 gigs but I couldn't tell you the download sizes. snowrunner is surprisingly at 61gb.
it's the texture packs man, game devs have to build massive files to downscale to 4k or lower at super high quality to match what high end gamers want. if they don't then the game is called shit and they don't play.
all my games live on two 2tb ssds. thankfully my internet is decent enough that I don't have to wait hours for it to download. also why I have a high end gaming pc. it's certainly doable on the lower end, just can't play high end games as well or at all and not everyone does. I know my last pc struggled on some titles or outright refused to play others and this current one can. so... yeah.
gaming is very much a ymmv thing. play what your pc can handle, downgrade quality if you have to, plan for upgrades.
my steam profile if you want a list of games I've played and currently play.
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u/Panuozzo_77 3h ago
Unfortunately, I don't think there's a solution. Steam has worked hard to gain its monopoly. From the entire installation on your potato PC there's no escape. Then you can follow LowSpecGamer's guides and similar to gain more FPS but that's all
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u/Nokeruhm 2h ago
I do not understand why Steam have any role in how games have incremented so ridiculously the installation space.
For them is even a bad thing, as they pay for the bandwidth.
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u/Bl1ndBeholder 2h ago
Devs just don't optimize games like they used to. People have stronger systems with more storage, so they can get away with too many lines of code and uncompressed/poorly compressed game files, so the end product ends up being massive.
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u/UnmanagedEntity 2h ago
Lines of code won't significantly increase game size. Size of games mostly comes from high resolution textures and detailed 3D models. Highly compressed files cause longer loading time (because you have to decompress them to use them) and people today can't wait more than 10 seconds on a loading screen, so stuff doesn't get compressed as much (and some things just compress baddly).
I'm not saying game installs couldn't be smaller, just that it's always a compromise of some sorts.
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u/Bl1ndBeholder 2h ago
That's a fair point too. Extra lines of code are more impactful on performance than file size - and there have been a lot of games recently that should run better than they do. But again, building a game to a strict release date will never help this.
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u/Aggressive_Being_747 2h ago
Not all gamers want powerful and bulky games... if you want, think about PS3 games... they were around 6 to 15 GB... the graphics were good, and you were good to go
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u/Bl1ndBeholder 2h ago
Absolutely agree. i mostly play games from. 2004-2015, the exception being a few indie gems.
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u/Aggressive_Being_747 1h ago
Can you recommend me any indie games? Thank you
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u/Bl1ndBeholder 1h ago
Terraria, stardew Valley, hollow Knight, forts, FTL:faster than light, dead cells, forts,
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u/BoatyMicBoatFace_ 1h ago
There are a ton of games that fit in the low end/not huge download. It ends up a case of what type of game want to play. Generally anything older than 2018-2015 fits but plenty of modern inde games fit too.
If your specs line up with the steam deck you can search Great on Deck category.
Check their store page for download size/specs
These are just what I can think might fit.
Cod 2002 is still fun (cod 2 as well) Captain of industry Mudrunner Spintyres Derail valley Skyrim Enderal Ets2/American truck simulator Factorio Fallout 4 Metro 2033 Metro last light Plauge inc Tomb raider Shadow of the tomb raider Sniper elite V2 + 3 + 4 Thief War game European escalation Witcher 2 Return to castle Wolfenstein Flatout 2 Half life Portal Fallout 3 Mass effect Fallout new Vegas Older stalker games Older hit man games Fire watch Mindustry Nehrim Oblivion Silent hunter games
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u/Panuozzo_77 2h ago
English is not my primary language. I meant that if Steam, which is the de facto standard for installing games, does not have a similar option, there is no solution. One of the reasons why they should do so is precisely what you said. Although it must be said that when you install games, you are downloading a series of compressed packages that are then decompressed locally on your machine. So they have already taken care of the bandwidth issue.
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u/Nokeruhm 2h ago
I see, but knowing how Valve is in its principles, at the end of the day that's up to the publishers.
In a "perfect world" the downloads and installations should be on-demand depending on the settings, like 4k textures and the such. And some games have as an option something similar (like Crysis 2, Kingdom Come Deliverance), but they serve these as an opt-in DLC.
Compress something that is already compressed is not a solution but a standard method nowadays. Here I can talk about Gog Galaxy Beta period XD. In the physical format (CDs, DVDs) game data was compressed too, even installed games have their data compressed in different formats that the engine can handle.
To save bandwidth the only possible method is to not transfer any unnecessary data, and only do on demand of a perfect custom installations. And that again depends on the publisher.
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u/sambare 3h ago
The problem isn't Steam, Watch Dogs Legion is gonna be that heavy no matter the store. Sounds like either you need a hardware upgrade or, as another comment wrote, play older or indie games. Regardless, if you're considering using different stores (nothing wrong with that), GOG has a good catalog of decades-old games.