Best option... Steam or GOG Freedom Force?

[Aratak]

My best regards to this fine community - it makes my heart swell to see it so vibrant after so many years (computer game years are much like dog years, sadly)!
Mrs. Aratak and I spent many happy hours playing, skinning, and designing hero files for this sweet little system.

After so many years of enjoying FF, my Danger Room got unsteady to the point that it was nigh-unplayable. After thousands of danger room games (Including a several month-long campaign played old-school RPG style with models, paper, and pen, then transferring to the Danger Room for hot seat battles) I just had to step away from this marvelous game.

Cut to several weeks ago, when I finally got a state-of-the-art gaming computer. Now I'm looking at Freedom Force again, and seeing that it appears to be playing on Windows 7 64 bit, so... Could I please get some opinions on what my best options are for restructuring the grandeur that was Freedom Force on my old XP machine.

Considering the scope of my old hero files/meshes/skins (a decent 10.3 GB of stuff), my questions for restructuring are:

1. Should I opt for the Steam version, the GOG version, or is there an advantage to my old discs?

2. Am I better off rebuilding onto FFvTTR or can I retain my files and use old-school FF? Is the Rumble Room on that superior to the Danger Room on the old FF? Are there gameplay differences?

Any ideas are helpful and welcome - and, again, kudos to you guys for keeping this incredible game alive!

[AfghanAnt]

I personally liked Steam. I got both games for under 5 bucks and i can delete and reinstall whenever i feel like it.

[tommyboy]

Hey, Mr. A! Good to see you back.
Get both games.
There is content and features that are exclusive to each, and both are dirt cheap now. Both have much to recommend them, and both have a tiny number of drawbacks. Cue the eternal argument as to which is "best". I still play both.
I know some people have posted difficulties in getting steam versions to play nicely with the editor, and some have reported problems with running mods in steam.
As far as I know, the GOG version is very close to duplicating the original FF/vr3 install.
But since I use neither myself, just old fashioned CD roms, I should probably shut up.

[AfghanAnt]

I know some people have posted difficulties in getting steam versions to play nicely with the editor, and some have reported problems with running mods in steam.

I think that is operator and operation system issues. I've never had any trouble with either on Vista or Windows 7.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I've bought the GOG version solely to examine it (haven't actually played it at all) and can find no difference whatsoever between the original version and this one, except for a different install path.  The editor probably won't like that, so some workaround may be required to get that going, but mods should be fine, apart from changing the path of any shortcuts.

[JKCarrier]

Welcome back, Aratak!

I agree with Tommy -- both games are dirt cheap now, so you might as well get both and see for yourself which you like better, and whether it's worth the effort to rework your files for the second game. Have fun!

[Outcast]

Welcome back Aratak.

I'm not really sure how the Steam version works, but if you always need to have internet access to play the game, then i think i would prefer a GOG version of Freedom Force. However, since i still have my cds, I haven't really tried any of them, so i can't really tell if there are also some disadvantages to a GOG version of Freedom Force.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Please note that GOG only has FFvTTR.  If you want both games, you might as well get the bundle from Steam.

[Aratak]

Many thanks. I'm back in business!

[detourne_me]

I know some people have posted difficulties in getting steam versions to play nicely with the editor, and some have reported problems with running mods in steam.

I think that is operator and operation system issues. I've never had any trouble with either on Vista or Windows 7.

Hmm, depending on screen resolution, Ffedit can cut off a few tabs and a side of the editor without any resizing options... But this happens only on my netbook.
Other than that, absolutely no issues using mods with the steam versions.

[Epimethee]

Welcome back, Aratak. I haven't nodded it extensively yet, but the GOG version of FFvsTTR hasn't caused any issue for me so far in Windows 7 64bits (in a virtual machine under Mac OS X).