How to download games

You’ve recently bought a new computer, and now that you’ve invested all your savings in a gaming computer worthy of the name, you’d like to take action by downloading the latest PC games. You are therefore ready to dive into this new videogame adventure but, as a former console player, you are not very knowledgeable about what are the operations to be carried out to succeed in this intent: so put your trust in this tutorial of mine and hope for my help.

Well, if that’s the way it is, know that I can give you several tips about it. The first, and most important, is to contact the official platforms dedicated to the purchase of video games, as they are safe and reliable Internet sites for downloading games, both free and paid. How do you say? Don’t you even know one? Then it is a real good fortune that you have come across this tutorial of mine!

In short, are you ready to start? I bet this introduction of mine has intrigued you and now you can’t wait to find out more: that’s it, right? If the answer is yes, I recommend that you sit comfortably in front of your trusted computer and take a few minutes of free time to read carefully what I am about to tell you about. I am sure that, at the end of the reading, you will be absolutely satisfied with what you have learned and that you will want to share this information with a friend in need of a similar tip. Let it bet? But now let’s get to the heart of the matter immediately and let’s see together what are the platforms that I recommend you use to download games to your computer. I wish you a good reading and, above all, a good time!

Index

• Steam
• Origin
• Uplay
• Other platforms to download games

Steam

The most famous platform for buying and downloading computer games is Steam , a web portal created by Valve, a well-known software house developer of video games that also deals with the digital distribution of the same.

Steam is not only a virtual store, but also offers a software of the same name that allows you to manage the download of purchased and downloaded games, also offering the possibility for players to interact with each other via chat, forum and the possibility of joining multiplayer games in titles that support this mode.

It is therefore the most used platform and site when it comes to computer games; However, it must be clarified that the video games purchased on Steam are in digital format: once redeemed for free or purchased, they are transferred within the Steam game client . The games are then linked to the account created, so they can be uninstalled and reinstalled at any time.

Steam offers the possibility to download free games and buy paid games with a very large catalog divided by categories. Then refer to the left bar (located on the main page of its website ) to see the best-selling ( Best-selling ) and recently released ( New releases ) games section . In the top bar there is instead the Games drop-down menu which contains the main categories of Steam , such as Free to play (i.e. free games) and Early Access (these are games still under development but which is still possible buy and play).

The other most important categories of Steam are for example those relating to the genres of video games: Adventure, Action, Sports, Simulation and Strategy . Among the strengths of the platform, in addition to the availability of a large catalog, there is the presence of numerous sales and offers (sometimes with discounts that exceed 50%) for the purchase of games.

To download games from Steam you must first create an account from the official website : then press the Login button , located at the top right, and then on the word Enter Steam , in order to fill in the registration form . Once the operation has been completed and, after having also logged in, press the Install Steam button located at the top right and then on Install Steam now , to download the client on Windows .

You can also download the software for Mac and Linux , by pressing on the respective words you see on the screen.

The procedure for downloading Steam on Windows is as follows: start the downloaded SteamSetup.exe file by double clicking on it, press Yes in the Widnows User Account Control window. In the installation window, click the button  Next , select the language Italian and awards at Next and then click Install . Then press the Finish key and wait for the download for the necessary components to finish.

To download Steam from macOS , on the other hand, double-click on the downloaded dmg end, press the Agree button and then drag the Steam icon to the MacOS Applications folder . Now open the Launchpad and double-click on the Steam icon and press Open at the warning you see on the screen. In case of problems related to the download and installation of the client, I refer you to my guide dedicated to the topic in I have provided you with all the necessary instructions.

For both operating systems, once the download is complete, log in with your account data in order to view the platform’s virtual catalog. Then identify, through the internal search engine or through the categories, the game to download and press its name to see the card of the same.

To purchase a game, click on the Add to cart button , then click on Buy for me and, in the Choose a payment method drop-down menu , select the payment method you prefer ( PayPal, credit card, Skrill or Paysafecard ) ; then enter your billing information and click the Continue button to confirm the operation.

After purchasing a game, click on the word Library you see above, then on the game to download and then on the Install button . Then, if you wish, put the check mark next to the words Create a shortcut on the desktop and Create a shortcut in the Start menu to create a quick link and press the Next and Accept buttons to start the download.

Origin

Another platform widely used to download games on computers is the one developed by Electronic Arts: I am referring to Origin , a website and software for purchasing and managing video games in digital format.

Being a platform developed by Electronic Arts, the catalog of the same is only related to video games for Windows and macOS computers distributed by the US company (for example those of the Battlefield , Mass Effect and Titanfall sagas  ).

Conceptually, Origin’s operation is similar to Steam : you can go to its official website to view the complete catalog of titles that can be purchased ( Shop section from the left sidebar), but the client must be installed to download Origin and creating a free EA account .

The video games that are purchased are mainly in digital format and therefore the purchase is strictly linked to the account created. This is a solution that allows you to download, uninstall and possibly reinstall the game at any time.

To perform the operations mentioned, connected to the official website and presses the Register button located in the left sidebar, in order to fill out the form you see on the screen for creating an EA account . At the end, make sure that you have logged in automatically, otherwise press the Login item on the main page and log in with the newly created data.

Once logged in, presses the word Download that you can see in the left sidebar of the home page and then click on the Download item in the Windows or Mac box , to download the Origin platform on your computer and thus manage the download of the purchased video games .

The Origin installation procedure on Windows is as follows: download the OriginThinSetup.exe executable file , start it by double clicking on it, press the Install Origin button , check the wording I have read and accept the license agreement with the end user of Origin and then presses the Continue button and Yes , when prompted by the user account control window. At the end of the download, log in to the platform, indicating your account details.

On macOS , instead, start the downloaded dmg file ( Origin.dmg ) and then drag the Origin file into the macOS Applications folder . When finished, launch Origin  from the Launchpad  and click the Open button . After viewing the End User License Agreement window , click I Agree .

At this point, if prompted, type your macOS account password (the one you need to access the system) and customize Origin’s initial settings ( open Origin at login, automatically update Origin and my games and share hardware specifications ) , unchecking the boxes that do not interest you and finally press the OK button . At this point, the last step to take is the one related to access with the login data of your previously created account.

Once logged in to the platform, locate the game to download via the internal search engine or via the categories in the left bar and press the Add to game library button you see on the screen, then click  Download with Origin from the screen and finally on Next , to start the download.

To browse the Origin catalog you can also consult the Browse games section located in the left sidebar of the official website . Then click on the words All PC games and press on one of the sub-categories on the screen ( Action, Adventure, MMO, puzzle , for example), to filter the search.

Even Origin offers the opportunity to buy video games at discounted prices in specific sales periods: For a complete list of offers, presses on the item Offers located in the left sidebar on the home page. You can also download games for free thanks to the Offer the Company program : which allows you to get complete games (in addition to existing demos or trial versions) totally free.

A very popular feature of Origin is the ability to subscribe to the Origin Access service (€ 3.99 per month or € 24.99 per year) which guarantees unlimited access to The Vault , a digital library containing more than 100 PC games. The subscription also offers a 10% discount for purchases made within it. If you intend to take advantage of this service, I recommend that you connect to the Origin website , press the Origin Access item from the left sidebar and then click Start the free trial , to test it for free for 7 days.

Uplay

Another popular platform for purchasing and downloading games on PC is Uplay , a website and software for managing digital video games developed by Ubisoft Entertainment . In this case, it is therefore the platform dedicated to video games published by the famous French company.

Uplay can be used from its official website in order to browse the catalog and evaluate the purchase of games in digital format; to start the game the official client must be used and therefore the creation of a free account is required.

To perform these operations, connect to the official Uplay website and press the Login button , located in the upper right corner. Then click on the wording Create a Ubisoft account and fill out the registration form you see on the screen, indicating all the data required for the same. At the end of this procedure, return to the Ubisoft home page and click on Log in , to log in with the data of the account created previously, in case the login does not take place automatically.

To download the Uplay client , scroll down the main page of the website until you locate and click on the items Download Uplay PC and then Download Uplay for PC . The Ubisoft platform is not available for download on macOS.

The download procedure with the executable file started is as follows: click on the Yes button , on the language of your interest from the drop-down menu Please select a language (for example Italian ), on the items I accept , Install and finally on Next and Finish . To use the Uplay client , log in with your credentials.

The functioning of Uplay as a download management platform is the same as the other services mentioned: the video games purchased are strictly linked to the Ubisoft account and therefore can be downloaded, uninstalled and re-downloaded at any time.

To download a game on Uplay , locate the title of your interest from the Games section , click on its preview image and then press the Download button located on the left. Select the installation language from the relevant drop-down menu, press Continue and then possibly place the check mark on the items  Create a shortcut on the desktop and Create a shortcut on the Start menu, then pressing Continue .

As for the other features of Uplay , however, I would like to point out the presence of a special section dedicated to sales: from the home page of the website, click on the Deals section ,  to see the web page dedicated to offers. I therefore recommend that you filter your search, using the items in the Platforms drop-down menu in order to view the categories PC download (for the purchase of games in digital format) and PC DVD (for the purchase of games in digital format). physical format).

Other platforms to download games

The ones I told you about were some of the most popular platforms for downloading games, but there are others, such as the Microsoft Store and GOG . If the list indicated so far has not been able to meet your needs, I advise you to pay close attention to the following lines, to identify other similar solutions.

• GOG: The website com and the gaming platform for PC and macOS  GoG Galaxy  is less known than Steam , but just as worthy of mention. GOG was in fact born as a platform for the publication of independent video games made available without DRM protection systems   ( Digital Rights Management , in Italian  digital rights management) and has since evolved considerably since the CD Projekt development team achieved fame. international thanks to the saga of “The Witcher”. Now GOG is a very valid alternative platform to Steam, through which it is possible to buy computer games. The Gog Galaxy game clientit can be downloaded from the official website and allows you to manage all the games purchased on a single platform, also helping players in multiplayer interactions.
• Microsoft Store: this is another valid virtual store aimed at downloading and buying games for Windows 10. In addition to the purchase of famous video games also published on consoles, there are some that are downloadable for free. Games purchased through the Microsoft Store are in digital format.
• Humble Store: is another online store where you can buy video games for Windows, macOS and Linux much appreciated by gamers for the possibility of buying titles at discounted prices thanks to the presence of numerous packages ( Humble Bundle ) flexible both on the price and on the games included (i prices range from as low as $ 1). Also very popular is its Humble Monthly subscription service which, at a cost of $ 12 per month, guarantees access to a series of titles every time. Humble Store does not integrate a proprietary gaming platform as it is possible to link your account to the Steam client  .
• Mac App Store– if you want to download games on your macOS computer, you can go to this virtual store ; surely you will know it and have already used it to download applications. The titles present in it are of many genres and there are both free and paid, I’m sure you will find the one that suits your tastes.

You don’t play with your computer but do you use your console, such as PlayStation , Xbox or Nintendo ? In this case you must connect to the reference virtual store via the console itself or from a web browser. The reference virtual store for PlayStation consoles is PlayStation Store , for Xbox it is Xbox Game Store , while for Nintendo consoles you can go to the Nintendo eShop site .