I apologize if this is already answered somewhere but I’m curious what exactly a fitgirl repack is? I know it’s a pirated version of a game but like is it just an installer or something? And if you imported the game into steam for example can you be “banned” or VAT (idr the term)
is it just an installer or something?
It’s a compressed installer to be precise. Usually crackers only put up the patch files, which is pretty useless for anybody wanting to pirate a game. Fitgirl repackages (and compresses) the game files together with the crack patches into a cracked installer, hence “repack”.
And if you imported the game into steam for example can you be “banned” or VAT (idr the term)
Nope, though it will look funny in your Steam Status there is nothing to worry about. After all for all Valve knows you could be using a renamed version of a legitimate App, for non-steam entries in steam only the .exe name is known, nothing else.
Just a word of warning: be careful when torrenting the games, while Valve will not ban you for using them game publishers are known to sue when catching you torrenting them (usually the upload part in the torrent is what gets people but the downloading is not 100% safe either). You should definitely look into how to safely torrent stuff before committing to it in order to avoid any nasty cease-and-desist letters flying in your door.
The warning part totally Depends on where you are . I’m not American nor Europeans. I’ll continue sailing the high seas 😎
The compression was already explained - I would add that if you’re not deep into scene groups, popular repackers are in general a safe choice, i.e. no malware included. Of course it’s never 100% safe, but in my opinion safer than picking from a list of torrents what could be the scene release.
I never had issues with fitgirl and Dodi, maybe other users can drop some more names that have proven to be reliable over a long time.
I’ll add that if you want to archive games forever, storing repacks is a good idea because of their extreme compression. From what I’ve observed, Fitgirl trends towards heavier compression while DODI trends towards faster install times.
KaOsKrew is another respected repacking group that you can trust.
I like how Kaos installer show you how much CPU, RAM and SSD is being used
Has anyone done a true up between those and a system specific hw monitor? If I was going to hijack CPU and download a shit ton of malicious binaries I’d want to obfuscate that, and adding a CPU monitoring window with fake values is a great way to deflect/create false confidence
Any sort of malicious activity that’s not bitcoin mining can be disguised easily within the background noise of normal CPU usage. If you’re getting pwned, assume you’re getting pwned for longer than the duration of the install program - any strenuous pwning could be spread out across hours or days if they really wanted. If you’re ultra-worried about whether repackers are trustworthy, you can always source clean game files and crack the game yourself.
Idk man dodi’s releasees seem to have the same size as fitgirl while also install faster and less CPU intensive when installing
They’re available as an option. You can source from any of Fitgirl, DODI, or KaOs if they have the game you want. Other repackers do exist and they’re all generally trustworthy, but those 3 put out a lot of content and have a good track record. ElAmigos is another good one that puts out a lot of releases.
It’s a cracked version of the game that has been heavily compressed to reduce download size. This is why the installer will eat a lot of CPU resources during installation. While you probably won’t be banned, I would generally avoid playing these games through steam as a precaution. Usually multiplayer doesn’t work normally anyways.
Playing through steam might be useful for linux users, because proton is on there (but idk if it works with self-added games).
+Patches provided with the one installer versus having to download multiple torrents with some of the patches not being actively shared.
+Lots of people sharing FitGirl repacks so better chance of finishing for those a little bit harder to find releases. This could just be a function of me using only public sites.
+Ease of install. It just works. I don’t think I’ve ever had a FitGirl install go bad. Or Dodi. But it can take for-fucking-ever especially if you choose the low ram option (I’ve tried it a couple of times).
If you get from a reputable site like 1337x.to you don’t have worry as long as you are also downloading from one of their reputable uploaders.
