Tuesday, 20 July 2021

If you're tired of the Epic Games Launcher being awful, try this.

The Epic Games Store is a pretty good place from which to get the best PC games. There are weekly freebies, regular discounts, and regular voucher codes for even more discounts. But the launcher isn't that hot and you might well be thinking you're just stuck with it and you'll have to make do.

Or you could try Legendary. This third-party tool provides full access to your Epic Games library without the requirement of using the Epic Games Launcher. It does, however, require diving into the terminal and doing a bit of command line. But it's nothing too crazy and it uses almost no system resources.

It's also the backend to a third-party launcher, if you prefer to avoid using the terminal. And it's a better launcher than the one Epic Games made, which is why it exists at all. Here's what you need to know about Legendary and the Heroic Games Launcher.

Legendary replaces the Epic Games Launcher entirely

So what exactly is Legendary? Simply put, it's a cross-platform tool that allows complete management of your Epic Games library on Windows and Linux through the command line. You might be thinking that sounds a little convoluted, but when you get to grips with it you actually find an incredibly powerful tool that gives you full control.

The Windows version of Legendary is an executable, and to use it you have to make sure you open the folder it lives in within the terminal. That's because you don't install Legendary, but you call upon it when you need it from PowerShell with the ./legendary command.

By default though it will create a manifests folder on your C:/ drive regardless and this is where the default downloads will go. But unlike the regular Epic Games Launcher, you can download to different locations on your PC on a per-game basis without having to create a library folder. And to then play you can either launch games through Legendary or just open the executable. Or maybe get even more creative and build yourself some batch files to open your games.

Legendary doesn't bypass the Epic Games DRM, though, and is not a tool for piracy. As it's called upon, it will open a browser tab and ask you to allow a game access to your Epic Games account before it opens. There is a command to then force offline play, but most of the time you probably won't use it.

There's way too much to get into in a single post, but the good news is that Legendary has a brilliant built-in help tool that guides you through everything from authenticating with Epic to managing your files, pulling updates, syncing saves, and everything in between.

Authentication takes place in your web browser and no information on your account login details is stored by Legendary. It instead sends you to a page that generates a unique API code for access to your account, which you then pass to Legendary. It's good only for your existing library; no purchasing of games can be done, not even the weekly free titles.

The main commands you're going to use are ./legendary launch (game), legendary install (game) and legendary list-games. Removing games substitutes install for uninstall. Easy. You do need to run the list-games command before installing, though, as you don't use the game name to install it. In the Epic Games library everything has a unique identifier. Sometimes a word, other times a seemingly random mess of numbers and letters. But you need this to install.

If you're familiar with using command line either on Windows or Linux then the operation of Legendary won't feel strange at all. You can modify the actions with options, for example, adding --base-path d:/legendary is something I add to each install to make sure it goes in the specific folder I want it to. It takes a little bit of reading and a little bit of learning commands, but that never hurt anyone and the control it gives you is fantastic.

Heroic Games Launcher replaces the command line

Legendary, Heroic? You're getting the theme here, right? Heroic Games Launcher is a GUI app built on top of Legendary, useful for those who like the sound of avoiding the Epic Games Launcher but would still rather not use the terminal. And that's fine, because even though it's a community tool and you don't get everything you can do with Legendary in it, it's still really good.

One particular strength of both of these is that you can download more than one game at a time. While the Epic Games Launcher follows Steam, and even the Xbox Series X, Heroic and Legendary can download multiple games at once. In Heroic, you have a setting that can adjust how many workers to use when downloading. After that you just click install on the games you want and let them go. In Legendary, you just need to use something like Windows Terminal so you can open a new tab and get to installing.

The Heroic Games Launcher isn't as polished visually as the official Epic offering, but it hardly looks bad and it's a worthy alternative. With both of these tools you can easily switch if you already started with the official launcher, too, with an import/sync function built into Legendary to hook into already installed games.

The power of open source software

Even though the Epic Games Launcher has come a long way since its first release, it still feels a bit too much like Epic just does the bare minimum rather than try to actually build a great tool. They're not alone, but it's a popular enough place to buy games that it does matter to us.

The open source community has come to the rescue, and particularly if you're on Linux this is a tool to have in your arsenal. The fact a Windows version also exists is great, because we shouldn't have to just accept a sub-par experience. If you wished you could do more with your Epic Games library, you can with Legendary.

Both Legendary and Heroic Games Launcher are available to download through GitHub, so if, like me, you were looking for something better, give them a shot.



Related Posts:

0 comments:

Post a Comment

ShortNewsWeb

Blog Archive

Categories

'The Woks of Life' Reminded Me to Cook With All the Flavors I Love (1) 10 Scary Podcasts to Listen to in the Dark (1) 11 Ways to Automate Your Life (and Get Back More Free Time) (1) 13 of the Best Spooky Episodes From (Mostly) Un-Spooky Shows (1) 13 Spooky Movies Set on Halloween Night (1) 16 of the Best Ways to Declutter Your Home (1) 1Password Now Generates QR Codes to Share Wifi Passwords (1) 2024 (15) 21 Thanksgiving Movies About Families As Screwed-Up As Yours (1) 30 Movies and TV Shows That Are Basically 'Competence Porn' (1) 30 of the Most Obscenely Patriotic Movies Ever (1) 31 Spooky Movies to Watch Throughout October (1) 38 of the Best Queer Movies of the Past 100 Years (1) 40 Netflix Original Series You Should Watch (1) 55 Box Office Bombs Totally Worth Watching (1) Active Directory (1) Adobe's AI Video Generator Might Be as Good as OpenAI's (1) AIX (1) and I'd Do It Again (1) and It's Not Worth the Price Hike (1) and Max Bundle Isn't a Terrible Deal (1) and the Dreo Solaris Is the Best Space Heater I’ve Tried (1) and These Are My Favorite Tech Deals From Walmart’s Black Friday Sale (1) and These Water-Resistant Running Shoes Are a Game Changer (1) and They're All on Sale for Black Friday (1) Apache (2) Apple Intelligence Is Running Late (1) Apple Intelligence's Instructions Reveal How Apple Is Directing Its New AI (1) Apple Passwords Is Now on Firefox (but Not for Windows Users) (1) Apple's Latest Update Might Have Opted You Back Into Apple Intelligence (1) August 18 (1) August 4 (1) August 5 (1) Avoid an Allergic Reaction by Testing Your Halloween Makeup Now (1) Backup & Restore (2) best practices (1) bleepingcomputer (113) Blink Security Cameras Are up to 68% Off Ahead of Prime Day (1) Bluesky Has Trending Topics Now (But You Can Disable Them) (1) CentOS (1) CES 2025: Asus' Zenbook A14 Is the Lightweight Laptop My Back Wishes I Had (1) CES 2025: Govee’s New Pixel Light Will Remind You of a Lite Brite (1) Configure PowerPath on Solaris (1) Congress Might Ban DeepSeek (1) Documents (2) Don't Buy the New iPad Air (1) Don't Fall for This 'New' Google AI Scam (1) Don't Rely on a 'Monte Carlo' Retirement Analysis (1) Eight Cleaning Products TikTok Absolutely Loves (1) Eight of the Best Methods for Studying so You Actually Retain the Information (1) Eight Unexpected Ways a Restaurant Can Mislead You (1) Elevate Your Boring Store-Bought Pretzels With This Simple Seasoning Technique (1) Even Steam Has Malware Now (1) Everything Announced at Apple's iPhone 16 Event (1) Everything I'm Seeding in February (1) file system (6) Finally (1) Find (1) Find a Nearby ‘Gleaning Market’ to Save Money on Groceries (1) Five Red Flags to Look for in Any Restaurant (1) Five Ways You Can Lose Your Social Security Benefits (1) Flappy Bird's Creator Has Nothing to Do With Its 'Remake' (1) Four Reasons to Walk Out of a Job Interview (1) Four Signs Thieves Are Casing Your House (1) gaming (1) Goldfish Crackers Have a New Name (for a Little While) (1) Grok Is Now Available Without an X Account (1) Hackers Now Have Access to 10 Billion Stolen Passwords (1) How I Finally Organized My Closet With a Digital Inventory System (1) How I Pack Up a Hotel Room So I Don’t Forget Anything (1) How Opening Multiple Bank Accounts Helped Me Manage My Money Better (1) How to Buy Residency in Another Country With a 'Golden Visa' (1) How to Cancel Your Amazon Prime Membership After Prime Day Is Over (1) How to Choose the Best Weightlifting Straps for Your Workout (1) How to Do Fartlek Runs (and Seven Different Kinds to Try) (1) How to Enable (and Turn Off) Apple Intelligence on an iPhone (1) How to Get Free Car Maintenance and Repair Work (1) How to Get Started With Bluesky (1) How to Keep Squirrels Off Your Bird Feeders (1) How to Mute Words and Phrases on Your Bluesky Feed (1) How to Protect Your Kids From Identity Theft (1) How to Remotely Control Another iPhone or Mac Using FaceTime (1) How to Set Up Your Bedroom Like a Hotel Room (and Why You Should) (1) How to Speak With a Real Person at Target Customer Service (1) How to Take a Screenshot on a Mac (1) How to Take Full Control of Your Notifications on a Chromebook (1) How to Track Your 2024 Federal Tax Refund (1) How to Use Picture-in-Picture Mode on an Android Phone (1) How to Write SMART Goals That Actually Help You Reach Your Fitness Dreams (1) Hulu (1) I Chose the Beats Fit Pro Over the AirPods Pro (1) I Tested Grok 3 (1) I'd Recommend These Seven Outdoor Security Cameras I've Tested (1) I'm a Runner (1) I'm a Shopping Writer (1) I’m Always Cold (1) If You Got a Package You Didn't Order (1) If You Hate Running (1) Important Questions (17) Install and Configure PowerPath (1) interview questions for linux (2) Is ‘Ultra-Processed’ Food Really That Bad for You? (1) Is Amazon Prime Really Worth It? (1) It Might Be a Scam (1) July 14 (1) July 21 (1) July 28 (1) July 7 (1) June 30 (1) LifeHacker (214) Linux (36) Make and Freeze Some Roux Now for Easy Turkey Gravy (1) Meredith's Training Diaries: How I Crushed My Marathon Personal Record (1) Meta Releases Largest Open-Source AI Model Yet (1) Monitoring (3) music (688) My Favorite 14TB Hard Drive Is 25% Off Right Now (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: Apple AirPods Max (2) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: Apple Pencil Pro (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: Google Nest Mesh WiFi Router (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: Google Pixel 8 (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: PlayStation 5 (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: Samsung Odyssey G9 Gaming Monitor (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: SHOKZ OpenMove Bone Conduction Headphones (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The 13-Inch M3 Apple MacBook Air (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Beats Pill Portable Speaker (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Garmin Forerunner 955 (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Garmin Venu 3S (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Google Pixel 9 Pro (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Kindle Colorsoft Signature Edition (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Microsoft Surface Pro (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: The Sonos Era 100 (1) My Favorite Amazon Deal of the Day: These Bose QuietComfort Headphones (1) My Favorite Tools for Managing Cords and Cables (1) Nagios (2) Newtorking (1) NFS (1) Now Is a Good Time to Buy a Refurbished M-Series MacBook (1) OMG! Ubuntu! (688) OpenAI Just Introduced More Ways to Use ChatGPT on WhatsApp (1) Opera’s New Browser Is Built to Break Your Doomscrolling Habit (1) Oracle Linux (1) oracleasm (3) osnews (34) Oura’s Readiness Score Finally Takes Menstrual Cycles Into Account (1) Password less communication (1) Patching (2) Pixel Studio Is the Easiest (If Not the Best) Way to Make AI Art on Your Pixel 9 (1) Poaching Is the Secret to Perfect Corn on the Cob (1) powerpath (1) Prioritize Your To-Do List By Imagining Rocks in a Jar (1) Red Hat Exam (1) register (126) Rsync (1) Safari’s ‘Distraction Control’ Will Help You Banish (Some) Pop Ups (1) Samba (1) Samsung Just Announced the Galaxy S25 Series (1) Save Time and Air Fry Your Pumpkin Pie (1) Scrcpy (1) September 1 (1) September 15 (1) September 2 (1) September 22 (1) September 23 (1) September 30 (1) September 8 (1) Seven Home 'Upgrades' That Aren’t Worth the Money (1) Seven Things Your Credit Card’s Trip Protection Won’t Actually Cover (1) Six of the Most Common Tax Myths in 2025 (1) Six Unexpected Household Uses for Dry-Erase Markers (1) ssh (1) Stop Your iPhone From Sharing Photos' Data With Apple (1) Swift Shift Is the Window Management Tool Apple Should Have Built (1) System hardening (1) Tailor Your iPhone's Fitness Summary to Your Workouts (1) Target’s ‘Circle Week’ Sale Is Still Going After October Prime Day (1) Target’s Answer to Prime Day Starts July 7 (1) Tech (9583) Tech CENTRAL (45) Technical stories (200) technpina (12) The 30 Best Movies of the 2020s so Far (and Where to Watch Them) (1) The 30 Best Sports Movies You Can Stream Right Now (1) The Beats Solo 4 Are 50% Off Right Now (1) The Best Deals on Robot Vacuums for Amazon’s Early Prime Day Sale (2) The Best Deals on Ryobi Tools During Home Depot's Labor Day Sale (1) The Best Early Prime Day Sales on Power Tools (1) The Best Last-Minute Valentine's Day Gift Ideas for Under $30 (1) The Best Movies and TV Shows to Watch on Netflix This Month (1) The Best October Prime Day Deals If You Are Experiencing Overwhelming Existential Dread (1) The Best Places to Go When You Don't Want to Be Around Kids (1) The Best Places to Order Thanksgiving Dinner to Go (1) The Best Strategies for Lowering Your Credit Card Interest Rate (1) The Best Way to Clean a Microwave (1) The Best Ways to Store All Your Bags and Purses (1) The Boox Note Air 4C Is a Color E-Reader and Digital Notebook in One (1) The Easiest Way to Free Up Disk Space on Your Mac (1) The Latest watchOS Beta Is Breaking Apple Watches (1) The Marshall Emberton II Speakers Are $70 Off for Black Friday (1) The New Disney+ (1) The PowerSchool Breach May Have Compromised Over 70 Million Users' Data (1) The Real Cost of Using a Nespresso Machine (1) The Samsung Galaxy Buds 3 Pro Are $60 Off for Black Friday (1) The Two Best Times of Year to Look for a New Job (1) the X Rival Everyone's Flocking To (1) There's a Fix for Apple Mail's Weird Archiving Behavior (1) These Anker Soundcore Sport X10 Earbuds Are Cheaper Than Ever (1) These Bissell Vacuums Are on Sale Ahead of Black Friday (and They're All Great) (1) These Googly Eyes Will Help You Find Your Mac's Cursor (1) These Meatball Shots Are My Favorite Football Season Snack (1) These Milwaukee Tools Are up to 69% off Right Now (1) This 2024 Sony Bravia Mini-LED TV Is $400 Off Right Now (1) This 75-Inch Hisense ULED 4K TV Is $500 Off Right Now (1) This App Lets You Create Automations Your Mac Usually Doesn’t Support (1) This Google Nest Pro Is 30% Off for Prime Day (1) This iPhone and Mac App Lets You Edit Your Bluesky Posts (1) This MagSafe-Compatible Power Bank Is 40% Off for Black Friday (1) This Peanut Butter Latte Isn’t As Weird As It Sounds (1) This Safari Extension Gives You More Control Over Your Reddit Feed (1) This Tech Brand Will Get the Biggest Discounts During Prime Day (1) This TikTok Upholstery Cleaning Hack Actually Works (1) Three New Things We Know About the Nintendo Switch 2 (1) Three Quick Ways to Shorten a Necklace (1) Three Services People Don't Know They Can Get From Their Bank for Free (1) TikTok's '5x5' Cleaning Method Is Great If You're Short on Time (1) Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Monday (4) Today’s Wordle Hints (and Answer) for Sunday (11) Try 'Pile Cleaning' When Your Mess Is Overwhelming (1) Try 'Pomodoro 2.0' to Focus on Deep Work (1) Try 'Rucking' (1) Ubuntu News (352) Ubuntu! (1) Unix (1) Use the ‘Organizational Triangle’ to Keep Your House Neater (1) Use This App to Sync Apple Reminders With Your iPhone Calendar (1) Use This Extension to Find All Your X Followers on Bluesky (1) Use TikTok's 'Rage Cleaning' Trend to Get Your Place Spotless (1) veritas (2) Videos (1) Warner Bros. Is Uploading Classic Movies to YouTube for Free (1) Was ChatGPT Really Starting Conversations With Users? (1) Watch Out for These Red Flags in a Realtor Contract (1) Wayfair Is Having a '72-Hour Closeout' Sale to Compete With Prime Day (1) We Now Know When Google Will Roll Out Android 15 (1) What Is the 'Die With Zero' Movement (and Is It Right for You)? (1) What Not to Do When Training for a Marathon (1) What to Do When Your Employer Shifts Your Pay From Salary to Hourly (1) What to Look for (and Avoid) When Selecting a Pumpkin (1) What to Wear to Run in the Cold (1) What's New on Max in December 2024 (1) What's New on Netflix in March 2025 (1) What's New on Prime Video and Freevee in September 2024 (1) Where to Stream Every Nominated Movie Before the 2025 Oscars (1) Why the Apple TV App Is Better on Android Than iPhone (1) Why You Can't Subscribe to Disney+ and Hulu Through Apple Anymore (1) Why You Might Want to Avoid the Latest Chromecast Update (1) Why Your Home Gym Needs Adjustable Kettlebells (1) Windows (5) You Can Easily Add Words to Your Mac's Dictionary (1) You Can Fight (and Avoid) Your Landlord's Cleaning Fees (1) You Can Get 'World War Z' on Sale for $19 Right Now (1) You Can Get a Membership to BJ's for Practically Free Right Now (1) You Can Get Beats Studio Buds+ on Sale for $100 Right Now (1) You Can Get Microsoft Visio 2021 Pro on Sale for $20 Right Now (1) You Can Get This 12-Port USB-C Hub on Sale for $90 Right Now (1) You Can Get This Roomba E5 Robot Vacuum on Sale for $170 Right Now (1) You Can Hire Your Own Personal HR Department (1) You Can Search Through Your ChatGPT Conversation History Now (1) You Can Set Different Scrolling Directions for Your Mac’s Mouse and Trackpad (1) You Need Beneficiaries for More Accounts Than You Think (1) Your DeepSeek Chats May Have Been Exposed Online (1) Your Verizon Bill Just Got a Little More Expensive (1)

Recent Comments

Popular Posts

Translate

My Blog List

Popular

System Admin Share

Total Pageviews