Humble Monthly Gamble Discussion Thread

I've... um... never played a Tomb Raider game. It seems vaguely interesting, but would RotTR be decent with no experience with the series beyond watching a couple mediocre Angelina Jolie movies?

It's the best Tomb Raider, and really great in its own right. There's no elaborate hook, so prior experience is completely unnecessary.

It's just fun, top to bottom. And easily one of the prettiest video games yet.

Agreed!

Well, I agree based on my experience with the first Tomb Raider game and half the second game. Really fun stuff.

The original set of games (and even the early Crystal Dynamics games at this point) have REALLY not aged well and probably extra hard to get into these days, so really your best bet is to start with the rebooted Tomb Raider and RoTR.

That said, all you really need to know going into RoTR from the previous game is "Lara got shipwrecked on Death Island (tm). Bad stuff happened and she killed a whole bunch of dudes which she's still attempting to come to terms with. Meanwhile : treasure hunting!"

OK, I went ahead with the early unlock and played it a little this morning. I'm really digging it so far. It's certainly pretty, but has caused my system to lock up twice now (ongoing issue that I think boils down to a failing MB, will be replacing soon).

pyxistyx wrote:

The original set of games (and even the early Crystal Dynamics games at this point) have REALLY not aged well and probably extra hard to get into these days, so really your best bet is to start with the rebooted Tomb Raider and RoTR.

Very true. I tried to play Anniversary and one of the other ones and I was forcing myself to sick with it and finally put it down. The two newest Tomb Raiders were great but very different than the original style games.

Any chance anyone would sell me just a Rise of the Tomb Raider key? Those that sub but might already have it?

How's everyone going with this month's games? I've only had time to play 2 so far.

Worms WMD Good memories playing this when I was younger, but it feels so slow by today's standards. I'm glad they went back to the classic style, but I was turned off pretty quickly. Waiting for the opponents to take their turns put me to sleep. Love everything else about it, but all that idle time probably means I won't play it again.

Rollers of the Realm Um, what? This is actually really fun. I thought it looked like a cheap throw in, but it's probably the most surprising game I've installed from these bundles. Give it a shot if you haven't! It's a really quirky pinball game with RPG mechanics. I love it!

A_Unicycle wrote:

How's everyone going with this month's games? I've only had time to play 2 so far.

Worms WMD Good memories playing this when I was younger, but it feels so slow by today's standards. I'm glad they went back to the classic style, but I was turned off pretty quickly. Waiting for the opponents to take their turns put me to sleep. Love everything else about it, but all that idle time probably means I won't play it again.

Rollers of the Realm Um, what? This is actually really fun. I thought it looked like a cheap throw in, but it's probably the most surprising game I've installed from these bundles. Give it a shot if you haven't! It's a really quirky pinball game with RPG mechanics. I love it!

I know how good Rollers of the Realm is from a previous purchase, but I don't see that part of any monthly bundle. Did you find a gem in your collection that you completely forgot about?

Haven't really played that much from this month's bundle yet, but HackyZack, my word I will never beat that game, it gets hard really with the platforming tricks they expect you to pull off here.

And already had Momodora, a fairly difficult metriodmania since you can't take a lot of damage, no matter how big you seem to get that life bar.

You're completely correct, woops! I got the current bundle mixed up with the Monthly.

Very excited to play Momodora, but I'm tossing up whether to play it or Hollow Knight first.

Well this month was a bit amazing for me:

Rise of the Tomb Raider
Wargame Red Dragon
Furi (been watching this for a while)
Orwell (in this day and age, how does this not seem interesting)
Seasons after Fall (sure looks pretty)
The Shrouded Isle
Scanner Sombre (another one I had my eye on)
& Getting Over It

Next Month has
Quake Champions &
THe Elder Scrolls Online
and some cards for the
Legends Heros of Skyrim CCG

Oh, and of random note, i see that the DRM free version of
The End Is Nigh
was added to the Humble Treasure Trove (if you liked Super Meat Boy)

Hmmm, this month looks interesting in that I hope they throw some ESO expansions in there. Worth the gamble?

Bah! I passed because I already owned Tomb Raider. Then I wind up wanting at least three of the games in the bundle. This is in sharp contrast to last month where I bought accidentally, and was super not interested in any of the games I didn't already own.

Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Definitely skipping next month, because I couldn't care less about Quake or ESO.

CatPhoenix wrote:

Orwell (in this day and age, how does this not seem interesting)

The upcoming Orwell: Ignorance is Strength looks even more chilling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_c...

slim pickings for me, just two of them I don't already have. (Seasons of the Fall and Furi) and one I'm not interested in (Wargame). Oh well! Can't all be winners.

Seasons of the Fall has been on my steam wishlist once, Furi looks decent (though I've had it for a long time through PS4+). But realistically I wont get around to playing either.

I jumped on this month for Rise of the Tomb Raider, finished it within a few days and loved it. I picked up the other Tomb Raider game a few days back on sale but haven't played it much yet.

I've been interested in Wargame, so that was nice. Seasons After Fall looks like a good "play with the kids" game that I can stream onto the TV and have them "help" me play. The others... not much interest right now. I might drop Furi onto my son's account and let him mess with that.

I think I'm going to skip next month. I haven't played a Quake game since Q2, and what I see about ESO doesn't leave me with much hope that I'll get my money's worth out of it. Maybe if GWJ were more involved in it, but looking at the MMO board, the last post was a month ago talking about how we don't have a guild...

Yeah, this month was one I kinda wish I had backed, but someone in my office already had Tomb Raider and forgot to cancel, so he gave me his key. Score. Still, there's at least 3 others in there I would have liked to have, if only to sit on the pile.

I'm kinda interested in ESO, but I realize it's mainly so I can go visit Morrowind again, which apparently is an expansion that I would have to buy anyway? And I burn out on MMOs pretty quickly.

I jumped for Tomb Raider which, as I've been playing it, I've ended up pretty meh on - liked the first reboot quite a bit more. Of the rest, Shrouded Isle I had my eye on, and I'm delighted to try anything by Bennett Foddy so Getting Over It is a pleasant surprise. Scanner Sombre looks neat (I hadn't even realized Introversion had another game out - this really does feel like the year where games have reached the point where it's difficult to even be aware of all the stuff that's out there.)

I'm also passing on next month. I've heard good things about the card game, but that's just not enough to pull me in. I guess the MMO is supposed to be the big draw, but I just don't need that in my life right now.

I'm pretty happy with this month's bundle. Mostly for Furi, I've had my eye on that for a while! I also had no idea about the Trove, so I'm excited to dig into that (the game from the Super Meat Boy dev looks great!)

The current unlocks are really underwhelming. I don't care much for Elder Scrolls or for MMOs that aren't WoW or FFXIV. I mean, I'll likely give it a shot, but I don't have the time in my life for another game of that genre. Zero interest in the card game, and I think I'm too old for Quake, despite loving it during my teenage years.

Though I don't want to cancel my sub because the other games are often great. They've trapped me!

Wow, I kind have a huge issue with this version of Quake Champions, mainly because.... we're getting some version of the game that you cannot even purchase. Seriously! The only version of this game you can currently get on steam is the all Champions version for $30, which right now, is the only way to get access to even play to game. What Humble is giving you here is:

Instant Game Access
50 Shards
100 Platinum
2000 Favor
Ranger Champion
BJ Champion

Which I am glad they're upfront with what this version of Quake is giving you but, after play the game a bit, I come to discover, there is no way to unlock a champion without using the premium platinum currency. The only thing you can do is rent a champion for 24 real hours (not even in game hours).

So what this version of Quake does, is allow me to preview the game if I want to spend $30 on it, because if I wanted to buy every champion for platinum in game, it would cost more than the $30 price. In all honest, I have to ask, what is the point of having "Instant Access" to a game where no matter what, I would have to pay more money to get more characters in?

This is almost as bad as when they gave us the MP only version of Call of Duty a way while back.

ESO looked similar, in that to access the Morrowind side and the Warden class, you still had to drop $30 on an expansion. Compared to the last few months, next month really falls flat in terms of value.

Maybe the relevant thread?

IGN buys Humble Bundle

Booourns

Oh gawd. Ziff Davis now owns Humble.

IGN is directly tied to sales of games. Is that ethical?

f*ck. Well, it was fun while it lasted I guess.

That really blows.

Even if the whole company just collapsed in an instant overnight, at least we got a tonne of sweet games for very little money these past few years.

(I'm pretty bummed about the news, but I'm trying to be optimistic).

For a while now, I've suspected that Humble was basically providing a kind of tax dodge for developers and publishers. That is, a publisher lists a game for $30, sells it on humble for a few cents and pockets the difference as a profit offsetting charitable contribution. There may also be implications for repatriating profits from sales in various countries. Are there any Gamers Who Are Tax Lawyers who can comment?

A_Unicycle wrote:

Even if the whole company just collapsed in an instant overnight, at least we got a tonne of sweet games for very little money these past few years.

Also Humble takes a smaller share of each sale on their store than Valve does with Steam. As long as that doesn't change I'll continue shopping there over Steam when it's an option.