Humble THQ Bundle

[Mr.]

https://www.humblebundle.com/

So, I just bought 2 copies of Saints Row: The Third, Metro 2033, Darksiders, Red Faction Armageddon, and Company of Heroes for $15 total.

I'm sure you've all heard of the Humble Bundle before, getting a collection of games for as much as you want to pay for them. It's usually been indie games, though. Which is great, I've gotten plenty of wonderful indie games from the bundles. Also some that are barely worth mentioning. In any case, now THQ is doing on with their own games, which is cool because you can get 4-5 AAA games (+2 expansions) for whatever price you want.

I have no idea if any of these games are good, but surely at $3.00 per game, I'll get my money's worth. Hell, even Mesk has a recommendation for Darksiders on Steam, can't be too bad!

[IskatuMesk]

Darksiders 1 is decent. The controls may take some getting used to on the PC but the game is fluid enough and is certainly amongst the more refined of PC games available in the genre, if not the best. Unfortunately, it's a rather easy game. Saints Row 3 is best played with a friend. I heard good things about Metro 2033 from HKS who tends to be pretty strict on games, but I haven't tried it yet.

Company of Heroes on the other hand is basically a reskinned dawn of war and I really don't know what people saw in it. I guess if you want the atmosphere more than the gameplay it could be ok. Men of War destroys this in gameplay.

This is a good prelude to the company dying I think. Better grab them while you can if you want to own them legally.

[mark_009_vn]

I heard good things about Metro 2033 from HKS who tends to be pretty strict on games, but I haven't tried it yet.

You better be.. Metro 2033 is made by Ukrainians, and the Unkrainians are pretty much born with a talent to mapping and detailing. I'm working for a mod team filled with Russians, and I can confirm that they're QUITE the texture artists... In Metro, the best thing about the game is it's environment...



This, my boy, is You're Empty, it is a 2006 Russian game running on the Russian equivalent of the Gold Source game engine. Despite it's age and technical limitations, it's environments are far more detailed and it's textures are far more high res than even today games.. Do note that the game do not have bump mapping nor support for DX8 shaders... Every details here was forged by geometry and texturing alone...

The atmosphere and immersion was great. To be honest with you, the first time I saw it, I was a tad hesitated, the backstory looks like the setting for a generic American doomsday movie, and I didn't find much interest in it.. But when I tried it out, the atmosphere is surprisingly a very refined blend of styles and energies. It felt nice, it flows nice, it doesn't go out of it's way just to make shit felt dark and gritty like the Americans do, it takes this gently, it requires the players to explore the world in order to fully be immerse in the atmosphere. This was demonstrated in the first portions of the game, it is basically a huge underground station where you could wander around everywhere and find tid bits of details that are seriously lacking inside of Western games, there are people playing guitars, people commenting, there are people telling jokes and laughing, there are angry housewife, lolis,.. Also... There are dope...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86lL4_8So2U

Yes, you could smoke pots in this game.. There are no implications at any kind that the pot could actually works.. When I found this out, it was by total accident...


The story is decent, not anything great, but still memorable simply because it's rather original. It is fantasy sci-fi, and there are alot of spiritualism and philosophy bullshits tided into it at odd times.. I liked it's usage of implied storytelling as well as it's executions. It's just, in general, a very good adaptation of the novel of the same name, which the game was based on...

The voice acting.. It's a same that the English voice actors sucked major donkeys (they're still decent tho).. The original Russian voice acting is the best I've ever hear...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtQGxbu0Rko&t=8m38s

My only gripe is that gameplay is quirky, enemies are basically cover whores shooting you with BB guns, and mutants are banzai charging retards which you'll waste so much bullets in killing (which is bad because lol bullets are considered money...), you're better off using the knife anyway... It is also plaque with gimmicks that could seriously screw you in the belly buttons at odd circumstances, like the requirements to use a gas mask when coming to the surface, having to charge your own batteries, and the lack of a health bar... Thankfully the gimmicks does not induce too much rage, they're basically just sideline detractions...

Men of War destroys this in gameplay.

Try Theatre of War... It's Men of War multiplies by a thousand folds in terms of retardation.. You'll rage when your precious Tiger tank got stuck in the mud just 5 meters away from where you first acquire it..

[Taeradun]

This is a good prelude to the company dying I think. Better grab them while you can if you want to own them legally.

I found this amusing:

http://www.humblebundle.com/
Total payments: $3.66M

http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=THQI+Interactive
Market Cap: $8.57M


also this is what the real pros do