Humble Monthly

Mr Crispy wrote: »

Another "NO" for me this month.

Jesus, I got Valkyria 4 brand new for a fiver out of GameStop, that's how ****e that list looks lol

Valkyria Chronicles 4 and Valfaris are excellent games.

It really went to crap since they switched their model. Back in the day it was very rare to see a bad month and in most cases it would be bad, because you would already own good few games.

This was an instant yes for me after several pauses. I'm using the 6€ offer.

Endless Space 2 has been on my watchlist for a while, so that with Outward and Valkyria was good value to me.

Trine 4 is a definite return to form for the series after the misstep with the third entry.

Both Moving Out and Boomerang Fu are meant to be great couch co-op games too although I can see how they'd have less appeal, generally speaking.

Spear wrote: »

Control is in the next Humble Choice for March:

https://blog.humblebundle.com/2021/02/23/own-control-forever-when-it-comes-to-choice-on-march-2nd/

With regards Control, unless they've stockpiled keys for the regular edition of the game, it looks like it'll be the Ultimate version since it's the only one available currently on Steam.

https://twitter.com/humblesupport/status/1364327606846382085

Mr Crispy wrote: »

Are you still able to refund it?

I'll have to give it a look its probably just over the 2 weeks I'd say. Last week might have been a bit generous to myself..haha

pretty bad month might check out sniper contracts though

I'll definitely take Exodus. I might even have Hellpoint on my wishlist too.

gizmo wrote: »

505 are really ****ing about here...

505 Games Has Removed The Option To Buy Control DLC From Steam

In short, if you use your Steam key for Control from last month's Humble Bundle, you won't be able to buy the expansions or Season Pass there, you'll need to re-buy the Ultimate Edition of the game instead. The same problem does not exist via the Epic Games Store.

They made a right mess of this on console too.

The full list:

Metro Exodus
Darksiders Genesis
Hellpoint
Cook, Serve, Delicious! 3
Levelhead
Fury Unleashed
Size Matters
Morkredd
Relicta
Retimed
Family Man
Vane

A few of these indie titles look interesting to me. Family Man might be good for a lol, Relicta is possibly chill, and Size Matters - which is very incredibly similar to Inch by Inch, so much so that the devs of both games have been in talks about it: https://steamcommunity.com/app/992120/discussions/0/1741103267312288922/

Size Matters:



Inch by Inch:



I loved Darksiders but have trudged my way thought playing Darksiders 2; it just slows down in places where I end up bored and picking up something from another genre to play. Already have DS3 in the humble back pocket, really meant to finish that story - guess I really shouldn't have read spoilers.

That's fine, it's in my backlog. As are so many other things from humble.

Got into Humble for Battletech - I guess I should go through what I've played for my money's worth to date. There are entire months I haven't played any of the offered titles. Looking back before they changed the sub format the way they presented what you were getting was a bit muck in terms of going to retrieve Keys etc. and I'm not discussing keys I activated but haven't played. Maybe someone else can lobby what I should be playing next:

Battletech - loved it, front to back, but is too repetitive in its own right, especially the low range of maps and missions for a game otherwise designed to give you ostensibly worlds upon worlds of unique experiences. But nope it's like being on a sci fi show: you can stargate to any planet you want as long as it's filmable in Vancouver. Here though there's no such limit and there should be no excuse not to have 100s of premades or to do things more procedurally, or, to keep the game more narrowly focused on a smaller sector of planets and don't oversell it.

I have in yesteryears played through Shenmue I and part of II so I guess I'll count that, but I haven't activated these keys, or III for that matter which dropped last month.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: haven't actually played it yet but since it was a sequel I went back to get the first Tomb Raider in this IP series. 100 %'d Tomb Raider and sort of took a break on Rise of, it throws a lot more content but in a way that isn't as tight as the first game in the series, so I wound up paused somewhere not strongly motivated between multiple choices on what to do next

Shadow of the Tomb Raider War: Epicly fun, somewhat strange ending, but I can see myself doing a complete re-playthrough. I did the elf DLC and I have the other DLC I just haven't gone into that zone, I kinda burned out on gratuitous orc related violence by then.

Frostpunk: I can't recommend this game enough, for a city builder it's utterly fantastic, and lethal cold as a mechanic is still as threatening but not nearly as frustrating as dealing with mechanics like Townsmen where you would have tower defense from bandit raids etc. and be attacked by some type of enemy. I have played most of the scenarios through from the DLC as well and can only heap praise on it. The last scenario just added, On The Edge, left me frustrated the other week but my OH wanted to see what the game was about - we went back to play a New Home together which was really handy as I'm a scatterbrain and she would keep me on task, and also, disallow me from recruiting child labor. We got the good ending.

Cryofall: I ran it for a few minutes that month and said 'yeah okay whatever,' added their discord etc. - their 1.0 version just launched last week, the servers got a wipe so I gave it a look. There's stuff to do, there's quests in the corner to carry you a long, but then it turns out that's the game, as far as I can tell. You'll appreciate this title more if you're a social butterfly (PvE) or sociopath (PvP) but it's a forage/mining/crafting came whose differential is the persistent MMO map (a few hundred people per server) and the player's ability to put claims on land, etc. so there appears to be a good bit of thought about anti-griefing. As it's designed with persistency there is 'decay' ie. if you don't log in for more than 4 or so days your buildings start to deteriorate until they are destroyed, including your land claim which is represented by a 1 tile building at the claim center. That's also the building that players will try to destroy in PvP if you don't log in soon enough for your building to become vulnerable to offline attack. I only wish it was a bit clearer what if any purpose was, what you are all supposed to PvE'ing, or even why the name CryoFall, as I have no idea that it has anything to do with winter or cryogenics. Either way, decent low intensity MMO experience but even casually I don't think I'll keep up with popping in twice a week.

WarstoneTD: It's not as captivating as Bloons but it's a Bloonsalike so you'd play it for that reason.

Jurrassic World Evolution: DLC all looks poor for this but on it's own it's a above-standard and fun city builder so long as that prick from Security doesn't open ALL the FENCES, AGAIN, ONCE RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER. I was literally UPSET. Play this.

40k Gladius: Played an hour of this. Just made me want to play more Frostpunk with its hinging upon choose your own path mechanics, but ultimately it's meh, yet another 40k game. They have really whored out the licensing for that franchise, and it's reflected by the scattershot range of games they make - none of which are ever designed to give you a solo tabletop equivalent, which of course, would undermine their entire business. But can I at least have a sequel to Firewarrior?

Rise of Industry: I was told it was decent but technically by OH gifted this one to her own account and I never got to it. In her defense I was embroiled in Satisfactory. Production chain games are fun, right?

Void Bastards: fun roguelike looter shooter, with a comical premise and smashing British personalities. However, it can be overly repetitive, made all the more repetitive depending on how often you die only to assume the role of the next hapless meatsack prisoner. It's fun but it got too frustrating for the lack of progress I was earning in terms of rewards etc. to move forward, so left constantly to grind/farm.

Battlestar Galactica Deadlock: feels like a tabletop game, like you would expect X-Wing or Battlefleet Gothic to play as on the computer if translated from the table. It uses some map and territory control mechanics that are mirrored in other titles above I was already burned out on so I gave this little time. I'd say it does a good job of making you feel like your forces are stretched thin, but I'm not sure if that's intentional or I just kept doing badly and was losing the war too soon, because it felt like rather than progress forward I was stuck in an endless loop of responding to pokes at remote outposts. Is fun, but the gameplay overlapped with some titles I had already recently burned out on, eg. Endless Space, just staring at amorphous maps full of nodes and pathways all the time.

Beat Hazard 2: Long ago had BH1. Spotify integration sure feels jerry-rigged but it works. Title is fun but if you're looking for senseless shooting scrolling action I'm sure there are more truly engaging titles out there. This one is fun because it's procedural generation and mechanics are seeded by the music you put on.

X-Morph Defense: a unique take on tower defense. I really liked this one, and EXOR Studios looks very savvy, they use their own game engine and have built upon it from title to title. They are currently developing Riftbreaker, which based upon the demo is an extremely dialed to 11 title that takes some cues from X-Morph in that you are a one man army with a plethora of weapons that are practically identical, but reapplied. Would recommend X Morph, good TD title good special sauce. I'm watching this Studio's career with great interest.

Genesis Alpha One Deluxe: Looks like a quake mod but it also plays like a quake mod. It's devilishly fun to a point. Repetitive moreso than other titles in my log but it does it so well. It plays like a Ridley Scott movie, you will be dropping turrets in crawlspaces to stop alien critters from spawning all up in your business and such, as well as be under threat from boarding by legitimately threatening boarding raids. I would recommend this title. If it had more endgame content I'd be all up into that.

Automachef: got around to it finally the other day. Not really the factory fix I thought it would be, you set up for specific puzzles, so it feels more like a mobile game. Also, some of the challenge criteria are so tight its ridiculous to the point where they feel backwards - eg. you need to make 50 burgers in X seconds but only using this much time and this many ingredients - so there's only one correct solution, practically, and that solution may require you to actually throttle down some of your machines, etc. and I disliked that premise.

Townsmen a Kingdom Rebuilt: another decent city builder, primitive but pleasing sprite style. It's decent and I think the seasonal mechanics are excellent but it still feels just a bit too shallow, needing more depth and endgame content. Plays fairly short.

Overcooked 2: Already have it on Switch. On there, it's gas fun. On PC I'd have my suspicions

PC Building Simulator: yep, that's a PC building simulator. Doesn't do anything horribly wrong, and you can actually get into an enjoyable rhythm in career mode.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts: last up and current play. Very good at what it says on the tin though I will say even on the hardest difficulty the AI still seem to be pretty damn stupid at times. There are 5 maps to complete, one of which could take you a day to complete the first time depending on your goals or style. I've added the upcoming sequel to my Wishlist.

Overall: I feel like I've received Fair value for my subscription and will continue.