It’s once again time to get some fantastic games for almost no money. The latest Humble Bundle is out, and it contains all of Introversion’s back catalogue. So, if you don’t already own Uplink, Darwinia, Defcon, or Multiwinia, and would be willing to part with a single quid (or indeed, less), check it out. The company has been struggling to survive for the last few years, so I truly hope this makes them a crapton of money so they can continue making Subversion, which they had to abandon recently. Amusing trailer is below.
It goes without saying that this is a brilliant deal, as the Humble Bundles always are. I’m especially keen about this one because Introversion have never made a bad game, and yet financially they have been struggling to make ends meat for quite some time now. Its easy to forget that not every indie developer makes it big. With the most harrowing nuclear war simulator ever made (Defcon), and the charming, underrated Multiwinia under their belts, I just wish they make enough money to keep going. Subversion looked as though it was going to be another superbly quirky addition to their library, and I’m gutted they had to cease development for the simple reason they ran out of money. Without guys like this, the games’ industry will just get more stagnant, and we’ll be left with nothing but Call of Duty 19 and The Sims 27. That’s not a future I like the sound of.
Dome Keeper is an excellent little spin on the tower defense game, in which you play the role of a jetpacking miner defending his base from swarms of aliens, whilst searching for a hidden relic buried somewhere beneath him. And now, with this huge free update, you can play it with friends.
I want to talk about Cloudpunk, a game where you get to be a flying-car delivery driver in a futuristic cyberpunk city. Its world is an incredible achievement of environmental design, and while the gameplay itself may be basic, the city of Nivalis is a thing of beauty to behold. Nivalis is built out of hundreds of hand-modelled cuboid buildings; there’s nothing procedural about it. Apparently it took 3 years for the devs to design the city, and it really shows.
I do love me some quality pixel art, and it doesn’t get much better than this. Cast n Chill is a cozy side-scrolling fishing game by small indie dev team Wombat Brawler, with absolutely gorgeous visuals. It’s simple to play, and you you can dip in and out of it at your leisure, making it a fine addition to our collection of coffee break games.
I don’t get on with the Souls games at all, but I really wish that I did. For me, the combat was just a little too clunky and, oh, you know, fucking difficult.
There’s not a lot I can say about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that hasn’t already been said, but here’s my take anyway. The game deservedly garnered a heap of attention when it came out for being a fantastic example of a JRPG, that happened to be made in France. Technically, ignoring the fact that the team includes a bunch of ex-Ubisoft veterans, it’s the debut title from developers Sandfall. And what a debut game it is.
Return to Castle Wolfenstein introduced me to the world of PC gaming. I have my uncle Dave to thank for this. He used to play two games, Wolfenstein and Fighter Ace, and I loved going round his house because he had a gaming PC, curiously built by a company called Gateway… The PC was something so alien and awesome to me that it made my N64 seem like the toy it always was (I still love you, my 64). Wolfenstein became Enemy Territory, a free standalone multiplayer component, but it was the ‘original’ Return to Castle Wolfenstein that dragged me into PC gaming, and I’ve never looked back since.
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