rezaf
4063
For what it’s worth, I never got warm with the fighting in the Batman games, so a central pillar of the game was kinda lost for me … but I greatly enjoyed both Batman games (I haven’t played the third yet nor is it part of the bundle) nonetheless.
rezaf
You can button mash your way through some of the basic street fights, but the story-based encounters will require situational awareness (who has a gun, who has a knife, who is about to throw something at you), timing counter-attacks, altering tactics for different enemy types (some have armor, or shields, or stun batons), but it’s not as difficult as a Devil May Cry-type game. There are no combos to memorize, for the most part. But there are boss fights, and the ones in Asylum especially will need you to be light on your toes and observant for openings.
I think both the Arkham games are an absolute steal at this price. I would happily buy the bundle for those games alone. The original F.E.A.R. has held up fairly well for its age. LOTRO is worth a look if you want an alternative to WoW or are interested in trying out an MMO. The others I don’t have much experience with.
Are you a fan of Lord of the Rings books/movies? If so, War in the North is worth spending $1 on. It has a lot of issues, namely it’s a mediocre action RPG with a crappy UI, but the lore is there and there is a lot of scripted content that is interesting if you’re already a fan of the books/movies. It also becomes a much better game when played co-op with a couple of friends. As for paying $6 to beat the average, Scribblenauts is a really cool concept worth checking out, and if you have kids they will be fascinated with it. The additional LOTR-themed content in the Beat-The-Average content is a decent deal for anyone who plays LOTRO or Guardians of Middle Earth. Both online games are free, but the premium content awarded by the Guardians DLC nets you new ways to make in-game cash faster, and the Starter Pack for LOTRO will give you 500 Turbine Points and a regional quest pack that would otherwise cost money in the game. It also grants you 30 days of premium subscription time if you are an all new account to LOTRO, which comes with a host of benefits that stick around even if you flip back to F2P after the 30 days.
I suppose what I am saying is that there is enough content in both the WB bundle and the Weekly (Galaxy on Fire 2 HD is easily worth $1, and Expeditions : Conquistador another $5) that they are well worth dropping the BTA cash on.
Woohoo! Thanks, I’m happy to be talked into both deals.
As a sidenote: I debated whether I should write “button mashing”. I didn’t want to be derisive (and I’m certainly open to the games requiring some tactical awareness), but I’m also not enough of an action game aficionado that I’d want to invest the time to become really skilled. For action games, I’m sad to say that I’m in the ‘dumbed down’ target demographic: I’d rather just (quickly) learn some neat mechanics, travel through some neat environments with some neat enemies and finish the story so I can uninstall and move on. I barely play such games anymore so I don’t know what the difficulty curves are like, but I’ve long since moved on from the days when I’d happily replay the first few levels of Double Dragon or Battletoads over and over.
Anyway, these games plus Darksiders should give my backlog plenty of Steam Big Picture goodness. I was doing so well at decreasing my backlog, but these Humble deals are coming fast and furious and they force me to buy in more than the Steam seasonal sales. (Steam’s problem now is that I know that the same games will continue to go on super-uber sale every 3-9 months, so I don’t feel pressured to buy when I already have a backlog that is 6-24 months deep in most genres).
It’s not derisive. It’s a valid way to describe a type of beat-em-up game that does not describe Batman.
For action games, I’m sad to say that I’m in the ‘dumbed down’ target demographic: I’d rather just (quickly) learn some neat mechanics, travel through some neat environments with some neat enemies and finish the story so I can uninstall and move on. I barely play such games anymore so I don’t know what the difficulty curves are like, but I’ve long since moved on from the days when I’d happily replay the first few levels of Double Dragon or Battletoads over and over.
This would be fine except for maybe the aforementioned boss fights. Maybe jump straight into Arkham City.
Giaddon
4068
You can also play the games on easy if you want a frictionless experience.
ioticus
4069
First person to ask me gets a free copy of Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY.
Actually I had some of the same questions you did so thank you for asking. I can chime in on Pacific Carriers. It’s bad. It has some nice things. The graphics are good. The game system tries to do interesting things like have you manage a squadron of pilots that gain experience. But I found it hard to tell whether any of that management was making a difference. I also encountered late game bugs that prevented me from finishing it. So ultimately it just turned into a pile of arcade missions of dogfighting and anti ship strikes. For what you’ll pay for it in the Humble Bundle, that’s maybe ok. At regular price not so much. But I actually had fun on some of those anti ship strikes where the game would have a sky full of planes and a sea full of fleets and smoking ships. I could pretend it was visually a bit like what a new version of Pacific Air War would have looked like.
Pod
4071
I just bought Emergency 2014 on steam for £5.49, which it claims is 78% of £24.99. I don’t know if everyone will see this, though, as I notice:
Buy Emergency 2014
SPECIAL PROMOTION! Offer ends 22 November
So I guess that’s what this is? (Though it looks like Emergency 2013 is no longer available for purchase).
Anyone know where and how often Bioware Points might go on sale? I usually check Techbargains, and occasionally amazon. I know it doesn’t go on sale often, but I’d like to know where to look.
In the NA store, it shows up as -10% ($26.99), with the same note about the offer ending 22 November. Glitch or just different stores?
malkav11
4074
It also supposedly discounts things substantially if you already owned Emergency 2013 on Steam (since it includes all previous Emergency games’ content, apparently). Maybe that’s the difference?
I’ve seen them go on sale before, so that isn’t the case. I saw a sale once on Amazon, but I was hoping that there would be other places to check out.
copet
4077
Do you still have it? :) I have never played any of the Batman games.
copet
4078
Do you still have it? :) I have never played any of the Batman games.
ioticus
4079
I sent you a PM with the link.
copet
4080
Big thanks to ioticus for Batman! I heard it has very satisfying combat and I’m looking forward to it :D
robc04
4082
This is an unusual response. I actually felt happy when I didn’t see anything on sale that interested me!
