I totally get that, which goes back to my “If you don’t want mostly weird indie games, why are you subscribing?”
It didn’t used to be that, but seems to be the future of the service.
I guess I should have said worst month for me, but I don’t think we all usually put qualifiers on every opinion because it’s a given that I’m not speaking for everyone. I guess I got sucked in a couple years ago with a year subscription because there were a bunch of months where I did think they offered good games and they had a $99 deal, I just didn’t think I’d have that same subscription 2 years later due to all my pausing. I only have one more month, and then I’ll just do month to month.
Because there also are, quite often, pretty good AA games and used to be AAA games. And because why would I unsubscribe when I have the classic plan and can pause.
Yup, that’s the one. About once or twice a year they still make a good showing of AA and indie stuff I actually want, but I’m starting to despair it’ll ever happen again.
Speaking ONLY for myself:
Anytime I see a bunch of (again, IMHO, for my own tastes) anime bullshit in the bundle I’m immediately skeptical. We’ve got nearly half the bundle of that this month. About the only things I’d have the slightest interest in there would be Children of Morta and Overcooked 2 (and that last one only if I had a spouse/kids to play it with, which I don’t). And since I have very limited gaming time these days and a large enough backlog, this is an easy pause.
Why people say “bad month”? Because it’s shorter than “I don’t see enough games that personally interest me or that I didn’t have or had access already to justify unpause my subscription”. But that’s what they mean.
Economy of language people! Think of the key strokes we can avoid!
Which is definitely a big part of the “this looks like a $2 Fanatical bundle” type response. It’s the basis of my “shovelware” comment, too. Bundles full of weird, little-known anime games are the province of lesser sites, to my mind. It’s sad to see Humble Monthly go that way.
OMG, that selection is terrible. One step closer to cancelling Classic once and for all. Here’s hoping they’ve just given up on 2020 like the rest of us and might have something good for 2021.
Probably a good thing. From my limited time playing Overcooked 2 with the family, it leads to a LOT of yelling!
On the lack of AAA games, I wonder if Humble is reacting to GamePass just kicking their butt in that area and are trying to find a niche? For me personally, the niches they have been exploring lately (e.g., this anime thing) aren’t working, but I can see why they can’t take GamePass on for the really big AAA titles.
I mean, Fanatical has some pretty great bundles on a regular basis. More often than Humble, IMO, if only because I’m more likely to a) see one or more games I want in it and b) not own them already and c) not have them trapped at the top tier where it’s not a savings.
They actually do, it’s a really unfair comment. :) At the moment, they’ve got several bundles that are much better, and much cheaper, than this Monthly. But they do also put out the occasional bundle full of hentai games or the like, which is I think what inspired the comparison.
I don’t recall them doing a hentai bundle. Indiegala, though. Boy, that site’s gone downhill.
It’s possible I’ve got my wires crossed, there. Poor Fanatical. I actually buy a lot of stuff from them, though, so I don’t feel too bad about it.
I feel like we’ve totally had this discussion before…like many, many times before.
There is absolutely no argument that the Humble Choice Bundle is a fantastic value overall for computer gamers. $12 for 10 games, at least one of which is almost always priced above the $12 even at it’s steepest discount on other sites. Most months, there is something in the bundle with $12 worth of appeal to many people, and some months it is an absolute steal of a deal. It obviously can’t be that for everyone every month, as people’s tastes in gaming are different and people’s libraries may already contain the biggest draws in the bundle that particular month. This is why the PAUSE feature exists, and the fact that you can pause makes the Humble Choice Bundle an even better offering when viewed as a whole.
But there are going to be months, like this one, where the content may be worth far more than $12 in terms of literal value, but the appeal of the content is going to be so narrow as to provoke a negative response from a majority of subscribers. Hence the “whiff”, “disappointed” and “pathetic” reactions. Normally Humble tries to curate Choice bundles to cater to a broad appeal, but this month that doesn’t seem to be the case. It doesn’t mean the entire program is shit, it simply means they had a month that doesn’t appeal to a broad spectrum of gamers. There is nothing wrong with that since subscribers can pause, pay nothing, and hopefully come back next month when the offerings have a more mainstream appeal.
One positive I can say for the Choice program is the 20% (or less with donations) that is often applied on top of a decent sale discount makes the Humble Store much more competitive of late. I am finding that I have been doing a lot more game purchasing on Humble because the final price after the Choice discount beats out other stores like GMG and even the Grey Market (not that I am checking there). So, with Choice, Humble has received many more game purchases for me. I hope that competitive edge continues.
At face value this is correct. I suppose the factor that colors my judgment is that I already have a massive games library, too many unplayed or under-played games, and several anticipated upcoming titles with diminishing time. Much of my unplayed game library contains true classics that many here rave about as masterpieces. I also have Game Pass that is shoving more games in my face than I can even comprehend let alone give their fair allotment of time. So I suppose for myself the whole psychology of the backlog warps my valuation of Humble Choice: especially when there is significant overlap with my library or Game Pass titles.
There is no doubt that Humble Choice is a steal looking purely at cost. If I was just getting into PC gaming Choice would be incredible value! Wish I had something like that all those years ago. Though seen as another program that is just fattening up my swelling backlog I just start to view it as having diminishing returns. Perhaps that perspective isn’t fair, but I find it hard to escape.
Ha! I have one nephew who can play Overcooked games decently, so I save them for the annual family vacation.
My complaint about the “bad month” posts is that sometimes it is hard to tell if that is because the games are trash, or because someone simply owns most of the stuff.
The former is obviously a big deal, because it means maybe it is worth pausing. Which is TOTALLY OPPOSITE of the latter - if someone already owns most of the games, they are probably good and the value of the month is actually much higher if someone doesn’t own them.
Same with rating a month ‘horrible’ based on comparison with gamepass.
I’d like to see a bigger focus on rating the games themselves. A lot of these bundles include things I’ve never heard of, and I trust user reviews here more than digging up steam reviews on everything.
I had the exact same reaction. Absolutely not. What a pile of shit.
I’m not canceling my subscription, though! Many months the headline game is worth $12 all by itself, and it’s trivial to repause every month. I just tell Siri to remind me to pause on the proper day and it works out perfectly.
Sometimes it’s not even the headline game that’s worth $12, I’ve bought whole bundles just for one game on the third row from time to time. If it beats the historic low and it’s a game I want, why the hell not right?