Awesome and Worth It

I know I've mentioned Humble Bundle before, so I can skip over what it is and get straight to what awesome thing they are doing now. The Humble THQ Bundle. The first offering from Humble Bundle with truly AAA titles, instead of the usual indie. Of the 6+1 current games, four of them I already own and have played:

Metro 2033 is an apocalyptic survival FPS based on a Russian book. This is easily an excellent game. Perhaps short but it is beautiful and lots of fun. It also has multiple endings, if you are in to that. Simplest way I can think to describe it in terms of other games is Fallout 3 (the only one of that series I've played) as a story-driven FPS instead of a somewhat open-world RPG.

Darksiders is the first of a franchise that recently released its sequel. The only complaints I could lob at it would be the occasional evidence of the PC version being a console port with poor controls and a poor camera. Overall though, still worth it as those issues are not major and only frustrating at times. Some describe it as an adventure game similar to the Legend of Zelda games. I understand the comparison but would say this has far more of a brawler sense to it than Zelda games. After all, Link is a guy with a sword while War is more of a demigod with a sword about the size of Link.

Red Faction: Armageddon is, on its own, a good good. In the shadow of Red Faction: Guerrilla though it is a weaker title. It is worth noting though that the two games are two separate games in a franchise and not games in a series, if that makes sense. This is not a direct sequel to Guerrilla but another Red Faction game, so it makes sense that there would be some differences. It would have been nice if one of them was not the difference between an open world and a linear story, but still, it is a good game.

Saints Row: The Third is the only game in the Saints Row franchise I have played and it is one of the few games I have ever played to completion. Every mission, every unlockable, and every collectable I got because I enjoyed the game that much. Definitely worth beating the average to get this irreverent open world game. But understand, it is rated M for a reason.

The bundle is worth it for any one of these games I've mentioned, assuming these games are of interest to you. (Obviously if you don't like survival games you won't like Metro 2033, even though it is a great game.) I definitely recommend the bundle if you are interested in these games. You will need a Steam account though, but that is free, so you can still get these seven great games for less than $1 each.

Now, this bundle has caused some stirs in the HB community for multiple reasons that are recognizable.

• Humble Bundles are supposed to be indie games getting exposure
• Humble Bundles should be DRM free and not require Steam or Windows
• Humble Bundle should not be serving a publisher like this
• etc.

There are likely more issues people have brought up I have not listed here but I'm sure those, like these, I can reason away. I'm going to work from the bottom up (skipping etc.) in why these issues are not hugely important.

• Humble Bundle should not be serving a publisher like this

Without a doubt, this bundle is helping THQ, but then that is likely why this bundle is happening. THQ is at risk of closing so this may be a way to get the money and good press to survive. If THQ was not more desperate than they normally would be, this bundle would likely not have happened. That being said though, THQ is not the only business benefiting from this bundle.

Humble Bundle is bringing in not just money by new customers. With each bundle more customers can be brought it and whether they stick around depends on what the bundle contains. Unfortunately indie games are something of a niche market, so only people interested in indie games are going to care about Humble Bundle, typically. By these being AAA games though, people who want just the AAA experience are going to be exposed to Humble Bundle, and hopefully they will stick around for the next bundle, which will likely be all indie games again.

That being said though, I will admit that there has in fact been a time that Humble Bundle has, in my opinion, appeared to be taken advantage of by one of their content providers. It wasn't anything major, but just felt to me to be a comprise of Humble Bundle's principles. It isn't worth mentioning here, especially as I do not feel this situation is similar, but I will state that I actually did email Humble Bundle my feelings on the matter.

• Humble Bundles should be DRM free and not require Steam

This is a sticky issue. Offering DRM free content is definitely one of the things Humble Bundle is known for, and that is not the case here as Steam, which is a form of DRM, is required. However, is it feasible that the DRM could have been removed for the bundle? Not really. Some of these games require Steam to handle multiplayer connections for them, so removing the Steam requirement would remove the multiplayer component as well. That would definitely take more resources than would be worth it to THQ. Also, these are titles at risk of piracy. Indie games; not so much. They are a niche market so there is less interest in pirating them. Not being interesting is a good way to not be a target. These games are definitely interesting and a DRM-free version would definitely be contrary to THQ's interests. That being said, Steam is not a bad form of DRM as it gets the job done but is not too annoying and provides benefits. (The Steam Community, achievements, Steam Cloud syncing, screenshots, etc.)

Also, here's a reason it is a good thing for Humble Bundle to only offer Steam keys for these games. I doubt their servers could handle the traffic this bundle would have caused. It has only been two days and the bundle has reached over half a million sales and these games are all multiple gigabytes. Steam can handle that much persistent traffic as people download their purchases.

• Humble Bundles are supposed to be indie games getting exposure

Humble Bundle is a company that needs to be as much concerned about getting exposure for itself as the games it offers. After all, the more exposure Humble Bundle gets the more exposure future bundles and indie games will get as well. If we no longer see any indie games, then there would be a problem here, but that is not going to happen.

That being said though, I do hope this "experiment" does turn out to be such a success that THQ survives and it comes back and does other Humble Bundles. Better yet, let other publishers put together Humble Bundles. It would be great for them! Let's say they have a new title coming that they want to have a big release for. Build up interest by having a good bundle containing older games. People get exposed to the publisher's work and may become more interested in what the new title is. Plus it is a way to get more money from titles that have already gone over their sales peak and to renew interest in them. I know Saints Row: The Third has DLC to it that now many more people may be interested in buying, and that money won't be coming in through the Humble Bundle (unless the DLC are the mid-sale addition, but I doubt it). It's like making older games into demos for newer games or DLC that has to be purchased separately. Good way to bring in more money.

End of the day, I see this bundle having numerous ways to benefit Humble Bundle and THQ. Already we can see that they are benefiting from sales while other benefits may only become apparent in the future. Hopefully they do become apparent because Humble Bundle is a company I like. THQ I don't have anything against and I definitely have enjoyed many games they have published, so them surviving is a good thing, in my opinion. You know, I did have a funny idea too. Maybe THQ is still going to collapse after this, but because of the indie exposure Humble Bundle has given their developers, maybe some of these franchises and studios will live on by going indie. Would definitely be interesting, and not just because of how the games may change without THQ's influence, but by what ripples it would cause throughout the gaming industry. Not very likely to happen, but would be interesting.

Okay, I'm done now. I think I've made your eyes bleed enough with my writings.