Humble opinions - TTLG Forums

Tomi on 1/3/2019 at 23:02

I would imagine that quite a few of us in here are Humble Monthly subscribers, so I thought that it might be useful to have a dedicated thread for the latest Humble offerings. Not just the monthly games of course, but the bundles too. Perhaps I'm quite out of touch these days when it comes to PC gaming, but at least I don't know the majority of these games! Let's take the February games for example:

February 2019 Humble Monthly

* Warhammer Vermintide 2
* Earth Defense Force 4.1
* Cultist Simulator
* Tower Unite
* Late Shift
* Paradigm
* Fight'N Rage
* Slipstream

I've heard of the top three games, but I'm not really familiar with any of them. Vermintide 2 is apparently a "co-op-focused action game experienced from a first-person perspective". Meh. EDF 4.1 doesn't look particularly interesting either. In fact it looks quite hideous and the anime style makes me want to avoid it. Cultist Simulator is something a bit different. Some kind of a card game apparently, but there's got to be some cool twist. Even though the [insert random word here] Simulator name thing hasn't been funny for years, there's something that makes me want to at least give this game a try. Tower Unite is apparently another strange online game - I think I'll pass. Late Shift is a "high stakes FMV crime thriller". I never played any of those interactive movies when they were in fashion about twenty years ago, so I guess now is the right time... it seems quite tempting actually! Paradigm is a "surreal adventure game set in the strange and post apocalyptic Eastern European country of Krusz". One of those old-school point&click adventure games. It doesn't look all that bad, but I've never been a huge fan of games like that, to be honest. The next one, Fight'N Rage, is an old-school side-scrolling beat-em-up game, and it looks like there's some potential there to be a fun action game. And surprise surprise, Slipstream is yet another old-school game, a pseudo-3D racing game like Crazy Cars or Out Run. I doubt that it can be too much fun.

All in all, in my Humble opinion, February wasn't a very good month!

Nameless Voice on 1/3/2019 at 23:36

Vermintide 2 is basically Left 4 Dead in a fantasy setting with a focus on melee combat, but I'm sure I've sung its praises enough around here already.

I've heard good things about Cultist Simulator, though I haven't played it myself. There's a good review of it by Lord Mandalore (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=detN4KEy4m8) here.

Starker on 2/3/2019 at 00:34

EDF is a stupid amount of fun. Yes, it looks and plays funky, but you won't get an experience like that anywhere else (and I mean that in a good way).

Pyrian on 2/3/2019 at 00:57

Honestly those first three seem like a pretty good haul for a humble bundle. ...Might've considered it if I'd heard about it in February, lol...

Starker on 2/3/2019 at 01:05

Might want to check The Great Bargain Deals Thread thread every once in a while. Better humble bundles get mentioned there often.

WingedKagouti on 2/3/2019 at 01:42

On the surface Cultist Simulator looks like a card game, but it's not really. While items, people, places, events, knowledge and other things are represented as cards, the game doesn't use a deck as such, nor do you have a hand of cards (unless you consider the entire game board your hand).

And as Starker said, EDF is a B-movie "Attack of the Giant Ants/Spiders/Robots/etc." first/third person shooter with ludicrous weapons, massive vehicles and city wide destruction.

icemann on 2/3/2019 at 03:35

I mainly use it for the free game offers that occassionly popup.

Sulphur on 2/3/2019 at 04:33

First things first, are you posting an opinion on the merits of the month's bundle when you haven't played the games at all? If something's not your bag, fair enough, but assessing the worth of a game from a glance at a trailer or whatever is counterproductive and not very useful.

Anyway, EDF 4.1 is easily the best thing in the bundle. It looks dumb, and my god it is so dumb - which is exactly why it's brilliant. Think of it as a massively cheesy B-movie, and you've got an idea of what it's going for. It's got a decent amount of variety in its playable classes, and I've been having fun being a glass cannon wing diver swooping across the landscape. It's also one of the most cinematic games of recent times; just because its graphics look a generation or two behind doesn't mean the devs don't know how to use it to their advantage - it's got a sense of scale and screen-shaking carnage that have made my jaw drop at times. It's also best played in co-op, where you can fuck shit up together and laugh at how insane the entire game. Also, the controls are even more weirdly put together than any Arma game.

Vermintide 2 is essentially L4D2 in the Warhammer universe. I didn't get on with L4D to begin with, so while Vermintide 2 seems pretty well put-together (and has an excellent Jesper Kyd soundtrack) it failed to engage me in the same way L4D's relentless mobs (and lag) wore me out. There's something missing to it that I can't put my finger on, even if it showcases some generally decent game design.

Tomi on 2/3/2019 at 09:01

Quote Posted by Sulphur

That's exactly what I'm doing! :D I have three reasons:

1) Isn't that what people do? They read the back cover of a book or watch a trailer of a film/game before deciding whether the product is worth their money and time.
2) It was supposed to be a bit of a conversation starter. I watched the trailers and some random gameplay video of each game, and quickly skimmed through some reviews. I then posted my first impressions here, and I'm more than willing to change my opinion. You people already convinced me to give EDF 4.1 a chance for example. :)
3) My gaming backlog is already really big, and I can't see it getting any shorter in the near future... That's the only negative thing about Humble Bundle! I'm just trying to pick the games that interest me the most, as I currently don't have enough time to try them all.

So yeah, like I already mentioned in my first post, I have no idea what any of these games really are like. Who knows how many hidden gems I have missed in the last months and past bundles? It's just that there are no big names or anything that immediately caught my attention this time. I will give some of these games a try sooner or later, but how far do I push them on my to-play list, that's why I started this thread!

Sulphur on 2/3/2019 at 09:22

Aight. I'm just discounting the utility of 1) - expressing your dislike for an entire movie or book based on a trailer or blurb isn't useful for anything other than stating what your preferences are, and they (blurbs, trailers) usually aren't indicative of the quality of the actual movie or book. Having said that, yeah, this thread's a good idea, so thanks for that.