Tag Archives: humble bundle

The Android's Kickbacks (Gog/Bribed), The Android's Liberal Arts Degree (Meta/Critical), The Android's Party Cannon (Holidays and gifts)

A Not-So-Indie Bundle

Hey friends, Pike here.  Long time, no post… from me, anyway.  I do apologize, but writing… and of course lots of gaming… have been keeping me quite busy.

Anyhow!  Today I come bearing news that you may have already heard.  Basically, there’s a new Humble Bundle in town, and it’s a little different.  It breaks away from Humble Bundle tradition in more than one way: The games are certainly not “indie” ones, for starters, oh, and Steam and Windows are both required.

A few people are questioning the wisdom of this move.  People don’t like taking the focus away from indie games, and Mac and Linux users are certainly not impressed, either, since Humble Bundle has traditionally prided itself on offering games to users of all “major” operating systems.

As for myself, well, I see little to complain about.  It’s still cheap games, money is still going to charity (heck, you can give it all to charity if you want), and honestly with THQ in the financial trouble it is currently in, they may as well be their own charity case.

As a self-professed Linux fan the lack of Linux support does bother me a little, but ultimately if you are a Linux gamer you should probably have accepted a while ago that there are a good many games you’re going to be missing out on.  I’m not saying that this is right, necessarily, but I am saying that this is reality.  We’re getting a big ol’ bone tossed to us in the name of impending Steam support, and honestly that’s got me happy enough.  In the meantime I’m willing to dual boot in the name of vidya gaems.

So anyway, do give it a look if you haven’t already.  It’s a solid lineup and worth getting for Company of Heroes alone, not to mention the other games.

The Android's Horn-Rimmed Glasses (Indie)

Voxatron

1 Comment

Way back in the day there was a game called Robotron: 2084. I played it a little as a kid– not much, though. This game was not easy, you see. For starters it had a two-joystick control scheme, so you could move and shoot in two different directions– this was the first game to do that. Combine that with weird unworldly sounds, flashing neon lights, and gameplay that just threw you into the middle of the action without so much as a countdown or warmup period, and you can see why this game was fairly unforgiving for a younger player. (It also scared me, but that’s beside the point.)

It was widely hailed as a pretty genius game, though, and now that I’m older I’m able to see why. Not surprisingly, it has spawned several homage games and “Robotron-likes”. Voxatron is one of those games.

Voxatron is not complete. It’s not even in beta. It’s currently in alpha, and even so it’s one of the most fun games I’ve played in a while. A screenshot isn’t really going to do it justice– heck, I don’t know if a video would really do it justice, but here you go:

Basically, the game is Robotron, but with plenty of weapon powerups and 100% destructible environments. Level after level you’re fighting nonstop waves of enemies. Your objective? Survive. Just… survive. If you don’t survive, you restart the level and get to try again. You’d be surprised how many times you’re willing to try again once you really get into the game.

Oh, and there’s a level editor, too, if that’s your kind of thing.

Anyways! For an alpha, this game is extremely promising. It works natively on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and for the next six days you can pay what you want for it as a part of Humble Bundle. I highly recommend it!

…and now I’m off to go play it some more.