Humble Indie Bundle 9 released
humblebundle.com
humblebundle.com
Linux gaming is still young, but it's picking up surprisingly quickly, really. I describe Netflix streaming as: "If you ask 'Does it have X?', the answer is no. But if you ask, 'Is there something I want to watch?', the answer is yes." Linux gaming is getting there, slowly but surely, at least if you can deal with Indie stuff. (And no hipster intended, but Indie stuff has come a long way in the last couple of years. There's a lot of stuff there that would have been at least A-grade, if not necessarily AAA, only five years ago.)
I don't know about LoL but you might want to give SC2 a try on wine if you haven't already.
No idea how well LoL works under wine, but DotA 2 has a native linux client. Just saying! :P
I'd much rather run VMs for linux stuff than wine for windows stuff.
Now if you prefer [insert window manager of your choice] over Win7 then I get ya
I don't have I/O benchmarks to back that up, just anecdotes from my usage, but I'd be shocked to find that my ubuntu VM was 10% of native performance.
I've gone deep down that hole. XMonad, fairly custom, custom keyboard layout, custom emacs... occasional light gaming is all I do now that Windows has an advantage for me personally. YMMV.
One nice thing about Ubuntu still being based on Debian is that it's easy to install enough to satisfy Steam and all the games, since Ubuntu is what they target, while leaving the Ubuntu UI off and doing whatever you want underneath.
On my Arch system, Steam works perfectly well for me.
For example while Metro Last Light is going to be ported to Linux, it will be tied to Steam for no apparent reason (it doesn't strictly depend on any Steam lock-in features). I.e. it's the common urge for DRM that drives this.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2013/09/10/metro-...
Why I mentioned GOG - it's the only major distributor now who can seriously compete with Steam. And they have a clear DRM free stance unlike the later.
As for GOG, they didn't say that they don't want to support Linux. They clearly said they want to, but the way they planned it for themselves makes it complex and takes long time to research/develop. While we can disagree with GOG's approach, it's up to them to decide how to enable it. So let's wait and see what they come up with next year.
Humble Bundle didn't reach the scope of GOG yet, plus they don't even have a strict DRM free approach unfortunately. On the other hand they work on real DRM free Linux ports and they always mark which games are DRMed and which are DRM free.
To grade the situation, I'd give Steam very bad, and HB - average mark (DRM wise).
GOG has more resources to be disruptive while being completely DRM free, and to take on Steam in a serious way.
Seriously the position from GOG is plain BS. If they really wanted to support Linux, they could easily package most of their old games with Dosbox and 90% of them would run fine this way. This is the large majority of their current catalog. And I have a very hard time to believe it would be difficult to support a few key distributions. Or they could take the approach "we support only Ubuntu officially" just like Valve does, and let the Community support other distributions.
So, as much as I love what GOG does, their position regarding Linux was a great disappointment. Especially coming from a developer from Eastern Europe, where Linux is clearly stronger than in other PC markets around the world. I don't see CD project porting Witcher 2 to Linux either, and they haven't made any announcement in that direction for the upcoming Witcher 3 either.
Supporting "Non-DRM" software while running on a DRM friendly environment (Windows/Mac) is a very strange place to be, honestly. I expected way more from GOG.
This was not about DosBox games which are already playable. It was about starting support for native Linux games which is not trivial. In general I agree with you that their approach of "all or nothing" in finding a way for long term support of native games is far from perfect, but what can you do - it's their business how to do it. They listened to feedback but didn't go the iterative way.
And this HB9 is excellent. Very much in the tradition of the best ones from 2012.
It is always "about to change soon" with games on Linux.
Linux gaming in the past has too much been about poor-grade clones of popular games. Now via Steam Linux is getting a lot of real games delivered, and in a manner where the publisher/developer can see the true impact of the decisions to port.
So no, Metro: LL might not change anything itself, but it is a sign that other stuff is having a real effect and that there is a pull.
This is why I have stopped buying the bundles, even though this one contains games I have wanted to play for a long time.
I have also told the Humble guys this, but I have gotten no response.
Nothing wrong with that, the more such games the better, but it just speaks volumes to the fact that Linux is as fringe on the desktop as it ever was.
Frankly, I don't understand why gamers who happen to use Linux and who love video games as well don't spend $500 on a Windows laptop and save themselves all these headaches.
Crusader Kings 2 and Europa Universalis 4 run on Paradox's internal game engine which was ported to Linux due to Steam. I believe the same is also true for Serious Sam 3 from Croteam. And there is 4A Games who are making Metro: Last Light with their own game engine. I do not think Football manager 2014 will be using an engine like Unity either, but I do not play sports management games.
Besides, I have no headache with my Linux systems. I have no idea what you are talking about.
FTL and Fez are real damn good.
Submitting every bundle that's offered, however, is just annoying. They have a mailing list for a that.
The main similarity to the Origin bundle was that only DRM-full copies were available and, again, this was definitely a departure.
On the other hand, while THQ was technically a AAA developer/publisher as well, by that point it was largely an in-name-only sort of deal. The THQ bundle was (or at least looked to be; I don't know if there's a definite official word on it) a last ditch effort to save a well-liked company from bankruptcy. Maybe trying to prop up a large company is not quite in the same vein as trying to support a tiny company but I personally felt like the spirit was mostly intact.
The Origin bundle, on the other hand, was a different beast. EA is a large, stable company and has a strong reputation for being anti-consumer. They also only provided DRM-full games in the Bundle but most of the games were only available on a service used by fewer people. And, for that matter, that seemed to be the entire point of the bundle: actually get people to use Origin. As much as I hate to say this phrase, the Origin bundle definitely felt like the HB guys selling out.
I'm not happy about them not having Linux games, but it's hard to really feel bad about buying that bundle. At least for me.
I don't mean to say anybody should feel bad about buying it--I don't think they should feel bad even if EA had gotten all the profits--but backing EA's attempt to get market share does feel like a major shift for Humble Bundle.
Second, I think you already realise that your analogy is only analogous in that there's a multi-billion dollar company and a much smaller company are both involved.
For example, AB InBev makes up half of the US beer sales with Budweiser and Bud Light being the top two US beers and the Budweiser family is the best selling worldwide. On the other hand, while Valve doesn't release many numbers, it's estimated that Steam has a strong majority of the PC game digital distribution market and Origin's market share is, obviously, lagging far behind.
Also, it doesn't take into account the vast difference between Origin and Budweiser. Origin exists to sell you other products and you have to use the service in order for this to happen. It is difficult to overcome the initial user inertia to get them to join and install the service and to keep it running on their system so that things can be further pushed on them. Once this inertia is overcome there is very little extra resistance to using the service to purchase games. This inertia is also increased because the market of people who would use a DRM-full digital distribution service is not at rest but is rather largely moving along happily with another service. By offering a significant discount on popular games if you start using their service they could convince people to get and run Origin giving them that initial hook.
Further, the Humble Bundle was creating an opportunity to have a significant effect on their user numbers. At 50,000,000 users in July, even if only half of the bundle purchasers were new Origin users, that's an extra 2% of people using their service, and they created positive exposure to many more that may have also joined or may be more inclined to join in the future.
And, finally, I don't think HB was attempting to get EA market share at all. EA was trying to increase Origin market share; Humble Bundle was trying to grow their own service and make some money. (People keep saying the Origin Bundle was "all for charity" or whatever, but don't forget that sending a portion of the money to Humble Bundle was an option that I'm sure some people chose, if only by default.) Again, I don't fault HB for this but it is a noteworthy difference from their prior operations.
It definitely feels awesome if/when you finally beat it, but be careful with this game if you tend to throw things when angered.
I'm very glad this happened to me twice in a row. Then I was able to officially uninstall the game and continue with my life. Still a great game.
But I loved it. Played it many many times, but only won it twice I believe.
For some of the unlockables I'd recommend looking at a walkthrough; for one of them at least I believe I decided to not pursue it since it would require too much random chance hitting all the right spots in the right order.
You just have to have a good feel for progression. Always fight as many ships as possible, and only leave the sector when the rebel fleet is riding your ass. Know which weapons, events, and upgrades are good, and roughly what order in which to get them.
I have played over 100 hours of FTL. Help me.
Since that happened way too often and I hate it if my success depends on dumb luck of weapon "drops", I don't play anymore.
Hopefully it will be included in the bundle as the week progresses.
http://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/monaco-whats-his-will-...
Monaco's an excellent team-based heist game.
That said, I wish Fish would make a second Fez and just not say a word about it until it's maybe a month out. He'd still get hype and sell a ton of game without people pissing him off.
The games are all very distinct from each other and top notch. My three favorites:
Fez: a perspective-altering puzzle platformer. It's cute, clever, and well designed.
FTL: a real-time starship crew management game, where you assign people to stations and target your opponent's systems. You fly through randomly generated galaxies and have random encounters. Super replayability.
Mark of the Ninja: a stealth-action ninja platformer with very high production values and multiple paths to victory.
Their "unlock more products by paying more than the average" is sheer genius. Most people will pay just a hair over the average, which causes the price to creep up as the bundle gets older. So to get the best deal, you have to buy in early.
I don't know of any other bundle products out there (MacHeist, MacLegion, Paddle, etc) that even comes close anymore.
Thanks for the advice. I wouldn't want to give any more to the EFF, Child's Play, or Watsi than I absolutely have to.
OK, apologies for the sarcasm, but, well— advice on how to pay as little money as possible, while usually great, strikes me as being in poor taste when the money is going to charity (and/or the indie developers, in whatever proportions you specify).
UPDATE: I actually bought it for the Linux version now, and I had no idea it became DRM free earlier. In the past it was DRMed. HB writes however:
> Trine 2: Complete Story is making its DRM-free Windows and Mac debut!
And I just got it again, apparently. Not sure what the 'Complete Story' edition is all about, but hey, more content can't be bad.
EDIT: Nevermind, just had to pause Ghostery. Not sure what script was messing it up.
The only trouble is I already own all of them. :(
edit: The average purchase so far is $4.37...seriously? Given the caliber of games included, and that this is the first bundle (I think) since the Edward Snowden revelations, this is a great excuse to give a large donation to the EFF.
But I completely agree. In fact, in the wake of Snowden, I made a mental note to pay extra attention to the next Humble Bundle charity split. I was planning to send it all directly to the EFF, but now I've realized that I can't just stiff everyone else. In the end, I paid double my usual amount.
Are you talking about Humble Bundle? The first few Humble Bundles were all indie games.
Yet another awesome thing about the HiB: an incentive to create Mac and Linux ports of games.