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NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2024 21:52:04 +0000
From: Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action
Subject: Humble Choice June 2024
Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2024 17:52:05 -0400
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Hey! Hey, hey, hey! You know what day it is today? First Tuesday of
the month, that's what day! Are you excited? I'm excited! Can you tell
that I'm excited? 'Cause I'm excited! Today's another chance to get 8
new games! How can't I be excited? Let's go see what games we get!!!!!

This month, you get:

* Risk of Rain 2
https://store.steampowered.com/app/632360/Risk_of_Rain_2
   I've not heard of this game before. Actually, you could 
   say that of pretty much every game this month. Doesn't 
   mean they're bad; just unknown. Oooh! Mystery! Anyway, 
   "Risk of Rain" seems to be a unlikely mix of "Elden Ring" 
   and "No Man's Sky"; git-gud melee combat combined with 
   soothing visuals and exploring/surviving an alien world. 
   I'm not really a fan of roguelikes, but this one seems 
   polished, so maybe I'll give it a try.



* Knights of Honor II: Sovereign
https://store.steampowered.com/app/736820/Knights_of_Honor_II_Sovereign/
   A 'grand strategy' game seemingly in the mold of "Crusader 
   Kings" with perhaps a touch more focus on combat and 
   conquest. It's arguably not as polished as the Paradox 
   games* but it still looks fun. Surveys say strategy is 
   on a decline; let's prove them wrong ;-)


* Lego 2K Drive Awesome Edition
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1451810/LEGO_2K_Drive/
   We need more 'awesome edition' games. 'Complete' 
   and 'Gold' and 'Game of the Year' are so boring! Anyway, 
   this is a racer with the usual Lego twist; mix-n-match 
   pieces to make your car, then hit the track. Conceptually 
   cool, and generally well executed, it's let down 
   mostly by the heavy monetizations (somewhat minimized 
   by the awesome edition) and the 3rd-party account 
   requirement. So overall a mixed bag; I WANT to play 
   this game, but I may avoid it just because I don't 
   want to have to sign up to another service just to 
   get the game running.


* Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sector
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1295500/Warhammer_40000_Battlesector/
   Yet another Warhammer game. Gee, didn't we just have 
   a thread about how many Warhammer games there are? Anyway, 
   this one is tactical turn-based strategy; guide your 
   little space marines around and shoot heretics, mutants 
   and aliens. You know, the usual. A solid campaign and 
   looks-like-fun combat; too bad it's got the usual Games 
   Workshop MTX where you have to buy a half-dozen DLC to 
   complete the package.


* Miasma Chronicles
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1649010/Miasma_Chronicles/
   The game description says, "From the makers of 'Mutant 
   Year Zero'", which isn't the selling point they seem to 
   think it is. Still, even if the execution of MYZ wasn't 
   so great, it did have some interesting art and concepts. 
   "Miasma" seems to be the same, but hopefully its gameplay 
   (top-down RPG with turn-based combat) is better done. 
   Anyway, it /looks/ interesting. I need to give it a try.


* Stray Gods: The Role-Playing Musical
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1920780/Stray_Gods_The_Roleplaying_Musical/
   With a name like that... I mean, I've no idea if its any 
   good but I /gotta/ try it! Although calling it a role-
   playing game seems inaccurate; it seems more akin to 
   a Telltale-style adventure game (albeit with a lot poorer
   production values). I guess your enjoyment for a game 
   like this depends a lot on how much you like showtunes. 
   But I'm willing to give it a shot!


* A Guidebook to Babel
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1467920/A_Guidebook_of_Babel/
   An Indie point-n-click adventure game. I can't really 
   tell much more what the game is really like; apparently 
   'the butterfly effect' is a core conceit of the game (so 
   maybe it involves time travel?) and I'm not much a fan 
   of the visuals. But I'm happy to give an interesting 
   adventure game a chance to shine.


* Empyrion: Galactic Survival
https://store.steampowered.com/app/383120/Empyrion__Galactic_Survival/
   An Indie sandbox survival game; this one too seems to owe 
   a lot to "No Man's Sky", except its biggest change seems 
   that to be that it uses more realistic-looking visuals. 
   Apparently the core game is quite solid (if a bit early-
   access), but all the development has gone into paid DLC, 
   so there's a dearth of content and story unless you shell 
   out. So why play this game over "No Man's Sky", which 
   -almost ten years on- is still releasing free expansions? 
   I've no idea.


Is this a good selection this month? I can't tell! A lot of the games
LOOK interesting, but are they actually as interesting and fun as I
hope? Most of the issues seem to be publisher-related rather than
faults with the games themselves. Still, both "Miasma Chronicles" and
"Knights of Honor II" look very appealing to me; "WH40K Battlesector"
and "Stray Gods" might be fun, and even "Risk of Rain" and "A
Guidebook to Bable" seem worthy of a chance. (I'd love to say the same
about "Lego 2K Drive" but that 3rd party account requirement? No
thanks). 

But this eclectic mix is one of the reasons I quite like HumbleChoice;
you never know what you're going to get, and it introduces you to a
lot of new titles you might otherwise overlook. This month is a
perfect example of this. I think the $12 entry fee is worth the price.
Maybe you agree, maybe you don't -and maybe it's just the three cans
of Red Bull in my system- but I'm excited about this month's
selection. I'm going for it!













--------------------------         
* side note: Crusader Kings 2 is free-to-play now. This isn't a new
thing, I don't think, and has nothing to do with HumbleBundle. I just
wanted to point it out in case you were unaware. If you've wanted to
give Crusaders King a try, you can nab it gratis at:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/203770/Crusader_Kings_II/