I originally wasn't going to put up a post today, not because I didn't have anything to say, but because all of what I wanted to say I didn't feel was up to snuff with how I wanted to say it all. I think I have three articles that are more-or-less finished that I'm not 100% satisfied with along with at least four articles that I would like to write about games that I have finished within the last six months.
But today I wanted to talk about alternatives to Humble Bundles.
This isn't meant as a scathing, "This is why you shouldn't be supporting Humble Bundles" as I recently plunked down some dough for their Star Wars Humble Bundle II, but just to say that I have enjoyed at least one of the other gaming bundle sites, with two other sites that I occasionally visit when I remember that they exist.
I first heard about this gaming bundle site last year from PC Gamer, the online iteration of their physical magazine. There was some kind of giveaway where you just had to sign up for their newsletter and you were "rewarded" with a number of Steam keys. I honestly do not remember which games were being offered and looking through my library of unloaded Steam games does not help.
Most of their giveaways are when they are partnered up with another company (at least that is the impression that I get) and they require you to do some combination of signing up for their newsletter, joining their Steam group, tweeting about the giveaway, or some combination thereof. Sometimes, it will simply be just visiting the site, clicking a "Redeem for Code" button upon visiting the page of a particular game and you have earned yourself a Steam key to a game you did not know you had wanted 30 seconds before opening your email. Granted not all of the games being offered for free have "Overwhelming Positive" ratings on Steam and about half have a "Mixed" rating. But free is free and it is hard to complain when you have not given up any money.
As far as their regular bundles go, some look to be quite good and others look to have a game bundled with four or five other games that do not particularly interest me. I should also note that I have yet to purchase anything from them, through no fault of their own, but mainly because I do not happen to be in a buying mood most of the time, I will however take all the freebies they have to offer. But when a bundle of 10 games costs $1.99, it is admittedly hard to pass up if you happen to be looking for anything to play and wouldn't be too upset if you only like a single game.
I only recently found out about Inidegala, once again through PC Gamer's facebook page. There was a giveaway for a game called Timberman. I am positive that I had linked the free game offer through my Steam account, although upon just checking (as in 10 seconds ago), there is no game linked to either my Steam account or my Indiegala account.
I guess at this point, I am not so much endorsing Indiegala as I am mentioning them. As with Bundle Stars, I have not purchased any individual games or bundles from the site so I cannot comment on the ease of transactions, nor anything else. I will say though that I have had to claim and reclaim my account a number of times do to me being a confused person about how to go about claiming the download key for Timberman that I apparently never claimed in the first place. Sigh.
Indie Royals is closer to what Humble Bundle used to be before they started offering weekly/bi-weekly bundles. And whenever I remember about Indie Royale, it always seems to be after they've done one of their bundle sales. I would then assume that I am not on their mailing list, so that is most likely my own fault.
One upside to Indie Royale though, is that most, if not all of the games in their offerings, are also available through Deshura, if that is a gaming client that you are either familiar with or use along with Steam/Galaxy/Origins.
And now that I think about it, I'm going to see if I can find a bundle service that focuses on older games and that might use games that are more likely to be found on GOG's Galaxy client than on Steam. Well, at the moment, I am unable to locate a video game bundle service that either focuses or highlights GOG's own client, but maybe that will all change when Galaxy is out of beta. I can understand that trepidation on the part of the offering company as I do not doubt that there will be people who demand refunds, no matter how much time has passed if Galaxy never leaves beta or, Tyr forbids, closes down indefinitely.
So if you happen to be looking for some inexpensive games that are not AAA, or even single A titles, the following sites have some pretty decent options and Bundle Stars has some frequent giveaways that I have definitely taken advantage of, with the most recent being a free retail copy of Planetary Annihilation, which is available through Steam for $29.99. Again, it's a mixed reviewed game, but it's free and I will give it a try. . .eventually, but only because I already have a semi-large backlog.
Oh first world problems abound.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
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