Checking in with more indie bundles

Ooh goodie, my internet's back up and running! That means I can jot down my first impressions about these new indie bundles that are out.

Actually, there are a lot of bundles running right now. We've got:

• Indie Royale Back to School Bundle
• Bundle-in-a-Box Deep Space Bundle
• Groupees Build-a-Bundle 3
• Humble Indie Bundle 6
• Indie Gala 9
• Indie Face Kick

That's quite the selection.

Now, apologies to the folks behind the Indie Royale, but the price point is too high for me. I can't keep dropping $5-6 every time. I might if I knew the games were good, but I'm getting less and less comfortable with it as my Steam library has bloated up with more and more unplayed games. There's nothing in it this time that catches my eye and makes me want to drop the cash on it, so I'm just skipping it.

Indie Gala is really small this time. Two of the games, Battle Group and Call of Cthulhu: Wasted Land are Android-only, so they shouldn't really count, and the other two Steam-only games are Worms--the original, which is super-old now--and Alien Breed 2: Assault, which I already own. Now, the price point is more attractive at $1, but the content just isn't there. I wouldn't pay $1 for Worms if that were its normal sale price, so I don't see why I should pay $1 for it in a bundle where it's effectively the only game.

Yes, I know they have a second tier, but that's the same problem as the Indie Royale. It's not worth my $6 for a pack of unknown games. (And one of them, Worms Blast, I even own already.) Especially since Indie Gala has a pretty poor track record quality-wise--they'll give away any damn game no matter how crappy it is. I don't have a lot of faith in them.

The Indie Face Kick is just a pack of FPS games. Not my thing. I'll pass.

I already talked about Build-a-Bundle 3. Uh, still haven't gotten around to playing the games from it, but don't worry, they're on my short list.

I snap-bought the Humble Bundle. The Humble Bundle folks have earned that much from me. Everything they've put out so far has been amazing, and they are by far the best indie bundle out there. Accept no substitutions. But I can talk about the games a little.

Rochard is some sort of gravity-manipulating platformer. Gravity manipulation seems to be trendy with indie platformers. We've got VVVVVV, BEEP, And Yet It Moves, and now Rochard, just from Humble Bundles. From the gameplay footage, this game looks okay. Probably worth a fair shot.

Torchlight is like a Diablo clone. Which I am told is a thing. I have never played Diablo, so I don't know what that means. I've played Greed: Black Border, and it is kind of like that, including the control scheme that I don't like. But I am told it is a bestseller that was popular and well-reviewed, so that's encouraging. I assume it's in a bundle now as publicity for the newly-released sequel?

Shatter is possibly the weirdest Breakout variant I've ever seen. I'm not sure what to say. It's like Breakout if it had a physics engine and a bunch of odd twists to it? Hmm. Seems okay.

Vessel is a puzzle platformer where it looks like the developers had a lot of fun playing around with their physics engine. It's all about manipulating liquids. Sounds like a fine premise. I have a lot of puzzle platformers on my list, but I might be able to find time for another.

And then lastly there's the Bundle-in-a-Box. I'm still undecided. I might talk about it some other time because I've gone on long enough tonight. I'll try and think of something interesting to say.