I've slowly been transitioning to Linux-only gaming, because the whole reboot-into-Windows just to play is a pretty steep bar. (Steeper than it even sounds in practice, as now, basically, every time I boot into Windows I have to spend about 10 minutes updating the damn thing, because I don't do it often enough; this has become a vicious cycle.) This bundle is great for that, with all the Linux debuts.
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.)
Well there's Metro Last Light coming up very soon it seems, that's a sign that AAA gaming may be entering the dance slowly. On the indie side in the end of July Andy, the creator of Monaco, confirmed the upcoming Linux port. I bought Monaco when it came out for Windows, but I hardly played it since I'm spending most of my time under Linux. NOw, knowing this game is coming on Linux made my day.
And this HB9 is excellent. Very much in the tradition of the best ones from 2012.
Unreal 2004, quake3, W:ET, etc. Those AAA games already entered the dance and it didn't work out as well as their windows versions. I would not bet a cent on Metro Last Light changing anything to gaming on linux.
It is always "about to change soon" with games on Linux.
Steam for linux is a game-changer though. While previous efforts (there was a surge around 2000 with the likes of Q3, NWN etc) lacked cohesion, there is a convenient banner under which to promote games on linux and real stats on how many people are actually playing games on linux rather than the overhyped estimates of the past.
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.
"Now if you prefer [insert window manager of your choice]"
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.
>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.
Even in Ubuntu 13.04, Steam installs a bunch of Ubuntu 12.04 stuff instead of relying on native libraries. So the Debian base doesn't matter much for compatibility. It's more a matter of packaging it with everything it needs to run on any distro.
I run my ubuntu VM off of a SSD. My VM performance is (unbenchmarked) seemingly faster than many laptops and netbooks running Ubuntu. It's blazing fast performance that I believe is better than most native Linux installs on spinning drives.
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.
This is likely going to be my setup as well - technically running Windows 7, with a Linux VM up whenever I don't need all my system resources for gaming.
I have also been doing more gaming in Linux recently. I only have a windows partition for Starcraft 2 and League of Legends. If blizzard ever gets on board the linux bandwagon, I won't need a windows partition :-D.
I recently built myself a gaming rig, and am running Linux Mint on it. This works well enough for me. Sure, most games out there are Windows only, but the quality ones that I want to play (dota 2, Amnesia, Quake Live) work great on Linux.
Supporting Steam itself helps DRM proliferation, so I don't use it at all. Indies which are on Steam usually find ways to be distributed outside it in a DRM free fashion (Humble Store, Desura, directly from developers and etc). It's mostly big budget games with Linux versions which appear on Steam lately or plan to appear there that are a problem. Since they are not sold anywhere else.
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.
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.
Yeah but GOG clearly said they do not want to support Linux distributions anyway, so I'm not sure what you are hoping for. I prefer supporting Steam which in turn helps more ports to Linux, rather than waiting for something that may never come from GOG.
I won't start using Steam while they drive DRM proliferation (i.e. being very conductive for DRM pushing publishers), it's a deal breaker for me at least.
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.
> 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.
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.
> 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 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.
Well the longer they wait, the more the "all or nothing" strategy will never happen because their catalog is expanding. Basically they are simply refusing people who want to give them money. It's preposterous.
What about all these recent Origin/Steam only bundles? They seem to appear more and more often, and they don't look DRM free at all to me. You could note the absence of EFF in the charities there. I guess it's because EFF doesn't want to make it look like they endorse DRM.
I've similarly had poor experiences with the Humble ports of games. Off the top of my head I can think of Super Meat Boy, which usually crashes within the first minute, and Psychonauts, which is so broken that it ruins all the fun. Both of these on OSX, by the way, but I've had similar problems on Linux.
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.
In case people are still curious, the upload yesterday was missing a bunch of files. There is a new file for download 9/12/2013 which is working fine for me.
I don't see much reason to rejoice, all the games you see running on Linux are not doing so because they were specifically written for Linux but because the developers used Unity or Game Maker.
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.
That is an exaggeration, and I do not see what is the bad thing about many of the games being written in Unity either.
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.
Yeah, "source" games run on Unity, maybe? That's a good chunk of all the AAA titles available on Steam for Linux currently, and they run great on Linux.
Besides, I have no headache with my Linux systems. I have no idea what you are talking about.
Why does every bundle get upvoted to the top every time? I love Humble Bundle, I have bought a majority of the ones they release - but this is no longer news, it's their business model. If they were doing something new (like the introduction of the eBook or comedy bundle) then I can see it being interesting. Now it's no different then if every new AirBNB listing were upvoted to the front page.
It's certainly different from an AirBNB posting in that it can be used by an unlimited number of people in variety of geographic regions, giving it much broader appeal. It's often the way I realize a new bundle is out, which triggers me to go buy it. Of course, the emails humble bundle sends out could also fill that purpose, so it's debatable whether that's a good reason.
I guess the only other reason is to see people's opinions of the games. I find that useful, but I could also see that it might be more appropriate for other forums.
They have a weekly sale, but the HIB is more rare. They're up to 9 and they started in May 2010, so... every few months rather than weekly. I don't mind that getting upvoted if the games are good.
As the guy who submitted the front-paged link to the Origin bundle, I thought it was interesting because it was a significant departure from the usual Humble Bundle fare and perceived ethos.
Submitting every bundle that's offered, however, is just annoying. They have a mailing list for a that.
Perhaps it's just my personal feelings towards the relevant companies but I felt like it was a totally different affair than the Origin bundle, though you are right that it was different from the original ethos.
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.
The Origin bundle was entirely for charity, though. Kind of hard to consider it "selling out." AND EA let them post Steam keys for some of the games, even though the whole point of the bundle was to promote Origin.
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.
It would be one thing if it felt like EA had decided they wanted to do a charity event out of the goodness of their heart or at least like the charity was the point of it. As was, it felt more like EA didn't think they could get away with positive PR by actually making money directly from the Humble Bundle but they didn't particularly care since their point was getting buy-in.
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.
I'm happy to read that you're complaining about the Humble Bundle's attempt get EA market share. That's as if someone were to complain about Orval trying to get Anheuser-Bush Inbev market share because their lead brewer once said he would buy a Budweiser.
First, if you think I'm complaining you may be misreading. I'm explaining the difference in perceived ethos but I have no problem with HB at all.
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.
Thanks for the additional thoughts. I'm not arguing with you. I genuinely appreciate that Humble Bundle is being compared to EA. I think their distribution model is a huge improvement to EA's.
Indeed, it's a simple and challenging little sucker, too. But a word of warning: It will make you feel like you're doing well for a while, then curbstomp you with zero warning. There's no saving/loading, and if you die, you start back at square 1.
It definitely feels awesome if/when you finally beat it, but be careful with this game if you tend to throw things when angered.
You have to approach it as a roguelike, which does the same thing to you (way more deaths than successes).
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 totally can get good at it, it's a skill like any other. I've won like 40 games out of 200 or so, and I'd say that I win about half of my games I decide to play past the first sector.
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 was often in the situation that I fought every enemy but either didn't have enough cash or the available weapons were pure crap and I couldn't progress much further, because I didn't have the equipment.
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.
There are so many games being released that I appreciate a game that I can play through in 10-20 hours and then put aside. Speaking of Mark of the Ninja specifically, I thought new game plus mode was fun because you can use abilities unlocked later in the game in the early levels, and there's a DLC coming soon.
Holy...moly. As a Mac gamer, I've been waiting forever for Mark of the Ninja and Fez. AFAIK, they've not yet been previously released, so is this an exclusive for Humble Bundle? If so, what a huge scoop. If I were those developers, I would've hawked the games on Steam for a couple of weeks...as Mac fans like me would've happily paid full price.
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.
This is the first game indie game bundle; they've been branching out. (The previous bundle was a bunch of standup comedy videos, actually.)
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.
I think most people already own most of the games in the bundle (like myself), since they've all been popular, widely available and have had several sales.
I believe that a lot of the mac and linux ports were made so that they could be in the Humble Indie Bundle, but these ports are also available elsewhere (the steam page for Fez now lists Mac and Linux).
Yet another awesome thing about the HiB: an incentive to create Mac and Linux ports of games.
I'm probably the last person on HN who hadn't seen 'Indie Game: The Movie' but an entire third or fourth of it is about the development of Fez by Phil Fish.
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 way Phil talks, the way he shits on japanese games （saying they are crap）
, and his behavior very much alike to a spoiled brat. I have no sympathy for him and I strongly feel he should be way more humble about himself.
I too love this bundle. Pretty awesome that the three charities are Watsi, Child's Play, and EFF.
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.
I keep buying these and never have time to play any of the games. I guess I'm doing it for altruistic reasons, as I love the whole philosophy behind the business model.
I'm in the same boat, and like you it never stops me from buying the next one. Like you, I'm trying to support the thing as a whole (Humble, the devs, and the charities), but the side benefit is that if I'm ever bored I have a whole cache of really awesome games I can download at a moment's notice.
Gotta say I'm really impressed with the Humble Bundles. I buy most of them, and still can't believe how cheap they are, assuming you get in early.
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.
> So to get the best deal, you have to buy in early.
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).
I don't think he was saying you should pay less. I think it was just an observation that people are compelled to pay now rather than put it off later, because they know the price will rise, which in turn will actually cause the price to rise for the next person. I think he was just observing that it's a smart system that both compels more people to put their money down, and slowly raises the price at the same time.
If you are interested in chilled thoughtful gaming and have a faible for SciFi ala Star-Trek and Co. you MUST try FTL. It is one of the best games I have ever played and I do not know another game that is similar. It is easy to learn and hard to master and although it is Single-Player it has an immense replay potential.
Yeah, now that I think back on it, Trine 2 had been out for some time by the time I got it through the Humble Store, which was what Frozenbyte used to sell the game outside of Steam and other DRM'ed distribution channels.
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.
(I haven't gotten Trine 2 before, so this may not be correct) The HIB9 includes a Trine 2 Complete Edition ebook, maybe that's what makes the 'Complete Story'?
I bought Alienware X51 with Ubuntu (it's preinstalled in US-Region) and love this indiegames. They (most) work very good. I don't need Windows to gaming. Steam, Humble Bundle and WINE for older games. C&C Red Alert works better with WINE than >Windows XP.
Trying to buy with credit card, and get a message from Stripe saying "you passed an empty string for iovation_blackbox", as if that means something to me.
EDIT: Nevermind, just had to pause Ghostery. Not sure what script was messing it up.
Sorry about that! Has to do with some anti-fraud tools we've built into Stripe Checkout. Should be fixed now, so you shouldn't see that again, Ghostery or no. Feel free to let me know (evan@stripe.com) if you (or anyone) still sees it.
I already picked up brutal legends from steam for 5usd a few weeks ago. The sad part is that I can't deal with the camera controls very well while driving.
No other mention of Trine on here yet. That game looks so beautiful. I'm however having trouble understanding the steam key thing. I put my key into steam but my games aren't there to download. Oh well. Downloading Amnesia a Machine for Pigs right now anyway. That wasn't part of this bundle, but happened to release yesterday so I've got games in the queue before having to worry about this bundle just yet.
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.)