Humble Bundle Thread

no way. MP1 imo was the best easily. MP3 was good but was my least favorite of the 3
I still prefer Max Payne 2 over Max Payne 1.

While Max Payne 1 was original at the time w/ its gameplay and all, extremely fresh and whatnot (love the slow-motion stuff and its cut-scenes were incredible at the time) - well, I was never fond of its (purposely) hammy writing, comedic punchlines, and whatnot. That never really did it for me. But, the gameplay was so fresh and so good, that my complaint of the writing (especially in an action game of this time) is very minor.

I was able to take Max 2 quite a bit more seriously probably b/c the writing in that didn't feel as hammy and over-the-top as the original. I actually also liked that this love story was also basically ruining Max and that we also able to play as Mona. There were also missions were you had to either protect one of the two (either Max or Mona), also.

MP3 was great IMHO - but I'd still put that last in the series.

For me: Max 2 > Max 1 > Max 3.

Love the damn series. Can't go wrong w/ any of them.

 
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Well this is a great deal for anybody new to pc gaming and has none of these games, but unfortunately I (and I expect most people here) already have pretty much all of these (only one i don't have is gta IV which I have no interest in).

Btw: L.A. Noire isn't really Rockstar's best title, but it's a good game and absolutely worht playing because it's so unique. Max Payne 1/2 I played for the 1st time 2 years ago or so and were awesome.
I loved LA Noire.

A very different game than most Rockstar's stuff (not an open-world game & a few side-quests here and there), but it was still great. A different kind of great.

Story was great and the facial expression/interrogation/interview system was really unique, even though (one of my complaints w/ this game) is that Cole Phelps is not really the most likeable guy around.

 
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Story was great and the facial expression/interrogation/interview system was really unique, even though (one of my complaints w/ this game) is that Cole Phelps is not really the most likeable guy around.
I loved him. He was kind of a selfish, ruthless dick and a cheating womanizer. I wish more main characters in games were like me.

HIM! I mean him.

 
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LA Noire is a game whose concept I would love to see re-visited. The story and setting were interesting and the facial interrogations were a great innovation. Where it was a bit of a letdown was that the reactions were inconsistent. Like you would "doubt" the witnesses statement, but instead of showing 'doubt', Cole would fly off the handle in a rage. And you'd be like "WTF, calm the fuck down Cole!"  Supposedly, this was due to a poor choice of words with the "truth/doubt/lie" options and makes more sense in the PS4 re-release but that's not what I played.

I loved Vice City, even passed the RC heli mission.  Took over the mansion....then the game turned into a driving/racing game and I lost interest. The driving in GTA games is bad. Even in GTAIV, where it is vastly improved, it's just passable. In GTAIV, I often took taxis just to avoid driving. The motorcycles in The Lost and Damned felt alright though. Anyway, back to Vice City, after taking over the mansion, the story stalls until you do a number of side-story mission, most of which require precise driving and limited shooting.  Well, that's not the fun part of the game! "G-Spotlight" and "The Driver" go fuck yourselves!

 
Max Payne 3 is an insult to the first two. Never mind over half of it is cutscenes. Certainly not worth $15... either based on quality and the fact that's it's been around $3 on multiple occasions for the last several years.
Oh Mooby!...

Cutscenes are *IN* man!!!! Max Payne 3 needed more QT events...AMIRITE?!?!?!?

Anyway, I liked MP 3 just fine...was it as good as 1/2...no. I kinda like that they pretty much cranked Max's crazy up to 11...shaving his head...ah, good times....

 
I still prefer Max Payne 2 over Max Payne 1.


I was able to take Max 2 quite a bit more seriously probably b/c the writing in that didn't feel as hammy and over-the-top as the original. I actually also liked that this love story was also basically ruining Max and that we also able to play as Mona. There were also missions were you had to either protect one of the two (either Max or Mona), also.


For me: Max 2 > Max 1 > Max 3.
I also preferred 2 over 1.

LA Noire is a game whose concept I would love to see re-visited. The story and setting were interesting and the facial interrogations were a great innovation. Where it was a bit of a letdown was that the reactions were inconsistent. Like you would "doubt" the witnesses statement, but instead of showing 'doubt', Cole would fly off the handle in a rage. And you'd be like "WTF, calm the fuck down Cole!" Supposedly, this was due to a poor choice of words with the "truth/doubt/lie" options and makes more sense in the PS4 re-release but that's not what I played.
I thought it was a good concept poorly implemented. Yes, it's possible that I am a psychopath with no capacity for empathy, but most of the time the expressions weren't particularly good clues as to someone's veracity.
 
I also preferred 2 over 1. I thought it was a good concept poorly implemented. Yes, it's possible that I am a psychopath with no capacity for empathy, but most of the time the expressions weren't particularly good clues as to someone's veracity.
I vote for psychopath but in your defense I feel LA Norie was more poker tell simulator than truely showing empathy.

I enjoyed it for the heavily flawed distraction from the norm but its execution was flawed and it's story was crap. I could have cut about half the game out cause I'm a better detective than any of the characters in that game.
 
literally the only thing wrong with Max Payne 3 is that you can't skip cutscenes

who the fuck thought that was a good idea, especially with the New York Minute mode?

also if you think it's a cover shooter you're playing it wrong. Play on hard because then you're forced to use the shootdodge constantly -- it will always activate slow-mo even if you're empty. Otherwise you can just slow-mo while running around normally like some weirdo and it's not fun at all. Diving around everywhere and blasting dudes to watch the hilarious Euphoria animations never gets old.

I hate that Rockstar toned down the Euphoria stuff after MP3. You just don't get the same kind of wackiness in GTA V.

also while I still like Max Payne 1 a lot, it's the worst of the bunch. The nightmare sequences in particular are a snooze, and the completely fucked up difficulty scaling (it's actually broken: it was supposed to be adaptive, but instead enemies just get harder and bullet spongier because Rockstar apparently forgot in PC games people never die and restart, they just load saves) just makes the late levels a pain in the ass.

that said, every now and then I remember the speech that guy gives about how "I STRANGLED HIM WITH HIS VIDEO GAME CABLES" and have a good laff

 
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I still prefer Max Payne 2 over Max Payne 1.

(snip)
I could see that, I actually remember liking the story in 1 better though (it's been a few years since I've played them so I don't remember the details). I also remember a few missions in MP2 being a pain in the ass (there's a level where you play as Mona, and another where you play through an annoying escort missions) that reduced the overall enjoyment for me. MP1 I don't remember having any missions that were a pain to play through (people hate the nightmare sections but I didn't care one way or the other about them).

literally the only thing wrong with Max Payne 3 is that you can't skip cutscenes
Yeah the unskippable cutscenes killed it, particularly since there are a lotttt of cutscenes. I also had zero interest in the plot.

 
I could see that, I actually remember liking the story in 1 better though (it's been a few years since I've played them so I don't remember the details). I also remember a few missions in MP2 being a pain in the ass (there's a level where you play as Mona, and another where you play through an annoying escort missions) that reduced the overall enjoyment for me. MP1 I don't remember having any missions that were a pain to play through (people hate the nightmare sections but I didn't care one way or the other about them).

Yeah the unskippable cutscenes killed it, particularly since there are a lotttt of cutscenes. I also had zero interest in the plot.
I can understand not letting you skip the little bits that go right into gameplay but it killed the replayability. I figured someone would at least put out some sort of mod for it but nope

 
My impression is that Max Payne 3 is another garbage cover-based third person shooter. I consider that entire genre an offense to my religion. I could go on for hours discussing why it's a terrible mechanic that needed to die years before it did, but I'm just fucking thankful it's finally dead now.
Well I was trying to be more diplomatic but... this ^

 
Came here to post that ridiculous book bundle. Glad to see I'm not the only one second-guessing the inclusion of Angry Gay Man Pounded by the Fear of His Latent Gayness Over a Dinosaur Transitioning into a Unicorn. $15 is a bit too much for metaphorical satire.

 
That's another thing. In Dr. Chuck's first book, unicorns are males on the cover. Then in the book I mentioned, unicorns are females and dinosaurs are males. Then he switches it up with the bitcoin buzzword being male. Get your metaphors straight, Chuck!

 
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Anyways, some of the comics are quite good (Sunstone and Chester 5000), but there is some really weird stuff in there.
I got bored by Chester 5000 pretty early on during its webcomic run (maybe it's still running, I dunno). Empowered is fun but you can read Volume 1 & 2 for free at the website so buying a PDF of Volume 1 isn't all that exciting.

The whole "Turned Gay by A Dinosaur's Social Issues" blah blah joke was beaten into the ground over six months ago. It's like getting a book on the funniest memes of 2016. Or like getting six books about it. They used to come up on the Worst Things For Sale blog until the person there stopped including them because it got old and unfunny to say "Here's another one". From what they wrote on WTFS, those "books" are like 12-15 pages long as well.

 
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I could see that, I actually remember liking the story in 1 better though (it's been a few years since I've played them so I don't remember the details). I also remember a few missions in MP2 being a pain in the ass (there's a level where you play as Mona, and another where you play through an annoying escort missions) that reduced the overall enjoyment for me. MP1 I don't remember having any missions that were a pain to play through (people hate the nightmare sections but I didn't care one way or the other about them).

Yeah the unskippable cutscenes killed it, particularly since there are a lotttt of cutscenes. I also had zero interest in the plot.
I don't think it's the story was my issue w/ Max 1. The plot itself was very good and quite dark.

It was the actual writing, lines, and dialogue being so purposely hammy & comedic - it just felt like it should've been more serious, given how dark the rest of the game was. I think Max 2 did a better job w/ this and was quite a bit more grounded in the writing and dialogue.

Regardless, though - all my complaints of Max 1-3 are very minor. Max 1 had the writing and dialogue issues (see above). Max 2 pretty much doesn't feel as fresh as Max 1 gameplay-wise and combat-wise, which is extremely minor. Max 3 basically has the unskippable cut-scenes that often feel like they're just cover for long load times.

In the grand scheme of things: overall, the Max Payne series is fantastic.

 
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LA Noire is a game whose concept I would love to see re-visited. The story and setting were interesting and the facial interrogations were a great innovation. Where it was a bit of a letdown was that the reactions were inconsistent. Like you would "doubt" the witnesses statement, but instead of showing 'doubt', Cole would fly off the handle in a rage. And you'd be like "WTF, calm the fuck down Cole!" Supposedly, this was due to a poor choice of words with the "truth/doubt/lie" options and makes more sense in the PS4 re-release but that's not what I played.

I loved Vice City, even passed the RC heli mission. Took over the mansion....then the game turned into a driving/racing game and I lost interest. The driving in GTA games is bad. Even in GTAIV, where it is vastly improved, it's just passable. In GTAIV, I often took taxis just to avoid driving. The motorcycles in The Lost and Damned felt alright though. Anyway, back to Vice City, after taking over the mansion, the story stalls until you do a number of side-story mission, most of which require precise driving and limited shooting. Well, that's not the fun part of the game! "G-Spotlight" and "The Driver" go fuck yourselves!
Vice City for me is still my favorite GTA. It's that whole package of improving majorly over GTA3 in almost every regard w/ story, voice-acting, dialogue, and characters. It also felt like they turned GTA into art, as they took it on as a period piece. I loved its take on Miami, feeling like it was doing the whole Scarface vibe (also love that movie, BTW). The music, the visuals, art direction, the settings - it felt like this was the real launch pad for other period pieces, like GTA: San Andreas (i.e. their take on the 90's in California).

Though, dammit - I hate that RC mission. Anyone ever put out a mod or something to bypass that or something?

About GTA4, I thought the base-game was great. Sure, GTA4 base-game was a more grounded and realistic GTA - but it felt like it got looser and looser w/ each DLC. Lost and Damned was really good and I loved the game being focused around motorcycles. Ballad of Gay Tony felt like the closest thing I've had to a Vice City, even though its set in a more modern-time period - just the whole vibe, colorful cast of characters, over-the-top missions, and whatnot just felt like they were aiming for (almost) everything that I really loved about Vice City.

I could really go for LA Noire 2. I loved the original LA Noire, despite not really liking Cole Phelps. Just the whole concept of investigating murders and being a cop/detective was fantastic. It felt like the complete opposite of a GTA game - way more linear and closed-off; not a lot of side-missions (though, there were some); and you were a cop. I especially loved the era and period that they took on, too. It was all just so extremely well executed. I really would like to see what they could do in a sequel, if they really ever wanted to tackle it.

 
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That's a good point about Vice City's 'vibe.'  It definitely captured the 80's feel.  And although San Andreas improved on a lot of gameplay aspects, I thought the world was too big to be enjoyable.  It got to be extremely tedious driving to various locations.  I think a lot of fans wanted ZOMG multiple cities but, in practice, that idea doesn't work out so well.

Never played GTA4 and probably never will given the multiple layers of SecuRom and even Windows Live still being required... I mean wtf?  Shame, because I'd like to see a modern graphics version of Liberty City.  Will grab GTA5 when it sinks to a reasonable price of $15ish.

Edit: Also disappointed they haven't branched out to other mock-cities in America like a spoof of Chicago or Boston or New Orleans instead of ping-pong'ing back and forth between New York and Los Angeles.

 
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4057_front.jpg


 
That's a good point about Vice City's 'vibe.' It definitely captured the 80's feel. And although San Andreas improved on a lot of gameplay aspects, I thought the world was too big to be enjoyable. It got to be extremely tedious driving to various locations. I think a lot of fans wanted ZOMG multiple cities but, in practice, that idea doesn't work out so well.

Never played GTA4 and probably never will given the multiple layers of SecuRom and even Windows Live still being required... I mean wtf? Shame, because I'd like to see a modern graphics version of Liberty City. Will grab GTA5 when it sinks to a reasonable price of $15ish.
Yeah, it's what I loved about Vice City. It really got that 80's vibe, feel, look, art, design, soundtrack, and everything down to a science. Yeah, the world was big for its time and had plenty to do - but it wasn't so much that you could get lost in it or bored in it. There was always somewhere nearby to do a mission, side-quests, or something; which wasn't always the case w/ SA, as there were some areas w/ lots of open nothing-ness and land.

That's the thing I feel GTA5 gets right: its new character switching gimmick in the ridiculously huge world. You could be on one side of the world as one character - but your other two characters are probably RNG'd over in completely other areas on the other side of the game-world - so you can just switch over if you're bored, stuck, or really just want to go to elsewhere. It pretty much solves the GTA SA problem of "Well, this world feels way too damn big; I don't want to travel. I'll just shut it off." You don't have that issue in GTA5; you just switch characters.

About GTA4 - while you'll have to deal w/ Securom, there are mods to get around that G4WL Garbage.

 
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Vice City for me is still my favorite GTA. It's that whole package of improving majorly over GTA in almost every regard w/ story, voice-acting, dialogue, and characters. It also felt like they turned GTA into art, as they took it on as a period piece. I loved its take on Miami, feeling like it was doing the whole Scarface vibe (also love that movie, BTW). The music, the visuals, art direction, the settings - it felt like this was the real launch pad for other period pieces, like GTA: San Andreas (i.e. their take on the 90's in California).

Though, dammit - I hate that RC mission. Anyone ever put out a mod or something to bypass that or something?

About GTA4, I thought the base-game was great. Sure, GTA4 base-game was a more grounded and realistic GTA - but it felt like it got looser and looser w/ each DLC. Lost and Damned was really good and I loved the game being focused around motorcycles. Ballad of Gay Tony felt like the closest thing I've had to a Vice City, even though its set in a more modern-time period - just the whole vibe, colorful cast of characters, over-the-top missions, and whatnot just felt like they were aiming for (almost) everything that I really loved about Vice City.

I could really go for LA Noire 2. I loved the original LA Noire, despite not really liking Cole Phelps. Just the whole concept of investigating murders and being a cop/detective was fantastic. It felt like the complete opposite of a GTA game - way more linear and closed-off; not a lot of side-missions (though, there were some); and you were a cop. I especially loved the era and period that they took on, too. It was all just so extremely well executed. I really would like to see what they could do in a sequel, if they really ever wanted to tackle it.
I'm not sure I disagree with anything said here (though it only took like 3 tries to finish that RC Heli mission for me). Vice City is to me what GTA *should* be. That being said GTAIV and TLaD are the only ones I finished. Only dabbled in GTA3 as I got it day and date with Vice CIty and skipped San Andreas completely. I kept meaning to play Gay Tony, but by the time it released, I was already over GTA4 and the amped up 'ridiculousness' didnt appeal to me in that world.

As I was refreshing my memory for my previous post, I found out that the two missions that caused me to put Vice City down might not have even been required to finish the game. Ehh, oh well.

 
I'm not sure I disagree with anything said here (though it only took like 3 tries to finish that RC Heli mission for me). Vice City is to me what GTA *should* be. That being said GTAIV and TLaD are the only ones I finished. Only dabbled in GTA3 as I got it day and date with Vice CIty and skipped San Andreas completely. I kept meaning to play Gay Tony, but by the time it released, I was already over GTA4 and the amped up 'ridiculousness' didnt appeal to me in that world.

As I was refreshing my memory for my previous post, I found out that the two missions that caused me to put Vice City down might not have even been required to finish the game. Ehh, oh well.
But, see - that's the thing w/ GTA games. No matter if a mission is a required (or not), they're often so good and well put together...that once you take them on, you'll want to finish them. Even if they might be difficult as hell - yeah, you want that satisfaction of passing that mission.

The problem w/ GTA games can be, more so than anything - you have to re-do the mission entirely (i.e. older GTA's), which can be horrible for long-missions or missions that feel like there's multiple major pieces to the, The other thing that's annoying: there's something annoying about the auto-save - i.e. not at an ideal spot it's placed at, not an ideal amount of something (health, armor, ammo, weapons, etc). not enough auto-save checkpoint within a mission, or whatever the case might be.

 
Those book bundles...keep getting weirder though.
I'd love to know the process behind it though. Did someone at HB say "You know what would be great? A bunch of those Turned Gay by the XYZ books" or did they approach someone who told them "Look, this is what I'm going to offer you..." as they rummaged through the bottom of the charity box?

 
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I'd love to know the process behind it though. Did someone at HB say "You know what would be great? A bunch of those Turned Gay by the XYZ books" or did they approach someone who told them "Look, this is what I'm going to offer you..." as they rummaged through the bottom of the charity box?
Nah. Chuck Tingle's books (and similar) have been a topic of conversation a number of places I've been over the past few months. If possible, adding one to a bundle with this sort of theme seems pretty obvious.

 
But, see - that's the thing w/ GTA games. No matter if a mission is a required (or not), they're often so good and well put together...that once you take them on, you'll want to finish them. Even if they might be difficult as hell - yeah, you want that satisfaction of passing that mission.

The problem w/ GTA games can be, more so than anything - you have to re-do the mission entirely (i.e. older GTA's), which can be horrible for long-missions or missions that feel like there's multiple major pieces to the, The other thing that's annoying: there's something annoying about the auto-save - i.e. not at an ideal spot it's placed at, not an ideal amount of something (health, armor, ammo, weapons, etc). not enough auto-save checkpoint within a mission, or whatever the case might be.
While I find that I frequently agree with your opinions here, I don't on this point. I'm perfectly cool with skipping an annoying mission if it allows me to actually finish the frickin' game. It would be nice if Rockstar would maybe let us do that. . . and as has been hinted at here, maybe it's time to let people save anywhere too. Being made for consoles really isn't an excuse for a competent developer not to include this feature anymore--modern consoles (except maybe, you know, N-things) have ample hard drive space for your saved games. The only real reason not to be able to save anyhwere is a) lazy dev or b) creation of artificially-inflated difficulty.


Nah. Chuck Tingle's books (and similar) have been a topic of conversation a number of places I've been over the past few months. If possible, adding one to a bundle with this sort of theme seems pretty obvious.
Hm. I guess this is the most deviant community I hang out in IRL or online, so I've never heard of any of this dumb crap before this bundle came out. I feel my life is much richer for having been blissfully ignorant of it.
 
I'd love to know the process behind it though. Did someone at HB say "You know what would be great? A bunch of those Turned Gay by the XYZ books" or did they approach someone who told them "Look, this is what I'm going to offer you..." as they rummaged through the bottom of the charity box?
The thought process is that it's a Valentine's bundle with the theme "crazy sexy love" and it seems these "Chuck Tingle" books, whatever they are, clearly fit that theme.

 
The thought process is that it's a Valentine's bundle with the theme "crazy sexy love" and it seems these "Chuck Tingle" books, whatever they are, clearly fit that theme.
While I'm not in the habit of picking pointless internet fights, this is one of the more remarkably information-free responses I've seen in some time.
 
The thought process is that it's a Valentine's bundle with the theme "crazy sexy love" and it seems these "Chuck Tingle" books, whatever they are, clearly fit that theme.
So do approximately 15,000,000 books not in this bundle. Which goes again to the question of "Did someone at Humble seek these out or did someone else offer them to Humble when asked what was available for bundling?"

 
So do approximately 15,000,000 books not in this bundle. Which goes again to the question of "Did someone at Humble seek these out or did someone else offer them to Humble when asked what was available for bundling?"
I'm assuming whatever team was putting this particular bundle together sought the Chuck Tingle books out. Really. There's a market for deliberately bad works if those works are ridiculous enough.

 
While I find that I frequently agree with your opinions here, I don't on this point. I'm perfectly cool with skipping an annoying mission if it allows me to actually finish the frickin' game. It would be nice if Rockstar would maybe let us do that. . . and as has been hinted at here, maybe it's time to let people save anywhere too. Being made for consoles really isn't an excuse for a competent developer not to include this feature anymore--modern consoles (except maybe, you know, N-things) have ample hard drive space for your saved games. The only real reason not to be able to save anyhwere is a) lazy dev or b) creation of artificially-inflated difficulty.



Hm. I guess this is the most deviant community I hang out in IRL or online, so I've never heard of any of this dumb crap before this bundle came out. I feel my life is much richer for having been blissfully ignorant of it.
I hear ya, and generally agree that their could be the option. Though I will say, that in GTAIV, it felt like the checkpoints were fairly well done. I can only remember one or two points that could have been better, and then only marginally. In TLaD, I dont remember any faults mechanically, plus, it didnt feel like it dragged on either.

 
I'm assuming whatever team was putting this particular bundle together sought the Chuck Tingle books out. Really. There's a market for deliberately bad works if those works are ridiculous enough.
For those who don't know, Chuck got his 15 minutes of fame when one of his stories got nominated for a Hugo award when the Sad Puppies were doing a hostile takeover of Hugo voting. He proceeded to mock the Puppies for nominating him and said that if he won, he'd have Zoe Quinn pick up his award. So, he kinda has a Cult following because of that.

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For those who don't know, Chuck got his 15 minutes of fame when one of his stories got nominated for a Hugo award when the Sad Puppies were doing a hostile takeover of Hugo voting. He proceeded to mock the Puppies for nominating him and said that if he won, he'd have Zoe Quinn pick up his award. So, he kinda has a Cult following because of that.
I understand zero of this and feel like I'm a healthier person for it.

 
Nah. Chuck Tingle's books (and similar) have been a topic of conversation a number of places I've been over the past few months. If possible, adding one to a bundle with this sort of theme seems pretty obvious.
I wouldn't put it that way. Conversation implies that there are intelligent humans participating and anyone that does more than take one look at the cover and run to their bed to hide under it does not qualify. As a matter of fact, that's exactly where I am right now.

 
so Monthly reveal is tmr, correct?
It'll be six Chuck Tingle books.

EDIT: Also, might as well go on the record with predicting Planet Coaster for the March early unlock. Recently started hitting 75% off, devs starting to churn out DLC packs, and it's randomly been on sale for the last week. A sale that ends right when the new early unlock gets revealed.

 
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