I don’t know about you guys but if I decided to buy every title I wanted to this silly season, my bill would have arrived just shy of £500. You would think after all these years of gaming I would have some sort of discipline and be able to differentiate between the titles I really want and the titles I would like to have. This year has to be one of the best years for games for as long as I can remember and of course it has struck at a time when the purse strings are tight.
Roll in the Indie Bundles.
Pay What You Want
I had always disregarded Indie bundles. I mean, surely they can’t be as good as AAA blockbuster titles. It wasn’t until the Indie Royale Difficult 2nd Bundle that I decided to take the plunge and splash out a massive £2.50 for four titles. For anyone who isn’t familiar with how the Indie bundles work, you basically pay what you want. Yip, anything from I think 1 cent to as high as you want. There is something to watch out for though; if you buy a bundle for higher than the average then you normally get additional titles to play or game soundtracks. It varies from one bundle to the next.
What caught my eye was ‘Time Gentlemen Please’ which came as part of the bundle. Upon watching the video for the game I noticed that one well known site had scored it with a 9/10. My initial thought was that it must be based on some sort of other score ladder, surely an Indie title couldn’t be a top tier game?
On the same website I checked out a few more titles and it went a little something like this:
The list goes on but looking at this I could have spent approximately £35 on each the above titles or around 65 pence for Time Gentlemen Please. This title isn’t a one off either. Games such as Frozen Synapse and VVVVVV have been very well received too.
Time for a 9? Nice Work
What is it that makes these game appeal to people? Is it the content you get for the money or are they simply great games? Most people now feel conditioned. If you aren’t spending over £25 on a game then it must be crap. How can a game that costs at most, a couple of pounds be entertaining?
Just in case you would like to dip your cheap toes into the Indie water then new bundles are coming out over the next month. Tomorrow we’ll see the Really Big Bundle then the Alpha Fund Bundle and finally the Xmas Bundle. Getting in early will save you money because the average is cheaper however sometimes waiting does get you more bang for your buck, it’s up to you.
I’m guilty of being narrow minded in the past but have vowed to change my ways and start to look at the bigger picture. Hopefully I will bring more enjoyment to what may turn out to be a bright and inexpensive gaming future.
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November 23rd, 2011 at 12:57 pm
Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 – 8/10. Are they mad? How dare they not give it 10? It’s the best thing since the last best thing. Which one was that? It’s hard to tell these days they’re all pretty much the same :)
Seriously though, I use my iPhone (other smartphones are available) for cheap throw away games, most of them are 69p or less and most of those are ‘indie titles’. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one, and I have a feeling that our numbers run in the millions. I doubt we would say we are ‘conditioned’ on price.
BTW what is an indie title? Never really liked the use of ‘independent’ as I’m never sure of what they are independent from.