Save Point: A game deal roundup for the week of September 8

Humble Rhythm Is Gonna Get You VR Bundle

🎵 Soundtrack for this post 🎵

Tier 1

• Spin Rhythm XD (can be played without VR)
• Thumper (can be played without VR)

Tier 2

• Ragnarock (requires VR)
• Drums Rock (requires VR)
• Powerbeats VR (requires VR)

Tier 3

• Pistol Whip (requires VR)
• Synth Riders (requires VR)
• Audio Trip (requires VR)

As always with Humble Bundle, it's recommended that you click Adjust Donation and move the sliders to your liking before buying.

As someone whose primary use for VR is rhythm games, I feel uniquely qualified to comment on this bundle -- I've played most of these games!

Thumper is sort of an elegant, minimalist rhythm game, and not really the first thing that comes to mind when people think of the genre. It's dark, with aggressive driving beats, and a low-key sinister undertone. You play as a small beetle on a track that in which you lean for turns and hit other obstacles/events in time. Tracks are long and culminate in boss battles against a big, scary looking face.

I played it in VR, and it's very immersive. There's no HUD, and the sense of scale on the bosses is unsettling. That said, I think it would play pretty much equally well in pancake mode. None of the mechanics are designed for VR -- it simply adds to the atmosphere.

I played this for an hour and moved on, but that's more about me than the game itself. It's very well made, and mastering it feels really good. This is a solid Tier 1 entry.

Ragnarock is a VR drumming game where you are the time keeper for a boat of viking rowers. The more accurately you hit the notes, the faster your boat goes, and the farther you travel. It's a neat framing for a high score system. A lot of other rhythm games just give you a number for your performance, but in this you can actually see the different medals coming up on the horizon, with you hoping to play well enough to be able to get the boat to pass them. Musically, it is very rock focused, with a good amount of celtic rock and some metal.

I played this for an hour and a half and then moved on, but, like Thumper, that's more on me than the game itself. If you like drumming, this is really solid.

Powerbeats VR is something I can give a mild recommendation to. It's more workout focused than the other games, and it will definitely get you moving and sweating, but it's also the least fun to play.

Its killer feature is that it can procedurally generate beatmaps for your custom songs automatically, so you can point it at your MP3/FLAC library and get moving to tunes you love. Unfortunately, the generation suffers from exactly what you expect: the beatmaps end up feeling soulless and uninteresting.

If you're wanting an excuse to get yourself moving to music, then this is a good game, but in terms of being a rhythm game, it's definitely a weaker entry. I played it for an hour and a half and stopped.

Pistol Whip is really freaking good. It's a rhythm shooting gallery. Enemies look like Superhot wireframes; you travel down a track and they pop up to the music; you shoot or give them a titular pistol whip on the beat. Music is usually pumping electronica. If that's hard to visualize, here's a video of someone playing the first level. It starts slow, but let it hit the chorus and you'll get a feel for what the game is like.

Playing this makes me feel like a complete badass. I will warn you that it's also the game that I've almost lost controllers to. No other VR game has made me lose my sense of my actual IRL surroundings as much as this one. I've hit my ceilings and walls because of this game. It's also unexpectedly a great workout. On harder difficulties it's basically a fun excuse to do squats because you have to dodge so many incoming bullets. Steam says I have 10 hours in it, but that's not counting the probably 20-30 additional hours I put in on the Quest. I highly recommend this one.

Synth Riders gets derided as a Beat Saber knockoff, and I get why, but that's selling it pretty short. It's basically got the same formula but changes the interaction method. Instead of slicing blocks in certain directions, you're holding your hands in certain positions to hit notes, or moving them through on-screen arcs as the music goes. Here's a video from the same person playing Pistol Whip above. I consider it a complement to Beat Saber rather than a competitor. I play both depending on my mood.

In the game, you normally just hold your hands in the correct positions in advance of/at the same time as a note, and the note is triggered when it collides with your hand. If you want to up the workout level of the game, you can turn on "Force" mode which requires you to punch the notes with a certain amount of force to activate them. This turns it into a rhythm boxing game.

Steam has me at 14 hours in this, but again, that's not counting the many more I played on the Quest. One thing I like about this more than Beat Saber is that it feels more smooth and dancey. Beat Saber can feel sort of rigid and defined -- straight lines, right angles. This is more about making swooping motions and arcs with your arms. I play this a lot "looser" than I do Beat Saber and it can be a lot of fun to just sort of improvise dance along with a song.

Overall, this is a bit of a niche bundle in that you have to already have PC VR to play it, and then it's a further niche because you also have to like rhythm games, but if you made it through those first two filters, then I think this is a must buy.

Also, while I'm here, I might as well throw out these tips for anyone who either likes VR workouts or is intrigued by the idea of using VR to get themselves moving more:

• Headbands are the greatest thing and will keep sweat out of your eyes and headset. I have a bin of them in my VR room.
• Pointing a fan at you is a great way to cool you off. It's also a great thing to use for any VR play in general because it helps you keep tabs on your orientation in real space without having to remove your headset.
• If you have the Index, you can buy a small fan that will click into its front bay that will help keep your headset cool and reduce sweating. Example 1, Example 2
• Play in shorts without pockets (e.g. rugby shorts, some running shorts). Otherwise, it's only a matter of time before your pocket flap goes rogue and catches your controller in mid-swing.
• If you wear glasses, you can get prescription lens inserts for your VR headset. There are a variety of companies out there that offer this. I used Reloptix and have been very happy with them.
• I'm a big guy who doesn't like most exercise. VR rhythm games changed that. They are my favorite way to move. I have hundreds of hours in Beat Saber alone, which is way more hours than in any other exercise I've ever tried to do in my life. The best exercise is something you enjoy doing, and I love VR exercise.
• You don't need an expensive PC VR setup to get into VR exercise. Try buying an old secondhand Quest on the cheap. Dead simple, no wires, and no need to have a dedicated VR space. I used to play Beat Saber in the few feet of clear space between my bed and the wall.

Also Fanatical, they're doing another bundle fest. The first one is special editions, starting at 2 for $7.

-Wolfenstein is virtually at an all time low, with the previous low being $3.40 for just TNO (TNO was an Epic freebie, don't think old blood was).

-Outside a couple giveaways, Fallout 3 GOTY hasn't been this low in >3yrs. Similar for New Vegas Ultimate. (Both were also epic freebies)

-All time low for Frostpunk GOTY

I'm unfamiliar with most the rest of the titles in here, anyone a fan of them?

The Crew 2 is on sale for 98% off ($1 USD) on most platforms: Steam, Ubisoft, Xbox, PlayStation

This is simultaneously a great discount but also sort of a dubious deal.

Ubisoft famously shut down servers for the original Crew and made a lot of enemies by additionally revoking people’s licenses to the game afterwards.

In an announcement today, Ubisoft said that their current Crew games will be getting offline modes. At present, it’s only a soft promise.

Additionally, on Steam (not sure about other platforms), Ubisoft often locks DLC and extras to pricier “editions” as they have done with The Crew 2 (it has Special and Gold editions, neither of which are on sale). Buying the base game is often a worse deal if you want the extras, because the extras rarely go on steep discounts on their own. Also sometimes they aren’t even available separately. The best way to get them is usually to wait for the Gold Edition itself to go on a big discount (which is my general rule of thumb for buying Ubisoft games).

Finally, it’s borked on the Steam Deck due to anti-cheat. It’s a shame, because I’m genuinely interested in playing it but would much rather do it from my Deck than my computer. I could always stream it, but I feel like racing games are the genre most hurt by the limitations of streaming. I’d much rather it just work on my desired device. Maybe the upcoming offline mode will remove the anti-cheat requirements?

Still, a dollar is a hard price to pass up for a game like this.

[Prime Gaming] Tales from the Borderlands, 9 Years of Shadows, Moonlighter, Golfie, Cursed to Golf, Hell Pie, Showgunners, Arcadegeddon (included with Amazon Prime)

The old No More Heroes games are all on sale on Steam for 50% (or 65%) off for the 3rd installment:
https://store.steampowered.com/franchise/nomoreheroesseries

Astronarch is free on Fanatical:
https://www.fanatical.com/en/game/astronarch

Need to sub to newsletter (you can unsub afterwards obvi) and link your steam account possibly? seems like a well reviewed game though.

Fanatical has Dead Rising 2, Off the Record, 3, and 4 for $10 for Bundlefest:
https://www.fanatical.com/en/bundle/capcom-dead-rising-bundle

Press Any Button free on Steam till tomorrow, September 11th, 1pm PST!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1448030/Press_Any_Button/

EGS free games of the week:
Rugrats Adventures in Gameland
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/rugrats-adventures-in-gameland-737402

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle
https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/super-crazy-rhythm-castle-e3b464

48 hours remaining on Humble Detectives Bundle, $10 for 7 items. Was posted here a few weeks ago I believe. I like Paradise Killer a lot but don't know much about the others.

• IMMORTALITY
• Killer Frequency
• Paradise Killer
• Call of Cthulhu
• The Darkside Detective
• The Darkside Detective: A Fumble In The Dark
• Overboard!

A bunch of Playstation games on sale on Fanatical:
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/PlayStationPublisherSale2024

A couple of historical lows, I think Indiegala might have a little bit cheaper, Steam has it a bit more expensive. Take your pick! Ghost of Tsushima is would be my recommendation!

Not really a Game Deal per se, but:
https://store.steampowered.com/steamdeck

LCD Steam decks are on sale right now! 300ish for the 64gig and 330 for the 512gig versions. I personally have the 512 gig version and it runs out of storage fast. You can always upgrade it though!
Note, these are not the newer OLED ones with slightly better battery life.

Forza Horizon 4 is 80% off again on Steam.

It’s getting delisted in December.

Individual DLCs have already been delisted, but they are still available via the Ultimate Edition, so if you want the complete game then go for that version. There is no longer a way to buy the Standard Edition and then add on the DLC later.

Now that all the Fanatical bundles are revealed, I'll go ahead and list them here.

Special editions, starting at 2 for $7.

Bento bundle starting at 3 for $6 -- mostly VNs. I may grab Shards of Chaos, The Chrono Jotter, Sunny Cafe, and The Legend of Tianding.

On the Go starting at 3 for $5 -- some good variety, theme being steam deck verified. I may buy Beyond a Steel Sky, Deliver Me the Moon, and Inertial Drift + Twilight Rivals.

Very Positive starting at 1 for $1 -- also decent variety here with the theme being games that are rated very positive or higher on Steam. Note 4 games cost more than 5 and 5 cost as much as 3. I'm looking at Cook Serve Delicious 1&2 pack, Cook Serve Delicious 3, Frog Detective 2, Dreamscaper, and Rune Classic.

Prestige Bundle starting at 2 for $15 -- theme being AAA games, or perhaps more accurately, games from big publishers. I'm eyeing Hi Fi Rush and the Star Wars Collection, although I may decide against Hi Fi Rush considering the dev studio got shutdown by M$.

Paleo Pines is at a new low of $13.49 until 9/26, apparently as an anniversary special. This is the dinosaur farming sim that got popular for a moment last year. I was busy with Moonstone Island as my cozy game at the time and I think I have too many to play through before I buy another at this price point, but it does seem cute and like the devs have put a lot of care into it.

Damn did anyone know there was a Watchmen game?
Bunch of DC games on sale including the Watchmen game(s), Scribblenaughts DC, Arkham Games, LEGO games, and Suicide Squad and Gotham Knights
https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34133273/sale/thepenguinsale/

The JOTA devs are doing a deep sale. Citizen Sleeper is at a new low of $8 along with In Other Waters at a new low of $3.74. The bundle of the two is also at a new low. Until 9/25

Citizen Sleeper looks pretty cool, like a space cyberpunk Disco Elysium? It's been on my wishlist. I picked up In Other Waters in a Fanatical bundle since it looked like a cool narrative game with a neat way to interact with the game world.