18
votes
Humble Choice - March 2025
March 2025's Humble Choice is now available with the following games (2 EA, 6 Steam).
| Steam Page | Opencritic | Steam Recent/All | Operating Systems | Steam Deck | ProtonDB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pacific Drive | 80 | 77 / 83 | Win | šØ Playable | šØ Gold |
| Homeworld 3 | 77 | 45 / 38 | Win | šØ Playable | šØ Gold |
| WILD HEARTS (note: EA key) | 79 | 47 / 48 | Win | ā Unsupported | šØ Gold |
| Tales of Kenzera: ZAU (note: EA key) | 76 | 92 / 81 | Win | ā Verified | šØ Gold |
| Gravity Circuit | 86 | 94 / 95 | Win, Mac, Linux | ā Verified | ā Native |
| Sir Whoopass: Immortal Death | -- | 63 / 84 | Win | ā Verified | šØ Gold |
| Racine | -- | -- / 69 | Win | šØ Playable | š Awaiting Reports |
| Cavern of Dreams | 72 | 88 / 95 | Win | šØ Playable | šļø Platinum |
Does anyone have experience with any of the games and, if so, would you recommend them? Is there anything in here that you're particularly excited to play?
Apologies to @Sodliddesu and everyone else for the two EA keys in this one. It's definitely my fault after my reassurances last month.
I think if they keep up with the EA keys Iāll just drop the subscription. If they want to do that after years of Steam then they should make a new bundle. I just expect thereās no appetite for them and they are just shovelling them in to fill space.
The bundles arenāt really that great overall lately though, but Iām also in the position where Iām curious about Pacific Drive. Iāll have to check what my regional pricing is for that, might not even be cheaper :)
Honestly, I just canceled.
For chrissakes, both of those game websites show they are available for purchase on Steam!
There's no way on earth I'm going to install another third party launcher on any of my systems, especially given that none of my computers run Windows. Having one game in the list was already an offense to me; two is just pouring salt into the wound. And it doesn't help that that one of the games on the list has mostly negative reviews on Steam. The only game I am even vaguely interested in this bundle is the cheapest "we're just throwing this in to pad the list" option, and if I really wanted it I could use my Choice discount to get it for less than the bundle would cost as long as I buy it before canceling.
Beyond that, I just don't have the energy to play games the same way I did when I first signed up. It used to be great because it would at the very least get me playing interesting games that I hadn't thought were good but were pleasantly surprised by. At it's best, it gave me access to big expensive head-turning games. But the times for those to happen seem to have passed a while back. I have been sticking around mostly because of FOMO but it seems clear to me that I'm not missing out on anything anymore.
That being said, holy shit is the cancellation process manipulative. You have to click through like twenty times, and they say that you'll lose access to your classic plan permanently. They don't tell you what the price of their non-classic plan is... because it's exactly the same price. You can't even find out the price of the plan unless you are logged in and starting the subscription process because they really, really don't want you to know that you're not actually missing out on anything except for the progressive discount in their store.
I really don't like Humble Bundle anymore.
I remember trying to cancel a couple years ago and I remember how manipulative and shitty the cancellation process was. I never ended up going through with it though.
Iāve also never once bought anything from the store, but I am on that grandfathered bundle but Iām not sure if there are any benefits to it anymore. And mostly they are shovelling trash at us.
You're a monster but I'll forgive you since Pacific Drive is in here.
I will use my monstrous powers to let everyone know that there will be THREE games with EA keys in next monthās Choice!
So that hopefully, just like last time, theyāll do the opposite and drop it back down to one or zero.
Also, letās be real for a moment: there simply arenāt enough games on EAās launcher for them to keep the EA keys trend going for that long.
I'm gonna throw out this, since an the effusive praise led me astray and I'm still a bit crabby about it:
Pacific Drive is a bit shit.
My opinion is subject to change on this matter, as I'm intending to go back to it within the next week or so. My primary gripes are this:
No mid mission saving. Need to quit in the middle of a run? Tough shit, lose your progress and start all over when you come back. You have no idea how long a run might be, godspeed.
Performance is trash. It's not that good looking of a game, but it runs like absolute garbage on every system I have. I prefer to play on Steam Deck, but don't even bother here, you'll get maybe 20fps on the lowest settings. Even my Ryzen 5 5600/6700xt sees frequent dips to 40fps at 1080, any settings level.
I felt pretty duped when it came to this one, don't think I would have bought it otherwise and was unable to return it, as I bought it as part of a bundle.
I do intend to go back to it soon and give it another go, because the idea is intriguing to me, especially as a car person, but I'm pretty frustrated by the lack of performance and disrespect of my time. I'd even be able to forgive the time thing if it just ran on Deck.
Wow you were not exaggerating about the performance. I just booted it up and I was surprised to see how little fps I was getting. I've been waiting to upgrade my GPU but still, it's a GTX 1080. It should not be running a game like this at just 30-40 fps with Medium-High graphics.
Yeah, it's frustrating, to say the least. I also have tried on my laptop with an eGPU setup and the performance is similar to everything else.
This isn't to say the game looks terrible, I think it looks pretty good, actually; but its looks certainly don't justify its performance.
Like I said, I intend to give it another shake, as I own it and the concept is interesting, but those two aspects together may just be deal killers for me. I'm generally pretty forgiving when if comes to games, but those two things really just rub my the wrong way.
I was doing some reading to find out if there was some errant setting that was tuned way too high (like Dying Light pre-patch) but it just seems to be an especially shader-heavy game. It may just be tuned to benefit from the most recent mid to high end GPU specs.
I looked into the issue myself when I was frustrated by the same issues. What I found was an article that seems to have found that Pacific Drive doesn't cache shaders between sessions. The author then goes on to provide a solution that adjusts the game to cache these shaders properly, which drastically improves performance. I've only dabbled with this fix on PC, so I don't know if a similar solution exists for the steam deck
Can one use the EA app and play its games on Steam Deck? My understanding was that games requiring the EA app were a non-starter on Linux.
In either case, I'm cancelling my sub due to that and several other complaints with the service.
Lutris! they have a very short text guide on how to install on steam deck on their website, its hardly a single scroll wheel down on the download page! :)
e: also you should check out fanatical and isthereanydeal. i find myself on those two a lot more than humble these days when looking for a penny pinch grab, so hopefully another useful tip!
Huh, looks like the launcher works now! When I swapped over to Linux, the EA app didn't work at all and I just never bothered to check again.
Woof, did they phone this one in? Pacific Drive is a great addition, I'll likely play that one ASAP, and Cavern of Dreams looks right up my alley but... Man, Homeworld 3? A game called Wild Hearts that isn't Sayonara Wild Hearts? A "Tales of" game that isn't in the "Tales of" series? I feel like this bundle is in the Walmart $5 bin tier. Sir Whoopass looks like a meme-ish game but I'm willing to be surprised...
Also, is this the first bundle with two sub-50 scores on Steam?
I actually laughed out loud. š I didnāt think of either of the games that way, but now that youāve pointed them out, I canāt unsee them. āTales ofā is particularly egregious!
For what itās worth, I personally think this bundleās great. Sure there are some stinkers, but I always consider it a good month if there are even two games Iām interested in, and Iāve got three in this one (Pacific Drive, Cavern of Dreams, and Gravity Circuit).
Four, if you count Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, but, letās be honest: Iām not going to take the trouble to get it working on my Steam Deck since itās an EA key and will end up picking the Steam copy up in another bundle two years from now.
I'm an enormous Homeworld fan! I beta's the original. I've played this game, its sequels, and the remasteeed version off and on for literally decades. The mods for this game are just amazing! Star Trek, Star Wars, Babylon 5, anime out the wazoo!
I'm here to tell you that Homeworld 3 is absolutely mediocre and an enormous disappointment. If you loved the other games, just don't waste your money or hope on this one.
Against my better judgement I bought the pre-order. I was very under whelmed. Been a long time player like yourself, and everything about this just felt like a watered down copy.
Whilst the EA keys are a bit of a let down compared to Steam keys.
I've been meaning to pick up Pacific Drive for a while now so this was an instant claim for me. The included DLC was also an added bonus.
I'm pretty grossed out with the choice to include 2 EA keys this month and overall just tired of Humble's poor decisions over the last year and change. I think I'm probably gonna drop my subscription, especially since their landmark titles in these has started getting less and less intriguing to me. I used to be kind of proud of them but now they're just a shitty store you can buy a couple games at a slight discount on occasionally.
Contrary to everyone else (apparently), I think this is an excellent bundle. One of the best I've seen all year.
Wild Hearts was a game I wasn't willing to pay for, due to its performance concerns, but I was still very interested in playing. I think I'll enjoy it a lot if my PC can handle it. If not, maybe after one more PC upgrade, but at least now I can try it without needing to "take a chance" on it.
I enjoyed the demo for Pacific Drive at Steam Next Fest, and I'm pleased to see it includes DLC. That's not very common in Humbundles these days.
Cavern of Dreams looks super cute, and I have a soft spot for retro 3D platformers. This one is well-reviewed, too.
I was unaware of Kenzera, but I've basically enjoyed every metroidvania I've played. No complaints about adding more to the pile.
Regarding the launchers, I'm actually glad for the Origin keys. I really regretted when I bought RDR2 on EGS, because it required two launchers just to play the game, and it took forever to actually start the game. Now I try to buy games on the "native platform" whenever possible. I prefer EA games on Origin, Ubisoft games on Uplay, and even Epic games on EGS. Happy to skip the extra DRM!
I used to take the āleast layersā approach for launchers, but Steamās Linux support and particularly the Steam Deck won me fully back over to prefer their platform. I actually ended up re-buying on Steam a bunch of Ubisoft and EA games that I already owned on their native launchers.
Also youāre not alone in thinking this is a good bundle. Iām pretty stoked! If Kenzera was a Steam key itād be fully top tier for me.
I started up Cavern of Dreams.
Itās great! Iād describe it as an N64-style game with Dreamcast-sharp graphics. If youāre hankering for an old school 3D platformer collectathon, then this scratches that itch. If you have no nostalgia or love for that particular niche, then you can safely pass this one by.
It nails the vibes and level design ā even going so far as to segment its large levels into smaller sections, utilizing the illusion of size that a lot of early 3D games relied on due to small memory capacities.
Character movement is pretty limited, but youāve got a nice Banjo-inspired roll, and you unlock additional movement options as you collect things in the game (dragon eggs ā a clear nod to Spyro).
It plays perfectly on the Deck, and honestly makes me feel like Iām emulating a game from yesteryear, rather than playing a new indie release. The only tells that itās not from back then are that the camera isnāt terrible and the framerate is consistent. š
It doesnāt seem particularly long. It will probably only take me another hour or two to beat it, and another hour or two beyond that if I go for the 100%. This is not a complaint. I like shorter games and donāt want them to overstay their welcome.
This is definitely a neat little hidden gem.
I definitely recommwnd Pacific Drive for sure. To prepare you, it's made to overwhelm you with all of the mechanics in it during the first few hours. If you're going to try it out, make sure you're in a clear headspace and ready for action.