After spending hours painstakingly creating my Top 10 Games for 2012 I stepped back and gazed at it in all its gaming glory only to realize it had a fatal flaw: It was lacking many of my favorite independent video games of the year. But how could this be? Me, Big Dave, cheap game aficionado creating a top 10 with multiple games that eclipse my precious $5 cut off and leaving out so many wonderful cheap indies? The truth is that I don’t just play cheap games and I like what I like regardless of price. Matters are complicated even further because frankly it’s all but impossible to compare a $3 two hour indie platformer to a $50 triple A co-op FPStravaganza. So what’s to be done about this grave injustice and what is the answer to the comparison between these vastly different game types? Well, frankly my solution is beautiful in its simplicity and elegant in its execution. I’m going to cop-out and not tackle the larger question of how to compare two disparate things like indies and triple A’s by presenting you with my supplemental honorable mention list featuring my favorite independent games from 2012 aka my Honorable Indies.
Cheap Finds: Creatures Exodus
Alright, technically this isn’t actually a cheap find. I’ve had this game for years, but due to it being four dollars on GOG I decided to classify it as one.
Creatures Exodus is a combination of Creatures 3 and Docking Station. Creatures 3 was and is a life simulation game that came out in 1999. The basic premise is that you’re on some kind of ancient alien ship called the Ark and it has various different biomes such as Jungles and Deserts.
Give These Games a Home
UPDATE: All games have been handed out! I gave out almost 40 games to friends and fans and hope everyone who grabbed one will enjoy themselves. More videos will follow in the months ahead and yes, more giveaways as well.
As I said in my Top 10 of 2012 video unplayed games are a tragic sight. When I look over my Steam inventory and my unused codes from past bundles I see game after game sitting on the shelf and going untouched. Games are meant to be played, it is truly their only reason for existing and I can’t stand watching these titles go stale in my cupboard any longer. I am calling on you, my friends and loyal viewers to find it in your hearts to give these very deserving games a chance to live out their full potential in your collections. If you feel that you’d be able to open your hard drive to one or more of these titles then you only need to follow these simple steps:
The Games In Need Of Your Help
All games have now been placed in a loving home
Thanks so much for watching my content and paying attention to my silliness over the last 200 videos. I’ve met a lot of cool folks through this YouTube thing and I can’t think of any better way to say thank you to all of you than by showering you with the random cheap games that I have lying around. I’ll be checking the Wishlists of my Steam Friends during the month of January and giving out these 35 titles to good homes. Happy New Year, I plan to make this another good 365 in the world of Big Dave is Cheap so I hope you’ll come along for the ride!
Perspective
A group of students over at the video game genius farm Digipen have churned out another great innovative game that might give you a new… wait for it… PERSPECTIVE on gaming.
I rushed out a Free Indie Games episode covering this amazing title and during the video I got a little… preachy if you will. The video was fun to make as I was uninhabited by my normal modesty due to a decided lack of sleep. The really interesting thing was the realization that my impersonation of an American southern preacher yelling from the pulpit actually wasn’t something that a decent majority of my international audience was going to get. Such is the reality of the ‘worldwide’ web I suppose.
Regardless of whether anybody ‘got’ my stupid impersonation or found it entertaining in the slightest I hope everyone goes out and plays Perspective.
Green Man Gaming
A worldly scholar once declared, “Pimp’n ain’t easy!” Now, while I can agree that wrangling hookers is quite difficult I must say that I find it trivial when compared to the challenge of hunting down a good deal. The tricky thing is that finding the best price for an item, be it a vivacious companion for the evening, a used car or a fine digital video game, comes down to knowing where to look. To that end I give you the latest addition to my stable of high quality low cost proprietors of electronic entertainment: Green Man Gaming. [Full Disclosure: That is my referral link to Green Man, if you sign up after clicking it I stand to make a modest gain as detailed here]
How good are the deals at Green Man Gaming? How about a pre-order of Borderlands 2 for $35? Hitman: Absolution for $32.50? Syndicate for $7? Spec Ops: The Line for $6? Jet Set Radio for $3.75? Three Dead Zed for $1.25? Earth 2160 for FREE? Hell, if that doesn’t convince you how about a semi-permanent 20-25% discount off the whole damn store?
