Humble Choice: November 2021
Remember last month, when I expressed a wish for Humble to reduce the number of games and increase the quality of the games on offer?
Well, one of those things happened.
No points for correctly guessing which one though.
This month the range drops from the usual 12 to just 10. And for the second month running, there isn’t really any headliner here. There’s no AAA title to anchor the pack to the ‘Wow!’ factor of old. If you’re on the classic plan, you’re still going to get everything and even if you’re not — there isn’t really any denying the value for money is still good.
Rather, the issue for me is one I’ve spoken to before — the loss of a certain x-factor — the emotional high of a mini-Christmas month on month. I want that feeling back, as I was buying that as least as much as the games themselves, if not more!
I fear though, that the loss of that feeling may have little to no correlation with what Humble ends up doing. That the feeling is gone simply because it has been too long. … Still… I can’t say that a return to inclusion of high-demand (even if a year or more old) AAA titles would hurt things… ;)
That aside, as always, I’ll attempt to rank the games in order of preference, starting with my most preferred and ending with my least preferred. Where I own a game already, I will pretend for the purposes of this list that I don’t.
My Picks for November 2021’s Humble Choice
Project Wingman is a love letter to the Ace Combat series. I’ve never played an Ace Combat game but… I’ve wanted to! I’ve almost bought Ace Combat 7 any number of times! If you’re unfamiliar — if you think over the top anime and then apply it to a jet fighting scenario, you’re halfway there. These games are very much not simulation focused… Unless your idea of a simulator includes the placement of Sonic the Hedgehog as a valid life-of-a-hedgehog simulator. Arcadey action all the way!
Definitely tops my list this month.
| Rank | Game | Genre(s) / Notes |
| 1 | Project Wingman | Guns go BRRRT, Missles go PHWOOSH simulator, BOOM BOOM BOOM, NYYYOOOM! *EXPLOSIONS* |
| 2 | BPM: Bullets Per Minute | Rogue-lite Retro Shooter — where you time actions to the beat of the music! Nnce Nnce Nnce |
| 3 | SimpleRockets 2 | Kerbal Space Program without the little green people. |
| 4 | Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion | Top-down pixel adventure. Note: If you play this excessively, the IRS might show an interest. |
| 5 | Timelie | Time manipulation puzzle title — with a cat! |
| 6 | Wrath: Aeon of Ruin | Wait, 3DRealms is still a thing? Apparently yes, and they put out another classic shooter. Amusingly, using Quake-1 Tech. |
| 7 | House Flipper | Don’t have enough housework in the real world? Have some more! |
| 8 | Mobius Front ’83 | TBS set in an alternate universe USA. |
| 9 | Due Process | PvP Tactical Shooter |
| 10 | Wingspan | Digitised board game — about birds. (The actual board game version isn’t bad!) |
I have to admit, I judged SimpleRockets 2 harshly before even looking at it. I assumed a super cheap knock-off of the Kerbal Space Program. Well- turns out it is a bit of a knock-off. And it isn’t expensive, either. But it seems to have been quite well received by the playerbase so far — so count me in! It still seems like a long wait yet until we see KSP 2.
House Flipper 2 is another interesting one to me on this list. It probably would’ve sat much lower on my list if left to my own devices, but, I’m super easy to convince and love a good bandwagon. So when in discussion on Discord this one came up as one of the high-interest titles, I was brought to a point of immediately being keener for it and to see what all the fuss was about than would’ve otherwise been the case.
I guess as another positive to this list — nothing I quite explicitly don’t want this time around. Wingspan, my lowest ranked here, is still something I’d happily add to my library even though when it comes to board games I would 100% prefer to play them in their boardgame form rather than a digital form.
Next month is Christmas! I wonder if there’s anything special planned?
