Humble Bundle: WB Games and Batman Edition

I’ll be honest with you: there are a lot of games we’ve used as benchmarks that I haven’t quite finished, and some that I hardly even play. So when a game is good enough to keep me playing, it’s usually worth a look. Batman: Arkham Asylum is one of the games I completed. Now I’m not saying it was the greatest beat-em-up game ever, but it did a better job of making you feel like a superhero than any other game I can recall. It was visceral, and it controlled well with a mouse and keyboard or with a gamepad; it helped that the graphics were good as well, and the story kept me going.

All of that is a nice lead-in to the latest Humble Bundle, courtesy of WB Games. As you can guess, Batman: Arkham Asylum is part of the package, but it doesn’t stop there. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin and F.E.A.R. 3 (or F.3.A.R. if you prefer) are also part of the base package, which means any donation of $1 or more snags you those games, with Lord of the Rings: War in the North rounding out the collection. You might notice a couple of things with the list; first is that they’re arranged in order of decreasing score, so Batman walks away with a 91%, FEAR2 gets 79%, FEAR3 71%, and LotR scrapes by with 66%. The second thing you’ll notice is that the original F.E.A.R. is sadly missing from the list, which is a shame as that was probably the best game of the series. The reason for the omission is pretty simple, though: it wasn’t published by WB Games.

There are two additional titles as part of the collection, provided you pay more than the current average ($4.47 at the time of writing). Scribblenauts Unlimited is a fun little game that’s perhaps better suited to a device with a stylus or finger input. The final title is a great way to wrap things up, Batman: Arkham City. The sequel to the original sports improved graphics and a larger game world, and it’s every bit as good (in my opinion at least). Even if the package only included the first two Batman games, it would be worth the price of entry – provided of course that you didn’t already own both, which I do; in fact, I already own most of the games, with LotR and Scribblenauts Unlimited being the only ones missing from my Steam list, and I’m still planning on buying the bundle. If you’re curious, the six games (Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, F.E.A.R. 2, F.E.A.R. 3, War in the North, and Scribblenauts Unlimited) would set you back a combined $74.25 (plus tax where applicable).

Now, there's one reason (and one reason only!) for me reposting my story from AnandTech (with minor editing) to my personal blog: I've got a couple extra game keys available, specifically for the two Batman games (which as mentioned I already own). So this is a test of your geek skills, because I will give the codes (individually, so you don't get both -- sorry!) to the first two people to send me an email at my work address, with the subject line "I want Batman: Arkham Asylum" or "I want Batman: Arkham City". I'll update this text when the codes have been claimed.