Back to everyday life for many of us today, until the looming spectre of New Years revelry decends upon us. With a multitude of indie bundles coming to a close in the next day or two, plus this sale continuing for another week, I’m sure a great many studios are celebrating a very wealthy holiday indeed. Us consumers get to be poor but happy, buried under a pile of games. Here’s today’s indie picks:

Daily Deals

66% off – Bastion

One of the best indie games of the year and for a seriously silly-cheap price. This isometric action-adventure is notable in a great many ways, but particularly the art, the music, the setting (the last remnants of a world crumbling around you, falling into an endless void), and the narrator. Oh, the narrator. His casual, wistful, slightly whiskey-tinged storytelling holds the entire experience together, reacting to each and every notable event on-screen, from you accidentally falling off the edge of the level, to just whacking crates randomly. It’s all very clever. Get it.

75% off – Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Tower Offense, to use the game’s own definition. It’s a familiar setup – waves of passively shooting units make their way through a maze of defensive towers, trying to get to the end of the map to destroy a final target. The twist is that you’re the attackers. Aliens are invading Earth in a very defensive fashion, and you need to escort a convoy of tanks, walker mechs and APCs across the maze of infested streets by upgrading, repairing and generally covering their advance while steering them away from high concentrations of enemy fire. Really great production values, good gameplay and a hilarious American-slang-heavy script read by a very British cast make this a good way to while away an afternoon or two.

75% off – Beat Hazard

A simple arena shooter with a twist – originally released on Xbox Live Indie Games, this defected back to the PC and has found success ever since. Much like Audiosurf, the game is based around the music playing, either from web-radio stations or your own personal collection. The power of your guns and the intensity of enemy spawns match the tempo and intensity of the song, with a high-tempo solo giving you a burst of boss-shredding firepower, while a lull might end up rendering you almost defenseless until the song picks up again. The addon – Beat Hazard Ultra – just about doubles the amount of content in the game. Well worth it.

75% off – Rock Of Ages

The worlds first (and only) art-history-themed combat bowling simulation. The latest game by those very silly Chilean folks over at ACE Team – their previous being the demented Zeno Clash – this is one of the most original games released this year. Even if you stripped away the demented story cutscenes (animated in Terry Gilliam style) depicting Sisyphus rolling his rock back down through history on a quest to escape his endlessly repeated fate, this would still be a very strange game.

The game is a competitive action/strategy game. Your goal is to roll your ball down the enemy’s hill, trying to beat in his door and squash his character. You directly control the ball, Super Monkey Ball style, and can even jump. Useful, as you’re trying to avoid the defenses – towers, walls, cannons, etc – that your opponent has set up to stall or shatter your ball with. After each roll, you spend a few moments building up your own defenses again before taking another shot at the enemy. It’s good fun, although the defensive aspect can seem a little underpowered against an agile ball. Worth it just for the sheer imagination on display.

A great lineup today, it seems! As always with this particular sale, the previous day’s deals are still available for another 3-4 hours at the time of writing.

Challenges

As horrifically compelling as hoarding games has become, it’s still all about the playing. These little Christmas achievements have been an interesting experiment. Some have been more interesting than others. Some have been tedious, and some have even revolved around festive minigame events. Today’s bonus objectives can be found in Beat Hazard, Rock of Ages and Bastion. The Beat Hazard is one of the most cruel and sadistic yet – you need to endure 10 minutes of Survival gameplay while tuned into a Christmas-themed radio station. The very thought sends a grinchly shiver down my spine!

Check back each day for our roundup of the Steam indie deals and challenges of the day. Tis’ the season to be playing, apparently. As always, if a game you have your eye isn’t a daily deal, skip it until the final day of the sale, just in case. You never know when the price might plunge to ridiculously cheap levels.

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DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Tidalis for the PC (activates on Steam), by Arcen Games!

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.