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Name your own price for five PC games (Win, Mac, Linux)

The Humble Indie Bundle # 3 comes with five sweet games, and it's up to you how much you want to pay. Yes, even a penny is acceptable (but not cool).

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read

Now this I like.

The Humble Indie Bundle #3 is a collection of five PC games, all of them compatible with Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. Their combined value: about $55.

Your price: whatever you want to pay. Think the bundle's worth a buck? Pay a buck. Think it's worth $15? Pay $15. Feeling generous? Pony up $5,000 and earn the pole position on the Top Contributors list.

What's great about the Humble Indie Bundle is that you get to decide how to divvy up your contribution among four potential recipients: the game developers, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Child's Play charity, and your Humble hosts.

The Humble Indie Bundle #3.
The Humble Indie Bundle #3. Screenshot by Rick Broida

You can steer all of your contribution to one party or split it up in pretty much any way you want, which I think is awesome. (Personally, I'm giving an equal share to everybody.) I also love the real-time donation stats, which are very revealing: Linux users are averaging the highest contribution (!), followed by Mac users, then Windows users.

Anyway, on to the games: And Yet It Moves, Crayon Physics, Cogs, Hammerfight, and VVVVVV. I can't say I've heard of most of them, but each one looks cooler than the last--and there are some award-winners in the mix. I'm excited to try all five.

All the games are DRM-free, and all can optionally be retrieved via Steam or Desura (except for a couple of the Mac versions). The bundle will be available for the next 13 days.

I'm in for $10. That's a measly $2 per game (Crayon Physics alone usually sells for $19.95), and I get the satisfaction of giving something not only to the developers, but also to two worthwhile causes. And the Humble guys deserve a couple bucks for putting it all together.

Also, as a Windows user, I feel compelled to raise our donation average (which is currently $3.81, to Mac users' $6.23)! In this instance, my competitiveness outweighs my cheapskate-ness. Who's with me?!

Bonus deal: A lot of you were keen on yesterday's desktop RAM deal, so here's a nearly identical one for laptop users: Newegg has the G.SKILL 8GB DDR3 laptop RAM kit for $39.99 shipped. It comes with two 4GB, 204-pin modules, and a lifetime warranty. You even get a free 4GB flash drive!