Skip to main content

THQ Mega Pack demonstrates positives of bankruptcy, offers 19 games for $25 total

Saints Row The Third
Image used with permission by copyright holder

We’ve been reporting on the financial difficulties of publisher THQ for months now. Most recently, the games publisher had its bankruptcy plan rejected by a judge who saw the scheme as willfully attempting to bamboozle firms and individuals who might otherwise opt to enter a bid for THQ’s assets. For the most part, our record of THQ’s fall has been naught but doom and gloom. Though the company is not yet dead, it’s certainly on life support. Even those gamers with a focused fetish for schadenfreude are growing depressed at watching the once-mighty publisher gradually dissipate. Fortunately, there is a bright spot among all this darkness, and it’s particularly luminous for those looking to pick up a ton of quality games on the cheap.

If you pay a quick visit to Amazon, you’ll notice a listing for an item titled the “THQ Mega Pack.” Given the publisher’s dire financial straits and the contents of the Pack we have to assume this is an attempt at scrounging up some extra, last minute cash, and oh, what an attempt it is! For a mere $25 those of you with functional gaming PCs can download every single game listed below:

  • Company of Heroes – Tales of Valor
  • Company of Heroes Game of the Year
  • Darksiders II
  • Darksiders
  • Homefront
  • MX vs ATV Reflex
  • Metro 2033
  • Nexuiz 
  • Red Faction Armageddon
  • Red Faction Guerrilla
  • Saints Row 2
  • Saints Row: The Third
  • Supreme Commander
  • Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance
  • Titan Quest Gold
  • Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War II – Gold Edition
  • Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine
  • Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War Gold
  • Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War II Retribution
Notably absent from this list of THQ games are any of the company’s licensed wrestling titles, likely owing to whatever licensing deal THQ has established with the WWE. Beyond that though, this roster of games reads like a list of the best releases THQ has published since the dawn of the millennium. Saints Row The Third by itself is easily worth that $25 price tag, and then getting an extra 18 games (the vast majority of which are objectively good to excellent) is a deal that we have to recommend to anyone with the necessary hardware. Most relatively modern gaming PCs should be able to run these games with little issue, but if you’re worried that your title of choice won’t function on your computer, you should pay a visit to THQ’s official website. If system requirements aren’t listed there (as is likely with some of the older games), then a quick Google search should sort things out.
 
While we hate to bear witness to THQ’s slow fall, we do appreciate that the company is pulling out all the stops in its rebuilding efforts. Whether or not THQ again rises to prominence is anyone’s guess, but now at least fans of the publisher can dry their tears with almost 20 triple-A PC releases that, in total, cost less than a quality steak.
Topics
Earnest Cavalli
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Earnest Cavalli has been writing about games, tech and digital culture since 2005 for outlets including Wired, Joystiq…
TopSpin 2K25 serves up a fun, but safe tennis simulation revival
Serena Williams plays Tennis in TopSpin 2K25.

The first video game console I ever owned was an original Xbox that came bundled with two games: NCAA Football 2005 and Top Spin. My appreciation for both Madden and tennis games can be traced back to those being two of my first-ever console gaming experiences.

That’s why I was very excited to hear that Mafia 3 developer Hanger 13 and publisher 2K were bringing the Top Spin tennis series back with TopSpin 2K25 after a 13-year dormancy. Unfortunately, I'm disappointed with how underwhelming the overall product is. Even though it’s the series’ grand return after over a decade, it feels like an extremely iterative sequel to Top Spin 4. It’s certainly approachable, thanks to great tutorials and new meter systems to help players learn proper timing, but TopSpin 2K25's light content offering doesn't make for the strongest opening serve.
Top Spin returns
Developer Hanger 13 hasn’t been coy about the fact that it used 2011's Top Spin 4 as the base to build TopSpin 2K25. Top Spin 4 is a fantastic tennis game that people still play to this day, as it perfected the series’ timing-based gameplay. This isn’t like Mario Tennis Aces, where a special ability can shoot you across the court and hit timing doesn’t matter. TopSpin 2K25 is a true simulation, so learning proper positioning on the court, when to release a button to swing your racket, and how to aim your shot properly are all critical to success.

Read more
Embracer Group is splitting into 3 companies. Here’s who owns what
Rise of the Tomb Raider

Embracer, the embattled gaming company that went through a massive restructuring over the past year, just announced that it will split up into three different companies: Asmodee, Coffee Stain & Friends, and Middle-earth Enterprises & Friends.

If you need a refresher, Embracer Group gained a reputation for acquiring gaming IPs and studios, including everything from Borderlands' Gearbox Entertainment to Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics to The Lord of the Rings' rights holder Middle-earth Enterprises. It functioned as one massive company separated into several operating groups. After a deal with Saudi Arabia's Savvy Group fell through last year, Embracer went through a massive period of "restructuring" where it laid thousands of developers off, shut down studios, and sold the likes of Saber Interactive and Gearbox. Now, it seems the saga of Embracer Group is nearing its end, as the company admitted in a press release "that the current Group structure does not create optimal conditions for future value creation both for Embracer Group’s shareholders and other stakeholders."

Read more
Hades 2: release date prediction, trailers, gameplay, and more
Melinoe standing in a stone circle.

Just like Zagreus' never-ending quest to escape the Underworld in Greek mythology, it seems we too are destined to continue fighting through new levels of demons and monsters in the sequel to the amazing roguelike Hades. We're not complaining, as that game was one of the best games released in 2020, and no one expected a sequel at all, let alone one announced so soon. Hades 2 will be the first sequel studio Supergiant Games have ever made, and it makes sense given how successful and popular the first game ended up being. Aside from some notable exceptions like Rogue Legacy 2 and Spelunky 2, not many roguelikes ever get a direct sequel, so there's a lot of mystery surrounding how Hades 2 will be different from the first game. But there's no need to dive into the depths of the Underworld yourself in search of answers, as we've pulled all the information we could from the jaws of Cerberus.
Release date

Hades 2 has no release date quite yet. However, the team has apparently been working on it since early 2021, and, just like the first, will come out first in early access. Supergiant has stated that details about this early access period would be revealed in 2023, however, that does not guarantee it will actually begin in 2023. The first Hades was in early access for almost two years, but we know that a slightly bigger team is working on Hades 2 from the start so this game may hit 1.0 a bit faster.
Platforms

Read more