The Ministry Of Bundles: Big Brother Bundle

THIS IS TODAY'S MOST TERRIFYING POST. A bundle curated by Daniel Domscheit-Berg of Wikileaks containing Harlan Ellison's point and petrify adventure I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream along with documentaries, graphic novels and hip-hop tracks about the surveillance state? There's surely something here to give you the willies, whether you're frightened of the leakers, the leaks, the misinformed masses, the data sniffing sneak thieves, or the apathetic attitude that left all of the windows open and doors unlocked in this Age of Information.

The Big Brother Bundle is available until November 19th and while only a couple of games are included the rest of the contents are worth looking at. They include documentaries Shadows of Liberty and Secrecy, graphic novel Subatomic and Immortal Technique's Surveillance EP, as well as the aforementioned Ellison game.

Either 2011 or 2012 was the Year of the Bundle, but I can't for the life of me remember which. Having said that, even if 2012 started out as the Year of the Bundle, Kickstarter claimed it long before December died. My inbox still bristles with bundle announcements but few of them stand out. There was a point around February when everybody in the world owned every game that had ever been in a bundle, the same ones recycled again and again, and reading the press releases felt like being on a carousel while somebody pelted me with eggs.

This one is different though. I approach documentaries like Shadows of Liberty exactly as I'd approach anything else that claims to offer 'the truth'. Curious and sceptical. I automatically distrust anything that has an obvious agenda, whether I'm personally inclined to agree with it or not, and I think that approach is a far better armour than even the most robust of tinfoil hats. I haven't seen it, or Secrecy, but I have heard Immortal Technique's Revolutionary LPs. Great, crackling beats and what I believe are referred to as 'socially conscious' lyrics. Here's one I particularly like, although Dance With the Devil is the track you're most likely to recognise. The lyrics, on the latter particularly, go to dark places.

There are more documentaries and graphic novels to unlock at the higher tiers (currently $2.42 and $9.47 - minimum is $1), as well as Hacker Evolution Duality at the lower tier.

I loaded up I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream just now. It's inextricably linked with Dark Seed in my mind and both games fascinated and terrified me back in the day. It's probably fair to say that both have aged quite badly, but IHNMAIMS is superior. There's a lot of repetition, with often unexpected deaths restarting each short story, but there's still a creepiness that is at least partly due to the meeting of the horrifying imagery and situations with a form that, through habit, is associated with comedy.

You'll probably want to know where your money ends up.

70% of contributions are divided equally between the 7 content providers, 25% goes to VODO and 5% goes to our chosen charity for this offer, Fight For The Future.

There you go.