AMD has announced that it will bring back its Never Settle Forever campaign that gives gamers who buy Radeon cards a choice of multiple game titles depending on the type of GPU they pick up. This new version of the program is a three-tiered offer that offers up to three games at the high-end (think R9) and adds indie titles as an option for the first time.
The new Never Settle program includes a number of titles that were previously available (Tomb Raider, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Sleeping Dogs), but drops a number of games that were part of the program the last go-round. (Far Cry 3, DiRT Showdown). There are also a handful of older “classic” games now available like Just Cause 2, Dungeon Siege III, Titan Quest, and Total War: Shogun 2. New games like Murdered: Soul Suspect, Thief, and up to six indie games are now available as well.
The way the program works has also changed slightly. Buyers can choose up to three AAA titles or indie “packs” — each indie game comes in a pack of two. Unfortunately, users can’t define their own packs — you can’t choose The Banner Saga and Guacamelee, for example — if you want both of those titles, you have to buy two packs. It’s still possible to get four games out of the two pack strategy, but if you don’t want certain titles you’re still roped into them.
According to AMD, the new program will cover advertised products sold beginning April 21, so if you bought an AMD card in between the end of the last NS program and today, you’re out of luck. In theory, you can hang on to your coupons to see if better games appear in the program, but only until August 31, 2014. You also can’t hold back choices — once you sign in to choose your free games, you have to choose all the titles at that point in time.
Sorta settling
When AMD launched the first Never Settle bundles and its following spring refresh, they included multiple top tier titles and other recently launched games. Tomb Raider 3, Crysis 3, BioShock Infinite, Far Cry 3 , Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, and several other games were fresh off the presses at the time. Some of those games are still available, but the new bundle doesn’t have much meat on it. There are some great older titles, some interesting indie games, some upcoming products that may or may not be any good, and… not much else. None of the major releases from late 2013 to the present day appear to have made the cut.
We’re still fans of Never Settle — any program that puts great games in the hands of gamers is a good program — but hopefully we see this list updated as the year goes on. There aren’t many titles here that really cater to the high-end customer — in 2013, Far Cry 3 and Crysis 3 both pushed the GPU envelope. Many of the games on the new list cater more towards midrange gamers or to picking up old games on impulse buys. That’s still a fair value, but we don’t think many people buy a $200-400 GPU because it comes with copies of games they could pick up for $9.99.
There are also some applications — Never Settle Forever buyers can get a coupon good for three months use of Splashtop, $10 off a Radeon RAMDisk, and a bundle of elements within the free-to-play game FireFall. None of these are major advantages, but they do add a bit of additional value.
