Be Excellent To Each Other

Eurogamer have given this apparent XBLA platformer 10/10. Unfortunately, I know little about Braid because for some (probably pretentious) reason, Eurogamer like to assume you're clued up about the latest Live Arcade release you didn't even know was coming, preferring to get straight into the reviewing. Of course, they'll always start their reviews of the latest FIFA game with a synopsis of what the game is all about and the series so far.

Anyway, it's supposed to be pretty good. Who's getting it?

http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=205102

Not me. I am absolutely drowning in games at the moment, as interesting as this looks.

I've got the points in my account, so there's a good chance I'll get it.

I was getting it right up until the point they got greedy and sold it for 1200 points, exactly 48 hours after denying they would sell it for 1200 points.

I'll play the trial but it's going to have to be GOOD.

Sounds like an ace game, I'll demo it first and maybe then reluctantly stump up the points.

Ok, I'll tell you guys straight up, but this is kind of secret, so don't spread it.

I will be interviewing Jonathan Blow (the dude that made Braid) on Episode 1 on the SavyGamer Podcast, airing the Friday. If there is anything anyone wants me to ask him specifically, let me know.

Why is his game so fucking expensive?

At 1200 I start to want it in a box.

The only that makes me hestitate about DLC is the lack of transferability. I can't give it away or trade it in or sell it on ebay when I'm done with it. Why can't I now convert my copy of Geometry Wars -- which I can't see myself playing again -- into a GUID code, which I can then email to a mate, who can enter it, and have my copy? I'm not using it any more. When I'm not using a disc-based game, or a DVD, or a book, or a mobile phone, or anything else I buy, I can transfer it. Why not DLC?

It's technically feasible, and if we could do this I think everyone would find 1200 points a lot more palatable. If the future of games distribution is going to be digital -- and it is undeniable that the sheer effort involved intransferring bits via stamped pieces of shiny plastic is both immense and avoidable -- I think the publishers will have to address this valid concern.

You gimp out every lunchtime Duds?

Which?

Exactly, 1200 points is, officially, £10.

For £10 I can get a new shrinkwrapped Forza 2. Which I can lend, I can sell, I can easily take round a mates, I have a box, I have a manual...

XBLA is a glorified rental. And to accept the loss of liberty it's got to cost less. At 1200 it's crossed that line unless it's pretty much god on a stick.

Even further to all this, the (XBLA) games almost never come down in price. Arse Effect was £40 when it first came out. I bought it in Virg... er.... 'Zavvi' for £17, as it's been out the best part of a year. Yet XBLA games seem fixed, so regardless of how well or badly they do, you still pay the full price a year later that you would have upon release.

Exactly, which is why they find themselves competing with last year's triple A boxed titles....

Okay, just had a very brief go of this. Impressions so far:

Standard platformer
Looks quite nice
Has nice music
Ripped off time rewind thing from PoP
Jigsaws
Not worth £10

Is it better than the best game on XBLA, Undertow?

Yes, but it's certainly not better than Ruff and Tumble, for instance.

Maybe the demo doesn't give away much, Dimmers. Everything else I've read seems to suggest it's mindblowingly innovative with the time-rewinding, and doesn't just use it as a way for you to avoid dying. I hope they're not wrong!

Wow, that reviewer is a piece of work, eh?

He's also clearly never seen the movie 'Groundhog Day'.

Right, I've got 1300 points left, there's supposed to be a lot of good stuff coming out over the coming weeks and this is going to eat up nearly all my points. Better be good then.

Oh.

It's by no means a bad game, but at 1200 points it's claiming to be one of the best things going on XBLA, and it's not. By a long way.
What we seem to have is an Amiga platformer that has an added rewind function to hide the fact that it's full of unavoidable deaths.

On the plus side, the trial seems to be pretty long, unfortunately, I don't feel compelled to find out how long.

Did someone mention pretentious?

Heh. Here's an assumption: You need an electronic device to play video games. How does Braid force me to re-evaluate that?

That sounds like the sort of spunking tosh that was wanked out about Portal. I suppose the nature of the industry means they don't have this luxury, but it would be nice for a lot of these games to be played and then returned to after some time to see if they are still as genre-breaking paradigm-shifting everything-reevaluation-forcing as they first seemed.

Because it's only with a lot of time that small but niggling flaws become truly apparent. Which explains all the 90% reviews that the original Driver got.

Sounds a bit like Fatal Rewind/Killing Game Show.

Oh, that reminds me about what I read about Portal: Still Alive in this month's GamesTIM(!). It's exactly the same Portal that's on The Orange Box, but with an added "Challenge Mode".

Portal is actually ace though.

I bought it (hesitantly)

I also agree strongly with the it's too much camp for the same reason. I don't pay less for XBLA titles because they have less content or I'll spend less time with them (Omega Five, N+, GeoWars2 are all as content rich (to me) as full price disk games.) I pay less because I lose the right to own them.

But I love 2D platformers so much that I need to support them.

Initially thought it was awesome, but decided to finish super paper mario first. 1 Game at a time kinda thing.

Worried that rewind allows for finicky rubbish - but not seen that so far. And itis beautiful.

10/10 though? When the cheap Geometry Wars is available and apparently a 9?

I'm not arguing over a score. That way lies madness.

I'm not playing it any more at the minute because playing two 2D platformers at once is silly (if I can keep myseld from doing so at least) , but if it keeps the puzzles vibrant and different for the 5 - 8 hours it is supposed to take, then it's going to be worth every penny.

I'm waiting until Mr Dave tells me to buy it. He knows best.

Apparently, the new levels are already available for free download on the PC anyway.

Yeah it's a 3D reworking of the 2D flash levels or something.

Sounds weird. And not worth it.

Got all the puzzle pieces in World 2.

Love the game after being unconvinced at the beginning.

It made me feel clever.

But... 1,200 points.

I love it, so probably will buy it, but not yet.

I haven't tried it, and to be quite frank, the eurogamer review puts me off doing even that.

The reviewer is just plain crap.

I thought it was a lovely review.

Shush! Mr Dave knows best.

Things that glitter are immune to the flow of time. It's not just a game where you can rewind mistakes apparently each level uses it in a different way.

One world has moving right move time forward and moving left run it in reverse.

It was a lovely review if you like people who are pretentious and think that getting a new chnce to do things after death is something that is somehow new, and makes it not just a development in video games but in philosophy of life.

Which it clearly isn't (in either).

Which makes him a massive tool.

Just tried the demo. Braid seems a lovely, lovely game. I can see myself totally enjoying the rest of the game, but 1200 points? For a downloadable, DRM'd, file? Right now, now way. It's always possible I'll crack come one rainy Sunday afternoon, but at 800 I'd have bought it right there and then.

I got all the puzzle pieces in "World 2" as well.

Thing is, all of the reviews by him recently that I've read I've thought were weak...

Geo Wars 2 Wherin he shows either no understanding of how online multiplayer games work as well as saying it makes another completely dissimilar game (Schizoid) redundant due to it's coop being similar. Which would possibly be vaguely forgivable if it weren't for the fact that he reviewed that game only a couple of weeks before. Attention to detail there. The latter review is quite crap, claiming you can barely see what's going on like Geometry wars, despite that particular problem being only a fraction as big on Schizoid than Geo wars. In the process managing to completely ignore whatever faults the game does have to make up some that it doesn't.

Basically, if I'd just been using his reviews, I wouldn't have bought any of the games he did review. The braid review did make me actively not want to play the game - pretty much the opposite of what a review for a 'good' game is supposed to do. I did try it in the end. It's not as good as his mark suggests. Rather typically, they've hidden away some of the uglier puzzles out of the way of the demo.

Well, I had a go of the trial. Seemed nice enough, but (corks!) $18 nice? I don't think so...

One issue is that it doesn't seem like it's going to last that long. I've already completed worlds 2-5, and only 2 more puzzle pieces left for world 6. And I don't think I'm that far off getting them too.

Edit: 1.
Edit again: 0. Completed.

Blast!

ended up buying it even though I was determined to not support the shitty pricing.

I really like the game though.

Not again! Condensed version: It was good, but not THAT good. That a full half of the game wasn't entertaining challenge rooms but rather an interminable slog through the world's ugliest factory filled with improbable giant pistons sort of spoiled it - that and the entire internet thinking that 'Still Alive' was the best song ever and that jokes about Weighted Companion Cubes will make you LOL more than a monorail cat.

I can't believe people are complaining about a new game release for the 360 costing around £10. So you can get Forza 2 brand new sealed for that but that's been out for ages and bundled with the 360 for some time. Are you not forgetting how much Forza 2 was when if first came out? That's why. For a completely new original game around £10 seems entirely reasonable.

However, I do feel cheated at spending £10 on a game, only for it to last about 5 hours.

I did like the end though... very clever.