I finally took the time to finish Braid.  Very much a game that I enjoyed all the way from beginning to end.  It wasn't terribly long (I think I came in around 4 hours), but I don't think it would necessarily have worked as well if it had been longer.  Something about the current length felt "just right."  I'm still not entirely clear on the story as such.  Might have to read some analysis of that elsewhere to wrap my head around it.

7 years ago I sat in a bar in Seattle talking to a couple of business acquaintances about the tech industry in general.  One of them asked me, "So, what's going to be the next big thing?"  I predicted that the game industry would be one of the faster growing markets, and that it would be a $15 billion industry by 2008.  Two amused people laughed at my words.  Recently I have been reading that in this year of 2008, the game industry is $32.6 billion industry.  That shit is crazy, yo!  And despite all the big corporations running most of the show today with move tie-ins and sequel hell, we are also - and perhaps finally! - starting to see indie games like Braid, Everyday Shooter and Audiosurf having a significant impact in the community.  You can bitch all you want about the pricing of Braid, but the fact is that I'd much rather pay $15 for Braid (I really think it's worth the money) than $50 for games like Kung Fu Panda (Xbox 360), $60 for TMNT, or whatever.  Call me crazy.  Another example is Portal.  That game was very, very enjoyable and with very high production values.  Would  I mind paying 20 bucks for that?  No.  It's well worth the money in my opinion.  And by using your hard earned money on these titles, you are showing the industry that this is what matters.  This is important if we want to encourage the big publishers to take some risks in terms of what they pick up.

So, yeah, that game rocks.