I've just got up to go to the bathroom and noticed a box piled around other random stuff I have in my room.

Warhammer  Online? 

Pre-order bonus?

But... I've never ordered Warhammer?


That's when I remembered that my WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition last year had an odd orange box accompanying it.  Which I have promptly ignored...

First thought, "Huh, I guess the pre-order bonus for WOTLK  was Warhammer..."

Second thought, "Wait that's not right! That can't be right at all?!"

On closer inspection... They gave me a copy of the Pre-order Bonus Edition of Warhammer Online!

Now I'm not sure if this was Amazon policy to throw down some games to remove inventory, but this is pretty ridiculous.


Has anyone else got some random items shipping to them from Amazon or any online store like this?

While watching the MJ tribute video it occurred to me that a "Simon Says" music game is totally viable on Natal.

Did I say viable?

I mean... IT WOULD BE FRIGGIN AWESOME!

All those quirky rhythm games and arcade games can be played with only one add-on. Which would be cheap for the consumer and easier for game makers to bring already existing arcade franchises without worrying about hardware.

As an example, or initial game I thought of, doing the motions of Space Channel 5 is pretty easy already. But instead of pressing up, down or buttons, you can just act it out  one-to-one. I think this makes a better use of Natal than its usage as a sports, FPS or racing game. Which honestly, will never have the options and fidelity of a controller.

However, I generally have doubts of any camera or motion devices as a pure gaming device, The PSeye isn't doing much, And I don't think "waggle" only games on the Wii are interesting either. Unless MS can pull something out of their ass, I doubt that they would have a whole lot going on either.

Anyways, a Natal or the Sony camera (to a certain extent) can probably pull off a Space Channel 5 pretty easily. I do hope we see a sequel of some sort in the future for those devices.

Oh, I haven't forgot about the Wii. With a Wiifit board (For foot input) and the controller combination, one would wonder why they haven't made a decent and quirky rhythm game yet. (Unless I totally missed one?)

LATE TO THE GAME : Braid

I missed the whole Braid boat due to the fact that I didn't have a 360 at the time (Or even now for that Matter). I found those discussions on its storytelling interesting.
It has been hyped as THE indie game or THE 'art' game during those days and I wanted to experience what people were talking about. A demonstration of how games are becoming more mature.

And finally, the PC version of Braid was released on Steam, I bought it when it came out and beat the game in the next couple of days.

Excellent, excellent gameplay, I absolutely enjoyed every moment of it. I liked the twist at the end too. A narrative that changed depending on whether its on 'play' or 'rewind' is quite the mental feat. The art direction was very beautiful, and fit the game nicely. The audio was superb. (I don't need to go into details since all the reviews covered that bit anyways.)

And yet I'm puzzled why people made such a big deal out of its storytelling.

It was dry, disconnected, and overall unnecessary for the game. I believe the game would have given me the same satisfaction without the story. This is mainly due to the fact that it was, in fact, not connected to the game at all.  As a short story it already bored me, it was predictable, uninteresting, and overall I didn't feel sympathetic to the main character. And the fact that such writing was just laid there with no presentational value, exasperated the problems. The disaster that was described at the end, the final narrative,  was the game itself. Building this tower that, because the creator was so focused on his ideas, his ideals, he lost the essence of what made his game unique. It felt much like a gem that was beautiful on its own, but because of the greediness of its owner, became covered in dull rusty metal that just devalued its original splendor.

Its a great game to play, and I highly recommend everyone who didn't play it to buy it off of Steam or 360.  But saying its art, saying that its deep is a bit, ironically, shallow. It doesn't have any artistic value in the writing itself, or how the narrative is presented to the viewer. I find it hilarious that some sites actually discussed the game in a deep pseudo-philosophical way, it just doesn't have the content to be discussed in such manner. As gamers, we sometimes want to argue that games are becoming mature. But let's not try to idealize and raise up every game that we think has depth, it just creates openings for over-analyzation and ignorance. Let's not get full of ourselves.

(Late to the Game is a blog trying to discuss games in a different manner from reviews, because there is enough competent reviewers, why bother. It's about older games, mandatory spoilers, shoddy writing, and trying to find out why I would enjoy a game. Not what would make a game enjoyable.)