Read my review to see why. It's a shame. Until the problems are patched, the game is simply not worth your money.

This here is why I haven't even bothered to buy a Wii, opting instead for a 360 and (mostly redundant, but MGS4 was too tempting) PS3. Call me when you start giving a shit about your old-school fanbase again, Nintendo.

Well, in the demo, anyway. I've been looking forward to The Force Unleashed for a loooong time, so to finally get the chance to play a portion of it definitely has me excited. I'm really expecting this game to be awesome, so I could be setting myself up for disappointment, but I've got a good feeling about this one. Also, because I am a PA whore, here is another relevant PA strip.

So I finally got 1000/1000 in SC4. This is the second retail game I've maxed out the points on (first being Bioshock, 1100). And I am so done with that game. Farming Algol on floor 60 for money = not fun. But I just couldn't have 950/1000 with such an easy, if time-consuming, achievement left open. The completionist in me can't have that. Compare that to, say Halo 3, where I have 960/1000, but the achievements remaining are all for the Lone Wolf playlist, which makes them pretty hard to get, so I don't feel so bad for falling short so close to completion. Do achievements affect you in the same way? Does it bother you to leave 'doable' achievements untouched, or do you just not care?

Just to throw that out there, the only games I've got 100% achievements on are Soul Calibur 4, because they weren't that difficult, Bioshock, because I love that game and again, not that difficult, and Streets of Rage 2, because it's awesome.

I just pride myself in the fact that I have never bought a game solely because it has easy points, so I haven't reached the bottom yet ;)

I'm the kind of guy that gets frustrated easily, but I never once felt frustrated in Braid, because I always felt a solution was right around the corner, and if I wasn't seeing it, it was simply my own fault, because the game gives you everything you need. And by the end of the game, I knew I was playing video game history. Amazing.

So as you you probably know if you've read any of posts lately, I've been thinking about Braid. A lot. And talking about it almost exclusively. And one thing that keeps popping up is that people say it's too expensive. They think, because Braid is 400 points, or 5 dollars, more than the average original XBLA game, that it's automatically too expensive. Let's dwell on this for a moment.

Braid is a game with a unique hand-painted visual style. It contains incredibly mind-bending puzzles that were hard to solve, let alone design. And artistically it is the most amibitious game that has come along since... probably forever, but most people probably don't care about that, because it isn't why they play video games, and that's fine. But even discounting that, Braid is simply an amazing game that will last you 5 to 6 hours. And that for 15 dollars.

Portal is being sold for 20 dollars separately on Steam, and while it is only around 3 hours long, most people won't complain about that. The average 60 dollar retail game will probably last you around 10-15 hours. If we were to deconstruct that, that is less game play per dollar than Braid delivers. Yet this 15 dollars is some massive stumbling block for people. Why is this?

I think primarily because people have become so used to paying 800 points for XBLA games, that anything more automatically seems as too much, without really thinking about what you're getting. The silliest comparison I've seen is likening Braid to Puzzle Quest. Both cost the same, yet Puzzle Quest gives you more 'bang for your buck', so the argument goes. Sure, but that's discounting the fact that Puzzle Quest is the same thing, over and over again, and it's only graphics are still sprites. How can you possibly compare that to a game as exquisitely crafted as Braid? Quality should determine value, not quantity. And even if quantity was the deciding factor, Braid would still be worth 15 dollars, assuming you've ever bought a game like Bioshock, or Portal, or any other single player retail game the last 5 years.

Oh yeah, here is what got the ball rolling on this blog post:

I don't blog often. Because I rarely feel I have something to say that I really believe people need to read. But I have to spread the word, because I am worried that there aren't enough people out there who are aware of the brilliance of Braid.

At first glance, Braid appears like a platformer with a unique art style and some time-based puzzle mechanics. And it is. But it's also so much more. It's a comment on the human condition. It's a commentary on video games. It's homage. It's parody. And it will absolutely destroy your mind. But I didn't know any of these things before I played Braid. Because, criminally, Microsoft has done absolutely nothing to advertise Braid to the public at large, even the 360 community. No one knows what the hell it really is. And I fear the trial won't suffice, because it just doesn't contain any of the fiendish puzzles the game throws at you from World 3 and onwards. Just as problematic is the price point: 1200 points. Now don't get me wrong, I think Braid is probably worth even twice that, but the average person will see that and think "well that's 400 points more than Geometry Wars 2 or X", where X is pretty much any other original Live Arcade game. And as a final nail in the coffin, Braid is released in the same month as Geometry Wars 2, Bionic Commando Rearmed and Castle Crashers, all heavily anticipated Live  Arcade titles. It almost seems like MS wants Braid to fail commercially.

But you guys. I think Braid is one of the most important video games in a long time. It shows that games don't need to be interactive movies to be considered poignant or thought-provoking. There are only several lines of story in the entire games, they'd probably fit on one A4 sized piece of paper, yet it says more than most games say given any number of lines.

So please, don't let this one slip under your radar. 1200 points is more than most XBLA games, yes, but it's easily 5-6 hours long, and qualitatively, it is up there with the best of $60 retail games. Give it a chance. Even if you don't care for its artistic trappings, if you like fiendish puzzles, Braid is guaranteed to make your head hurt. I'm not kidding when I say Portal seems like a cakewalk* compared to this.

If you need further convincing, read this review: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=205102


*I am so sorry I went there. I'll go hang myself now.

I'm already addicted to editing and adding things. Useful things, of course. Bummer that I have to wait until it's all moderated, but totally understandable, otherwise jerks would ruin the site. Also, someone put Zelda: Wand of Gamelon as the first Zelda game. What the hell. So I changed that right quick.

Oh yeah, awesome.