It took me by surprise when I found out that the first Wednesday after the summer of XBLA would have three releases instead of one. I was only surprised until I played them; only one of the three is worth looking at. In the never ending quest to charge money for things that are free (and possibly better) elsewhere comes Gin Rummy.
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COLUMNS
Number None Inc. ⋅
Microsoft ⋅
Puzzle / Platform ⋅
By James Shields on August 12, 2008 in xbox live arcade
Braid delivers an experience gamers will will be hard pressed to forget.
I’m reminded of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time’s ending, the Prince embraces the Princess after an incredible journey she can’t remember, and kisses her deeply. She’s revolted, having not retained the memories of the adventure they had shared, and she rejects him. Quickly, the Prince reverses time, hiding his mistake neatly, and continues where he left off before the kiss, and his mistake is forgotten. Braid presents this idea on a pedestal, inside the pages of a bright green book: “But if we’ve learned from a mistake and become better for it, shouldn’t we be rewarded for the learning, rather than punished for the mistake?” For the next three to four hours of gameplay that Braid offers, various concepts are presented, but this is the most pungent.
Braid wants you to understand its world, which is an interesting process; Braid will never hold your hand, and it will never patronize you. That’s not to say its puzzles are difficult because of a lack of direction, but that Braid rewards tactile learners. It wants you to play around with the mechanics it offers, so instead of explaining how different tools it presents work, an act that would only demystify them, a simple puzzle is offered to start, as a brief acquaintance, and you move on from there. The further you progress in levels, the more uses you will find for different tools, and the deeper mechanics become. Like any good puzzle, Braid becomes more interesting the longer you play with it and the more you think about it.
Braid leaves a lot to a player’s interpretation, from puzzles with multiple solutions, to its story and what it means. Without divulging too much, Tim’s story, like The Prince’s, is bittersweet, but it only becomes more beautiful for it, adding layers to its meaning. And maybe that’s what makes Braid so interesting; it’s never gimmicky, it’s never bland, and nothing is unintentional. It’s dense in such a way that will spark thought and conversation in the minds of people who read into it.
In the end, Braid takes a medium and creates something profound. And unlike so many games that present themselves in an artful way, yet fall short of offering anything truly deep, Braid delivers an experience gamers will be hard-pressed to forget.
“Steps Toward an Elitist Critic Future” at Rock Paper Shotgun
I went into this article expecting the “elitist critic future” to be presented as a negative thing, but no. Kieron Gillen is openly admitting here that he likes it. I think he’s buying into the idea that games need what you could call “indie cred” (not his words) to be worthwhile. I love Earth Defense Force 2017, but no, Kieron, it’s not better than Gears of War.
Lower the price of the hard drive, Microsoft. I want to give you more money, all you have to do is let me.
“EA Partners Is A Murderers’ Row - Who’s NOT On This List?” at MTV Multiplayer
This is a good bit of investigative reporting from Stephen Totilo. With last Thursday’s announcements by Electronic Arts of deals with Grasshopper Manufacture and Epic Games, they now have at least half a dozen major partners, and that’s not counting the smaller companies they have outright purchased over the last couple years.
I have become amazed at what XBLA has done in the past few weeks. It started with Geometry Wars 2, a game Jim Canapa described perfectly in the previous column (he should know, since his high scores are far better than mine). Bionic Commando, another great game I will go into detail about later, was the most recent addition. But in the middle was Braid, the first game to ever cause an internal conflict for me.