Gaming Braid

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/08/12/braid/1

Braid is the latest indie phenomenon to hit Xbox Live Arcade. With a beautiful watercolour presentation and a strange and complex time-control mechanic, it manages to be one of the most graceful and imaginative pieces of gaming we've seen in a long time.

 

Whoah, high praise indeed. Looks like immense fun though.

 

if you liked this abomination, you should play aquaria ...waaaay better

 

The only problem I have with it is replayability, (it's a dirty word I know)

But even the speed run reckons you can get all the puzzle pieces in UNDER 45mins.

 

pfft. It took me that long to figure out what the hell was going on in World 4

 

longevity was the key issue for me, that and it costs 1200pts on XBLA for a game that should be 800pts. At 800 (the price the developer wanted MS to charge for it) I would have bought it without hesitation (as I have with far too many others) but at 1200 I'm not so sure.

 

May I reference last Fridays Penny Arcade comic (as much as it troubles me to do so) on what else you could spend that money on? 1200 points is not exactly expensive for a quality game - between this and popular repetitive mind drivel like Geometry Wars, this wins.

If you don't resort to walk thrus to ruin it, it's massively entertaining and mind stretching for a good few hours - that's more than most games provide in terms of mental taxation.

 

Bindi read my mind.

This game costs about £10 and stays with you for a long time. The amount of fun to be had actually learning how to apply logic to the puzzles with friends is well worth the cost as long as you aren't the type of lame-ass who relies on a walkthrough.

Sure, you can do a speedruns in 45 minutes - but you can complete Portal in about the same time I bet. In fact, this game is very similar to Portal in length. £10 is a great price and I don't see how the distinction between £7 and £10 for a game of this quality it the bar between "I bought it, I love it" and "It's too expensive, I won't buy it, greedy *******s".

As John Blow, the developer, has said on many occasions, this was a one-man dedicated effort and the price needed to be a little higher to ensure it wasn't a purely wasted effort.

 

Looks brilliant. Any date (or estimated date) announced for PC release?

 

The whole game wasn't created by John Blow, he had a fair whack of help with the art direction.

 

The game may cost £10 which is a fair price for it (and I'm sure the 1000+pts barrier is just a psychological one) but when you see other games which only cost £7 (800pts - geometry Was 2 case in point) which (appear to) have a lot more replayablility I can't help but think twice about getting it (also I know it's only £3 but that extra 400pts makes it seem like a lot more ~ you forget what the monetary value of a point is) and yet I've bought any number of games priced at 400/800 without a 2nd thought.

Looking at my list of XBLA games, at the moment I've got 73 games downloaded of which I've actually bought the full game of 56 and I think only 2 games which outright cost over 1000pts - (Bankshot Billiards and Arkadian Warriors (and it took me a while of playing the demo before I actually bought that)). I've still got the demos of Puzzle Quest which I intend to get... one day (again with the psychological barrier), and Braid.

Lumines was crafty, the main game for 800 but then you pay the extra points to get all the puzzle packs which knocks it way over the 1000 mark but as it's seperate purchases you tend not to notice. It's the same with Bomberman the main game for 800 and then the extra for the content packs later (a couple of extra arenas and more costume choices).


And as John said on his blog, he wanted it priced at 800, he was also afraid of the "Space Giraffe" effect where it was priced too low to recoup costs when lack of interest kills the game (although Space Giraffe was not that well recieved even at 400pts~ I know I hated the demo).

 

If you're in the USA, go to a Target store and buy the 1600 point card for $15. Then Braid will cost you only $11.25 + tax.

 

Wow , a perfect 10. on a side scrolling platformer no less (nothing wrong with that!) I'll have to check it out. as Timmy the Tortoise said, do you have any idea of a PC date?

 

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/08/12/braid-might-come-to-ps3-not-wii/1

 

1200 points = £12.75 on the market place, a bit high for a 2d side scrolling platformer. This type of game is what you would pay no more than £5 in your local Game shop bargin bin.

There are far better games on the market place that cost far less and for that reason i wont be buying it until they start reducing the cost. MS has got to sort out their pricing structure, because some games are cheap and other are way over priced.

Its a interesting platformer but nothing special, i think the 10 rating is way over the top.

 

Does anyone know a release date for the PC version at all please? Looks fun.

 

I've just completed the game and the ending is pure gold.

 

Surely a perfect 10 game is worth at least double that asking price?

 

Ripped from a quote on TR comments. £8.75 isn't exactly expensive for several hours of enjoyment. You pay that much to go see a movie (including petrol and parking).

 

Just downloaded the demo...

This game has shed loads of class.