XBLA Wednesday: Braid

[Queasy]

Link

Content: Braid
Price: 1200 Microsoft Points
Availability: All Xbox LIVE regions
Dash Text: [ESRB: E10+ (EVERYONE 10+) LANGUAGE, MILD CARTOON VIOLENCE] Single Player, HD (High Definition). Manipulate the flow of time. Rescue the Princess. Contemplate the world; save yourself. The full version of Braid allows you to visit all the worlds, and thus use all the time-manipulation powers. Perhaps you will find the Princess and rescue her. There are no refunds for this item. For more information, see www.xbox.com/live/accounts.

Summer of Arcade Contest

One Grand Prize Package:

* 100,000 Microsoft Points
* Xbox 360 Elite console
* Xbox LIVE 12-month Gold subscription card

Two Second Prize Packages:

* 10,000 Microsoft Points
* Xbox LIVE 12-month Gold subscription card

Five Weekly Prizes: 4000 Microsoft Points

Just downloading the trial demo is enough to get you entered every week.

And another FYI - there is a system update out for the 360 today. It doesn't do anything though. It is just one of those updates to get the 360 ready for the upcoming Fall Update.

 

[Queasy]

Eight reasons why you NEED to download Braid - I link to this only for bolded and italicized quote below.

7. It does more with time manipulation than you've ever experienced in a mainstream game before.

I've often heard, from people who have not yet played the game, that Braid isn't that interesting because it "rips off" the rewind mechanic from Blinx or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

This is like comparing a lap dance to an eight-hour orgy.

In Blinx and Sands of Time, the rewind is limited and almost never interacts with the core gameplay in a meaningful way: you could take out the rewind from Sands of Time almost entirely and it'd still be the same game, because it only exists as a cute way of allowing the player to undo their mistakes (until your sand runs out, anyway).

In Braid, the rewind and the time manipulation are the core gameplay. You cannot possibly play through a single level without the rewind, and the rewind is totally unlimited. The core mechanics revolve entirely around the time manipulation, making for a much deeper, focused, and entertaining gameplay experience than the games it "ripped off."

:laugh: I'm going home to download this to see what an eight-hour orgy is like.

The other reasons are pretty interesting too though. Really makes me want to give the game a try.

 

[R Nilla]

I was disappointed to learn that this game is relatively short, especially for $15. But I'm still excited to try it, since reviewers seemed to like it enough to give high marks despite the length and lack of replayability.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

I love this game.

 

[KaOTiK]

Found the game fun and good overall, I like the art style and sound quite a bit. Only problem is I feel $15 for it to be a bit to expensive due to its length. If it was $10 I wouldn't have to even think about it. I won't pay more then $10 unless it has a lot of replay value like puzzle or board games for example.

 

[purbeast0]

i thought this game felt like it was some kids homework project in highschool.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

It bears repeating:

I love this game.

 

[Baked]

I just watched some game play for this game. So you can rewind and pause the "game" while your character moves the obstacles... ok... I'm sorry, but where's the challenge in that? You can't die!

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Baked
I just watched some game play for this game. So you can rewind and pause the "game" while your character moves the obstacles... ok... I'm sorry, but where's the challenge in that? You can't die!

The challenge is using the time rewind and the variations on that in later worlds to get the puzzle pieces.

 

[blurredvision]

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper

Originally posted by: Baked
I just watched some game play for this game. So you can rewind and pause the "game" while your character moves the obstacles... ok... I'm sorry, but where's the challenge in that? You can't die!

The challenge is using the time rewind and the variations on that in later worlds to get the puzzle pieces.

Yep, it's a puzzle game. The challenge is figuring it out, not staying alive.

 

[flyboy84]

Originally posted by: Queasy
Eight reasons why you NEED to download Braid - I link to this only for bolded and italicized quote below.

7. It does more with time manipulation than you've ever experienced in a mainstream game before.

I've often heard, from people who have not yet played the game, that Braid isn't that interesting because it "rips off" the rewind mechanic from Blinx or Prince of Persia: Sands of Time.

This is like comparing a lap dance to an eight-hour orgy.

In Blinx and Sands of Time, the rewind is limited and almost never interacts with the core gameplay in a meaningful way: you could take out the rewind from Sands of Time almost entirely and it'd still be the same game, because it only exists as a cute way of allowing the player to undo their mistakes (until your sand runs out, anyway).

In Braid, the rewind and the time manipulation are the core gameplay. You cannot possibly play through a single level without the rewind, and the rewind is totally unlimited. The core mechanics revolve entirely around the time manipulation, making for a much deeper, focused, and entertaining gameplay experience than the games it "ripped off."

:laugh: I'm going home to download this to see what an eight-hour orgy is like.

The other reasons are pretty interesting too though. Really makes me want to give the game a try.

The part I bolded is false. You can get through all of world 2 (i.e. the pastoral, first world) without using rewind. I only used it there to erase mistakes, but it was far from required. Nonetheless, great game. I only wish it were 800 points and then it would be a no brainer.

 

[blurredvision]

I purchased this game yesterday, and have been putting a lot of time into it. Probably put about 3-4 hours. I'm not the brightest bulb in the pack, but I've been enjoying trying to figure out some of these puzzles. I think my puzzle piece count is somewhere around 48 or 49, so I feel like I've been doing pretty good for myself.

I'm really slowing down now, though, because with the puzzles I have left, it's those that I've simply sat there and looked at, and can't figure out any possible way to do them. Like in the world where you have the ring, there's the one part where the plant flies up out of the pipe so quickly, that I can't even get by it by slowing it down with the ring right beside it.

 

[dlock13]

This contest that we've been entered to, how do the winners get announced? Are more than 1 winners announced weekly?

I want to win! D:

 

[Qbah]

If anyone's interested, Yahtzee gave his wise words of wisdom about the game:

http://www.escapistmagazine.co...-punctuation/203-Braid

Think I'll give it a shot once my wireless addon card for the xbox360 arrives. That can very well be in a month, as I've been waiting for 2 weeks already and it's still out of stock at every shop here...