What has two thumbs and still loves talking about Braid? This guy (then I point at myself with said thumbs).

I was digging around for some of the music from the game in an effort to put together a forthcoming episode of KBBPS (Spoiler!) and lo and behold what do I find on the front page? A link to a huge collection of wallpapers, icons and more put together by game artist David Hellman. Best part? It’s all free!

As you might have guessed from the title of this post he’s calling it the Braid Graphics Briefcase, and you can go and download the goods here. Enjoy you fine people.

This one here comes straight from Braid artist David Hellman’s website. There’s actually quite a few posts about the art direction for Braid, and it’s most definitely worth a read.

But he ends with that he presents as a background for someone running not one, not two but three monitors! Now I seriously doubt most readers here are running triple wide, but if you are snap up a pic and we’ll feature your extreme nerdery on the site!

Here’s the desktop in all its 3104X720 goodness. Luckily you can just use part of it if you like!

One of the real highlights of the day for me was sitting down with Jason Ing, Group Product Manager for for Xbox LIVE Games. Jason’s responsible for getting the word out on anything and everything that offers a complete gaming experience through LIVE, so I just had to ask him about the Braid pricing debacle that got under everybody’s skin a few weeks back. I asked him point blank: Microsoft said one thing and did another. What happened?

To clarify, I mentioned exactly what was reported on ShackNews. Here’s a refresher: “Microsoft has informed Shacknews that the reported $22.50 price point for Castle Crashers and $15 Braid price, believed to stem from a now-removed Microsoft Japan listing, are incorrect for both domestic and international markets.” Here’s what Jason Ing had to say;

We said that the information posted is incorrect from the standpoint that… it was incorrect that they posted, but we didn’t say the price (was incorrect).

So was it simply just a misunderstanding on ShackNews part?

I’ll be honest, it was messaged poorly. That’s a problem. I was a little upset with my PR agency and how they messaged it because we meant to say “No no no, we’re not announcing pricing yet.” And when you use the word “incorrect”, even when I think out loud, yeah, it could sound like (the information posted was wrong).

So there you have it. Somewhere between Microsoft, PR, and ShackNews the information got a little muddled. It’s kind of like playing telephone, only this time hearing “purple monkey dishwasher” at the end instead of “we’re not announcing pricing yet” gets a lot of gamers really pissed off.

I should say straight away this is post is not being written to tell Jim he’s wrong for his opinion about Braid. Far from it. Since it’s one person’s opinion it’s not really possible to call it right or wrong. We all have our opinions that fall different from others (sometimes putting us in the extreme minority). For example, I think Diablo sucked. I don’t get it. I know Kevin dies a little inside each time I say that but I can’t help how I feel about it.

But this isn’t about Diablo, it’s about Braid.

Personally I totally enjoyed the graphics and music. The whole thing quite honestly rang as beautiful to me… truly like a painting come to life. The music was haunting and melodious, even when being reversed. Combined together gave the game a warm, inviting feel that made you feel at home. Gameplay wise obviously heavily borrows from old school games, namely Mario. In fact there’s one level called Jumpman pretty much replicates Donkey Kong’s 1st level, complete with stone gorilla at the top of the board. What can I say, made me laugh.

I’m struggling to see the validity to the claim that the puzzles are illogical, I know I said this in the comments section of the last post but these puzzles reminded me of an old adventure game. Everything in play was used for a reason and nothing really is just there for show. The hard part is figuring out how to use the stuff provided to solve the riddle. I had serious issues with 2 of the puzzle pieces, and had solutions that was I call illogical and I found out how to complete quite by accident.

The writing does come across a bit heavy-handed at times, but culminates in a decent final stage that really makes you reflect a bit in what you’ve been told up until that point, and who’s point-of-view it came from. I really don’t want to get to involved but it’s a story that can easily be left up to interpretation, which to me doesn’t mean pretentious at all, it’s a step forward in game plots that move past the most simplistic “they bad, go kill them” type stories. It’s non-linear and even moreso told in snippets… so you’re left to fill in some of the blanks yourself.

The game mechanics in relation to time control are totally different in every world, and just when you’re getting the system down pat gives you something new to work with. What it means is that the strategy you used in world 2 won’t do you any good in world 6. It keeps the game fresh and keeps you learning the whole way through the game. I enjoyed this style because it gave the entire game a consistent learning curve.

I had a long talk about what the storyline means (to me at least) but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone still playing.

I personally enjoy when a piece of art leaves a certain amount of interpretation up to the viewer or user. It let’s people put their own spin on it and can often reveal things about the person as well as the art. I wouldn’t give it any sort of perfect rating… but I seriously enjoyed the game from beginning to end, and while I won’t disagree with anyone for not liking it… it’s just a shame.

I’ve got a bit of a gripe. Judging by what I’ve read on the web this past week, it seems as though Braid is nothing short of the second coming. Bloggers and reviewers across the board can’t wait to get their tongues in the asshole of developer Jonathan Blow, offering up an appreciative rimmer for all his hard work. I know I’m not going to win any friends by saying this but I’m going to say it anyways: I don’t get it. I don’t like Braid, and I really don’t understand why anyone would.

If you’ve been a regular reader around here you know that I’ve been a proponent of small games for some time now. And yes, I’m quite excited that an indie title like this is getting the attention that some smaller titles deserve. But I just don’t understand why. It’s a platformer that essentially borrows the time mechanics from Prince of Persia and evolves them into puzzle solving mechanics. Sure it has a cool visual and audio polish, but the whole thing comes across as more smarmy than it does brilliant. Does anyone out there remember Good Will Hunting? Braid is kind of like that dickbag in the bar that was talking down to Ben Affleck until Matt Damon stepped in and put him in his place. I like my games like I like my Matt Damon. Nobody likes a smarmy dickbag, Braid. That’s you. You’re the smarmy dickbag.

And before people start trying to tell me that the game is too highbrow for me, let’s not forget that the text between levels comes across like a 14 year old girl writing in her room on a Friday night while her friends get put on the rotisserie behind the bowling alley for pot and bragging rights. It’s not good. It’s fucking terrible actually. We get it, you’re tormented.

Does it play alright? Sure. But despite what you’re reading out there I’m not the only one to feel that this game isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. A smattering of comments from our staff and readers;

Faith:I downloaded Braid and I found it more frustrating than anything. I can’t collect all the puzzle pieces on the first level on the trial version. Unless I’m not able to and I just missed that point.

Kevin: I was able to finish the first two worlds but I needed some help. Dan flew through the game. He “gets” it, I don’t.

Katana: There were some puzzles that didn’t seem to have any logical solution, so that’s a definite negative point for a platformer. So cool, but not totally my cup of tea, and definitely not something I feel would be worth $15 of my money.

Xerxes3rd: I had high hopes for Braid, and while the art style seemed interesting at first, it got old quickly. It didn’t seem to click with me, I guess. I also felt that the movement controls could be slightly tighter. It’s not a bad game, but it won’t be getting my money.

Katana, Faith and Kevin all had the same complaint: the puzzles are too hard/illogical. And that’s really my big beef with it as well. You can put in a cool soundtrack, a slick look, some classic gaming references, and a neat play mechanic all you want. If the game goes past fun and right up to frustrating in the first ten minutes, it’s just not a good game. How this is the highest-rated XBLA game on MetaCritic I’ll never know. N+ runs circles around it.

Jim vs. Everyone else on the internet, Round 1. Go!

Microsoft spit in our faces today and proved their words earlier this week to be complete and utter bullshit, announcing Braid would be hitting this Wednesday for 1200 points despite a press statement released earlier this week stating the complete opposite. I’m starting to ramble — let’s get everyone caught up.

Five days ago, word broke that the official Japanese Xbox site was listing upcoming Live arcade releases Braid and Castle Crashers at 1200 and 1800 points respectively. This created one hell of a backlash in the 360 community (our site included). In an effort to do some damage control, Microsoft spoke with ShackNews that same afternoon to inform them that the price on the Japanese site “are incorrect for both domestic and international markets.”

Now five days later Braid’s price is officially announced as…. you guessed it, 1200 points.

I’m ashamed of Microsoft for trying to bullshit their way through the bad press and stick us with their originally intended high price regardless, but I’m even more ashamed of their inability to justify it. At least tell us WHY your earlier statement was wrong.

We’re all ears Microsoft, balls in your court — but we’re not buying shit until you get your story straight.

It’s been a while since there were any stellar titles on Live Arcade that had me foaming at the mouth. As a matter of fact I can’t even remember the last game I bought on the service. It looks like Microsoft was getting a little tired of me spending my dollars elsewhere, and announced five HUGE Live Arcade releases for the month of August. Ok — four HUGE Live Arcade releases …and Braid.

I tease, I tease. Braid actually looks pretty cool. Here’s the list, courtesy of Major Nelson;
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