Psychonauts (PC) (2005)

Overview: Play as Razputin, a boy at a summer camp where children with psychic powers train to be Psychonauts. However, something awful is happening and Raz must use his psychic powers to save the camp.

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Razputin

20120731:
The first 5 to 7 minutes of the game starts out with the introduction. After which you can create a profile and in your dreams there's a short tutorial. More tutorial tidbits come as you continue through the game.

A great reason to play the game is for it's dialogue. For example, as I was exploring, I passed by a pair of characters and they started discussing their band name with each other. I found their discussion interesting and stayed around to listen. It went on for about 1 to 2 minutes! Afterwards I talked to one of them and my character gave his input and asked about a button he was given. Afterwards, I'm free to move on, but they continue to banter. On a related note, I'm happy with the voice acting.

Lili

The game mechanics and story are well motivated. You are a kid with psychic capabilities who has entered a secret psychic training camp for kids. You ran away from your parents, because they, like most people in the world think of psychics as weirdos. You start the game with standard platformer movement: double-jumping, climbing ladders, swinging, and sliding down inclines. As for attacking, you start off with a psychic punch.

I played the first 45 minutes of the game with a 800x600 pixel resolution. I knew it must have defaulted low when I started the game, but with fear of interrupting the introduction cut scene I didn't want to change it then. After the intro, I still didn't change it, because I got caught up with exploration. When I did change it, I changed it to 1280x1024.

Overall, I was drawn in by the story and presentation of the game. The variety of platforming elements such as walking across rope and swinging also keeps for a fun game.

Tip: To change direction when hanging, press the action key (on my gamepad, that's the same key I use to talk to people). In the picture below, I recall only being able to switch when I was near an upright, feet to the sky position, but I could be mistaken.

The game seems to have potential replay value, as finding various objects eventually leads to having more power. Thus, even after completing the level, one can revisit a level.

Yikes! How scary! Crazy antagonist gearing up to extract Dogen's brain.

Checkpoint Grand Total: 113 minutes.

Playing more into the game, I unlocked two psychic abilities. One is from the main story, a psychic blast which runs on limited ammo, and the other is from collecting enough of something in high quantities.

From more collecting, I unlocked the telekinesis ability. I find looking for objects is just as fun as the main story. I suppose this stems from a history of desiring 100% completion rates, a desire I manifested when I first got my Game Boy Advance in middle school and lost completely when I got my Nintendo Wii.

Raz (front), Agent Sasha Nein (back, left), Agent/Coach Morceau Oleander (back, center), and Agent Milla Vodello (back, right)

Eventually I came to unlock the invisibility ability and defeat Dogen's brain. The brain's second form is much harder to defeat than the first form. This is partially due to the amount of confusion missiles it spits out and I eventually gave up and just tried to attack it with brute force: hovering in with levitation and then proceeding to punch it to death. It's also easiest to walk straight towards it, as confusion switches left and right, but not to and fro.

Grand Total: 6.5 hours.

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20120801:
So I forgot to mention that this game is full of humor. It may not be laughing-out-loud funny, but it is funny. Also, it became apparent to me that the cutscenes, being pre-rendered, are at a lower resolution and thus appear blurrier than the in-game graphics. This is unfortunate, but at least I get the good looking in-game graphics.

Aww... how cute.

Grand Total: 10.7 hours.

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20221118:
I was getting close to potentially recovering my lost Hades game saves. As part of the debugging process, I had launched Psychonauts. Technically, it didn't really contribute to the debugging, but inadvertently I changed the resolution to 4K and it looked amazing! I had no idea the character models could have so much detail. Oddly, while the in-game textures are capable of looking better, the sharpness of UI elements remain low-res and the stark difference between the two is an unpleasant sight.

Steam Game Time: 10.9 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.2 hours (session game time)

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Psychonauts (PC) (2005)

Relevant Links:
Psychonauts Website
Psychonauts (Wikipedia.org)
Psychonauts (Steam Store Page)
Psychonauts (PC) (MetaCritic.com)

Left 4 Dead 2 (PC) (2009)

My prior achievements are an indication of when I've played the game:

20101127 5:44pm PRICE CHOPPER (Survive the Dead Center campaign.)
20101204 9:19pm A RIDE DENIED (Kill a Jockey within 2 seconds of it jumping on a Survivor.)
20101204 9:38pm GONG SHOW (Prove you are stronger than Moustachio.)
20101204 9:43pm STACHE WHACKER (Prove you are faster than Moustachio.)
20101204 10:46pm RAGIN' CAJUN (Survive the Swamp Fever campaign.)
20101204 11:29pm WEATHERMAN (Survive the Hard Rain campaign.)
20101204 10:50pm CRASS MENAGERIE (Kill one of each Uncommon Infected.)
20101209 9:29am ARMORY OF ONE (Deploy an ammo upgrade and have your team use it.)
20101222 2:59pm TORCH BEARER (Survive The Passing Campaign.)
20101222 3:33pm SUPREME SACRIFICE (Complete "The Sacrifice".)
20101222 4:11pm ACID REFLEX (Kill a Spitter before she is able to spit.)

[20120729]

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20120614 AM Hours:
This is an awesome multiplayer game. Today was the first time I played Left 4 Dead 2 (L4D2) online with two other friends: Chris and Josh. I've played plenty of times with just Chris a while back and there was one occasion where two other random players had joined us. Personally, I'm not a big fan of first-person shooters and so I rarely play the game by myself.

[20120718][20181211 Edit]

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As of 20120718:
Steam Game Time (Tim): 14.2 hours (Left 4 Dead 2)
Steam Game Time (Josh): 9.1 hours (Left 4 Dead) / 2.0 hours (Left 4 Dead 2)
Steam Game Time (Chris): 237.2 hours (Left 4 Dead 2)

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20120729:
Thus far, I found the following to be helpful tidbits to follow:
1) It's useful to have played through a level and know where you need to go ahead of time. Then it's a matter of staying in the front and not getting caught up on fighting all the zombies.
2) Sometimes completing an objective is more important than helping a teammate up. Helping a teammate up can lead to your own health loss and inability to help your teammate as you originally planned.
3) In certain situations, melee weapons can be more helpful than handguns
4) Last, but not least, play more. I'm under the impression that the more I play, the better I get. Part of this comes down to being able to recognize the special infected.

20120729: Joined Chris and his two friends in the middle of their campaign.

In the evening I joined the end of Chris's game. And afterwards I started a game with Josh. We played the Dark Carnival campaign on Normal. The portion of the level prior to the final concert part was the hardest for us and we had to retry that part twice. The first time we got all the way past the gates and died there. The second time we didn't get too far. In any case, we both used our microphones to communicate.* The use of microphones is both convenient and fun. In fact, I can think of one moment at the very end where I didn't notice I was dangerously low on health and Josh suggested via voice comms that I should heal. This was probably right before the last wave. If he had tried to type this, I would have not been alerted to the message in time or he could have taken damage in the process of typing it.

Steam Achievements Earned:

20120729 12:08pm BURNING SENSATION (Ignite 50 Common Infected with incendiary ammo.)
20120729 01:04pm GUARDIN' GNOME (Rescue Gnome Chompski from the Carnival.)
20120730 01:02am MIDNIGHT RIDER (Survive the Dark Carnival campaign.)

End of  the Swamp Fever campaign.

*Neither of our mics were working in the game lobby. But they worked just fine during the game.

[20181211 Edit]

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20130325 Comment:
I have recently been playing L4D2 with some of my friends (Sven, Eric, and Andrew). While I'm still bad at it, I seem to be improving. The following general strategy works: stay in a tight group and keep moving. Having the person in front crouch is also helpful.

Tip: Throw gas cans with the left mouse button.

Start of the Dark Carnival camaign. (Josh and I)

Games Played Since 20120729:

20120818 - Crash Course - C, J, T
20120818 - Dead Air - C, J, T
20120818 - Cold Stream - C, J, T
20120823 - The Parish - J, T
20120827 - Haunted Forest - C, J, T
20120831 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Zombies - C, J, T
C=Chris, J=Josh, T=Tim (me)
20130318 - Dead Center - Normal - S, E, A, T
20130318 - Dead Air - Normal - S, E, A, T
20130320 - The Passing - Normal - E, T - Incomplete
20130324 - No Mercy - Normal - S, E, T
20130324 - Cold Stream - Advanced -> Normal - S, E, A, T
S=Sven, E=Eric, A=Andrew, T=Tim (me)

In the middle of the Dark Carnival campaign.

[20130325][20150204 Edit][20181211 Edit]

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20140308:
Today I played a campaign with Twitch.tv streamer RxySurfChic and whoever else she had invited to play. Having watched and followed her stream, it was pretty cool to play L4D2 with her. She's cool. She's a variety streamer who loves first-person shooters (e.g., Call of Duty), so if you love watching first-person shooters, then definitely check her out on Twitch.tv.

[20181211 Edit]

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20140610:
Today Josh and I play the Yama campaign (a downloadable user-created campaign). While fun, sometimes a texture wouldn't load correctly and the missing texture or object would be an eyesore.

[20150204][20181211 Edit]

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Left 4 Dead 2 (PC) (2009)

Relevant Links:
Left 4 Dead 2 (Wikipedia.org)
Left 4 Dead 2 (Steam Store Page)

Limbo (PC) (2011)

20120728 Comment:
This game is dark, simple, and fun. Full of trial and error, the player seeks to make his/her way through the game with little more motivation than seeking some sort of answer or escape. See my comparison of Limbo with Braid below.

So far I've logged a total 1.1 hrs on Steam and the last time I played was 20120319. Prior to the first time I played the game on Steam, I had already seen and helped my friend play through a portion of the game on Xbox Live Arcade (from Chapter 1 to about Chapter 19).

Previous Game Time: 1.1 hours (total game time)

[20120728]

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20120729:
In my previous entry, I said the game was "simple." To clarify, I meant that the basic game mechanics are straightforward: the control key for actions, and then left, right, up, and down for directional controls.

On a different note, the game can be morbid.

Gameplay Log:
I resumed the game (Chapter 15)
I stopped playing at Chapter 35. I'm stuck. (The 'Load Chapter' screen shows a total of 39 chapters, if that's the case I'm almost done!)
The time is 4:00 AM PDT.
Since I was so close to finishing, I decided to push on and at 4:16 AM PDT I was able to solve the puzzle.
I completed the game a little before 5:00 AM PDT. Hooray!

Backtracking (Steam Achievement)

Warning, possible spoiler on the ending: At first I thought the game had gone back to the beginning. Instead, something different happened and I was surprised. There was certainly some shock value involved. In the end, I was left a little unsatisfied. The ending was too open-ended. Perhaps I would be more satisfied after a second playthrough.

Game Time: 3.8 hours (session game time) / 4.9 hours (total game time)

[20120729 Assumed Entry Date][20190706 Edit]

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One of many ways to die. One of many deaths.

Comparison with Braid:
The game best compares with Braid (PC) (2009). First, the puzzles are integrated into the environment, giving a more streamlined gaming experience. Like the puzzles in Braid, the puzzles in Limbo change throughout the game at a comfortable pace, keeping the game constantly fresh and entertaining. While the gameplay portion of the two games are similar, the story portion is handled quite differently. Braid has a strong, concrete story whereas Limbo has a loose, weak story. Strangely, I find Limbo's vague story fits into the setting and atmosphere of the game, as well as the motivation for traversing the world itself. In contrast, while Braid has a solid story, I honestly didn't follow it completely and definitely didn't see how it motivated the character's time-altering abilities. Despite my last statement, Braid has a wonderful ending which does shed a lot of light on the entire story and Limbo's ending is nothing compared to Braid's ending. Overall, I'd conclude that both games are top-notched puzzle games, each with their pros and cons, and as such practically equals. If I were to choose one over the other, I'd choose Braid. Despite the fact Braid's story doesn't completely intermingle with its game mechanics, Braid has slightly better puzzles, a stronger story, and a much better ending than Limbo.

[20120729]

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Limbo (2011) (PC)

Relevant Links:
Limbo (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
Limbo (GameSpot.com)

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Mega64: Limbo

Assassin's Creed (PC) (2008)

The climbing is simple, but fun to watch.

20120727:
Having played and loved Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (GCN) (2003), I've wanted to play Assassin's Creed for the longest time - both are developed by Ubisoft Montreal. I recently acquired Assassin's Creed: Revelations (2011) (PC) in a Ubisoft bundle during the Steam Summer Sale and that purchase motivated me to buy Assassin's Creed and Assassin's Creed II (PC) (2010), when they went on sale.

Three Assasins stand on the platforms. Altair is the left-most.

Starting up the game, one of the first sensations felt is confusion. I was given the sense that I was in a tutorial, and yet not. The protagonist awakens to find he is in a machine and is being forced to use it for some people to view his ancestor's memories.

The creepy doctor.

The character goes back under the machine and the player goes through the tutorial. At this point, I had to remap my gamepad buttons to better match the control schemes. The yellow, blue, red, and green buttons weren't matched up with they're expected keys. The pause button and map button were also mapped to strange keys.

Anyways, the tutorial discusses everything you need to know to play the game and you'll get constant reminders throughout the game. It's possible you will get such reminders until you turn them off in the menu screen.

The game starts with a tutorial.

Once you complete the tutorial, which in-game is for stabilizing with the system, you go into your first memory. For the most part, the game for me so far is quite linear. The levels I've played have a straightforward goal and every command is being spoon-fed to me. As such, I have only scratched the surface and I'm still learning a lot of the commands.

Of course, one of the many things I did as soon as I could was sit down on a bench. Another was hopping into a stacking of hay.

One of the first things I did in the village was sit down.

The combat is definitely fun. Pulling off your attacks or counters at the right time results in cool take-downs, which are rewarding to watch. They remind me of Leon's take-downs in Resident Evil 4 (2005) (GCN). The combat, however, isn't acrobatic like in Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. Instead, it has a more realistic feel to it.

Altair fighting.

The game has great graphics and part of the reason I kept on playing was for the scenery. Since otherwise, as I alluded to above, the game mechanics are currently straightforward and simple. Jumping across platforms and climbing walls is a simple matter of holding the "high profile" button and then holding/pressing the run/jump button. Of course, such simplicity makes the game fluid and, thanks to the graphics, fun to watch.

Eventually you get to a point in the game where all your gear is stripped from you and you essentially have to start over and slowly earn all your weapons and abilities back. At the same time, you learn how to eavesdrop, pick pocket, and interrogate.

All of Altair's gear has been stripped from him.

Tip: During cutscenes, the screen will occasionally flash nucleotides. These are called "glitches" and if the player presses any button in time, the camera view will change, usually to a close-up view of the person speaking.

Supposedly you can cycle through camera views after successfully pressing a button, but I'm not sure how. It might be because I remapped my right analog to looking instead of the action camera and the action camera is controls the viewpoints. I'll remember to experiment.

The Brotherhood leader.

My precious.

In any case, another great experience in the game, one which I forgot about seeing from trailers, is riding a horse. Released on stronger hardware, the game's graphics far exceed that of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii) (2006), making the horse-riding experience a visual pleasure. With that being said, there's yet to be any battles done on horseback, and so far Twilight Princess gets that in its favor. As I side note, I learned today that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword (Wii) (2011) doesn't have Epona. Instead, the player travels around on Link's bird named Loftwing.

Horseback riding.

And for now, last but not least, the Leap of Faith. I've watched the trailers over and over. I've seen it done. It's a little less climatic when I make Altair do it, but still fun.

Climbing a View Point.

Beginning of a Leap of Faith.

In midair during a Leap of Faith.

Game Time: 116 minutes.

[20120727 Assumed Entry Date][20190706 Edit]

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Assassin's Creed (PC) (2008)

Cutscene.

Relevant Links:
Assassin's Creed (video game) (Wikipedia.org)

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Mega 64: Assassin's Creed

Dungeon Defenders (PC) (2011)

20120722:
I've played through the tutorial a long time ago, and then recently played the first level again without the tutorial and didn't know how to do anything. I eventually figured it out, but decided to delete my character. Then today, my friend Chris came over and we created new characters. I was an apprentice and Chris was a squire. The screen was split horizontally. We beat the first level and started playing the second level. We leveled up to about level 3 before ending the level early and joining my friend Josh for dinner. After coming back, Josh created an adept and we played the game with three players.

Local co-op. This is the screen division for three players.

This is a fun game to play with friends. There's local co-op for up to four players, but you'll need a big screen for the game to be enjoyable. Playing on a 19" screen is reasonable for two players, and manageable for four players, but the text when looking at equipment is small, and takes away from the fun. Even if one had a big screen, an annoyance is that pulling up the overall map blocks the view of all players. Granted the map is a little transparent, but it still impedes the players who didn't pull up the map. Finally, using a mouse and keyboard is superior to the gamepad. At first I played on a gamepad and liked the control scheme. I continued to use it when playing with my friend Chris. Then when we played with three people, I used the keyboard. On the keyboard, you get all the functions of the gamepad, plus 5 extra hotkeys, and full aiming with the mouse. The gamepad might have some sort of auto-aim feature, but such a feature might be imperfect.

Tip: On a mouse and keyboard controller scheme, pull up the menu by clicking the scroll button. (The tutorial might have mentioned this, but as I said, I didn't play through the tutorial recently).

First boss.

My friends and I played until we encountered the first boss. Honestly, I was surprised by the existence of a boss. He was tough: when the Eternia Crystal was destroyed, we had only gotten him down to about half of his health bar. Since it was late and the level itself was already long, we decided to call it a night.

[20120726]

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20120731:
Last night Josh and I played for about five hours, with Chris joining us near the end. I couldn't get my mic to work, but it was still fun. On the other hand, Chris's built-in mic was very sensitive and was picking up a lot of feedback. As a temporary fix, he switched his mic to push-to-talk.

For some reason, Chris was getting an error when trying to connect with a character he already leveled. As such, he started from scratch. By the end of night, he had a level 19 character, though we had to replay The Throne several times before winning. I was playing an apprentice (tower build), Josh was playing a huntress (hybrid build), and Chris was playing a squire (tower build).

Cut-scene depiction of the four warriors.

Steam Game Time: 10.9 hrs last two weeks / 12.8 hrs on record

[20120801]

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20120802:
Tip: Press G to activate the crystal remotely.

Tip: Play Ranked on TrendyNet. You can always export a ranked character to open mode for playing around.

Tip: You can sell any defense, even those which aren't your own.

Tip: Agree to leave items you don't need to level up with on the ground so that they may be sold automatically and split among the players. This is easier to agree on when playing with your friends.

Second boss.

Steam Game Time (Tim):* 21.4 hrs last two weeks / 23.3 hrs on record
Steam Game Time (Chris):* 15.0 hrs
Steam Game Time (Josh):* 14.0 hrs

Tip: Don't be too afraid to put points into whatever you feel like. If you make a mistake, you can respec your character later for some mana. While the cost may seem high at a low level (I'm currently level 30), the cost will be minuscule upon reaching level 70. At first, I was caught up with looking for perfect guides, but I eventually came around to the idea of just picking what made sense to me.

*Some of the hours is time spent idle.

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Kraken.

20120911:
Today I added the Quest for the Lost Eternia Shards DLC. If I recall correctly, it was a gift from another player I met while playing the game.

[20181211]

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Steam Achievement Dates and Various Steam Achievements:
20120802 (above) | 20120803
20120804 Completed all Area 1 levels on Insane
20120815 Completed all Area 2 levels on Hard
20120816 Completed all Area 3 levels on Hard
20120817 | 20120818
20120819 Completed all Area 2 levels on Insane
20120820 Completed all Area 3 levels on Insane
20120823 | 20120824
20120903 Complete All Challenges on INSANE Difficulty!
20120905 | 20120911 | 20120912 | 20120916 | 20120923

I'm stuck, because I can't jump far enough. :(

As of 20181211:
Steam Game Time: 308 hours (total game time)

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Dungeon Defenders (PC) (2011)

Relevant Links:
Dungeon Defenders (Wikipedia.org)

Cave Story+ (PC) (2011)

20120721:
I decided to start on Normal Mode. There is no tutorial. After some fumbling, I determined at first there's only left and right for horizontal movement, A (Gamepad) for jump (hold to jump higher), and down for collecting items, opening doors, and talking to people (action button). Then soon enough you get a gun with limited range and you press B (Gamepad) to fire.

[20120722]

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20120722:
So far, the gameplay so far is pretty standard, as far as platformers go. There's a little more movement available than old 8-bit platformers, but there remains a reasonable restriction. I have a feeling upgrades will be available. Actually, the collection of heart capsules and roaming the world gives the game the modern 2D Metroidvania feel: non-linear exploration and as you gain abilities you can explore more of the world. At the moment, however, the game does seem straightforward and linear. Nevertheless, it develops a strong story and I love the soundtrack.

Setup: Music: Remastered (Remastered/Original/New) | Graphics: New (New/Original)

Gameplay Log:
I defeated the boss at the end of Egg Corridor. I think his name was Igor.

Tips/Notes:
: When the player character runs out of air, then he will die
: The player character's jump height is limited to one block in water.
: You can shoot both up and down.
: The player character's life and magic missiles will be refilled when the player uses the heart box in a save room.
: X and Y (Gamepad) are used to rotate through your weapons. The weapons get upgraded with experience. The player character has to be holding the weapon to upgrade it. I eventually got the hang of switching to my the magic missile just to upgrade it and the switching back to the default gun.
: Save often. You never know when you're gonna die for some silly reason.

[20120722 Assumed Entry Date][20190706 Edit]

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Cave Story+ (PC) (2011)*
*Cave Story (PC) (2004)

Relevant Links:
Cave Story (Wikipedia.org)

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Relevant Information: (Wikipedia.org)

In addition to the original version, Nicalis worked with Amaya to create updated character designs and enhanced graphics and music, arranged by Yann van der Cruyssen. The WiiWare version contains several exclusive gameplay modes, including Boss Rush, a Sanctuary time attack mode, and the ability to play through the game as Curly Brace.

The Steam port, titled Cave Story+, features a new level called "Wind Fortress" as well as the new gameplay modes from the WiiWare version.

Crayon Physics Deluxe (PC) (2009)

20120716:
This was an interesting puzzle game. The goal of the game is to get the red ball to the yellow star. Draw any objects you want and push the ball to get it rolling. While I only played the game for 7 minutes, I had experienced enough to desire playing more. I'm not sure how the difficulty will increase, but for a game that came along for the ride in an Indie Humble Bundle, I have no complaints.

Goal: get the ball to the star. My solution: I drew the piece in red.

Hooray!

[20120719]

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20120719:
So I finished all the levels on the first island, but when I was about to move to the next island, I noticed I hadn't collected all the stars from the first island. I clicked on the first level and noticed that I hadn't completed the levels in the best possible ways. There are two challenges, one is to complete the level with no push and one object and no pins (fixed pivot points attached to objects) and another is to complete the level with no push and no pins. As such I went back through each level one by one and if I remember correctly I was able to kill two birds with one stone each time. This is partially because I didn't see much use for making pins.

This drawing failed.

This drawing succeeded. Lesson: Sometimes little details make a big difference.

Anyways, the game saves your solutions and you can mark some of them as "Awesome." I believe after you complete the two challenges and mark a solution as "Awesome" you get another star. That somehow brings me to 21 out of 22 stars. As I was trying to figure out how to get the last star, the game crashed.

Booting up the game again, all the "Awesome" flags were gone and I had to go back and remark. This time I did get 22 out of 22 stars and so I must have just missed a level last time. Also on the map menu, you can draw. I thought you can hold the right mouse button to erase. The game crashed again. I conclude that for some reason, pressing my right mouse button on the map menu crashes the game. This is the exact moment the game crashed the last time (I was also drawing on the map menu and started erasing what I drew by pressing the right mouse button).

Overall the physics are fun and I haven't fully explored the possibilities. I don't, however, feel I will ever choose to fully explore the possibilities. In fact, I probably won't play the game again for a very long time.

I had to get the length of the hook and the weight right.

Success is rewarding.

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20120722:
I started the second island today and it seems the theme for the island is hinges. I was mainly playing to get some screenshots for this blog post, but it was fun trying to achieve the two challenges for some of these levels. A feature I wish they included is being able to display a ghost of your previous attempts. Sometimes you know you need to make a segment longer and/or shorter, but trying to judge that without your previous attempts is trial and error. Making use of the surroundings helps, but still not as dependable as a ghost.

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20240508 Snapshot:
Steam Game Time: 3.3 hours (cumulative game time) / 3h 19m (Playnite)
Last Played: 20140112

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20240508:
I tried to revisit this game today and I just wasn't feeling it. In a way, the game was too hard for me, and I had no desire to conquer the difficulty presented by it.

Note that after loading my old save file using Game Save Manager, the same bug for "Awesome" flags being missing occurred. I did not, however, have a problem using my right mouse button.

Gameplay Log:
The third island introduces pins.
I reached a level in the third island where the ball is inside a crate. I eventually went for a solution by any means, but I initially wanted the single object solution. Technically, I didn't complete the level, but I had an abandoned a solution where I easily could have gotten the ball to the star. In any case, I decided to stop playing after this level.

The idea of the game is great, but I think there were various aspects I didn't like about the game. One, I don't fully grasp the physics of an object. What makes an object weigh more? When will an object pass through another object versus collide? Two, there's a jump in difficulty between solving a puzzle by any means and one of the two special solutions, which I think makes for a frustrating experience. I could list some other aspects, but I'll leave it at that. I'll give the game a 3.0 out of 5.

Rating: 3.0/5

Steam Game Time: 4.1 hours (cumulative game time) / 0.8 hours (session game time)

[20240508][20240509 Edit]

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Crayon Physics Deluxe (2009) (PC)

Relevant Links:
Crayon Physics Deluxe (Wikipedia.org)

Braid (PC) (2009)

20120717:
While initially challenged by World 5, by the end of the day I managed to collect all 12 pieces of World 5.

Like Toki Tori (PC) (2010), each new World introduces a different gameplay mechanic and keeps the game feeling fresh. Also like Toki Tori, there was a decent mix of easy and hard levels. Breaking the difficulty down into easy, medium, and hard, Braid has a better balance of difficulty compared to Toki Tori: less easy levels and more medium levels.

Overall, Braid is shaping up to be an excellent game.

Gameplay Log:
Session 1:
: This game is pretty fun. I played Worlds 2, 3, and 4 in sequence and found 8, 9, and 9 puzzle pieces, respectively. That was about 95 minutes of play, which includes reading the story and doing the jigsaw puzzle (though I guess the jigsaw puzzle portion doesn't take too much time). I ended at 6:05 PM.
Session 2:
: After dinner, I played a bit more with my friend watching. The music is a great part of the experience and I wasn't feeling much of a challenge until World 5. Though maybe I was simply feeling the pressure of my friend watching me play. I was slow to understanding the use of the shadow world. In fact, as of writing this paragraph, I still don't have a good grasp of it.
: I stopped in the middle of 5.3 and my friend and I played a couple levels of Tobe's Vertical Adventure (2011).

Some platforms make you immune to time.

Session 3:
: After my friend left, I had resumed playing Braid.
: For 5.2, I learned something new: Purple objects are bound to their shadows. So I can have my shadow pick up the (real/shadow) key, then I can wait to receive it.
: I feel as if I can think of the solutions much more easily without my friend watching. In 5.3, I realized he enemy would bounce up on my shadow which would give real me extra height when hitting the enemy. Part of this realization came from the previous realization.
: In 5.4, I learned the shadow has a time limit.

[20120717][20190706 Edit]

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20120718 Comment:
I was thinking about what my friend was saying about the game and I have come to agree with his viewpoint. More or less, the game is great because of the execution. The moments between the puzzle elements enrich the experience. Rather than be presented as a series of puzzles with little or no transition, like Cogs (PC) (2009) or Toki Tori, Braid is a world with puzzles in it. Typically the puzzles required to proceed in the level are easier, whereas the ones to collect a puzzle piece (optional) are harder.

One of the recurring enemies in the world of Braid.
Actually, there's just these guys and crazy bunnies.

[20120718][20190706 Edit]

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20120720:

Gameplay Log:
: I started playing the game at 9:13 AM.
: At some time, I woke up in my chair with drool coming out of my mouth, so I decided to go to bed and close my eyes.
: I woke up at 1:00 PM. I wonder how long I was asleep for. I started playing Braid. Apparently I was in the middle of level 4. That's right, the solution was the first thing I was trying to solve when I woke up. I miss that feeling with math.
: I only attained 11 out of 12 pieces in World 6. The tough one for me was in the last level. I couldn't figure out the trick. On the surface it seemed as if the cause and effect was circular. Reminds me of a chess puzzle.
: Ah, each completed World is a rung on the ladder to the attic.

Tip: Apparently you can also go forward to where you started rewinding from. I didn't know this until today. Not that it made much of a difference. Might have saved some time with fixing errors.
Tip: Turning up the volume to hear the speed of the music helps in some levels more than others.

Tip: The number of puzzles pieces left to attain in a puzzle are written above the door of the level. 

: Got two more from World 2: Rewind/Forward time with X. Need 2 more.
: Got three more from World 3: Unaffected time (Green). Complete.
: Got three more from World 4: Right=Forward time, Left=Rewind time. Complete.
:: I actually knew how to do the piece trapped between two doors in level 6, but at the time, having failed on the right door, I was too lazy to fix my mistake.
: Got zero more from World 5: Shadow time. Complete.
: Got zero more from World 6: Slow time. Need 1 more.
: Got two more from World 2: Rewind/Forward time with X. Complete.
: Stop playing at 4:18 PM.
: At 9:55 PM, I went back to try the last level I need to unlock the attic. However, I found myself to tired to tackle the level.

[20120720][20190706 Edit]

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20120723:

Gameplay Log:
: Got one more from World 6: Slow time. Complete.
: Finally I got the solution! I focused on how I was suppose to use the green pad and the solution came to me. Yay!

The puzzle I can't solve. Screenshot of one of my attempted solutions. It's possible the puzzle simply depends on precise timing. However, there are few, if any, puzzles in Braid which require deadly precise timing.

: I love the ending! It's surprising. It's creepy, confusing, and tragic.
: For the epilogue, I was only able to get extra text for the 1st, 2nd, and 4th rooms. Not the 3rd and it seems like there's text missing from the 5th.
: Oh my gosh. I was trying to do the speed run for the "Speed Run" Achievement: "Complete a full speed run, beating the challenge time [of 45 minutes]." I played Worlds 2 through 6 and collected all the puzzle pieces in 100 minutes. After going back to World 2 to use the puzzle pieces (the last two I needed), I tried to exit from the menu and it ended my attempt. Fortunately, the attempt was nowhere near the 45 minute mark. In fact, I still would have had World 1 to complete. Nonetheless, it would have been nice to have the failed attempt recorded.

Tip: The timer pauses when you go into the puzzle mode.
Tip: You must finish an entire World to go back to the World selection page.

[20120723][20190706 Edit]

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20120826:
Today I was trying to walk around and find secrets. I came to one area where I realized I needed to wait an incredibly long time, because the cloud moves very slowly. However, I think the computer shut down or reset by the time I came back.

[20130118][20190706 Edit]

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Braid (PC) (2009)*
*Braid (XBLA) (2008)

Relevant Links:
Braid Website
Braid (video game) (Wikipedia.org)
Braid (Steam Store Page)