kill vehicle

Picked up Braid yesterday.

I’m pretty sure it’s the best game I’ve bought on Xbox Live Arcade so far (and I’m counting the time I re-bought Puzzle Quest even though I’d already beaten the DS version so I could play the Xbox-only expansion), and it’s in the running for best $15 I’ve spent all year.

The time mechanics are beautiful, and the way the game builds on them with each additional world is very smooth. World 2 seemed simple but pretty; then world 3 took that, twisted it around, and gave me my first “whoa, didn’t see that coming” moment. Then I hit world 4 and had to flail around for a while to un-stick my brain. Now I’ve solved that one, and world 5 is currently making me gibber a bit.

If you have an Xbox 360 and haven’t picked up this game, please do so immediately.

It’s true.

I gave in to temptation and bought a Wii from eBay earlier this week, and the nice FedEx man dropped it off on my porch this morning. My copy of Zelda and the second controller set I ordered haven’t showed up, so I spent a while playing with Wii Sports and the Virtual Console stuff.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I had this much fun with a video game.

The sports games are clearly mini-games, and they don’t have a lot of depth or a ton of graphical polish, but they’re just flat-out fun.

Nintendo claimed that people cared less about shiny HD graphics than about gameplay, and from a morning’s time spent with Wii Sports, I’m pretty sure they’re right.

New addiction: Animal Crossing DS.

My friend code is 1375-0438-5340.

I am a lousy fisherman, but I’m currently choosing to blame Ray for catching all of the fish in my tiny village of Homewood.

So Laura got me a Nintendo DS for Christmas, and my mom got me a couple of games to go with it. This is collusion of the finest kind, and I thoroughly approve.

I’m happy with the DS and would write more about it, but Mario Kart DS has completely eaten my soul, so instead I will simply note that my friend code is 408083-716202 and go back to racing a little pixelated cart against strangers online.

Recently, like almost everybody else I know with an Xbox, I’ve been playing Jade Empire until my eyes bleed.

I lack the patience to write a full review, so if that’s what you need you should read peterb’s review, which is pretty much on the money. The game isn’t especially innovative, but it’s very well executed and has a great story. Sure, it isn’t a daring experiment, but not every game needs to be. Sometimes you want a creative and interesting meal, and sometimes you just want a hamburger. Jade Empire is a very tasty hamburger.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking about the demo for JE that the April Official Xbox Magazine disc had. I bought the issue just for that demo. I don’t think I so much as cracked the cover of the actual magazine. I’d been waiting for JE for about a year and a half at that point, devouring every little scrap of preview news that Bioware leaked.

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