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[Keyser Soze]

How many of the Summer Arcade games is 800 points?

All 1200, all XBLA exclusive... is that a connection?. I guess MS demands an exclusive title goes for 1200 cause their cut will be bigger. But if exclusive it will get more promotion on the dashboard, so they are helping the developer too.

 

[akilshohen]

I wish I could just buy 300 points so I could play this.....I really don't want to put my CC on my LIVE account...but this demo was just too interesting

 

[toythatkills]

Got 200/200 now, which took me to 100% completion on the leaderboard.

Then I found another secret that had been bugging me for ages, must have spent two hours looking for a way to get to it and it came to me this morning as I was waking up! I think solving puzzles away from games is one of my favourite things ever. Anyway, there was no achievement linked to collecting it but it took me to 101% complete, some people are up to 105% so there's still more around!

Also, I can't read page 12 of this thread. Chrome is giving me a malware warning. Dodgy aaaads.

 

[Relaxed Muscle]

All 1200, all XBLA exclusive... is that a connection?. I guess MS demands an exclusive title goes for 1200 cause their cut will be bigger. But if exclusive it will get more promotion on the dashboard, so they are helping the developer too.

But there were a few titles last year that were 800 in the Summer promotion, I guess MS wants even a major cut for each game that's why is promoting 1200points as the new standard price....

And I'm pretty sure the Lara Croft is not exclusive, at least it's just timed...

 

[Gowans]

Just checked the leaderboards, already over 60k. Nice.

Awesome

 

[Keyser Soze]

Also, I can't read page 12 of this thread. Chrome is giving me a malware warning. Dodgy aaaads.

It one guy's avatar that is giving all the trouble (unomas). Google hates the image-host he uses, and the malware warning autokicks in when it find the link on any GAF page. Mods say the adverts are safe.

 

[Rad-]

Got 200/200 now, which took me to 100% completion on the leaderboard.

Then I found another secret that had been bugging me for ages, must have spent two hours looking for a way to get to it and it came to me this morning as I was waking up! I think solving puzzles away from games is one of my favourite things ever. Anyway, there was no achievement linked to collecting it but it took me to 101% complete, some people are up to 105% so there's still more around!

I just spent an hour trying to find more secret orb thingies. Jumped between chapters and tried to search every hole in the game. I have 2 of them but just can't find more. They're either really really well hidden or maybe tied to a time run or something like that.

 

[Monocle]

Limbo is absolutely gorgeous. I'd like to support it with my wallet, but 1200 points seems awfully steep for a game that appears to have minimal replay value. I'm sorry to say that I'll probably end up waiting for a friend to buy it so I don't have to.

 

[toythatkills]

Limbo is absolutely gorgeous. I'd like to support it with my wallet, but 1200 points seems awfully steep for a game that appears to have minimal replay value. I'm sorry to say that I'll probably end up waiting for a friend to buy it so I don't have to.

I've played through four complete times, and then gone back and done other bits in the chapter select menu too.

Seems pretty replayable to me.

 

[Ledsen]

I've played through four complete times, and then gone back and done other bits in the chapter select menu too.

Seems pretty replayable to me.

It's replayable if you like searching every nook and cranny for collectibles, not if you want a different gameplay experience.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I'm going to add one more notion to the "accepted wisdom that is actually holding back the medium of videogames in some respects" box:

"Replayability."

 

[Ledsen]

I'm going to add one more notion to the "accepted wisdom that is actually holding back the medium of videogames in some respects" box:

"Replayability."

Yeah personally I don't care since I never replay games, I have other issues with Limbo though.

 

[Tokubetsu]

I believe I'm near the end of the game and none of my achievements are unlocking =|

Also help:

Spoiler

Big room, two giant blocks. A gravity machine and a magnet. Can't get either side to act independently.

 

[NewBrof]

I judge movies, by their re-watchability... If the movie is getting better with every viewing, I rate it very high in my book... If I see an okay movie, but without the urge to see it ever again, I rate it low... Also: applies to music and books. How many times did you listened to a favorite song? I think replayability is important, but many games are just boring when you finished them...

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

Finished the game! Absolutely loved it! Definitely going for the full 200 points and hidden eggs.

Oh and the sound the eggs make when you find one is like the most satisfying sound ever!

 

[dark10x]

Limbo is absolutely gorgeous. I'd like to support it with my wallet, but 1200 points seems awfully steep for a game that appears to have minimal replay value. I'm sorry to say that I'll probably end up waiting for a friend to buy it so I don't have to.

I dunno, it's pretty replayable. In the same way that I enjoy loading up Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Super Mario World, simply PLAYING Limbo feels great. I don't believe it will match those games in that regard, but it's definitely the kind of thing I could find myself picking up and playing on a whim. It's definitely replayable in the same way that a 16-bit platformer might be.

It's so much better than Braid in that regard. I enjoyed Braid, but one time through was more than enough and then I was done. It felt tedious to replay. Not so with Limbo. The fantastic controls, atmosphere, and design encourage skilled play. There is a lot of timing that comes into play here without feeling frustrating. This is NOT like Another World or Flashback in that regard.

There really aren't any filler segments either. The game is awesome from start to finish.

I cannot believe how good this game actually is. The visuals drew me in, but the experience and feeling of playing it keep me going. This is one of the most inspired games I've played this year. Absolutely wonderful.

It's like a retro platformer meets ICO meets an old school European PC/Amiga game.

 

[ThingontheFloor]

I believe I'm near the end of the game and none of my achievements are unlocking =|

Also help:

Spoiler

Big room, two giant blocks. A gravity machine and a magnet. Can't get either side to act independently.

Solution:

Spoiler

Activate the machine on the left under the big block, wait until the big block is about halfway up in the air and turn off the machine. If timed correct, the block on the left will stick to the ceiling and the one on the right will stay on the ground and allow passage.

 

[ThingontheFloor]

Finished this last night, loved it. Thinking about going for the last achievement, for dying 5 times or less. But I have a feeling I'm going to have a few deaths of mis-timed jumps or just something silly that will cause me to start hating this game. I'll give it a shot tonight to see how it goes.

 

[toythatkills]

Finished this last night, loved it. Thinking about going for the last achievement, for dying 5 times or less. But I have a feeling I'm going to have a few deaths of mis-timed jumps or just something silly that will cause me to start hating this game. I'll give it a shot tonight to see how it goes.

As a tip for that, if you do find yourself dying more than five times, play to the end anyway, or at least play the last few chapters before you start doing your run. It's a good idea to get a rough idea of the timing needed for the last few puzzles beforehand, because if you reach there having died five times already then you'll need to get reeeeeally lucky if you haven't practiced!

 

[Draft]

Goddamn.

How fucking obsessed can you assholes be with how many points this stupid thing costs. Ridiculous.

 

[shongololo]

Goddamn.

How fucking obsessed can you assholes be with how many points this stupid thing costs. Ridiculous.

Absolutely. If I get 4 to 5 hours out a full retail release before I get bored or frustrated or annoyed with all the padding then I consider it a success. This is three hours of tight, filler free joy that I'll almost certainly go back to for a second run (although the <5 deaths challenge can fuck right off). This whole idea of a games merit equating to it's length is so inane and reductive in the first place.

 

[Wizpig]

Goddamn.

How fucking obsessed can you assholes be with how many points this stupid thing costs. Ridiculous.

...

I will never understand some of these replies.
It's not like anyone in this thread started a flame on the price, they just said their opinion, it's a gaming forum, you discuss things related to games.

I think everyone already said that Limbo IS WORTH 1200 points.
But the point is that 1200 is € 14 and these days you can find easily find new retail games for € 19/20.

If they are talking in a peaceful manner let them complain, they have all the rights to do so.
There's no need for these kind of replies.
Also it may seem an "obsession" to you, but maybe it's different people from past "whiners"...?

About the game, i agree it seems pretty replayable.
First of all, you can finish the game with like 3 achievements, so if you are into those, you can play it again just for those.

 

[Haklong]

I dunno, it's pretty replayable. In the same way that I enjoy loading up Sonic the Hedgehog 2 or Super Mario World, simply PLAYING Limbo feels great. I don't believe it will match those games in that regard, but it's definitely the kind of thing I could find myself picking up and playing on a whim. It's definitely replayable in the same way that a 16-bit platformer might be.

It's so much better than Braid in that regard. I enjoyed Braid, but one time through was more than enough and then I was done. It felt tedious to replay. Not so with Limbo. The fantastic controls, atmosphere, and design encourage skilled play. There is a lot of timing that comes into play here without feeling frustrating. This is NOT like Another World or Flashback in that regard.

There really aren't any filler segments either. The game is awesome from start to finish.

I cannot believe how good this game actually is. The visuals drew me in, but the experience and feeling of playing it keep me going. This is one of the most inspired games I've played this year. Absolutely wonderful.

It's like a retro platformer meets ICO meets an old school European PC/Amiga game.

Seriously, I thought it was going to be good but I'm blown away at how much fun such a simple game could be.

 

[KAOS]

This game is amazing!

 

[Ledsen]

Goddamn.

How fucking obsessed can you assholes be with how many points this stupid thing costs. Ridiculous.

Why is it ridicolous to expect a certain quality from a game based on how much you payed for it?

 

[kylej]

Goddamn.

How fucking obsessed can you assholes be with how many points this stupid thing costs. Ridiculous.

WHO JUST HAS $5 LYING AROUND WHO ARE YOU DONALD TRump???

Video games are one of the cheapest forms of electronic entertainment in terms of dollar per hour yet gamers whine more than anyone. Keep on building up arbitrary systems of 'value' to keep yourself away from awesome experiences, guys!

 

[NME]

I'm two hours in at this point. Feels great to figure out the puzzles.

The way the game has progressed is very interesting. I forget where exactly I stopped, but I'm

Spoiler

in the factory section. The last part I remember is the world rotating and a boulder coming after me, which I can avoid

but then my mind goes blank and I don't know what I did after that, if anything.

I was first drawn to the game because it seemed to have some similarities to Braid. Well, that's true, but only slightly. I had been playing Braid for a couple days prior to Limbo, and aside from remembering how to move forward and jump, there hasn't been a ton of cross over. Though, oddly I felt, I saw a friend playing Braid while I was playing Limbo, and I concluded he felt that the two were similar enough that he should avoid spending another $15.

Limbo is a very different game from Braid and is great on its own merits, but I don't think liking one means someone would like the other necessarily.

Well, yeah it does because it would mean that person has great taste. But stylistically, not as much.

 

[besiktas1]

Heeeelp!

Spoiler

Theres a fly or something, eating on a body or something, if I get too close it flies away...

 

[Shake Appeal]

Heeeelp!

Spoiler

Theres a fly or something, eating on a body or something, if I get too close it flies away...

Spoiler

Approach it slowly and get the jump on it. Analog movement.

 

[toythatkills]

Heeeelp!

Spoiler

Theres a fly or something, eating on a body or something, if I get too close it flies away...

Think Metal Gear.

 

[Haunted]

I got it a few hours ago and finished it already. I thought it was pretty great, but it's definitely too short for 1200 points. Still, it has great atmosphere and the difficulty-curve is perfect. I thought the ending was fine

Spoiler

The title of the game says is all: Limbo, that's the story right there. You play a random schmuck stuck in Limbo. How or why did he get there? Who cares, I don't need an explanation for everything. I thought the ending rounded everything off neatly and logically.

I agree with your general assessment (not everything needs to be explained and spelt out), but there are some clear hints on how he got there and the framework of the game's story.

Spoiler

Boy was involved in a traffic accident with a girl (press release says sister) and runs through limbo to be reunited with her. The opening screen depicts two corpses and a crashed vehicle of some sort in the woods, in the exact same spot where you encounter your sister/lover in limbo in the end (sans the destruction, obviously). The crash through the glass after the last puzzle fits neatly to the experience of crashing through the windshield/window of the vehicle during the accident.


That the puzzles and levels are themed after stations of his life like some others have said sounds pretty good on first glance, but I'm not sure I subscribe to that interpretation just yet.


But the "die in a traffic accident -> travel through limbo -> be reunited" framework is pretty established as the overarching story, I'd say.

 

[Plinko]

I agree with your general assessment, but there are some clear hints on how he got there.

Spoiler

He was in a car accident with his sister/lover and runs through limbo to be reunited with her. The opening screen depicts two corpses and a crashed car, in the same spot where you encounter your sister/lover in the end. The crash through the glass after the last puzzle could easily refer to the guy crashing through the windshield after the accident.

That the puzzles/levels are themed after stations of his life sounds pretty good on paper, but I'm not sure I subscribe to that interpretation just yet. Could just as easily be different levels that are simply suited to house the puzzles the designers thought of, without being tied to the boy's life.

But the "car accident -> travel through limbo -> reunited" business is pretty established as the overarching story, I'd say.

Wow...you might want to fix that spoiler tag.

Looks like I don't need to play the game now that I know how it ends.

Edit: Looks like you got to it.

 

[Haunted]

Wow...you might want to fix that spoiler tag.

Looks like I don't need to play the game now that I know how it ends.

Edit: Looks like you got to it.

Jesus, I was so damn fast, I fixed it like 2 seconds after posting! Curse your quick eyes.


Very sorry. That said, don't let my speculation about the game's framework dissuade you from actually playing it! It's the gameplay experience that counts. It would've been worse if you accidentally read some puzzle solutions, cause that's the real meat of the game.

 

[Plinko]

Jesus, I was so damn fast, I fixed it like 2 seconds after posting! Curse your quick eyes.


Very sorry. That said, don't let my speculation about the game's framework dissuade you from actually playing it! It's the gameplay experience that counts. It would've been worse if you accidentally read some puzzle solutions, cause that's the real meat of the game.

It's no big deal. I agree about the gameplay experience being more important.

 

[Haunted]

Ending discussion/spoilers:

Spoiler

What seems clear: I agree that the boy and girl are both dead at the game's beginning. We are in Limbo, along the fringes of hell. We 'wake up' in the land of the dead estranged from our sister, and try and find our way back to her, crossing the Acheron as we do so. We suffer trials and punishments in Hell, and are eventually reunited with our sister. The main menu screen shows the scene of our death in the 'real' world, where the two children are replaced by the swarms of flies buzzing around their corpses.

Fully agreed. I don't think there's much leeway for interpretation there, this seems pretty clear-cut.

Spoiler

What I would speculate: the trials and punishments we suffer are related to the moments, hours, perhaps even the day before death. Some people think that in the upper right of the menu screen you can see a car, and that the children must have died in a car crash. I disagree; I think it's a school bus (when the light moves, you can see it peeping through a row of windows). The siblings were on a school trip. They may have been staying at a hotel in a town or city, and they may have been visiting a factory. Their school bus crashed in the woods. The 'tribe' you meet in the later stages of the woods are the other children who died, and all of the events of the game are warped versions of the last day or so before death. Remember when they roll a flaming tire at you? Yeah.

And when you smash through the glass at the end of the last puzzle, you are reliving the moment just before death, when you smashed through the windshield.

That is excellent and makes a lot of sense.

 

[Dabanton]

Played this for about 10 mins last night as i got in late, but wow atmosphere wise it was breathtaking bordering on pretty damm creepy.

Is their music in the game or is it just ambient sounds?

 

[toythatkills]

Ending discussion:

Spoiler

Any interpretation as to why the girl you reach at the end may not want to see you? That's the impression I got, anyway. You creep up to her very slowly, and as you get close she sits bolt upright and freezes, but doesn't turn around to welcome you. To me, she looked scared.

There's a lot of other people in the game, enemies, that you have to stop to proceed, but you see to it that they're all killed and then use them in various ways. Why might they have been trying to stop you reaching her? Are you the good guy here?

 

[modeps]

I was checking out this thread and hit page 12 where Chrome yelled at me.

 

[tjohn86]

Bought it and beat it last night. Great game. Totally worth 1200 points... if only for the

Spoiler

spider fights

. Im going to go for the last achievement but I dunno... I must have died at least 50 times.

 

[Shake Appeal]

That is excellent and makes a lot of sense.

Spoiler

Except I am looking at it now and it may just be a weird tree house with the rope ladder leading up to it. The ladder is perfect in limbo, but in the main menu screen (real world, after death?) it is falling apart. You can't see the mysterious object in limbo, your view is cut off at the tree limb.

I have spent a lot of time

Spoiler

staring at that silhouette in the top right trying to work out what it is.

:lol

 

[chuckywang]

Spoiler

I'm at the part with the mosquito-type insect that hangs on the wall when you get close and flies back to the ground when you go away.

How far am I in terms of percentages?

 

[toythatkills]

Spoiler

I'm at the part with the mosquito-type insect that hangs on the wall when you get close and flies back to the ground when you go away.

How far am I in terms of percentages?

Check the leaderboard.

 

[modeps]

The hyperbole in this thread is staggeringly ridiculous.

Yes, that was also hyperbole.

 

[Haunted]

I have spent a lot of time

Spoiler

staring at that silhouette in the top right trying to work out what it is.

:lol

:lol same here.

 

[Pakkidis]

Just finished the game, I thought it was fantastic but the length makes it difficult for me to recommend it for that price point. I know I sound like a broken record but the game is simply too short for its own good. It really needs one or two more major areas to really flesh it out.

Like most the beginning segments of the game were fantastic, I would have really loved to see the

Spoiler

spider

all the way through the game and fight it in a final showdown.

I thought the puzzles were very well done as well, I was stuck on most of them but some clear thinking and some patience goes a long way.

I probably died 50+ times easily.

 

[nny]

Finished the game; a great experience. Loved that most of the puzzles were circumscribed to a small area, so instead of wasting time going back and forth between areas you knew you had everything you needed, so you could just tackle the puzzle.

Concerning the ending,

Spoiler

when the boy was lying in the ground after breaking the glass, I thought he was back at the beginning of the game, it would be interesting if you got up and the game restarted...you would be "stuck in limbo", doing everything repeatedly.

Like most the beginning segments of the game were fantastic, I would have really loved to see the

Spoiler

spider

all the way through the game and fight it in a final showdown.

I for one am happy that the

Spoiler

spider went away, all that "insec-ty" stuff was creeping me out. P Seriously, those huge legs gave me the shivers. Killing little kids I can handle, but being covered in web...urgh.

:lol

 

[shibbs]

I'm also stuck here What is the solution?

 

[dark10x]

Why is it ridicolous to expect a certain quality from a game based on how much you payed for it?

It's the length complaints that are rubbing people the wrong way. If you didn't enjoy the game itself then, well, you wasted your money.

However, many of us believe that the experience was good enough to overlook its short length.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I'm also stuck here What is the solution?

Spoiler

You can move the crate when the worm is pointing away from you. And your job isn't to avoid the worm, it's to make use of it. In fact, at no point in the game do you avoid a mind-control worm.

 

[Big B]

Feist looks almost exactly like this game, except it has color.

indie devs copying each other? Feist has been in development for a while though.