Holiday Aftermath

If you've read the comments I've left on most of your blogs you probably know by now that my Christmas weekend was pretty uneventful. No really, all I did was spend a few quiet days with family and many hours with my computer.

Come towards the light Damian...

Theresa was busy all weekend so I wasn't able to see her. Luckily I anticipated this and gave her her gifts early which included a hoodie, some TF2 cellphone charms, various games from the Steam Holiday sale and the third volume of popular webcomic.

Myself? I don't expect to receive anything big. Friends got me a lot of games and a foam Minecraft pickaxe, I don't expect anything from my siblings until February (April if I'm unlucky), parents gave me cash and I treated myself to more games.

Thank you Dear for this one.

So, what am I going to do for the rest of the break? Hopefully see as many old friends as possible and take Theresa out on as many dates as I possibly can. Let's hope her boss doesn't keep scheduling her to work for ENTIRE WEEKS. Seriously, she's busy all the time during the school year, give her a break when she has a break.

In the meantime I have more research stuff to do. That paper isn't going to edit itself and neither is that experiment. Gah, I'm so sick of technical errors at this point. Hopefully I'll get things figured out before the term starts again.

Really want to do this to some of the computers at the lab.

I know the rest of you had a relatively more exciting Christmas holiday than me. If all goes well maybe I can get to work on some other things this break and not be a complete waste of waste. There are some recipes I need to try as well as a DIY project I've been eying.

But the computer games, they beckon.

Probably what I'll end up doing.

LIMBO: This Game is Depressing

If it wasn't obvious enough that I'm a gamer (and that I would give internal organs to Valve if they asked) I'm not sure what else I need to do. However, I know a lot of you aren't like this and can't understand the appeal. That's fine, but whenever I do make comments on a game I will do my best to make the commentary more accessible to non-gamers.

Preemptive apologies to Beth because this isn't a book review.

Thanks to finals being done I can actually enjoy myself. So today we'll be talking about LIMBO, a game about a boy who wakes up in a forest and needs to go find his missing sister. It's a 2D platformer with physics puzzles, in layman's terms you run and jump around and manipulate the properties of the environment to move to the next stage. Sounds pretty standard so far.

And now why LIMBO is horrifying and how only a serial killer could smile during a playthrough.

This is not a happy game.

The entire game is set in black and white environments. Utilizing that grainy film effect and clever lighting it creates a ominous, dark and unwelcoming world. To further help this, the only sound effects in the game are faint background noises such as the sound of flies and soft crunching of questionable objects.

The puzzles generally take a bit of thinking and timing to figure out. Most of them consist of some variation of timed jumps, operating switches and machines as well as pulling and moving objects to help you advance. The game particularly enjoys having you desecrate the bodies of the dead.

Oh and did I mention? The entire world hates you. Everything, anything and everyone can and will kill you at a whim. Whether it be like falling from too high, drowning, cut into pieces by a sawblade.

Being eviscerated by massive spider.

And the boy dies in the saddest ways possible. You feel bad every time you watch his tiny body go limp or fly in all directions of the wind. Afterall, it is your fault he missed that jump or electrocuted himself. That being said, you do come back in a safe and reasonable location in respect to where you died. You're not going to have to redo every puzzle upon your death.

The story is sparse and is left almost entirely to the player to figure out. Some people think this is a problem but I personally found it added to the unnerving atmosphere of the game. You don't really have a sense of what's going on or why. Some people question if the boy and his sister are even alive.

It's a mystery!

That being said, it is a very solid puzzle game and has won many awards. I love supporting the independent developers because they don't produce bland and repetitive games. These guys are willing to take steps in new and unique ways and they should be rewarded for it. Unlike companies such as Electronic Arts.

(By the way, I will take as many opportunities as possible to bash EA because I hate them with every fiber of my being).

This is technically my first review of ANYTHING ever. Any comments or suggestions would be great whether it be about the post or potential future reviews. I'm really open to anything, as long as I can make it entertaining.

You can pick up LIMBO on Steam for $9.99 or try the demo for free. HOWEVER, Steam is currently having their 2011 Holiday sale so LIMBO is $4.99 until January 2nd.