sheridanzig

What I Did On My Vacation

Rewinding My Braid Experience

I tried Braid - briefly - when it first came to XBLA.  I really liked the art style because it was painty and different, but I closed the trial after playing through the first world.  I've never been good at platformers, never really enjoyed them, and even the promise of puzzles and rewinding time wasn't enough to keep me going on Braid.

Fast forward nearly two months.  (How very appropriate.)

Last night, I picked it up again.  I was frustrated trying to get the last few LEGO Indy achievements (grrr...) and wandered into XBLA.  I had intended to play Rocket Bowl, but saw Braid and started it up.  Honestly, I thought maybe I'd somehow acquired some massive platformer skills through black magic in the past couple of months and might totally rock.

So I started playing again.  And I still don't rock - in fact, I still massively suck.  But I have a totally different experience this time, because whenever I do something stupid - as I do far too often - I hit X to rewind.  Don't ask me why this didn't occur to me during my first try.  And as I used X more and more, I found that if I were thisclose to killing an enemy, rewinding to just before the critical point might be enough to make the kill, the leap, whatever.  Hmmm...kind of my own personal idiot button.  I DO like that.

So I still find the platformer-jump-on-an-enemy-make-that-cloud-leap-don't-get-eaten mechanic frustrating.  I still am very, very bad at it.  But I think I'll try playing the rest of the way through Braid. 

Tick tick tick...

LEGO Batman comes out later this month.
And I know that after I start playing it, I probably won't go back to LEGO Indiana Jones. Therefore, it's time to get serious about the remaining 13 LIJ achievements I still need to get (for remaining 255 gamerscore).

Most of them look pretty straightforward - "Do x, n number of times". It'll be interesting to see how far away I am from that 'n', since I've already completed the game to 100%.

Hrm.

Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise

I'm officially addicted, especially once I started using Pinata Vision. I love scanning in the card and having a fully accessorized pinata pop up in my garden. For some reason, it's way more exciting than buying clothes for your own pinata. I think it's because you don't know exactly what to expect, and then - *poof* - a new pinata with a name (and possibly a star) becomes a resident. I've scanned in so many cards from http://pinataisland.info/ that I've had to create three other gardens for them to live in.

I really like how pinatas can return to your garden, even after getting inhaled by Professor Pester. My Custacean, Crusty, was eaten by that red devil and then became a resident again later on - and kept the name I had given him.

So happy I've now found the secret to keeping my gardens safe from Professor Pester! He always went after the pinata I liked the most.

Pinata stats as of today:
Gardener Level: 65
Gardener Cash: 31454
Number of Gardens: 4
Time in Gardens: 135d 1h 51m
Photos Taken: 10
Cards Scanned: 74
Highest Piñata Value: 47249
Total Piñatas Unlocked: 91
Highest Garden Value: 189034
Awards: 288