I love that song from mercs 2 at the end (Oh no you didn't).

I never noticed this before but you guys are harsh with Braid. Something tells me you never finished it because when you do, it all starts making sense.

Braid is my GOTY : ) It is a genre and era defining game. A pioneer for downloadable games.

Anyways, I think that while there were no games that wowed us to no end, that may be due to the fact that we've become a really tough crowd, but also because the market forces the developers to create massive appeal games. They cost so much to make now that a single flop (Haze, anyone?) can kill any good developer.

You know, if not using a walkthrough means that you will not finish the game, then I strongly suggest you do. I'm not gonna lie to you, I looked 3 times. However every time I found out that I was 90% right and just slapped my forehead and moved on.

The website doesn't want to make you feel like a moron: It's just that the puzzles ARE the gameplay. If you cheat the puzzles you deprive Braid of its core gameplay mechanic.

I'll quote the website for a refresher:

" Some of the puzzles will be hard. But when you manage to solve those hard puzzles, you will feel very good about it. The game will feel very rewarding. Don't rob yourself of that feeling by reading a walkthrough! Please do not use a walkthrough. "

See what I mean? It's not insulting, it just re-asserts the importance of the puzzles in Braid

The ending alone is in the Top 5 greatest gaming moments of my life. It turned all of what I thought was pretentiousness on its head and slapped me in the face.

You really owe it to yourself to finish it, you will not be disappointed.

The 4th Wall, nooooooooooooooooooo!

Peter Stormare's the actor you're thinking of. He's also the voice of Mattias in the Mercenaries series.

Where can I purchase (or download, if it's free) "Friend You Up"?

I prefer longer shows too but I think that Rob loses a month off his life everytime the show goes more than 90 mins.

I vote for a daily one hour podcast.

I'd like to see an Elysium side-project: Podcast for the Masses.

So, whose going to be the first to drunk dial the voicemail line?

I'll be upfront here: I gamefaq'd the hell out of the later levels of Braid. I felt that there was a certain point for some puzzles where the mechanics were rehashes of earlier sections (for instance, the level where your forward/back movement messed with time, and you had to bop 10 of the manhogs to clear) and I just couldn't be assed to sit there tweaking motion. At a certain point, when I saw one of those one-shot keys, I just ran to the internet.

I don't think Blow can dictate how we should play his game -- ESPECIALLY when he designed a sub-fetch quest that *90% of players miss entirely and *the user can frell themselves and create a situation where the sub-fetch is impossible to complete without a restart. He can pontificate about what the experience should be like, but out in the wilds it becomes its own thing. I don't care if he thinks of me as a grimy prole for not sitting there and waiting for the revelation ex machina. At the later points of the game, I felt as though the puzzles were in fact barriers to me understanding the narrative of the game. At the end of the day, Braid wasn't a game as much as it was a narrative puzzle for me.

But seriously. As Litgeek to LitWriter, you're getting a major case of story-driven blueballs by not cheating. Braid's "wrapup" is really shaking. Please, please, PLEASE just lookup the solutions. I'm willing to bet money/booze/MicrosoftMoonPoints that the ending will inspire you to write something about it. It's that good.

I've not played Braid and i don't really see the appeal to be honest (please send me MS points to prove my miserable self wrong and i will personally send you happy thoughts upon completion of the game).

Good show guys... there's something mirroring the spirit of 2008 with you guys phoning it in for the last episode of the year.

Elysium, i have to disagree with you about Fallout 3. It's a game, sure, i agree with you in that respect. But its game is.... a game. Do you know what i mean?

I was surprised that Sam didn't go for a Beverly Hills Cop remix on his xylophonic instrument but all the contributions were great!

Oh and Rob, don't you dare! You go sub hour shows on us and i'll personally come round your house and 'friend you up'!

in case you're wondering what it was:

http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/stylophone/index.html

and I'm working on many tunes to play to annoy people!!

OK ok ok. I'm putting it on the agenda. Finish braid. Got it.

... that came out this year