And, holy crap, this game is amazing, too! This month certainly is a great month for Xbox Live Arcade games!

Swinging around and shooting guys is awesome in this game. It feels so satisfying to swing right by a guy, quickly turn around, then blast him in the face. So good.

The game, however, is hard. I'm talking old-school hard. For one thing, there is no jump button, making you rely entirely on your bionic arm to not only scale levels, but deflect bullets and such. Seriously, you can't jump in this game, so even a small crate that's waste-high must be overcome by using the bionic arm to grapple a ceiling or something like that. But once you get used to the bionic arm, you can pull off some awesome moves. It's great.

I've been playing this game for hours. It's only a matter of time before I get immersed in it again.

Okay, maybe now I get the Braid hate...well, maybe not. The only thing that's caused me to like Braid a little less is something that would require beating the game. The thing I'm talking about is the story...

Seriously, the story is so annoyingly cryptic and convoluted, that it makes it not fun at all (at least, not to me). Seriously, the game would be much better if the ending was simply (highlight for spoilers) [Tim was actually a stalker trying to kidnap the princess, rather than save her.], but NOOO, the creator specifically said that this was wrong, probably to feed legitimacy to a stupid plot full of symbols and metaphors and stupid crap like that. That's dumb. I don't want to think too hard about a story in a puzzle game (though that would be appropriate considering the genre).

What makes this even worse is you're gonna find the "intellectuals" (or elitists, whatever) who are like, "Braid's story is easy to understand. You're just not trying" which translates to "lol, i m samrt, u r dum."

But yeah, I still like Braid. I got all the puzzle pieces, and all the achievements but one. I'm not sure if I'm going to get the stars or not (seriously, standing on a cloud for 2 hours!?). But still, neat game...as long as you don't think too hard about the story.

I didn't really care that much about Braid before it came out. I saw a small preview on Giant Bomb a while ago, and I was like, "Looks neat." And that was that. Then the game came out, so I downloaded the trial, and prior to this, I hadn't had Internet access for a week, so I hadn't even been exposed to the reviews of this game yet. I played the demo, and I was amazed, and I fell in love with it. It's clear to me that I didn't fall into any "hype" for this game.

But now I get on the Internet. Yep, the critics love the game, giving the game very high scores. But the people on the message boards? Majority seems to HATE the game. I don't get it. They're also all pissed off that the game got rated so highly. I honestly don't get the hate! The only thing that could possibly put someone off is the price, and it's not even that high. I mean, I've payed more for crappier games. Just 'cause this game doesn't come with a box doesn't mean it's not worth 15 dollars. 15 dollars isn't even that much money!

Anyway, it seems a lot of people who hate on Braid compare it to Super Mario Bros. WTF? While Braid has platforming in it, it is not a platformer. It is a PUZZLE GAME. So anyone who says, "Braid is like Mario, but with crappy controls" is an idiot.

I think people are put off by the price and their misunderstanding of what the game is supposed to be. Also, they're probably ticked off at the overwhelming praise that the game has been getting...I dunno. I just find this all very strange.

Anyways, I'm gonna go back to playing Braid now. :P

Despite the fact that my camera's screen has a quite noticeable crack in it, I've still been able to take photos. Obviously, I took photos of cool stuff I've set up in my apartment.

This is my desk. I put it together myself! It's cool, I guess. I've changed it a bit since this photo was taken, though. Those speakers are no longer there, as I've moved them to the living room for the TV. I use that second monitor there to watch stuff on as I browse or whatever on the other monitor. Fun stuff, I guess.

This is the futon/couch thing. I put this together, too, but I don't think I put it together correctly. Oh well, it still works as a couch, and that's fine with me.

Here's the TV and stuff. I put together the coffee table and the two end table things. Dillon put together the TV stand, and he did it WRONG. I edited it in Photoshop, but you see those two black panels at the front of it? Well, Dillon put them on backwards, so in reality, it's wood grain or whatever instead of black. It bothers me, but I'm too lazy to disassemble it. So I'll just go get some black cardboard or something and put it over it...

I don't plan on keeping that computer there. Dillon just needs to access the Internet, and since his computer does not have wireless access, we have to put it in the living room, where the modem/router is.

I'm not regretting it yet, so it's all good. I'm trying real hard not to look up help for the puzzles, but I got really frustrated by one, so I looked it up on YouTube. AGH, as usual, the solution seems so simple when you find it, and you feel stupid afterwards. :P

This coming week, Megadeth song for Rock Band and BIONIC COMMANDO!! :D

Obviously, I have Internet now! A high-speed 5 Mbps connection! Much faster than my old connection. I can stream stuff in HD now! ..kinda.

We also have basic cable now..and I mean very basic cable. No Nickelodeon or Discovery Channel, but I can always watch that stuff online. And we have Fox, so I can still watch House (assuming I don't have to be in class when it shows)!

My mom and my Auntie Nancy also visited today. They brought a few things from home, as well as bought me some furniture. I now have a bed, our living room has a futon (which is pretty much just a couch, 'cause I don't think I assembled it correctly, but whatever. I've also got a dresser, and some kinda coffee table-type thing, but I haven't unboxed those yet. I also cut my finger putting my bed together. I have no idea how that happened.

My appetite has also returned, after disappearing for a few days thanks to being sick. My first meal was some chicken and rice that my mom brought me. It was delicious. Also, Dillon bought some apple juice. Also delicious.

These microwavable plates that we got aren't so keen for microwave use, as one of them had a hole melted in it when I microwaved a Hot Pocket. Kekekeke.

I hope I can sleep tonight now that I have a real bed. I've pretty much been sleeping on the floor for the past few nights because the air mattress made me feel weird (and also I was sick), so sleeping hasn't really been easy since I got here.

I downloaded and played the trial. My God. It was a beautiful experience. I might actually drop 1200 points on this game... I mean, it's only 15 dollars. It seems expensive because it's a downloadable game, but as a retail game, it would be a very attractive price...

Day 2

We hit a few bumps yesterday. and I'm too lazy to explain (chasing a hamster is stupid). Today has been much better, though.
Our air conditioner is finally working today. Everything feels much better. I assembled my desk and it's real nice. Our plasma TV is pretty cool, but the component input is messed up in that it'll have some weird lines that are sort of barely noticeable, but I've hooked my 360 up to it via VGA anyway, and it looks pretty good. The display isn't as bright as I'd like it to be, but it's a cheap, Wal-Mart brand TV. Still better than an SDTV, anyway!

We've got a leak above our kitchen or something, so that's one problem we got into. We tried to set up our Internet today, but we were not able to.

And I think that's all that's gonna happen today. Not having Internet sucks. We went up to UNT today and I forgot to bring my laptop to take advantage of their WiFi. I really wanna listen to the new Bombcast...

Day 3

Terrible. At the end of Day 2, I became sick. Total times that I vomited that night: 4. This would continue 'til the end of Day 3.

I'm not sure how I got sick. I think it's related to the leak from the end of Day 2. Yes, there was a leak in the kitchen. Nasty water came down from the ceiling. Some of it must've gotten into a glass I was drinking from. Eventually, the leak go to so bad that we had a trash can full of brown water. Ick.

However, on Day 3, the leak was fixed. Unfortunately, I was still sick. Dillon went to the store (with mah money) to buy me some stuff as I lay in bed, my stomach upset, and my trash can on stand-by for...you know. It was terrible. I slept most of the day. Sometimes I woke up, feeling better, got up all excited, thinking I was no longer sick, 'til the terrible feeling came back to me and I went back to my bed and trash can. Blehh...

But here at Day 4, I'm better now...I hope.

It's 75 bucks on Amazon, and the last day to order is September 30th...I MUST HAVE IT.