Tetris and More Tetris

(I found this post in the attic, dusted it off, and now I'm sending it back out to you.  Tetris art really is a topic that keeps on giving)

Now that I've taken the lid off of the Tetris-can, I have lots more to cover on Tetris.  I'd like to mention that it was a family-fun-time game.  In that, I remember that we rented it one day, probably from placer, and everybody played it.  Or at least my dad did.  He really loved it, and the next day, he left to return the game, and came home with a newly purchased copy for us to have.  He didn't play a whole lot, (not like a certain Tetris Genius I know)   but it was a pretty sweet gaming experience - very rare. 

Tetris fashion:
Now, I don't know much about fashion.  ... ... or color schemes or anything, but I've always been a big fan of the NES version of tetris and it's various color combinations.  I remember designing a series of izod style shirts with my friend 'Lary, using the tetris shapes and color combinations.  She's an artist, so the fact that she agreed with me on the color combos was all the validation I needed.
If you look at the different levels of NES tetris, it's easy to see like a pants, shirt, tie combination in any of the three-color palletes.  orange, grey, white. level 9 done.  And the black background is like a safety if you need to mellow it all out a bit.

Tetris Dreams:  (The Tetris Effect)
Also - there's probably more to be said on the subject of tetris dreams.  That is, 'the tetris effect' which describes any sort of dream which is like a tetris dream.  I definitely had this while playing Final Fantasy, recently.  And usually when I return to an RPG type game after a long break.  Or any sort of 'build a character' time game.  Sim City did it to me when I really got into it:  I would daydream about building a city, and different approaches I would take.
Tony Hawk was the last 'new innovation' type game that did this.  After playing Tony Hawk, I wanted to grind every edge of every surface I encountered.  This effect was even stronger when riding in a car.
No, wait, scratch that.  Starseed Pilgrim is the last game to give me Tetris Dreams.  

Tetris Art: 
The other thing I want to talk about is Tetris Art.  Jaconian made a comment about a cross-stitch idea, which I think would work fantastically with tetris designs.  And, really, the great thing about cross-stitch is that it's a physical thing, so you get to hold it in your hand, which is awesome.  Below I've listed about a million different examples of art inspired by Tetris, and there are many more out there!

Tetris Art Links:  

http://blog.thegiven.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/tetris-art2.jpg

construction cranes

http://www.walls360.com/v/vspfiles/photos/19441-1.jpg

pretty square

http://dailyinspires.com/tetris-wallpapers/

tetris wallpapers

http://walyou.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/01/Tetris_Gadgets_and_Designs_21.jpg

origami tetris cube

http://setofvectors.com/free-vectors-eps-ai/tetris-patterns-vector/

website for above image

http://www.fodrizzle.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Tetris-World.jpg

world map in tetris

http://www.feeldesain.com/feel/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/feeldesain-tetris-world-map-open.jpg

bigger world map tetris

http://a1.s6img.com/cdn/box_004/post_14/488567_7600214_b.jpg

smb mushroom tetris

http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/522276

TuperTarioTros

hooooooooly shit!  Mario/Tetris crossover.  This is the greatest thing ever!!

http://www.firebox.com/product/916/Tetris-3D

Actual tetris game.. like, phsyical game.  I wonder how it works. 

http://maglipid.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Nail-Art-Design-Tetris-500x375.jpg

Tetris finger nail paint

http://cdn.unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/tetris_design_4.jpg

Tetris shoes, I want

http://inhabitat.com/images/TetrisShelvesNEW2.jpg

tetris stacking shelves.  Boy, I want. 

http://bp.uuuploads.com/pumpktris-playable-tetris-game-inside-pumpkin/pumpktris-playable-tetris-game-inside-pumpkin-1.jpg

tetris jackolantern

Wow, what a Vomitous pile of Tetris Art.  I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

-D

Second Impressions & Review: Mirror's Edge (PC)

Whew!  Finally finished that game and it only took me nine hours, which is a bit less than I was expecting, but honestly, I am just glad that I am not being shot at by any more of the police.  As I did with my review (of sorts) of Dead Space, I do not plan on putting my my standard "Full Review," but instead my thoughts about the game and hopefully, I will not be repeating myself from what either myself or Dr. Potts have already said.

First off, Mirror's Edge was a very fun game with the level of fun being conducive to a couple of factors that I have worked into a handy dandy flowchart.

That is pretty much about it.  While I was indoors, I noticed that a lot of the levels were puzzle heavy., needing to figure out where to jump and how to get to where I am supposed to be going held a certain level of interest, but I quickly felt confined and claustrophobic.  I wanted to be outside, in the open smog-less air of The City.  Being indoors also meant that there was a good chance that Merc would call you up on your earpiece radio to let you know that there were some Blues on their way and they did not look like they were in the mood to exchange pleasantries.

One level in particular I had an increasingly difficult time with.  If you would rather watch how the level was supposed to be played, you can watch it here, otherwise you can finish reading about how I could usually manage a few jumps before I had to revert to watching the video to figure out where I was supposed to go next.  Considering how much of the game, by this point, has the player conditioned to look for red as a way of letting you know which way to go or to "jump off of this thing to go over there", the inside building portion of Chapter 8: Kate became the antithesis of fun even though there were no Blues in this portion of the stage.

The fighting in the game I also felt that I was never able to get a good grasp with.  Even just watching Faith in the loading screens made me feel that I was doing something drastically wrong when it came to hand-to-hand combat.  I always felt that I should be that adept at taking out Blues, but I ended up being very clumsy with my punches and attempts to disarm. Oh yes, while being shot at because those bastards were hardly alone.  Often times I would "simply" take down a guard, take his gun then play Mirror's Edge like I would any other FPS action shooter and take out the guards before going back to running.  With hope, the trailer from this year's E3 has hinted to a more streamlined and less annoying (meaning someone who sucks at the hand-to-hand combat) attacks and takedowns for Faith to execute.

As you can tell from the flowchart, any level where I was outside and not being shot at, I felt that the game excelled here and I would have really liked an entire game of just going from Point A to Point B.  I wanted more of that.

Another aspect of the game that I found semi-intriguing and liked was the use of animation for the cutscenes.  At first, the difference between the in-game landscape and the cutscene animation was a little jarring, but ultimately I liked it.

There was cutscene of sorts at the end of the game involving two characters that used the regular in-game graphics and not the stylized animation  and while I feel that that worked for the flow of the stage, I felt like I was missing the look that I had become accustomed to over the course of the game.  But, since the scene happened in the middle of a level, I understood the reasoning behind the decision.

At some point while playing, I did find out that there was a DLC map pack that EA Games released, but it looks like it is only for 360/PS3 owners and (maybe?) for people who bought the game through Origins as opposed to Steam.  This is sad because an obstacle course (without Blues) is something that I would love to play with, but I am not about to spend money on a console to buy a game (I already have) to then buy DLC.  I am not that hard up for a $4.99 DLC but I hope that sometime similar is included in the retail PC release of Mirror's Edge 2.

I think if I chalk Mirror's Edge up to a great "first attempt" then I feel there is a good chance that the sequel, when it is released in April 2016, will be spectacular in the strictest sense of the word.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Looking For Something To Believe In

Pruning in the Game of Life

that's chlorophyll on a leaf!  Click for source.  

Meditations on life while pruning away at some plants.  I imagine now that I work at a Garden Nursery, I'll be writing more about plants.  Today I spent some time pruning away the dead leaves on some of our various shade-loving plants.  I reached a fantastic meditative space while doing this.

It's not strictly pruning, and, technically, I don't know much about the subject of pruning (it's not like ignorance has ever stopped me from sharing my opinion before).  I guess maybe it's closer to 'dead heading' rose plants, which is the process of cutting away dead blooms.  In so doing, you send a message to the plant to give up on those blooms, and concentrate its energy elsewhere.  This is what I was thinking of as I was cleaning up these plants.  It's like life-coaching for plants.  As a human, I can move much quicker than can a plant, and I can sort of force the issue by cutting a little twig or limb off at the source.

Of course, this must be done with the requisite amount of care.  Cut away healthy leaves and you may be stunting the plants growth by removing a good source of sunlight catching chlorophyll.  The idea is to help the plant with maximum efficiency.  A goal that is not unlike the goals in various video games, primarily of the puzzle or RTS variety.  These are games that you play to improve and get better at.  Your actions become swifter and more efficient.  You learn a balance of good resource management and appropriate dexterity, timing and planning for the future.

I also want to take a minute to mention a particular plant I encountered, on which almost no viable leaves remained, except a tiny little red leaf at the core of the plant.  I checked with my manager, and he confirmed I should remove all the leaves and leave only the core, and then move it to our plant 'sick bay' for convalescence, mostly because nobody would buy an 8 dollar plant with only one tiny leaf.  However, I did get to thinking that in the system of the plant, there is stored energy in the core, so that even when a plant is not able to absorb through its leaves, it can produce new, healthy leaves to start harvesting energy.

I guess its' like in Plants Vs Zombies, if your sunflowers are being chewed on by the zombies, and you lose energy, but you have done a good job of saving up your sun points, so you can make more.  I don't entirely like this comparison because I always protect my sunflowers at all cost, and spend all my sun points as quickly as possible.

Either way, I think these cool biological systems write themselves in terms of making video game transliterations.  There is, of course, a limit to the amount of depth that you can portray in a viable gaming system, but that's okay.  Self imposed limitations, such as scale and time can do a lot to create a fun game.

Water, light, positioning, pruning, time.  Resources and gameplay toward a stated goal of maximum flourishing.  Yay Gardening game!

-D

First Impressions: Starseed Pilgrim

Starseed Pilgrim just ate two hours of my day.  I knew I had been at it a while, but I was surprised to read the total.  I'd been saying 'just one more game' to myself for the last ten games or so.  The first half of the time was spent figuring out what is going on.  And then when I started to figure it out, I've tried to determine how to build skill.   I'm definitely getting better at it, but I feel like there's still more to learn.

This game taps into a sense of creativity, of mystery, of exploration and of expertise.  And Harmony, don't forget harmony.  The visual and audio design is already invading my dreams.  Starseed Pilgrim is another in a very exciting trend in gaming which uses sound effects in a musical and atmospheric way.  Every action produces a tone, and they combine in a musical soundscape of the game.  Similar uses of music include Everyday Shooter, Bit.Trip.Runner and Proteus.

Starseed Pilgrim is one of those games that I want to take care not to share too much.  Part of the fun and excitement has been just figuring out how to play.  I recommend mapping a gamepad using JoyToKey, and then having a good time.

That's all I'll say for now.  I'll write a full review after this game lets go of my brain.  It will be full of spoilers.

-D

P.S.  I suppose I should mention one more thing:  this game is TOUGH.

First Impressions: Super Hexagon

Super Hexagon is quite possibly the hardest game I have ever played in my life.  Designed by Terry Cavenaugh of VVVVVV fame,  It's harder than VVVVVV.  It's harder than the hoverbikes level on Battletoads.  It's harder than TMNT.

But I think I figured out what to do.    A little background;  The game has three initial difficulty settings:  Hexagon, Hexagoner, and Hexagonest.  Also called 'hard, harder and hardest' difficulty settings.  So, the programmer knew that this game was hard.  So hard, he didn't bother to make an 'easy' or 'normal' setting.  And it is hard.

As far as I can tell, the goal is to last for 60 seconds on a given level.  Achievements are granted at 5 seconds, 10, 20 and so on.  Until recently, my record was 15 seconds on the easy level.  On a very rare occasion, I'd get about that far, but never any further.  But then I figured out a trick.

Oh, it's not a trick.  Not really.  That is to say, the trick is that I decided to play the game on harder difficulty.  I figured if it's nigh impossible on easy setting, what could the harder settings be like?  Well,  they're harder.  But not... so much harder.  Almost equal difficulty, really.  Hexagoner has more complex moves and Hexagonest has a faster pace.  And that is where the secret is. After playing for a few minutes on Hexagonest,  the easier setting seemed pretty slow in comparison.  My reaction time had adapted to the more difficult setting and I was able to get up to 25 seconds within a few rounds of play.

And then I turned the game off.  It was pretty satisfying to break through that wall.  But I just knew what would be behind it: Another goddamn wall.  So I turned the game off.  Live to fight another day.

-D

Full Review: GoldenEye 007 (DS)

This review will refer to the 2010 remake by n-Space of the 1997 classic by Rare.  When the re-make of GoldenEye 007 was first released, I had a hard time, near impossible time actually, trying to locate a review for the DS game as everything I came across was for the Wii release, before the PS3 and 360 versions were released.  Everything I found was all about the Wii release, which made me sad because I wanted to know about how the translation to the DS was.  Even the Wikipedia article mainly covers the Wii version, only briefly mentioning the low GameRankings and Metacritic of 68.8% and 64/100 respectively for the DS version and the involvement of n-Space.

This post probably should have been one of my first reviews posted since, I feel like that I want to post things that I would want to read, and a review for a game that I was interested in, but couldn't find, that's something I'd like to read.

So on with the show.

If you don't think that is Pierce Brosnan's hairline, you'e right.  It's Daniel Craig's.  Maybe that'll sell more copies of the game?

The DS remake of the N64 Rare game GoldenEye 007 doesn't feel so much of a remake as it does as a re-imagining and sadly, not a very great one at that.  Believe it or not, the DS is a pretty good platform for FPS' regardless if you're right or left handed: you look around with the touch pad, move with the directional pad or ABXY buttons and shoot with either the L or R button.  I've played a number of FPS on the DS (Dementium: The Ward, Dementium II and Moon) so my general dislike for the game is not related, as one might think, to playing an FPS on the DS.

I'll be honest when I say that what I was hoping for from this game was a slightly revamped and beautified edition of Rare's amazing game.  Instead what n-Space delivered was a decent looking FPS with, among other things, horrible enemies.  I say "horrible" not because their AI was something ferocious, but because unless you killed them with a head shot, they did not go down very easily.  The enemies, whom all looked identical (just to note, but  not really a criticism) would take a handful of hits, stagger then keep on firing.  If you were lucky they would drop to one knee and then continue firing.  

Your life in the game was again represented by the red/yellow bars along with a set of blue bars when you had body armor equipped.  Now, apparently life regeneration is a current thing in FPS games and it is a thing in this edition of Goldeneye 007.  That's something I don't really like.  It almost makes the game too easy as all you have to do is come out from behind a corner take a couple of badly aimed shots, get shot yourself and move back behind the wall to regenerate while the enemy remains stagnant, patiently waiting for you to come out again.  So either the AI is very smart and holding their ground or really stupid and forgot that someone was shooting at them 3 1/2 seconds ago.  Oh yes, and your Walter PP7 has infinite ammunition.  I know that it's done in the Left 4 Dead series, but there you're fighting hordes of zombies and not stand-still Russian soldiers.  Maybe I'm just an old fuddy-duddy.

Maybe I'm just being too harsh, considering that GoldenEye is one of my favorite James Bond movies and GoldenEye 007 sat unmoved in my N64 for almost nine months so I am kind of attached to what I know and love.  It's true that the 1997 GoldenEye 007 expanded on the story that was in the movie, filling in the nine year gap between the mission in Arkhangelsk and the stealing of the Tiger Helicopter in Monte Carlo.  The storyline too is something that bothered me as the DS re-make didn't do this, but simply took events that happened in the movie and reworked them to be plausible to have happened in a short-ish amount of time, like a Dan Brown novel.  I liked visiting Severnaya while it was still under construction and the missile silo  in Kirghistan before the Goldeneye satellites were launched.  Things that made the original game feel like it took information from a pre-existing book that the movie didn't have the time or money to fit in.  That feeling of an expanded universe/story just didn't exist in this re-make.

Another thing the game was lacking, and maybe I'm just nitpicking here, was the massive amount of playable cheats.  Yes, there were some but you had to purchase them after they became unlocked.  The other "special feature" for this game was collecting document files throughout each level.  With each file you were awarded a puzzle piece to put together an image from. . . something?  Concept art?  I'm not sure.  I only unlocked the tank busting through the wall in St. Petersburg.  I don't know who Activision and/or n-Space's target audience was for this, but it sure wasn't people who played the original GoldenEye 007 or anyone who would play this game.   

The re-make also didn't take the same approach that the original did when it came to stealth.  In the original, ducking behind boxes or walls and taking out security cameras was essential if you didn't want to get into a firefight, while in this game, I don't remember taking out too many, if any, cameras at all.  It felt more of a run-and-gun game.  Maybe that's what they were going for, but then why bother calling it GoldenEye 007?  Oh, probably to try and capitalize on how awesome the first game was.  It's not like it's been done before, right?

I should probably also mention that the game touts a six person local online multiplayer.  That's all I know.  I can't say how well it plays or how fun it is because I simply haven't met anyone else who owns the game to play it with them.

After all that, was there anything that I liked about the game?  Well, the game didn't look half bad and the spoken dialogue was a nice touch, although I couldn't tell you if Daniel Craig or Dame Judi Dench actually did the voice work, but whomever did it, didn't do too bad of a job with their lines.

Oh, and I didn't like that you couldn't duck if you were not behind a crate or box.  Just wanted to throw that in there.


~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Atrocious Humanity

P.S.  To note, I bought this game in the hopes that I would enjoy it as much as I did as the 1997 release AND because it came with a copy of the film GoldenEye on DVD, all totalling something like $24.99.  I decided that even if the game was bad, at least I would finally own a copy of one of my favorite James Bond films.  So I would still like to think that I have come out on top.

Noir, noir, noir, Full Review: LIMBO

This post is going to contain *spoilers*  I will try to keep the details to a minimum, but I will be talking about game flow from beginning to end.  Since this game is a strongly atmospheric game, I don't want to break your immersion when playing, which would spoil the game for you.  LIMBO was released by Playdead for Steam on Aug. 2nd, 2011.  

Let me tell you the story of when I was first introduced to LIMBO.  I was over at my friend Steve's house, with a bunch of friends.  Steve's a guy who makes it a priority to have the latest and coolest giant flatscreen tvs and playstation y's.  We were all playing Rock Band and drinking beer in the prime time hours, having a great time and generally being hooligans.  I'm sure we annoyed the ever-loving piss out of all of Steve's neighbors, as he was living in a small apartment complex.  No one really thought twice about it for some time into the night.

But at some point, as these things happen, some responsible adult took charge, and we were told it was time to take a break from Rock Band and to stop making so much noise.  Everybody crumpled into their seats and slowly started breathing regularly again, in a daze brought on by so much hard rocking, hard drinkin' good times.  For my own part, I was not ready to stop, and I didn't have a clue what to do next.

As we all settled down, there was maybe a little idle chatter, but mostly our energy had gotten low, perhaps we had rocked too hard and only now were realizing we were exhausted.  While this decompression was going on John quietly started up LIMBO.  

We all sat, transfixed, as he played for the next half hour or so.  We were completely absorbed by the games atmosphere.  And this was not the usual gaming crowd.  These were the sorts of hooligans that haven't owned a system since the NES, and didn't usually make it out en force for a video gaming session unless it was a game like Rock Band.  But no one said a word, the whole time John played.  We just watched the shadowy little guy walk around on screen, push down a rotted tree trunk, avoid bear traps and fight a giant spider.  It was awesome.  I was so awed by the game that I made a firm mental note that I would one day play this game, and i would play it through to the end.  

And I did.  Twice.  In just the last two weeks.  It took me a while, but I didn't forget.  I was just waiting for the right time.  And then LIMBO was a part of the Humble INdie Bundle V that Jac' did purchase for me earlier this year, not realizing that he was giving me more than just a great set of games, I was getting one particular game for which I had been salivating.

So, one day, while I was at home sick from work, I played through LIMBO.  It took me about 4.5 hours.  I had a great time.  I knew I wanted to play it again as soon as I was finished.  I just finished it for a second time, and I actually got the same feeling.  But this time I won't.  Until I have someone to show the game to.  

Because really, for me, this game comes down to atmosphere.  The hazy black and white scheme, the background and foreground merge together seamlessly, the animation is very solid, and the sounds are haunting. I always feel immersed in the game's world.  

My immersion is broken when I die, but I'm treated with a gruesome death animation and then the game starts up again, usually very near to the place of death, and   immersion returns.  Immersion is only heavily broken when I die over and over again, which did happen a few times.  In one sense it was more fun to play the second time when I already knew how to do the puzzles.

I realize now that John had definitely already played it when he showed us.  He cruised through the first portion of the game without dying more then a few times and without puzzling too long over any of the puzzles.  It was a great way to be introduced to the game, I recommend it to anyone.  

I think my one strongest point of critique for LIMBO is that, after a while, it just becomes an excuse to put puzzles in front of you.  The earlier parts of the game, I had a sense of discovery, like maybe I would learn something about this strange world that I occupy.  Or maybe there would be plot development. There's a giant spider, there's these strange dudes with blowguns.  What does it all mean?  Now I'm in a factory, now I'm on top of a roof, what's next?

Oh, more factory.  And more.  By the last third of the game, it's some sort of mish-mash of factory scene and swamp scene, and puzzle after puzzle after puzzle.  This is where the game gets to be like many other puzzle platformers, in that the setting just serves as a way to put more puzzles in front of you.  Buzzsaws anyone?  Reminds me of Super Meat Boy, a game that didn't take itself seriously at all.  In LIMBO, I just found the factory scenes boring.  

Apart from the setting not being as interesting in the latter half of the game, I think I was let down by the lack of other creatures.  Early in the game, there was a spider, and corpses hanging from ropes, and weird blowgun toting dudes and then, finally a giant fly.  But then, for the next half of the game, there's no one.  Did I kill off the entire population of LIMBO?  A giant spider, three random dudes and a giant fly?  Well, I guess we'll always have brain slugs (way cool, but a bit overused in the game).  

I loved playing LIMBO.  It's the kind of thing I would call a "gaming experience."  And I recommend it highly to everyone.  It's not perfect, by any means, but it's damned good.  

-D


*the game gets an extra point for replay value because the first 1/3 of the game or so is worth playing again and again and again.

P.S.  Oh, and before anyone says "Boring?  But it's LIMBO, dude, it's supposed to be boring" - that is so not true.  It was very entertaining, it became boring when it felt like just a bunch of puzzles, one after the other, and not a really cool world to explore and move through.  

Ideas.

This actually brings me to several ideas I have for a sequel.  One is that it would be cool if they did have a 'second play-through' mode.  Really beat the player over the head with the idea of LIMBO, meaning no escape, no real progress.  Plus, the game already has replay value, why not reward the player for it with variations on the second time through?  

One way to do this would be to have multiple paths through the game.  Or your standard 100% discovery mode, similar to the one from Super Metroid or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.  This would promote the idea that if you truly want a good ending, a way out of Limbo, then you have to earn it.  There were times in the game when I felt the immersion was broken when I died too many times in a row on a tough puzzle. I thought the puzzles were cool, but the real strength of the game was in the atmosphere, which the challenge of solving the puzzle-- or, simply executing the solution-- sometimes broke.  Perhaps the game could have an easy route with easy puzzles or less of them.  Just a stroll through the spooky atmosphere with no real breaks in the immersion.  Just an idea.  

And/or the puzzles could be tied in with multiple paths.  There's an easy way out and a hard way out.  The hard way will lead you along a different path.  Something of a 'choose your own adventure' method, but being controlled by the difficulty of puzzles.  The game wouldn't require a difficulty setting, because the variance of difficulty modes would be built into the game.  

It might have been nice would be for extended deaths.  Like, after getting hit with a blowgun, the game could cut to me stuck in a box, unable to get out, like one of the corpses I encounter.  Like: that's just what these guys do, they stuff people into boxes.  Also - game over, you're dead. The game actually did something like this in an unavoidable way when you are captured by the spider and wrapped in a cocoon.  I guess I feel like the corpses helped to create an atmosphere of horror and when I finally encounter enemies that seem to have some agency, they don't really do anything interesting or clever.  I'm sorry, I criticize because I love.

And my final idea for a sequel to this game would be to just straight-ripoff the multi-player in Journey, by thatgamecompany.  In Journey, the multi-player mode was like so:  The game was connected to the internet, and a random player who happened to be playing in the same stage of the game as you would appear in your game.  You couldn't talk, but you could communicate through actions.  I loved this mechanic, and I think a game like LIMBO can be a good fit for it.  As you progress through the game, you encounter another player, stuck in this dark, dreary and frightening environment with you. Mostly, this would be a break in the heavy loneliness that would (hopefully) enhance the atmosphere when it is taken away. 

I really love this game, and I am so glad it gave me all these ideas of how to improve it.  This is what all the best gaming has always been for me- loving the game and being inspired for improvements. But, ultimately, I'll leave it to the LIMBO fellows to do what they do and do it well.  Here's hoping for a badass sequel.  Later!