Coffee Talk #187: The Limbo Length Argument

My friends were arguing about Limbo for Xbox Live over the weekend. They all agreed that it’s a clever game with a fantastic art style, but they differed on whether it’s worth 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15). I haven’t played the game yet, so I was a curious and impartial observer (like Switzerland…but without the chocolate and yodeling). It was a fun argument to watch because both sides were sure they were right. One argued that it’s a unique experience that’s so different from anything else on Xbox Live. The other argued that it was simply too expensive for a three-hour game with low replay value.

Welcome to Coffee Talk! Let’s start off the day by discussing whatever is on your (nerd chic) mind. Every morning I’ll kick off a discussion and I’m counting on you to participate in it. If you’re not feelin’ my topic, feel free to start a chat with your fellow readers and see where it takes you. Whether you’re talking about videogames, Dan Haren getting hurt in his first start for the Angels (*snicker*), Mel Gibson’s latest hit, or whether I should buy a $75 bag of coffee, Coffee Talk is the place to do it.

My friends were arguing about Limbo for Xbox Live over the weekend. They all agreed that it’s a clever game with a fantastic art style, but they differed on whether it’s worth 1,200 Microsoft Points ($15). I haven’t played the game yet, so I was a curious and impartial observer (like Switzerland…but without the chocolate and yodeling). It was a fun argument to watch because both sides were sure they were right. One argued that it’s a unique experience that’s so different from anything else on Xbox Live. The other argued that it was simply too expensive for a three-hour game with low replay value.

When you’re arguing with your friends about similar gaming issues or considering purchasing a game, which side are you on? Does game length factor into your purchasing decision? Or do you value originality over hours? Certainly this isn’t a black-and-white issue in all cases,  I’m sure you lean towards one way. I’m curious to hear which way that is! Shout it out in the comment section (please)!

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

41 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #187: The Limbo Length Argument”

  1. I value good content over length of a title. A bad 20 hour game with multiplayer and coop is not as good as a 3-6 hour title that is done well.

  2. The talk about this game reminds me of Braid, which was an excellent game to play, and one that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in that play style. It was a good game that I really enjoyed figuring out. When I saw the teasers for Limbo I felt like it was just trying to be this year's Braid, and in all honesty that took away some of the feeling of originality to me. That being said I did pay the $15 (1200 MS points) for Braid. I feel like it may have really just been worth $10 (800 MS points), but that point is really moot because I did pay the $15 for it. The same can be said for Shadow Complex.

    I would love to play Limbo at some point, but I think that that point will have to wait until the game is on sale for $10 instead. It may be a great game, but my lesson has been learned from both Shadow Complex and Braid. The hype was not worth my extra $5, and I wish I would have just waited a couple months until they each went on sale. Then I would have saved $10 total and been able to buy Doom and Duke Nukem (when it was on sale for 400 MS points recently) with the money I saved (not on my car insurance, sadly).

    Originality is worth it the first time around, but the second time around I am broke and planning on spending my money on other things already. I would love to pick up a couple of the Summer of Arcade games though eventually.

    @$75 bag of coffee

    I vote no, instead you could buy five of the readers here a copy of Limbo (me included of course as a idea generator fee). haha. Actually, if the coffee is good enough I say go for it. Normally I would say no, but with as much as you like coffee it would be worth it.

  3. this is the first i'm hearing of limbo. I don't factor in game length into my game purchases. It all has to do with quality of gameplay and story. I have to enjoy the gameplay and story enough where i can justify purchasing the game. If it's a must have for me then i'll buy on the release day but if i want to play it eventually i'll wait to buy it used or if the new copy price goes down i'll get it.

    @Dan Haren

    I called it!

    @Mel Gibson

    i just feel bad for him for not realizing what people can do with technology these days.

    @$75 bag of coffee

    i'd say you get if you can afford it. I looked at the link and read about it. This seems like the pineapple express of coffee.

    @rpad

    it looks like Reona Rewis may need you to console her.
    http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/articl

  4. @Smartguy

    I would tend to agree with your statement, but at the same time where do you draw the line as far as game length? Sure there could be a fantastic game out that is just mind blowing and well done, but only lasts an hour or two at most. Do you want to pay $15 for 1-2 hours of gameplay, or would you rather do something like purchase another month's subscription to WoW which is able to entertain you with great content and fun for 718 hours more than the first game?

    I agree, a good game can be worth it, but there has to be a limit as to what that great content is worth in relation to the time spent with the content. And when you mention a 20 hour game and a 3-6 hour game earlier, I do not know of many XBLA games off the top of my head that lasted for 20 hours. There are some, but they seem to be the minority of games to me.

  5. @bsu

    price is indeed relative. If it is a really good 3-5 hour game, I will wait for it to go on sale. If I have to have it though, I will buy it.

  6. @tokz_21 Awesome news on Reona Rewis! I might have to stalk her.

    @smartguy You tempted by the new Apple products? An i7 27" iMac with SSD and HDD sounds like an awesome machine for my crude video editing skills…though I'm still tempted by an i7 15" MacBook Pro. *sigh* Of course I still need a lot of my before I can get either. Ha!

    @bsukenyan I probably won't get the coffee. In some ways, I suppose it's like Limbo. I know it'll be good, but I don't think it will be worth the money. Unlike Limbo, the price on that coffee won't go down.

  7. @Ray

    I already have the 27 inch i7 model. I bought it in May. The SSD would be my only upgrade. I'm very tempted to price a SSD out though. The trackpad is intriguing though. I'd have a hard time justifying the purchase right now though since I have the magic mouse that came with my iMac and it does some multitouch. Decisions, decisions.

  8. @Smartguy

    Yeah that makes sense. For me I think Limbo will only be a good game that I can wait a little bit for. I could have waited for Braid and Shadow Complex and should have, but I just didn't. There are other games to get first anyways.

  9. @Ray

    haha, well that is a downside if the price won't go drop. If you don't get the coffee though and it stays on your mind though it will drive you crazy until you do get it…if you are anything like me that is. Also, good luck with Reona!

  10. @bsukenyan Coffee is seasonal, so I'm sure it will be back this time next year. Maybe I'll be a lot richer then. Ha!

    There's a coffee tip for everyone. A lot of people don't realize that coffee — like any other crop — is seasonal. There are certain times of the year when certain coffee beans from certain regions should be picked.

  11. That makes sense. Fortunately (or unfortuneatly) for me, I list myself as part of the ranks of people on this site that do not drink coffee.

    @topic;

    I have never heard of this game, "Limbo", let alone played it. I'll have to check it out and do my homework before I commit to spending that much money on it. Shadow Complex was totally worth what I paid for it, BTW. Like people said before me, "price is relative". So is value.

    Good Luck with Reona Rewis! … Come to think about it… you have an opportunity for a great pick-up line with her that I don't think many of us here have: "Hey, baby. Wanna check out my web site and click on my link?"

    -M

  12. I paid $15 recently for Deathspank and found it very enjoyable. Would say I spent about 6-8 hours on it, but there is little to know replayability short of starting the whole thing over. Still think it was worth it… made the weekend I bought it more interesting.

  13. God I hate AT&T. I no longer have internet while at work. It has been down the past several days. They said there are 4 down towers in Sherman TX where I work. There must only be 5 towers in Sherman. I am getting 4.5 Kb/s on 3G with 5 bars.

    Now I can't stand Microsoft. I am trying to play my Crackdown 1 game and it keeps saying "To play this disc, put it in and Xbox 360 console" ON MY 360. Jesus its a bad technology week for me.

    Now on top of all of that the damned phone I have been wanting (Dell Streak) is rumored to have been pushed back again. F U Dell I am getting the Samsung Captivate now.

  14. Price doesn't really come in to play with me often. Only times it does matter is when I question whether I can afford it or if it is an old game I have beaten before. I had no problem with the price of Shadow Complex, but buying Battlefront 2 at $20 was debatable. (I ended up waiting and getting it off Steam for like $6)

  15. @Ray

    Unfortunately I let someone use my upgrade a few months ago. But the other 2 lines on my account go off contract next month. I have never really had much of an issue with AT&T, but to have 4 towers down at once in 1 area is a bit crazy.

    @Smartguy

    On that right now

  16. Sounds like some fiber was cut somewhere or the power company snafu'd and that is causing the issue.

  17. I'm torn on this one, cause $15 for 3 hours of entertainment is pretty subjective compared to other forms of entertainment than video games. And there are plenty of people who would easily slap down $60 for an 8 hour game.

    That being said, "unique" and "different" do not always make something have more value, it's also got to be very good. And anything that's "unique" and "different" is likely going to appeal to a different group of people than something that uses a tried and true formula.

    I personally haven't played it, but it does intrigue me. I'll probably wait until it's the XBL Deal of the week though as $15 for a 3 hour game is probably too much for my tastes.

  18. How does $15 compare to a $12 or more IMAX movie? I personally don't go out to see movies….I wait for Netflix or buy a bluray since I have invested in awesome devices to view them at home.

    Plenty of ppl rush out to see Avatar or Inception in IMAX 3D and that is at least $12 down here. So by comparison the charge per hour is almost the same. I'd think Limbo would be the better value since you'd "own" it.

    I'm not defending $15 for a 3 hour XBLA game, I think it's kind of steep. Just drawing a parallel between two different entertainment mediums.

  19. @Smartguy

    Yeah that is a decent comparison, especially since you do own the content in the case of Limbo vs. Avatar. However, I was not rushing out to see Avatar in IMAX 3D when it came out (I did see it in 3D eventually though, and then said that James Cameron owes me an apology and a personal refund for seeing that movie). I thought that that price was a little steep as well, but I think all movies in theaters are overpriced anyways. I agree I would much rather watch them in my home. Movies seem to be big enough though that even if we all complain a bit about the price we still go out and pay it. Just like Limbo is probably selling just fine despite us all seeming to be in agreement that it might cost a little much.

    ps- I am thinking of getting my fiance a blu-ray player later this year near the holidays. Any suggestions on an inexpensive but good one to get?

  20. @Smartguy

    I have thought about getting a PS3 just for that purpose before, but I have seen a lot of blu-ray players for about a third of the price of a PS3 and wasn't sure if they were even a good option.

    Guess if that's the route I take I will have to force myself to get used to the PS3 controllers. I really don't like them at all, whenever I play my friends PS3 it takes me a while to get used to them. The PS2 controllers were better I think.

  21. @BSU

    If you opt out of going the PS3 route make sure you get one with embedded wifi and not wifi capable with a bridge. Being able to stream Netflix is a nice perk to. No gild sub required lol.

    The PS3 controller is fine for some things. I prefer the xbox one myself though.

  22. @Smartguy

    Good to know. I will have to keep that in mind, but getting a PS3 would be a nice blu-ray player to have as well, and would let me be able to pick up a couple exclusives that would be fun to play.

    Perhaps for people who grew up on playstations the PS3 controller is fine, but I prefer the xbox controller by far. The analog sticks being raised on the PS3 controller make them more difficult to use and slippery compared to the concave analog stick on the xbox controller. They let me move with greater accuracy.

  23. @bsu
    I assure you I wasn't raised on PS. I played Indiana Jones on my Atari.

    The concave/convex never mattered to me. The fact that the sticks are offset and not in the center is the feature I appreciate most. I lose a lot of precision using a dualshock. In MAG I had to rely on the bullet lasso method.

  24. @Smartguy

    I was meaning other people, I didn't mean to imply that you had grown up on PS, but I see how that could have come across. All my friends at school who have a PS3 all grew up on PS, and they are fine with the PS3's controller. The concave convex thing is usually one of the big things that throws me off when I am playing both systems.

    Of course your observation about the sticks being centered is true too, it does feel like a strain sometimes to use both sticks. The PS1 controller is great without the dualshock, it's like they wanted to add the analog sticks but only as an afterthought and didn't want to change the layout. Then they just never changed anything and kept the controller design all the way through until now.

  25. @bsukenyan From a technical standpoing, the Dual Shock analogs are more precise. The Xbox pads have too much of dead zone, which some people like but I can't stand.

  26. @Ray
    I lose a lot of precision on the dualshock. I need more space in between the two sticks and preferably staggered. I guess that is why I can deal with the deadzone.

  27. @Ray

    The original PS controllers felt natural to me, but when they added the dualshock it felt like it was just thrown on the controller in between the parts that I felt natural. Therefore, I had to strain my hands more to reach both analog sticks (with the added problem that every PS3 controller I have used feels very slick on top of a very convex stick, making it hard to get a good grip on).

    To contrast this, the xbox controller has concave analog sticks that are not slick which allows both of my thumbs to move the sticks more precisely and quickly than a PS3 controller allows. And where exactly is this dead zone on the xbox controller?

  28. @smartguy I prefer having the analog sticks lined up.

    @bsukenyan I don't understand what you mean by "where". The dead zone refers to a tiny bit of movement you can perform on an Xbox 360 pad without it registering a command.

  29. @Ray

    I wasn't to sure what the dead zone on the xbox controller was which is why I mistakenly asked where it was. The only game that I have ever had an issue with the dead zone on a 360 controller then is Sorry! Sliders on Family Game Night. Other than that I have never noticed a problem.

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