It’s not very often that a short game really impresses me. Most of my all-time favorite games are either huge time-sinks (Final Fantasy games, Call of Duty multi-player, NCAA or Madden football, etc), or have a lengthy single-player campaign (Uncharted 2, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas). It’s rare for me to truly enjoy a short game because I feel like if I spend my money on something, I should really get a lot of time out of it. That’s probably the biggest reason why I almost never buy DVDs or Blu-Rays any more, unless it’s something like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Firefly, or Family Guy, where I know I’ll watch them over and over again. However, from time to time a game will come along and really impresses me, even if it only takes a few hours to beat. And Limbo is one of those games.

Limbo is a visually stunning black and white puzzle-platforming adventure that puts players in the role of a young boy traveling through a hostile world in an attempt to discover the fate of his sister. The comparisons to Braid (a similar XBL and PSN puzzle-platformer) are going to be obvious. However the games are actually quite different. If you enjoyed Braid, you will enjoy Limbo. But if you didn’t enjoy Braid, you will probably still enjoy Limbo.

The Mission: Week 3

I was going to talk about Sultry Wine's 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon this week. I had all sorts of quips to start with about the bottle. I had some mocking yet self-deprecating photos. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like an overcompensating fraud.

The first reason is that this is actually a good bottle of wine, which is tough to spin into amusing criticism. At 8.99, if you're serving a hearty meal at your table and want a solid wine to pair it with, the Sultry Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 will fill in nicely for something more expensive. Secondly, and perhaps more importantly for you and I, is that I am starting to feel like a sham here.