Limbo

Limbo is a unique game that allows the players to explore the game without any limitation. By not having game tutorials as other games tend to have, it let's the players to figure out how to play the game and what is the purpose of the game. The background is gothic and romantic, in a sense that it has ghostly sounds, dark and foggy background, and scary atmosphere created by nature. The fact that the game character itself does not have any characteristic except to white eyes, it makes the player focus more into the background. (Also, this eyes can also represent "life") The death itself is very realistic, which makes the player be careful not to be killed by the natural obstacles.
The game itself is really interesting and intriguing of what would happen. It is a shame that it was only a trial version that we could play.

Primer

I did not like primer. There was a lot of mumbling physics going on that I think the story could have done with out. It was almost like the movie was based on an interruption of a group of people's everyday lives that were more than just the ordinary business man days. I couldn't quite figure out what they were doing, whether they were having out of body experiences or whether they were time traveling. If they were time traveling, why did they have 2 bodies of themselves walking around? If you disrupt time, wouldn't it take all of you as a person and a body to do that? I don't understand the science fiction behind duplicating every atom and molecule over a space continuum that exists in parallels. Or maybe I'm just being too critical. Either way, I think they should have explained more in the movie. I didn't see the purpose in a lot of the things that were going on, such as the man they were chasing that night who they suspected had done the time traveling also. And why the main character killed his best friend's double. Can someone please explain this to me? Also, why did they not want to stop? Why couldn't they have just left it alone instead of one of them trying to flee? Wouldn't the double eventually disappear? And if not, wouldn't that mean there were more than 2 of each person since they did it so often?

Limbo

I really enjoyed the game we had to play for class, Limbo. The open nature of the game allowed for a lot of gamer interpretation which made it frustrating but also really intriguing. Figuring out everything from the very beginning gave me sense of satisfaction after completing each and every step, even if it was as simple as standing up. This sense of gratification was completed by the fact that there was no tutorial. There was no one holding your hand at the beginning of the game and leading you in the right direction. Every step of the game was discovered along the way. Even grabbing objects was a challenge! I thought it was particularly interesting that there was no characterization given to the avatar so the nameless, faceless glowing eyed boy could be whomever you wanted him to be. This allowed for the player to project their own qualities on him and be even more devastated every time he died a gruesome death. The projection of death was also more pronounced and violent than it is in some video games, giving the whole game an air of uneasiness. Overall, the promo made me frustrated because I wanted to buy the game so that I could keep figuring it out!

Primer

The methods used in the film Primer could be seen as either frustrating, or stimulating to its audience.  I found the beginning of the film as well as several parts in the middle to be confusing because many things in the plot seemed to occur without explaination or prompting.  It is true that this movie should be viewed multiple times to really understand the story line.  I don't particularly enjoy being confused through the bulk of a movie because it makes it hard to concentrate on the timeline and can be distracting while watching.  From the recordings we heard in class, it seems like the creator wants his audience to ponder and contemplate the meanings of his films.  I appreciated the brain-teaser style of the movie but I also like when the creator rounds it all off in the end.  This allows the viewer to go back to the film and look for forshadowing elements.  This, however is not the case with Primer and it is expected that the audience view the film repeatedly to accomplish the "rounding off" themselves.

Primer

I must admit that for the first 20 to 30 minutes of watching Primer I had no idea what the characters were talking about. As an animal science major physics is like a foreign language to me so I had trouble paying attention to the movie. As the film progressed it became clear that they were building a time machine and travelling to the future and past. However, I didn't think that the movie got any more interesting. The film made time travel seem almost mundane, the opposite of what I think of when I imagine that kind of technology. I thought that this was an interesting way of presenting the idea of time travel, rather than focusing on the advanced technology that would be required or the logic of time travelling, ethics seemed to be the central theme. This I also found interesting because the characters themselves don’t address the ethics or potential consequences of their endeavors. Primer met the director’s objective of being the kind of film that you don’t fully comprehend after the first viewing. In hindsight I enjoyed the film more than I initially thought. I left class kind of bored and frustrated with the film, but after some reflection I came to appreciate it. As I found answers to the initial questions I had about Primer I developed new queries about the plot. I appreciated that although Primer seemed boring and confusing at glance, it has many layers of complexity that allow the film to be revisited over and over with a new result. Sean Carruth and his film are a testament to the fact that you don’t need to spend millions of dollars to thrill audiences if you begin with a well thought out story. 

Limbo

When we play games, the visual effects and the music are the things that stand out to players. In Limbo, both of these things showed up to make the player feel very anxious to play. In the beginning of the game, the setting is in a very dark and gloomy forest and there is only one guy that you are guiding. The fact that the game was in black and white also added to my anxiety because I felt like something was going to pop up at me at anytime. The music also added to my anxiety because the music sounded very ominous like something was going to happen. As we play on with the game we realize that nothing pops up at us but that we are just naturally scared that something is going to happen. Another aspect of this game that makes it so addicting and also a little related to the supernatural is the fact that there are unlimited lives. In most other games there are a limited number of lives that you have but in this game there are unlimited number of lives but yet we are still drawn to it because the game is like a puzzle that we want to figure out. This game is not like any other game that I have played before because there were no directions and no background or storyline. The game just starts off with the boy in the dark forest and doesn't even tell you that the game started because I stared at my screen for 5 minutes expecting something to pop up but nothing ended up showing up. Another thing about game is that they don't tell you the directions and what keys to press. I was constantly pressing every key on my keyboard trying to figure out if they had any effects on the game. Finding out that the Ctrl button was the pull option took some time. Overall I think this game was very good because it was addicting, fun and makes the players use their minds and think outside the box but also having a little creepiness to it.

-Alice Lee

Limbo

As a game, Lymbo falls somewhat flat. Two dimensional platforming with basic puzzle solving is an archaic style of gameplay that has been done hundreds of times before. However, what makes Lymbo special is everything outside of the gameplay; a mysterious and dark atmosphere looms like an especially dense cloud, enveloping everything from the setting to the character and enemies in a fog of eerie tension. With no instructions, the player intuitively wanders through the black and gray woods avoiding the occasional spike pit with essentially no motive, only a sense that danger silently lurks. This lack of information is where Lymbo ironically shines, for the dark ambiguity of the entire experience is what drives the player to continue. While the search for answers or at least a hint of reason is not entertained by the short demo, it does give a taste of the somewhat supernatural elements the game has to offer.