Hello, everybody! I've decided to give back, after winning 3 times 2 games already here. Solve this for a Critical Mass giveaway! In case you own that already, you can still complete this puzzle now, because there are another 6 prizes! Or just 1.

The Critical Mass giveaway is non-contributor and will last for a week. Any others will be at an unspecified time.

The puzzle can be found here. Round one - begin!

Hints

• 5 - the answer is a purposely misspelled version of an English word.

• Solving the puzzle will not lead you directly to the giveaway. :3
• After you solve the first puzzle, what you are looking for is another puzzle on It's Too Hard!

• 3 does have an actual computing term very close to the answer, which involves completely resetting a page in your browser.

• 6 - I worded this somewhat awkwardly, so let me clarify. There is a game series which can be found on both Wiiware and Steam. This game series is known for having retro graphics and a soundtrack important to the gameplay. Every game in the series has the same number of songs. The answer is this number.

• Man, I typed that first paragraph really awkwardly. I must have been sleep deprived or something. Maybe I should fix it? ... Nah.

• 6 - OH GOD THE COLORS

• The hint two spaces above is to get to Puzzle 2.

• 6 only includes main songs. Variations of one song still count as one song.

• 5 - Scientology.

• 4 only recently came out of beta.

• You are not trying to find the entire link to the second puzzle in one place. As in, you won't see http://www.itstoohard.com/puzzle/xxxxx.
• Word, man.
• Puzzle 2, #1 - It's a musical.

• 1 - Alright, maybe it's not quite as low as Hell. But, you know, it's roundabouts there.

• Puzzle 3, #2 - Subtract 5 to the answer you receive because I screwed up. :<

I found some puzzling music to brighten your spirits. I think it nicely describes my feelings right about now.

Solutions

Puzzle 1

• 1 - LIMBO

• 2 - 9/Nine

• 3 - Hard Reset (the similar term mentioned in the hint being "hard refresh")

• 4 - Krater

• 5 - Kult

• 6 - 3/Three (the series is BIT.TRIP)

Upon solving, you would receive the following message:
"Take the fifth. Or rather, the first of the fifth.
Up, N/A, down, down, up, up, down, N/A."

If you took the first character of every fifth word in the opening paragraph, matched the case to the second line, and put it on the end of an It's Too Hard! link, you'd get to Puzzle 2.

Puzzle 2

• 1 - RENT (the scene/song is "Contact")

• 2 - "Under Pressure"

• 3 - "Famous Last Words"

• 4 - quarius/quarius.

• 5 - "Quest for Peace" (the game being Tyrian)

• 6 - "Video Killed the Radio Star"

• 7 - Architecture in Helsinki (two of their albums are Fingers Crossed and In Case We Die)

Upon completion, you would get the following message:
"The answer you seek lies in the answers you've given.
You might need to throw an equal sign onto the end, though."

If you took the first letter of each answer, used the proper case (which was obvious), and stuck it in a Base 64 converter with an equals sign, you'd get the code for the giveaway. The giveaway then linked to Puzzle 3.

Puzzle 3

All of the answers here, due to being intentionally vague, each had a vast number of answers which I marked as correct.

• 1 - infinite replayability (from my recommendation of Audiosurf)

• 2 - the value of the games in my profile. The answer I put was 375.14, plus an additional round of near numbers, but Mecorx informed me that due to visibility of games and how prices were calculated, this was insolvable. For this, I apologize. (Not that it mattered, BUT)

• 3 - the value of the games in my wishlist - at the time of writing, ~223.

• 4 - profile

If you managed to get that, you'd be told:
"Combine two previously unrelated steps to find your final destination."

If you took the first character of each answer from Puzzle 1 and put it on the end of a bit.ly link, you'd find this pastebin. Put THAT code on the end of a Youtube link, and you'd get to a crappy IOU thing. The plan was to find the game on most of the winners' wishlists and give them all a private link later. Because only Mecorx found anything, I will select a game from his wishlist, buy it in the summer sale, and then put that up for grabs in the remade puzzle. Yes, this puzzle will be remade! With a longer timer and better questions! Thanks to all of you for playing!

Final Stats

I subtracted the things I contributed to from the stats.

Puzzle 1

• 2700 guesses
• 366 players
• 18 solvers

Puzzle 2

• 130 guesses
• 2 players (Award and Mecorx)
• 1 solver (Mecorx)

Puzzle 3

• 92 guesses
• 1 player
• 1 solver