Early Reviews Reflect Well On Mirror's Edge
The much-anticipated first person non-shooter Mirror's Edge is being released today for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Reviews for the game, while not without complaints, are generally positive. 1Up praises the controls, saying, "It gets things very right very early, distilling its first-person platformer ambitions into a very manageable control scheme. ... Once you're familiar with Faith's abilities and their limitations — imparted through a much-needed tutorial — it's easy to see potential routes through the world." Ars Technica is more critical, noting that the main story's gameplay only clocks in at about six hours, and that the artistic style doesn't vary much between levels. Nick Channon, a producer for Mirror's Edge, sat down with Gamasutra and discussed the reasoning for some of their design choices. The PC version of Mirror's Edge and some additional downloadable content will be available in January.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the demo. I have to agree with PA that it left me a little dizzy and with some vertigo, but the way that it made you see the city as one big playground was good. I'm glad to see that they've managed to make the rest of the game fun, too.
Unfortunately although the game is visually stunning and innovative, I found the demo to be pretty disorienting and am not sure if I will buy the game due to the discomfort.
Maybe it gets better as you get used to the game? Who knows.
I just finished playing through the downloadable demo and I'm happy to see that they've finally implemented what actually happens with your point of view when you run. There's no more "the entire screen bobs" to simulate a walking/running effect. When you run, you're looking at a point in the distance and that never diverges from your center of view. If the camera's orientation is represented by an arbitrarily long pool cue, the tip of the cue is resting on what you're looking at and the end of the cue (the camera) moves up and down and side to side. So objects far away barely move at all while objects right beside your head move as much as your head does.
On another note, it's nice to see EA come out with something original though check back in a few years and see if there's a Mirror's Edge 2010, 2011, and so on.
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What I want to see is someone modding this game so that you can play it as a multiplayer capture the flag. It'd be like the games of capture the flag that you'd play as kids, but at an excessively larger scale.
I'll probably get the game irregardless, but that would definitely increase replayability.
WAHHHHHH! I was whistling the musical theme that's on every trailer and part of the demo as I browsed over to games.slashdot only to see it at the top of the front page!
The music doesn't seem particularly memorable, until you can't get it out of your head.
I kinda of liked the demo, though it did seem like the game could get really annoying when the difficulty ramped up, due to the fact that it suffers from Dragon's Lair syndrome -- i.e., one mistimed button press and your character dies. Sometimes the timing is rather tricky, which means you just fall into the abyss over and over until you get it right. Dunno if that's really my cup of tea.
I do really like the art direction for the game. The oversaturated-white look is pretty nice to look at. Or maybe it just feels that way after 50 straight hours of uninterrupted brown wasteland and concrete rubble in Fallout 3.
Here's something to avoid - eat a quarter bag of cheese popcorn, and then play through the demo...
On the plus side, I was forced to turn off the TV and read a book for the rest of the evening. The ability to watch moving images has thankfully returned to me now.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
After they added shooting to the gameplay it did not look as appealing to me as before.
I'm staying with N.
So what precisely is it about this game that makes it so much more worthy of attention than other games? Is it something genuinely new? Or is this just a subtle advertising campaign? (haha, as if I even need to ask...)
From what I know, it seems like it is an evolution of the platforming mechanics from Sands of Time and more recently Assassins Creed; is that about correct? If so, I'm all in favor; I like the freedom of exploration (in AC) and the idea that a wall is merely a directionally-challenged surface instead of an impassable barrier.
I'll take a new game with issues over a very polished rehash any time. The ars technica reviewer wanted more, but I don't think it's a bad idea for the first game with a new mechanic to keep it simple and try to get it right. They can add depth and breadth in the sequels, when they have the basics down and we are used to how it works.
Interesting that despite the repetitiveness they still found it too short, repetitive+short+fun=replayable.
Couldn't even finish the demo.
With the horrible, forced tutorial that lasts forever and lack of actual gameplay, I got bored rather quickly.
Not to mention the "Dragon's Lair" problem someone mentioned before. First person perspective is not for platformers, ever.
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Looks and sounds like an interesting game - too bad I'll never own it. I don't have or want an Xbox or PS3, and the PC version has limited installs. Be sure to hammer the point home on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00198ZHC8/ref=s9sdps_c1_63_at1-rfc_p-frt_g1-3237_g1_si1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=0TM31B72FB9PTDNQEV3Z&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463383351&pf_rd_i=507846
Did anyone else use the delay of the PC version as an excuse to buy an Xbox/PS3?
I know I did.
E.
A.
Sucks.
EA GAMES! we fuckup everything.
But I'd rather them focus on community modding. If we can mess with it, we'll have Faith running around with a big honkin sword or lightsabre in no time. Oh and CTF, Team tag, dutch blitz and all the other forms of running around hold em type games with much larger sandbox style maps.
Six hours of game play and some promised DLC later? Is this going to retail at the now-standard $60(US)?
Sounds to me that EA is taking this formula seriously:
1. Produce a game
2. Cut out 80%
3. Sell 80% as premium DLC
4. Profit!
People love free-running (ever since the last Bond movie brought it mainstream), and this game really is the first one to go whole-hog with the freerunning idea (well, Assassin's Creed did as well really but since this is set in modern setting it's more relatable).
Combine that with great visual style (read: not brown), and there really is a lot of interest from people that is genuine. I like the idea a lot but like another poster get a bit nauseous playing, so I'm reluctant to buy the game.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No, I already have all 3 consoles. I'll be getting it on 360 no doubt considering my PS3 is god knows where getting fixed (faulty blu ray drive 1 week before LittleBigPlanet's release!)
I think people that haven't bought consoles yet are either a) still deciding or b) waiting for another price drop. In Australia the PS3 is still $700, 360 Arcade just hit $300 while Elite $550. Usually in Australia console sales dont tend to really spike until they hit the $300 mark (Wii being the exception at $388 since launch).
When it comes to option a) I dont think multiplatform hits like GTAIV, Fallout 3 etc factor in as they are on both consoles. Most people dont even know 360 version of GTAIV or PS3 version of Mirror's Edge will have DLC etc as they dont read sites like IGN or Gamespot.
They usually go down to the exclusives which until this year Microsoft had a distinct advantage in Gears, Halo 3, Mass Effect and Bioshock while the PS3 had Uncharted, Resistance and Ractchet & Clank
This year its different: PS3 got MSG4, LittleBigPlanet and Resistance 2 on the way and took Bioshock out of the 360 exclusive hand. While the 360 added to their exclusive list Gears 2, Fable 2. Despite the PS3 having more exclusives this year, overall in the cycle it is starting to even out.
So far Xbox Live trumps PSN but it will be interesting when we see the new experiences match up like the new Xbox Live Experience vs Home
Make SELinux enforcing again!
It's too bad, because I have a preorder copy but am having trouble with the tutorial also--CANNOT get past the balance beam tutorial. This may be the steepest learning curve that I've seen on a game.