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[2 Minute Review] Mirror’s Edge

December 2, 2008 by Brock 5 Comments

A game on the edge of pure brilliance and utter frustration.

Mirror’s Edge is 90% exuberant fun and 10% controller-smashing annoyance.

DO: Run through a stylized metropolis, pull off incredible jumps and try to outrun bullets.

TYPE: First Person Parkour

PLATFORM: PS3 & 360 (360 Reviewed)

PRICE: $59.99

MEAT: Mirror’s Edge places you in the red sneakers of Faith, a Runner in a sterile city set somewhere in the near future. Due to surveillence of nearly every form of communication, Runners are used to courier sensitive information from point to point in the city. Sadly, this is about as good as the story gets in Mirror’s Edge. There is a murder, someone gets framed and Faith has to save some people, but what passes for storytelling in Mirror’s Edge is basically there to give you context for why you’re running from point to point. The cutscenes are also rather underwhelming. As a traditional 2D animation afficionado, I don’t have a problem with 2D cutscenes in my 3D games. However, the ones in Mirror’s Edge don’t look very good and seem like something done in Flash.

Enough about the story. The real meat of Mirror’s Edge is the first person jumping/running mechanic. This is where the game succeeds brilliantly. The signature Runner Vision effect, which causes an optimal
route through the level to change colour, is a big help in the early
levels but is much reduced by the end of the game. There are times
where the route highlighted by Runner Vision is not the fastest
or safest, which encourages the player to experiment and find safer and
faster routes than the one suggested by the game. Each level will have you trying to get as high as you can and then progressing in a series of jumps, leaps and wallruns to the end of the level. At certain times, you are put in a room where you need to figure out the best way to reach an air vent or catwalk, but most of the game is spent leaping from roof to roof, which never gets old.

What DOES get old is the combat, specifically the guns and the cops shooting at you. This is where the game took a 180 degree turn from brilliance to frustration and landed flat on its back. Faith is not a super soldier who can soak up 300 rounds. 2 shots will usually put her down and a couple swats with the butt of a rifle will result in a quick trip to Runner Heaven. Unfortunately, Faith’s fragility doesn’t help when you’re trying to subdue a gaggle of cops in riot gear. Further aggravating the situation is the fact that while Faith has a solid punch and a few neat disarm moves, you’ll find yourself fighting the game engine itself instead of the enemies. If you punch a cop, you have to wait for him to stand up and then start the ‘swing-the-gun-at-Faith’ animation before you can attempt a disarm. This leads to many instances of either throwing off your timing or having one of his buddies shoot you while you wait for him to stand up.

Thankfully, these instances are not in the game very often but when they do pop up, they’ll often throw up a roadblock to success that will take many, MANY attempts to overcome. This is particularly egregious from Chapter 7-9 when the game starts to focus more on these combat rooms and shifts away from the platforming. In the interests of full disclosure, I did get the “By Faith Alone” achievement which means that I did not fire a shot for the entire game. Looking back, I think that striving for this achievement is probably what made the areas where the game goes into combat mode so annoying. The game is a lot less frustrating and a lot more fun when the guns are used and upon reflection, the 80 points I got for the achievement were not worth the frustration felt while trying to get it.

For those who just want to run, there are a plethora of time trials and speed runs to go through which pit you against the clock (and the times of other players) in a bullet-free obstacle course based on the levels in the game.

PERKS: An exhilarating sense of speed; awesome visual design; some very cool first person cinematics

SCREAMS: For no guns in the sequel; more first person cinematics; a better melee combat engine; more compelling characters and backstory.

VERDICT: Rent. The core gameplay is a great take on first person gaming and the brilliant presentation shows is a welcome change to the greys and browns that pervade the majority of ‘next-gen’ games. Unfortunately, the momentum that Mirror’s Edge builds as you hop from rooftop to rooftop slams into a brick wall due to the pervasive and infuriating gun-toting cops and the broken melee combat engine.

As always, you can check my Gamercard to see that I have finished the game.

Filed Under: Gaming, Reviews Tagged With: 360, Mirror's Edge, parkour, PS3

[2 Second Review] Fracture

October 15, 2008 by Brock 4 Comments

When a game is much, much more entertaining in the tutorial than it is in the actual game, something is wrong.

Fracture is like the Force Unleashed only without the story to give you a reason to proceed. It’s a fun game until people start shooting at you. I love the concept with the world deformation and maybe it can be incorporated in a better way in some other kind of game, but as it stands in Fracture, it’s a flop. I knew it was time to pop the disc out when I spent most of the first level hitting enemies with the butt of my rifle than I did shooting them.

Recommendation: AVOID

Filed Under: Gaming Tagged With: 2 Minute Review, 360, disappointment, Fracture

Give It Up, Hardcore Gamers

July 18, 2008 by Nat 9 Comments

A site I used to frequent more than daily recently posted the June NPD numbers. The number aren’t what I’m really interested in (i.e. Nintendo prints money). However, the comments on that post chafe me just a little.

It seems as if hardcore gamers cannot accept the fact that there has been a paradigm shift in the gaming world. Let me make it simple: the Wii is a success and is here to stay, Sony still has to prove themselves with the PS3 (Yes, they do. If you don’t think so, you are in denial—show me the numbers next month), and Microsoft seems to be missing all the cues to stay afloat with the 360.

It also seems as if all the companies are copying each other: avatars and Miis, achievements and trophies, motion controllers, instruments, etc. You name it, but I only really see one innovation that’s driving all the momentum. It’s that thing that hardcore gamers call a gimmick.

I truly believe that hardcore gamers are a dying breed. Hardcore AAA games will keep being sold for a premium (and don’t get me started on the “Collector’s” editions that some games just have to have), and the casual waggle games will still fly off the shelves at an incredible rate at a cheaper price.

My big surprise for the June NPD was that the Wii Lego Indy made the top ten list and the 360 version didn’t.

Filed Under: Gaming Tagged With: 360, hardcore, PS3, Wii

Cars: Mater-National [360] – First Impressions

December 22, 2007 by Nat 1 Comment

Cars:Mater-NationalThere are two things that are a hit in the vice-buttonmashing household: Thomas the Train and Disney’s Cars. Last year’s Cars release for just about every platform was a top ten seller and may be one of the best quality movie tie-ins ever.

I had purchased the game for the 360 earlier in the year used, and my then four year old son and I found it to be a pleasant surprise. It was easy enough for him to do basic races and there is also a pretty good racing engine under the hood for more hardcore gamers. Oh, and there’s achievement points. However, just because you think it might be a kid’s game these points don’t come easy, but they do come in 75 point chunks.

Because of traveling today we opened our family presents. One of the items I purchased for my son was the sequel (yes, sequel) to Cars called Mater-National. THQ did not disappoint in this version as well. They took everything I didn’t like about the first game (the menus and confusing save system) and cleaned it up. Most of the character voices are still there and every car has a ton of new paint jobs (which actually look surprisingly good). Gone are most of the stock type cars and welcomed are the international racers. What’s actually great about the two games is that they are nearly perfect continuations of the movie. They even have decent storylines.

The game is budget priced on all the consoles, so it might be worth a rental or pickup if you’ve got kids. However, I won’t razz you if you get it for yourself. I think they are that good. Generally, I get our two boys games for the Wii, but the achievements put this into the 360 realm for us.

Oh, and from what I understand the “whitewalled” classic McQueen is in this game. I’m there.

Filed Under: Gaming Tagged With: 360, Cars, Mater-National, THQ

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