160°

Mirror's Edge: Deeper Than You Realize?

Though Mirror's Edge has received less than stellar marks from some, others have been undeniably drawn in by the sterile-yet-vibrant style, familiar-yet-innovative gameplay. I would, without pause, count myself among the latter as there was one underlying feature to the game that caused me to sit up and take notice.

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Vahn165627d ago

Interesting point of view. Would love to hear someone elaborate on this further.

StephanieBBB5627d ago

Imo I think both mirrors edge and Prince of persia (the new one) has far too much repetetive game elements. I mean srsly if they had released a demo of prince of persia I bet that the sell rate would drop by 70%. If they hadn't released a demo of mirrors edge I bet It would have sold 50% more.

2009 Can't come soon enough.

PirateThom5627d ago

While I don't disagree that they both had very repetative elements, I think the fact they are short disguises the fact a bit.

Mirror's Edge especially, is very trial and error, so it's "length" comes from repeating sections over and over, and towards the end die/repeat/die/repeat does wear thin and you find that the game is a lot more linear than the trailers would have you believe, it's not "free running", you may have 1 or 2 or sometimes 3 ways to approach something, but it's always going to result in pushing you into what is essentially a corridor with those sections in to try and remove the knowledge of it being linear... sadly, the later indoor levels do a terrible job at covering this. Not to mention, the gunplay is pretty bad. The time trials do offer some replayability, but it's a game that would have worked better if it was shorter and a download title. It has good ideas, but they had to stretch a game in between them, which makes me think the DLC may be worth buying.

Prince of Persia suffers a different problem, because you can't die and just restart at the previous stable platform, everything becomes very easy, in the previous games the sands were limited and you often had to plan your jumps or eventually, you'd run out of resets. This aspect is eliminated, and it's nice that you don't have to repeat sections, but there's now little challenge (unless you're going for the "be gentle with her" achievement/trophy). The length of Prince of Persia involves going through an area, clearing it of corruption, then doing it again to collection light seeds... and then sometimes going back to collect more when you get new powers.

That said, I enjoyed both, but I got them half retail price. I think they're must buys, if you can get them on the cheap.

Wow, I went on there on unrelated crap about the games...

Mr Fancy Pants5627d ago

For me Mirror's Edge is one of the best games I have played this gen.

bgrundman5627d ago

It may have been one of the best games, but I felt that like Portal last year, there was not enough gameplay there to sink my teeth into.

floatingworld5627d ago

Did you spend much time with the time trial mode?

Danja5627d ago

I actually really enjoyed ME also , the story needs to be worked on since obviously there will be a sequel judging form the ending..

but overall if your looking for a game thats not like every other game being made then give ME a try...

Xander-RKoS5627d ago

So here's an anecdote for ya'

I think Hemingway is terrible. Sure he put tons of symbolism and such into his writing, but he writes about people in a bar talking and talking in such a way you can't tell who the speaker is. Very modern and such, but on the surface (which is still important) it's still boring.

So, here's Mirror's Edge. According to reviewers, it lacks some qualities that prevented it from getting a super high score but it was deep, hidden, little tiny detail that makes people who notice question things they wouldn't normally...well, good for them.

I like that the DICE decided to try something different but I don't think it warrants any better score.

floatingworld5627d ago

Does it only matter what Mirror's Edge scores? Can there be value in the game beyond a two digit number?

I can understand that subtlety and symbolism isn't your thing, but can you see how those kinds of things could enhance ones experience, without necessarily affecting the score?

Xander-RKoS5627d ago

Well, being a Wii owner, score means very little to me...but it seemed (to me) that this blog was trying to say the game was deeper and that a lower review score might be due to reviewers not "getting" it.

Don't get me wrong, I love symbolism. It's just, I like symbolism wrapped in something good. Mirror's Edge is a good game and probably not fair to compare to Hemingway, but like I said, it just seemed that this blog was trying to make something more of something so little.

(Also, as I side note as I was thinking about it...red also is used as player 1 and blue as player 2 not always enemies and allies...just a thought.)

floatingworld5627d ago

That's fair. Really I was just pointing out that I thought the color choices were very intentional, not that the statement they make is necessarily earth shattering, but rather that it seemed an effort was made and it shouldn't go by unnoticed.

Xander-RKoS5627d ago

Oh totally (the blog also references The Scarlet Letter, not one of my favorite books, lol). But I fear it may have looked too deep, since it very way could have been playing off the player 1/player 2 theme or in this case team 1 and team 2 which are often represented as red and blue respectively. Whatever though, at this point, whatever someone thinks is probably right (a "no is one is wrong" kind of scenario).

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 5627d ago
Homicide5627d ago (Edited 5627d ago )

I'm sorry but this game just sucked the big one. It's quite possibly the worst game I've played this year. The story is boring, the levels are bland and uninspired, the game is very repetitive, the main character is an uninteresting twit and the combat sucks. Everything the game would start to get interesting, you have to go to the elevator or something and it slows down the pace.

Edit: I did spend time with the time trail but it's the same levels that were in the campaign. Epic fail.

floatingworld5627d ago

It's surprising that you don't mention the mechanics of the game. Obviously you found something redeeming there. I'm pretty much convinced at this point that anyone of this opinion didn't spend very much time with the time trial mode.

TheColbertinator5627d ago

Its okay Homicide.I still enjoyed it

:)

DJ5627d ago

Couldn't read the article. it kept giving me a Malware warning.

floatingworld5627d ago

That's strange. The site is definitely legit.

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80°

Battlefield 2042 Mirror's Edge Easter Egg Surfaces in Season 4 Map

It seems that in Season 4, DICE has snuck in a Battlefield 2042 Mirror's Edge Easter egg in the new Flashpoint map.

220°

10 Old Games With Outstanding Graphics

GF365: "There are some games with extraordinary visuals that impress us to this day. Here are old games with outstanding graphics."

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gamefreaks365.com
ShwaaMan474d ago

Bioshock still looks fantastic, one of my all time favorites.

Yui_Suzumiya474d ago

Beyond: Two Souls on PS3 can compete with modern day graphics.

SonyStyled474d ago (Edited 474d ago )

Same as Killzone 2 and 3, uncharted 2 and 3, Infamous 2, Heavy Rain, Resistance 3

jasonismoney474d ago

I wish this was entirely true, but you might want to load up Killzone 2 and Resistance 3 again.

SonyStyled474d ago

@jason I watched some gameplay videos of KZ2 and R3 on my full screen. They are on par or succeed graphically to the first person shooters mentioned in the article that also launched on the seventh generation of consoles. Try the same and see what you think

cthulhucultist473d ago

Killzone 3 was super impressive! I could not believe the graphics back then as I was regularly pausing the game to stand in awe looking at the surroundings! Resistance however did not impress me that much. Heavy rain is also another amazing graphically speaking game. It almost felt next gen

Fist4achin474d ago

I always thought the first 3 Gears of War games looked great and still hold up for today.

SonyStyled474d ago

They did for their day. I recently played gears judgement with on the 360 and the draw distance was so blurry. The characters up close look great though

JEECE474d ago

Far Cry 2 was awesome. In addition to having demonstrably better physics and AI than later games in the series, it had a lot of design decisions that, criticized at the time, have since been praised in games like BOTW and Dark Souls.

iNcRiMiNaTi474d ago

It might not be super amazing by today's standard but I thought Mgs3 looked really good

JEECE474d ago

In terms of art style it still holds up.

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270°

Mirror's Edge achievement designer: "Achievements have been bad for gaming"

Ubisoft Massive lead gameplay designer Fredrik Thylander, previously of DICE where he worked on Battlefield and Mirror's Edge, has spoken out about achievements and trophies, arguing that they "have been bad for gaming."

Machina491d ago (Edited 491d ago )

The achievements in Mirror's Edge opened my eyes to a whole other way of approaching the game. Since some of the toughest and most rewarding ones are basically whole levels turned into time trials with very strict time requirements, they force you to become much better at the game - in a way that difficulty levels just don't - and made me appreciate the mechanics that much more (especially the momentum-based running and platforming).

They actually made the game better for those like me who really enjoyed the game but wanted more of it, basically adding a new level of difficulty that took a long time to master/overcome. It added some extra longevity to a very short game.

He says "it eats resources that could have made the game better". I'm curious what he thinks the time he spent designing the achievements for the game would've been better spent on, because I expect bang for buck-wise achievements are a pretty efficient way of adding value to a game for the people who end up loving it.

shinoff2183491d ago (Edited 491d ago )

I kinda see his point but I also see your point.

I've been trying to remember what games over the years have had their own trophies inside the game before trophies and such were a thing and all I can think of is the star ocean series

Christopher491d ago

I think his point, though not elucidated upon because of Twitter limitations, is not that they can be bad but that they are used improperly to extend gameplay rather than reward actions.

Nebaku490d ago

Harvest Moon: Magical Melody on the GCN did.

In fact it actually built the game around it.

RpgSama490d ago (Edited 490d ago )

I am very OCD about playing games that I can platinum, in that sense I probably avoided playing games that I knew I would be unable to 100% complete.

I do think there are other people like me and also feel there should be an option for you to individually deactivate getting trophies on specific games, just so you play them and they do not go to your account.

-Foxtrot491d ago (Edited 491d ago )

I don't know. I used to think Achievements / Trophies were ruining games at first but then I saw the positive, if you totally love a game then they would offer you replay value by going after the last achievements to 100% the game. It made you explore every last bit of the game to achieve this and sometimes pushed you into areas or scenarios you probably might have missed.

It was a blast to get them on Oblivion / Skyrim, Fallout, Witcher, God of War, Elden Ring etc

Don't get me wrong, I do think there's achievements which are annoying, the ones where you need to find all collectibles which end up being missable AND are like trying to find a needle in a haystack are a kick to the balls, you know the majority of us are just going to use a guide to find them so what's the point.

Kind of a shame Nintendo haven't gotten a full system in place, they are so behind.

jambola490d ago

Nintendo seem to either be ahead of their time by years
or behind by 10 years
no in between

Rimeskeem490d ago

I enjoy having something to go for and feeling accomplished when doing something hard. I just hate it when achievements are based on things you can't really control. Like when something is for MP and the MP is just dead.

MadLad490d ago (Edited 490d ago )

I used to be a hardcore achievement hunter back in the day, but I couldn't care less nowadays. I just want to play games the way I actually want to play them, and don't care to waste my time just to get a little pop-up.

AzubuFrost490d ago

I envy you sir. I just gotta have every single achievement whenever I play a game. On my Steam profile I have an 83% completion rate out of 35 games, and my OCD is telling me to keep upping that percentage higher.

MadLad490d ago

Yeah. Back then, though I'm not sure what my actual completion rate was, I was mainly an Xbox player. I had close to 80k gamer score during the 360 days.

It just doesn't excite me anymore. I have less than 20% completion on my Steam account, though I have a pretty asinine amount of games there at the same time.
But I don't really bother with any of this anymore. If there's an interesting achievement I might aim for it just because I find it fun, but usually I just get that pop-up, say "cool" and continue with the game.

Outlawzz490d ago

Never been a fan of achievements. I just want to play the game however it may present itself to me, there's an overflow of achievements to seek in real life lol

Great for those that enjoy them though, much respect to the platinum hunters, it ain't easy lol

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