Simon’s Blog

I like this game because it’s slightly like Mirror’s Edge in that it is first person and you are running and dodging obstacles and jumping on bridges. Try to make the best distance without slamming into a wall or falling. $0.99 in the App Store.

Idunno what it is, but I love a good game set against a dark, dystopic atmosphere.  Here is IGN’s list of the top ten gaming dystopias.  Many of my favorite games are on the list, FFVII, Mirror’s Edge, BioShock, and of course, Fallout 3.

10. Final Fantasy VI – Balance/Ruin
9. Syndicate – Unnamed corporate nightmare
8. Jak 3 – Wasteland
7. Final Fantasy VII – Midgar
6. Mirror’s Edge – Unnamed metropolis
5. Deus Ex – Futuristic cyberpunk Earth
4. Beyond Good & Evil – Hillys
3. Fallout 3 – Capital Wasteland
2. BioShock – Rapture
1. Half-Life 2 – City 17

Ahhh City 17, such a gloriously depressing atmosphere for the greatest FPS of all time.

Go Read at IGN

Fight or Flight? In almost every game on the market, the goal is to fight. Kill everything on the screen. That’s why it is so refreshing to see Mirror’s Edge, a fantastic new first person platformer. Mirror’s Edge isn’t about the fight, but flight. Instead of engaging your enemies, you defeat them with your superior agility, by running right by them, walljumping to the ceiling, and vaulting to the next building to safety. You can choose to fight, with martial artistry, weapon disarms which put your enemies gun in your hands, but that’s not the point of Mirror’s Edge.

So I just finished the story… in about 5 hours, damn that’s a short game. I played the demo a lot, mastered the time trial mode, also I was a huge fan of the Prince of Persia series, so I guess you could say I’m pretty good at platformers. The average player will probably take 7-8 hours to finish the campaign. After you’re done with the game you can go back looking for hidden objects and doing speed runs, but idunno, $60 for a 5 hours of story? Your money is better spent on Fallout 3, which offers 100 hours of gameplay.

Bottom Line: A short and sweet platforming jewel, best rented.

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Are you yearning to enjoy the free running action of Mirror’s Edge, but don’t want to throw down $60 on a short single-player game? Well then check out this flash version of Mirror’s Edge.

And speaking of flash games based on fun, original, new video games, play this excellent flash version of Portal.

The reviews for Mirror’s Edge are in, and the game is getting excellent reviews. Here is the launch trailer. The game hits next week, street date the 11th.

Hit the more link for another gameplay vid.
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Here are the games I will be playing this holiday.

So many games, so little time.

Mirror’s Edge comes out for 360 and PS3 on November 11th and looks to be a very unique game. It is a first person action game where the player uses parkour to traverse an urban obstacle course.

A demo is due out prior to the retail release. This game reminds me of Portal, because the meat of the game is a new game play mechanic. And also the two are both set in a dystopia, my favorite setting for video games!

Here are some of my favorite parts of the wikipedia entry on Mirror’s Edge:

The game has a realistic, brightly-colored style and differs from most other first-person perspective video games in allowing for a wider range of actions—such as sliding under barriers, tumbling, wall-running, and shimmying across ledges—and greater freedom of movement, in having no HUD, and in allowing the legs, arms, and torso of the character to be visible on-screen.[5]
The game is set in a conformist dystopia in which communication is heavily monitored by a totalitarian regime, and so a network of runners, including the main character, Faith, are used to transmit messages while evading government surveillance.

Although the player character can hold weapons, O’Brien stressed that “this is an action adventure. We’re not positioning this as a shooter – the focus isn’t on the gun, it’s on the person.” Gameplay in Mirror’s Edge will focus on finding the best route through the game’s environments while combat takes a secondary role. In fact, on the E3 ‘Gameplay Walkthrough’ O’Brien says that going through the game without shooting a single bullet gets you an achievement.[6] Consequently, guns may be obtained by disarming an enemy, but when the magazine is empty, it will need to be discarded.[12] Additionally, carrying a weapon slows Faith down and the heavier the gun, the more it hinders her movement, which introduces an element of strategy in determining when to trade agility for short-term firepower.

Excellent! I can’t wait until I myself am choosing to trade agility for short-term firepower! I am a huge fan of the original parkour-style game, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Half-Life, the greatest shooter ever which takes place in a dystopia. This game is like a mashup of the two so in a way I already played it.