Games

[icycalm]

http://www.mirrorsedge.com/

Cleared the prologue and the first two chapters last night (sometime between 6 and 8 am, following on 3-hour sessions with first Raiden IV and then Blazblue... I went all out on gaming last night and had an absolute blast: cool games all of them).

It's similar to GTAIV and Far Cry 2 in that it has an awesome engine capable of a great many cool new tricks, but fails to actually graft a complete game onto it. Design is lacking, in other words. Plus it's very easy, again like GTAIV and Far Cry 2. On the other hand, unlike these two games, it is NOT free-roaming, which means that there's zero fat in it and it's therefore still quite playable. If I end up giving the other two 3/5, this will probably get a 4.

In other news, WHY THE HELL CAN'T I CHOOSE HARD DIFFICULTY FROM THE BEGINNING? At least DO NOT FUCKING TELL ME right away that THERE IS another difficulty level IF YOU ARE NOT ALSO GOING TO ALLOW ME TO CHOOSE IT!

Meh.

[Choking]

Mirror's Edge is one of the few games that I can say has made me physically sick, inducing both nausea and headaches. I don't know how big of an issue this is, but it made me stop playing the game about halfway through. It's a pity, too, because I'm sure the game isn't as terrible as I think it is.

[icycalm]

I don't know how big of an issue this is

It is not an issue at all.

It's a pity, too, because I'm sure the game isn't as terrible as I think it is.

Well, I can certainly see why anyone who became physically sick from playing a game would think that the game was terrible -- I would think the same too if this ever happened to me! But if you ask the game what IT thinks, it would probably tell you that it thinks YOU are the one who is terrible.

[Worm]

What's especially hilarious about the unlockable "hard" difficulty is that it turns off the red highlights that indicate where you should go next. I mean, how is that supposed to increase the challenge after I've already played through every level and figured out where to go?!

Fortunately, you can turn it off manually for your first time through--I assume you did that already, but I'd certainly advise it, if not.

[MjFrancis]

I was pretty pissed about not being able to select the hard difficulty level right away, too, which is an unfortunate complaint I can level at half the games I play. Between getting rid of the crosshairs and the red highlights, the game is appropriately difficult for me at the later levels.

I can understand why they put the highlights there in the first place, though. I watched a dozen or so gamers who didn't even understand how to walk across the balance beam in the demo level. I wish I wasn't exaggerating! There was a near-universal disconnect of how one analog stick controlled your character's movement and the other your POV.

Speaking of, I was hoping that this game would have pursued a consistent first-person viewpoint. Specifically, the cutscenes could have been rendered in-game and shortened, and the game would be better for it.