Zero Punctuation: Mirror's Edge

[n0va]

I watched the 'cinematic' trailer a few weeks ago and decididly settled down into my chair content in a pool of excited urine before realising that i don't actually own a PS3 and that i was getting strange looks of my fellow students.

I think the soundtrack does it for some people, and according to said people the soundtrack on the trailer (Alcorus) doesn't actually feature! So theres one plus point flushed.

Also first person works great for FPS and for the trailer - yeah while you're WATCHING IT! Now you try and perform such smooth motions when you can't even see your feet!

I had such high hopes for this game, and was wondering when our friendly verbal-assassin would rate/slate it, and I'm glad he did in a way as it saves me forking out £300 for a game and console that would have ruined my christmas like an inquisitive serial killer coming to dinner. Still i agree that its something original, quite rare these days, to quote Yahzee something that isn't space marine no 11,000,000,000.

Also, why did they feel the need to include weapons at all? One of my non-gamer friends pointed it out during the trailer, and i thought yeah why? I'd be perfectly happy with a free roaming (perhaps 3rd person) free running game, with a completely nonlinear open world to explore and hurl myself off if things got too much, completing fetch quests and missions and chased by hundreds of less athletic and doughnut chomping fuzz. Seems like everygame wants to add a gun section. Next thing we know the new Mario will be a clash between Gears of War and Splinter Cell with a gritty realistic Mario sabotaging pipes and rescuing genetically engineered sentient mushrooms from a hidden laboratory cunning disguised under a mansion, built by B.O.W.S.E.R whos sign is a giant red and white piece of cheese.

Lab time now.

 

[Sayvara]

1. You imply the EA suits don't interfere with decisions made at one of their subsidiaries. Not working as a suit at DICE I can't say for sure of course and I doubt you can either (unless you are one of course) but considering EA's usual demeanor even in a developer publisher relationship I very much doubt that.

I accounted for that already... see my example above.

2. If GM would found a subsidiary Evil Corp...

...then the subsidiary Good Corp can't be made to take the blame for that. So if one software house under EA makes shitty games and include Evilcorp DRM 3.11? with their products, then another software house, also under EA but that does not make shitty games nor uses invasive DRM, shall not have that mud flinged on them.

And that was the humor here... because assuming that the different software houses under EA are in fact pretty independant of eachother, I thought it was funny that the blame for the bad game that is Mirror's Edge got shifted away from the actual creators to EA.

3. If you follow your argument logically to it's conclusion then NO game is actually made by EA as all their games are made by subsidiaries. Everything else would be a double standard born out of your liking of the games by DICE, Bioware or Maxis but general despise of anything else made by EA.

You assume I hate all games published by EA. I don't. In fact a few of my all time favorites come from EA (The Jane's Simulator series, with Longbow, Longbow 2, F-15 and F/A-18).

So... 3 times counter-counterpointed. What else do you have?

/S

 

[Sayvara]

I simply love postings like that. Great job! There is nothing more beautiful than someone with a bit of know dancing in circles around concerete-shod ignoramuses. Bravo!!

/S

 

[Damn Dirty Ape]

Nice one Yathzee, I hope you do the game beijing 2008 next time. I haven't seen you review many sports games, and from what I've heard it's a trainwreck

 

[mintsauce]

It's annoying how many people, despite Yahtzee even having said multiple times in his freaking videos that conformity is bad, will instantly decide they don't want this game because Yahtzee didn't like it. I can understand being more hesitant about a game when it has a bad review, or about not thinking it will be good and getting some confirmation, but at least read another review or something before you blindly accept Yahtzee's disapproval as the word of God or something. I mean you gotta take into account differing tastes, that Yahtzee is a CRITIC, and it's his job to nitpick games to hell, and the fact that he seems fairly elitist in his gaming choices. I mean, to be perfectly fair he seems to dislike a number of games that got good reviews and that people still like, and while this makes him a good critic in a number of ways, and makes his videos very funny, it just seems like people should take some other opinions at least before instantly deciding anything Yahtzee didn't like must suck, PERIOD.

True. I've seen a lot of posts in this thread saying "hmm, I was on the fence about this game, now I definitely won't buy it." Guys, since when did Yahtzee actually like a game? That line of thinking could cost you some of the most fun you'll have with a game this year.

I absolutely love Mirror's Edge, it's one of the most interesting, refreshing and exhilarating games I have ever played. Sure, it's got a few issues here and there, but in no way do they spoil the overall experience.

 

[Worm4Life]

It's especially pathetic when his problems are so trite that you have people talking about what he says with sko baby talk. In each one of these comment threads you hear people talking about the game being revealed as a "fan game" whatever the fuck that means, and in this specific one I heard people calling Mirror's Edge a "trial and error game". That's just meaningless claptrap. What's next, dismissing games for being a "graphics game"?

He has lots of complaints that fall flat on the game, like first person jumping not working because you can only see your feet when you look down. People have been jumping rockets in Quake for years, many early FPS games (Shadow Warrior specifically) had super difficult jumps, Halflife 1 made FPS jumping into a fucking art. It's really difficult to tell if he's dumb, ignorant, or just doesn't give a shit when he says these things.

The guy is just trying to fill out his time, I mean Christ look at his review of Ninja Gaiden 2 a game that controls like crap and punishes the player constantly. Magically he dismisses these problems as being appealing since it is akin to classic gaming's harshness, but then he hits a game which isn't based off an ancient IP and it's just a whole different opinion.

I mean I don't really see how anyone can listen anyone tangentially involved with NGJ because it's far more about making your opinions interesting than explaining why you're interested or not in a game.

 

[Greyhawk]

This is the only ZP that refuses to play for me. The box stays black after I click it and the timer never changes from "0:00". I see an error on the page that specifies a missing ')' on line 115, char 226 or something. Could that be keeping the movie from playing?

 

[Anaphyis]

You assume I hate all games published by EA. I don't. In fact a few of my all time favorites come from EA (The Jane's Simulator series, with Longbow, Longbow 2, F-15 and F/A-18).

So... 3 times counter-counterpointed. What else do you have?

/S

Ah. You say "Just because some EA games are made by some moneygrabbing facist developers that doesn't mean DICE's games are too", I said "DICE belongs to EA, so it is an EA game" - WITHOUT any connotation what that does say about the game. So either we were talking about different things to begin with in which case we can agree or it's some kind of cop out.

Either way, time to bury this discussion, enough time wasted already.

 

[NoPantsMan]

yes, seriously, why the fuck do we NEED lens flare? I mean, yeah at first it was a cute add on, a "look what realism we can incorporate with 2 minutes of programming" detail in the finish product of a racing game, but now it is just downright pretentious and annoying.

 

[OutaTime21]

Great Review Yahtzee keep up the good work.

 

[Gormers1]

Adam Sessler takes up the problem reviewers have when reviewing difficult games
http://www.g4tv.com/thepile/videos/35298/Sesslers_Soapbox_Innovation_Vs_Numeration.html

 

[mark_n_b]

"Sweet flare!"

as is describe3d in penny arcade's PS hero, People really like adding flares to their stuff, it's not just video games, and as a designer let me tell you it is hard to try and let it go. Even though the general consensus is you should.

Maybe someone's just hoping to be the first to use massive flaring correctly and go down in visual design history.

 

[Evan Waters]

This just might have more to due with infrastructure than Aussies being such better fans than the rest of the world and willing to pay a 60% Aussie tax.

I don't really see how a guy who presumably makes his living with finalcut pro and reviewing these games has a right to ***** about prices, get a full time job you fucking hippy.

Also it seems kind of stupid if you have these horrible markups and horrible distribution that you just don't get a US 360, and buy your damn games on ebay.

From the videos, I've gathered he imports when he can or has to (BRAWL being delayed until the end of eternity, banned games), but wants to support the local shop as well.

I stand corrected on video games not being big in Australia- so, then, why the secondary treatment? Mark-ups to exploit fan loyalty are one thing, but why the delays? Does the industry just have a blind spot?

 

[Inuyfreak]

Firstly, the Government is "evil" because they killed innocent people in the riots for objecting to the economic changes that are going on which,by the way, is explained in the very first cutscene. Half the city police force is after you because you were seen fleeing the scene of a murder of a mayorial candidate. And the combat isn't nearly as hard as Yahtzee makes it seem. As for the bloom that supposedly blinds you, i could see just fine without adjusting any image settings on the game.

 

[MercenaryCanary]

Does anyone else think that Yahtzee is similar to Edgar Alan Poe? Think about it.
He is a clever writer,a vicious critic,and he has achieved fame in some sort of place for his works but does not became rich from it. Obviously there are differences between the two but still...Its rather interesting.
Clever review by the way. I especially like the part about the shoe-eater.

 

[lumenadducere]

I enjoyed the review as always, but I still enjoyed the game. It's original and while the platforming still has the issues it always does when done from a 1st-person perspective, it's not THAT frustrating.

And that new map pack they're coming out with in January looks amazing. I'm definitely looking forward to that.

 

[tapper21]

I realise that the advertising crap that litters this website is there becuase people pay for it to be there, but does it have to be on the end of EVERY video EVERY week always loading that extra 2 minutes of CRAP that nobody ever watches? mayhaps if it wasn't something as absolutely shit as EVE online it wouldn't bug me quite as much.

theres my rant over, Yahtzee, i love your work, you are indeed, in your own words, a "herculean exemplar"

 

[Quiotu]

This game is a disappointment only because of how good it really could be. Really if they made the story more interesting, made it third person, and fixed the collision detection, the game would've been above average.

I mean really, what the hell were they thinking? You have one of the dullest cityscapes ever created, and you're controlling a hot asian chic pulling parkour tricks everywhere, emitting those grunts that make most men feel dirty. And yet I can't fucking see her. I can't even see her in the reflection of glass.

Glad a friend got this instead of me, so I could see how uninspiring it is. A shame, really.

 

[chaironome]

Yahtzee, I'm surprised you didn't like this game. I find it to be highly original. I usually prefer third person platformers for many of the reasons you state, however; Mirror's Edge does not have these flaws. The control is fluid, accurate, and it seems to accurately conform to what I'm trying to do. The combat is not clunky as you might imply, surely the gun combat isn't as refined as something like Call of Duty, but that's like complaining that the snowboarding stage in Final Fantasy VII is not as refined as something like SSX. Mirror's Edge is not an FPS - It's an evasion game. You are encouraged not to use weapons by virtue that all the guns have very limited ammo. Combat is fairly infrequent too. At least you can actually fight people and it doesn't turn into a series of QTEs!

Most of all, this is a notable game because it's one of the few FPS games where you have an actual presence. There's so much polish in this aspect alone. I've noticed nice details like when you run up to a wall your hands fall flat against it. When you somersault, your whole POV moves with you. When you are climbing something, your head only can turn around as much as you could in the real world. Also, it's nice to see your limbs. I also like how your eyes change focus when switching from close to distant objects, just like real life.

The game also has an incredible art style. The gleaming white of the city captures the sense of oppression you feel in this world. You are navigating a clean, sterile environment with total order.

Yahtzee, I know most of your comedy stems from you being overly negative about every single game, but this is one of the times where you just miss the boat so badly. I'm so upset that the critical reception of this game is as low as it is. You are pretty much asking EA to never try an experiment like this again, and go back to making Need for Speed 851 and Madden 954.

 

[Shinkada]

*Lots of text*

Otherwise ranty, but good post. I applaud you. A little SC4 fanboy-y, though.

Thanks. But I'm not really much of an SC4 fanboy, sorry if it came off that way. The game was pretty crap honestly, not nearly enough progression unlike SC2->SC3. I was merely saying that, to someone not familiar with the inner mechanics of fighting games (which is perfectly fine, not being elitist or anything) it would make sense, after fighting the CPU, to accuse throws of being overpowered.