Zero Punctuation: Mirror's Edge

[Abedeus]

Long story short, you like platform jumping and parkour, play Assassin's Creed.

You like jumping and falling in a fugly white city as an asian chick you can't even see - play Mirror's Edge. Or rent it, if possible.

I wonder when Yahtzee will finally review Warhammer. Maybe after 1.1? Seems like they are going to fix a lot of issues.

Oh, and the "Pubic Enemy Number One" made me laugh irl.

 

[Sammitch]

I rented the game the day before it came out, [hurray for broken street dates] was completely frustrated about 1/3 into the game, gave up for the night 2/3 into it, and forced myself to finish the last 1/3 of it the day after.

I too was drawn in by the original concept and the art style, only to be disappointed by both the length, and the thickly applied "combat" veneer. However, the new DLC video EA has released made me cream my pants since it looks like almost the exact game I was hoping for, aka NO COMBAT.

Trailer: http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/play/41723/Xbox-360/Mirrors-Edge/Trailer/Time-Trial-DLC-Trailer/Flash-Video

The only drawback is that EA is going to dick yet more money out of me to get it. :/

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

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"?

It can be a valid argument, but not in application to Mirror's Edge.

I Want To Be The Guy is a trial-and-error game, Mirror's Edge isn't quite.

I rented the game the day before it came out, [hurray for broken street dates] was completely frustrated about 1/3 into the game, gave up for the night 2/3 into it, and forced myself to finish the last 1/3 of it the day after.

I too was drawn in by the original concept and the art style, only to be disappointed by both the length, and the thickly applied "combat" veneer. However, the new DLC video EA has released made me cream my pants since it looks like almost the exact game I was hoping for, aka NO COMBAT.

Trailer: http://ve3d.ign.com/videos/play/41723/Xbox-360/Mirrors-Edge/Trailer/Time-Trial-DLC-Trailer/Flash-Video

The only drawback is that EA is going to dick yet more money out of me to get it. :/

You know you can play through the whole game without really fighting, right? It's hard as hell, but it can be done.

 

[CyrrusEx]

Very Late in watching this, and signing up to escapist. Just want to say I really like your reviews. And you hit the nail on the head here.

 

[Leyvin]

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?

I could be wrong, but isn't $60 (USD) ~$95 (AUSD) ... oh my god you're getting charged an extra $5 for titles to be imported!! Call the freaking papers this is the biggest scandal EVER!

Sorry mate, but I live in the UK; we're charged £50 (GBP) per title, which is ~$75 (USD) and only a year ago it used to be closer to ~$90 (USD), if anyone has a right to claim their being ripped off I think it's the British.

Especially given most of the time we have to wait 3-6months for titles damn well developed here. Does that happen with Australian developed titles? No it bloody doesn't
Sure you might have to wait an extra few months, for no apparent reason but guess what that's because your review board is retarded... We have to wait for it to be translated in to English, German, Spanish, French, etc. etc. and you know what's more irritating about that is 90% of the titles we actually have published here ONLY contain English. So claiming it's the language barrier doesn't even make sense anymore.

So what do they actually need to do? Oh yeah change it to PAL format... OMG back in the day that was crazy changing from NTSC 60Hz to PAL-I 50Hz, but ya know what we all sodding use PAL-60 or HDMI now; both are sodding internation given PAL-60 is identical to NTSC (cept it has a better colour bandwidth).

You want to ***** about feeling like a third class gaming citizen do so and all, but maybe you should do it in a room full of over-priviledged yanks. Cause believe me the UK gets shafted on every front when it comes to games... which ya know seems a bit rich given let's look back and see just where the most influencial hardware and software developers came from... HMM I wonder!

Could even say that Per-Earning-Potencial in to this whole equasion, but seriously anyone actually want to do that? Do you guys even want to know what the adverage earning potencial in this country is right now? Trust me I'm sure if half of you knew what the situation was like in the UK maybe you'd feel a hell of alot better about what you all pay, cause we're raped in every direction ... and we damn well accept it. In-fact personally I never care until someone bitches about how much things cost in their own country.

"Oh no gas prices have risen to $3 per Gallon", well ya know what screw you we've been paying $11 per Gallon for over 5 years now.

 

[nww02]

The 'experimentation' bit has got me hooked. I've become so bored with games lately that i've been looking for something a bit different. Just finished Shadow of the colossus (freakin' awesome man), and I'm looking for sommat after 'Sanitarium'.. Awesome review as always, tellin' it like it is. I may just play it to see how novel it is.

Also: Please can we have some more T-shirts in the range? perhaps one with "This gun couldn't be more awesome if it had tits and was on fire".. Even my girlfriend laughed at that one

 

[Danny Smooth]

This particular game really didn't draw me in with the demo. It played out like an episode of Dark Angel with Jessica Alba as the playable character. The problem with this is that in a first person view you can't even enjoy looking at Jessica.

Furthermore, it really lack the reckless abandon that should come with a game about subverting an authoritarian regime. Jet Set Radio was essentially the same kind of game with graffiti taggers but it had a looseness that Mirror's Edge lacks.

 

[Heroic One]

I can't get enough of the fact Mr. Croshaw essentially called EVE the most boring pointless game he's ever played, and they still advertize like crazy on here.

Anyways...
I knew Mirror's Edge would be short, it just screamed "only a few hours" to me. I'm sad I'm wrong, though.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

I can't get enough of the fact Mr. Croshaw essentially called EVE the most boring pointless game he's ever played, and they still advertize like crazy on here.

I gotta watch the EVE Online review again. Watching it with an EVE ad directly following it will be hilarious.

Long story short, you like platform jumping and parkour, play Assassin's Creed.

Are you saying ME is not free running/parkour, but AC is? What's next, that GTA is a racing game, but not Gran Turismo? Gimme a break, buddy .

 

[Chibi Buizel]

i can't view it

 

[severonic]

Wow, I really disagree. The game has it's issues for sure and the story is amongst the top of them (I can't believe you didn't slam on the cartoon segments!). I never once found myself running off a building? I also never had problems navigating and climbing up anything in the game. I feel that's one of the few things they got right. I can't wait for a sequel, because this was something unique and I found, ultimately fun.

Fail.

 

[Rocketboy13]

I had no intention of getting this game to begin with, because, for some reason I forsaw most of the problems so mentioned within (mostly the "where the fuck is the next platform, I can't see it" problem) but to have my concerns varified is confidence boosting.

Strangely I went back to Yatzhee's old Eve Online review because a friend keeps hounding me to play the thing, and then watching the advertisement vid play right after the negative review adds a bit of ironic funny to the whole thing that only seems to deepen my laughs.

 

[MorkFromOrk]

I liked the original concept of Mirror's Edge (originality and creativity so rare in video games these days). Unfortunately having to jump to your doom a gazillion times just to learn the right way to get through a level is just shitty game design. I mean, in real life, who the hell jumps blindly off a roof just to figure out if their is something to safely land on or grab on to?

Oh and the combat, why even bother? In order to take down a cop/soldier/robo-mech-of-doom you have to...Run directly into their line of fire. Oh but of course you are wearing your magic T-shirt that makes you semi impervious to bullets so it makes sense why you would charge a man straight on who is holding an Uzi at head level.

 

[Neosage]

hahaha finally got round to watching this and WHY DOES EVERYTHING HE SAYS HAVE TO BE TRUE!! it hurts

 

[that guy 2000]

Verbally murder Endwar for its surface of enjoyment but under it all a bad game which you won't play for much beyond the first day.

 

[Decimator 3000]

I can't belive that there are people here who take yahtzee's reviews seriosuly. He's a comedian and his reviews are intended to make you laugh they are nto to be taken as an actual review. He exagurates a games flaws to the extent that a game looks like complete rubbish when it may be only a miniscule flaw that has almost no effect on the gameplay. At leat wathc another review or better yet play a game for yourself before passing judgement.

 

[Bez_Bezson]

For a second I thought it was a bottle of Henderson's Relish [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hendersons_Relish] at around the four minute mark, but it turned out to be Worcester Sauce.

Still, I guess it's hard enought to get outside of Yokshire, so I suppose thinking an ex-pat is Aussie had it was a bit much to ask.

 

[spudpuffin]

Thought the demo was a bit 'meh'

I also thought it was just par and its also obvios that they put alot of work into the demo so that people would buy the "full" crappy game

 

[Fugue]

One of the parts I liked best about Prince of Persia : Warrior Within, were the Dharka chases. Where the game forced you to platform at speed with the bad guy on your heels. The whole theif Idea was a kind of way to introduce that same element of hot on your heels chase action, just with the cops on your tail rather than a monster. It could be done sandbox. Just like the way the Driver series did it with car chases. I was envisioning a game where you to stealthed into buildings, disable security systems etc, to steal the loot. Then finnish it off with rooftop escapes of 3D platforming fun.

I don't think ME needed to be open world or have any new elements like you've described. I can see the appeal, but I still hold that the big problem of the game was trying to create a story and game world that legitimised the game mechanic in the same way that (for example) most FPS games create scenarios and worlds that legitimise being a gun toting superhero.

To me it's like taking Tony Hawk or Skate and trying to create a narrative out of it. It doesn't work. It's better to have individual levels with various challenges. In the story mode of ME you use the "Playground" as a tutorial. In the Time Trials they create 3 separate runs from it. The tutorial takes about 10 minutes tops. I think I spent 5 hours 3 starring the Playground Trials. If the Playground was part of an open world the only way I could see myself giving that much time to it would be if they still had the 3 time trials there, but as part of some kind of open world instance quest type thing; a guy standing at the start point whose sole purpose is to dish you out a pre-scripted excuse for why he wants you to run the time trial. Tony Hawk wound up doing that around the time everyone said they'd run out of ideas.

Or look at the most recent Prince of Persia. It's open world, and the only reason you don't fast travel everywhere is because you have to collect all the light seeds after you've purified each level. So you wind up running each level twice, three times for some, and so the game takes a good 30 hours when there's really about 12 hours of content there. It's unnecessary padding and you can see in the reviews that that doesn't go unnoticed.

 

[thevegetarianzombie]

I never did have a problem with the camera or the collission physics, and to me the bloom was only a mild irritant. "Shocking brevity" does seem to be a pretty good description, though.

By the way, does anyone else here remember Breakdown? It was the Namco first-person melee game that came out for oldschool XBox way back in like 2002.

I loved that game like Yahtzee loves Branston Pickle.