Second Impressions & Review: Mirror's Edge (PC)

Whew!  Finally finished that game and it only took me nine hours, which is a bit less than I was expecting, but honestly, I am just glad that I am not being shot at by any more of the police.  As I did with my review (of sorts) of Dead Space, I do not plan on putting my my standard "Full Review," but instead my thoughts about the game and hopefully, I will not be repeating myself from what either myself or Dr. Potts have already said.

First off, Mirror's Edge was a very fun game with the level of fun being conducive to a couple of factors that I have worked into a handy dandy flowchart.

That is pretty much about it.  While I was indoors, I noticed that a lot of the levels were puzzle heavy., needing to figure out where to jump and how to get to where I am supposed to be going held a certain level of interest, but I quickly felt confined and claustrophobic.  I wanted to be outside, in the open smog-less air of The City.  Being indoors also meant that there was a good chance that Merc would call you up on your earpiece radio to let you know that there were some Blues on their way and they did not look like they were in the mood to exchange pleasantries.

One level in particular I had an increasingly difficult time with.  If you would rather watch how the level was supposed to be played, you can watch it here, otherwise you can finish reading about how I could usually manage a few jumps before I had to revert to watching the video to figure out where I was supposed to go next.  Considering how much of the game, by this point, has the player conditioned to look for red as a way of letting you know which way to go or to "jump off of this thing to go over there", the inside building portion of Chapter 8: Kate became the antithesis of fun even though there were no Blues in this portion of the stage.

The fighting in the game I also felt that I was never able to get a good grasp with.  Even just watching Faith in the loading screens made me feel that I was doing something drastically wrong when it came to hand-to-hand combat.  I always felt that I should be that adept at taking out Blues, but I ended up being very clumsy with my punches and attempts to disarm. Oh yes, while being shot at because those bastards were hardly alone.  Often times I would "simply" take down a guard, take his gun then play Mirror's Edge like I would any other FPS action shooter and take out the guards before going back to running.  With hope, the trailer from this year's E3 has hinted to a more streamlined and less annoying (meaning someone who sucks at the hand-to-hand combat) attacks and takedowns for Faith to execute.

As you can tell from the flowchart, any level where I was outside and not being shot at, I felt that the game excelled here and I would have really liked an entire game of just going from Point A to Point B.  I wanted more of that.

Another aspect of the game that I found semi-intriguing and liked was the use of animation for the cutscenes.  At first, the difference between the in-game landscape and the cutscene animation was a little jarring, but ultimately I liked it.

There was cutscene of sorts at the end of the game involving two characters that used the regular in-game graphics and not the stylized animation  and while I feel that that worked for the flow of the stage, I felt like I was missing the look that I had become accustomed to over the course of the game.  But, since the scene happened in the middle of a level, I understood the reasoning behind the decision.

At some point while playing, I did find out that there was a DLC map pack that EA Games released, but it looks like it is only for 360/PS3 owners and (maybe?) for people who bought the game through Origins as opposed to Steam.  This is sad because an obstacle course (without Blues) is something that I would love to play with, but I am not about to spend money on a console to buy a game (I already have) to then buy DLC.  I am not that hard up for a $4.99 DLC but I hope that sometime similar is included in the retail PC release of Mirror's Edge 2.

I think if I chalk Mirror's Edge up to a great "first attempt" then I feel there is a good chance that the sequel, when it is released in April 2016, will be spectacular in the strictest sense of the word.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

Looking For Something To Believe In

Monthly Update: July 2014

I know I usually put these out on the first Monday or Friday of the new month, but I decided to make an executive decision to post this today, the last day of June and looking forward to the first and last July of 2014.  

Woooooooo!  I just finished Bioshock 2 and by "finished," I mean that I saw the end cinematic after going through the game.  I just started the Minerva's Den DLC so I have not finished-finished, but you get the picture.  I may or may not write up an article about the game as it is five years old and there are literally dozens of reviews for the game out there in Internetland.  So in the meantime, I will simply say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time back in Rapture and I look forward to seeing what new places will be explored in the DLC.

I think I am also very close to finishing Mirror's Edge as well but there might end up being ten more hours of running my ass off (figuratively speaking since running is achieved by pushing down the W key) followed by confusingly looking around a rooftop wondering where to go next.  While being shot at by the Blues.

In the wake of finishing Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, I decided to plunk Theatrhythm: Final Fantasy back into my 3DS, having been probably a year or so since I last played the game.  I did this partly because, again, I had not played it in a while, but also to decide how I would feel about the sequel that is coming out on September 16, 2014.  All of my same potential fears for the release of the game and the announced 221 songs from the existing series and now including music from Final Fantasy Tactics (no word if the FFT Advance games will be included), Advent Children: Final Fantasy VII et cetera.  I am really just hoping that the game is similar yet different enough from the first game that I will not feel ripped off by already having access to half of the songs in the sequel; obviously I expect some repetition, but variation would be gladly accepted.  In other news, I should probably play/finish one of those other 3/DS games that I have/have not finished/played yet.       /

Steam's Summer 2014 Sale ended yesterday and I am proud to say that I was able to restrain myself.  I did purchase a couple of games but in total, I spent less than $15, which could mean that I now have 15 more games, but in truth the count only went up by four, one of which was the absurdly yet accurately titled Goat Simulator.  I am not entirely sure what I am expecting this game to be, either from what I have already heard about the game and from what the trailer told me, but I anticipate to be entertained.  At least it will still be a better love story than Twilight.  Yes, I just jumped on that train.

In the book front, because last week I talked a bit about books and my reading plans for the rest of the year, I began The Poetic Edda, translated by Lee M. Hollander to cover the "Poetry Collection" tile for BINGO.  Sure, it's not your normal collection of poetry to Tennyson, Plath or Wordsworth, but it is still poetry and it is a book that I have had on the shelf and have been meaning to read for a while.  Additionally, last week I also started reading Shadow Star by Chris Claremont and George Lucas, which is the third part in trilogy of books that takes place after the events in the film Willow.  Without going into a review of the entire series right now, I will post something later in the month (?), but I will say that the world from Willow has been greatly expanded, but at a cost.

Lastly, I finally got around to playing Settlers of Catan last week with Conklederp, Chreekat, Chreekat's Mom and her friend.  I know what you are thinking and believe you me, I thought the exact same thing.  And no, I did not win.  I had too much wheat and not enough wood.  Never enough wood.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
The Day Is Much Too Late

First Impressions: Mirror's Edge & Bioshock 2

Dr. Potts has already talked a bit about Mirror's Edge so I won't go into a whole lot of detail about the game, just my general thoughts after having played for just about four hours.  And last month (technically in March), SneakyTiki got me Bioshock Infinite for my Nameday so that influenced me to have a go at Bioshock 2 and after five hours, I would like to talk at you about it.  Yes, I ended a sentence with it.  Again.

I can fully understand the appeal of this game as it fulfills one of the core reasons why I play video games: Mirror's Edge allows me to do something I cannot do in real life.  

Presently, I have played through the tutorial and, I think, the first four levels.  The tutorial threw a lot at me, almost too much for my liking.  I agree with Dr. Potts that Portal does a better job of introducing the player to game mechanics and I feel that the tutorial stage should have been a whole series of levels and not just a series of jumps (good, now you know that one), wall climbs (now you know that one), falling rolls (good, you didn't die, moving on) and wall-to-wall jumps (did you accidentally make it up the wall and not really know what you did, that's okay, moving on).  And that's just dealing with the terrain.  You are also given a very rudimentary crash course in assailants, disarming said assailants and avoiding them.  The tutorial/training course takes maybe 10 minutes and at the end, I feel like the game expects that I now have a firm grasp on being able to complete the game.  Not true, at least in my case.

So far, I get the impression that the game is broken up into sections.  First, there are the sections where you are chased by Blues (coppers) and shot at extensively by them and helicopters.  I somewhat understand them being included so that the player doesn't linger and they add a sense of urgency to get through the stage.  The down side is that I am not having fun.  I feel like these stages I could play in any first person video game and are not special to Mirror's Edge.  The other sections are chase stages, where you have to get from point A to point B while following someone who is just a hair faster than you.  There is still that same sense of urgency, but instead of being shot at, you run the risk of losing sight of your target.  This is what is keeping me playing the game, to have the chance to free run through a level with the only threat of death being my own stupidity as I jump a fence only to fall thirty flights down and hear by bones shatter and body splat as it greets the pavement.

One very interesting thing that I had to do with the game was lower a lot of the video settings.  This game came out back in 2008 and I would like to believe that my laptop is capable of running a game that was released four years before  the components were created could handle the graphic requirements.  Initially I had "everything" turned up to max (except Anti-aliasing which was at 2x), but I began experiencing sever lag whenever I was being shot at by more than one source.  The skipping/lag became so bad that I was unable to time my jumps, which is a rather important ability in a game that centers around parkour.  I then went back into the settings and turned down texture detail and graphics quality to medium and was forced to turn off anti-aliasing and "phy sx" support.  I can now play the game while being shot at by five coppers and a helicopter without having to worry if the game is going to start skipping as I approach that highlighted red board leaning haphazardly over the side of the building leading me to that other building across the street and two stories down.

Oh, and lastly, I have noticed, perhaps not too surprisingly, that I get motion sickness after playing for about 3o minutes.  The effect is more pronounced when I play on my laptop, but on the TV, I can play for about an hour.  So there's that too.

I won't talk to much about Bioshock 2 as I ended up talking more about Mirror's Edge than I had planned and I don't feel like editing down or breaking this up into two posts.  In short, I am very much enjoying Bioshock 2.  I have played about five hours and after the initial disorientation at the beginning, I am having a lot of fun.  I enjoy being back in Rapture and once I figured out that the prologue takes place before the first Bioshock and then the rest of the game begins after those events, I was able to enjoy the game even more.

What I find interesting, is that I had a preconceived notion/impression that Bioshock 2 received bad reviews.  That people did not like taking control of a Big Daddy, that the gameplay was redundant of the first game, that the story did not offer anything new to the world of Rapture and that the game needed a constant internet connection all played towards the game being a disappointing followup to the masterpiece that was the first Bioshock.

As it turns out, at least according to Wikipedia, Bioshock 2 was actually a very good game that expands on the universe.  As is the case with any game, there are going to be negative reviews so maybe that was where my pre-playing impression originated from.  So it turns out I am not as alone as I thought I was going to be by stating that I am currently liking what Bioshock 2 has offered in the way of story, game play, voice acting and music.  It feels good to be back in Rapture.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

While I Look Around For My Possibility

November Monthly Update

Image taken from:  http://www.videogameobsession.com/videogame/merchandise/posters_flyers_stickers_etc/Nintendo_Calendar_1990/index.htm

I haven't played much games lately.  Mostly I've been working my ass off.  Also:  staying on my sisters couch in her tiny house.  And quite frankly, she tends to say judgmental things about video games which discourages me from playing them.  Even though I get a lot of alone time, I also feel compelled to work during that time, to help prepare her house for her upcoming wedding reception.  I have this little mean elf-goblin-thing on my shoulder that says 'you don't want to be the lazy ass that plays video games all day and doesn't work enough, you unemployed piece of shit!'  The elf looks kind of like my sister.  But I'm likely projecting.

Anyway, it's down to the wire, and I'm fighting these bad feelings more, and playing a bit more, y'know, to relax.  Trying to get through Mirror's Edge. I'm pretty far.  I think I might have enough new data to generate a full review, but the short version is:  Fun game, deeply flawed.  So very close to awesome.

I'm also playing Anodyne, which is pretty rad.  That's the one that's got my attention, and the one I think of when my thoughts are wandering.  I doubt it's too long.  I expect maybe four or five hours.  Creepy Zelda clone; like it!

I sort of left Fez out of the story.  I will return to it, but I think I want to do so under circumstances when I can really put a lot of attention into it, rather than playing while looking over my shoulder for judgmental sisters. (It's crazy how these dynamics pursue me into adulthood.  It doesn't hurt that I've got no steady source of income and have placed myself in a position to be somewhat dependent on her.)

Alright, so far I've:  torn down a wall of drywall, put up a wall of wood, hacked down way overgrown backyard, dug out a chinaberry bush, dug up a thirty foot driveway and am in the process of laying out four cubic feet of gravel on said driveway.  And I don't have a metal rake, just a floppy piece of shit leaf rake.

I'm done with manual labor for a while.  I'm taking breaks so I don't hurt myself.  Or anyone else.  On to Anodyne!  ... Yep, it's still cool, getting better as I play it!

-D

P.S. here's an article called "Plagiarize This" from a new (to me) website called Gameological Society.  The article is about particular game mechanics that you'd like to see used more often.  There are some cool ideas in the article and more in the comments.  Check it out, if your into that sort of thing (I'm really into that sort of thing!)

First Impressions: Me vs Mirror's Edge

I got this game in some Humble Bundle or another

I tried playing Mirror's Edge last night.  It's not good.  Sorry.  I want to like this game.  I really like the concept:  first person running, leaping, climbing!  It looks really cool when the computer is controlling the action.  But it's tough, and I don't think it's tough for the right reasons.  It's tough to do much of anything.

The first level is a training level.  Well, thats' good, because this game is tough, and the controls aren't terribly intuitive. They even acknowledge in-game that is a training course. But the training level, itself, is really tough.  Also, for some reason the training course is at the top of a series of tall buildings, rather than in a sand-pit obstacle course somewhere. Every time I fuck up, I get to watch myself fall thirty flights of stairs.  Doesn't do much for my immersion into whatever world they're trying to create for me.  Or sometimes, if I stray off course, I am forcibly teleported back to my starting position, where I get to watch the computer example again.  This is annoying and happens a lot, because as I mentioned, the controls aren't really very intuitive.

I tried using a joypad and I tried using the keyboard an mouse.  The keyboard and mouse was slightly easier.  Mostly, I think, because the ability to customize the controls on the joypad is severely limited.  I just want to use the control pad and not the control stick.  Can I?  please?  And, maybe, just maybe I want to use the shoulder buttons for doing quick turns.  No?  Boy this game is tough, and not in a good way.

I got sick of the training level, and moved right on to the first actual stage.  I managed to muddle my way through it, though not without annoying my in-game companion, who started berating me sarcastically for not moving fast enough.  I guess this delightfully one-sided banter is supposed to increase immersion, but instead it just makes the experience suck more.  And I can tell I'm muddling by the sheer number of times I fall thirty feet to my doom, and then bounce right back.  A big part of why this isn't fun is that it seems clear that the point of the game is to perform sequences of moves, not just to spam the high jump over and over until it stops working, and then spam the duck button, or whatever.

And here is where I want to draw a comparison to a great game.  Also a first person game that is not a shooter, not exactly:  Portal.  Portal is a fantastic game.  And, wouldn't you know it, it does a great job teaching the player how to play.  The first ten stages or so are baby steps to how to use the portals and switches and general solve small puzzles.  Then, after getting your sea legs, as it were, the game throws some very complicated puzzles using every technique you've learned up to that point.  It works marvelously.

All I've gotten from Mirrors Edge is that I can go back to the training stage again, and practice each move, one by one, in sequence.  I can't just jump to that one move that's giving me trouble, I've got to work my way to it.  And when I pass that sequence (by sheer luck) I'm on to the next move, even though I really don't have the previous method down.  I going to keep muddling through the levels for a bit longer to see if I can get the hang of it.  

Bottom line:  The makers of Mirrors Edge should have played through Portal and taken notes.  Then maybe I would enjoy playing the game, which has an interesting concept at its core.  

-D