By Kieron Gillen on May 6th, 2008 at 7:33 pm.
We’ve expressed our excitement before, but the first public footage of DICE’s Mirror’s Edge has just gone live at some console-show-thing. Rhymes with Tony. That one. To recap – it’s a free-running first-person action game, based around the noble art of Le Parkour, which is French for Running About Like A Mad Fucker. Trailer and some more notes beneath the cut…
Things to note – the colour-scheme is clean, which is trying to create a different sort of Dystopic mood and to make information clear. Look for the colour red, which signifies the optimum route across the map. At least in the footage, it’s a lot more naturalistic than many thought when it was first mentioned in Edge’s hefty feature. The combat is a little teased rather than displayed, but the game’s apparently much more about the Running Away than the Making Them Run Away.
I’m still excited, in short: It’s a first person game that manages to i) look like nothing else while still looking ii) realistic, which is the sort of thing that’s fun to wave in the face at the imagination=unreality brigade (I have sympathy for the position, but the absolutism is getting a bit cloying, isn’t it?).
I’m also very glad I don’t get motion sickness in games.
This will all depend on the controls, of course, but I really, really hope they pull it off. It looks awesome.
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Looks amazing. I hope it will also have a 3rd person view. But the Le Parcour thing is nothing new in games really, it’s why I loved Prince of Persia and would have tried Assassins Creed if everyone wasn’t so negative about it.
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Wow. Shit. That made me into a believer. The idea didn’t appeal to me before, but in that video it looked stunningly brilliant.
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Wow. That was awesome.
And I LOVE that music. Sweet stuff.
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It’s definitely incredibly impressive. I really hope they have an option to record runs of a specific map or something because the fluidity of the movement is so enjoyable to watch.
I keep forgetting that it is a female protagonist, either because the game is already immersive or I’m sexist.
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That does look rather cool. Kind of reminds me of Action Half Life and all those old half life 1 mods that had running and flipping off walls, although a LOT better obviously.
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Beautiful trailer. This is for the PC for sure, right?
nabeel
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PC is confirmed. Apparently.
KG
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I thought the breathing while running made it pretty obvious the character was a lady.
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Breathtaking. Happy its coming for the PC too. I am following this one since I saw the frist screenshot.
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Beatiful, atmospheric trailer, with beautiful, atmospheric music.Hopefully it won’t end up ash shallow as AC, which had stunning trailers as well.
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I hope they make the PC controls as polished as the console ones will inevitably be. This is looking quite awesome.
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Wow. It’s…just how I imagined it. Unbelievable, I sincirely hope that it all works out in the game, and more developers start taking first-person more seriously. It is the king of all view points.
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A few criticisms.
It looks very much like the walk in direction and let scripted animations do the rest variety.
It seems a bit carried away with it’s motion effects. Not only is it vaguely annoying but will make you queasy in no time.
Far too much gun. The instant they let a gun in the original concept gets compromised, even if it’s limited ammo having any weapon ruins the sense of pursuit and doubtless requires standing still or taking cover. Also she shoots herself in the thigh. She shoots herself in the thigh.
Too much panting. Bad as the first tomb raider.
All that said, this is the one first person (shootum sadly)
game I’m looking forward to. Please don’t screw it up EA. Please.
I like actually having a body, not enough games do that, but if I see a heart shaped tattoo on her tit I’ll be very disapointed.
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The desire to play this feels similar to the feeling I get when playing Audiosurf. Aimless… mind-gymmery, I guess? It looks lovely.
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Oh yes. This looks awesome; although I imagine that it will spoil other games for me, as I have long been wanting, nay expecting, games to feature this amount of freedom of movement (and shaky-cam realism, which I find pleasing in some non-specific way); so, after playing this, it will make all other games ever seem wanting.
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First person jumping puzzles!
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So… it’s a first-person Sonic the HedgeHog game?
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On rewatching the trailer, I wonder if there will be a way to play through this without actually killing someone. I sure hope so. The Bloodshed is kind of tiring.
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[Double Post, please delete.]
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WOW! that looks incredible, exactly what i hoped it would be, my only doubt with it is the guns, please let them be very limited ammo, realistic ballistics and no crosshair. it would be so stupid to have a game with a such a fluid feel and realism (well exaggerated realism) to have a crosshair in the middle of the screen.
Please dont let this suffer from consolitis!
This just topped my most wanted list along with Clear Sky and Dead Island.
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@pidesco No sound at work otherwise I suppose that would’ve been apparent.
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Too much gun thing: Everything they’ve said suggests that guns are rather take-it-and-leave-it. You can’t climb effectively while holding a firearm, particularly a big one. What about that trailer makes you think otherwise, Jonathan?
(Watching it again—I see two bullets fired in the whole piece. :)
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Dear god in heaven, I really hope that the sub-Coldplay soundtrack lift-music is only a place filler. If you’re going to buy into the whole Parkour thing, whats wrong with some French Hip-Hop? Or, well, pretty much anything except ‘epic’ piano.
Looks great, of course. Thought the colour coding was nicely done (apart from the BIG RED JUMP RAMP. JUMP OFF HERE YOU IDIOT, CAN’T YOU SEE WE WANT YOU TO JUMP OFF THIS HANDY BIG RED JUMP RAMP). Could maybe do with turning down the colour saturation just a smidge. Sod motion sickness, I think I’ve got retina burn…
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Loved it. Hoping sound and silence are gonna be key in the game mechanics.
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This is the first game since Crysis to leave me stunned by the visuals, not because they are anything massively amazing technically, but the choice of setting is audacious and so vividly bright!
It looks like it could almost carry the Jet Set Radio monicker should it be cel-shaded. Who’s with me on betting a JSR mod for this at least gets considered?
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Reply to Prevost
The last third of the trailer is pretty much all combat, heavily scripted combat at that, it’s pretty far from
The instant you have a weapon that dynamic changes. Just look at Call of Cthulhu. When you got a gun nothing is as frightening or as powerful. Also all those fighting moves were done at a standstill, I was hoping you’d use momentum and agility to push past them. Not stand there and play a quick time event and end up winning a machine gun like a present.
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I see nothing wrong with guns provided they’re held correctly (two hands) when possible, and carry the same amount of ammo as their real-life counterparts.
@J.Prevost
Firearms can be holstered or tucked into the waist of one’s trousers.
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I lust.
It reminds me of when I saw the first screens for Shadow of the Colossus; something NEW. And beautiful in a new and different way.
And the sounds of the breathing! Perfect.
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I’m excited for this since the first screenshot as well, and the trailer is really beautiful.
It’s all about the movement for me and I really really hope it’s going to be challenging with a steep and steady learning curve, NOT piss easy like Assassins Creed which was admittedly fun and gorgeous to look at, but just not hard at all after 10 minutes spent with learning the button layout.
Melee Combat looks fun too, I would like to see more of that.
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Crazy it’s taken them this long to get out a video, but I’m quite impressed seeing it in motion. Now if they can back that up with some excellent level design this game looks golden.
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Urgh, wall running. It just breaks my suspension of disbelief if someone takes more than three steps along a vertical face.
Any game with a really unique art style is automatically win though.
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Worth noting something else they said previously: There was something about guns being treated as disposable things. Getting a gun wouldn’t be the same thing as it may be in other games.
KG
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Prince of Persia and Assassins Creed don’t compare to this at all. This is amazing.
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Now why did I buy Assassins Creed?
“Worth noting something else they said previously: There was something about guns being treated as disposable things. Getting a gun wouldn’t be the same thing as it may be in other games.”
I heard that you had to destroy any weapon you got hold of.
I either misheard, or they realised how idiotic that would be.
My guess is that you can’t do the acrobatic stunts needed to progress when you have a gun.
BTW is this going to be linear or sandbox?
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could be another surprise hit like portal
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I hope they make it hard to take down an enemy in combat. I mean it’s ok to kick away an enemy, take his gun and swat him with it, etc.. as long as the game punishes you for staying around to finish your enemy off.
Yes, I’ve said “punishes”. I know, games should never punish the player, yadayadayada..
But look at Assassin’s Creed. They made combat so easy (granted, it’s extremely tedious to fight off a handfull of guards, but once you know how it’s done it’s nothing to be feared) that you seldom felt a thrill when sneaking around or running over rooftops.
But I still have high hopes for Mirror’s Edge.
Make it hard to fight against more than one or two enemies at a time. Time encounters, so that you’ll have a fight against multiple enemies if you stop moving to kill an enemy.
Design guns, so that you can’t do any of your fancy parcour moves while holding one. Make all action buttons on the joypad (it’s coming out for consoles as well and I guess they’re designing the interface around a joypad) throw the gun away, to really drive home the point that this is a game about running.
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“Urgh, wall running. It just breaks my suspension of disbelief if someone takes more than three steps along a vertical face.”
Well, more than three steps on a wall is totally possible. When I used to do parkour, I could do four… however, I completely agree: More than one or two steps in a wall run, and you know it’s mainly for show. Each extra step gives less purchase on the surface (in the case of solid, vertical walls), so it’s diminishing returns. The hardcore people I’ve seen will rarely, if ever, use more than one kick off the wall. So yeah, it’s not entirely realistic, but… hey. It’s a game.
Delighted with it otherwise. I feel like all my worries about overly state-machiney animation have been blown away… everything in that respect is nice and hidden. There’s also no excess fat wrt parkour moves – they just have practical stuff, there.
I would still like to see if the levels allow a lot of path-creativity. You’re missing a trick if you do a parkour game without letting people figure out their own unique routes. I’m sure it’ll be fine, though.
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Anyway, my point about the two shots is really that there was not much combat stuff here. There was enough to remind you that “Yes, there will be conflict in the game. It is not all running across beautiful snowy rooftops”, but not enough to be able to say anything about how much combat or what style of combat will be in the game. In that context, I’m willing to trust the developers’ assertions (for now) about how it will work.
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Reply to Keiron
That quotes meaningless, with the exception of Half Life 2 and FPS RPGs most guns in games are disposable. Especially since Halo style limited weapons kicked in where you swap empties for fullies. I would have much preferred momentum melee instead. Shoulder barges. shoves, flying kicks, pulling people down as you run past them maybe even using the slower guys as stair cases. My guess is either the developer isn’t as radical as I hoped or EA couldn’t understand a first person game not having guns.
I still look forward to this game. But its got compromise written all over it.
To be like Parkour it would need to be sandbox and alot slower. If you watch the unedited stuff it’s maybe 15 seconds of movement then a minute and a half of looking for the next bit.
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The best thing about the whole game:
It’s got a female protagonist with small breasts. Wow, game developers are growing up at last.
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Reply to Johnathan:
I see your point, but hey, i still reckon this will make a great demo at least!
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Criticisms of potential linearity aside, those are some of the most beautiful looking visuals I’ve seen in a long, long time. Pleased to see that seeing them moving doesn’t break the appeal.
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Jonathan
The Parkour you see on youtube is fast, because they use known routes for movies. When trying a building or a block for the first time, most runners are pretty cautious, at least as soon as they are some meters above ground.
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Jonathan: Well, there’s disposable and there’s disposable. Being only able to carry one gun, not being able to do any of your le parkour with it, not being able to holster it, etc are all methods to make a gun more truly disposable.
Speculating: At a range, you running towards someone, and you’re dead. The set ups would be getting close to someone enough to grapple their gun, off them, empty the gun at the remaining people and then – with their ranks thinned – run.
Problem with close combat being hyper-effective is that it means their guns have to be ineffective. And if that’s true, why run?
Of course, we’re madly speculating now.
(As you say, it’s less Le Parkour and more hollywood chase-movie)
KG
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Reply to Keiron
Still a compromise though.
Why does it have to be guns? Why can’t they have batons or mace or riotshields you can run up? That would help make them feel like the police and not just generic mercs. Also I’m just as concerned about the over animated look. Also that slow motion bit had better not be in game.
I guess I’m being over critical but it just shows how much I was looking forward to a genuinely new game.
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Flipping crikey, that got my motion sickness juices going.
What a beautiful game.
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Moody looking tattooed Japanese femme fatale in free running ass kicking madness…works for me ;)
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Jonathan: Well, I’d imagine people in the future will almost certainly have guns, especially in a dystopia. I don’t think it’s fair to call a game an exercise in compromise where they’re just making creative decisions which you wouldn’t have done in the same situation.
Or, at least, I don’t think it’s fair to say that *yet*.
KG
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It looks great, but it also looks like the running around will be as semi-automatic as it is in AC. It might be necessary for the desired speed and effect, but I didn’t enjoy it in AC – there just wasn’t enough to do while running/climbing (as opposed to, say, Prince of Persia), and for a game largely based on running around, that’s quite a major criticism. I hope they found a way aound that with Mirror’s Edge.
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Reply to UncleLou
Thats my biggest fear too. Looks too slick for my liking.
Reply to Kieron
What happened to not putting enemies in front of you?
Ok. I’ll lay off until more footage or a demo arrives. I just hoped Dice would of had enough guts as a seasoned developer to remove the shootum entirely.
I’m still cautiously optimistic. But if it’s a let down and we’re all bad mouthing it in 18 monthes just remember, I funking called it.
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If I never get to play another game again other than this, I will die happy.
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Fucking hell Jonathan…
You’re speaking as if the game is finished, 100% feature complete and that demo shows everything it will feature…
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BRILLIANT.
I’ve been following Mirror’s Edge since the first concept art showed up in Edge Magazine, and seeing this only makes me more excited.
As for the naysayers who’re complaining about combat: a game in which the player has the ability to defend themselves poorly is almost invariably more interesting than a game in which the player can’t defend themselves at all, since they are forced to choose between flight or an uncertain fight, whereas when they’re defenceless, the ONLY option is flight.
From the looks of things, guns aren’t very accurate (especially when you’re diving backwards through the air), and presumably have quite limited ammo, and we have as yet no idea how easy it actually is to take down an enemy in melee combat. Let alone what will happen if you try and do that fancy neck-breaky thing on a guy while his two mates are standing nearby with guns.
Oh, and Jonathan, how would you remove the shootum entirely? Either you have the player mysteriously unable to obtain guns from the cops they’ve just beaten down (which is just stupid), or you include no guns at all, in which case the enemies are rather less of a threat, since they can’t possibly catch up with you.
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Reply to Optimaximal
Why aren’t you saying that to the people calling it fantastic? Surely you can’t say that based on a 90 second trailer.
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The most obvious way that guns could be made secondary is essentially that if you pull a gun off a guy, unless you stop to strip him of magazines/clips/shells…. the guns useless as soon as you empty it. And probably, if his mates are in hot pursuit, you aren’t going to want to stop.
OR: Make the shooting accuracy somewhat more akin to what you really get with a pistol. Much as single kill Pistol headshots at range are beloved of the FPS community, they really aren’t terribly accurate (or powerful) weapons.
Anyway, short demo, no idea what the person in control was actually doing…. all this really does is give a hint that the game could be good. It gives no clue as to what the running/fighting ratios are.
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Most of them are saying the TRAILER was fantastic or that the game seems to be (so far) meeting the expectations of the game based on how it seems to follow the bullet points laid down by the original previews, whereas you are condemming the game based on it featuring shooty bangs > all when there has been no clear answer too how in depth the melee and firearm-based combat will be.
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That looks absolutely delicious, loved that clean minimalist look from when I first saw it and the free-running seems to be very smooth flowing while still allowing you some control to weave your own thread across the rooftops.
Heck if it’s smooth enough I hope there’s some game mode that’s either time trial or combo based so you can just free-run for it’s own sake without being chased down, stuff like Trackmania United, Trials 2 and even the World of Goo preview have me sold on leader boards where you can challenge scores nearby to your own rather than focussing on the untouchables at the top, seems to be an absolute hook when it’s scores I have a hope of beating…..
(now that I’ve mentioned Trackmania, I’d love to see it’s free-running equivalent please, post haste!).
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Hobbes: Yeah – that’s what I meant too.
KG
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If HL2 is any indication, first-person platformers are a PITA. Hopefully there will be a 3rd person view.
I absolutely love the art direction, especially the hue of the city. Very Sim City-esque.
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It’s been mentioned in interviews; the guns you take from cops can be used for as long as their clip holds out, but holding one also badly hampers your movement.
In a game entirely about keeping up momentum, this is probably going to work really well in curtailing the shootyness. You’ll likely be disarming a guy, using the gun to escape then immediately throwing it away.
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The point of this game is to make a GOOD FP-platformer. I guess they might have a 3rd person if everyone bitches about it, but it completely invalidates the objective of the project and all the work they are putting into making the first person view feel right.
And it would be madness to put all this work into movement and momentum, and then completely ignore it for the combat. I mean, a flying kick is practically garunteed.
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No, seriously, this game looks magnificent.
I’m not worried about the presence of guns, the nature of combat, or the visuals (which I think happen to, how do you say, “rock”–in an arty way, of course), I’m just worried that it won’t live up to the suddenly very high expectations I have for the game.
But hey, it’s just getting started.
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Wait lemme get this straight. The game is just about running around and hopping and capering and sliding, and they think it’s gonna be a success because it’s “cool” and “awesome” for little kids?
What’s wrong with them? Where’s the gameplay?
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But here, unlike in HL2 you actually have feet, so that should make all the difference.
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Gylfi – did you play assissins creed at all? The best part of that game was just tooling around on roof tops.
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Amazing how much just a little bit of hand and foot in-frame, coupled with the breath and other sound, add to the feeling of motion. Beautiful visual design. Hope this turns out to be as special as it promises.
(And I second the Hooray! for clothed, non-pornstar boobs in games.)
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I have a feeling I will get motion sickness from this; no peripheral vision.
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This game looks great so far. It’s got its own very cool looking artistic style, though I wouldn’t go so far as to say its as original/awesome as Shadow of the Colossus, as someone mentioned.
The only possible issue is imposed linearity, which would be incredibly lame, and a sandbox mode would be a nice addition.
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This has sold it to me. They’d have to go a long, long way wrong for it to drop back off my radar.
My 2 cents on the gun fighting is that it’d probably be a fairly realistic implementation, taking the hand holding the gun out of the free running and limiting your available moves.
I wouldn’t even be suprised if situations were engineered to exploit that, allowing the level design to absolutly dictate when you can and can’t have a weapon.
I actually feel this has the ‘gameplay’ and indeed game changing potential of – dare I say it – thinking with Portals ;)
Edit: Female lead, anyone?
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Looks interesting.
No love for game trailers any more I notice. Have they shunned you?
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We’d run away with you any time, Gametrailers
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Well, up til now..
That said, if you can handle something like Portal you should be able to handle this.
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Listening to the music again, I don’t really mind the style, but I’d rather it were more driving if it’s going to be a game about running away from the cops. The trailer music is a little too floaty. But then, it’s only the trailer music.
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Any word about the copy protection? (peeved off from the other thread) EA bastards.
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FACE SCAN IT’S A GODDAMN FACE SCAN NOW
PRESS FACE AGAINST SCREEN….. NOW!! NOW!! NOW!!!
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YOU DO NOT APPEAR TO HAVE YOUR ORIGINAL FACE. IF YOU HAVE GROWN A BEARD, PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE SHAVED IT OFF BEFORE REQUESTING VERIFICATION. IF YOU HAVE SHAVED OFF A BEARD YOU HAD AT TIME OF REGISTRATION, PLEASE REGROW THE BEARD BEFORE REQUESTING VERIFICATION.
“Y’know, really, you’re the ones requesting verification…”
YOU HAVE TALKED BACK. PLEASE CALL SECUFACE SUPPORT FOR HALF AN HOUR ON THIS INTERNATIONAL NUMBER.
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Deus Ex Babechina: literally “whoa the character you are playing is a babe”). The Latin phrase “deus ex babechina” has its origins in the conventions of Greek drama. It refers to the inexplicable addition of a hot female avatar appearing at the end of trailer or cutscene. The phrase has been extended to refer to any resolution to a trailer where the player without due regard to the story’s internal logic is revealed to be a babe so hot ass that it challenges suspension of disbelief, allowing the author to conclude the story with an unlikely, though more palatable image.
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Like Assassins Creeds, there is no definite route to things – the red items just show the developers ideal quick route.
Whether said route is necessarily the safest (of which will likely be signposted with a yellow/green motif and will be less visually exciting, longer and likely won’t involve hard combat or leaping from skyscrapers) is open for interpretation.
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vic: Yeah, I kinda thought the same, except it was probably the eye that did it for me; guess I was thinking of a ‘tougher’ dame, like Chevette from the Bridge trilogy. Anyway!
I wonder if there’d be a feasible algorithm one could use to generate new playable ME landscapes. Given sufficient alternative routes and methods in the main game, I imagine ME could have enough replay value to suit me, but if it had a ‘quick game’ mod/mode which was able to throw up palatable random maps… Ahh, wishful thinking, I daresay.
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ok i know its not finished yet and to gripe about it would be retarded, but where was her reflection in the glass as she ran towards the building near the start hmmm? seeing as they’ve gone to such great detail everywhere else, i doubt they’d leave something like that out. oh and yeah, if this isnt fairly sandbox, the whole design is counter-intuitive. the speed, the panic, the chase, none of that is any interesting if there is an obvious predetermined path. I agree with whoever said the slow-mo during the huge jump at the end was bad. full speed would be way cooler. maybe there’s be a bullet time aspect, i cant imagine a game like this not going down that road.
bah ive said my bit.
oh yeah just wait until spiderman uses this setup. whoa.
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Someone else said breathtaking, and I think that’s the best way to describe this. I am a little worried at the speed, or lack thereof — hopefully that’s simply because we’re looking at someone playing a console version.
The reflection will be a static image. Calculating a real-time render for every reflective surface in the world is a recipe for disaster.
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RPS, do you guys have a feel for if the non-combat focused first person genre is something that developers in general are interested in? Or do you think stuff like Portal and this are going to remain the exception to the rule for the moment?
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I suspect plenty of developers are interested in it, but that a game predominantly about shooting and stabbing and running over people is currently shattering sales records means publishers won’t be.
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“The reflection will be a static image. Calculating a real-time render for every reflective surface in the world is a recipe for disaster.”
portal managed to do that didn’t it?
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Gorgeous, and splendidly immersive – I can’t wait to be running and leaping across sun-drenched skyscraper rooftops…
(Actually, I think I’ll immediately make do with some real-world Belgian equivalents. See you later, I’m off!)
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I thought i read something about the guns being gene-locked (or some sci-fi thing) and having to be thrown in 1 minute or something regardless, as they become useless??
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As somebody who likes to reach places I’m not supposed to go in games, I don’t understand why they highlight the best route; I’d have thought spotting it oneself would be part of the fun. Maybe it could have done with just briefly flashing red instead. Or maybe it will be omitted on hard mode.
The tension would be excellent without it. Running along at high-speed, approaching the edge of the building… Which way!? Which way!? Drain Pipe? Window? Fire Escape? Can I make that!? Excitement, adrenaline rush, held breath as you take a leap…screen shakes as you stumble when you land but /just/ make it, phew! Whoo!
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I think it’s the case it’s a game about /momentum/. They’re swapping strict realism to create that sense of always being MOVING. If you had a more realistic set up, you’d end up with your first play through being a Trials-eque progress/stop/progress/stop/progress with a load of fails along the way – and not just fails in execution, fails because you didn’t know what to do at all and were caught. You’d only ever be a game about momentum and speed when you were replaying a level, which – for them, I guess – missed the point.
I think the visual cues they included are actually quite elegant, compared to most. I also suspect that the “ideal route” thing is a slight hyperbole on their part – it’s the optimum route as planned by the designers. If the actual interaction with the scenery is always standard (i.e. you can always grab onto individual objects, etc) I suspect players will find their own way.
Speculation!
KG
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But… why the choice to go first person? I thought everyone agreed the running and the jumping in Assassins Creed was awesome. =P
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wow. jumping AND HtH combat from first person view????
this cant be. I will eat my hat they make it better than in 3d person
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This is much shiny.
One thing that concerns me, though… What are the specs likely to be? I’m probably the last person in the (gaming) world running a Pentium 4 3.2 with HT and an nVidia GeForce 6800. I’ve learned that specs are bloody important the very hard way.
About the trailer… Looks shiny. I’m pretty sure you can turn of Red Hints (Rints?) in the options. And I think the health is like in Portal: you don’t know until you die.
I, too, enjoy getting where I shouldn’t, and then trying to get down. I once managed to navigate a path down the outside of the hotel in Deus Ex, taking only a small amount of damage in the process. And then, of course, there’s Morrowind, Sadrith Mora in particular, where I got involved in several bloodbaths with a crossbow by standing on the roofs of buildings and aiming downish. So this looks like my kind of game.
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Look at that – it’s my loins visibily aching for this game.
I too lust for this.
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…
Put your loins away, before you get arrested for indecency.
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Portal has at the very most two small oval-shaped areas like that, which are almost always positioned in such a way that there isn’t anything happening behind them. They still take a noticeable chunk off my framerate…
I suppose it would be possible to switch to real-time reflections when Faith comes very close to a surface. I wonder if they intend to do that.
Edit: according to these people, the game uses UE3. I swore it was Dice’s own engine, Frostbite?
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i find i get a slight hit of vertigo when falling in a first person game (doesn’t happen in any other perspective), so i wonder how inadvertently immersive this will be. i have a friend who cannot even really watch fps games without getting motion sickness, so i imagine this might kill him.
and let’s take a moment to say “three cheers for not putting her in a midriff-revealing boobalicious outfit!” (it is a sad commentary on the industry that this is even noteworthy)
“whats wrong with some French Hip-Hop?”
the same thing that’s wrong with all european hip hop. :)
(sorry, i could not resist)
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ooo! Pretty!
and if I was a sports shoe manufacturer I’d pay a hefty chunk of cash to get my logo onto the side of those shoes (but hopefully no where else, speaking as a fan)
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My main concern is that the game will be very linear. Because I can see only one pre-determined path you can follow…
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Guys, I strongly suspect that the slow-mo at the final jump is just for effect in the trailer, and won’t be part of the game as such.
I also admit concern at the diving back firing instance, because not only is there not a chance she could hit anything, but the way she holds the gun… well, you try holding something at that angle and see how uncomfortable it uses and stupid from anyone else looking. But I don’t see why people fuss over the conflict shots: It’s just a couple of moments and surely just there to show you that, hey, you can disarm folks in the game.
Of course, maybe EA is pressuring them into adding more combat, but Jesus guys, this is a first trailer, and the speed is there and that’s enough for me.
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I take the point about possibly becoming trial end error without the optimum route highlighted, and how this could lose momentum, but this is where they should be clever.
A different route wouldn’t be instant death plummet into the pavement, but requires a few tricky twists, turns and grapples (I’m not aware of any technical parkour terms, oddly enough) to get you back on track. I should be able to put together any combination of moves in a nice smooth sequence as not to lose that critical momentum, even if I go the “wrong” way. The fact it took longer than some other route should be pretty much invisible to the player, and they find the optimum routes in a replay, if so inclined.
But, yes, they may not be highlighting the “best” route, so, who knows.
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I’ve watched this trailer about 10 times today, looks like a great game, and I love the music used.
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There was a game based on the ‘yamakasi” (the french guys who have developped this kind of skill) called Free Running ( http://www.freerunning.com ). I hope they have kept the best ideas but the video doesn’t show a lot of things… the city is pretty empty and the level design poor.
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Good God you lot are a bunch of whiners…judging from what we know/have been shown, it’s not another “shoot, blow up, shoot some more” game, has colors other than brown/grey/grey-ish brown, and has a unique aesthetic…
“Oh noes, one level is mostly white, the whole game is white!”
“Ack, there’s a slo-mo section in the trailer – it must be bullet-time, which means it’s MaxPayne and FEAR smashed together”…
(I get the feeling the combat/disarming is more a “oops, you messed up a few too many times, now you got caught and have to deal with this…” giving you a way out, rather than just “you got caught, try again”.)
Looks loverly, and different. Music gives it a semi-nice (optimistic?)mood…along w/ the character design, (I think is what is doing it) gives it a vaguely “Japanese” game feel. So quit yer complaining, and applaud the devs, (and even EA for greenlighting it.)
Of course, if they cock it up and it ends up being shite, then by all means, let them know that too. :P
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Nice! When’s it out?
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Trailer is gorgeous.
I hope that theres almost nil combat unless as a last resort, and that gun play is minimal (as said upthread, pray for batons instead). The first person viewpoint is perfect for this, please don’t include a third person view just for the pervs.
And to the dingbats complaining about her heavy breathing, SHE JUMPED OFF A BUILDING YOU PILLOCKS. The music is perfect, too.
Looks promising this does (and hope EA throw away that SecuRom shit by the time this is ready for to hit the stores).
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What MeestaNob! said. And I’d rather they force you to find clever ways to avoid combat, but “whatever,” as the kids say.
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I think it looks awesome. Hopefully they’ll get the balance between confrontation and running right; but to all those that complain about combat being in there at all I’d say that it could provide just a slight change of pace to keep things fresh. Because, you know, we all have tiny attention spans nowadays.
Also in reference to the ‘optimal paths’ idea: I’d quite like it if the red highlights were the obvious, easy paths to get you into the game- somewhat like Portal’s early testchambers introducing you to the game mechanics, though this could deviate somewhat by allowing you to seek out better paths once you feel like a Master :)
Personally I feel I’d have more fun knowing that I choose my own route rather than going along a predetermined one- or at least once I know what I’m doing. I don’t think I’d attempt it on the first play through/few levels.
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Mirror’s Edge continues to by my most waited for game of 2008. The animations in that trailer, from the frenzied running, to the close quarters combat were all very, very impressive, and the atmosphere…oh my god the atmosphere is just so fresh and lovely it’s beyond words.
It’s just a game that shouts “cool!” and “woah!” at me, as if I’m 7 again.
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“I also admit concern at the diving back firing instance, because not only is there not a chance she could hit anything, but the way she holds the gun… well, you try holding something at that angle and see how uncomfortable it uses and stupid from anyone else looking. ”
Of course, it could be that using guns is not so much about killing people, but making them back off and stop chasing you for a few seconds – so the accuracy could be pretty much irrelevant.
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Reply to aldo
It *could* be except the person is clearly hit by these bullets in the video.
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Not to burst anyones bubble, but Tom Farrer of EA / DICE has explicitly explained in an interview that its not going to be an open world / sandbox game.
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Jonathan: Whereas by the positioning of the gun the bullets *should* at one point be going through the PC’s own leg..
(to my eyes anyways)
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Hardly when it’s just replaced with emo makeup, “cool” tattoos and “fight against the system” meme.
On the game itself not really sure what’s there to get excited about. 3d platform jumping with “combat” sequences that look as bad as any melee encounters rendered in first person perspective. The graphics are nice, but it’s good textures and lighting on simple shapes, not above and beyond of any other modern game starting from HL2.
In a way this game makes me think of Beyond Good and Evil… one where 90% of gameplay and fun were replaced with high resolution textures and pre-calculated radiosity, but little else.
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You’re actually judging a game based on the fact that you don’t like the protagonist’s makeup?
And you can tell the combat sequences are bad how exactly? Their quality is dependant on the execution of the controls, and you have no way of knowing how good those will be yet.
…?
Uh, what? Which game were you playing?
Incidentally, your dislike of this games use of the “fight against the system meme”, coupled with your dislike of Beyond Good and Evil, another game with the same core story concept makes me wonder: what country are you from?
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No, my reply was in reference to comment about mental growth of game developers. Simple replacement of one set of standard attributes that used to be cool with another set that is considered cool now simply ain’t sign of said growth, imo. If anything, the opposite.
I’m talking about the visual aspect of the combat sequences — that’s why i said they look as bad, etc. I’d hope a video of the gameplay can be considered a good indicator of what things look like, wouldn’t you agree?
Neither of these two, at the moment. What made me think of Beyond Good and Evil was the basic storyline presented so far by the devs — a female protagonist caught up in sinister plot of totalitarian government etc … except this game (again, from available info) appears to be more limited in scope and focusing mostly on the “jump from platform to platform in correct order buildind up and conserving momentum” kind of puzzle/play. While Beyond Good and Evil had such “run from bad guys” sequences, but also offered multiple other ways of entertainment and gameplay mechanics. Hence the ‘BGaE minus most of fun, plus better graphics’ remark.
I’m part of Skynet AI, scanning the internet for signs of human insurgency that need to be squashed. Seriously, what sort of answer did you expect to that?
Incidentally, your comments made me wonder if you truly managed to misunderstand every single sentence i wrote. So just to clear up this final confusion, i haven’t said i disliked Beyond Good and Evil. To the contrary, it’s one of games i hold in esteem for number of reasons. Neither i’ve said i disliked the “fight against the system meme” — it’s just simply such a cliche, the use of it re-affirms the game developers are still firmly stuck in the box with most shallow character concepts.
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