It is amazing to me, the things a person can happen across out here on the internet. An example would be this picture of Faith, the main character from Mirror's Edge. This, amongst the many other pictures in this set, were very interesting and pretty spot on I thought.
By the looks of it all, with it being so professional and all, I almost thought there was a movie being made of the game. But alas, that is not the case and it would seem as though that this is just a photo shoot.
Then again, in this day and age where comic books and video games seem to be landing into theaters faster then ever, a Mirror's Edge movie could be entirely possible.
What is strange to me (unrelated to the stuff previous) is how pasting this picture onto this entry seems to have confined my wording into the same width as the picture above. Talk about being blog unfriendly!
Oh well, it was all worth it in the end I suppose. It would be interesting to see someone try to do something like this with a Final Fantasy...
After taking a brief break from gaming, I've slowly getting back into the mix of things. What can I say? A lot of the games I've got right now aren't cutting it for me. Recently though, I've tried to replay both Mirror's Edge and Blue Dragon. While Blue Dragon no longer puts me to sleep on contact, Mirror's Edge has been kicking my ass like never before. I spent most of my time flying off of rooftops, sailing down to my untimely death.
One new game that I've been playing is called The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. Basically it is a hack and slasher, but it does have a strange and somewhat interesting story behind of it. Favorite weapon of choice: Chain saw!
Another game that has seen some playtime is Resident Evil 5, which is nice to play as a co-op for a change. My gripe with it is this though: Why did they have to split the screen the way that they did (Call of Duty: World at War style)? It's annoying! Just split the damn screen in half!
Yet another gripe is, why do they send in a team (the characters you play) into this place WITH ONLY A HANDGUN WITH VERY, VERY LIMITED SHOTS? Not really helping the chances of success here huh? And speaking of ammo, it is interesting as it is annoying how you can buy the guns you come across and yet you cannot buy ammo! A lot of good a shotgun with 6 shots will do ya in the middle of a crowd of angry, evil intentioned zombie-type people.
Side note: For the first time ever, I finally got to play LittleBigPlanet at Wal-Mart last week. I'd like to say I did well in the level I played in, but I did not. I spent a good deal of time falling off of stuff and burning. Very much like playing Mirror's Edge I'm afraid... my character experienced all too well the sensation of falling to your doom, over and over again.
After spending the last month or so just anticipating the release of Mirror's Edge, the wait is finally over.
At last!
I've gotten about five chapters into the story so far and it does indeed live up to what it was hyped to be. Things can be slow, with Faith (the main character) just moving across rooftops, then suddenly everything gets crazy a split second later.
And surely you could stand and fight off the cops as they swarm you. Or, as it was in my case, you could try and just die after taking several gunshots or a direct hit or two.
So as the hints might convey and as the story likes to point out, you are a Runner. And when anything more then a cop appears, you'd best be doing exactly that. And fast!
The graphics are beautiful, the city is alive and well *down below* and the environments have you jumping, flipping, sliding and scaling everything from railings, to rooftops and even electric fences. What's more, the game doesn't slow down when the action picks up and the sense of speed and freedom is just sick! I can just imagine what Mirror's Edge would look like on a HD TV.
One more thing about graphics that I felt a need to mention: The cut scenes.
The way the game play looks is one thing, but the style changes whenever a cut scene happens. How can I describe it? It is animated, looks much more cartoon-ish I suppose. Yet even while it does indeed look different, it still manages to blend into the overall style of the game and to me, it does not look out of place one bit.
The controls are easy to pick up and the opening tutorial does a good job at giving you the basic skills needed to survive in this crazy government-controlled world. However, speaking on my own behalf, remembering what buttons to string together can be a bitch to recall when you're running for your life and have numerous police firing at you (and everything around you). I have died many deaths in my failed attempts at escape...
Which brings me to something I can finally bitch and complain about. One thing that has gotten me swearing (not a lot, mind you... I swear!) has been the easy and constant deaths. Now this is nothing to fault the game at all, just merely something that is my fault for misjudging the distance between one rooftop to another. A nice touch to counter this is you'll usually pop back up near the point of your misguided jump (and subsequent death, complete with a crunch in some instances).
Overall, at this point in time I can firmly and confidently say that Mirror's Edge was worth the wait and more so the money. That, to me, speaks volumes for it because with the number of games that are either nearing release or have recently been, you'd better be something more then just 'okay.'
'Nuff said, I think it is about time to get back to dodging cops and leaping to my death! Whoops...
In other news, it looks as though I may get more game time in the near future. With the economy the way that it is, businesses (obviously) have experienced major decline in sales. Which has lead me to learn tonight that my hours at my second job had been cut *again* and that is bad for me. I mean I was down to 18 hours a week as it was and for my boss to call me and say "hey! I had to cut back everyone's hours" is just painful.
Ah hell, I guess that means it is time to put more hours back into my other job. Japanese gift sets, here I come! Blah!
I'm starting to juggle more and more games and I am quickly losing my mind. Besides playing Fable 2, I picked up Gears of War 2 and I am hoping to get Mirror's Edge today too. Thankfully though, I am nearly finished with Fable 2. How will it all end I wonder!?
Ok, I cheated and I've already read a little into how the games ends and even now I cannot decide on which choice to make. Three choices to choose from and you can only make one. Blah.
One thing I will say about the game and this goes for the dog "feature." He really doesn't help much, besides finding buried treasure or chests. Ok and he growls when bad guys are nearby too, but that's it! Maybe he'll gnaw on someone if they are on the ground, but otherwise nothing! Can't we have an attack dog? An aggressive and angry attack dog?
What kind of made me laugh (and also what caused me to consider joining the Temple of Shadows) was being able to "earn" purity and goodness by giving gold to the Temple of Light. What? So really, considering I had the money, I could kill everyone in Bowerstone and all I'd need is to donate money and I'm clean? Whoa, sign me up!
I ultimately did not go over to the dark side, because the Temple of Shadows is just too fucked up! Not in a bad way really, they are just a weird bunch of freaks!
Gears of War 2 feels a lot like the first, just the usual changes of more (and bigger) baddies, more explosions and gunfights and all of that jazz. I think more of the changes took place in the multiplayer stuff and the addition of Horde mode is pretty cool too. Talk about dying badly, I got surrounded and totally destroyed and I didn't even see what murdered my ass either. Don't get me wrong though, it is still a lot of fun (if you're into this sort of thing)!
And then Mirror's Edge, my damn near obsession since playing the demo the first time around. I hope the final product lives up to what it has been hyping itself up to being. One thing about this game, too, is if you experience motion sickness... this is not a game for you! My girlfriend hates this game just for the fact that her stomach does twists, turns and flips when she watched me play through the demo.
But I like it! I like it a lot! I suppose that makes me a little mean, but eh! If I need to hear Korean pop music, I consider this as retribution! Mwahahaha!
One thing that always, always bugs me is when I hear a catchy song in a video game and cannot find the music in question. In today's case, this comes from a game I've written about a time or three already called Mirror's Edge. Apparently, I am not the only one that has searched for this and apparently still, there is going to be a CD released at the same time as the game, with the song and a few remixes as well.
All I know is the woman singing the song is Lisa Miskovsky, a Swedish pop singer. Besides that, I cannot find anything else so far. I was sort of hoping someone had found a way to get at least the original track out there somewhere.
Continuing on with my search... I will not rest until I have found what I seek! Mwahahaha!
Edit: No more then a few minutes after writing this, MISSION ACCOMPISHED. Despite having a shitty day today at work, this easily makes the day worthwhile. Gratifying, indeed!
I'd want to keep my cool right now and to be as un-cryptic as I can be, I just looked at the release dates for the games coming out this month. Nothing should have surprised me, I mean I looked at all of this a few months back. I knew there would be a lot of games released up until the ending of this year. Common knowledge right? I mean this wasn't unexpected, I knew...
I thought I knew.
I really didn't know after all.
And all I can say to all of this is - Holy SHIT! This month will be fucking insane! It feels like everything is being released this month (list of interested titles are listen in the tags at the bottom)! I mean I know Christmas is just around the corner already and everyone wants to rake in the cash during this time of year, but good lord! Can game companies bombard a gamer anymore then this?
What blew my mind even more was the sight of Chrono Trigger on the list, which is coming at the ending of this month. Goddamn it, I thought it was going to be out in December, along with Prince of Persia (also thought this was next month). I suppose I was wrong...
I know I say this a little often, but I think it is safe to say that being broke this month is definitely a major understatement. At this point I am considering on giving up eating for the rest of this year, you know... to offset the tremendous cost of getting this many games. That, or maybe sell off my first born or something.
I kid.
And I don't have a first born child either.
So I can easily say that it'll be a interesting month, to work and squeeze game time for this many titles... I'm quickly beginning to think I may have to reconsider a good deal of these buggers. I mean with a lack of options on how to effectively buy 'em all, what else can a person do right? Now the problem is, which ones to hold off on? So many choices, so little time (and money)!
That is what I was today when I discovered that Xbox Live had put out the demo for Mirror's Edge. I was pretty interesting in the game as it was and while I hadn't watched or looked for any videos about the game, it was almost enough for me just reading about it several months back. But I would be lying right now if I said I wasn't curious if this game could actually pull off what it promised it could.
All those doubts just vanished several minutes ago, as I just got through playing the demo for Mirror's Edge. And the verdict? I enjoyed that shit! I gave that line a thought a moment or two, you know... to maybe find a better selection of words to describe what I thought? But I just can't find 'em! It is fun and to even compare it to Assassin's Creed doesn't do this game any justice.
I mean Assassin's Creed did have you jump from some pretty high places. But Mirror's Edge? You're jumping around the rooftops of skyscrapers! The controls seem pretty easy to pick up, but I did have some trouble on performing a couple of moves. But that stuff is minor, nothing some actual game play cannot fix.
The only thing left in my mind now is simply.... November 14th cannot come soon enough!
And for anyone reading my humble little blog, hope you folks have a fun (and safe) Halloween! I hate work!
