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The weekend is finally here! What do you have planned for this weekend? I have a fair number of things in the works, including fun, work, more fun, some more work, and also some fun. My sister is visiting from Vancouver and it will be nice to see her and my parents on Saturday. Being the family "computer guy" I've also been tapped to help fix both my parent's and my sister's laptops. I'm sure many of you know what that's like.
Tonight I'll be visiting my friend Steve for dinner. We will likely be playing some new video games together too. Having recently picked up the Mirror's Edge game and beating it in less than 8 hours, I'm looking forward to playing something different. I had high hopes for Mirror's Edge, but I also expected to be somewhat disappointed because of my high expectations. Having grown up with video games and also having had a short stint developing games, my gaming critiques and preferences have been honed like a deadly sharp sword. So I had a fairly good idea of the things I wanted to see in this game and it delivered on many of them, but other areas fell short. This game is trying to do something new and original (which I like) and it has a great theme and setting, but the implementation could have been better in certain areas.
Mirror's Edge focuses on a parkour style gameplay. Essentially you are running around the rooftops, side alleys and otherwise "hidden" parts of a city using your agility, speed, acrobatics and fearless leaps to get around. This was exhilarating. I really enjoy acrobatic games as well as atmospheric games and this one delivered both of those really well. The art direction and overall graphics were also awesome. These are areas where the game excelled. But there were also some cliché and uninspired locales like navigating through mazes of wall vents and running around inside factories and warehouses of crates. With a game focusing on enthralling acrobatics and city running, they should have designed more of the game in the big open rooftop levels that were so engrossing.
While the controls of the game were fine, some of the actual character movements were frustrating. I know they were going for a realism approach to movement, but there were many times I would line myself up for a jump or ledge and my slightly off aim character would simply miss and fall. The designers should have been a bit more forgiving with these sorts of movements (but not too forgiving like the recent Prince of Persia game that made character stunts too easy). Anyways, most of these gripes are minor, but added up they can make the difference between an okay game and a great game. Mirror's Edge was still fun, but it could have been so much more. I'm hoping they learn from these mistakes and make a sequel that's all it can and should be.
Hey how about I end that impromptu game review and get back to talking about the upcoming weekend? I've got some of my weekend time scheduled for doing contract work (woo!), as well as some time for working on my next podcast episode. Episode 16 is turning out to be more on the jazzy tip as that seems to reflect my recent mood. My podcast mixes could probably be used as some type of barometer for measuring my moods for the week or so I work on them every month. It might be interesting to fashion a graph that looks back over time at what my moods were like based on my podcast mix genres. It might also be totally pointless and stupid.
On Sunday I'm hanging out with "the guys" and playing some cards. It will be fun to hang out, relax, and battle to the death with geeky pieces of cardboard. It always is. Sometime this weekend I also plan to pick up a new Xbox game that I can play sparingly over the next few weeks. EB Games has a deal on right now where certain games on their wanted list can be traded in for up to $35 in trade value. I have a few older games on their list so that works out perfectly since currently I seem to be professionally poor (does that even make sense?) and can't afford the full price of a new game.
I'm hoping I can still find the time to, you know, relax a bit this weekend too. Losing that hour of sleep last weekend has made me a bit more dependant on caffeine this week than normal. So I'm going to take advantage of sleeping in this weekend. Anyways, time to get back to work. I'm really liking updating my blog during my lunch break, so hopefully that means I'll be doing it more often. But as usual, I'm making no promises.
Tonight I'll be visiting my friend Steve for dinner. We will likely be playing some new video games together too. Having recently picked up the Mirror's Edge game and beating it in less than 8 hours, I'm looking forward to playing something different. I had high hopes for Mirror's Edge, but I also expected to be somewhat disappointed because of my high expectations. Having grown up with video games and also having had a short stint developing games, my gaming critiques and preferences have been honed like a deadly sharp sword. So I had a fairly good idea of the things I wanted to see in this game and it delivered on many of them, but other areas fell short. This game is trying to do something new and original (which I like) and it has a great theme and setting, but the implementation could have been better in certain areas.
Mirror's Edge focuses on a parkour style gameplay. Essentially you are running around the rooftops, side alleys and otherwise "hidden" parts of a city using your agility, speed, acrobatics and fearless leaps to get around. This was exhilarating. I really enjoy acrobatic games as well as atmospheric games and this one delivered both of those really well. The art direction and overall graphics were also awesome. These are areas where the game excelled. But there were also some cliché and uninspired locales like navigating through mazes of wall vents and running around inside factories and warehouses of crates. With a game focusing on enthralling acrobatics and city running, they should have designed more of the game in the big open rooftop levels that were so engrossing.
While the controls of the game were fine, some of the actual character movements were frustrating. I know they were going for a realism approach to movement, but there were many times I would line myself up for a jump or ledge and my slightly off aim character would simply miss and fall. The designers should have been a bit more forgiving with these sorts of movements (but not too forgiving like the recent Prince of Persia game that made character stunts too easy). Anyways, most of these gripes are minor, but added up they can make the difference between an okay game and a great game. Mirror's Edge was still fun, but it could have been so much more. I'm hoping they learn from these mistakes and make a sequel that's all it can and should be.
Hey how about I end that impromptu game review and get back to talking about the upcoming weekend? I've got some of my weekend time scheduled for doing contract work (woo!), as well as some time for working on my next podcast episode. Episode 16 is turning out to be more on the jazzy tip as that seems to reflect my recent mood. My podcast mixes could probably be used as some type of barometer for measuring my moods for the week or so I work on them every month. It might be interesting to fashion a graph that looks back over time at what my moods were like based on my podcast mix genres. It might also be totally pointless and stupid.
On Sunday I'm hanging out with "the guys" and playing some cards. It will be fun to hang out, relax, and battle to the death with geeky pieces of cardboard. It always is. Sometime this weekend I also plan to pick up a new Xbox game that I can play sparingly over the next few weeks. EB Games has a deal on right now where certain games on their wanted list can be traded in for up to $35 in trade value. I have a few older games on their list so that works out perfectly since currently I seem to be professionally poor (does that even make sense?) and can't afford the full price of a new game.
I'm hoping I can still find the time to, you know, relax a bit this weekend too. Losing that hour of sleep last weekend has made me a bit more dependant on caffeine this week than normal. So I'm going to take advantage of sleeping in this weekend. Anyways, time to get back to work. I'm really liking updating my blog during my lunch break, so hopefully that means I'll be doing it more often. But as usual, I'm making no promises.
This entry posted by Graham
in Main Journal
Tags: Gaming, Podcast, Xbox 360
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