Chefelf.com Night Life: Zachh - Viewing Profile

That's right I'm calling it right now, before the game is even released and I'll tell you why.

In a sea of space marines, underdog heroes, and "intense gritty dirty action" Mirror's Edge boldly stands away from the pack. Instead of brown and black and gray we are treated with intense whites, reds and yellows. Instead of endless health packs, bullet proof armor and compensation Mirror's Edge leaves you go and says " Here is your objective, don't fall and don't get shot" the rest is up to you.

In playing only the demo I find that the anonymous city your surrounded in is by far the most ominous environment that I've ever seen. The whole thing screams corporate takeover and oppression and you always get that feeling of "something is watching me" but your never quite sure what.

But over everything, this game is realistic more so that any other game I've ever played. I mentioned before that Mirror's Edge does not compensate, what I mean by that is you can't almost do something and hope to get it. From the first time you take a leap or start to run or even fight you can tell if you did it correctly. The fluency of the game play is unparalleled, the combat feels like a combination between quick time events and precise fighting combos. Rolling out after a big jump or when you loose your running momentum and smack your head off a wall it just all feels so real.

This is the caliber of game we need to start demanding from developers. Instead of ( pardon the paradox ) imitating realism why don't we just have realism? Instead of being able to survive 50ft falls or stock piles of bullets, why don't we get a little more human? Some may argue that is not the point of games, the whole point is to be fanciful or magnanimous but I simply disagree.

I believe that it's time to take this media to the next level, like Jimi Hendrix did for rock and roll or like what Bill Gates did for the computer. I'm not saying Mirror's Edge is going to do that but it's a step in the right direction. A lot of us so called "hardcore" gamers believe that games are art, but as the affluent Bill "Yahtzee" Croshaw once said " Art is only as good as the culture that surrounds it" and as long as we keep ingesting the same old stuff nothing will change. Instead of our games being the player inhabiting the game lets have the game inhabit the player. Immerse them in the experience, show them what it would be like to be a free runner, or a space marine or a fallout survivor or a small overweight Italian plumper.

Perhaps I'm wrong, really I'm just a geek who's spent his entire childhood playing video games and reading Sci-Fi books and am now over compensating for a realized misled adolescence.

....or perhaps I'm on to something here. All I mean is that every other form of everything else that's considered art has some sort of apex, something in that which all of everybody who takes part in it's culture can mutually agree is awesome and a shining example of what they stand for. Like for traditional art it may be Picasso and rock and roll it may be the Beatles or Hendrix etc. But with video games it fear we won't get there. Sure some series have tried, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy probably the most notable, but that's just because of press and hype and pretty much seniority, not everybody likes those games for many different reasons.

I'm holding out for something great, something that really just takes it to the next level ( pun ) something that makes guns more that shiny pieces of programming who's ammunition is apparently made of soft downy feathers plucked straight from the ass of mother goose herself. And when character development is just as important and how cool the explosions look or how your "physics engine" is "TH3 BEST EVAR!"

For Christ's sakes give me a story that does not involve, World War, Aliens, Zombies or Sorcerers. Just by narrowing that down I believe that I've eliminated at least 40% of all video games ever made....ever. Give us something that no matter if your a console retard or a PC snob we can all look at it nods our heads at one another, and present it to the World's stage and finally be able to say " We have arrived"

But we'll probably just go back to calling each other noobs and shove a fistful of Cheetos down our fat mouths.