Mirror's Edge reflects on Unreal Engine 3

43 Comments by Ross Miller May 7th 2008 4:30PM
Filed under: Action, First Person Shooters

click to embiggen

Although they have an in-house engine for the Battlefield series (Frostbite), EA DICE has gone with Epic's mega-popular Unreal Engine 3 for the Parkour-inspired Mirror's Edge. According to the development team (via Electronic Arts PR), the reason was that the Mirror's Edge project began early on in Frostbite's development, so they decided to use the more-developed Unreal technology instead.

DICE is also developing "a new lighting solution that truly makes Mirror's Edge stand-out visually." If you haven't had a chance to check out the trailer, do so now. Full statement after the break.

Gallery: Mirror's Edge

"With Mirror's Edge we deliberately set out to create something that was different from Battlefield. Frostbite is a very powerful engine but this project started a long time ago and at that time Frostbite was still being developed and was very closely supporting the Battlefield Bad Company team.

"Because of this we made the decision to develop on UNREAL technology. In addition, because we have a very unique art-style in the game we have been developing a new lighting solution that truly makes Mirror's Edge stand-out visually."

Tags: dice, ea-dice, epic, epic-games, mirrors-edge, unreal, unreal-engine-3, unrealengine3

(Page 1) Reader Comments

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): May 7th 2008; 4:38PM

Despite this info, American McGee's Grimm, and even Lost Odyssey all being UE3 games, we'll still hear about how all UE3 games look alike completely ignoring the efforts or lack thereof in the art teams.

Bleu: May 7th 2008; 4:54PM

FUCK this game and FUCK EA!

Curtis the Claw:XBL - supapaypamawio: May 7th 2008; 5:12PM

Bleu you always manage to say something either completely false, irrelavant, or just childish.

Vsove: May 7th 2008; 5:14PM

bleu, you may be labouring under the mistaken assumption that anyone finds your 'FUCK EA' comments you post absolutely everywhere to be somehow edgy and indicative of a brave soul who fights the man at every turn. In case this was the case, let me ease your mind. No one's finding it to be clever. You're the equivalent of the fat uncle who goes to a football game and throws his beer at the refs, cursing and swearing up a storm. Sure, lots of people may be unhappy with the refs, but it doesn't make you any less of an idiot.

Curtis the Claw:XBL - supapaypamawio: May 7th 2008; 5:25PM

A short collection of Bleu comments...

FUCK this game and FUCK EA!
FUCK ea and go INSOMNIAC
Mutant come on bro you can delete the install anytime you want
FUCK YOU EA YOUR NOT GETTIN MY MONEY ASSHOLES!
FUCK EA and FUCK MADDEN!
FUCK EA!
(clears throat) FUCK EA!.....That is all!
FUCK EA!
Fuck them who cares.....NEXT!
I love speilberg but FUCK EA!
I really liked lair
This game should have been a greatest hit from when it dropped.....what a beautiful game.
FUCK EA! and leave the unreal engine alone
fuck EA!
OH EA SUCKS! BTW!

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force): May 7th 2008; 7:02PM

I understand that you're mad at the publisher, but don't let the developer suffer in this.

JerkfacedFed: May 7th 2008; 8:33PM

LOL at guy who found all of bleu's previous comments.

Graphics look awesome, nice lighting. However, we all know realistically how all these EA games turn out in the end...

noskillbassist: May 7th 2008; 4:38PM

Framerate hiccups in Mirror's Edge confirmed!

Deric Lee: May 7th 2008; 4:39PM

How do I get a cool picture next to my name???!

syrik zero: May 7th 2008; 4:41PM

Once you get an email to confirm your comment there will be a password at the bottom. Click yourself in a comment you left and then on the right side it will say "Are you Deric Lee?" Click there and put the password that was created in. From there I think it says "add picture" or something. Good luck =) I did that just yesterday

syrik zero: May 7th 2008; 4:51PM

Sweet bud

Pureshooter: May 7th 2008; 4:57PM

It already happened.

syrik zero: May 7th 2008; 4:39PM

That game looks very unique and definitely fun. I've always liked games where you can climb things

Randomness: May 7th 2008; 10:59PM

Thats because its not brown tones.

Mr.ESC: May 7th 2008; 4:40PM

I really want to play that game but it still reminds me of Sonic Adventure.

Dan CiTi: May 7th 2008; 9:31PM

Sonic Adventure was awesome.

Deric Lee: May 7th 2008; 4:45PM

I figured it out

Neowyrm: May 7th 2008; 11:50PM

Eureka! Excelsior!

Ubiqutous Oxymoron: May 7th 2008; 4:49PM

the lighting on that level looks beautiful, it looks like a really nice radiosity solution.

games looks very cool aswell.

umm....hello???: May 7th 2008; 4:54PM

..having watched the game trailer yesterday it kinda looked like Crackdown for the x360 with a twist.

ps- rag-doll character effects--confirmed. (or is that the Havoc engine?? I forget)...

hplcman: May 7th 2008; 4:54PM

I liked the playable trailer they had. I would like to hear more about what you are supposed to do in the game though. You know, rather than just run around...

Jeff: May 7th 2008; 10:28PM

So there was a big piece in PLAY magazine about it, either last month or two months ago. it got the cover. I'll try and summarize, but read the article if you can find it.

Anyway, the main chick is essential a courier, ("runner") who has to deliver sensitive material or something. The Devs wanted to create a feeling oof actually being in the game, so being able to see your feet/hands/etc. is an integral part of the experience. Instead of being a first person SHOOTER, it's a first person game with some shooting in it. You can "liberate" NPC's of their weapons, go in guns blazing or try and avoid them altogether. The movement style is inspired by Parkour aka freerunning, and they wanted to emulate that feeling of freedom of movement (jumping, vaulting, sliding etc.)

The art and color is desinged to make you feel like you're in a world where everything is all shiny and nice and safe, but at the expense of certain freedoms.

sorry about the bad grammar, I'm about to head out for the evening.

Jhongerkong: May 7th 2008; 5:04PM

You're all forgetting the most important thing:

Its an Unreal Engine game...

WITH COLOR!

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): May 7th 2008; 5:14PM

Which isn't THAT uncommon. As mentioned by my previous post.

noskillbassist: May 7th 2008; 5:30PM

@Fidius - You noted 3 games. Sound pretty uncommon to me.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Zeon Defense Force): May 7th 2008; 5:47PM

I NOTED three games because I really, really hate list wars.

So please go here....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unreal_Engine_games#Unreal_Engine_3

There is a visual diversity among UE3 games. It just matters on what the art focus is on. Also, few artists in rushed productions go beyond default material settings which DOES have a significant impact to a visual style.

Jhongerkong: May 8th 2008; 12:30AM

Not serious joke was not serious

Shadow Hog: May 7th 2008; 5:32PM

This is probably the most revolutionary first-person game I've ever seen. I hope that all first-person games take a few tips from this game. I mean, it's astounding that no other first-person game even thought of doing this sort of thing! It's amazing, but it looks like it'll change the genre forever, if it gets pulled off correctly.

I speak, of course, about the fact that you can actually see your character's feet.

Haggard: May 7th 2008; 6:20PM

Crysis, F.E.A.R... that's all I can think of - not revolutionary but certainly uncommon.

äsdf: May 7th 2008; 8:59PM

lol actually Halo 2 had one's own feet in first person before even those. Revolutionary indeed.

unfriendly_cat: May 7th 2008; 5:34PM

For a second there I thought someone remade Circuit's Edge. What an awesome game that was.

Bellerophon: May 7th 2008; 5:35PM

Very much looking forward to playing this.

DICE, EA, please don't mess this one up. No paying to unlock shit. No unnecessary bombardment of product placement. Just please, get this one right.

If you can make a trailer that makes me want this game so bad, then you are doing something very right. Please stick to doing just that.

Sean: May 7th 2008; 5:45PM

the crazy motion blur will lead to vertigo for players.

Frojo: May 7th 2008; 6:01PM

looks to be one of the sickest games ever

Benny: May 7th 2008; 6:09PM

I hate to be Johnny Raincloud, but I can't help but feel this game is going to work out one of two ways:

1) Allow a lot of control over movements, but be incredibly difficult to get your head around and do anything cool.

2) Be easily controllable, but full of "walk within a 5m radius of the pole and click A" to enact a cool movement.

Plus, the graphics pretty much suck. Are pastel colours a direct substitute for textures with a little effort put in?

Haggard: May 7th 2008; 6:22PM

The red things are visual clues as to what to climb on and where to go - not so much to make it a linear easy-fest, more to keep the fast moving flow going.

why not the LS2LS7?: May 7th 2008; 6:57PM

Also note the yellow of the awnings. Perhaps yellow means something that can break your fall?

ThornedVenom (Harley Quinn Defense Force): May 7th 2008; 7:05PM

Ever since I saw that trailer, I'm completely obsessed with that game.

I'm afraid to be completely let down though: the last time I felt that way was when Sadness was announced for the Wii.

DVersion: May 7th 2008; 7:22PM

You know, something about this game made me really excited. I really hope they keep the atmosphere of that trailer and continue with the soundtrack. I'm keeping my eye on this one.

drun: May 7th 2008; 8:56PM

indeed I'm glad they use UE3 'cause I know that engine is very well optimized and doesn't need a very powerful PC to run (like UT3). EA may be evil, but DICE rocks :D

Pointz: May 8th 2008; 1:22AM

Wow, Red Steel sequel will use UE3?! I won't get excited until I see more.
I'm just intrigued so far.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!): May 8th 2008; 1:21PM

i still have no idea whats happening in this game. she's free running and then shooting people. im seriously curious as to how this story would play out.

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