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Watch the direct feed Mirror's Edge demo

It occurred to us that despite all our passion for first-person parkour-inspired game Mirror's Edge, you probably still don't get the appeal unless you've seen it in action. "A girl running around on rooftops fighting crime?" you ask with a sneer. "I liked it better the first time, when it was a guy, and it was called Batman."

We understand distrust of the unknown (it's the reason we're still alive) so we'd like to present, for your edification, the Mirror's Edge demo. Now, if you can watch this and still not get excited we really have nothing more to talk about.

How Mirror's Edge fights simulation sickness

In case you're curious as to how DICE is planning to fight against simulation sickness in Mirror's Edge (not motion sickness, since you're not actually moving), an EA spokesperson provided a number of explanations during our hands-on with the game. For starters a little white blip is now placed the middle of the screen. It turns blue when it's charged for the slow motion action, but more importantly, it serves to focus the viewer's eyes.

The rep told us that they interviewed ballerinas to see how they perform spins without feeling sick. Their trick is to focus on a certain object or spot on the floor, which inspired the devs to add the dot. For those who find it distracting and obnoxious, there is an option to turn it off.

Also removed was the head bobbing found in the earlier GDC menu. The rep said they are now viewing the game from your eyes and not your head. Finally, the developers of the game told us that the use of the sides of the screens provides a sense of peripheral vision in the game. We were told they hadn't decided whether or not to use letterbox widescreen for 4:3-resolution television screens.

Joystiq E3 hands-on: Mirror's Edge

mirror's edge
Yeah, but doesn't it give you motion sickness? This is the response you get when you tell someone: "Dude, I just played Mirror's Edge -- it's awesome." And this is how you answer: "No, dude -- you don't get sick."

Mirror's Edge achieves bounding, bouncing payoffs without the queasy side effects with a dot. Yeah, a dot. What you don't see in the "doctored" screens is a tiny blue/white blip. The dot isn't working alone though, the developers found they needed to widen the camera's field of vision as well as place it in the characters eyes as opposed to her head, reducing much of that first-person staple: head bobbing. The effect: a game that seems like it has no right not making you sick.

Gallery: Mirror's Edge

Continue reading Joystiq E3 hands-on: Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge E3 trailer


Want to see the newest trailer for Mirror's Edge from the EA Press Conference? Do you like rhetorical questions? Yeah, anyway, it can be found after the break. Just, please, please, please, don't let the footage inspire you to reenact the scenes you see. Remember, these are professionally trained pixels in the art of parkour.

Continue reading Mirror's Edge E3 trailer

Here's the new Mirror's Edge 2D trailer and some 3D screenshots


click for gallery of new screens

If you're looking forward to Mirror's Edge the way we are, then you're definitely going to want to check out the four latest screenshots EA drip-fed us for this morning. Alternatively, if you get simulation sickness from just seeing stills of things in motion, best to step away ... slowly. Speaking of seeing things in motion, we've also got a gorgeous cel-shaded trailer for the game after the break which has us questioning our affinity for the game's current Unreal-powered aesthetic. Feel free to start speculating about Esurance: The Game while we watch this thing over again.

Continue reading Here's the new Mirror's Edge 2D trailer and some 3D screenshots

Heavenly Sword writer to script Mirror's Edge

As we nurse a queezy stomach from playing EA DICE's Parkour-inspired Mirror's Edge, we'll be doing so to a story penned by writer and story designer Rhianna Pratchett, who's known for her work on titles such as Triumph Studios' Overlord and Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword.

The story centers on free runner Faith as she jumps, climbs, and tumbles her way to uncovering the truth behind who framed her sister for murder. Notes Pratchett, "Faith is skilled, but she's certainly not a superhero. She has her flaws, like all of us. In short: she's real. That's her appeal." Mirror's Edge remains one of the more interesting original titles in EA's 2008 salvo, and is expected to leave us feeling vertigo when it ships for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this winter.

Gallery: Mirror's Edge (7/10/08)

Pre-order Mirror's Edge, and it's in the bag


Mirror's Edge, the upcoming game from EA's DICE studio, is what you'd get if you crossed Johnny Mnemonic with the Kevin Costner epic The Postman and then multiplied it by Portal and divided it by the Y.T. character from Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash.

You play a Runner named Faith, and she runs information in her faithful little satchel to and fro in a sprawling, futuristic metropolis. If you pre-order the game from GameStop, you can get your mitts on that very same bag. It has seven compartments, comes in eye-blasting yellow, and "fits your PS3, Xbox 360, or laptop for gaming on the run."

Not too shabby. If publishers keep putting out things like this and the Fallout 3 Survival Edition, which comes with a replica of the Pip-Boy 3000, then how long until Resident Evil ships with a replica of the T-Virus in a collectible plexiglas case? We'd hit it.

Mirror's Edge reflects on Unreal Engine 3


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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

Continue reading Mirror's Edge reflects on Unreal Engine 3

See Mirror's Edge in PlayStation Day footage [update]

Update: Videos for Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 have been removed at Sony's request. "This was an internal video to show work in progress and was not ready for distribution." We will post new media when it is available.

If you were furiously pounding F5 to follow along with PS3 Fanboy's live coverage of PlayStation Day 2008, you probably felt a little pang of sadness as our man, Jem Alexander, got to see some new footage from Mirror's Edge, Resistance 2 and Killzone 2 while you had to make do with reading his text second-hand.

Now, you can make amends and see the videos directly from the show for yourself. Oh, and you should know that the audio on the Killzone clip seems to become a little crazy at the end, but we're hoping you still get the idea. You can find Resistance Mirror's Edge after the break right here.

GDC08: First screenshots of Mirror's Edge


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At the EA DICE event during GDC last week (the same one where we saw Battlefield Heroes and Bad Company), we had a chance to watch a trailer and a one-level walkthrough of Mirror's Edge, a stylistic first-person game reminiscent of both Parkour and the Bourne movies. DICE went for a more realistic perspective by slightly tilting the camera back and forth depending on how fast you move.

The level we saw had the character jumping over fences, sliding under pipes and traversing through and over buildings like a crack-addicted monkey looking for its next fix. Items and platforms turn red while you run to provide context clues for what you can use to keep your momentum going and move forward (e.g. a swinging rope you can grab jumping off of the side of a building).

As for combat, it seems the point of the game is rather nonviolent; when our hero did steal a gun from an opponent, she quickly disassembled it and kept running. The game looks promising, but we can't help but wonder how it would have looked if they used the same camera/blur effects and moved the camera back to third person.

Gallery: Mirror's Edge

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