Posts Tagged ‘EA’

Whenever I have been asked about my most anticipated game of 2010 is I have answered Dead Space 2. It is an instinctive response; the original was far and away my favourite game of 2008. While I feel the game didn’t need a sequel science-fiction survival horror titles prove a rare breed, so I take them where I can get them.

I felt a pang of disappointment and annoyance as I started watching E3 footage Dead Space 2. Isaac Clarke, the games protagonist, has changed. Gone is the clunky practical engineer suit, replaced instead by a more ‘edgy’ outfit. I was sad at the loss of the old distinctive look, worried the game was to be bleached it of personality to attract a wider audience.

New meaner looking suit just feels more generic.

Happily I was wrong.

Whatever the reason for Isaac’s new suit its existence soon faded as I watched the footage. New environments from the games terrestrial setting were on show, most interest of which was a church. A blend of gothic architecture and the games own derelict industrial style were obvious in the building, making it feel familiar but hinting at a diversity that was absent in the original.

New enemies (Necromorphs) of varying sizes were also on show. Attacking Isaac, some of these other otherworldly forms were reminiscent of spiders while others looked like small children with gaping tooth filled mouths. Foes approached in larger numbers than the original game, making pace appear more frantic, another shift in direction for the game I will reserve judgement on for now.

I am eager to jump back into Dead Space’s fiction to find out more about its mysterious parasitic Necromorphs and the delusional Church of Unitology. My only major disappointment from the news out of the show was that the release date has slipped to 2011, but at least it January.

I don’t like what Mirrors Edge does to me. It captures my most obsessive side. The part of me that is determined to take every jump perfectly. My problem is that I don’t seem to be good enough at it. I am unable or unwilling to spend the time to commit every minutia of every course to memory to enable me to actually be good at it. Perversely, I don’t care. Plowing on, repeating sections, furious at my own ineptitude but enjoying it none the less.

The reasons all of the irritations never detract from the games appeal for me is that is always, unquestionably my fault when some thing goes wrong. Developer Dice’s parkour simulator gives you all the tools you need to navigate their aerial play grounds. Once you get the hang of the tools they give you there is only your own imagination to blame for not meeting even the most modest of goals set for you by the game.

When Dice take away the fantastic parkour control the game suffers. It’s strange that in a game for the most part so uncompromising in its vision that they seemed unable to bring themselves too eradicate the use of guns. It’s infuriating. When engaging an enemy your in-game persona Faith is robbed of all of her grace and speed. It is the equivalent of going off the track in a racing game, except here they are an unavoidable element of the game.

Dice’s problem is that they seem to have been preoccupied creating a sense of motion and vertigo. Everything has been designed to facilitate your movement and teach you how to best move though the environment towards your goal. In the best cases this preoccupation leads to the beautiful stark environment and locals. Conversely it is when the game tries to be more than a parkour play ground that it stumbles. Combat and the story both seem like an after thought, included to up ease EA’s marketing department who couldn’t work out how to push the game.

Mirrors Edge is a game which a victim of its own ambition and marketing. Vying for attention with established franchises and genres it was quickly over looked in the holiday deluge. Combine this with mediocre critical opinion due to elements which feel superfluous to the intended experience and it was destined to under achieve.

Sadly this means many who could love the game may never play it. Platform gamers will think it’s a first person shooter. Racing game fanatics who desire nothing more than to find the perfect line will pass this by. But these are the groups Mirrors Edge is for. Shed the story, ignore the combat, focus instead on the time trials and you are left a game mechanic which is hardcore gaming joy. And it is ripe for downloadable content, environments and routes are all this game ever needed to be and it will provide just that.

Dead Space sets an unsettling atmosphere from the start. Stranded on the Ishimura mining vessel you are soon running for your life weaponless and alone.

It maintains tension with disconcerting locals and background whispers. For my taste it relies too heavily on ‘Boo’ scares rather than the creeping dread of Asian horror movies. EA probably knew they were doing though, two hours of tension is involving but twelve hours is a recipe for angina.

Environments have real function within the world and help the story unfold. Unfortunately the architecture often tricked me into thinking it was one of the ‘Necromorphs’. Such slips are particularly unnerving when you hear something and are forced to slowly rotate only to end up aiming at a bunk-bed.

It creates an absorbing consistent world taking elements of Event Horizon and Silent Hill. Add fantastic controls and if you aren’t convinced this just isn’t for you.

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