Mirrors Edge: Catalyst coming soon

[SantaC]

looking pretty good!

[Mr. Gundam]

This is a reboot, right?

[SantaC]

This is a reboot, right?

Yes new story and new characters. Solar Fields is back with the music.

[chronovore]

I thought, "hey, there is already a thread for this stuff!" and then it turned out to be from 2013.

[Great Rumbler]

So is this finally coming out or what?

[thisismyusername]

So is this finally coming out or what?

In May, yes. Can't wait. I need more "Le Parkour" in my life.

[tiesto]

Solar Fields is back with the music.

All that matters.

[El Babua]

Yassss!

Pls don't fuck up the game with multiplayer f2p bullshit EA.

[Rufus]

I really hope the story isn't as front and center as it appears to be. 

It looks like there'll be a HUD this time instead of in-world red highlights. The latter were only a smidgeon more elegant than and objective indicator (for allowing your eyes to stay focused on the action), but I still prefer that over floating objective indicators. Sadly, figuring out how to hint at paths more subtly takes endless playtesting...

[Cerveza mas fina]

Which doesn't work at all in open world gaming so yeah...

Part of what makes a game like this work is curated levels.

[G The Resurrected]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

This game doesn't suck!

[close]

Really glad they held it back from last year to polish it up. Can't wait to replay the game. 

[thisismyusername]

I'm kiiiiiinda worried that it's open world.

Worry away, it is open-world. And I'm glad they're doing that. Time trials in the last one showed the fun is in being able to do whatever you want in areas versus just running through set pieces.

[Sho Nuff]

Apparently the GLORIOUSLY FILTHY Mick Gordon (of KI fame) is working on the music too

[brawndolicious]

I'll wait and see how the level design turns out and I'll probably turn off the HUD hints after a while. I've always wished they had an open world mode in the last ME where you could just run around and chill forever without a timer going.

[Steve Contra]

Hold me brehs

[Positive Touch]

i can't believe this had such a long development considering the first one flopped. I'd like to personally thank whoever was responsible for funding this for all those years

[SantaC]

i can't believe this had such a long development considering the first one flopped. I'd like to personally thank whoever was responsible for funding this for all those years

this game has been in development for 3 years. That's the longest dev time DICE ever got from EA.

[Mods Help]

I want to care, but another open world game...

Unless you're SSX3 taking a stage based game to open world usually isn't the best.

[thisismyusername]

I want to care, but another open world game...

Unless you're SSX3 taking a stage based game to open world usually isn't the best.

No, taking this open world was the best move. This means (if the rumors are still true) the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer allows players to collaborate and watch other people do lines in the world. They're able to go to certain places and start their runs. This is wayyyyy better than the closed-off levels because it now means people can go from street level to roof back to street level if they so want.

[Mods Help]

I want to care, but another open world game...

Unless you're SSX3 taking a stage based game to open world usually isn't the best.

No, taking this open world was the best move. This means (if the rumors are still true) the drop-in/drop-out multiplayer allows players to collaborate and watch other people do lines in the world. They're able to go to certain places and start their runs. This is wayyyyy better than the closed-off levels because it now means people can go from street level to roof back to street level if they so want.

i don't care about seeing other people do shit tbh. unless the "open-world" is small and contained Arkham Asylum/Arkham City style I think I'll pass.

[mormapope]

I want to care, but another open world game...

Unless you're SSX3 taking a stage based game to open world usually isn't the best.

I fucking hate how SSX Tricky gets the majority of love in the SSX series. SSX 3 is one of the best arcade sport games of all time. Probably went down that first mountain hundreds of times, listening to this, relaxing:

 

[mormapope]

I also agree with Mods Help on this. Whenever something trick or momentum based gets bigger, a lot of fun gets sucked out. SSX 3 did it perfectly, where the big open areas were used for races or rival based stuff only.

Mirrors Edge only needed more speed and less puzzle platforming. Mirrors Edge 1 is way too slow to be exciting. The game gets exciting if you're trying to speed run it, but even then the inclusion of puzzle platforming, aka look around the environment for the next path slows the game down way too much. I played with the red bullshit turned off though, so that criticism may lie with me.

I would happily take a much faster Mirrors Edge that's based around only reflexes and skill than freeform, "make your own" line platforming.

[brob]

The game gets exciting if you're trying to speed run it, but even then the inclusion of puzzle platforming, aka look around the environment for the next path slows the game down way too much. I played with the red bullshit turned off though, so that criticism may lie with me.

I would happily take a much faster Mirrors Edge that's based around only reflexes and skill than freeform, "make your own" line platforming.

the puzzle platforming bits are not an issue in ME1 imo, even playing with the highlighter off (I also did this, as it looks ugly as sin) the spaces are never big enough that you get lost or even have more than a couple of potential ways to progress. The game also has a great objective marker system where you just press B(xbox) or O (PS) to orient towards where you are supposed to be going. I always felt one of the strengths of the game was how well it balanced reflex-based player skill with minor methodical planning.

The actual fuckshit in ME1 was the forced combat sequences and the inexplicably god awful Burnside 'boss fight' which is a single QTE the game never uses anywhere else and if you fail it you are sent back to a checkpoint to try again.

also, lmao at open world shit looking at other players doing shit. go play an MMO u nerds

[mormapope]

I mainly want a lot more speed, like thrusters and jet roller blades. I want so much speed you might feel sick from it.

There are some indie first person platformers like this, but a lot of them feel way too floaty or loose. Something with Mirror's Edge's weight combined with Burnout 3's sense of speed is what I want.

Titanfall is actually really really close to what I would want with Mirror's Edge, but with more weight and oomph behind everything.

[thisismyusername]

I would happily take a much faster Mirrors Edge that's based around only reflexes and skill than freeform, "make your own" line platforming.

No offense, but you two are in the minority when it comes to that. Yes, the speedruns were fun. Yes, the time-trials were fun. But for most people they want to be able to do more Parkour/platforming and Mirror's Edge nearly nails the Parkour platforming in first person in spades. Opening that up for people to dick around with their friends and find lines or areas to do tricks in is way better than 9 maps only.

I also agree with Mods Help on this. Whenever something trick or momentum based gets bigger, a lot of fun gets sucked out. SSX 3 did it perfectly, where the big open areas were used for races or rival based stuff only.

Mirrors Edge only needed more speed and less puzzle platforming. Mirrors Edge 1 is way too slow to be exciting. The game gets exciting if you're trying to speed run it, but even then the inclusion of puzzle platforming, aka look around the environment for the next path slows the game down way too much. I played with the red bullshit turned off though, so that criticism may lie with me.

You can still completely run the sandboxes. The only hang-up is you having to learn the locations for the levels or time-trials from the sandbox at first. It's the same criticism people lobby at Burnout Paradise going open-world instead of track design like 3: Takedown, it still works fabulously. There were legit critics with Paradise, but the sandbox/open-world design wasn't one of them. I feel the same is going to be with Mirror's Edge in a way.

[Mods Help]

I also agree with Mods Help on this. Whenever something trick or momentum based gets bigger, a lot of fun gets sucked out. SSX 3 did it perfectly, where the big open areas were used for races or rival based stuff only.

Mirrors Edge only needed more speed and less puzzle platforming. Mirrors Edge 1 is way too slow to be exciting. The game gets exciting if you're trying to speed run it, but even then the inclusion of puzzle platforming, aka look around the environment for the next path slows the game down way too much. I played with the red bullshit turned off though, so that criticism may lie with me.

I would happily take a much faster Mirrors Edge that's based around only reflexes and skill than freeform, "make your own" line platforming.

ME's biggest problem is combat. Its puzzle platforming was the best part of it imo. When it's on, it's on, and what a rush it is.

[Mods Help]

I would happily take a much faster Mirrors Edge that's based around only reflexes and skill than freeform, "make your own" line platforming.

No offense, but you two are in the minority when it comes to that. Yes, the speedruns were fun. Yes, the time-trials were fun. But for most people they want to be able to do more Parkour/platforming and Mirror's Edge nearly nails the Parkour platforming in first person in spades. Opening that up for people to dick around with their friends and find lines or areas to do tricks in is way better than 9 maps only.

Fuck open world at this point tbh.

Not every game needs to be big and sprawling. For a game like ME, stages and challenges and speed runs and time trials are the best. I understand the need to make it open world for sales, but one of those sales won't be mine.

Watch it be another 80 open world romp with checklist gaming.

[mormapope]

Burnout Paradise's open world was completely ass for single player racing. I want to go fast, unlock faster shit, go faster. Events, repeated ad nauseam, spread out across the map randomly, made the act of getting into a race terrible. The same exact shit happened with Tony Hawk, eventually the open world story mode got too big and the overly large map design combined with connecting everything together made the series boring.

You know what Burnout Paradise's open world was good for? Multiplayer. It was great for multiplayer, but I don't play arcade racers for multiplayer. Plus it eventually got boring doing shit with a group of people. There was absolutely no benefit to Paradise's world for single player. The world was too small to take relaxing, long ass drives like in GTA. And yet it was too big to efficiently play through all the races quickly.

Combine that with a fucking abysmal soundtrack and the lame replacement for crash levels, Burnout Paradise was only a Burnout game when it came to the sense of speed.

Mirrors Edge having SKATE or Burnout Paradise multiplayer isn't something to get excited about. Its something that's fun to dick around in a few times and then never come back to.

[mormapope]

ME's biggest problem is combat. Its puzzle platforming was the best part of it imo. When it's on, it's on, and what a rush it is.

You know what the best parts of Mirror's Edge were?

When the enemy type that chases you was introduced. I would be fine with a four hour long game of being chased and not knowing how close they are to nabbing you.

[brob]

SKATE 3's integrated multiplayer was so trash oh my goddddd

[Mods Help]

ME's biggest problem is combat. Its puzzle platforming was the best part of it imo. When it's on, it's on, and what a rush it is.

You know what the best parts of Mirror's Edge were?

When the enemy type that chases you was introduced. I would be fine with a four hour long game of being chased and not knowing how close they are to nabbing you.

they need an alert.

It's similar to jet set radio in that you've got the police chasing after you while you platform. The difference is that jsr has the benefit of being third person and camera angles change if the police are close to tell you to hurry the hell up while you tag. mirrors edge can't do that without sacrificing its delicate minimalist ui and aesthetic.

You can't make it sound based because some people might be playing late at night when the family is sleep. but changing the camera won't work either. One alternative is to slightly split the screen at the edge of the screen showing the enemy chasing after you, and you have to follow it to see how close they are to the player. The second enemy based screen shrinks as they get closer. When they finally get to the player the entire screen is full again. nice compromise. also factors into the big brother element of the story. voila, pay me dice.

[mormapope]

Some horror games now have a button or input to turn your head while still running/sprinting. That would be a pretty fair compromise design wise. Check how far your enemies are while risking running into something. Realistically, you'd only check where chasers are at when running on long paths or straight paths. While platforming, you'd have to get shit done quick before they would knock you off a ledge or drag you out of a ledge.

[mormapope]

Some horror games now have a button or input to turn your head while still running/sprinting.

I could have sworn Mirror's Edge had this.

If you pressed left and right bumper at the same time you would turn around, including your body. It would flip your entire body around rather than flipping the camera or perspective.

[brob]

there was also the mid-air turn around which let you flip off the pigs chasing u 

[Steve Contra]

I've never done anything as satisfying in gaming as nailing a speedrun or time trial in Mirror's Edge (maybe chaining an entire stage in Ikaruga).

[thisismyusername]

Not every game needs to be big and sprawling. For a game like ME, stages and challenges and speed runs and time trials are the best. I understand the need to make it open world for sales, but one of those sales won't be mine.

Watch it be another 80 open world romp with checklist gaming.

I doubt it'll be an 80 item romp with checklist. Their idea (from what was leaked) was to allow the players to be able to define their own lines, and really: That's the goal of Parkour. "Traceur"s make their own lines. This is where the sandbox strength will be. Post main-game players will be able to do their own platforming. If anything, I'm hoping DICE took the idea of Halo 3-on's "forge" and put that into the Sandbox as well a la Skate 3's skate-park building but better done. This would allow players to be able to set up various runs and do platforming.

For me, the time-trails got old really fast because there was very little in the way of variation to do beyond "go faster than your previous run." For me, personally, Mirror's Edge shines in allowing me to go WHERE I want at the speed I want. I want to take a minute to catch my breath and look for a way up and then implement that into a smooth run the next time I go through? Can do with a sandbox. With pre-set levels there's only so many variations before you have to start doing glitches (like the wallrun->kick->drop that people did to fall injury heights with no problems) to get faster.

[Mods Help]

80 hour*

[thisismyusername]

Even then I doubt it'll be an 80 hour checklist story. I have faith (heh heh "Faith") in DICE actually nailing Mirror's Edge 2 because from what they've shown they know what people want in regards to Mirror's Edge (platforming, running, less combat and if forced into combat for it to be extremely fast/over-and-done-with to get back to the platforming) to where I'm really hyped enough to get into the closed beta (that is probably going to be the multiplayer) to see how/what they did with Frostbite 3 and the platforming.

Mirror's Edge's 1 controller layout. More of that? Yes plz.

Burnout Paradise's open world was completely ass for single player racing. I want to go fast, unlock faster shit, go faster. Events, repeated ad nauseam, spread out across the map randomly, made the act of getting into a race terrible. The same exact shit happened with Tony Hawk, eventually the open world story mode got too big and the overly large map design combined with connecting everything together made the series boring.

You know what Burnout Paradise's open world was good for? Multiplayer. It was great for multiplayer, but I don't play arcade racers for multiplayer. Plus it eventually got boring doing shit with a group of people. There was absolutely no benefit to Paradise's world for single player. The world was too small to take relaxing, long ass drives like in GTA. And yet it was too big to efficiently play through all the races quickly.

Combine that with a fucking abysmal soundtrack and the lame replacement for crash levels, Burnout Paradise was only a Burnout game when it came to the sense of speed.

I had no problems with Paradise in single-player. Your critic about the missions having to be "go-to" is completely valid, however. Like I said, there was valid nits to pick with Paradise, but the sandbox was a minor nit (if even one) because it worked for what they were attempting to do. If you didn't like it? Cool, not for you. But to go "OMG SANDBOX DESIGN AWFUL WORST GAME EVER" like some people?

I mean if you want a terrible Burnout, go look at Revenge. Too many things they did wrong there and that had the track-design that 3: Takedown had.

[Mods Help]

checklist gaming isn't about the story.

it's assassin's creed-itis. Here are a lot of unsubstantial things for you to do: do them all! climb all of the towers! how many birds eyes can you view? side quests and content meant only for extending the game length that subsists on checking off items rather contributing a single worth to actual design. checklist gaming. it's endemic to modern open world games. where the game turns into nothing more than checking off lists. from bethesda quest lists, to assassin's creed. long, drawn out games for the sake of it.

a mirror's edge open world game is the perfect game to implement such a structure: how many buildings can you climb? find all the shortcuts! pick up all the packages! Mirror's Edge open world is made for that shit. watch it happen.

[Cerveza mas fina]

Pretty much summed up how I feel about most open world games

Far Cry and DAI are games I quit mere hours in mainly due to this, i think there is one menu screen in Far Cry that shows all your "progress", that screen is the epitome of whats wrong with that game

Polar opposite of this is the Witcher

[brawndolicious]

The only issue for open-world is that climbing buildings or traversing the city could that they have to copy-paste level design. The Arkham games have pretty interesting buildings but you're just grappel/gliding everywhere and anyone who's played any AC game knows that the climbing mechanics seem to be the same regardless of if a cathedral or a fort. What they need to do is design environments that are diverse and real and not just like a jungle gym dipped in concrete.

I'm hopeful that they can pull it off even if that means I'll misjudge jumps and fall several stories.

The actual fuckshit in ME1 was the forced combat sequences and the inexplicably god awful Burnside 'boss fight' which is a single QTE the game never uses anywhere else and if you fail it you are sent back to a checkpoint to try again.

Ropeburn? The Y button is used to disarm police and knock them out, it has to be pressed the moment the gun/weapon turns red. I thought it was the only good thing about the hand-to-hand combat since it still maintains a bit of momentum.

[brob]

The actual fuckshit in ME1 was the forced combat sequences and the inexplicably god awful Burnside 'boss fight' which is a single QTE the game never uses anywhere else and if you fail it you are sent back to a checkpoint to try again.

Ropeburn? The Y button is used to disarm police and knock them out, it has to be pressed the moment the gun/weapon turns red. I thought it was the only good thing about the hand-to-hand combat since it still maintains a bit of momentum.

Ropeburn, yes. The disarming slipped my mind because I never bothered much with taking their guns away since they are so awful to use and you can almost always just bypass fighting all together, tbh I'd still say it's one of the primary flaws of the game to have a QTE instantly kill you.

[chronovore]

I found the beta for the Mirror's Edge multiplayer gameplay:
http://flapmmo.com

[Rahxephon91]

This game looks like money.

[benjipwns]

[benjipwns]

Part of that one reminded me of the way they edited this trailer for the first game, cutting between all the different levels off the moves, though it's cleaner and less MOVIE TRAILERish in the original:

spoiler (click to show/hide)

We were a simpler, more easily impressed people back then:

[close]

[PlayDat]

I just remembered the Progressive commercial-assed cut scenes in the first game. I loved the original as a whole, but that was kind of a weird decision. If the narrative is going to play a a bigger role in Catalyst it might be neat they do the Valve thing and let you keep playing instead stopping for some video.

[Positive Touch]

nah all cutscenes are non interactive and cut out of the first person viewpoint

[PlayDat]

Darn.  I'm starting to grow tired of those.

[Am_I_Anonymous]

Available right now for any xboners with EA access. 10 hour trial

[toku]

[fistfulofmetal]

Grabbed the trial from EA Access, played the intro and got to the first mission before stopping.

It's weird how the game feels and plays nearly identical to the original. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you weren't a fan of the way the original played they didn't really change much. There's new moves and stuff but the feel of running and jumping is pretty much the same.

I don't like that a lot of the moves are locked away at the start and you have to unlock them as you play. For example, you can't tuck your legs up when you jump. You can't roll when you land. Like, I get it you're trying to ease players into the game but ffs I know how to play this game and it just feels like I'm being limited for no reason.

[Positive Touch]

thankfully from what i remember it was very easy to unlock those basic moves very shortly into the game

[TVC15]

The reviews appear really mixed

[Stoney Mason]

The reviews appear really mixed

To be fair the original got mixed reviews also. It kind of only become a critical darling after the fact.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/mirrors-edge-2008

[Positive Touch]

i loved the original, but the beta (which seemed huge) was pretty eh. lots of easy platforming bc you're running back and forth around the city, and if the in game stats are accurate the story is really short. seemed like the main content was in side missions.

[Beezy]

Fuck the reviews, I can't wait to play this tomorrow.

[Great Rumbler]

I've waited too long for another Mirror's Edge to be swayed by critics this close to release. Bring on the minimalist parkour!