When the game first starts up, the view is quite breathtaking. Not because it's so HD, but because it's simply spectacular, I mean, sort of like a bird's-eye view of a city almost entirely beneath you... is nice. But when you catch your breath after a few minutes of just looking around, the first thing you'll notice is that your eyes are being pierced. Pierced by excessively overused HDR, and pierced by the lack of colors - white. Almost every building is mostly just white, like you were looking at some scale-model plan of a new city district in an office. Idk about others, but for me it got pretty frustrating quite quickly, like, okay, a sinister purity-of-total-mind-control kinda vibe, but still...? Mainly when paired with the obnoxious use of paintings on ladders and such, I swear I could smell plastic. It's totally idiotic - why on earth does wood have no color??? I couldn't come up with a rational explanation. And btw wooden surfaces and objects: the PC version was being delayed (officially) cuz of the PhysX integration. Well, PhysX or not, there's an AWFUL lot of items that are totally static. Even the corpses just stay where they fell. It might be just me, but hey: Crysis was in 2007, and it could achieve perfect physics without any additional native hardware/software support. Now here's Mirror's Edge, two months late compared to the console versions, and (together with the annoying install/first run issues) we get a few flags and soft plastic curtains - under the cover of "PhysX integration". WTF?! I wish game developers would wake up and stop being such dunderheads when it comes to game engines. ... That, or at least gave less stupid reasons for such delays.
The second shock came to me only after filing these things. Playing, doing things, alright...but where's the data? How do I know if I've enough health or ammo left? How do I know where I am and where I'm supposed to go to? Yes, that's right: the game totally lacks ANY sort of feedback. No HUD at all, and while that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing (anyone remembers Black & White? it's like, we didn't even need it, everything was so self-explanatory), DICE just managed to fuck this up as well. Routes are totally not obvious, and of course if there are alternate ones, shorter or safer, they shouldn't reveal everything, but at least one "normal" should be visible on a goddamn map, but nooooooo, the future's free from any and all GPS satellites and devices. (Which totally contradicts Faith's one request for coordinates - she must have a positioning computer in her brain with all the maps, or a device, but if the latter, why aren't we allowed to use it?) And apparently even any physical form of maps, probably so that the enemies won't get their hands on the full layout of the city, ne? Blargh. -_- And YES, it IS wrong. You can only guess if you have enough Reaction Time to finish a certain move; Runner Vision is simply ridiculous (they have some eye-implants or what?); and the Hint button does not do anything except for turning your moving direction (ie, not only vision) to where you're supposed to go in the middle of, idk, escaping half a dozen commando units (a situation when you ARE likely to need some help about which way you should go), often making you to turn to a wall and get shot dead. Brilliant, really.
Having swallowed all these impossibilities, I focused on Faith's movement. I shouldn't have. Because all I could realize was that Lara knew about 95% (and some more, different ones) of these "tricks" back in Tomb Raider: Legend. The only thing that changed is that this time you see things "from within" instead of "from behind". Which actually leaves some pretty shitty camera handling in certain situations, not being able to properly take a look (even though a real person in the same situation irl could do it) at where you're going to jump, for example. Hanging from edges and arriving to a corner? Well, you might or might not be lucky: a few times you can go around to go on, a few times you can't. Well, brilliant, again. I swear one or two moans when Faith pulls herself up, were actually Lara's in one or more of the Tomb Raider games. :/ So, Faith has a nice hairdo, and apart from that...disappointing. It's like the whole thing is a reconstructed Matrix: u can fight a few ppl, but u better run - mainly when the agents (here commando units) come, cuz they can't be beaten. Blaaargh. -_-
As for the story...well, I'll be honest: there wasn't one part that could strike me as unexpected, and not even the ending seemed to make much sense to me. True, Crysis didn't have an A-class script either, but it could make us forgive/forget that one thing, because it offered so much more in visuals. Mirror's Edge fails both, the only part I actually enjoyed, was the cutscenes (those with Win7 beta better prepare for silence tho, Bink should fix this): the style is a nice blend of paper-figure-look-a-likes and animes. I think Owen O'Brien should take lessons in focusing on any person, mainly if the person in question would be the protagonist. The elements are such clichés they simply fail to put any weight, any character onto that mass of bones and muscles we get to control.
All in all, I don't think Mirror's Edge is worth the money. Not the initial price, for sure, anyway. Get Lara, enter her brain, put her into a full-sized scale model and render the whole thing in Unreal Engine 3. ... Um, no, thanks, not good. Where's the originality, the revolutionary content? Cuz that seemed to be the smoke of it all - but I couldn't find the fire itself.
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/29/hitachi-h001-with-3d-display-leads-up-kddi-aus-spring-2009-line/
Check that out. ... Why don't we have phones like them people there in Asia, again? @_@
So I thought of summarizing the past year... and spent weeks on selecting ten tracks I've probably listened to the most - making them the bests of 2008 for me. Eventually I had to set up a rule: sticking to single/video releases only. Not as if that had made it any easier, but at least eliminated a few nominees I would've included otherwise, making a much longer list. So here goes.
10. Mariah has been having a knack for making albums that fail to impress me enough to love them right after the first listening. However, the more I listen to them, the more I get to like them as well: most of the songs of E=MC^2 are soft, not exactly for a hardcore dance-party, and quite sugar-free for being R&B too, but hey. She still has that great voice, and it blends well with both the rhythm and the melodies. As for I Stay In Love in particular, I'm not sure I have the reason to sing it, but I do know a few people who are still in love with their ex's. Besides, the tunes are just catchy too - not the "omgitsjustfreakingood" favorite, but it got stuck in my mind.
09. She kissed a girl - so what, I ask. As un-shocking that event should be in today's world, and as stupid as that song is, it managed to gain enough attention for Katy Perry. And I can't help repeating what I've read at a number of places: neither lyrically, nor musically is her album, One Of The Boys, any special. But it seems a good blend of everything is enough for success. Hot N Cold is one of the strongest tracks of the dozen the album has to offer, and again, with a story too many of us know too well, I guess. On a sidenote, the video features a Nokia N96 - seems like promotion became somewhat of a trend last year (see below).
08. I don't know who has (not) expected something like this from Michelle Williams, but I sure as hell said it was high time for Unexpected.Granted, she was caught up in gospel more like R&B, if I'm right, but still... and right in the middle, tho tough luck with the timing, seeing how strong last year was. Hello Heartbreak however would certainly deserve more (more, more) airplay, it just has that vibe that make you want to listen to it again and again. And if you don't remember much else than the chorus, worry not - the rest of the lyrics is not really major singing, but that doesn't really affect the track as a whole, surprisingly. More of this, and there'll be no trouble at all.
07. What else for the majorest ever chick-flick movie than a similarly major chick-flick song? I'd say it easily beats all of The Dutchess tho, the rhythm is great and well, face it: there is some truth in the lyrics. Not to mention the fact that it's quite the tour in most of today's most popular fashion brands - if you're out of place, and have no idea about Prada purses, or how a big bag can be filled with Dior, make sure to look those names up, you'll even learn a lot. It's a pity that it's only partially featured in the movie actually, as it fits just perfectly. But oh well, that's like the only fault about this song.
05. OMG! Another new year, another Gackt-release! And it's cool too!!! ... Well, cool AND spooky, actually. I mean, who would make a song with the title Jesus, and then shoot a video for it which is about a guy shooting himself in the head? I think it's the artist in Gackt that creates these odd visions - the one that simply must. be. loved. I seriously hope the guy is okay tho, he hasn't released a proper album for years...and that's quite sad, cuz he apparently still has The Talent. Rock on, Gackt-sama...and return to that simple single piano too sometimes, kayyy?
04. I might not be too far from truth if I say that Duffy's last year's newcomer. Slightly neurotic, in music and lyrics for sure, no idea about personality and real life, but wouldn't be surprised... and that's the thing that makes her great. A voice that easily sounds fragile, with lyrics that only enhance that impression... and the album/single covers seem to add more to it, depicting her totally alone with little or no environment at all. The melodies crawl in your ear, and stay there too, and despite it appears to be perfect "background music" for any scenario, you'll find yourself listening more and more to Duffy. Warwick Avenue is like a stop on a road - that certain one when you're about to meet your ex one last time, to break up once again, and for all. Anyone who can't connect? Doubt it.
03. I know I totally dissed Hard Candy, missing Madonna herself from the whole concept, from the sound, from the lyrics... and Give It 2 Me is a bit silly too, in the sense that upon first listening, seems unlikely to become anyone's favorite. But I had to realize: there's more to it. In a subtle way, maybe even subconsciously, one can hear the noises of troubles that led to her divorce. Still, as the title of Give It 2 Me suggests, she won't stop to cry: rather takes on even more challenges. Sticky & Sweet was one of them, and it was a huge success, so what more proof do you need? That rave-ish remix of the song, live, with the lasershow too...the woman couldn't freakin' stop even if she wanted to, I swear. So yeah. ... What justifies the third place then? Well, it's nothing special from her, I mean, it's what she's always been like, isn't it?
02. I'm gonna be the public enemy amongst most Madonna fans by placing Britney above Madonna, but um ... well, she's been quite messed up lately. Then came Blackout from nothing, and no one knew what to think. Then she did it again (pardon the pun), and released Circus, which is definitely has the "WOW!"-effect. If the two ballads didn't break it up, it'd be a perfect party-album. Again, like in P!nk's case, the album's first single suggested quite a lot - the difference is that Circus DID turn out to be almost non-stop, unlike Funhouse. Pure energy, and damn, she proved that she can be the phoenix many of her fans thought her to be, reborn from her own flames. Congrats! Oh yeah, and yet another video to feature a top-notch device, this time it's the Nokia 5800. Hmm...
01. And who stole the first place? It seems we have a Rihanna here. Bit out of place maybe, similarly to Labels Or Love - technically, both The Dutchess and Good Girl Gone Bad are 2007 releases, and I'd hardly consider a few bonus-tracks worth a re-release, but hey, the tracks themselves are new at least. And Disturbia being the best, simply, because it's sort of like an all-purpose song. Great rhythm for dancing at a party, sinister lyrics you can attach to when you're in a foul mood, and that effect the two put together that just makes you feel better after listening to it. Split personality much? I know I get kinda schizophrenic sometimes, so it's an absolute win. While I still can't forgive her for the slaps she made me want to present her with after Unfaithful, Disturbia managed to make me at least forget about the whole issue.
So that's it for music 2008 here. Those who just missed the top 10, in no particular order, were people like Enya (...And Winter Came would certainly be in an album top 10 tho) with Trains And Winter Rains; Dido with Grafton Street (no single release); t.A.T.u.'s Белый плащик (certainly qualifies for a video top 10 tho, provocative as ever again); Christina Aguilera's Keeps Gettin' Better; and some more too... On a totally different basis, Alanis Morissette would have been in here for sure, because as strong an album as Flavors Of Entanglement is, as weak the singles released were - I mean, well, maybe In Praise... is a bit better, but honestly, there's Citizen Of The Planet, there's Straitjacket, Versions Of Violence, Moratorium, Tapes, Incomplete, 20/20, The Guy Who Leaves ... did she keep those album-only on a purpose?... I think it's the music mystery of 2008, and that's just it.
Why pray? You are gods.
Omnipresent and omnipotent.
You know what's on my mind,
you know the shape of my soul
and the weight of my heart.
Nobody knows it better in fact,
probably not even myself.
You see the things
that drive me happy and grateful;
you hear my sobs in the night,
telling all the sadness.
You sense my pangs of jealousy,
the waves of my anger and wrath -
and know their targets too.
There's no way I could make
the objects of my desires any cleaner.
My sins are all written down
in your books,
before I even commit them.
Protection and help:
the same as anything else.
I can't change your decisions,
for you are the superior ones;
I can't say anything
you haven't already heard from me.
Repeating all these would bore you,
I'm sure of that;
would exhaust my disturbed mind
and burden my heavy heart.
I don't wanna make promises
either empty or impossible;
you know me within,
you'll know what I've done
for everything I'd ask or thank.
Omnipotent and omnipresent.
You are gods. Why pray?
I'm troubled, I'm brilliant and miserable too
That's why I am so funny
I swallow down all my fears
With a bottle made of silver
I can't remember anything
Not the people, not the places I've been
"Just one more day you can make it, babe"
That's what I tell myself
And everything that I love in life
It is killing me, 'cause it's bad for my health
Surrounded by familiar faces with no names
None of them know me or want to share my pain
They only wish to bask in my light then fade away
To watch me live my life in pain
When all is done and the glitter fades, fades away
Sunshine... Whenever the rays fall on me, and I'd welcome them, it always turns out that I just happened to be in the halo. No intention to target me. At all. And I, like a lost puppy, jump at and hang on to every little bit of sunshine, because it's fuckin' cold and dark in here.
Whispers all around freakin' scare me, telling I should do this and I shouldn't do that... FUCK IT. "Should"s got me where I am now. And thanks to all the whispers, I can't hear my own my mind at all.
Something always goes wrong. Not one peaceful moment where I could genuinely put aside all the woes and worries and just enjoy something happy, something blissful, something funny, something intimate - or just plain, simple, peaceful. And I know you don't care. No one ever cares. No one ever could care less.
You came in the night,
in the bleak of mid-winter,
arrived at piles of ash
and you never seemed to mind.
Fluttering wings,
and monochrome was gone,
I could see colors again,
sunshine and rainbows and glitter,
and though you spook me sometimes,
there isn't one marble of galaxy
I'd trade the glint of your eyes for.
The snow melts,
the many-starred nightcloak
is taken off,
I'm left with a dragon's smile,
my most cherished treasure.
Having no console whatsoever, I was left at ... ahem, ~dear~ EA's mercy with this title - which I haven't especially been anticipating, but given the hype, I thought "ok, let's give it a shot". With all the negative comments I've heard about its length (or the lack thereof, its shortness), its relative easiness, my expectations weren't high at all... and yet, EA managed to underperform.
The first frown came when the installer fired up: granted, I'm a Hungarian in Hungary, but ffs, why am I not allowed to at least CHOOSE which language I wanna use in an installer, not to mention the game itself??? Why do developers have to FORCE things on the user? I'm not saying most ppl wouldn't prefer their own language if possible, but still a click or two wouldn't be that complex of a solution, and everyone would feel satisfied. Maybe it's just me, but Hungarian translations are generally not that great, so I always avoid them, whatever the medium is: games, movies, books... ok, in some cases they're quite good, but still when you know it's not the original, the whole feeling is just different. So yeah. Minus one point to EA again.
Following some investigation and registry-editing (I pity those poor noobs who're barely able to use a computer and would want a different language than what the game decides), the second strike came when I wanted to start the game. No config utilities, it even failed to create shortcuts in start menu of Win7 (probable flaw on Vista too, methinks) and it'd switch to a resolution my display simply doesn't support...sooo, all goes black and the only solution that remains is to press that funky reset button on the case. I'd be glad for a fix here, cuz I couldn't yet figure out which config file to edit. T_T
So, congrats EA, months of delay (under the mission of "adding physx content"), and you manage to push out a piece of crap again - and couldn't even yet get to the game...no comment.
Edit: apparently, the installer hasn't heard of version checks either, cuz even tho I have the latest v9 PhysX installed, it wants to install v8.10 anyway - same goes for DirectX, I wonder what's there to install if the system has v10 by default, and I've also installed the latest 9.0c pack as well...? Oh, and just to top it off: the option to choose the location of the start menu shortcuts is a joke too. You can't place it anywhere outside the Programs folder of the "All user account".
Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez!!! -_-;;;
You'd never fight for me,
to fulfill a wish.
Just a stroll in the park,
this lifeless gray world
would seem like candyland,
vivid with colors
and birds and butterflies.
But I can't even recall anymore
the sounds and scents
of being snuggled up
to each other
in a moment away
from the war
that this whole place is.
Between sunrise and sunset,
I barely register
the undeath around me,
afraid of a breaking mind.
