[VIDEO GAME REVIEW] Mirror's Edge

I started and finished playing DICE’s Mirror’s Edge this weekend. It was fun, but also very frustrating at times. However, unlike games that frustrate me into quitting, Mirror’s Edge frustrated me into trying again, and again, and again. The story is too light, which I don’t feel has anything to do with how short the game is. A short game can have a super-deep story, and a long game can still have a wimpy plot.

The graphics are very nice, not just for a 2008 game but even compared to modern games. The clean, bright, colorful environments are a nice break from the mottled browns of your usual first-person action game. That’s why I was shocked when I saw my first cut scene. The story interludes look like a bad flash animation.  The facial expressions and detail of the characters when actually rendered in game by the 3D engine look much better than the flat animations. I have no idea why they went with that decision.

I got Mirror’s Edge for next to nothing on a Steam sale a while back, and I feel I got my money’s worth out of it.  Right now it’s selling for $20, which I feel might be a little high considering its anemic plot and short run time. $15 would be a good price for Mirror’s Edge, which explains why a lot of the reviews from when it came out fo $50 in 2008/2009 complain so much. If you can get it cheap, and enjoy a good try-die-repeat action game with a focus on speedy navigation instead of guns, I recommend Mirror’s Edge.

Trying Out Blogger Again

A number of years ago I migrated my personal web log from Blogger to Wordpress. At the time, Blogger was a cluttered, outdated mess and Wordpress was a clean, simple haven of publishing goodness. Now, while the tables haven't completed turned, Blogger has certainly done a lot in the "catching up" department.

Blogger's new interface is much cleaner and more straightforward, and its templates are much easier on the eyes than they used to be. But more importantly to me, Blogger is integrated with Google+.  I rarely blog anymore, because everything I want to share is done so through Twitter or Google+.

So I'm trying out Blogger once again.  I won't make this one of those "I'm going to blog more often now" posts, as I've seen far too many of those as the most recent post on all but dormant blogs. But if this extra level of convenience does cause me to write a little more often, I won't complain.