Well that was fast! I spent most of the day playing Mirror's Edge, I'd say it took around 6 hours or so to get through the 9 chapters of the game. I'll be first giving you my final thoughts on the game and then I will follow that up with my thoughts on the second game in AP2010, Battlefield Bad Company.

Final Thoughts: Mirror's Edge
This is a tough one for me, Mirror's Edge was such a mixed bag for me. There are a lot of strong points and there where times I was having lots of fun, but there are nearly an equal amount of weak points that aggravated me quite a lot. I usually start with bad points just to get them out of the way, but this time I am going start with the good.

When the running and jumping is working well Mirror's Edge is great fun, but as you will read later the problems that I experience really tarnished all the fun I had jumping through the levels. The main thing that will standout with Mirror's Edge is the art s.tyle, I love the look of the game with the flat whites and the mostly primary colors standing out. The music is also very interesting and has a really cool sound too it. I wavered on this a bit, but the control scheme works really well too and has quite a bit too it, but is simple enough that you can pull off quick maneuvers with out too much fumbling.

All that good stuff is killed by the amount of things that just didn't work out. First the platforming relies too much on perfection, don't get me wrong that's not totally a bad thing, but when you can't grab a ledge or pole because your character isn't perfectly perpendicular to it causes a ton of frustrating moments. Also for a game with a story about being repressed by the authorities, it sure doesn't allow for much freedom, when you are on the roofs there is a bit of play to getting from point A to B, but in buildings there is one single path and one single way to accomplish it. I heard a lot about the perspective being disorienting and really it's not all that bad... with one exception, I was never able to get a "feel" for where my feet were, you don't know how many times I ran right of a ledge because I thought I had one more step before I jumped.

I also had problems with figuring out where I was supposed to be going or what I was supposed to be doing. The game says "go here" and really leaves you to figure out the one solution as you plummet to your death over and over, trial and error **** This trial and error stuff is one of my gaming pet peeves, I can't stand repeating short sections over and over. The confrontations are another annoyance that I didn't like, first they'd love to stick you in one of those trail and error sections and have a flock of armed SWAT members shooting at you. While the excitement and intensity of the escape is something unique that Mirror's Edge does, it's not fun when you can't find that one stupid vault box that let's you escape the scene. Disarming the guards is another iffy area, it requires split second timing and missing means basically instant death, you might get another shot at it, but not likely... you can use a bullet time like slowdown to make things easier, but I found that to be a bit clumsy too, or I'd just forget I had it.

Overall, I really want to say I liked Mirror's Edge, but I got frustrated so many times, I'm not sure if I can... at the very least I didn't hate it. I could see how if you don't mind some repetitive trial and error sections and could really get a "feel" for the controls how you could really like Mirror's Edge... If you can find it for a good price I recommend trying it, its unique s.tyle and free-running gameplay is something that is worth a shot.

The Second Game: Battlefield: Bad Company (EA/DICE, 360, 2008 )
This might be another short game, I am going to continue where I left off back in early 2009 I think. I am pretty sure that I am only about one level away from the end of the game. The characters of Bad Company are really hilarious and that is what I remember the most about the game, I didn't really get in to the multiplayer too much, so I can't really talk about that. I am going to finish off the single player and I will get back to you with my final thoughts, who knows, maybe on Saturday? Later. Loading Complete!