Thirith on 8/11/2020 at 22:45
I wish I could get Mirror's Edge to run in ultrawide. It should work with Flawless Widescreen apparently, but I've managed to get it to work neither with the Steam version nor with the Origin one.
IMO Mirror's Edge Catalyst is much better than its reputation, and the story missions are very good, but other than the combat missteps in the first game its levels are unsurpassed.
demagogue on 9/11/2020 at 00:41
Hmm, I was just playing Catalyst again recently, and it depressed me all over again. I'll grant it didn't depress me as much as my first time, as I realized it wasn't going to be the first game, since this time my expectations were grounded. It's hard to say why it gets me down though. It still has the core that made the first work in principle. I'm hearing that you can get to a stage of the game where you can focus on the running & parkor parts if you'd like, but the game isn't holding me long enough to get into that frame of mind, at least it hasn't yet.
The original, on the other hand, has to be one of my most replayed games ever. I replay it, or levels of it, every few months, maybe 3~4 times a year, and I'll just run the races any time I have some free minutes to do something. It's a real challenge the first time around. But after the first few times playing it, when you've got the basic moves and what to do down, then it becomes a game of staying in the flow of a good run. And on that, it's one of the best FPS games ever for creating and holding a flow that you can keep returning to. It's definitely one of my favorites of all time.
Jason Moyer on 9/11/2020 at 05:56
Catalyst is one of the most disappointing games ever for me. The only parts that I really enjoyed were whatever the challenge rooms were called. They took one of the most immersive games ever made with some of the best level design and movement feel and turned it into an open world icon chaser. And even the discrete levels (outside of the challenge rooms) were just running down a narrow corridor and occasionally pushing a button to jump or grab a pipe or whatever. And doors that don't open until you fight a pile of dudes? WTF even.
Pyrian on 9/11/2020 at 07:35
One of the best things about Mirror's Edge 1 is the combat arenas that you're clearly intended to fight your way through, but don't have to.
Thirith on 9/11/2020 at 08:15
Quote Posted by demagogue
It still has the core that made the first work in principle. I'm hearing that you can get to a stage of the game where you can focus on the running & parkor parts if you'd like, but the game isn't holding me long enough to get into that frame of mind, at least it hasn't yet.
I can well imagine that to be the case. I have this thing where, if I like one aspect of a game well enough, I end up forgetting the things I like less - and I think the first third of the game (or so) may be such a case. Getting the skill points to open up all the relevant abilities sucks (as it does in so many games - for me,
Dying Light is even worse in that respect), but once I had those abilities I enjoyed the gameplay as much as I did in the first game. Most of the open world stuff is mediocre to bad but it can largely be ignored, other than getting from A to B - but I actively enjoy traversal in the game, so getting from A to B wasn't a huge issue for me.
I have to say that while there was too much combat in the game, and much of the combat is badly placed in the levels, I did kinda enjoy the combat gameplay in and of itself, which is something that never happened in the first game. I do wish they'd made it optional in the story levels (in the sense that you can avoid it by means of parkour), but I thought they did a better job of giving the combat a sense of flow.
Jason Moyer on 9/11/2020 at 10:20
Quote Posted by Pyrian
One of the best things about Mirror's Edge 1 is the combat arenas that you're clearly
intended to fight your way through, but don't have to.
YES. Like that area where you're trying to get outside by running through a room with a winding staircase and a pile of dudes running up the stairs with guns. You can just vault over a railing, use glass to slow your fall, and sprint to the door before they know what's going on. That kind of shit was amazing. Or even if you did engage in combat, guns were almost never an advantage. The way I usually do the server room level is I run around the room using the servers as cover so the armed guys take care of the "destroy the servers" objective for me, then vault up to the upper catwalk/exit, landing on the heavy machinegun guy at the top of the stairs which knocks him down and lets me run to the door. I did a run through where I not only never used guns, I didn't disarm anybody unless it was a parkour move (like vaulting on to them or doing a running drop kick).
People complained about the shooting in ME but I viewed it like the Sword in Thief 1/2. It's there if you need it but I wouldn't rely on it. In Thief your weapon is darkness, in ME it's movement.
EvaUnit02 on 9/11/2020 at 19:00
Quote Posted by Harvester
I finished
Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy yesterday. After playing Jedi Outcast a few years ago this was still on my list. I had fun with this game, though it's far from perfect. The later lightsaber fights and boss fights I could only get through by save scumming. The writing and dialogue are not that great, I mean why is she (I played as a female Jedi) friends with that insufferable douchebag Rosh again? Level design is pretty good with some mild puzzle elements that are fun and not too tough. Thankfully it doesn't have a poorly executed stealth level like Jedi Outcast had.
I've tried playing Jedi Outcast several times over the years but would always give up after few hours of being lost in the 2nd or 3rd level, not knowing where to go. Jedi Academy is better in this regard?
Harvester on 9/11/2020 at 19:02
Yeah, I'd say the levels are a little less mazelike than Jedi Outcast. I remember in Jedi Outcast sometimes trying to find the one unlocked door among tens of locked doors. Didn't really get stuck for more than 5 minutes at a time in Academy.
PigLick on 9/11/2020 at 23:53
I really enjoyed the modular nature of Jedi Academy, the way it was short little chapters or episodes. Plus it had really good online play.
Jason Moyer on 10/11/2020 at 01:33
The episodic nature of the missions was awesome as was the ability to choose your own skill upgrades. It's sad that the main story was so bad and that they removed first person lightsabers.