Mirror's Edge Message Board

Electronic Arts rolls out a series of discounts on Xbox Live this week, dropping prices for the Xbox 360 Games on Demand versions of Need for Speed Rivals, Crysis 3, FIFA 14 and other standout games in its digital catalog.

Rivals, FIFA, and NHL 14 are currently available for $29.99 each, while Crysis 3 is up for grabs at $14.79. Other featured games include Mirror's Edge ($4.94), Dead Space ($7.49), Shank 2 ($2.49), and Alice: Madness Returns ($7.39).

This week also brings a collection of exclusive price drops for Xbox Live Gold members, discounting niche XBLA releases like Moon Diver, Blood Knights, and Phantom Breaker: Battle Grounds by 50 percent. This week's deals are valid through February 3.

Hover: Revolt of Gamer is still pretty obviously early, but goodness do I like where it’s headed. The goal? To marry Mirror’s Edge‘s madly precarious first-person parkour to Jet Set Radio Future‘s groovy techno-tronic cityscapes. Oh, and developer Fusty Games is throwing in an open world for good measure. Also rail-grinding, because who didn’t love the ’90s? The trailer below doesn’t quite stick the landing, but it already looks like it’s on the right track.

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I could write about Mirror's Edge all day. About how much I love it, how important it's been to this generation of gaming. I could take about its visual design, which remains as fresh and iconic today as it did back in 2009. I could take about Magnus "Solar Fields" Birgersson's wonderful score. Instead, though, I'm going to talk about something a little more real.Read more...

Boy, these guys did a damn fine job nailing the game's trademark style, from the outfit to the obstacles to the field of view on the camera they used.Read more...

I can’t tell if these guys are imitating Mirror’s Edge, or if this video is just a testament to how well the game captured what parkour feels like. Either way, this first person Parkour video is so much like Mirror’s Edge that it’s actually a little bit terrifying. There’s even moments that feel like it is straight out the game — like the first moment you slide down a rooftop in the game, or hurdle a fence — this real life video seems to imitate the animations in the game, or is it the other way around. I can’t decide. Either way, this video needs more red, otherwise the poor bastards won’t know what direction to run. You have to watch this video. It’s the greatest thing I’ve seen all day. Easily.

I love Mirror's Edge so much I'm not going to get into it here, but the game had its faults. All those indoor bits, mostly. I wanted to run free! Developers DICE are keeping tight-lipped on the game for the most part, but one thing they did disclose - and it's pretty important - is that there are some changes on the way to the game's structure. "What I can say is we're taking more of an action adventure approach on it than maybe before," EA's Patrick Söderlund told CVG. "First-person, running predominantly - this will be more of an action adventure game, but true to what the first one was to a large extent." DICE, you had my curiosity. Now you have my attention. New Mirror's Edge 'more action adventure' than original, says EA exec [CVG]

It’s the kind of thing that been teased and reported multiple times over the last few years but you’ve never wanted to believe it. It’d be too cruel to get hopes up for a new Mirror’s Edge game, only to find out we’d never see a sequel for DICE’s sleekly designed first-person free-runner. Turn out the universe isn’t that cruel: we’re getting new Mirror’s Edge after all.

Ask and you shall receive. Check out the trailer for the latest Mirror's Edge game.

Listed for Xbox 360 but with mocked-up box art that appears to indicate an Xbox One release.

There's been a gif doing the rounds this week of a French cosplayer performing an impressive rendition of Chun Li's lightning kick. It's based on this 2011 clip, and it's pretty good! I'm not sure who the cosplayer/performer in question is, but seeing it reminded me of a similar clip in which we do know the star: Chloe Bruce's 2010 masterclass in Capcom-flavoured martial arts, which never fails to blow your socks off, and which I see has never actually been posted here. Time to fix that. Please watch twice, the second time so you can catch Capcom's Yoshinori Ono in a matching outfit. Chloe is a British martial artist who has appeared on TV and in Hollywood movies like the upcoming Thor sequel, Brad Pitt's World War Z and Wrath of the Titans. She's also done video game work. Played Mirror's Edge? She did martial arts motion capture for the game. The video above is her most famous Chun Li performance, but it's not the only time she's appeared as the character; she cosplayed last year for a photo shoot with British martial arts crew Thr3guys. You can check out more videos of Chloe's work on her site.

One of the unhappiest stories I've ever followed has come to a proper conclusion. When Tim Langdell got a great video game removed from the iTunes store because its title was Edge, I went ballistic. In hindsight, that was rash. But piece by piece, over the past four years his bogus, parasitic operation has been dismantled. It culminated in the formal cancellation of all of his trademarks this past week. A judge had already ruled, in 2010, that Langdell's "Edge" trademarks were not valid, but it took until Wednesday for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to finally cancel them. Langdell was a gaming industry scourge for years. At one point, he actually did develop video games, mostly in the 1980s. He was more known for sending legal threats to anyone who used the word "Edge" in any kind of product associated with video gaming, or arm-twisting his way into licensing agreements over the word. He was a big reason Soul Edge's release in the west is called Soulcalibur. But the outcry over the removal of Mobigame's Edge back in 2009 started to unwind all that. Langdell, incredibly, had been a board member of the International Game Developers Association, a position he resigned when it became apparent the membership would vote to oust him. Soon after, Electronic Arts, the publisher of Mirror's Edge, sued to cancel Langdell's trademarks—an action it said it took on behalf of the games development community. That suit is what finally ended Langdell's ownership of "Cutting Edge," "Gamer's Edge," "The Edge" and of course, "Edge" as video gaming trademarks. This week Langdell objected to the cancellation, filing a three-page protest full of the technicalities and procedural bullshit that have attended to every statement he's made about the matter since 2009. (His claim is that USPTO canceled marks issued to "Edge Games" when in fact they had been issued to "The Edge Interactive Media, Inc." which is "a California Corporation that was not a party to the 2010 District Court case and is not named in the 2010 Court Order.") He threw in a complaint against EA's lawyers to the California Bar Association as a spiteful little middle finger, too. But he's done. David Papazian, of Edge developer Mobigame, gave a triumphal statement on Thursday. “It took us two years to create Edge from scratch, then we waited four additional years for this day to happen," he wrote. "We are so happy for all the victims of this trademark troll, truth and justice finally won!" In celebration, Mobigame put all versions of Edge (iOS/Mac, Steam and Android) are 50 percent off through Monday. Tim Langdell's 'Edge' Trademarks are Finally Canceled [Gamasutra]

We're pretty sure this would make us vomit, but those with stronger constitutions may be interested in playing Mirror's Edge on Oculus Rift. YouTube user Cymatic Bruce uploaded nearly ten minutes of the game in action.

If you have an Oculus Rift and Mirror's Edge, you can get this running by installing Viero Perception and the FOV mod.

Oculus Rift dev kits began shipping late last month to Kickstarter backers and include a free Oculus version of the Unreal Development Kit, though the promised Doom 3 BFG Edition is no longer included. Oculus has not announced a launch date for retail units yet.

It's finally happened. The ultimate first-person game has met the ultimate first-person gaming machine: Someone's modded Mirror's Edge to run on the Oculus Rift VR. Just watching this dude gave me vertigo, but I can't say that I don't want to play this a whole, whole lot. The video was made by Cymatic Bruce using the Vireio Perception beta drivers. Team Fortress 2, Crysis and Half-Life 2 are all neat, but Mirror's Edge is the game we've all kind of been waiting for. I don't know when it'll happen, but I can't wait to get a chance to try this out. (Via NeoGAF.)

#offtopic This short-film from Ilya Naishuller starts out pretty cool then goes flat-out bonkers. I can't really think of a better way to describe it than what's in the headline, but basically—if you're into first-person running and combat, this is right up your alley. More »

#mirrorsedge All that first-person climbing and running and rolling is awesome in Mirror's Edge, but Mirror's Edge is a video game. Seeing grown men do much the same thing on a skyscraper in Russia is as amazing as it is gut-wrenching. More »

A clever shoutout to another DICE game, Mirror's Edge, a pair of runner's shoes lie on top a building. We show you how to find this easter egg. Hold on, was that someone breathing?

#teamfortress More »

As with Mirror's Edge, the upcoming Tomb Raider revival was penned by Rhianna Pratchett, and tells the story of how Lara Croft came to be.

A tweet alone cannot change anything, but enough tweets can become a movement, a movement can raise awareness, and awareness can lead to action. That’s the potential power behind #1reasonwhy, a hashtag from this weekend encouraging female members of the games industry to speak up with stories of their own difficulties, and raise needed awareness about industry sexism.

#1reasonwhy is, by design, full of upsetting, troubling, and negative stories about what it’s like to be a female that’s making video games in 2012, and games writer Rhianna Pratchett (the upcoming Tomb Raider reboot, Mirror’s Edge, Heavenly Sword) figured something more positive would be of use. Thus, the creation of #1reasontobe, a hashtag with reasons why females are part of the industry at this very moment, should continue to be part of the industry, and call attention to the many stories of strong, independent females succeeding in games--or trying.

Here are a few of their stories:

#1reasonwhy is important, but I’m creating #1reasontobe because I’d like female devs to share why they're in games & what they get from it.

— Rhianna Pratchett (@rhipratchett) November 27, 2012

So our children can see women succeeding in tech and games, and not know why it would ever be any different. #1reasontobe

— ｓｔｒａｎｇｅ ｌａｎｇｕａｇｅ (@neuralwiles) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Because of the jobs I've had in the past ~7 years, the ones where I create game-related things make me the most happy.

— Eve Walter (@MidnightRem) November 27, 2012

Because my daughter plays video games, she loves video games, and she needs role models who have come before her to be strong. #1reasontobe

— CK Burch (@ckburch) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Because when you find a game company who values everyone's opinion, you can just concentrate on making phenomenal games.

— Lindz (@lindzart) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe - After years of work & careers which left me unfulfilled and outcast from so much, I've found a welcome & passionate home.

— Donna Prior (@_Danicia_) November 27, 2012

There is a growing diverse, queer culture that needs more voice, and games can give it to them. Now let us have it #1ReasonToBe

— Mattie Brice (@xMattieBrice) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Despite the bullshit, I am able to work constantly with amazing men and women who care about telling great stories

— Lillian Cohen-Moore (@lilyorit) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Because most men in the industry are accepting/inclusive/supportive. Don't let the bad apples dissuade you from going for it.

— LM Lockhart (@missdoomcookie) November 27, 2012

And #1reasontobe is that the only way to change things is to be part of the change. #wecandobetter

— Kathleen (@ninjaharlot) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe When you get feedback from players that your game changed their life in some way, let them be the hero for once

— Tara J. Brannigan (@kindofstrange) November 27, 2012

#1reasontobe Cuz at their best, games push new boundaries in experience, and we're like 0.5% of the way to getting good at that. Define it!

— AngelosLH (@AngelosLH) November 27, 2012

#1ReasonToBe Because my presence here is changing the industry.

— Ceri Young (@Toughlovemuse) November 27, 2012

It’s good #1reasontobe exists. A problem isn’t solved without a solution, and #1reasontobe provides the disenchanted with glimmers of hope we can work towards a better environment. The next step is creating accessible avenues for people to make connections beyond Twitter, which #1reasonmentor aspires towards.

I haven’t done the math, but yesterday’s article about #1reasonwhy probably broke a comments record on Giant Bomb. I stopped reading the thread after it passed 500 or so comments, both because it’s pretty unwieldy in our current system, and I was roundly discouraged by some of the discussion.

Much of the response felt driven driven by a feeling that talking about #1reasonwhy, and thereby discussing problems women having in the games industry, suddenly means there are zero problems for men. Elevating the discussion of misogyny implies there is no misandry, or so the argument goes. I don’t buy that, and have trouble reasoning with people who continue to peddle it. Bringing up one very real problem does not invalidate other very real problems, but being so dismissive of the argument suggests you aren’t taking the original argument seriously, and instead want to discredit it because you don’t believe it has any merit in the first place. At least be honest.

I do not consider myself a feminist or particularly aligned with the feminist movement. I’m just know bullshit when I see it, and I'm tired of bullshit that involves the vapid, shallow arguments that crawl out of the comments section of every single website whenever this subject comes out. It feels like the same 50 people are just making dupe accounts across the Internet, and making sure to drown out any real conversation. Those people deserve a chance to be heard, and that includes the larger-than-you'd-think audience of females right here on Giant Bomb.

Maybe I’m just wading into an unwinnable argument, but I wanted to paste a comment that seemed emblematic of so much of the 1,600 comment (and still growing) thread.

I actually don’t have much of a problem with this comment, except for the fact that it was made at all. Video games, like any entertainment medium, are just a hobby to a vast majority of the audience, and their daily lives are filled with concerns vastly more important than the dynamics between men and women in the games industry. That is 100% okay, as there are plenty of things that I enjoy where I’ve done little-to-no research about whether I’m comfortable with all that’s happening behind-the-scenes. Still, you took the time to scroll to the bottom of this article, long after the achievement for a first post was possible, and post a comment that amounts to little more than trolling. There is no opinion here, and we’d all be better off if the discussion, positive or negative, didn’t include pointless derailment.

This isn’t all of you, obviously, and many of you made substantive arguments, even if I disagreed. I suppose the biggest problem I have is with the tone, the dismissiveness, the idea that none of this matters, and that if people only just spoke up at their jobs, engaged with sexual harassment laws (which is hardly the most pervasive issue), changed their attitude, this would just go away. “I have a solution, just grow some *crag*ing balls,” was one comment that stuck out on page 20-something of the comments. There is a reason why it’s not easy to just “grow some *crag*ing balls,” and it’s because of the response these subjects generate, and the seemingly futile nature of having this debate in a public forum. Not to mention that if you’re looking at the current layoff happy climate of the games industry, speaking up about this issue and possibly risking your job if it backfires doesn’t sound like the greatest idea ever.

If you were a woman at a game developer, would you want to speak up after reading that thread, or the countless others that sprouted up yesterday? Twitter is, at least, a place where you can do filtering and hear voices you regard.

“I’ve been watching the #1reasonwhy hashtag on Twitter with an anxious kind of understanding,” said games writer Katie Williams in a blog not long after #1reasonwhy started catching fire. “Like, part of me wants to jump right in and post a dozen of my own experiences, but I’ve also learned what happens if you say that shit publicly: you’re berated, blamed, dismissed. I’ve been there.”

She is not alone, and I don’t blame her for it.

I suspect there's an underlying fear involved in all of this, as well. "What does this mean for the games we love? What if we're okay with how games are made already? Don't ruin them!" Change, while painful, is often healthy, but I'm also realistic. I don't expect drastic change due to market realities--what sells well know will continue to sell well, and that includes plenty of dudebro that, hey, I also enjoy playing! You know, even if the Entertainment Software Association does report that 47% of all game players are women. If there's better female representation in development, those people given a bigger voice, it's not going to make the video games you already enjoy go away. But maybe it means video game companies will be more willing to create games for a growing audience who play games because they love games but do not have characters that speak to them. It might not change publishers who release games with female protagonists but don't support them with marketing, but change happens slowly.

Again, it’s weird. I’m a guy, I’ve never had to deal with any of these problems. But I’m willing to admit where there’s smoke, there’s probably fire, and listening is helpful, informative. If you don’t want to listen, you don’t have to. No one is forcing you. Just stop shouting down others who want to.

As with last time, I'll leave you with my own contribution, this time for #1reasontobe.

#1reasontobe Because we need strong female role models, and more of them. It won't solve everything, but it's a start.

— Patrick Klepek (@patrickklepek) November 28, 2012

Mirror's Edge is coming to PlayStation Network on September 25, Sony announced. The Official PlayStation Blogcast revealed DICE's first-person platformer features in next week's PSN update, although the podcast didn't disclose a price. The game is already available for digital download on Xbox Marketplace ($14.99), Steam ($19.99), and Origin ($19.99).

Of course, that's not the 'Mirror's Edge 2' announcement some of you are waiting for. As soon as EA and DICE break out of the 'definitely maybe' shtick, we'll let you know.

#speakuponkotaku In today's first-person platforming episode of the TAY-powered Speak Up on Kotaku, commenter Fernando Jorge thinks that EA should put together an online version of Mirror's Edge. I'm into it, Fernando. More »

#mirrorsedge Pop quiz: name the video game company leader that said the following: "I have not green lit one game to be developed as a single-player experience. Today, all of our games include online applications and digital services that make them live 24/7/365." More »

The dextrous legs of Mirror's Edge heroine Faith helped to shape the movement of characters in Battlefield 3, EA DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson said in a speech today during GDC Europe. No, you don't spend too much time parkouring around the war torn arenas of Battlefield 3, but various animations - Faith vaulting over obstacles, for instance - directly shaped the way BF3's soldiers interacted with their environment.

"Not just the legs, but the actual movement," Troedsson told us in a followup. "So in BF3, when you jump over something, you can see the vaulting, etc. So the whole animation setup has actually changed quite a bit." Beyond just the animation, he said, it changed how first-person perspective was designed in Battlefield games. "Before in our games - before Mirror's Edge and before BF3 - the camera was actually just something that was floating. Now it actually sits on the animation rig that we have, which is a big difference."

When we pressed for more news on Mirror's Edge within DICE and the potential for a sequel, Troedsson was predictably coy. "How many people want it? We'll see. You have to wait and see," he said. "As I mentioned, we want to do other things in Battlefield, so of course making a sequel to a game like that could be an option moving forward." And hey, it if it helps DICE's "core franchise," it could be worthwhile even without the level of financial support Battlefield sees from fans. At least that's what we're hoping.

#advice Apple's newest iPad came out last week, and, as expected, it's a gorgeous device. With more RAM, a beefier processor, and that super-shiny Retina Display, the third-gen iPad is certainly a powerful tablet. And a great gaming system. More »

Why not start Friday with a string of vertiginous vaults through a sterile cityscape? EA's faithful, well-constructed mobile version of Mirror's Edge is free on the iOS app store today. It's not a universal program, mind you, so you'll have to grab it on iPhone or iPad separately.

It's not as thrilling as DICE's original game -- and less likely to make you look up "proprioception" -- but this interpretation of Mirror's Edge is a breezy side-scroller with elegant controls and combat that's less of a show-stopper. It's also the perfect distraction from all those articles about how Mirror's Edge 2 might, won't, could, and can't happen.

#mirrorsedge Paying homage to a favourite game of his, artist Dave Payne has created this stunning recreation of the white-washed city featured in 2008's Mirror's Edge. More »

#cosplay It's the one I have. Cosplay superstar and Kotaku favorite Omi Gibson does her best leap of Faith. More »

#mirrorsedge Biting Elbows, an "indie punk rock" band from Moscow, are obviously big fans of DICE's Mirror's Edge, because this video to their track The Stampede is a three-minute love letter to the game. More »

#cosplay Photographer Mike Kowalek loves taking pictures, whether that be birds, bridges, you name it. But it's his cosplay photos that got him on Kotaku. More »

#speakuponkotaku It's commenter Aikage's turn to play Speak Up on Kotaku again, or should I say Commander Aikage? He wants to know what video game character you relate to the most, and you're going to tell him. More »

I snarked on Twitter a few days back that the people making the new Spider-Man film (a reboot, hilariously) must be more than a little familiar with Mirror’s Edge given the astonishingly familiar first-person-perspective ultra-parkour sequence in its trailer, but this cheeky, fan-made compar-o-video makes for proof positive. ..(more…)