Alright, I both procured and finished Mirror’s Edge yesterday. Despite running out of peas a couple of times trying to keep Sarah’s laptop from overheating.

It is a very interesting game. I have none of the common complaints about the game: too short, too much combat, too much head scratching trying to figure out which way to go rather than running.

The length felt just right. It felt like they wrung pretty much everything they could get out of the mechanics in that amount of time. More levels would have been pretty redundant. And you can always go do the hidden package/time trials thing to add another umpteen hours to your gameplay if you want more of what Mirror’s Edge is pushing.

Combat was solid and not very hard. Making mandatory combat an acceptable way to break up the levels and add a little depth.

Lastly, the “I can’t run everywhere because I don’t know where I’m going and I’m going to fall off a building” complaint. This I did not find. I was amazed how seldomly I got lost while running full-speed. With pain-stakingly crafted level wizzing past at one man-week a second.

This was actually a pretty neat part of the game. It’s one part follow the red things, one part route finding, and one part “guess what the level designer was thinking”. Taken in whole your first guess is usually right. And if you’re not sure there is this briliant little “point me to where I’m supposed to be going” button.

So you have all these little tools and clues to help you figure out which way you should be going, and after a while you’re just wizzing through the levels. But how fun is that wizzing? Probably not quite as fun as it should be.

Remember that this is Mirror’s Edge. Expectations are high. Expectations are through the roof.

I was utterly disapointed by it back when I played it at PAX. I thought it was going to be all “press the up button to go over obstacles, press the down button to go under them”. And so relegate itself to being a fancy game of simon says.

Then I played it a little bit at my little cousin’s place on his M$ Box. Asside from not being able to control it worth shit because console players are too stupid to use mice; I thought it was great. It seemed deep and rewarding. Not as good as I had hoped but still richer than I had thought.

Then I got a copy and played it through. And it _is_ just a big game of simon says. There are just more than the two buttons I thought there were. There are about four. So you run around pressing the right button to get over each given obstacle.

So I’m going back to my original PAX stand on the game: it fails to be great because it contains none of the fluid flow of movement or delicate balance of a human being actually running and jumping.

Which is understandable. Can I imagine how to make that game? No.

So Mirror’s Edge isn’t _great_ for a bunch of reasons. But it _is_ really fun and definitely worth playing through. Even if purisits might rather spend four hours in front of qwop: http://www.foddy.net/Athletics.html

We made it across the border. No worries this time. In fact, since we got here paranoically early we are now leaving on a flight leaving a full _four hours_ earlier than the one we were booked on :)

So soon after their wedding, the forces of evil (angry bald immigration guy) have managed to tear the couple apart. Colin was denied access at the border, and now has to hang out in Canada until they mail us our marriage certificate and he can try again.

The forces of nature (angry big snowflakes) are trying to keep them together in the same city, but I’d rather they didn’t try so hard. Also the forces of mucus are blocking up Sarah’s airways, just to maximize the awesomeness of this whole experience.

Weaksauce!

We got married on Wednesday up in Parksville BC. It may not be obvious from this picture, but there was a fair bit of snow going on that day. It was actually quite a momentous snowfall for these parts, but we persevered with our planned walk on the beach after the ceremony. Houses lost power and highways were closed off, and amid the chaos I became Mrs Sarah Northway! :D

Yes this is my wedding dress, er, minus the hat and scarf. It was a tiny family affair, but we found ways to spice it up. Our commissioner was also a professional magician, and during the ceremony made the rings appear, linked together, in a flash of fire. Just getting home after dinner was a real adventure in the storm. I suppose this must be breaking all kinds of local weather records, and I hear we’re in for even more snow before Christmas.

My folks got us a few days in a log cabin at a local resort called the Tigh Na Mara as a wedding present. We had an amazing, really epic meal there yesterday. It consisted of a dozen (at least, we lost count!) small plates, each one perfectly prepared, brought one after the other until we could eat no more. If you ever have the chance I highly recommend Endless Tapas at the Treetop Grill. We were pretty much the only ones there, had a dip in the grotto mineral pool before and after, and ate in our bathrobes. Pretty ideal I must say! :)

So, sounds like Fantastic Contraption is finally settled into InXile’s hands. I was about to say it was humming along on the new server but it’s timing out for me right now. :/ So, uh, it’s in their hands anyway. I hope that soon Colin can stop worrying about it all day and focus on something new. Has he shown you Flock it to Me? Ask him about Flock it to Me.

Meanwhile we’ve been adding all sorts of new stuffs to Whirled this month; if you haven’t tried it yet you should come check it out. The DeviantART contest winners have been announced, and they’re pretty inspiring; it’s so wonderful to see people doing things in Whirled that I’d never thought of before. My game Laws and Disorder now has a single player mode, and I’ve started working on another that I hope to make some progress with over the Thanksgiving weekend. Yes, this has been a bit of a blatant attempt to test the affiliates system. Sign up through these links and I’ll get 30% of any money you ever spend! :D