Topic: On Mirrors Edge : FPS game heavily utilizing parkour

[Brian Belida]

[ http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6598&Itemid=51 ]
[ http://on-mirrors-edge.com/ ]

Historically, when firstperson games have demanded acrobatics of even a limited sort, the results have been sorrowful. Even a title as accomplished as Half-Life tripped up by including a forlorn sequence of jumping puzzles (and thus an enervating succession of quickloads) in the final stages of the adventure. So it’s easy to be cynical when DICE tells you that the entirety of its new game, given the preliminary title of Mirror’s Edge, centres on making an energetic use of movement – jumping, climbing, diving – all things that have either been poorly implemented or avoided altogether in firstperson games of the past. Even running is something that most games implement simply as a doubling of the camera’s speed – the character’s legs don’t actually hammer the ground with greater force, arms swinging in rhythm with each powerful bound. But they do in Mirror’s Edge. And this is exactly how DICE hopes to surpass the problems of movement in the past: by creating an acutely physical sense of the player’s body within the environment.

“A lot of the moves you do are parkour moves,” says O’Brien. “We decided fairly early on in development that we wanted to do a game that was based in an urban environment, positioning it away from military and war and the big open spaces of Battlefield. We started off prototyping in Battlefield 2, and we found that one of the things we wanted to do we couldn’t, which was to move around the city on foot – we found that vehicles were quickly abandoned. In the narrow city streets people drove them for ten yards, jumped out of them again and ducked down an alley, or ran up stairs or ran into the subways. We’ve got a very vertical world, and found that people wanted to move around that quickly on foot.”

“Doing the cool moves is relatively easy,” explains Farrer, “but you want to maintain a flow – that’s where the skill element is introduced. Coming to the bottom of the zip-line you want to time your landing properly so you can continue to maintain that speed and carry on moving, whereas if you fail you may stumble, slow down or even fall over.”

Similarly, when approaching a metre-high wall – which in other firstperson games might be an impassable structure – the velocity with which you hit it will enable you to vault straight over or, failing that, leave you hanging. Maintaining speed via fluid combinations of moves is the central tenet of the gameplay.

“When you play this game it changes the way you look at other firstperson games. You stop seeing obstacles and start seeing opportunities”

Sounds really quite awesome if executed correctly.

[shadow1234]

I believe Assassin's Creed beat them to this. Although there really is no skill involved in that game, you just press a.

[Brian Belida]

I believe Assassin's Creed beat them to this. Although there really is no skill involved in that game, you just press a.

Beat them to what? It seems to me they're two different kinds of games in two different kinds of settings with two different kinds of stories.

Going off that mentality PONG beat Assassin's Creed to using the color black

[Marshall Cent Lewis]

I just looked at everything on the fan-site and man, I gotta say, I'm excited about this one!!  This sounds to be majorly parkour inspired, whereas Assassin's Creed it was only somewhat so.  It's modern day parkour set in the future.  Definitely keeping my eye on this game.

[schuby]

1) Battlefield 2 roxorz my soxorz
2) "You stop seeing obstacles and start seeing opportunities" Hey thats basically my background picture on desktop.
3) This game sounds really cool, but its going to be really hard to implement all the stuff they were talking about. My bet, it'll either come out a way less cool version (like what they explained here), or it'll just be really lame cause they focus on stuff like movement but not the storyline, or plot. Cynical, I know, but I think the developers have too much stuff on their hands. Most likely it'll just be a downgraded version of what was explained here.

[Jus7in]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Halo 2 was the first first person shooter to have the ability to do Parkour. You can't do vaults or technical movements like that, but you sure can find faster more efficient paths by using a Parkour mentality.

[Sat Santokh]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Halo 2 was the first first person shooter to have the ability to do Parkour. You can't do vaults or technical movements like that, but you sure can find faster more efficient paths by using a Parkour mentality.

No definitely no.  Half Life came waayyyy before halo and there was so many secret shortcuts, and jumps and stuff in that game.

[shadow1234]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Halo 2 was the first first person shooter to have the ability to do Parkour. You can't do vaults or technical movements like that, but you sure can find faster more efficient paths by using a Parkour mentality.

I'm sorry but that is the crappiest reasoning I have ever heard (hahaha, sorry, we're talking about videogames now so I lose my sense of respect haha). But seriously. Just because you can jump off stuff doesn't make it parkour.

[Kurokaze]

This in development sketch defenetly piqued my interest.

[Jus7in]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Halo 2 was the first first person shooter to have the ability to do Parkour. You can't do vaults or technical movements like that, but you sure can find faster more efficient paths by using a Parkour mentality.

I'm sorry but that is the crappiest reasoning I have ever heard (hahaha, sorry, we're talking about videogames now so I lose my sense of respect haha). But seriously. Just because you can jump off stuff doesn't make it parkour.

? You don't know what I'm talking about, so don't say anything. If you do want to know what I'm talking about, then go to youtube and Look some old school jump tactic videos. But seriously I said in  my post "faster more efficient ways" so pay attention.

Yeah, Sat I haven't played Half-life, isn't it on the pc? And did it come before Halo?

[Kurokaze]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Halo 2 was the first first person shooter to have the ability to do Parkour. You can't do vaults or technical movements like that, but you sure can find faster more efficient paths by using a Parkour mentality.

I'm sorry but that is the crappiest reasoning I have ever heard (hahaha, sorry, we're talking about videogames now so I lose my sense of respect haha). But seriously. Just because you can jump off stuff doesn't make it parkour.

? You don't know what I'm talking about, so don't say anything. If you do want to know what I'm talking about, then go to youtube and Look some old school jump tactic videos. But seriously I said in  my post "faster more efficient ways" so pay attention.

Yeah, Sat I haven't played Half-life, isn't it on the pc? And did it come before Halo?

I dunno thats still flawed reasoning. Honestly "jump tactics" as you call them have been around forever. Also you're using a very broad piece of parkour's philosophy that could be applied to almost anything, so saying that Halo being first, or even having parkour in it period is a stretch at best. Heck with that reasoning, you can't do the "vaults or technical movements" in Super Mario, but since I'm using warp pipes, that means I'm being faster and more efficient so therefore is parkour.

I understand what you're getting at, but simply being able to apply one very broad and loose piece of philosophy from Parkour to something doesn't make it Parkour. You are correct in saying that a person could benefit from having a parkour mindset, but thats all they're doing, using the mindset and not actually performing the act of parkour.

[Poet (Jesse) Clark]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure Halo 2 was the first first person shooter to have the ability to do Parkour. You can't do vaults or technical movements like that, but you sure can find faster more efficient paths by using a Parkour mentality.

I'm sorry but that is the crappiest reasoning I have ever heard (hahaha, sorry, we're talking about videogames now so I lose my sense of respect haha). But seriously. Just because you can jump off stuff doesn't make it parkour.

? You don't know what I'm talking about, so don't say anything. If you do want to know what I'm talking about, then go to youtube and Look some old school jump tactic videos. But seriously I said in  my post "faster more efficient ways" so pay attention.

Yeah, Sat I haven't played Half-life, isn't it on the pc? And did it come before Halo?

I dunno thats still flawed reasoning. Honestly "jump tactics" as you call them have been around forever. Also you're using a very broad piece of parkour's philosophy that could be applied to almost anything, so saying that Halo being first, or even having parkour in it period is a stretch at best. Heck with that reasoning, you can't do the "vaults or technical movements" in Super Mario, but since I'm using warp pipes, that means I'm being faster and more efficient so therefore is parkour.

I understand what you're getting at, but simply being able to apply one very broad and loose piece of philosophy from Parkour to something doesn't make it Parkour. You are correct in saying that a person could benefit from having a parkour mindset, but thats all they're doing, using the mindset and not actually performing the act of parkour.

We're going to get into the philosophical part of Parkour and I really don't want to do that with a video game. But I still take it as Parkour. You see a more direct path, and jump or run or whatever to get to it. Thats exactly what I do in real life. I find a spot of want to be and find different ways to get there. and I think you know what I mean by saying faster more efficient. I also said first person game. So I really don't believe it is a stretch at all. If a person had no arms, but still had the motivation to do Parkour, and just learned things like Precisions(which are an element in Halo) then I'd call it Parkour.

[Jus7in]

Sorry, the above post was me.

[shadow1234]

The reason that this discussion is so silly now is that some people are trying to take one aspect of the philosophy of parkour and apply it to everything. You must remember that parkour doesn't simply mean picking the most direct or efficient path with everything. It is with respect to bodily (in RL, not a videogame) movement. Otherwise, it is just simply efficieny. I know it sounds cool to make it sound like you are doing parkour in every aspect of your life, but do not try and water it down like that. Its the reverse of those people who try to say that flips are parkour; just in the other direction (sorry if that doesn't make sense in text).

[Zack Bedingfield]

Yeah, Sat I haven't played Half-life, isn't it on the pc? And did it come before Halo?

I know this isn't a videogame forum, but that made me want to cry.

[Poet (Jesse) Clark]

I'm just gonna get this topic back on its, well, original topic.

Taken from our hero himself, David Belle:

"It's something to help be more open and free to the outside world, and not be invaded by the city's infrastructure."
"It's about being efficient and getting there as fast as you can."


If walking a straight line is fastest and you chose that option out of many others, it is parkour.

Disabilities do not affect someone's ability to "do parkour." As parkour is more a mindset than it is a set of rules and techniques.
If a 10.6 second (or whatever) 100M is the fastest your body can possibly achieve, does that make it less "parkour-like" than someone who runs it in 9.8 seconds? No! And therefor we cannot, and should not, say that parkour is limited by the traceur or traceuses abilities. Yes, they can train and improve their ability but there is no perfection to parkour because it changes depending on the person who is practicing it.

----------------------

Now back on the topic.

I have noticed that almost every game has a very shoddy acrobatic make-up. It's high-time that someone put some more effort into making it look and feel more authentic.

[shadow1234]

This whole discussion is really getting quite irrelevant. Sure parkour can be anything that's efficient if you wanna look at it that way but please, let's keep this a physical discipline and not a cult.

I'm just gonna get this topic back on its, well, original topic.

Taken from our hero himself, David Belle:

"It's something to help be more open and free to the outside world, and not be invaded by the city's infrastructure."
"It's about being efficient and getting there as fast as you can."


If walking a straight line is fastest and you chose that option out of many others, it is parkour.

Disabilities do not affect someone's ability to "do parkour." As parkour is more a mindset than it is a set of rules and techniques.
If a 10.6 second (or whatever) 100M is the fastest your body can possibly achieve, does that make it less "parkour-like" than someone who runs it in 9.8 seconds? No! And therefor we cannot, and should not, say that parkour is limited by the traceur or traceuses abilities. Yes, they can train and improve their ability but there is no perfection to parkour because it changes depending on the person who is practicing it.

----------------------

Now back on the topic.

I have noticed that almost every game has a very shoddy acrobatic make-up. It's high-time that someone put some more effort into making it look and feel more authentic.

[Matt Hudson]

I just looked at everything on the fan-site and man, I gotta say, I'm excited about this one!!  This sounds to be majorly parkour inspired, whereas Assassin's Creed it was only somewhat so.  It's modern day parkour set in the future.  Definitely keeping my eye on this game.

Assassins Creed was never meant to be a parkour inspired game.
They just needed to find a new way to get consumers to buy the game so they influenced Altair's movement with Parkour.
It was suppose to be a Nex-Gen Game, and with Nex-Gen you must find new things to capture the consumers eyes. And parkour wasn't something everyone knew about.
Thus.. something cool and new to put in your game.

[JMac32]

is there a release date for this yet?

[Leon Mederos]

Yeah, Sat I haven't played Half-life, isn't it on the pc? And did it come before Halo?

I know this isn't a videogame forum, but that made me want to cry.

I did cry.