I wouldn’t count myself as a fan of many things, but the derision and disinterest inspired by the first Mirror’s Edge makes me want to champion it. It was a game with terrible boss fights, flawed combat and a tedious story, but also one worth celebrating for the things it got right, such as its first-person movement and its beautiful, brilliant world.

Those same things also make me nervous about the sequel. When I went to see EA’s Mirror’s Edge Catalyst [official site] presentation at Gamescom, I wasn’t sure whether it would amplify the parts I liked or disliked.

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Gathering together the best shooters is no easy task, but if you’re looking for a new PC FPS to play, look no further.

Your favourite game is at number 51.

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Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Some people install the latest Crysis game whenever they buy a new PC, to push their upgraded hardware to its limit. I install Mirror’s Edge. If I want to feel good about my purchase, then Mirror’s Edge succeeds by being as unfailingly gorgeous now as it was six years ago. Better still, its mechanics – about movement and speed and grace – leave me just as breathless and uplifted as its pristine cityscapes and colourful interior design.

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Mirror’s Edge 2 was revealed at last year’s E3 with little more than a brief animation and a few bars of the game’s lovely soundtrack. As part of EA’s conference at E3 2014, they showed off more of the game. It was set amidst some buzzword-y waffle from the game’s developers, and is still only concept footage for the game they hope to make, but there are hints of good things in the three minute video embedded below.

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As a semi-longtime games journo (and hobbyist coal miner), I’ve seen my fair share of diamonds in the rough. Some eventually go the distance and gleam like a million smiling suns, while others… well, they don’t fare so well. And yet, even after losing countless hopefuls (and also canaries), I’m not ready to give up hope on promising upstarts like Lemma. The rune-encrusted run-leaper has evolved significantly since Adam first highlighted it, combining the path-producing footfall’s of something like Bastion with Mirror’s Edge‘s feather-like grace and, er, color scheme. It still looks a little janky, but I’m ready to place two of my crossed fingers before its altar. New trailer below.

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But in a good way! Titanfall’s wall-running and super-fun leaping is the second best thing about Repawn’s multiplayer game. Being able to watch others do it is my favourite thing about it: seeing them curve across gaps, leaping like leapy things, and dancing across levels. I love it. I love that moment at the very beginning of a level, when your small group peels off in different directions to a chorus of jet blasts and then vanish into the twisty death warrens. So the new trailer for Hover: Revolt of Gamer looks very compelling to my eyes, even if it is a little bit neon and flashy: that thrill of leaping around with friends will always draw me in. … [visit site to read more]

Valve might prefer to be extra super special secret quiet about it, but they do, in fact, still make games. And games, well, they tend to be more enjoyable when they’re easy on the eyes. Now that I have cracked the eons-old mystery of Why Games Have Graphics, let’s get down to business: Valve has scooped up Mirror’s Edge and Dear Esther gorgeous vista warlock Robert Briscoe. Good for Valve, because Briscoe is astoundingly talented. But wait, wasn’t he in the process of moving Dear Esther’s painterly world into Unity’s less-costly frame? What’s going on there?

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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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This is the latest in the series of articles about the art technology of games, in collaboration with the particularly handsome Dead End Thrills.>

Robert Briscoe is obviously not the only great environment artist in games, and it’s a bit weird to say he has a singular portfolio after working on just two titles. What makes it a lot easier is if you think in terms of levels: The Shard, Jacknife, Reflex, Velocity (from Mirrors Edge and its DLC); The Lighthouse, The Cave, The Beacon (from Dear Esther). All masterpieces up there with BioShock’s Welcome To Rapture, Half-Life 2′s Point Insertion and – quick, think of something slightly less distinguished to prove worldliness – that level in Robocod made out of Penguin bars. (more…)

This is the latest in the series of articles about the art technology of games, in collaboration with the particularly handsome Dead End Thrills.>

Games move pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss them. The pretties this week come courtesy not of a particular game, nor indeed me, but of the Dead End Thrills Flickr group, a caravan of some 500+ ‘players’ who spend more time stopping games and looking around than they do actually playing. The times we live in.

With some 11,000 images in there, I wasn’t sure how best to approach this. (Drunk, obviously, but how badly?) I’ve gone for the easy option: a round-up of games and/or users that stood out over the last few weeks. What you’ll often find is that wrangling games into ‘screenshot mode’ has knock-on benefits for any PC gamer, so let’s see if that holds true. (more…)