Monday Review: Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge has been on my radar for a while. Steam put it on sale last week for a ridiculous price so I decided to finally buy it; I do not regret that decision. It's an interesting first-person platformer with qualities that are hit and miss for me.

In Mirror's edge you play as Faith, an astonishingly athletic runner that vaults across rooftops to deliver information between underground resistance groups. The story is set a little after a decade since the government started oppressing its people. I felt as though the police-state could have been explored more. It's never explained why there's cameras everywhere and the police shoot first and ask questions never. Rather, the story focuses entirely on Faith's struggle to prove her sister innocent of a murder she didn't commit.

Before I write anything else, you should know that Mirror's Edge is fun. Performing a perfect chain of moves to leap off a building at top speed gave me an adrenaline rush that I haven't had in a while. The game equips Faith with an arsenal of manoeuvres that she performs to navigate the urban landscape. She can jump, climb, slide, roll, run across walls and turn 180 degrees. If she does all these actions uninterrupted, she builds momentum and increases in running speed to make, sometimes superhuman, leaps of faith. The game helps Faith find the best route by highlighting key objects and obstacles in a vibrant red color, referred to as 'runner's vision'.  Runner's vision did fail me a few times in the game. I was forced to stop, find my bearings and figure out the next manoeuvre. However, for the most part, I progressed through each chapter at a comfortable speed.


The game does a great job of making you feel like you're running, despite controlling Faith through a first person perspective. The camera shakes as if your head is moving up and down, and this intensifies as you gain speed. Your legs and arms appear in your vision as you're running, climbing, sliding and performing other actions that would require your limbs. It was odd the first time I made Faith tumble forwards into the concrete and the entire world rotated upside down and all I could see was Faith's legs, before rotating right-side up again. It's also more than satisfying reaching top running speed and noticing the corners of your vision blur, as the world whistles past your head. Mirror's edge makes you feel like you are embodying a human being.

The plot of Mirror's Edge follows a fairly standard cycle: Each chapter begins as Faith investigates a lead. This almost always requires her to infiltrate a building and look for a specific person, overhear a conversation or just look around for evidence. Halfway through the chapter, Faith discovers a new piece of information to follow and she has to escape because the police are closing in on her location. I wouldn't say that Mirror's Edge is predictable because there are some twists in the story; I just didn't care about them. The character's motivations are simple and completely unexplored. The interactions between the characters were awkward because the dialogue felt unnatural and forced. Most of these interactions take place in cartoon-ish cut scenes that interrupt and detract from the beautiful environments that you play through. Despite all these negative attributes, the plot is solid. Mirror's Edge presents you with a government, organisations and people that all fulfil a purpose that guides Faith. I found the journey down the rabbit hole to be effective enough to not make me cringe.

The combat in Mirror's Edge was another weak element. The loading screens between each chapter show a silhouetted Faith acrobatically beat down silhouetted policemen. My experience with take downs - punching and kicking policemen that all look the same - was far from acrobatic. You are given the option to hit the people that are shooting at you while standing still, jumping or sliding; the latter are slightly more effective. If you get up close to an enemy, they swing the butt of their gun at you, as their gun turns red, you can counter and then take their weapon in a quicktime event by just clicking one button. This is great in theory, but the window of opportunity is so small that most of the time I just found myself standing still as policemen beat me into the ground, as I desperately grabbed for empty space. If I finally managed to get hold of a gun, it's not that impressive. The controls are sluggish and the shooting is disappointing; the police just stand still shooting at you as you fire shotgun shells into their chests. If you're anything like me, you'll be happy to know that you can avoid most of the fighting in Mirror's Edge just by running past the people shooting at you.

It's fortunate that this game shines, literally and metaphorically, with its visuals. The city landscape that Faith sprints across is stunningly white. On Faith's journey to free her sister, she runs mostly on the tops of daunting skyscrapers, but also sprints through train stations, office buildings, sewers and even the long corridors of a ship. You'll also notice that vibrant primary colours contrast the environment. It's a unique way to portray a city that's controlled by corrupt politicians and an oppressive government, but it works. It feels as though every corner of this city is clean, structured and maintained, along with the routine of everyday life that Faith is resisting against.

This game really confused me. I could write so much about what makes the game frustrating, but I still want to play this game again and again. Mirror's Edge's brief campaign was so enjoyable that I played through it about five times, each play-through becoming more engaging than the last. Mirror's Edge isn't for everyone, but it's definitely for me.

Monday Review: Bastion

I'm sorry. I apologise. I know I have a severely loyal audience that expected me to write a review of a game once a week. I decided to challenge myself and I immediately failed. I wrote a review and posted it last Monday and I couldn't even write another review in seven days. Anyway, here's a week-late review of Bastion.

Bastion, a lot like Limbo which I reviewed last week, made me want to keep playing with its aesthetics. I don't know what art direction is, but I can tell that this game perfected it. I heard it was good, but I didn't think it was this good. It's difficult to describe exactly what Super Giant Games made. It's a fantasy RPG with a western 'twang' to it - I hope I used that word right. In Bastion, I controlled 'The Kid', an unnamed child who wakes up in the aftermath of the 'Calamity', an apocolyptic event that shattered Caelondia. The Kid must fight his way through a variety of levels and enemies to find Cores to restore the 'Bastion' - the central hub of the game - and gain access to structures that gives you access to weapons, upgrades, abilities and other ways to alter how you approach the game.


When I say shattered, I mean it literally. Pieces of the ground float aimlessly through space and paths to large chunks of land comes together underneath you whilst you run. It's an interesting element to say the least. It makes sprinting away from enemies trickier when you don't know if the world is suddenly going to change direction without you knowing. It certainly made me feel like I was always teetering on the cusp of existence.

The centrepiece of Bastion is the narrator. The smooth and sultry voice of a wise, old man guides you on your journey the entire playthrough. The narrator provides brilliant exposition, gives you hints, and comments on your actions - never once repeating himself. Do not play this game with the sound turned down. The game would not be the same without that powerful voice because it's where Bastion's personality resides. You would also miss out on hearing an incredible soundtrack. The music matches the game play perfectly. For the most part, the music is fast-paced, which suits the break-neck speed that you fight at. However, the music also becomes solemn and withdrawn at times to enforce just how bleak Caelondia has become. Seriously, listen to this song. I'm listening to the soundtrack as I write this review. 


Bastion sets itself apart from other independent games I've played by having an interesting story and a fully realised world. The Kid comes across less than a handful of survivor's between the hack-n-slashing and tumbling. The narrator provides exposition of each character; he ranges from subtle to obvious without ever becoming boring. There are impressive sections of the game called Who Knows Where which are basically dream sequences where The Kid fights waves of enemies while the narrator tells the back-story of a character - they are not happy stories. I had to take a break after the first one.


While Bastion was making me care about its characters, it was also daunting me with the complete tour of Caelondia. You travel to lands, meet people and encounter things that all have a place in that world. It's a little bit hard to explain but Caelondia is a connected ecosystem rather than a disjointed collection of levels. Simply put, it's immersive.

Combat in Bastion is simple. The Kid is able to hold two weapons and perform a 'secret skill'. You are also given a shield and an evasive roll for defensive purposes. As the player, you are able to pick and choose from a variety of weapons and secret skills to suit your play style. I specifically fought through most of Bastion with a Breaker's Bow and Dueling Pistols. Whenever I have the option to fight with ranged weapons in a game, I do. 


You will come across more than a dozen weapons as you progress, all the way up to the ending. The weapon types are diverse enough for anyone to find a desired combination, but combat is essentially hack-n-slashing. I found myself clicking frantically just trying to clear the room with no clear strategy in mind. Pressing the shift key also generously locks onto target enemies for easy massacres.

The true strategy in Bastion is tied to the suprising number of options available that affect how you fight. Each weapon can be upgraded five times in total at the Forge. An upgrade allows the player to choose between two possible improvements for that weapon. Fear not though, the player can always change his mind and tinker with the upgrades while inside the Forge. The first time I upgraded a weapon was straightforward. However, it became a increasingly more difficult to accrue the materials and gather the fragments - the games form of currency - to upgrade them further. It was easier to just decide on my two favourite weapons and work towards making them as deadly as possible, rather than experiment with the other weapons.


The Kid can choose between an array of passive bonuses, called spirits, that go a long way in combat. As you level up in Bastion, spirit slots are made available to garner more spirits - you're given a few at the start and like everything else in Bastion you either find it through exploration or you buy it. Also, if for any reason the game becomes too easy, you can invoke an array of gods to make the enemies harder for more fragments and experience.

Bastion is a gorgeous game. The story is captivating, the characters are solidly human and the art direction is beautiful. Weirdly enough, I found the fighting and killing hordes of enemies boring compared to learning why I was fighting and killing hordes of enemies. I recommend you savour this game.


By the way, next week I'm going to review Mirror's Edge. The week after that will be decided by the poll in the top right hand corner of this blog. 

News Values Reflection

This is the lecture that I have been waiting for. Throughout the semester, our course material has been dancing around the topic of why news is news. This lecture established the ideas I already had in my mind. There are a bunch of researched factors that explain why some news is popular and other news is forgotten.

No one really has to intently look to see why sometimes seemingly pointless stories show up in the national news cycle. I can remember all the major stations covering stories akin to dogs riding surf boards, celebrity weddings and the results of reality television. Those are some of the reasons I don't watch television any more. Somewhere, there are people who are actively listening and caring about news such as this. Celebrities may not be actually relevant to anyone's lives, but some people believe that that they are. I was not surprised when I found that conditions such as negativity, elite nations, conflict, etc., made news stories more popular generally.

From my perspective, as a student journalist, this is interesting. I'm the one who may or may not produce news stories. According to our lecturer, journalists just acquire an ability to produce interesting and popular stories. Media outlets don't have an established set of news values that journalists try to adhere to. I never plan on ending up in a news room for a general media outlet. I also don't plan on becoming a typical journalist.

Ethics Reflection

The lecture on ethics was a few weeks ago, but I'm going to try and reflect on it as best as I can from memory; It was a pretty interesting lecture after all.

I wasn't prepared for how far the guest lecturer attempted find the root of morality. It didn't focus on training us to maintain a clear and unbiased perspective at all times. In the end, I listened to a lecture on whether morality is an external or internal creation.

There were some pretty big words thrown around that, even if I could remember them, I'm not going to use this blog post. I'm not going to try and articulate and explain something that I'm still trying to figure out myself. I might write about it at a later date if I do manage to figure it all out.

However, I will 'reflect' on the lecture by adding a few general sentences on the topic of ethics so I can get an acceptable grade.

In my long and challenging years as a middle class Caucasian Australian, I've noticed that some groups of people live by sets of principles that seem universal and logical. All the while, there are others who live by conflicting principles who still consider themselves to be righteous and good. Every human being is able to justify their actions, and those who choose not to suffer in regret.

Photography Reflection

It's time for another one of these reflective posts. I actually have fun doing these because I can practise writing. You don't probably think it's that interesting, but I have to do it. The photography lecture was pretty straight forward; we learned about the history of photography, digital capture and upload, digital manipulation and some of the basic tips for capturing a good photo. This lecture actually made me think about how I am going to approach photography as a journalist.

In case you haven't noticed, I don't include photos of how journalism relates to me in my blog posts. I'm a hypocrite, because like everyone else, I expect all online news to include photos. I like articles to have at least one relevant photo to the written content. I believe that images give readers context for what they're reading. Most of the photos in the articles I read are screenshots from video games.

I don't include images in my posts mostly because I find it hard to find images that best suit this blog. At this stage, my approach to journalism is browsing reddit while in my underwear. However, that's not the only reason I don't take and upload photos.

Even though I can write a few decent paragraphs, I'm not used to photojournalism. I don't have the technology to take photos that are relevant to what I write about. I plan to invest in a smartphone with a better camera than my current one and a screen recording program for capturing online content.

If I'm going to become a journalist in any sense, I'm going to have to commit to photography to connect readers to my content. I think that if I produce my own images for articles, it would add more personality to what I write. Of course, for some writing projects I won't be able to produce photos. However, I will include relevant images when able. I'm going to write real articles soon instead of just reflecting on what I learn doing lectures.

I'm not going to be a world class photojournalist, nor do I want to become one. For this blog, I will probably be taking screenshots or linking movie trailers. However, I should be able to snap a few photos with my iPhone when the time arises.

Reflection on Text

Our third lecture for Introduction to Journalism and Communication covered text in the field of journalism. Sky or Skye, one of those two names, guest lectured on the topic. She spent fifty minutes educating all of us about such things as 'the inverted pyramid', 'hypertext', text within digital platforms and just how fundamentally essential it is to the journalism industry with the rise of social media. But you already know that don't you? You're reading this just to see how other people in your course are handling their blogs. I don't need to explain to you something that you can just go and watch on Blackboard. So I'm going to give you my opinion on the lecture and text as it relates to journalism.

It's pretty apparent just how important text is to communication. It's unavoidable in journalism. I don't think I can add any more to what was covered in the lecture. Now I'm forced to write a blog post reflecting on the incredibly ambiguous idea of 'text'. I'm supposed to reflect on these lectures about what I learnt. I didn't learn that much though.

Sky (or Skye) just gave me new terminology for the ideas I already had. You would think that using important information in the headline to catch the reader's eye would be a straightforward concept.Most of the lecture slides were just examples of news stories with Sky (or Skye) explaining just how much effort is put into headlines, captions, straps, leads, excerpts and other attention grabbing combinations of text. The latter half of the lecture was just a lesson on blogging and getting your posts into the search engines. For someone who has little experiencing writing and reading content online, this lecture would have been helpful. However, I took very little away from our third week lecture.