Mirrors Edge Catalyst - Reviews on page 6! (PS4, X1 and PC)

After years of leaks and rumors, EA finally made it official at E3 and announced a new Mirror’s Edge. While we don’t know much about its story and gameplay just yet, we spoke with EA Labels president Frank Gibeau to find out why now is finally the right time for the franchise to return.




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That extra computing power is going to be able to take Mirror’s Edge to the next level.



“I think the time is right now because we’ve got a creative idea,” Gibeau told IGN. “We have a great story planned. With all the gen 4 technology, we can re-create that magic of running across rooftops and experiencing a city from a different point of view through the character of Faith. Performance, animation, all those technologies that are now in gen 4, that extra computing power is going to be able to take Mirror’s Edge to the next level. We’ve always been thinking about it, but a bunch of things came together – the right story, the right leadership team, and the right capabilities from this new hardware – that got us to commit and go for it.”




Gibeau also believes that since the new game is an origin story it will pull in fans who haven’t played the original Mirror’s Edge.

“Our goal in any product is to try and grow the audience,” Gibeau explained. “We’re definitely taking into account the opportunity to reach a bigger group of people. We think we’ve got the right story and accessibility that can do that. It’s a title that did multiple millions of units, so it has a fairly widespread audience. It’s not an art film. But we do see an opportunity to grow it.”




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It’s an action game, and we’re looking at how you make a gen 4 action game feel alive and big and epic.



Gibeau wouldn’t say anything about gameplay details, simply telling us “I’ll leave that to the team to clarify and elaborate. It’s an action game, and we’re looking at how you make a gen 4 action game feel alive and big and epic. Those are different things that we’re looking at.”

Since Mirror’s Edge will be powered by DICE’s Frostbite 3, we asked Gibeau about the studio’s two engine approach and how Frostbite differs from the next-gen EA Sports Ignite engine.

“They’re solving different problems,” Gibeau explained. “When you’re in an octagon with two guys, you don’t really need to have a building fall over. The rendering is very different in both engines, because they have very different problems that they’re solving. But they do share sub-components, like animation systems. We actually brought the sports animation system over to Frostbite. There are some things under the hood that they share, but where it makes sense to create an exceptional football game or a UFC experience, we’ve directed the technology to be able to deliver that in an uncompromising way. On the Frostbite level, when you’re trying to build a dragon or a tank or having jets fly by, it’s a very different problem to solve. Frostbite has different rendering. It has different pipelines. We are very comfortable having two engines. We were operating in a world where we had 22. The fact that everybody can have the same hammer and screwdrivers means that instead of fighting the technology and spending engineering time on building new engines, they can spend that time on crafting a great game.”

GR: Why has it taken this long for DICE to announce a sequel to Mirror's Edge?

PS: "It's taken this long because we wanted to get to the right concept and the right idea. And Sara Jansson who is producer on it, when she pitched her idea to me and Karl-Magnus, the GM for DICE, I was frankly blown away. I'm like "Finally, you've got it!" and when you hear something like that... She pitched an idea that frankly could only be built on gen 4, is a stunning concept, and when she came to us we knew we had it. And yes, we've been testing ideas and we've been prototyping stuff, and I'm glad that we waited to get the right idea."

In a recent interview DICE shared its design philosophy for Mirror’s Edge 2, one that is quite different from what we normally see.


Rather than setting a deadline and proper schedule for the game’s development, EA is offering DICE as much time as it needs to create the perfect sequel for the free-runner.

Speaking with Eurogamer, CEO Karl-Magnus Troedsson said that the game is being worked on by a small group that has been told to spend as much time as needed. “We realized this is going to take some time for us, so we basically said, let’s take the time and perhaps have a little bit of a smaller team over a longer period of time.”

He further shared that DICE is attempting to “remove a bit of frustration” from the first title, one of which were the clunky controls. Mirror’s Edge 2 needs to carry forward the fun factor, without the frustration latching on to it.

“We really want to continue doing that but removing a bit of the frustration that came with that in the first game,” Troedsson said. “We’re focusing on first-person combat this time around, to make sure we bring that experience into something that is really fun and accessible.”

Additionally he also talked about experimenting with virtual reality gear like the Oculus Rift. The team is indeed pondering over integrating its support in the game. However, right now it’s still an idea and in reality might not be feasible.

“There’s a guy who did it and he says it himself: after a while this is a bit overwhelming,” Troedsson remarked. “You have vertigo and first-person movement. How many people of the population out there wouldn’t throw up when they played that?”

[iup=3118429]smurphy[/iup] wrote:Had the first one unplayed on Steam for three and a half years.

Hello everyone,

Two years ago we revealed that we were making a new Mirror’s Edge™. Last year, we gave you a behind the scenes look into some of the early progress we had made. And though we haven't said much else in all that time, we have been listening. Thank you for your incredible passion and your patience. I'm excited to tell you that it's paid off — by this time next week, you will have finally seen more of the game at E3.

Mirror’s Edge has always had a special place in the hearts of all of us at DICE. The first game had a lot of promise. It was unlike anything else in terms of the gameplay and style — it had a unique soul. But as much as we loved that game, we knew it could be more. So that’s what we have set out to do as we introduce Mirror’s Edge to a new generation.

The team has spent a lot of time re-evaluating every aspect of the game and making it a new experience. This is not a sequel, this is not Mirror's Edge 2. We have landed on a vision that honors the first game — pushing the boundaries of first person movement and diving deeper into the story behind our heroine Faith — but also brings a lot of great new, interesting gameplay and features to the experience for our players.

So on behalf on the entire team here at DICE, we can’t wait to show you what we have been pouring our heart and soul into. We can’t wait to introduce you to Mirror’s Edge™ Catalyst.

Sara Jansson
Senior Producer, Mirror’s Edge Catalyst