In Third Person

A personal look into video games, the video game industry and video game culture.

One More Try: Mirror's Edge

Posted by Jet
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
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Image from Alcoholic Gamer

During a lapse in my gaming itinerary, I decided to pop Mirror's Edge back into my 360. Last time I wrote about this game, the game tried really hard to make me not like it. The game succeeded at that. I still love the premise of a free-running first-person game, but I stopped at the end of the second level in frustration, after dying roughly 50 times.

After a few minutes in the training level, I thought I was ready to go. What the training mode didn't prepare me for was encountering trial-and-error gameplay and crappy combat.

The biggest issue for me was that the game doesn't make it clear enough for where you need to go. There are obvious elements for you to grab onto, which are coloured red, but it's usually not that clear in the heat of battle. In the third level, I got to a point where I had absolutely no idea how to get out of the area before the guards came. I had to watch a YouTube video for the answer and when I saw it, I said to myself, "WTF!@#" I never would have come up with that solution myself. Due to the way the levels are designed, I get that feeling all the time. I could follow along with one of the many guides online if I really wanted to, but a game really shouldn't make me resort to that.


To compound the issue of getting lost, oftentimes you're under the gun by guards. In a game designed around running, the combat feels horribly out of place and leaves you greatly underpowered. Hand-to-hand combat is really clunky and enemies can kill you very quickly. Picking up a gun doesn't help much either, since the actual shooting mechanics are pretty bad and carrying a gun actually slows your character down.

I applaud Dice and EA for trying something ambitious with Mirror's Edge. I can see why some people absolutely loved this game. When it has you free-running and doing crazy acrobatics, it can be some of the most exhilarating action you'll ever experience. But to counter-point, there are a lot of people that hate this game, too. The problem is that the game isn't that awesome all the time. The experience is hampered by somewhat clunky controls, level designs that aren't easy to navigate on your own and terrible combat.

Image from On Mirror's Edge

A sequel to this game has been confirmed, and it'll be interesting to see how they handle it. A lot of people have asked for Mirror's Edge to go third-person, but I think that would take away the most unique aspect of the game. Without being in first-person, it's just another Prince of Persia or Assassin's Creed style game. I do hope they polish the controls and make the areas easier to navigate. As far as combat, they can either improve the game by improving the combat mechanics or stripping combat from the experience completely to focus on the acrobatics. I won't be the first in line to pick up Mirror's Edge 2, but I'll continue to hope they refine this idea to perfection.

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In Third Person Has Moved

Posted by Jet
Thursday, March 25, 2010
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If you reach this site through http://www.inthirdperson.com, you probably already know this move happened. However, if you access this site through Blogger or through an RSS feed, I need to let you know that I'm now at http://thirdpersonblog.wordpress.com. Please update your information accordingly.

Why did this happen? A few days ago, my blog got shut down because Google robots flagged it as a spam blog. Apparently, they did not take too kindly to my blogging etiquette of giving credit and links to people I use images from. Because only IGN had decent Street Fighter IV iPhone images, I used a bunch of those and gave them multiple credits.

I immediately requested a review to have it unlocked, which I was told would take two business days. It did not. A few more days passed, I began to freak out, and then Google reset my lock and I had to re-request an unlock. It was at this point where I became scared for my writings. I didn't want to lose them because some robots thought I was polluting the Internet.

So, I moved everything to Wordpress. Ironically, just as I finished the process, Google unlocked this blog. Thanks.

It's kind of a bummer that I've done a bunch of extra work to essentially do the exact same thing, but I was very disappointed in how Google handled the situation and frankly, I prefer the extra blogging features that Wordpress provides that I can't easily implement here on Blogger. I think the move will be better in the long run.

With that said, I will not be posting anything else from this particular address. Please continue to follow me at www.inthirdperson.com and update your RSS feeds accordingly.

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Last Night, a DJ Saved My Life

Posted by Jet
Friday, March 19, 2010
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Image from Level Up News

The other day, I received my DJ Hero setup in the mail. Not having bought refurbished products before, and being a bit concerned over the condition of the stuff they sent me, I was very quick and thorough with my inspection. The game was opened, yet the disc and manual looked to be in mint condition. As for the turntable and mixer, it looked just fine as well. Considering the fact that I can't even get DJ Hero used for anywhere close to what I paid for this refurbished version, it was a steal.

Within a few minutes of playing DJ Hero, it's clear to see that it's one of the more technically advanced music games on the market. There is a steeper learning curve to it than most, partially because of all of the elements involved in handling it and the general unfamiliarity with turntables that I expect most players to have when first trying DJ Hero. At the expert level, you have to think about pressing the three buttons on the the platter, rotating the platter forwards and backwards for scratching and back-spins without losing track of where the buttons are, moving the cross-fader, turning the effects knob and activating the euphoria button at the right time.

Image from pdashmedia

If that freaks you out, it shouldn't (yet). There are a number of difficulty settings, with the beginner setting giving you the bare minimum and every difficulty setting above that gradually introduces new gameplay elements to the mix. There's no shame into jumping into the game at beginner. As for me, I started out at medium and had a blast. By the end of my first day with DJ Hero, I had begun gaining 5-stars on the early mixes on expert difficulty. I don't expect myself to be the next DJ Q-Bert anytime soon, but the thrill of tearing through a mash-up is pretty awesome.

Speaking of the mash-ups, the game is made up entirely of mash-ups. This "genre" of music isn't necessarily my bag, but these all sound great and are almost all fun to play. There are two downers though that come with this package. The first one is that the set-list reuses a lot of songs. A lot of the songs get used more than once, and at least one song gets reused four times. The other downer comes from the implementation of the music. Outside of the back-spins and the effects knob, there's no room for your own creativity. In other music games, such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, that isn't much of a problem, because you want to play the songs the way they're meant to be played. But the nature of DJ-ing lends itself to a certain type of creativity that you just can't do by replaying someone else's mix.

OK, I lied; there's one more downer in regards to the music in DJ Hero. The game also comes with 10 mixes which can be played with a person on the turntable and another person on guitar. I appreciate the gesture, but these mixes are the least fun to play and sound very forced. In particular, the guitarist is getting the short end of the stick, having to play fairly boring guitar charts. Even if the tracks were great to play, 10 tracks isn't much to work with. DJ and guitar mode will probably last you an hour at most before both band members run out of stuff to play.

Image from theexactly

If you're in single-player mode, you will be spending much of your time in the game's career mode. This mode feels very bare-bones, especially compared to the likes of Rock Band, which does a lot outside of the gameplay, such as a loose story and unique challenges to spice up the experience. In DJ Hero, you simply move from set-list to set-list, earning stars to unlock characters and accessories as you go. There's no story or extra motivation beyond that. The other weird design choice here is that songs are grouped into sets, and you can't progress unless you beat all the songs within a set. While I see the benefits in being able to play through multiple songs without having to navigate a menu, it is a bummer when you come up short on the very last song, and have to play through the entire set again to redeem yourself.

DJ Hero is a pretty good game that has reinvigorated my interest in music games. It's core gameplay mechanics are a joy to experience if you can overcome the learning curve. In order to compete with the likes of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, it's going to provide a deeper experience outside of just mixing music, such as a more compelling single-player mode and more downloadable content. I look forward to seeing what improvements Freestyle Games has in store for DJ Hero 2. Personally, I'm praying for the ability to hook up two turntables to one mixer for "real" DJ-ing action.

Before I go, I should talk a bit about the value proposition that DJ Hero at regular retail price offers. At the price I paid for it ($50 refurbished), I can fairly easily overlook the game's shortcomings and scratch away. However, at regular retail price of $130, I don't know if I could justify owning the game for that much, even though I think it's great. As for the special edition of this game, which is $220 in my country, forget about it. If you can get this game for under $100 and you're a fan of music games, then this may be right up your alley. At regular retail price, I would pass.

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Mass Effect Proves It's Not a Small World, After All

Posted by Jet
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
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Image from Video Games Blogger

After years of completely ignoring the game and weeks of contemplating whether or not I should give Mass Effect a shot, I finally grabbed a copy of the game. I'm a few hours in and have all six potential party members on my side. I have a lot to say about this game, which I'll dole out in a number of posts in the future.

What I wanted to focus on first is the scope of Mass Effect. Without question, this is the biggest game I've ever played. In a number of ways, the Mass Effect experience is absolutely colossal to the point that it's intimidating the heck out of me.

The team at BioWare really have created an entire galaxy for players to interact with. Starting from the outside and working inward, let's start with the planets. There are a number of different planets for you to explore for missions and assignments. Even the planets that you can't explore have an entire back story for you to read should you care to learn more about it. When you're in a planet or a space station, the environments are generally big, full of variety and full of life.

Image from Wired

Speaking of life, it's the characters that inhabit the world of Mass Effect that really take this world to the next level of scope. There are an insane number of primary, secondary and tertiary characters. The game does an amazing job of fleshing out the stories of every character you need to know through countless hours of dialogue and back story to read. All the main characters in the game feel like they've lived a full life before you started playing this game. Secondary characters have a surprising amount of dialogue and back story as well. Even bit players have enough "meat" to their characters to make them feel like real people. In an age where most games have trouble humanizing their main characters, what Mass Effect is able to do with this entire world is blowing my mind.

Where the intimidation comes in is how how I control my Shepard to interact with this world. You're constantly put in situations where your decisions affect the world. I've already encountered a few situations where I completely changed the world. While I'm happy with the decisions I have made so far, I know that this world could be very different had I approached these scenarios differently.

So far, I'm liking Mass Effect quite a bit. It's not without fault, but overall I'm glad to be playing this. You'll be able to read more of my thoughts about Mass Effect soon.

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Street Fighter IV on iPhone Makes Me Eat My Words

Posted by Jet
Monday, March 15, 2010
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"...like the thought of eating a steak topped with ice cream, the recently announced Street Fighter IV iPhone port has made me throw up in my mouth just a little bit. I can't imagine this being anything but an absolute nightmare to play." - Me.
Up until the recent release of Street Fighter IV on the iPhone, I expected nothing less than garbage from this mobile port. In my previous post, I provided a bunch of reasons to support my initial feelings towards the final product. But then, the positive word-of-mouth online began to bubble. As a Street Fighter IV junkie, this was enough to push me over the edge and give this $10 app a shot. To my surprise, Street Fighter IV on the iPhone does very well considering the platform its on, providing players with a fun fighting game that controls well enough. This opinion is coming from someone with over 3,000 online wins on the XBOX 360 version. I'm definitely not the Diago or Justin Wong of the scene, and you don't have to trust any of what I say after this, but I've played enough Street Fighter to say that this version of it is really fun and I can't put it down.

Let's the get the obvious out of the way: no, this version does not have the best controls. The on-screen joystick does a good job of moving your fighter around the screen, but the precision to pull off special moves consistently isn't there. I could throw fireballs and hurricane kicks relatively easily, but executing a dragon punch is something I still can't do consistently. Charge moves were a bit easier for me, but I've read that some people have issues with that as well. I think if you really wanted to dedicate yourself to being an iPhone Street Fighter champ the "legit" way, you could practice on that interface and get pretty decent. For everyone else, I recommend enabling the "SP" button.



Speaking of the buttons, Capcom made some concessions to the controls to make the gameplay better suited for an iPhone. Instead of using a six-button layout, users get four buttons: punch, kick, focus and special. The game comes with three different button layouts, but you're free to customize the location of the buttons and joystick, as well as the opacity of the buttons. You can get some variations in punches and kicks depending on your situation and what direction you hold the joystick, but the game basically goes with the best or most likely button you would press in that situation. For instance, as a Ryu player, I appreciated that when you jump in and hit the kick button, the game responds with a forward kick, giving me the ability to cross-up my opponent. If you come into this game knowing how to play each character properly, for the most part the limitations don't matter. When you manually do special moves, you will always do the hard punch or hard kick version of that move. Die hard players will notice and maybe be disappointed by this lack of depth, but I think within the context of this particular version, it's good enough.

The focus attack button works just as you would expect it to. As for the special button, it acts as a simpler way to execute special moves. The closest parallel I can think of to the special button is the way Smash Bros. uses its special button. You will get a different special move depending on the direction you hold the joystick. Street Fighter purists may scoff at "nerfing" the inputs, but those people can go into the options and turn this off. By default, this option is off. For myself, I love using the special button. I don't think it breaks the game, because real Street Fighter players know that the game isn't really about your ability to do special moves, but rather your ability to combine all your moves together into a cohesive offense. The special button will not turn a newbie into a grand master.

Working within the limitations of the platform, I much prefer enabling the special button. I don't feel like I'm cheating using it. I feel like it allows me to play this game more like I would on the 360 or the arcade, because it increases the likelihood of me properly executing my special moves. With some practice, I was even able to consistently hit Ryu's classic shoryuken FADC into ultra on the iPhone; a combo I can't consistently do on the 360 controller.



All things considered, I think the controls work well within this particular version of Street Fighter IV. If you can get over the fact that some concessions were made to streamline the experience, that manually pulling off special moves can be tricky and that activating super or ultra moves will take a bit of practice when in the middle of a combo, it's fairly good for what it is and it's surprisingly, a lot of fun to play.

Enough about the controls. How does the rest of the game stack up? As far as graphics go, it looks great for an iPhone game. To make this experience work, Capcom chose to go with sprites instead of 3D characters, and all the backgrounds are static images. It looks great nonetheless. I don't think the frame-rate is 30 frames per second, it does stay steady. The audio is identical to the arcade and home ports, making this feel like home for any seasoned Street Fighter IV veterans. The only major omission is the song "Indestructible", but that may be for the best. The game engine is 100% Street Fighter. Everything behaves the way it does in the other ports, meaning that all of the move properties and priorities are in place. With the exception of a few missing normal moves, you can still pull off most of the combos and juggles from its counterparts, which is pretty amazing considering the platform it's on.

The game comes with eight characters: Ryu, Ken, Chun Li, Blanka, Abel, Dhalsim, Guile and M. Bison. It's a bummer that less than 1/3 of the Street Fighter IV cast is represented here, but I guess Capcom had to make cuts somewhere. Maybe they'll add more characters via DLC. Considering the eight choices they made, they were all pretty safe bets and odds are you already play one of those eight. I main Akuma, but Ryu and Ken are close enough, and my secondary is Abel, who plays just as I would expect him to here.


The game doesn't have the more frivolous options such as time attack or survival modes, but it does have a main single player mode (that lets you save replays of any match), a training mode (with most of the options you would expect), tutorials on how to play the game as well as a challenge mode to strut your combo skills. There is no wi-fi or 3G play in this one, but it does support Bluetooth local multiplayer. No online play is a bummer, but I'm sure that any attempt at online Street Fighter on a phone at this point would be a total mess.

The only other bummers I wanted to mention are the loading times, battery consumption and sound options. The game does feature some loading times, which does hamper the quickness of the experience a bit. This game will also destroy your battery, as it is a processor-heavy game. I love the sounds of Street Fighter IV, but not giving me the option to listen to my own music or podcasts while playing it is a huge letdown. My biggest pet peeve when it comes to applications is when apps don't let me listen to my own music while I use them.

Overall, this version of Street Fighter IV on the iPhone has me eating my words. Capcom brought in the right amount of Street Fighter IV goodness onto a mobile platform, making it a lot of fun to play for lapsed Street Fighter fans or Street Fighter IV enthusiasts like me. At $10, it's a bit pricey as far as apps go. For me personally, it's a great game at $10 and I will definitely get my moneys worth. If you still can't stomach paying $10 for it, wait for the moment it inevitably goes on sale. Street Fighter fans will not be disappointed with this one.

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Come On DJ, Spin That Wheel

Posted by Jet
Sunday, March 14, 2010
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Image from Destructoid

As a fan of music games, hip-hop music and DJ-ing, DJ Hero caught my eye the moment it was announced. At first, I had my reservations in regards to how it would control. Unlike my previous forays into video game musical instruments, I do have a bit of background in real DJ-ing, which skewed my perception of how it would work. While I am no DJ Shadow or DJ Q-Bert, I do have the ability to blend tracks on CD turntables and do some basic scratching. I was kind of bummed that the controller would only feature one turntable and I wasn't so sure I was cool with having buttons on the turntable. It wasn't until I got my hands on it a few weeks ago that I changed my stance.

It was Valentines Day of all days, and I was out on the town with my girlfriend when we walked by a video game store I'd never been to before. Maybe it makes me a bad boyfriend (or I have an awesome girlfriend, I'll go with the latter) but she was cool with us stopping by. At the back of the store, they had the Renegade Edition of DJ Hero set up with the stand. The game was set at medium difficulty, and without knowing beforehand how to play the game, I got it within seconds. It felt really good to flip the cross-fader and scratch the record in a way that sort of (but not really) simulated the feel of DJ-ing. I cranked the difficulty up to expert just for fun, and I lasted about a few seconds before I got decimated. In spite of the thrashing it gave me on expert, I was able to see that this game was pretty fun to play and I would love to work my way up to the point where I could fake DJ with the best of them.

The only major sticking point though, has been price. It launched in my country for $130, which is a lot to ask for in a one-player experience. Rock Band launched here at $170, but three people could play together out-of-the-box. For months, I have been keeping tabs on the price of DJ Hero, waiting for the most opportune time to strike.

Luckily for me, I was able to take advantage of a web-exclusive deal from a major retailer in my country that sold a refurbished version of DJ Hero for a much more reasonable $50. It sold out within a few hours, so sorry to my fellow countrymen and women who missed out.

I'm looking forward to getting some real hands-on time with DJ Hero in the next few weeks. I know that the game isn't perfect, but the core experience felt compelling enough the first time around to warrant a serious stab at it.

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Some New Mario Game

Posted by Jet
Saturday, March 13, 2010
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Image from Destructoid

As an adult, Mario games make me feel kind of weird. A game about a fat plumber and his brother romping around a magical world trying to save a princess from a giant turtle is not exactly adult fare. However, Mario games are also universally fun, regardless of age. In particular, I grew up in the early heyday of Super Mario 1, so 2D Mario games strike a very specific chord in my heart - sort of like how many adults still love watching Disney movies.

After months of - I admit - playing other games, I just finished New Super Mario Bros. Wii. For a number of reasons, I've pushed this game to the back of my queue, but never because it was a bad game. I'm just not often in the mood to play a Mario game nowadays. But every time I've booted up New Super Mario Bros. Wii, I've always had a good time.

I don't know what it is about Nintendo (or what it is about other developers), but when it comes to platforming games, Super Mario games still rule supreme after almost three decades. New Super Mario Bros. Wii is another example of a straight-up fun platformer. Mario controls as you would expect, making it easy for anyone to jump right in. The level design is top-notch. Each level seemed to have something unique to it, and often times things I hadn't seen done in a Mario game before, or twists on familiar elements that make things fresh.

Image from My Wii

Just by looking at it thought, you may miss out on the new twists that make this one great. Graphically, it's essentially the DS game on your TV. It looks alright, but it's definitely not the prettiest Wii game you'll ever see. The new power-ups are alright. The propeller suit is a fan favourite, while the penguin suit didn't do much for me. Ice flowers are cool too, once you get used to their projectile arc.

Of course, the biggest selling point to this game is 4-player simultaneous co-op. How did I go this far without mentioning it? Anyway, this mode is really fun and hectic. Having to work together to get through these levels does change the dynamics of the game to an extent. It also opens the game up for people of varying skill levels to all join in. I played this 4-player with my 3 year-old cousin, who because he had three older cousins playing with him, he could still have fun with it even though he wasn't very good.

The saving grace of co-op is "bubble mode". At any time, you can place yourself in a bubble to be invincible. However, one of your teammates has to pop you out of the bubble to resume control. If you're in a bubble when everyone else dies, then you all lose. Even with seasoned Mario veterans, it can be very tricky to run through a level together without strategically using bubble mode to get through spots. During hairy spots, we would have certain people go into the bubble and have one person run through by themselves because it would actually be easier that way.


The only real bummer to me about this game are the boss fights and lack of online play. With the exception of the final boss fight, the rest of them are trapped in 8-bit gameplay conventions. They don't vary much from what you faced in Super Mario 3. That last boss fight though...oh man! As for the multiplayer, I know that this game is best suited for on-the-couch multiplayer, but with most of the competition sporting some sort of online play, it would have been a nice touch.

For those who still want to play 2D Mario, you can't go wrong with the latest Wii installment. I've had a lot of fun with it and my cousins and I often bust it out when we're all together, but it's still fun on your own should you not have people to play with.

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