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Arts & Culture

Mirror's Edge: A Little Too Close to Reality

Most first-person games set the camera in the head of the character, which makes things easy to control, but forces a very fluid movement that looks unnatural. & Mirror's Edge places the camera in the eyes of Faith, which creates an amazingly life-like & experience (assuming your life is like that of a & parkour badass). & In fact, the designers spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to play it without getting sick. & They finally figured out that if you put a dot in the middle of the otherwise HUD-less screen, that pretty much clears up all the problems.

Seeing the trailer , you might think it would be easy for a player to make Faith run up walls, jump, and perform gymnastics.

But everything actually does require a button press. & The game is "based on skill, but doesn't have a really hard barrier." & Although, Manuel managed to put Faith in the Big Sleep a few times while showing off the game. & Faith will go faster "contextually, depending on your speed and your timing," he said. & And going faster means you have less chance of contracting fast-onset lead poisoning.

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Unlike many FPS games, Faith is not a floating head. & You can look down and see her feet, body and hands, all generally adding to the awesomeness factor of the game.

Asked about the serious issue of giving up personal freedom for security that the game addresses, Manuel says, "What we are doing in Mirror's Edge is telling a story. & & 'How much freedom are you willing to give up for a comfortable life?' & We're not really forcing you to think in a certain way. & If you want to be in the game for the action, you can, but if you want to read between the lines... we're asking a question, that's for sure."