controller1.com

NOW PLAYING: Mirror’s Edge, LBP User levels, Singstar ABBA

I’ve been having a day at home convalescing with my PS3 getting a bit of a workout. I popped in Mirror’s Edge and having been playing through it for a few hours. It’s probably been the most interesting EA game I’ve played in a while (Hey, Battlefield BC and Burnout were great but they were sequels rather than something new).

Clint waxed lyrical over this game in the Focus Test a few weeks back (get it here) when we played the 360 version but I thought” hey there’s PS3 only DLC which i will never buy down the track so that’s what I picked up. It runs very smoothly after an incredibly short install (less than a minute) and although its definitely a trial and error game, its definitely trying to go where no nerd has gone before (ie in the body of a fit Asian girl).

Singstar ABBA on PS3 has been sitting around since our Focus Test and I popped it in to have a go at home. There’s something to be said as ABBA is really the perfect group to have a Karaoke game based around it songs. I mean Queen would have made a natural choice for Rock Band or GHWT rather than Singstar, but how much of the target Rock Band demographic want to rock out to Fernando?

I wrote recently about how frustrating the latter levels of LBP were and how I was going to give up on it. Well, today I did try one more time and gave up. It’s too frustrating. I decided I would have a look at some of the community made levels. First up was a Star Wars based level which managed to go from Blockade Runner to Tatooine to Hoth to Endor all in one level. A staggering about of detail had been put into this level, even if it wasn’t all that involving to play. Then came the truly awesome 300 level. This one actually played quite decently but like most of the user-made levels, it was subject to quirks that would have been found by a rookie QA guy on his first day. My attempt at playing a Metal Gear 3-inspired level ended when the character I was mean to be dragging to safety got squished by an elevator and there was no respawning of that character. A very tricky level set in a disco provided some head scratchers when it wasn’t providing some class A frustrations and a really cool Indiana Jones level (probably the best to play) recreated most of the prologue from Raiders of the Lost Ark.
But the most interesting level was AC/DC Back in Black. Basically you operate a bike that’s toeing “Headbanger Dude” from left to right, do nothing but watch as he bops along to a MIDI version of Back In Black. Some very creative stuff