DICE details Mirror's Edge

By Games Industry.biz Published 4 July, 2007

Set to change first-person rules.

Electronic Arts' studio Digital Illusions has revealed to GamesIndustry.biz details of how its new property hopes to revolutionise the way players experience games in the first-person perspective.

New title Mirror's Edge is part of the studio's concerted effort to expand its output beyond its leading Battlefield franchise.

"At this time, we are not revealing anything more than the fact that we are changing the way that players are able to move in first person," said a representative for DICE.

"No more restrictions, no more being blocked by simple barriers such as walls and fences. We want to enable the player to move like a real person, with the ability to run, jump, vault and slide in a way that has never been seen before in a first-person game."

The game went under the working title of Project Faith before being renamed, and is believed to be in development for next-generation consoles.

"This is a game currently in development at DICE. EA has not formally announced the game but we are excited by the innovation being demonstrated by the team and are looking forward to seeing a real evolution in the first-person genre," said Electronic Arts.

"[It] gives an indication of the kind of high quality development that is being nurtured by EA not only in Sweden but across the globe," added the publisher.

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Comments (17) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Pike #1 5 years ago

    Empty words so far, but BF2 is still my favourite game these past few years, so I'll keep a close eye on this.

  • SBfistfun #2 5 years ago

    I suggest "Project bugged to fuck" as a new name

  • Pike #3 5 years ago

    You really have your panties in a bunch over BF2, haven't you?

  • souljacker2000 #4 5 years ago

    sounds interesting... altho not a big fan of BF2

  • OnlyMe #5 5 years ago

    So, when are we seeing another Pinball game? They were the masters of balancing between realism and fun in Pinball Dreams/Fantasies/Illusions. I still prefer the physics of these games to the newer pinball games (like Pinball FX on the XBLA), even if they're less realistic.

  • gaselite #6 5 years ago

    "No more restrictions, no more being blocked by simple barriers such as walls and fences. We want to enable the player to move like a real person, with the ability to run, jump, vault and slide in a way that has never been seen before in a first-person game."

    Excellent, I've been waiting for a game that's not limited by such contrived barriers for ages, this sounds like one to watch.

  • Overlush #7 5 years ago

    Sounds nice...BUT WHAT ABOUT RALLISPORT 3 YOU FUCKING LOOONATICKS!!!

  • Olemak #8 5 years ago

    If this turns out to be a ninja-parkour shooter, then... then I want it :)

    Dice and EA are easy to hate, but they were seriously innovative with the original Battlefield, introducing vehicles, relevant, dynamic objectives and useful classes to a pretty stale genre of games. All the stuff they did in BF 1942 are now standard features in most games of this sort; they practically own the genre.

    So it will be interesting to see what happens when they push the envelope further - 'cause the last installments in the battlefield franchise have been pretty hum-drum. Are they able to work magic again?

    Funding should not be a problem, anyway...

  • jellyhead #9 5 years ago

    Stranglehold is supposed to be really clever about the environment too. Run into a table and you slide acros it to the other side rather then bumping into it for example.
    Good times ahead i hope.

  • Weezer #10 5 years ago

    It should look like face-cam where you can see your hands as you leap over a fence or your feet as you slide down a cliff. Which, of course, happens automatically using landscape-context-sensitive... ness.

    And it would be great for some 'hot coffee'-style minigames, too.
    Edited by 1 at 04/07/07 @ 10:36

  • spongebob #11 5 years ago

    All aboard the hype train! All the bs talk sounds enticing so far. Roll on the screenshots, demos and whatnot, and we'll probably be all disappointed.

  • SomaticSense #12 5 years ago

    Really, really didn't like BF2 and the way it played. So unless they change the mechanics a lot, then I'll be giving it a miss.

  • jlaakso #13 5 years ago

    Interesting. BF2 is the FPS I play the most and my god, the unnatural movement can really grind. I've died many a time trying to get over a railing I was sure was scalable. And let's not forget the original Ghost Recon in which the elite soldiers couldn't scale hillsides if they were more than like 15 degrees steep. Or step over a pipe on the ground. Agh.

  • L0cky #14 5 years ago

    Back when FPS started there were a bunch of generic gameplay mechanics that just kind of settled in and have been with us ever since (blue key for blue door, health pickups, respawning bad guys, walls).

    It's good to see DICE tackling one of them.

  • YourMessageHere #15 5 years ago

    Usually these things operating as restrictions are just the result of poor level design or coding anyway. I fail to see how this can work with anything short of the most complicated control scheme known to mankind. In reality running and jumping over stuff is done through you having a sense of your own body parts and their position in space relative to the rest of yourself and the environment. There is no way to do this in games, which is why third person perspective is much more useable for navigating an environment. Seeing you feet etc in games is rare, and most pleasing, but not unheard of (F.E.A.R., Tribes) and hardly has any actual impact beyond the improved aesthetics.

    Without more information on what the game actually is, they're basically just saying "zOMG we can has complex movement model!" and as such I'm far from excited.

  • Meho #16 5 years ago

    "No more restrictions, no more being blocked by simple barriers such as walls and fences."

    Oh, thank Allah, I have been waiting so long for a game that will finally make me able to pass through walls and vibrate through fences, just like in real life. Thank you, kind people of DICE.

  • TheInsider #17 5 years ago

    Overlush - there's a very good reason why DICE haven't done a 3rd Rallisport game, they don't own it, nor do they own the name. So basically they were screwed :-)