Free Running Comments by Dan Whitehead

Missed the boat then now that crackdown has won so many people over.

Jump! Go ahead and jump.

This 'sport' holds the unintended honour of reducing me to fits of giggles whenever I see anything about it.

Played this on the PSP and I agree entirely.

The controls are far too technical and not particularly intuative, the timing of the moves is very unforgiving, the camera is terrible (unsurprising on the PSP, but the 'center camera' button doesnt seem to work) and the environments are pretty uninspiring.

The obstacles are also a pain in the arse, requiring pinpoint accuracy to vault them otherwise you just fall and break your neck.

Its just a pretty turgid and, shamefully for a game about keeping the flow, stop-start affair.

Damn. Had hopes for this, as a more extensive and fluid Prince of Persia. Oh well - maybe they'll get it right in the inevitable Casino Royale vid game.

I wanna be a "runny-jumpy guy" :-P

I may still pick this up when I see it cheap, I like the jumping and things of Tomb Raider but not the rest, so for me its good :P. But by the sound sounds of it I may be better off buying PoP again.

the best things in life are free

"Still, seeing a real live human being leap from one building to another is undeniably astonishing."

Free running - the Darwinian sport

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da6QdeZ2T1s

Free running?

Free bumming more like

A real shame. I was going to make the Crackdown comparison myself, but I see it has already been made. Not exactly a purist version of the experience, but it captures the essential fun.

Could have been so awesome :(

LMAO at that Video

I hope there is a secret Burberry Baseball cap unlock, and the secret hoody costume, which allows you to mug old grannies for bonus points.

"See? Totally different. Don't laugh. It's a serious distinction. Google it. People get into fights over this stuff. Tsk."

Haha. Spot on, sir.

I think I called this review the moment I heard Core were doing it. This late 90's, early 00's finite state machine animation based gameplay is not going to work for freerunning OR parkour. Both are about fluidity and expression. FSMs are incredibly rigid, with tiny windows of choice.

What you really need to do is go mental on the animation blends/procedural and IK approaches/hybrid of both to allow players to move how they want to move, rather than move how they're prescribed to move. That's the only way you're going to represent the deeply expressive and personal movement synonymous with freerunning/parkour.

However, I doubt a PS2/PSP would really have the power, or the tech would take too long to R&D, so I'm not surprised that it was deemed the best choice to use some established framework.

Plus, this game (afaik) was being developed for a LONG time (even six months before Jump Britain aired it was somewhat playable), so if it looks long in the tooth, it's because there were a lot of mitigating circumstances stopping it from coming out.

Shame, really. I enjoyed doing the sport for real, despite being laughed at. I need to pick it up again, but I've been living in areas which are pretty poor environments (flat, wet).

hasnt this been in development for a LONG while too now?

@Smelly:

No kidding! Must've been several years since they had that on some UK current affairs programme. Still, if it's an independant developer, it's good to see it on the shelves late than in the can.

"Still, if it's an independant developer, it's good to see it on the shelves late than in the can."


Erm.. its developed by the old core studio.. You know.. the people that used to make tomb raider.

It was the Fighting Force 3 engine iirc.

That comparison hurt my head and I felt as though I wanted to strangle the reviewer...