The "New XBox Experience"

Well it has been a few days since the "new experience" update for the XBox 360's dashboard. At first I thought there was going to be an option to revert to the old interface. I was wrong! So having said that I downloaded it not realizing that I was being forced into this "new experience". Needless to say felt like a kid that has been duped out of his allowance by a cheap toy at first. I was lost and it took me a good hour of just flipping through the pages of reorganized content before I could fumble through it like a drunk.


After I got over the frustration of being lost on a system that I have owned for a few years now, it wasn't that bad. The avatar system that opened at the first login was intuitive and fun to use. The fact that I could use my controller to interact with my avatar held my attention for longer than I would like to admit.


A few of the new features include parties and calendar events. These are not totally new ideas with parties just being an improved and enlarged version of the private chats that were on the old interface. Also calendar events has always been on the Xbox Live website and has just been made accessible to users on a live enabled system.


Finally, the old "blade dashboard" interface is still integrated so that system settings, messaging, and media access is always at your fingertips. The cover flow handles the marketplace, friends, parties, and calendar events.

Mirror's Edge

So the newest game from Dice and EA came out this week on Tuesday. Mirror's Edge is a refreshing change of pace from the standard sports and shooters out there.

As the game starts the scene is set in a recently taken over with the city's government becoming big brother. You are a runner named Faith an orphan of the city's riots when the government had taken over. Runners use the tops of buildings to transport sensitive information for clients that don't want it to be seen be prying eyes.

Instead of fighting through your opponents you use your speed and agility to run circles around them and make your escape. The game is modeled around the idea of parkouring allowing a player to scale buildings, walls jump over obstacles and shimmy along ledges with ease. The game is very user friendly with the use of "runner vision" allowing the player to see jump and climb points on the run with the use of colors.

The control layout is very simple with moves broken into two basic categories, up and down. Attacks and movements are modified by the actions being taken at a given moment. All of this makes for a very intuitive control set up.

Mirror's Edge has leaderboards for time-trials on over twenty courses and speedruns where you complete a level as fast as possible. The leaderboards allow players to challenge their friends and players across the world. Racing with ghosts of other leaders let players learn new ways to complete maps. All of this makes for high replay value!

Pros:

Unique gaming experience

Simple controls

High replayability

Cons:

Lighting is too dark to see at some points

Disarming enemies is sometimes problematic

My rough cut summary: This game is totally worth it! I give it a 9 out of 10 just because it seems a little short. If you liked where Assassin's Creed was going with climbing buildings you will absolutely love Mirror's Edge!