Have Faith. It’s good!
Faith is to games what Björk is to music. Different, innovative, hard to classify, takes a little getting used to, may even require to change your attitude if you haven’t had such an experience before. I just played the Mirror’s Edge demo and at least i know i want to see play more. The controls are … different. But not hard to “get”. Just unusual, i’m not used to primarily use the Left Bumper & Trigger in a timely manner. Because i’m more of a shooter player, i have a tendency to run up to a ledge, do a punch and … well, drop dead. Though i did see how the game feels really “cool” after the first few mistakes and once you get the hang of it. It makes me want to perfect my moves and combos because the on-screen action is so satisfying when it works, when you are in the “flow”. It can even be an adrenaline rush, the intro sequence to the demo level that just …. it freaked me out, it gave me goosebumbs. It’s …. unexplainably thrilling, i just want to play that myself. It’s like the leaps of faith in Assassin’s Creed, only they made a whole game about it!
On the other hand … no, that other hand-ledge-grabbing game … the new Tomb Raider Underworld demo. After falling back into the sea for the seventh time climbing up the first few rocks … i just gave up. Come on, this doesn’t feel right anymore! At least give us some savepoints, i don’t want to climb up that same rock several times for 20 seconds when i fall down. Of course, that’s how Tomb Raider works … but it also shows that Tomb Raider and it’s game mechanics are rooted way back in the early 90′s and hasn’t kept up with the rest. It’s a shame. The not-so-long-ago Tomb Raider Anniversary (the one with the old levels newly designed) showed that more than anything. I couldn’t keep myself playing it, i didn’t even finish the first level even though i’ve felt a little reminiscent.
Speaking of reminiscing … Dead Space … i just watched the release trailer. Somehow it escaped me and watching it after i’ve finished the game … it was like reminiscing about “old times” … i felt like i needed to go back on that ship, wipe it clean once more, this time on hard. Maybe i’ll just do that. Or maybe … not. Fallout is waiting, asking for a lot of time and dedication. And so does Warhammer Online. My trial is almost run out and i still haven’t been into the game once, only logged on to check out the characters. Maybe i just don’t want to fall into the WoW pit again.
Also, we’re finishing BattleForge and the open beta will start November 7th (register here for the “card hunt”). Contrary to popular belief what game developers do when you’re getting close to releasing a beta and final versions of a game – we aren’t in crunch mode! Nor does it look like that we will be crunching. This project shows all signs of excellent execution on all levels … I’m so much looking forward to the beta participant’s feedback at this point, hopefully it will give us the positive feedback we so much crave first hand. If the reports from all the major gaming events this year were any indication, we have a sleeper hit on our hands. Sleeper only because BattleForge didn’t get the coverage like other EA titles recently released or about to be released. But with the beta nearing, the holidays passing and release date getting closer, that’ll change.
Somehow i managed to cram a whole lot of different games into this post. Luckily, there are so many more that i can talk about another time. 
