Episode Four: Mirror's Edge

Owen O'Brien takes us inside Mirror's Edge; also, this week's Zero Punctuation preview and MovieBob reviews Max Payne.

This week's musical guests:

Ian Dorsch - "The Escapist Show Theme"
Lisa Miskovsky - "Still Alive" with remixes by
Benny Benassi
Junkie XL
Armand Van Helden
Paul van Dyk

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Just wanted to comment on Moviebob.

There has already been a Super Mario Bros movie, and believe me, that was horrible... It really is poison to the eyes and the brain.
Also, on your comment on Equilibrium, I don't think that saying Christian Bale is in it is such a great way to draw in the audience. He was by far the worst Batman so far. He had no character what so ever. It was a shallow and hollow performance, and in no way comparable to the superb performance that Michael Keaton gave. The only way in which I can describe Keaton's performance (well, in almost every movie he plays in) is intense. Bale lacks that sort of intensity completely. Same goes for Val Kilmer and George Clooney.
If you want to save the Batman movies, only two actors come to mind that can really give Batman the personality back that Keaton put into it. Those two are Joaquin Phoenix and Edward Norton. Phoenix would give Batman the sort of brooding darkness that The Dark Knight should have gotten, if he puts up the same performance as in his role as Commodus in Gladiator, the manipulating psycho that drifts on the edge of madness. Norton would give Batman a whole new side to him, and would actually make him look intelligent, for references, go watch The Illusionist.

But enough ragging on the Batman movies... Yes they said it was a dark movie, but I found it shallow and lacking, actually... just a bad rethread of bad Batman rip-offs... but I guess the whole superhero genre is pretty much drained, at least until they make a Deadpool movie.

Oh yeah, Gun-kata already existed. Go watch the anime Grenadier for the best choreographed gunfight in history.

As a final note, this episode was pretty good, although I kinda missed where the game was going to, and with that, that whole part of this episode....

Mirror's Edge! YAY!!! Though not out for PC until January. Sadface.

Undertowstudios:
post trimmed away

So actually, you didn't want to comment on MovieBob at all, but on the Batman movies?

Russ's bit : Much better than last week, that was funny. Gotta keep throwing those curve balls.
Mirror's Edge : I really want to like this, but my vertigo makes me want to stay WELL away.
ZP Preview : Not so much a teaser as a soundbite. Don't know if this works at all.
MovieBob : Uh,...well, the research is there, the Yahtzee effect is there, the rating (ZOMG!) is there but the feeling...not really.
I mean it's good, but not great. Needs more cowbell.

Undertowstudios:
Go read it yourself, I'm just letting you know I'm responding to this guy.

First of all, I'm pretty sure he knows about the Super Mario Bros. Movie. Everyone knows about the Super Mario Bros. Movie. My Greek Grandmother who doesn't speak English knows about that movie. It's simultaneously (SP?) horrible and a cult-classic. As for moviebob, he was saying "If it is given the respect it deserves." You know, if they treated it seriously.

As for the Batman movies, well, that's your opinion. Isn't it a wonderful thing? Here's a great saying. "Opinions are like assholes. Everyone's got one, and they all stink!" Remember it. It'll serve you well

Everyone but the guy I'm responding to, please excuse my pissy, lack of sleep-induced annoyance.

Anyway, on to the reason I was originally posting.

FREE RUNNING IS NOT PARKOUR! Sorry, but I have to be that guy. Parkour is "The Art of movement." It is to move from point A to point B as quickly and efficiently (SP?) as possible. That's why there are set moves to use in certain circumstances. Free Running is similar, I'll give it that, but it holds the philosophy of "Why just get from point A to point B, when you can do it elegantly?" The so called "True" Free Runners tend to mix gymnastics with their running, to make it look... well, prettier.

Again, I apologize for any rudeness.

I'm not sure if I would list Mirrors Edges as a shooter. More like an FPS puzzle game. Also, if they made Max Payne as a rated R movie, then maybe the people who played the game would actually go see it. Instead, they cut out all the good stuff, and make the movie into total crap.

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Does anyone else skip the Zp preview? I mean it just spoils the review and it usually is taken out of context and makes no sense...

Much as I think MovieBobs movie reviews are pretty decent; would do us a better service just linking to his Game Overthinker rants (thesis) on Youtbue instead. They are much more intersting than his movie reviews that, unsurprisingly, just lead to "omg ZP clone!!!" cries of derision from this delightful community :-)

Entertaining as usual. Nearly more entertaining then De Rez.

And why the hate on Movie Bob? I like his reviews, sure there a bit crappy looking but entertaining and good for a small laugh or two.

I don't mind moviebob, he's pretentious but he usually puts a good analytical spin on things.

A great episode all around!
The MovieBob review was excellent, nothing like the last one - I'm simply shocked at how much improvement there is.

PedroSteckecilo:
I don't mind moviebob, he's pretentious but he usually puts a good analytical spin on things.

THANK YOU! I've been wondering why I don't like listening to him, and then you posted. He really does come across as rather pretentious. He seems to think that being cynical for the sake of cynicism is a good thing, and instead he just sounds spiteful about everything.

That and his attempts at humor work about 40% of the time. But that I can deal with.

I only watch these for the Zero Punctuation review and usually skip the beginnings and don't finish.

This game definitely needs a 'bend double, coughing your lungs out after ten minutes' mini-game.

Movie Bob was better in this episode. Still, his segment always feels like a ZP rip-off. Not to mention that there is also ZP content in the show! Is it really necessary?

Mirror's Edge looks good on video, but I get this sense that it wouldn't play nearly as well. The discussion into some of the development aspects was quite interesting, particularly about the first-person perspective and how you see much more of the player's body in the camera than you actually would in real life.

I really didn't like this episode. It seemed like it was just a teeny documentary on Mirror's Edge than anything.

Seriously. It was "blah something about Mirror's Edge, which focuses on parkour, or free running, which is using the momentum of your body to overcome insurmountable obstacles like... wind." -> GUY TALKING ABOUT MIRROR'S EDGE -> WEIRD SHOTS OF A HAND -> ZP -> MOVIEBOB.

I'm thinking that maybe this show would benefit from instead of simply naming a game and showing an interview with a developer before going on to the routine things, it should look at a few things of interest going on in the gaming community. Maybe do some stuff about big gaming news, like what EA might be trying to pull, or whatever country gaming's been outlawed in or some such like that. Then it might feel less like reading an interview with decoration on it.

Also, MovieBob could be better. I think he should be less ZP-ish and, like, actually do a serious review. What kind of people might like X movie? Does it have any sort of message? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Sure, it might not work with an action title like Max Payne or such, but this would make the movie review section much more rewarding and entertaining.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and I think the ZP preview should be taken out. It's almost worthless without the rest of the episode, and the Escapist show goes up a whole one day before ZP, so it's even more pointless.

Cousin_IT:
Much as I think MovieBobs movie reviews are pretty decent; would do us a better service just linking to his Game Overthinker rants (thesis) on Youtbue instead. They are much more intersting than his movie reviews that, unsurprisingly, just lead to "omg ZP clone!!!" cries of derision from this delightful community :-)

my GOD man you don't understand how irritating it is to hear everytime bob pops up 'OMG HE'S COPYING ZERO PUNCTUATION!' because he isnt. just because he is a cynical narcissistic bastard bastard it doesn't mean he is copying ZP. and i actually prefer him to ZP because his game overthinker episodes do challenging subject matter in gaming, which is a laugh and a thinker.

So ppl STFU about the moviebob reviews, you sheep sicken me! (WUV U :D)

Braininator:
Movie Bob was better in this episode. Still, his segment always feels like a ZP rip-off. Not to mention that there is also ZP content in the show! Is it really necessary?

well considering moviebob reviews movies, and ZP reviews games, i think so :S

I think they should put game overthinker eps on this website, that would pwn.

ChromeAlchemist:
my GOD man you don't understand how irritating it is to hear everytime bob pops up 'OMG HE'S COPYING ZERO PUNCTUATION!' because he isnt. just because he is a cynical narcissistic bastard bastard it doesn't mean he is copying ZP. and i actually prefer him to ZP because his game overthinker episodes do challenging subject matter in gaming, which is a laugh and a thinker.

For me, the issue is having two similar personalities in the same show. You can't really blame The Escapist for wanting to make full use of their star attraction, but if The Escapist Show is to grow and develop I really think ZP needs to be left as its own entity. It would definitely make me less critical about MovieBob's style of review.

A good show this week, Mirrors edge looks quite good. Looking forward to the fallout 3 ZP review, should be a good one. On a further note I have to say that MovieBob is not copying Yahtzee. For my reasons for thinking this way just look at my other comments. (Which are on different videos of the Escapist Show.)

ChromeAlchemist:

Cousin_IT:
Much as I think MovieBobs movie reviews are pretty decent; would do us a better service just linking to his Game Overthinker rants (thesis) on Youtbue instead. They are much more intersting than his movie reviews that, unsurprisingly, just lead to "omg ZP clone!!!" cries of derision from this delightful community :-)

my GOD man you don't understand how irritating it is to hear everytime bob pops up 'OMG HE'S COPYING ZERO PUNCTUATION!' because he isnt. just because he is a cynical narcissistic bastard bastard it doesn't mean he is copying ZP. and i actually prefer him to ZP because his game overthinker episodes do challenging subject matter in gaming, which is a laugh and a thinker.

So ppl STFU about the moviebob reviews, you sheep sicken me! (WUV U :D)

That was the point I was kinda going for, but alas my more pithy version seems to have been unclear to that fact :-D

Which musical guest does the songs backing the mirror's edge clips?

Danny Ocean:
Which musical guest does the songs backing the mirror's edge clips?

See the top of the page. There are links to their websites as well.

CaptainCrunch:

Danny Ocean:
Which musical guest does the songs backing the mirror's edge clips?

See the top of the page. There are links to their websites as well.

I gathered that, but which one does that particular song? It's awesome, I wanna go out and buy it.

Not gonna lie, those pants look really comfy.

Danny Ocean:

CaptainCrunch:

Danny Ocean:
Which musical guest does the songs backing the mirror's edge clips?

See the top of the page. There are links to their websites as well.

I gathered that, but which one does that particular song? It's awesome, I wanna go out and buy it.

Each remix is used at various points throughout the episode. You can get them all on the Mirror's Edge soundtrack, but they appear in this order:
Benny Benassi - the helecopter
Armand Van Helden - sliding down a building
Junkie XL - "why can't I slide under it?"
Paul Van Dyk - "Pandora's Box"

Thumbs up to the Movie Review at the end, Max Payne is a total miss-cast. Which is a real shame, because the truth is that most people (myself included) would probably over-look a lot of the cheesy cliché and SFX saturation, so long as there was a solid lead, portraying the cynical, hard-boiled, hardass that is Max Payne

Instead, my attention is being allowed to wander onto the movie's content and by the looks of it, that's simply not going to hold up.

Great epi. of the Escapist show!

[Edit] ZP's style of review is more than simply talking into a microphone or using Cynicism (heck, cynicism in reviewing has been around long before Mr. Yahtzee was even born). As for claiming that somebody is "copying" him by using a similar medium, that's like trying to claim everybody who uses pen and ink is copying Shakespeare. It's a medium, he might have made it popular in recent years, but it'd be a crying shame if it simply stopped there and people didn't have the chance to pick it up and run with it.

looks like a good game i might get it

TomNook:
Not gonna lie, those pants look really comfy.

They were. And the shoelace thing? I may adopt that IRL.

Someone fucking shoot MovieBob, PLEASE.
He's a rip-off, and he's talking about stolen ideas when he could make an act for a Yahtzee feigning competition and LOSE because he's so damn bad. His movie review may have had some point, but really, it just sounded like a big rant about things, and if I want that, I'll go onto YouTube and search up "Reviews" and ignore all of the good ones. He may be a nice person, but from this he seems to think he's far more famous than he actually is, and the sad thing is, I can hear his voice. It's stuck in my head, as I type, I can imagine him saying it. If you have a loaded gun, shoot him, then shoot me, to get rid of his fucking voice!

Moviebob's stuff is about going off on tangents. 4 minutes or so doesn't do it. The crammed tight 10 minutes of Overthinker over on youtube are excellent.

MurderousToaster, Your name rings true indeed. Have you watched/listened to 1/5th of his reviews ect. on Youtube? I would very much like to know how informed your snarling is, from having seen two, in my opinion, poor examples of his informative and layered productions. Often, there is a struggle to take the snarky comments shown in on-screen text while being bombarded with big words and quick wit. This one was better that the last, it seems to me. Hope to see more.