Reviewer
Travis Dwyer

Date
1/30/2009

Review Data
Platform: PC
Publisher: EA
Developer: DICE
Medium: DVD-ROM
Players: 1
Online: Leaderboards
Also on: (n/a)
Grade (Guidelines)
B Great
 Media
 Link this Review
 Mirror's Edge
Is the PhysX-enabled, enhanced PC version worth the leap of Faith?
Mirror's Edge PC is a direct port of the console game, and my thoughts are right in line with Brian's as far as the overall game goes (Click Here for that review). The levels are hindered by lack of direction causing lots of poor decisions being made on the run. "Oops, I'm being shot at by a helicopter and turned left, jumped off a building, and died. I guess I should have taken a right." That's par for the course in the single player game and can be quite frustrating. But, I also thought that the Time Trials with the enemies removed and given more chance to find quick ways through a level were a huge bright spot. Unfortunately, the PC game's leaderboard is infected with cheaters, so it's hard to find a legit ghost time to race against.

The graphics looked pretty darn good on the consoles, but they also get a nice boost on the PC. The review system in question is a dual core E8500 3.16GHz with a 9800GX2 and 8GB of RAM running on Vista 64. I was able to play at 1920x1080 with 4x AA and all settings at highest at ~55-60 fps. Oddly enough, Mirror's Edge offers a V-Sync option but it doesn't do anything. I had to go to the nVidia control panel to turn it on for this game, and it needed it bad. Tearing was awful with it turned off.

One of the big selling points for the PC version is the inclusion of new environment physics, leveraging PhysX on more recent nVidia cards. Before I get to how great they turned out, I must tell you about the hurdles it took to make it work. The first time I encountered glass shattering, my framerate dropped to ~5fps. Took me a while fiddling with options to figure out that turning off PhysX effects fixed the problem, a problem my machine and graphics card shouldn't have. Turns out, the game doesn't succesfully install the PhysX drivers (and I hadn't installed them myself before this) during the install of the game. I went and grabbed the newest ones off the nVidia site, and things have been fine ever since. The usage of these physics is kind of limited, but there are quite a few scenes that turned out really awesome (there are a number of videos out there to see what I mean). One of the neatest ones is dealing with clear plastic wrap used in some buildings with construction going on. Running, shooting, or kicking someone through it was really impressive looking.

There was some question as to how keyboard and mouse controls would hold up on a game designed first and foremost for console controllers. The community answer appears to be mixed, but in my experience, the keyboard and mouse worked perfectly naturally. There are only a couple of keys beyond the movement keys to worry about. The left shift makes you slide and go under things, and the space bar makes you jump or go over things. Both are easily accesible with your pinkie and thumb. Ultimately, I have a wired 360 controller, so it really just came down to choice, but if all you have is kb/m, then the game is no less playable in my opinion.

At $10 cheaper than the consoles versions, with the capability to look better and employ some nifty physics with a recent gaming PC, it's hard not to recommend this port. It's a judgement call though. We are talking about PC gaming and all the heartache and bliss it brings at the same time. I did have to fiddle with patches, drivers, and tweaking the nVidia control panel. A lesser machine may also not give you visuals as good as out of the box 720p on the 360 or PS3.



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