Hows aboot releasing Mirrors Edge 2 with a campaign that lasts more than 4 hours to revive a series that had so much potential but was then laughed at after a lacklustre first game.................................. damn them!

Yeah the first one was pretty great in parts and pretty iffy in others. We had a good thing going Davey, you would set a score in time trial, I'd go and beat it the next night, you'd beat that, so on so on.

One of the problems with that game was the learning curve, I think. I mean, it wasn't hard most of the time, certainly not at the start, but it wasn't impressive when it wasn't hard. It wasn't impressive when you weren't very good.

The thing that made me want to play, in any case, was getting a perfect run on something. That game was beautiful when played well - the flow and the speed - it was great to feel and it looked great as well. The problem was, especially the first time through the campaign, you were never gonna play it perfectly, so it never lived up to the excitement of those first trailers they released. Time trials admittedly were good, because if you had that spirit of competition going on you eventually got it down to a fine art.

I also really liked the look of the DLC for it - those floating in the sky blocks to jump and run off. I think they stripped it of distractions, down to it's basic, wireframe structure, and for that game it worked really well. They also made it faster paced I think? More down-hill sort of levels?

I think if they made another - sure, the campaign should be longer, and it could be pretty easily, I think, because the architecture was pretty simple and uniform throughout, with a few exceptions. But they should also focus on simplifying the world like that. The guns and fighting need work too, sure. I think they needed that sense of building danger that the bad guys added, but I think it could have been better implemented. Here's my points plan to saving the series:

- Bigger emphasis on time trials. Introduce something to make it compete for the gamer's attention with other big multi games. Eg. A points system that unlocks stuff. New levels? Custom character parts? You could make your own little wrist tattoo - that would be a nice touch.

- More multiplayer modes. Time trials was cool, and I think you could race ghosts but not do live head to head games? Put some of that in as well. Maybe branching levels, or parallel courses so you can see your opponent.

- Make the combat flow with the movement. Mirror's Edge worked best in its linear sections, I think, and there were a few parts near the end that were sorta open, and filled with guys. I remember a parking lot? You kinda had to worm your way around and take them out, and it wasn't fun. It's not a combat game, so don't make it one - make the combat part of the platforming. Use a soldier in your way as a springboard who happens to rain bullets in your direction. Run into, grab and push a soldier into a wall and use him as a temporary ledge. Give me a reason not to use a gun. Give me a reason to keep moving!

- Use set pieces to amp it up. There were some parts, about when the guards with guns were first introduced, that were great. Lasers followed you and sniper shots cracked around you - that's the kind of tension the game needed and the way those shooting guys should have stayed. I think you could use half set piece half AI to achieve the same effect, just more consistently. Have things collapse, or have dudes shoot at you, or just behind you, but not actually hit you (too) much. Make it feel dangerous but don't frustrate the player.

- Unlock a perfect ghost or something. Once you've finished, enable the ghost in the menu, press a button while playing to see it shoot out in front of you and do a perfect run of the area ahead. Then, you can do it yourself and see your skills skyrocket.

Just some ideas

Seems to suit a mobile phone..

Good to see EA jumping on the mobile bandwagon, but not sure how long they will offer titles at under $10. I have a feeling they are just doing it at those prices presently as a teaser to get users used to the idea before jumping up to $30 or something like this. Can't be too sustainable to release a decent game for a few bucks.. even if they are mostly just ports.

Yeah, I was certainly surprised at the price, they can't be making much out of this. It can't be that easy to port a PS3/360 game to iPhone, I expect they had to put in a fair bit of work. Still, it is a well known and fairly popular game, so if the sales are good then they should do alright.

I thought it was like a side scrolling version? The original was on sale at game for like $5 a while ago I think

Ah, seems you're right. No porting here, it's an original game.