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Brink's parkour video will probably make you hurl
That headline's no exaggeration -- the trailer posted after the jump compares the exploits of real-life parkour artist Daniel Ilabaca with the virtual wall-runnings of Brink. It's all shot in first person, and, as you might imagine, it's all super nauseating.
Tempest Freerunning Academy features Mario tribute
The recently opened Tempest Freerunning Academy in Los Angeles has put together a promotional video of its gym that hits several notes obligating us to write about it. The fantastic feats of athleticism in the clip begin with various free runners flipping, climbing and jumping across a set inspired by the 8-bit world of Super Mario Bros. The rest of the video just fills us with jealous awe, considering the closest we'll probably ever get to pulling off some of the featured stunts is when we play Mirror's Edge or the upcoming Brink. Actually, we take that back. We could totally do the stunts, but we'd have to call ahead to the hospital and pre-order a room first.
Rise and Shiny recap: FreeJack
FreeJack is a new MMORPG brought to us by Gamerkraft. It's based on parkour, a sport that pits human against pavement -- a ballet performed upon rooftops and railways. Well, that's the theory, at least. In reality, parkour is sometimes very cumbersome to watch. If you are ever fortunate enough to catch a televised parkour competition, you'll see that there is almost no fluidity involved at all. Instead, players perform flips and spins on a perfectly laid-out track. It feels clunky, especially when the runner pauses to set up a killer move. FreeJack, I had hoped, would give back some of that fluid movement to the sport. After all, a fall in a video game does not end your life -- greater risks can be taken. When we picture parkour in our heads, we see superhero-like movements, leaping between buildings, or balancing on wires. In most ways, FreeJack delivers this experience. It also features some really cool graphics, fantastic customization and great social systems. But in the middle of all that fun, the game can just stop you and make you feel more human than ever. %Gallery-102590%
Brink's second dev diary explains the S.M.A.R.T. system
The latest Brink dev diary shows us the game's "Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain" system -- or "S.M.A.R.T." for short -- and how it allows players to deftly traverse environments while firing bullets at enemies. This is the system that allows players to practice their totally sweet parkour moves while murdering fools. Perhaps those smooth moves will inspire you to get some freestyle walking in as well -- in real life? Good thing, then, that Brink is sponsoring "champion freerunner" Daniel Ilabaca on a European parkour tour. The tour kicked off today in London and will hit a handful of major EU cities before ending in Paris on September 2. We might also suggest you buy lots of padding and, depending on your level of fitness, a membership to the local gym before trying that "freerunning" yourself.
Direct2Drive running '24 Days of Christmas' sale
Digital distribution service Direct2Drive is celebrating the 24 days leading up to Christmas by discounting a select PC title each day from now until December 25. As the math whizzes have no doubt already divined, that's 24 discounted games! Today's game is DICE's parkour-em-up, Mirror's Edge. At the ridiculously low asking price of $4.95, it'd be a crime for PC gamers to disregard this most excellent (and very much deserving of a sequel, EA!) game from 2008. We can personally vouch for its high levels of quality, actually. In terms of fun-to-cents ratio, you're looking at about 16 gazillion wows of entertainment value. Trust us, we did the math. [Thanks, Jordan]
New inFamous trailer heavy on story, light on gameplay
In this, the latest trailer for body-surfing, open-world action game inFamous, we get a glimpse at more of the story, though a straight up plot remains inFamous-ly absent. What do we know? There's a little girl who's scared, maybe of you, maybe of everything else. There's an explosion and some kick flips. Oh oh, and plenty of electricity. It might not be the most intellectually stimulating game coming from Sony on the horizon but it sure "has the potential to be far more substantial and rewarding" -- at least we thought so back at New York Comic Con.
Mirror's Edge DLC, PC version coming early 2009
Now that Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 owners are busy practicing their finger parkour with this week's launch of Mirror's Edge, Electronic Arts has confirmed the PC version is coming January 2009 (as was previously listed by online retailers). According to the press release, downloadable content for the title will also be available "at the beginning of the year." No indication whether it's multiplatform DLC or the previously mentioned "exclusive" PS3 content. EA also offers no clues on what the content would be, but we're going to take a leap of faith here and say it won't be a weapons pack. Update: Gamecycte has confirmed that it's "downloadable content for both platforms," according to an EA spokesperson.
Urban exploration in Age of Conan
Free running and urban exploration in virtual worlds have both taken off significantly in recent years. Players can be seen clambering around buildings and jumping between the rooftops in games from World of Warcraft to Everquest 2 and Funcom's Age of Conan is no different. Like a lot of players, I found myself eventually having to make my own fun after a while. For me, that meant finding my way onto the rooftops and jumping between them like a maniac. In this visual article, I find myself on the rooftops and back alleys of two cities in Age of Conan and see things from a perspective that most players will never see first hand. Age of Conan Freerunning Gallery %Gallery-32334% Having fun in Conan's homeland? Make sure to check out all of our previous Age of Conan coverage, and stick with Massively for more news from the Hyborian Age!
Urban exploration in Hyboria (part two)
Hyboria's other cities may hold more interesting finds. Despite its failings, one thing Age of Conan did well was providing breathtaking landscapes. When I got bored with quests and monsters, I looked for ways to make my own fun in Age of Conan.
PAX 2008 hands-on: Mirror's Edge, even edgier with an audience
Our first stop on the whirlwind tour of EA's heavy hitters was with our favorite running, jumping, sliding, wall-climbing, Faith. Mirror's Edge continues to impress, and we were lucky enough to get a few minutes on a kiosk with her. However, the best thing about it isn't in the game, it was the cheering crowd behind us. Head behind the break to get the full skinny on our PAX experience this data-running hottie.%Gallery-17126%
Urban exploration in MMOs
Urban exploration and free running are activities normally associated with the real world. In recent years, however, MMOs such as Everquest 2, Age of Conan and World of Warcraft have become a digital stage for the arts. With entire new virtual worlds to explore, no risk of injury and no physical fitness required, it's understandable that many would-be free runners are going digital.In this article, I take a visual tour of the world of urban exploration and rooftop running in MMOs and explain how you can learn to clamber onto the rooftops in your favourite game.%Gallery-30295%
Watch the direct feed Mirror's Edge demo
It occurred to us that despite all our passion for first-person parkour-inspired game Mirror's Edge, you probably still don't get the appeal unless you've seen it in action. "A girl running around on rooftops fighting crime?" you ask with a sneer. "I liked it better the first time, when it was a guy, and it was called Batman." We understand distrust of the unknown (it's the reason we're still alive) so we'd like to present, for your edification, the Mirror's Edge demo. Now, if you can watch this and still not get excited we really have nothing more to talk about.
Heavenly Sword writer to script Mirror's Edge
As we nurse a queezy stomach from playing EA DICE's Parkour-inspired Mirror's Edge, we'll be doing so to a story penned by writer and story designer Rhianna Pratchett, who's known for her work on titles such as Triumph Studios' Overlord and Ninja Theory's Heavenly Sword.The story centers on free runner Faith as she jumps, climbs, and tumbles her way to uncovering the truth behind who framed her sister for murder. Notes Pratchett, "Faith is skilled, but she's certainly not a superhero. She has her flaws, like all of us. In short: she's real. That's her appeal." Mirror's Edge remains one of the more interesting original titles in EA's 2008 salvo, and is expected to leave us feeling vertigo when it ships for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC this winter.%Gallery-27271%
Parkour-based FPS in the works
In development by Digital Illusions Creative Entertainment (DICE), the upcoming PS3, Xbox 360, and PC title Mirror's Edge hopes to bank on the success of the Prince's acrobatic abilities in Prince of Persia in a first-person 3D environment. You play the role of Faith who climbs, sprints, and leaps around a utopian metropolis fighting the corrupt authoritarians in power. The main character's moves were inspired by parkour and have been kept deliberately simple. Mirror's Edge aims to give players a better sense of being in a body, forcing you to pay attention to things like acceleration and the way your head moves as you walk or come to an abrupt stop.While the game will be packed with action, don't expect shooting to be the central focus, as realistic physics play a huge role in the gameplay. Ever try bouncing off a wall holding a heavy assault rifle?
Free Running, where are you?
The team at Rebellion have released Free Running, based loosely on the principles of a French alternasport "Parkour," that Wikipedia defines as, "movement from point A to point B, as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body." For local advocates, community fan sites like Urbanfreeflow.com are great resources for finding the latest, up-to-date Parkour activities in your hometown.Free Running garnered a decent review, but a release date is now strangely absent for fellow gamers across the pond in North America. Attempts to locate a U.S. release date on major retailers like GameStop, Amazon and GameFly, all bring up blank pages, whereas earlier reports showed a similar March release date. With a lack of alternative sports tittles currently available on the system, PSP owners in North America may feel the sting of drought for awhile longer.Japanese fan site PSP GadgetZ has been obsessing over the title, capturing more than half a dozen videos of the game. Watch for yourself and tell us if you think this violence-free Prince of Persia-styled game sparks your fancy.
Path to PSP, PS2 now clear for 'Free Running'
Free Running (the game) has seemingly overcome the obstacles, finding a publisher in Ubisoft and enough mainstream attention to warrant a UK release in mid-March. We first spotted Free Running in June 2005 when then publisher Eidos was showing off some footage of the Core Designs PSP title, which was also being called Parkour Freerun (note: parkour and free running are two distinct disciplines).Since that time, Core Designs was acquired by Rebellion, which eventually passed Free Running off to Reef Entertainment. Reef, now teamed with Ubisoft, has found an opportunity to finally turn out Free Running, which will also be released on PlayStation 2 (in addition to its original PSP format).The game release is timed with building commercialization of the 'free running' discipline, whose founder -- and star of the upcoming game -- Sebastien Foucan showed off some moves in the latest Bond flick Casino Royale. Ubisoft is a fitting publisher as both its Prince of Persia series and upcoming title Assassin's Creed feature elements inspired by free running. The publisher has no apparent plans to distribute Free Running outside of the UK.[Via PSP Fanboy]
