Prince of Persia catch-all

Pages

Prince of Persia. Ubisoft Montreal takes storied franchize on another turn towards stylish and easy. I hear surprisingly little buzz for what seems to be an instant cult arthouse hit.

IMAGE(http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/714/popyn1.jpg)

A new hero emerges
Master the acrobatics, strategy and fighting tactics of the most agile warrior of all time. Grip fall down the face of a building, perform perfectly timed acrobatic combinations, swing over canyons, buildings and anything that is reachable. This new rogue warrior must utilize all of his new skills along with a whole new combat system to battle Ahriman’s corrupted lieutenants to heal the land from the dark Corruption and restore the light.

A new epic journey begins
Escape to experience the new fantasy world of ancient Persia. Masterful storytelling and sprawling environments will deliver to action-adventure fans an experience that rivals even the best Hollywood movies.

A new open world structure
A first for the Prince of Persia franchise – now you have the freedom to determine how the game evolves in this non-linear adventure. Players will decide how they unfold the storyline by choosing their path in the open-ended world.

Emergence of a deadly new ally
History’s greatest ally is revealed in the form of Elika, a dynamic AI companion who joins the Prince in his fight to save the world. Gifted with magical powers, she interacts with the player in combat, acrobatics and puzzle-solving enabling the Prince to reach new heights of deadly high-flying artistry through special duo acrobatic moves or devastating fighting combo attacks.

All new for Next-Gen
The franchise’s debut on next-generation consoles utilizes Ubisoft’s proprietary Anvil engine, the same engine used to develop Assassins Creed™.

Reviews so far:

IGN: 9.3.
Gamespot: 8.0

Anyone playing it yet?

I will be when it comes out for Steam.

I think this, being a platformer in its purest, needs to be played on a console.

I'll be checking it out this evening. I'm a sucker for compelling visual design, and this game has that in spades. As for the gameplay, I'll be pleased if it is anything close to Sands of Time, and from the sound of some of the reviews, it is. Also, it sounds as though the combat has been de-emphasized and refocused in comparison to the two more recent Prince of Persia games, which sounds about right; the fun of the PoP concept never had anything to do with the fights.

I think i'll be picking this up after work, looks to gorgeous and fun to pass up. Can't wait!

I need to justify my PS3, so I'll buy it this weekend.

The graphics look amazing and I've heard all sort of praises for the soundtrack. I hate the LA accent the main character has, and I've also heard that the game has been dumbed down.

Bummer.

From the reviews i've read, it sounds like the combat is closer to that of Sands of Time: Lots of blocking, parrying, and striking only a couple times to finish the job, only it looks a hell of a lot cooler this time around. I caved on my 1 new game a month rule and ordered this on Amazon on Monday (heres to hoping I was still within the window of getting the free limited edition upgrade of it.) I have an excuse at least, I mean, I couldn't well keep myself form some of the ridiculous black friday deals, could I?

The only thing that seems like it will disappoint me with this game is that they spin the new prince as a reluctant hero, which translates into him letting off stupid quips all the time. I loved the feeling they were portraying in the awesome trailers, that of the prince being more of a somewhat-silent protagonist. Can't have everything I suppose?

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

I think this, being a platformer in its purest, needs to be played on a console.

I'll still play it with a gamepad, but I just don't own a console.

I was planning on picking this up today, but it seems in Canada it won't be available until Friday or Saturday.

I own all three consoles, and I'm going to play it on PC with a gamepad. Single player games are just better in my room then out in the living room using up the TV.

Distantsound wrote:
Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:

I think this, being a platformer in its purest, needs to be played on a console.

I'll still play it with a gamepad, but I just don't own a console.

IMAGE(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/mrgreen72/16539.jpg)

kuddles wrote:

I was planning on picking this up today, but it seems in Canada it won't be available until Friday or Saturday.

It makes sense considering it was developed in Montreal...

Mr.Green wrote:

It makes sense considering it was developed in Montreal...

Well, you know, they need to send each copy down to the States, put it in a box, then ship it back up here and mark the price up by 10%. That takes time.

muttonchop wrote:
Mr.Green wrote:

It makes sense considering it was developed in Montreal...

Well, you know, they need to send each copy down to the States, put it in a box, then ship it back up here and mark the price up by 10%. That takes time.

Don't forget they also need to run the manual through the Google english to french translator, print it in black and white and wrap it up with an extra layer of Saran-Wrap!

We really should get rid of those french bastards!

Mr.Green wrote:
muttonchop wrote:
Mr.Green wrote:

It makes sense considering it was developed in Montreal...

Well, you know, they need to send each copy down to the States, put it in a box, then ship it back up here and mark the price up by 10%. That takes time.

Don't forget they also need to run the manual through the Google english to french translator, print it in black and white and wrap it up with an extra layer of Saran-Wrap!

We really should get rid of those french bastards!

You're forgetting that they must translate it from french to english and send it down to the states and then have it re-translated back to french in the states before shipping. Using up that 10% mark-up to the fullest.

I'll play it when it comes through the post.... with the skins of the Prince from TSoT and Farah instead of these dopplegangers!

How many hours we talkin'.. solid rental or must buy?

Swat wrote:

How many hours we talkin'.. solid rental or must buy?

I read somewhere it was 8-10 hours and that the difficulty was pretty low.... but the experience is very good - the reviewer said better than The Sands of Time.

I'd suggest that if you're a big fan of the series that you lean towards buying it (since i know i'll be playing it multiple times). If not and you just enjoyed the previous games it's a solid rental.

Penny Arcade wrote:

- Prince of Persia is incredibly easy, too easy in my opinion, but I don't think it's easy for the reasons people are saying. It's true that your mysterious witch friend Elika can save you from harm, either from a platforming misstep or from poor combat performance. They're both failure states, in any event, which is to say deaths: they just decided to automate the process of loading from save. This is similar to the philosophy behind Final Fantasy XII, as expressed by our own Gabriel: if all I'm going to do is select attack from a menu, why shouldn't it handle that part? There are players who want very clear, even brutal framework to establish a metrics of reward and disaster. I'll just type the words "corpse run," and leave it at that.

Anyway, if I step incorrectly, Elika brings me back to the beginning of the platforming sequence - and sometimes, the beginning is hell and gone from where you got to. The old, time-reversal method would have made the game even easier than it is now. Anyway, the game is easy because it's not hard. It's not a mechanics thing - outside of a few optional challenges, I don't think they had any intention of making something difficult. I think they wanted to make a lyrical, organic world that the character flowed through. They had an aesthetic goal, and the extent to which Prince of Persia succeeds as a game depends on how well they draw you into that.

Seems about as succinct as i could write it if i'd been able to play the game early I know i'll be disappointed with the challenge of this game... but i just loved TSoT and eventually WW as well.... TT can rot in game hell for all i care though....b*st*rds!

I've really enjoyed the previous incarnations, SoT in particular. This one has Gamefly written all over it.

I remember when No More Heroes was delayed in Canada because Ubisoft forgot to print French manuals.

I'll be playing Prince eventually. Maybe in a week or two. I'm having trouble getting really excited for this, even though I loved Sands of Time and Two Thrones. Warrior Within is pure garbage.

Well, I picked it up tonight and after putting in about an hour so, I'm really loving it. The controls felt a little sluggish at first, but after 20 minutes I adjusted to the pacing and they feel great, everything has a nice weight to it and the animation is extremely fluid. When i first popped the disc in I saw more 'jaggies' than I was expecting, but I think that was just adjusting from static screenshots to seeing it in motion blown up on a larger screen because after 5 minutes it all melted away and it really is like running around in a watercolor painting. I'm surprised at the vibrancy of the color palette, even the "dead/corrupt" zones feel more like the ice levels out of Zak & Wiki (a healthy dose of blues & purples) than say the ruins of a city in Gears of War.

I forget where I saw it, but someone compared the gameplay feel to the parkour style in Mirror's Edge, and while that's not really a fair comparison, I recently played about 6 hours of ME from gamefly and I'm definitely more satisfied with the feel of Pop. I feel like I have a lot more control.

Also, I ended up jumping off into oblivion (only to be saved by Elika) a lot while I was getting used to the controls and I did appreciate my reaction was more "oh ok, that's how that works" instead of "god damn it!" because of the prolific checkpoint system. that's fine by me!

Note to self:

minor spoiler wrote:

[color=white]
If I ever find myself in a position of needing to win back the affection of my daughter, I should be sure to try getting her a pony as opposed to an apocalypse.
[/color]

Truly, this Prince is a fountain of wisdom.

Metacritic score of 89 at the moment, based on 24 reviews. Given that it's apparently about 10 hours or so of gameplay, I'd say it's definitely a rental.

It's only out here in a week or so. I'm definitely considering this so I'm looking forward to more impressions.

Just received my copy through the post and i'm extremely happy with it even though i haven't even touched the game yet! Considering i paid the same price as other versions with just an exclusive cover i'm really happy with the content of this box:

Codes to unlock PoP:TSoT outfits, artwork/storybook, Bonus content disc and the game.

IMAGE(http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/5020/spinkhannahsbday014rf1.th.jpg)

I'll post some impressions later on.

[edit]

Been playing for an hour now: I love the game.

The music is fantastic and, once you get past the overly American voices (sorry guys it just gets boring and annoying to hear the same type of accent in every game i play), the characterisation of the Prince and Elika is actually really good. The conversations you can choose to have (most conversation is through player choice and not mandatory) and the random comments that come out as you are exploring are really good. Best writing in a game i've played since The Witcher.

The graphics - what can i say, they're beautiful and the music to go with them is on the same scale of an epic film score in terms of quality... really adds to the atmosphere.

Game play is simplified in the same way that it was in Assassin's Creed and the face buttons correspond to a type of action; each implementation of which is context sensitive and works really well and hasn't been confusing for me yet. So far my greatest fear has been allayed: i.e. that Elika was going to essentially be a 'win button' - she is not and is only partially useful in most senses of the word 'companion' which is good enough for any game. She occasionally gets in the way and slows you down because the Prince will often carry her on his back or pull her up if you wait for her but she has no AI to mess up the game as with other companions in other games.
What i mean by that is that Elika will, for the most part, just follow you exactly.... there's no wandering off or bumping into the back of you she will step in your footsteps. It means that the only time she does slightly get in your way is when you suddenly change direction 180 degrees and pass back through your previous footsteps and there isn't either enough space or time for her to leap to the side of your path. It's not an issue.

With regards to the comments about the game being very easy. I suppose it is..... though it doesn't feel as if you're not challenged. I've fallen a few times whilst trying to get from place to place or to collect the light seeds that you need to progress through the game and in true TSoT manner you are not punished for these missteps as Elika will just lift you back to the last bit of solid ground you were on.
Fighting is fairly difficult: easy to understand and difficult to master. I played through two boss fights (and a 'soldier' fight) and each one was distinctly different with regards to tactics while still using the normal fighting controls. Perhaps i was lucky to pick the few bosses who are different (since many reviewers have said that combat is repeated throughout the game) because of the open nature of the game's layout.

Think i'll be doing a review of this....

When you say it's simplified in the same way that it was in Assassin's Creed, do you mean you just hold down a button, push the stick forward and the game plays for you? Because I hate Assassin's Creed and love the last-gen Prince of Persia games and I was really hoping this was more those than AssCreed. Do you actually have to press buttons at correct times and push sticks in correct directions while moving along certain paths to get places in this game?

MechaSlinky wrote:

When you say it's simplified in the same way that it was in Assassin's Creed, do you mean you just hold down a button, push the stick forward and the game plays for you? Because I hate Assassin's Creed and love the last-gen Prince of Persia games and I was really hoping this was more those than AssCreed. Do you actually have to press buttons at correct times and push sticks in correct directions while moving along certain paths to get places in this game?

No, you don't hold the button down - though you did in the TSoT trilogy

Okay to give an example. You have a climb up a wall to a ledge and then a jump backwards onto a pillar or a further jump upward onto a ring which leads to a higher ledge.

To go straight up the wall you press A (rather than holding down 'wall run' as you did in the earlier games) and this scrambles you to the ledge. Next you press up and A again to jump and scramble to the ring, to utilise the ring you have to use your gauntlet so you quickly press B otherwise you fall off and this allows you to propel yourself up to the top ledge.

To jump onto the pillar, you press A to run up the wall and let go of the direction button and then press A, causing you to jump onto the pillar. You automatically swing around the pillar leaving you on the opposite side so you have to turn around and climb up the pillar to be able to press A and jump back onto the highest ledge.

Duoae wrote:

great stuff.

Sound like great stuff!

Speaking of the gauntlet -- does the story tell yet where did the gauntlet thing come from?

Gorilla.800.lbs wrote:
Duoae wrote:

great stuff.

Sound like great stuff!

Speaking of the gauntlet -- does the story tell yet where did the gauntlet thing come from?

I'm only about 5-6 hours in and the Prince is charmingly reticent about his own past whilst being inquisitive into the Princess' and her people/kingdom.... if you choose to do all the talky stuff. I even laughed a few times at their good-natured banter.

I think the game is going to take me a lot longer than 10 hours unless i suddenly go through it really fast.... i haven't defeated any of the sub-bosses yet and i've got a load of locations yet to 'heal' from the corruption.

Oh and if anyone gets the game and wants the code to unlock TSoT skins then just PM me - i think it should work for any copy of the game..... I don't know if you can get them through just playing the game because i can't see a way to enter a code for the other costumes.

MrDeVil909 wrote:

It's only out here in a week or so. I'm definitely considering this so I'm looking forward to more impressions.

That's only the PC version. Local etailers have confirmed that they have stock and are shipping out to meet tomorrow's official release date. My copy is on its way.

(Apologies for the slight derail.)

Incidentally, similar to my experiences with Far Cry 2, I'm reading reports that installing PoP to your hard drive can trigger unexpected lock ups. Seeing how rare loading screens are in this game, I'd recommend against using an NXE install for the game unless you really have an issue with the sound of your disc drive.

zeroKFE wrote:

Incidentally, similar to my experiences with Far Cry 2, I'm reading reports that installing PoP to your hard drive can trigger unexpected lock ups. Seeing how rare loading screens are in this game, I'd recommend against using an NXE install for the game unless you really have an issue with the sound of your disc drive.

I don't have it installed and i certainly haven't noticed any loading noises from the disc drive - though i do have a fairly quiet model.

Pages