Prince of Persia

Retr0gamer

I'm surprised with how little talk there has been about this game ever since the trailer was shown at E3 and the fact that it's one of the few interesting games to come out of that disappointment. Here's the trailer:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36271.html

I'll make it no secret that I simply adored the last 3 PoP games. Sands of Time was a masterpiece of a game and one of my favourite games ever. It was very mature despite not one drop of blood being spilled or any 'gansta' swearing being used. Warrior Within was a good game unfortunately marred by the jarring darker tone it took with the series while Two Thrones was a return to form for the series. I'm really looking forward to what the development team can do with this game.

Anyway I think the new game just looks absolutely stunning, I'm blown away by the art style and the animation. In particular what is most eye catching is the character style and overall stylised look. It think it's very close to Yo****aka Amano's artwork he produced for the early final Fantasy games. Looks like there could be a bit of an Okami theme going on with the Prince and the female character seemingly restoring light to the dark world and the development team are saying they took a lot of inspiration from Okami and Zelda. One to really look forward to I think.

Kiith

Sands of Time was a fantastic game. Excellent gameplay, with a passable story thrown in. I was really let down by Warrior Within though. Seemed to be appealing to the masses with the darker prince and heavier music (Prince: "I'm moody...all the time"). Never did manage to finish it. Still havent gotten around to playing Two Thrones yet, though i will play it at some stage before the next one.

As for the new one, i've only seen the early teaser trailers, which i didnt like the look of. It was only a cinematic, but it seemed to be going a bit over the top (how thats possible for a time travelling prince, i dont really know) with the throwing of people around. I'll take a look at the other trailers later. Although i heard mention of a co-op mode....which would be fantastic.

Ahh, Yo****aka Amano. He must hate forum filters at this stage

edit...

hang on a minute...these aren't actually ingame screenshots are they?? If so...**** they look brilliant. If not, as long as they can keep that style, i'd be delighted. Not every game world has to be dark and bleak to be realistic. As Retro said, it looks a lot lighter, and i like the idea of a (another) reimagining of the series.

steviec

It looks very heavily influenced by Ico, which is no bad thing.

They did a walkthrough aswell and there's some nice gameplay in there, as you'd expect. Should be a great game.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

hopefully the fighting won't be as repetetive as 1/3.. didn't play 2, didn't feel like listening to my chemical romance and linkin park for hours on end.

L31mr0d

I actually liked the darker tone of PoP2, but didn't like reusing of levels and the rubbish map system (what was even the point of that map :rolleyes:) It also makes more sense if you watch the "making of" documentaries when you complete the game, as you can see the artistic team from the second one was made up of mainly tatoo'd, greasy, rockers, in fact the Princes whole right arm has the same tatoo's as one of the artists.

The new game does look good but fear was struck into my heart when I heard him say something like "we are tailoring the game for casual gamers"... I can stand giving you some partner to help you jump further but making the game easier to appeal to the masses will ruin it for me.

He said there will be multiple paths and some of them will be easier and some more difficult. But I hate playing a game knowing i'm making it difficult for myself rather than it actually being difficult. It was the same with Bioshock, sure you could use a plethora of other weapons but why would you when they had given you 2 weapons that where more powerful than all the rest and could kill everything.

thelordofcheese

Princess Innocent Knickers wrote: »

hopefully the fighting won't be as repetetive as 1/3.. didn't play 2, didn't feel like listening to my chemical romance and linkin park for hours on end.

The fighting in two was equally awful. Infact Warrior within was just awful with no redeeming features. None.
There, i said it.

That said, I would have no problem with a combat system like Sands, I know it wasn't great but I felt that was just fine seeing as the focus of the game was walking into an area and going "how the hell am i meant to get up there" rather than anything else.

Retr0gamer

L31mr0d wrote:

I actually liked the darker tone of PoP2, but didn't like reusing of levels and the rubbish map system (what was even the point of that map ) It also makes more sense if you watch the "making of" documentaries when you complete the game, as you can see the artistic team from the second one was made up of mainly tatoo'd, greasy, rockers, in fact the Princes whole right arm has the same tatoo's as one of the artists.

It may have made more sense but it doesn't forgive it for being a stupid design decision that went against everything that made the first Prince of Persia such a charming and atmospheric adventure. There was nothing wrong with the originals characters, art design and music all they had to do was market it better.

K.O.Kiki

Gorgeous premise (read EDGE!!), beautiful art.
But goddamn do I hate those movie-style trailers! :mad:

rgiller

thelordofcheese wrote: »

The fighting in two was equally awful. Infact Warrior within was just awful with no redeeming features. None.
There, i said it.

Couldn't be further from the truth. Warrior Within had some great environments and environmental puzzles. We all know the combat in PoP games is on teh rubbish but at least WW improved things on SoT in this respect, bringing in more variety, moves, weapons, etc. I actually preferred it to SoT

Sarky

I'm skeptical. Those fights look far too like Devil May Cry 4, leaping about on those big orange pads looks far too much like Mario Galaxy, and there's an AI sidekick (do I need to say anything about those?).

I was strangely more enthusiastic about the game when all I had to go on were still pictures. Admittedly it looks wonderful. But like I said, I'm skeptical. There's just something about the movement that looks wrong.

And stop bashing Warrior Within. It's an under-appreciated gem.

Kiith

I just watched that trailer linked above, and now i can't wait. It looks fantastic.

radioactiveman

Just saw this thread and thought for a second it could be about the original prince of persia... many moons ago
got it originally on 1 floppy disk copied by my dad from a guy where he worked with the label PRINTS on it cos my dad didn't know what it was about...:D
played it to death

Retr0gamer

Here's a developer walkthrough showing gameplay:

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36500.html
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/36544.html

Basically it looks like an update of the original Sands of Time platforming with a new combat system which i'm guessing relies on counter attacking rather than combos, although there's plenty of those.

Sarky wrote:

I'm skeptical. Those fights look far too like Devil May Cry 4, leaping about on those big orange pads looks far too much like Mario Galaxy, and there's an AI sidekick (do I need to say anything about those?).

And the problem being? DMC4 has one of the best combat systems of any fighting game and Mario Galaxy was nothing short of awesome. As for the AI sidekick they are bigging up the feature that she never dies, never gets in the way and is only there to help and from the videos it looks like they have succeeded.

Kiith

It worked with Alex, so hopefully it will work with...whatever her name is. If you didnt love Alex by the end of episode 2, you had no heart.

L31mr0d

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It may have made more sense but it doesn't forgive it for being a stupid design decision that went against everything that made the first Prince of Persia such a charming and atmospheric adventure. There was nothing wrong with the originals characters, art design and music all they had to do was market it better.

I thought WW was very atmospheric, charming though, it was not... but then I felt this matched the gameplay of running around in a ruined city killing sand demons :rolleyes:. I guess it depends on personal taste, I know a few friends in work that liked the grittier score and graphics in WW. In WW you actually got to see heads roll rather than the baddies merely exploding into cutesy glittering sand. The music or art direction never took from the game at all imo.

One thing I do like with the PoP series is that they are willing to experiment with new art styles all the time, as with the new one it looks like they are keeping to the old gameplay format but trying out a new artstyle that doesn't look at all like the previous 3.

thelordofcheese

rgiller wrote: »

Couldn't be further from the truth. Warrior Within had some great environments and environmental puzzles. We all know the combat in PoP games is on teh rubbish but at least WW improved things on SoT in this respect, bringing in more variety, moves, weapons, etc. I actually preferred it to SoT

It appears that you and Sarky are living in a parallel universe where Warrior within wasn't a rancid mess.
Can i come and visit? it sounds amazing....

Sarky

thelordofcheese wrote: »

It appears that you and Sarky are living in a parallel universe where Warrior within wasn't a rancid mess.
Can i come and visit? it sounds amazing....

You chose your stinky universe, you live with it.

L31mr0d

thelordofcheese wrote: »

It appears that you and Sarky are living in a parallel universe where Warrior within wasn't a rancid mess.
Can i come and visit? it sounds amazing....

huh, in the parallel universe I'm in metacritic agrees with us to

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps2/princeofpersiawarriorwithin?q=warrior%20within

thelordofcheese

Sarky wrote: »

You chose your stinky universe, you live with it.

Fine. When my universe gets the next PoP game and it's better than the one you lot have, i'll remember this injustice.

Retr0gamer

I find the biggest sin of WW was how they completely changed the princes character from the one in the first game. In the first game he is a spoiled rich kid that through his interaction with Farah matures a little and takes responsibility for his actions.

Then warrior within arrives and he magically transforms into a potty mouthed emo teenager with a difference voice actor. The changing the future theme goes completely against the whole theme of the first game.

The music also sucked donkey balls. If the game wasn't so much fun to play I would have been physically sick.

Genghiz Cohen

Is it weird that I liked all PoP games so far, of course WW wasn't the best but the combat wasn't bad either, you could play like Sands or you could use more advanced moves and combos, use the enviroment, use enemys in a much more complex way than Sands, 2T advanced this even more, yet you could still button mash if you felt like it.

So far it is still my fave series of games ever, right up there with Max Payne and Half Life.

From Metacritic:

"40
The New York Times
The tone of the game has gone from an Arabian Nights fantasy to something akin to a Marilyn Manson music video. In dark and grimy settings, the once gallant prince curses and jeers as he swings his sword at demons whose decapitations are lovingly shown in slow motion to a soundtrack of screeching guitars."

I don't see why they thought this was bad, Prince saw his entire nation betrayed and destroyed so of course he is going to be ultra pissed. Infact, if they made him the same as Sands of time it would have been very wong.

thelordofcheese

Now i've tried to purge the memory, but didn't WW pretty much say that while his kingdom was fine (because the prince reversed his original fcukup) that what had made him such an generic emo nonce was being chased by the dakhara(sp?) for a few years because he had defied fate?

Which brings up the second point, who, when being persued by an all consuming tentacled time beast, finds the time to have some tattoos added?

Retr0gamer

I always wondered how the poor girl in it managed to wear that metal thong all the time.

thelordofcheese

Ahh poor old time bítch....
Somebody should have been shot for allowing her to get past the concept stage.

Retr0gamer

The Prince didn't take a mickey fit at the start of the third game when is kingdom was being destroyed.

rgiller

There may be an outcry from teary-eyed SoT fans, appalled that someone might not fawn all over their beloved game, but I think that a lot of the good will shown towards the earlier title is down to the fact that it came first. It was original, new and yet old (for our generation, the Prince is one of the most memorable video game characters, and the original PoP was great).

Technically I think WW is a better game: better environmental puzzles, better combat, more variety. Sure the story is flaky and the heavy metal music doesn't quite fit with the ancient theme, but the atmosphere is great and it's fun to play. If WW came first and SoT second, I think it would have been seen as a step back. Who cares if his character changed? A change for the worse in the gameplay would have been much more serious, and that didn't happen. So get off your nostalgia horses and give it a bit more credit.



By the way, I like SoT too, just not as much

thelordofcheese

rgiller wrote: »

So get off your nostalgia horses and give it a bit more credit.

No.

noodler

So which one for a first timer?

Retr0gamer

Sands of Time definitely. The story will be lost on you for the other 3 games. It's also the best in the series despite the bad combat and despite what the Warrior Within affectinatos/crazies say

K.O.Kiki

noodler wrote: »

So which one for a first timer?

Just buy the trilogy on PS2 for 20euro

Retr0gamer

K.O.Kiki wrote: »

Just buy the trilogy on PS2 for 20euro

Actually thinking about it QFT. Three great games for 20 stingers that will last you a good 24+ hours. Bargain.