PC Sands of Time for £10

By Tom Bramwell Published 13 June, 2005

Never played it? Do.

The PC version of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - quite possibly this writer's favourite multiformat game of the past half-decade - is set to be released on budget this Friday, 17th June, as part of a new line-up of Mastertronic "PC Gamer Presents..." games.

This means that PC owners who missed out on it the first time around will be able to pick it up for just £9.99. The game was widely discounted to similar price levels when it failed to take off commercially at the end of 2003, but now it's set in stone. There is no excuse.

And there really isn't, because The Sands of Time, whilst flawed in certain respects (most notably the frustrating combat), was one of the most engaging, fluid, well designed and shamelessly individual platform games of its generation - and arguably better than anything pumped out by platform holders and generic rivals.

It was also much better than its sequel Warrior Within which, while still enjoyable to a certain degree, seemed to miss the point about what made the first game so acclaimed and took it in a darker direction with a greater focus on combat - a directional shift largely slammed by critics.

So there you go. £9.99. And, speaking as somebody who finished both the PS2 and PC versions and recently bought the Xbox one, this writer can heartily recommend the beige box version - map the controls to a suitable pad and the experience is nigh on identical, except prettier.

Other games to be released on the PC Gamer Presents label this week include Neverwinter Nights and RollerCoaster Tycoon 2, both of which were widely acclaimed upon release.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • smelliot #1 7 years ago

    I bought this for £10 about a year ago. And it was a new copy.

  • Tweakmonkey #2 7 years ago

    Pretty big recommendation there.

    /puts on todo list

  • trevd72 #3 7 years ago

    it is a good good but this low price will force the second hand price down to a even cheaper price.

    very good

  • RedboX #4 7 years ago

    Mastertronic??? Will copys be avilable in Garages up and down the country?


    But yes I picked up a brand new copy for £10 last christmas, shame as it was an excelent game, and same for Beyond Good and Evil, kids these days with thier rap music and guns dont know a good game when... (continued on page 23)

  • smelly #5 7 years ago

    "force the second hand price down to a even cheaper price. "

    support good games.. buy them new.

    Shops that sell second hand games are laughing at you because they can sell the same title 5 or 6 times, in effect making loads of cash.. and the people who made the game get paid once.

    Retailers take approx 55% off the price of a game when it's sold brand new.. And by selling it second hand over and over.. they're having a laugh.. Maybe even then subsequently forcing publishers to push prices up (not down).

  • trevd72 #6 7 years ago

    i am selfish and only think about me cos the only other person who thinks about me is my mam.

    no one cared when i got nowt for xmas when me dad was on strike in 1984 for a year and then he lost his job. So if i can get a game cheap secondhand i take it.

    THis asks the question about piracy and second hand games.

    With piracy you get it for nowt off the net or pay a guy at the car boot - developer gets no money.

    With second hand the retailer always gets money and the person selling gets money - developer gets nothing. which is worse?

  • trevd72 #7 7 years ago

    and yes i am bitter

  • Tweakmonkey #8 7 years ago

    Is your real name Billy Elliot? ;-)

  • stonedben #9 7 years ago

    Sands of Time and Beyond Good and Evil were two of, if not THE best games of 2003/04. A must for everyone

  • Lynchman #10 7 years ago

    How playable is it with keyboard and mouse??? Can anyone recommend a good pc joypad?

  • smelly #11 7 years ago

    "With second hand the retailer always gets money"

    after they've ALREADY have taken 55% of the price of the game. Read that again.. on a 30 quid game the retailer gets the biggest percentage of that cost!

    Now if they sell the same game over and over again 5 or 6 times.. They're bloody raking it in!

    The poor people that made the game probs only get 5% of the first sale! No wonder so many of them go out of business and so many of them are scared to try anything fresh and original (for fear of it not selling nad making them a huge loss).

  • smelly #12 7 years ago

    which brings me back to my point.. that if people all rushed out and bought good inventive games like BG&E and POP:WW.. then maybe we'd get more titles like that!

    still, im one to talk.. i bought BG&E on ebay.. :-)

  • trevd72 #13 7 years ago

    i lived in the same village as Billy Elliot, give him a good beating one day for being puffy.
    Edited by 1 at 13/06/05 @ 15:28

  • Kafeen #14 7 years ago

    I didn't realise Mastertronic were still on the go. Haven't seen anything from them since my CPC days.

  • Teeth #15 7 years ago

    It's a resurrected brand, IIRC

  • Bertie Verified Senior Staff Writer, Eurogamer.net #16 7 years ago

    Pfft, good games, who needs 'em!

  • Tweakmonkey #17 7 years ago

    i lived in the same village as Billy Elliot, give him a good beating one day for being puffy

    lol - quality!

  • Burton2000 #18 7 years ago

    10 pounds gamestation have been selling this brand new for five for ages!!