Prince of Persia Comments by Johnny Minkley

This is going to be different and great imo.

Ubisoft is not letting us anywhere near it just yet: the E3 build is strictly hands-off. Instead, Mattes walks us through a demo section prepared specifically for the LA showcase.

I hope EG are aware that this is exactly how Jade and Assasins creed fooled people into thinking the game was some great thing. They simply didn't let anyone who would have done something unexpected near it! By the time they had, you guys had already done all the hyping for them, based on what I term sleight of hand presentations. Showing only the bits of the game that work well and glossing over the bits that effectively are broken or can't ever work properly in normal play.

I'm expecting journalists to show some common sense this time around and NOT simply take the producers word for it without having a proper play themselves!

In the old E3, actual gamers got to see and play a lot of the games as a result, honest opinions came out of the show. So called good games were outed as being repetitive or slow or simply broken. Some got fixed by developers before release and some devs ignored the feedback to their peril. Now E3 is all journalists who, with all due respect, don't seem to have a honest opinion between them. Offering only positive feedback to presentations, regardless of if they actually believe what they are writing. Probably too afraid they will not be invited back next time.

Holy god those screenshots look fantastic. The backgrounds are so very matte; it's going to be surreal seeing them move.

"second reinvention"

Revisionists!

Judging from past PoPs glory and the new graphic style, this is my most anticipated game of 2008.

Just because of the great art style this game deserves to do well. I wish more developers would shun the shiny, supposedly realistic look for 360/PS3 games.

But his argument hinges on the belief that Prince of Persia will deliver what, in the team's eyes at least, no-one else yet has: an experience that combines the freedom of an open-world game with the focused action and narrative development of a traditional third-person adventure.

Um... Isn't that what the Legend of Zelda has been doing since Ocarina of Time in 1998. And, indeed, in 2D since the first one sometime in the eighties?

I've been shouting at Ubisoft quite a bit today, but I am actually quite looking forward to it, but that's because it's a Zelda clone. Previews were calling it that since it was announced by that French magazine. It's a little disrecpectful to your audience caliming to do something new, which people have actually been enjoying for a decade already.

@penhalion

The difference between this and AC is that we KNOW what prince of persia plays like so absolute worst case scenario we will get an enjoyable game that's fun to play given the platforming history of the previous trilogy. I have faith in this title.

"You're a superhero and you're babysitting this nag, who's getting lost, running into things, crying 'help me!' - it's so annoying,"

Or, you know, the most beautiful and moving game experience ever made.

Sorry, I've finished the article eventually, I'll stop now. It's made me simultaneously enthralled and annoyed. I hope they don't fuck this game up.

I liked Assasins creed, despite its flaws... and if they can improve on that in this game... I'm sold

Not sure about the cell-shading, it's just not my thing, the game play sounds pretty cool though.

(Also, I really enjoy Assassin's Creed..)

"I'm expecting journalists to show some common sense this time around and NOT simply take the producers word for it without having a proper play themselves! "

Fair point. However, if they aren't allowed to play it yet what can they do? We as gamers want to hear more about this game, and if there is no playable demo for journalists to tinker about with, I'd rather they share impressions from producer chats, guided walkthroughs, whatever, than no news at all.

I like the 'illustrative' design, and am really looking forward to this game.

What's so hard about making a new PoP Game?

Either take Sand of time and just make the fights non-boring, or take assassins creed and make the running more interactive than "just point in the direction you want to go, mate" and the mission structure less repetitive.

@Mentalist(air):
I thought the same thing when I read it. ICO is up among the best games ive ever played. I, althou a guy, take the name of Yorda whenever I play as a female toon etc.

Anyway! Then I came to realise he aint totally of.
Thing is, Yorda is supposed to be weak and helpless, crying for help. While that is the very thing that makes it so special, it also makes the Ubisoft-guy right (in a way).

Post got bit messy, but you get my point?

@Rirekon
Just curious..how can people still, to this day, NOT like cel-shading (or "illustrative")?
Dont you find it beautiful? Ive got friends who dislike it aswell, and they cant explain why they dont like it. They just dont.
So I ask you instead, what wrong with Cel?

Looks fabulous, and Assassin's Creed was great but flawed. I have high expectations for this one.

Shock 1: Honest Developer Chat (AssCreed/chick in PoPSoT "suck", all the right influence checks)? +1
Shock 2: Demo on PS3? Lead Console? So probably excelent on both versions? +10
Shock 3: Decent Camera in early build? + infinity

If half of this is kosher, this could be something special. As long as that "weapons locking"/button pounding is exactly that, and not a effing quicktime event.

/marks Xmas list

(or, in Haze's case, massive waste of time)

:)

Yay Rotoscoping ftw...

This looks absolutely beautifull. Great to see developers trying different art styles.

No more brown/grey/bloomed out scenery with plastic looking space marines!!

Some of those screenshots look like concept art so I cant wait to see it in motion.

@alimokrane

Is it even the same team doing the new Prince of persia game? If not, then none of the old rules of quality or story fidelity need apply.

Or, you know, the most beautiful and moving game experience ever made.

To be fair he might have played only the american version with it's gimped AI. Only the EU and Japan got the version of Yorda who was wonderful to be around.

That preview fills me with dread.

'Assassin's Creed, for instance, fails because its freedom is too daunting for the casual user. "The really advanced players get great flow, but casual players jump, stop, look. Jump, fall, die, start over. They don't get the same flow and it sucks," he argues.'

It's like they are picking the exactly wrong end of the stick. Assassin's Creed failed because it was too restrictive for an open-world game: as a result the open area was nothing but a big empty decoration. Compared to, say Crackdown, there was nothing of worth in Assassin's Creed you could do with the world. You had just a few pre-planned routes to each boss fight and some simplistic mini-games you had to do before you could fight the bosses.

With this new PoP it sounds like the open-world sections are still just token features and the real meat of the game is in the linear corridors you have to traverse to get to the different areas. And probably to pad out the length of the game they'll make you backtrack each corridor repeatedly between sections.

Mr. Harvest is on track.

The whole partner thing pretty much ruins it for me, if she'd have been playable fair enough but to just have some AI character follow you arround seems a bit balls, what's the point? "oh she helps with combat" yes but WHY?

...you might get pushed against a trap that kills you and your dead.

My dead? My dead what?

AAAAAAARGH come on EG that's bad enough in the forums, let alone a headline article!

""oh she helps with combat" yes but WHY? "
Because she has the mad skills to rid the world of the black goo, with your help.

Sounds ambitious (ouch), but I get a sense too much so for its own good...

It sounds like they're drawing inspiration from so many games – PoP, AC, Zelda, ICO, Soul Calibur, Mario Galaxy?! – that it could be a bit of a mess.

The boss battles sound interesting, but I get a sense that they're like QTEs from Shenmue etc...

One to watch, but I'm not overly excited yet.

Who said game aren't art? That looks stunning.

screenshots look wank, and ubisoft are so full of shit its unbelievable. they are the new EA

^ haha, i think you're in a minority there. screenshots look fantastic to me - good to see someone trying something a bit different...

liking the sounds of the gameplay as well from the descriptions, sounds like everything i want in a new PoP game.

im not trying to be different, when was the last actual good ubisoft game?

Big fan of fashion dogz myself !

.

@retrend: was talking about you saying "screenshots look wank" in the middle of a thread full of people gushing about how ace it looks!

definitely agree that ubisoft have turned a bit shit of late... hopefully this may be a sliver of gold amongst that pool of shite.

hope the music is a little more.........well..........persian!
i liked the music on the snes version.

music in the first Pop was pretty great.
Went a bit SEGA hardrock after that,

ahh right. yeh i suppose. i normally love cel shading, but in this, it looks like a horrible hybrid of normal and cel shaded, and the black lines that normally look slick and stylish look shit and forced

I'm not a fan of cell shading, i'm more toward realism, but i must admit, these shots looks good, i wouldn't say great, but definately good. I'm a fan of the POP's so here's to hoping this betters them all. I felt Assassin's creed was overhyped, little bit repetitive and somewhat boring, so fingers crossed they can now see the flaws of that game and really nail this POP. To be honest, though some won't agree, if it plays (and has action) like Ninja Gaiden 2 I'll be putting another £40 right next to now dust gathering £40 for Gears of War 2 i have set aside.

I'm the odd man out on this one, I guess. I generally like cel shading (he can call it what he wants...) and specialized art direction (eg. Okami, etc.) but I don't like the look of this at all. It just looks kind of broken and distracting to me. Perhaps in motion it will be more impressive?

Nevertheless, gameplay sounds fantastic. Yet another title I won't possibly have time to play, if they all hit in the alledged November/December timeframe. Top of the list right now:

Mirror's Edge
Fallout 3
Prince of Persia

I know there are more, but I'm drawing a blank...