Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The latest reinvention of Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia was out on PC on Friday, a week after the console release, and with rumours of (the shop version) containing no DRM. Having played the PC version all the way through, here’s Wot I Think.

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Prince of Persia is only three weeks away, and the promotion is stepping up. A throng of videos have recently appeared, and they’re below. They still leave me with my tweak of concern that the game hasn’t made any real changes beyond the aesthetic. The addition of the NPC co-op buddy intrigues me, but the trailers have yet to show me what she does other than follow you around. However, those aesthetic changes really are stunning, and if they can recreate Sands of Time’s action I’ll be a happy man.

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How to while away the last few minutes of my birthday, before the Phillies begin game 5, and their inevitable triumphant victory in the World Series? Why, with Prince of Persia videos, of course.

The first (below) features a really rather pleasant arty story-piece, discussing the battle between light and dark, all esoteric and confusing. The second has three members of the development team discussing the artistic direction of the game. But not just saying, “A bit like concept art, only 3D”, but rather something more intelligent and thoughtful. It suggests that real passion has gone into creating such a vividly unique design. (Go Phillies!)

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Right, so that Mirror’s Edge trailer was three weeks old, despite being posted as new by evil sites who I will now destroy, so it’s gone. HAPPY? Good. So instead, below is some new footage (and by God it had better be new) of Prince of Persia. (Surely the next game should be called Prince Of Iran?)

The first video is a super-emo (but nicely put together trailer) showing off the pretties. The second is in-game footage. And it’s the second one that concerns me slightly. I’m not seeing the Prince do anything new, beyond the sidekick game device. It seems more of a variation of the last three PoP games, rather than the stellar leap forward Sands of Time represented. Hopefully they’re saving the big surprises for nearer December’s release.

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I have a challenge, developers. I know you’re reading. I want a high profile, big budget, mainstream action game in which the player character is invincible. I believe that the next truly great game will be the one that does this.

Games have come close. There have obviously been infinite lives for many. Mario, as he ages, becomes far more generous with his back-up existences – anyone who played Galaxy will know it was hard to have few than a few dozen laying around. Then of course there’s Quicksave, which creates an artificial invincibility, so long as you remember to hammer it frequently enough. And perhaps the closest to the goal would be time travel, with games like Prince of Persia and Braid demonstrating that you can have a great deal more fun if you’re not constantly condemned to death.

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No confirmed subtitle or, I believe, PC release as yet, but it seems likely us IBM-Compatible proles will see a visit from this console royalty. Looks sort of like God of War by way of Lineage, which worries me a little – I want big-trousered acrobatics much more than I do hacky-choppy. Still, pretty, no?

Seems Hollywood big boys are taking videogame adaptations seriously these days. First, Bioshock gets a big-name director attached to it, in the form of Gore Verbinski, and now the other driving force behind Pirates of the Caribbean, noisy uber-producer Jerry Bruckheimer, is dumping a truckload of money on a Prince of Persia silver-screener. It’s due next year and “the producer and Disney hope to turn [it] into a follow-up franchise to “Pirates of the Caribbean”, reckons Variety.
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Ubisoft have just announced that their Montreal studio is working on a new Prince of Persia game. Very little more is known at this point, other than someone at Ubi was on a dare to see how many times he/she could write “Prince of Persia” in the press release. A sample paragraph:

“Developed by Ubisoft’s award-winning Montreal studio and the same all-star team that created the previously acclaimed Prince of Persia® Sands of Time trilogy, Prince of Persia is opening a new chapter in the Prince of Persia universe, featuring a new breed of gameplay.”

What this new breed is to be remains a mystery. We’re also told that it will feature “brand-new illustrative art style.”

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