Ha I got a sweet deal! I went into a privately run videogames shop and I managed to trade in Army of Two and Conan for Prince of Persia! (PS3)Why did you have those games anyway?!
I didn't really like those games anyway, they came as part of the package when I got the PS3. So awesome!Oh. *phew!*
Even though I initially wanted to get the PC version this was too good a deal to pass up and the PC version is not even here yet due to real life pirates sailing around the Indian ocean.
Ha I got a sweet deal! I went into a privately run videogames shop and I managed to trade in Army of Two and Conan for Prince of Persia! (PS3)
I didn't really like those games anyway, they came as part of the package when I got the PS3. So awesome!
EDIT:
Even though I initially wanted to get the PC version this was too good a deal to pass up and the PC version is not even here yet due to real life pirates sailing around the Indian ocean.
People can, but for some reason people won't.
You`re right when you say that when people want to pirate the game they will but DRM is there to make it as difficult as possible for pirates to make copies of our games. A lot of people complain that DRM is what forces people to pirate games but as PoP PC has no DRM we`ll see how truthful people actually are. Not very, I imagine.If true, thats totally awesome and makes me happy. Though the problem is they chose PoP as their experimental game, even though I'm pretty sure the series wasn't the hottest selling on PC for them. Plus the game WILL be pirated anyway, thats just how things are. So Ubi will see low-ish sales (expected due to franchise and platform) and will see the piracy (which was going to be there with or without protections) and conclude that DRM is necessary in future games.
Console piracy is something else entirely and I`m sure we`ll see more steps in future to try to combat that.
I read that the game uses the same engine as Assassins Creed? If that true, I had no problems running that on my PC.
Q: Have you developed a special engine for this version?
A: We have improved and adapted the engine developed internally for Assassin’s Creed. It is a great tool for our artists and engineers and we want to push it even further. In that respect, we have added a lot of new systems that will help create the seamless fluidity and the overall look & feel we are looking for.
Minimum System Requirements
Supported OS: Windows® XP/Windows Vista®
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel® Pentium® D or AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core® 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
RAM: 1 GB Windows XP/2 GB Windows Vista
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX® 10.0–compliant video card or DirectX 9.0–compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)*
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0–compliant sound card (5.1 sound card recommended)
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries (included on disc)
DVD-ROM: DVD-ROM dual-layer drive
Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
Peripherals Supported: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360® Controller for Windows recommended)
* Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI® RADEON® X1600*/1650*-1950/HD 2000/3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce® 6800*/7/8/9 series
From what I've seen it should be a pretty good game. But the easy difficulty is slightly detracting. While I don't want a game that is so difficult that I cannot progress, if a game is a complete cakewalk it doesn't feel very rewarding either.
If you fall you just get sent back to the last bit of solid groud you were on, restarting the challenge.That's almost the same as reloading your last quicksave -- as long as you could quicksave at any time, of course. That don't sound too bad, actually.
If an enemy overpowers you Elika saves you but the enemy's health regenerates.Good @ enemy regenerating their health. That makes perfect sense, gameplay-wise.
Basically they've effectively eliminated the save/reload habit. At one point the Prince says "Jump, die, repeat, jump, die, repeat... I get it..." heheLOL!
I think I might ask for this for my birthday. For PC.
That's really sexy looking. I need to get this.
Pug, I got it up all the way now. It runs the same.
That's really sexy looking. I need to get this.
Here's a video of mine of the Prince, jumping around and then crashing and burning in PoP 2008.
Finally, I come to the combat, which is very good. I'd say that so far it is already deeper and more enjoyable than Sands of Time, or Assassin's Creed.
OK so that's why the textures look like that. Definitely put AF to 16. Even at 8, it shouldn't hurt frames by more than a couple. And if it runs OK, then 2x AA can be a good option for you.In the in-game settings, there's only an AA (Anti-Aliasing) setting there. I'm gonna play with that setting now.
And I agree with Que. That's what it looked like to me as well... as if a widescreen shot had been squashed.I got their Widescreen setting ON, yes.
D, I like clawing around too. I also had no idea that Xfire allowed this kind of video uploading. Good stuff.Yeah, XFire allows vid and screenie uploading. That's why I use it. :)
I got their Widescreen setting ON, yes.
So, if I was to AA and AF, if I was to turn it on, through the NVidia Drivers.
On a normal monitor?Nope.
Now that looks phenomenal. Looks better than my 360 version. How is the framerate?It is slow -- I mean, just look at that vid I posted. Stutter, stutter, nice, stutter -- feels all over the place. Not good.
But you put AA at 8x? That will probably kill frames. Keep AA at 2 and AF at 16. If that is too slow, lower AF to 8... and if that doesn't work then turn off AA and put AF back to 16.
But look at the difference the AF is making. The blurriness is totally gone on the textures.And thank you for making me your guinnea pig to tell me to try some things.
Thanks so much D. :)
edit:
Hmmm... now I almost wish I had gotten this on PC.
Now with some fiddling around, my eyes are overloaded with a lot better than greatness. This is fantastic looking.
The thing with AF is that it won't bite into your frames. In my experience, at 8x AF, you should be quite safe.Thanks for the tips. :)
AA really takes a chunk out, the higher you go. I just keep it at 2 or 4, because it is normally enough to smooth out the edges.
Yea, those screenies are something else. The color palette reminds me of the opening of NWN2...If you get the PC version when it gets dirt cheap -- since you don't wanna be double-dipped on at a high price -- yeah, you can just plug that X360 control-pad into your PC's USB port and go to town.
I got this on the 360 instead of the PC, purely because third person games are the sort I enjoy playing from a couch.
Prince of Persia AfterthoughtsI can see why you'd want to make a difficulty set for higher-skilled players. But, I seem to be missing lots of jumps over and over, which Elika's saving stops me from reloading 100 times. Also, having to do long passes over and over after Elika saves me, is okay with me -- and there's more of those, as you get further along b/c there's less and less solid pieces of ground; a lot of them are curved, ramps, object is on a slanted, etc etc.
Producer Ben Mattes looks back on the shipped game and talks about downloadable expansions.
by Erik Brudvig
December 22, 2008 - Looking back and reflecting on work done is the key to future success. Now that Prince of Persia has shipped to stores and is in the hands of gamers everywhere, Ubisoft Montreal has taken a step back to reflect on the final product in an interview with IGN. Producer Ben Mattes answered frank questions that ranged in topic from risks taken, 20/20 hindsight, and plans for future downloadable content and continuing the franchise.
IGN: When you look back at the development process for Prince of Persia, do you do so with a smile? Is there anything you would have changed about the approach taken to reboot this franchise?
Ben Mattes: I consider Prince of Persia to be a success and look back at the last three years very fondly. We set out to do some very specific things with Prince of Persia, and while the decisions we took are not universally loved, there are enough very positive comments out there (reviews, forum posts, etc) to make me feel proud of what we accomplished.
Of course, in retrospect, there are things I would change. Anyone who says otherwise about their game is lying to himself or herself. No one ever gets to put everything into a game they want and this is, of course, true of PoP. There are features we wanted to develop, parts of the story we wanted to tell that didn't make it into the final product for a variety of reasons.
One of our ambitions from the first day with this game was to create the 'Art Game That Sells'. We knew we had in PoP some core game systems (acrobatics and combat) and a universe/theme that was strong enough to give us the luxury to take some risks and explore some unique ideas and themes. The theme of love and loss was one we wanted to explore, but in a unique way – not just as a story but also through gameplay; a game where the penalty for failure is not artificially enforced by an arbitrary mechanic but rather self imposed by the player; a radical departure in the artistic direction with a much more 'storybook' feel. All of these, in my mind, were success stories for us and generally well appreciated.[
Given the benefit of 20/20 hindsight (I'll elaborate more on this below) I guess the one thing I would do differently is to have devoted more time to creating alternate systems/difficulty modes for the hardcore set.
IGN: Is there any aspect of Prince of Persia that you thought would be a sure hit with gamers that didn't get the attention you think it deserved? Likewise, is there anything you felt was a design gamble that people really took to?I think the voice-acting, dialogue, and interaction b/t Prince and Elika, so far that I've experienced, has been excellent.
Mattes: The design gamble one is easy -- Elika. We were constantly doubting ourselves during development as to whether or not Elika was a strong enough feature. We knew she was pretty to look at, but that was never enough. In the end, though, I've read many kind words about Elika that really reinforces that we made the right decision in including her in the game and giving her such a prominent role.
I'm also surprised (in a very good way) to read all of the positive comments regarding our On Demand Dialogue system – the ability of the player to dig deeper into the story by initiating dialogue with Elika throughout the game. After E3 there was some backlash within the community regarding our choice of voice actor for the Prince (Nolan North) as well as the type of character we were developing for the Prince (again -- I'll get deeper into this below). Generally speaking, though, the people who played with the ODD system seem to have developed a stronger appreciation for the story and the characters and I couldn't have asked for more out of this mechanic -- it did exactly what it was designed to do.
In terms of us taking a shot and missing, I guess I would have to go a little higher level here and speak about risks in general.You know, it's a shame that franchises new interesting IP's like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space; and sequels that completely tried a lot of new things such as Prince of Persia 2008 -- just didn't sell that well. Of course, EA had it coming on the PC versions of those games for including malware DRM, but you'd expect the console versions of those games to sell A LOT better than they actually did. It's a shame -- and you wonder why sometimes they decide to keep pumping out the same sports game year after year w/ little improvements and tweaks, yet people still buy those ASAP.
For years we've all been reading complaints about sequels and companies churning out carbon copies of proven formulas without focusing on innovation or taking risks. Fans, developers and critics alike seemed ravenous for new ideas -- new IPs; major innovations -- advances in this art-tertainment (I'm trying to coin a new term here ;)) form we all love.
We tried to really embrace this challenge on PoP. We set out to keep a few core fundamentals but to re-imagine everything else, discarding some very well entrenched ideas not only about the brand but also about videogames in general (and we weren't alone. EA took some major risks this year with new IP and innovations - Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, for example).
What surprises me is how little these high level risks seem to be noticed and appreciated as attempts to shake up the industry and push things forward. Perhaps I'm an idealist, but I think perhaps I was expecting a few more virtual pats-on-the-back for our attempts to do something new.
Whether this means we didn't totally succeed in our risk taking or whether our industry in fact has a stronger appetite for the familiar then it wants to admit remains to be seen. Honestly I hope it is the former.
IGN: Several people I've spoken to found they could relate better to Elika than the Prince due to his gruff persona. Was this an intentional design move or a result of differences in personality and culture?Anytime that little icon light for ODD goes off, I'm just hitting away at that key until it won't flash anymore. Yes, I can definitely see what he's saying about The Prince's evolution, if you keep plugging away at their ODD System. As you get further and further along, him and Elika really do open up more and more to each other -- and you can see why they are the way they are.
Mattes: The Prince was not actually designed to be gruff, just to start that way. I've given the example before, but we were really aiming for the Han Solo type evolution of character. When you first meet him, you think he is a jerk. As the story progresses, you see some good in him that allows you to understand his attitude for what it is -- a defense mechanism. By the end, his tough exterior has more or less melted away and his inherent goodness is what shines through.
In many ways, Elika was an easier character to develop in terms of personality. Her values were very clear from the start of the game (to herself, to the prince and to the player) and there was less evolution needed. The Prince, on the other hand, has to evolve from thinking only of his own selfish values to embracing those of another. He changes a lot more.
The interesting thing to me is some people really took to him -- they really felt this evolution and growth (searching through the official Ubi POP forums, the gamefaq forums or the IGN boards will show numerous threads on this) whereas others feel he started a jerk and ended a jerk and felt little evolution occurred.
I chalk this up to the randomness of the 'barks' in the game as well as the ODD system. If a player was unlucky enough to hear the Prince shout out his lovely 'ugh! Could you lose some weight' line too many times, that might stick with them as a component of his personality. Even though he stops saying those things as the game progresses and his relationship evolves with Elika, they might be so strongly embedded in the player's mind as who the Prince is that the fact that he has stopped being a smart-ass (or as much of one) is hardly perceived at all.
In addition, if a player isn't digging into the ODD system then there are whole chunks of the Prince's evolution that they are missing out on. We knew this would happen and accepted it figuring that people who didn't bother with the ODD likely didn't care too much about character evolution and story anyways.
In the end, though, I think there are some design lessons we'll need to take away from this for future games. I'll admit that I did not expect the personality of the Prince to be so controversial. I don't remember there being nearly as much frustration over the lack of an accent in Warrior Within or The Two Thrones.
IGN: What's the plan for the future? Will we be seeing any downloadable content to expand the Prince of Persia world?Personally, I can't wait for PoP 2008 DLC to appear on the PC and for the next PoP game.
Mattes: We will have DLC for PoP that will feature new content such as a new area, new enemies, a new power and new fight moves.
This is not at all a chunk of the game that was supposed to ship but that we didn't finish in time – this is a significant DLC team that has taken all of the lessons they learned during the development of POP and all of the feedback we've read on boards and in reviews and are creating something really special.
I think there is a huge opportunity with the DLC to expand on the universe we've started to create with this game -- to dig deeper into the personality of the Prince and Elika and their relationship. Additionally with the DLC, we have the luxury of creating content that takes some of the negative feedback the game received into consideration. I, for one, can't wait to play it.
Mattes: If I said yes, that would be equivalent to announcing a sequel and, of course, I'm not in any position to do such a thing. Let's wait and see how this one does first. ;)
That said -- the art style seems to be almost universally applauded and appreciated by fans and critics alike, so hopefully someday we'll see more of it.
It is a very good game. I am surprised you are already done D.
SoTC was a big inspiration for us, but mostly with the intention of making the boss battles epic and emotional - something they succeeded in masterfully and that we only touched the surface of (in terms of emotional connection on the part of the player). Many of the similarities you pointed out are coincidental, but I certainly don't mind the comparison. We've always been very open about the huge influences that Ico, SoTC and Okami had on us during our development.
I'm guessing not. I've heard alarming reports about how easy it is and the fact that failing is impossible. I was excited about it for PC because of the lack of DRM, but I don't know that I really want to invest the time into playing a game that tells me how to play it and saves me every time I do something I'm not supposed to.
Ubisoft has a message for all Prince of Persia players who thought they'd wiped corruption from the world of its multiplatform holiday action game: you missed a spot. The publisher today announced the first downloadable content for the game, Prince of Persia Epilogue.
Set for release February 26, Prince of Persia Epilogue will offer "over 3 hours" of gameplay, as gamers traverse a new underground palace area with the help of some additional techniques. The "energize" ability allows players to temporarily rebuild destroyed objects in the environment to provide a clear path, while the "sprinting clash" adds an extra move to the Prince's repertoire of combat tricks. The downloadable content will also include unlockable skins for the Prince and Elika, allowing players to check out how the characters looked during the prototype phase of the game's development.
Despite the "Epilogue" title, an Ubisoft representative told GameSpot that players need not have finished the original game in order to access the downloadable content. Once unlocked, the character skins can be used to play through the main game, but the content pack's new power can only be used in the added sections of the game.
No shit they should be upset, especially considering the DLC is supposed to be rather substantial.
I'm burning through this one pretty fast, mostly because I'm enjoying it so much. The "easy" difficulty doesn't bother me at all. You still have to be on your games to get through areas and beat the different fights.To add to this, I liked as the game progressed, if felt like there were more challenging LONG few minute runs where you had no remotely close flat-ground spaces for Elika to toss you somewhere relativelty close, but you got sent much further back.
I also like the minimal amount of fighting involved. If there is one thing I totally hated in the other PoP games, it was the combat. Not only was it generally bad, but there seemed to be a lot of it. This one it stays out of your way and lets you platform all over the place.I liked the whole rhythm of the combat -- and that some of them had a little bit of a puzzle to beating the enemies, too.
If I had a complaint its, oddly, the level design. The level design is good, presents a nice challenge, its pretty, etc. It just doesn't make any sense in real world context. In Sands of Time you ran around the giant palace and while some things didn't make sense in that regard, you still got the feeling it was one large building that people actually used. In the new PoP...no one used this place. There aren't any stairs or even places where stairs used to be. Everyone had to be a crazy magical acrobat to get around. These levels were built for pure gameplay. And thats totally cool, it just takes a little something away from it for me.You're right -- that the whole gameworld was basically built for gameplay; nothing else. No way any of these areas would look like this, in a real world capacity. It feels like a gamer's playground -- and looks like one.
Other than that, I couldnt be happier.
Oh! I wanted to say how amazing this no DRM thing is for the PC version. Ubi went all out. Install and run. No online registration, no disc needed in the drive, and the most amazing...no CD key to type in. None. I couldnt believe it, and it made me so happy. Kudos to them for that.Amen. I wish more publishers did that.
Yeah, now I'm kinda pissed that so far they arent making the DLC for PC. I totally want to see where it goes from that ending.Me too.
Yes, I beat the game already. These games just suck me in and I play them non-stop.Yeah, PoP 2008 was one of those games I just couldn't stop playing and couldn't let go of until I finished it.
To get a little more playtime out of it, I'm going back and getting all 1001 light seeds. I currently have over 700.
Just passed 800 seeds. I assumed that after the end of the game they'd create a save with all areas unlocked and just let you go around collecting. I was wrong, and stupidly saved over some of my final saves during the end areas. Doh. So I have to convert 2 more areas and take care of the hunter boss. No big deal.That sucks.. Happened to me the first time too. During the course of the game you can collect only 1000 light seeds, the last one is special ;)
Just passed 800 seeds. I assumed that after the end of the game they'd create a save with all areas unlocked and just let you go around collecting. I was wrong, and stupidly saved over some of my final saves during the end areas. Doh. So I have to convert 2 more areas and take care of the hunter boss. No big deal.
I finally picked this up last week on sale for $14.99 and have put about 4-5 hours into it. It's decent. I won't say it's great, because it really isn't that phenomenal. It might be because I've just finished up Assassin's Creed II and found the free running and platforming to be much more responsive and more enjoyable in AC2 than in Prince of Persia. I guess I expected something more along the lines of AC2 style platforming. It's gotten a lot better now once I got used to the controls, but sometimes my character will do something erratic like jump outward instead of climbing up and stuff like that. Combat feels like an afterthought in this game. I mean, all the mechanics work, but there just isn't a lot of combat at all. If you're quick with the platforming, you can prevent normal enemies from spawning altogether, so that leaves you with the 4 major enemies that you fight like 5 times each. These fights feel drawn out since you have to use certain attack types to damage them. They're also way too forgiving.I played Prince of Persia AFTER the original AC - and I thought PoP was a much better game and had a much better story, overall. I like the original AC - but it just was very repetitive w/ its cut and paste side quests. PoP is the kind of game for me where I don't want much action/combat - PoP for me has always been about the platforming first and foremost.
I also felt like I was flying through the entire game as I moved from one fertile ground to the next until I realized that the developers decided to lengthen the game by forcing you to find lightseeds scattered around the healed land in order to unlock additional areas. The only thing I like about finding the lightseeds is that it makes you to use your platforming moves in interesting ways in order to get to some of the lightseeds.
I guess in the end it's still a decent game, just not quite what I was expecting it to be -- I'm sure I would have loved the game if I played it when it first came out. It's just that with AC2 out, which has several sections of the game that have PoP inspired platforming sections -- I must say that these work better than the platforming in Prince of Persia.
One question -- has anybody tried the Epilogue DLC? I'm wondering if it's worth $9.99.Epilogue DLC was not released on the PC version - one of my big gripes w/ UbiSoft, since I loved PoP. Bastards.
I played Prince of Persia AFTER the original AC - and I thought PoP was a much better game and had a much better story, overall. I like the original AC - but it just was very repetitive w/ its cut and paste side quests. PoP is the kind of game for me where I don't want much action/combat - PoP for me has always been about the platforming first and foremost.
I wasn't comparing it to the first AC; the first AC does not have gameplay segments similar to PoP...and how the fuck did you find the story better than AC?I know you weren't comparing PoP to AC1 - though, I did. I'm comparing them b/c they came out close around to the same time.
PoP's story is so cliched and the lead character is very poorly written.I love the character interaction and everything b/t Prince and Elika - I thought it was excellent and one of the things I loved about the game.
Unless something very dramatic happens at the end, I don't think this game holds a candle up to AC's storyline at all.Hope you didn't read my tagged SPOILER then...
I know you weren't comparing PoP to AC1 - though, I did. I'm comparing them b/c they came out close around to the same time.
AC1 was disappointing, namely in the entire last 1/3rd of the game, when it became more action-orientated...
AC 1 - ENDING SPOILERS(click to show/hide)
AC1 is un-complete in the regard that in a heavily story-based game, there were a handful of threads left hanging and a bunch of new questions left hanging - unlike PoP.
Yes, PoP had one hanging thread, in regards to...
POP - ENDING SPOILERS...but that one thread really didn't seem like a big deal to me in comparison to the original AC. AC left so much stuff hanging by the end, it wasn't even funny.(click to show/hide)
I expect AC2 to have learned its lessons and mistakes from the original AC, though...
I love the character interaction and everything b/t Prince and Elika - I thought it was excellent and one of the things I loved about the game.
Again, I can't speak on AC2 - but, I'm lookin' forward to it. Given most reviews I've read on AC2 (i.e. GameSpot, IGN, GameSpy), sounds like AC2 is vastly superior to the original. Of course, once the game comes out to the PC and I purchase, I can't speak on that.
Hope you didn't read my tagged SPOILER then...
You clearly do not understand the Assassin's Creed storyline at all if you found that out of place. You also have to keep in mind AC is a planned trilogy and that the story isn't complete without its sequels. By the same logic, I would assume that you hate Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, The Longest Journey, Mass Effect etc. because 'threads are hanging' and it doesn't end neatly with everything resolved.
Anyway, I'm at the 7 hour mark with the game and am nearing the end. All the plates have been activated and I only have two more of the major enemies to defeat. I'll probably finish it tomorrow, if I get some time away from MW2 spec ops.Hope you enjoy the rest of it. I loved PoP (2008). :)