SiN

Prince of Persia : Warrior Within -- forum mini-preview

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The sword fighting of PoP1 might not be the best element of the game, but yet it was quite fun, lots of more fun than SoT:s fighting.

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;(

I didn't like the demo... Mostly the same complaints some of you had

  1. Menu music didn't fit. SoT had some exotic middle eastern tune in the menu, didn't it? Added a lot more atmosphere... The menu screen was beautiful in SoT. It introduced you to the game's atmosphere before you even started playing
  2. The combat didn't feel very intuitive... I didn't enjoy much either... I dunno... I liked SoT's gameplay elements a lot better... It had a nice blend of exploring/adventure and fighting. This was just.... KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL AHHHH KIILLLLL
  3. The voice acting was... uhm... bad... are they using the same actors? Because it's a lot worse than in SoT... If they're using the same actors, did they ask them to do a worse job than in the first game? How does that stuff work?
  4. It just didn't give me the same feeling of quality the first game had. This one felt rushed, somehow. Ah well...

:frusty::frusty::frusty:

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heh, go figure, u get all excited about a game to find that everyone else hates it :)

i havent tried the demo (and im not gonna either ... dont wanna spoil it for me) but i dont see why every1 thinks its this terrible ... maybe we're playing different games :)

the way i see it, it plays exactly like SoT does, except with a bigger focus on combat. now PoP team said that they'd be focusing more on combat with this one ... if u expected anything else, u really shouldnt have d/l'ed the demo. but did no one else get the fluidity of the combat? because that was what impressed me the most. perhaps (as some have mentioned) the screwed up PC controls may have something to do with it.

SiN

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the way i see it, it plays exactly like SoT does, except with a bigger focus on combat. now PoP team said that they'd be focusing more on combat with this one ... if u expected anything else, u really shouldnt have d/l'ed the demo.

I agree. :)

I can't wait to play the full game.

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Hell, the crappy level that you all played might not even be in the game, like the JKII demo.

But I actually enjoyed the JKII demo, so this can't be a good thing.

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the way i see it, it plays exactly like SoT does, except with a bigger focus on combat. now PoP team said that they'd be focusing more on combat with this one ... if u expected anything else, u really shouldnt have d/l'ed the demo.

The thing is, from what people are saying here (I haven't dl'd the demo yet), this isn't an issue of "more combat," but instead "all combat," which is hugely different from SoT, which was 50/50 or even 60/40 balanced puzzling to fighting. I know the developers have talked about the puzzling bits in interviews, and we saw some jumping around demoed at E3, so it's still there for sure - but from the demo it seems they've thrown the balance WAY out of whack from what I liked the first time.

The thing is, for most people I know (including myself) their favorite part of PoP:SoT was figuring out the puzzles, and how well the nice organic feeling controls worked for solving said puzzles, and while I welcome the combat beeing beefed up (it was definitely weak in SoT), the last thing I want to hear is that it was beefed up at the expense of my favorite part of one of my favorite recent games.

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Yes, I agree with Jake. Even if the combat is incredible and amazing and in fact the best combat ever conceived in a video game, I still won't have a physical puzzle-based game to pick up where SOT left off. I'll still have a fun game but it definitely won't be what I was looking for, and that saddens me.

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You guys seen these by any chance?

ftp://ftp.ubi.com/us/games/princeofpersia2/media/POP2_artistic_direction.zip

ftp://ftp.ubi.com/us/games/princeofpersia2/media/POPWW_gamefootage.zip

It's a bit hard to tell for sure, but it does look like there's going to be plenty of Sands of Time style environmental puzzling and exploration.

As long as they don't give goth whatshername too big a role and they put save points in sensible places I think this game should be good. Oh and I agree the music could be a bit less rocky. I mean, they had a touch of rock in the Arabian tunes of Sands of Time, but here there's not even a touch of Arabian.

... and could they please not interrupt the gameplay with cinematics in the middle of a fight?

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Encouraging! Let's just hope they didn't take a ridiculously selective Hollywood movie trailer approach to it, and that those videos are actually representative of the game as a whole. Except for the music.

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hmm..

I just watched the artistic director interview video - and I am rather worried now.

Why do people equate "darker" with "more mature", when generally the reverse is true? Maturity in games isn't (or more likely, shouldn't be) a factor of the number of gallons of blood spilt, or number of tattoos the main character has.

This apparent obsession with making the game darker and more violent, along with the new tattoos (alarmingly similiar to those sported by the artistic director chap himself), the bad metal (Godsmack's "I Stand Alone" from the Scorpion King soundtrack of all things..), and the general drastic move away from what imho made SoT great.. none of these are promising to me.

SoT was, again imho, a great game because it was a beautifully solid and cohent gameworld that revelled in its 3d nature, and challenged the player to find 3d solutions to 3d puzzles. The combat was diverting, but not the highlight. Now we have a game seemingly based on a darker, more violent character, and an emphasis on bloody combat, rather than on the elegant puzzle and exploration themes from SoT.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it'll be great (just like the first one, except with more satisfying combat, and plenty of puzzles and exploration), but I lament the beautiful sunlight-saturated levels, full of expansive bright roofscapes, shafts of coloured light streaming from windows, and sheets of semi-transparent silk drifting in the breeze.

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Bob, I completely agree. I hadn't watched that interview; I'll do so now. Another thing I was extremely disappointed about was that the Prince's voice has been changed to be more American and deep, and it's obvious that the game won't have the almost-cheesy-but-actually-really-good-and-endearing dialogue that the first one did.

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"Hi, I'm the artistic director, and I'm a smug git"

I mean really, who puts their own tat onto a character. The design is modern "tribal", so I don't see the arabic connection. Yeah, great artistic direction there.

In fact I fail to see how this new character is at all princely, or indeed Persian (the sunlight and flowing robes, as Bob mentioned). Maybe they are afraid that the american market will shy away from anything associated with Persia (now known as Iraq).

I like a bit of darkness in fiction (read some of the later Terry Pratchett books, like Hogfather!). Unfortunately most of the games labelled with it these days contain no such thing. Unless they think the term is a literal description of the use of lighting.

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I just watched that artistic director thing and vomited eighteen times.

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I agree the art direction trailer is lame. I only included it cause it's got some nice environment stuff in it... even - it seems- a glimpse of one of those "beautiful sunlight-saturated levels".

Let's just hope that it's actually a great sequel and they're just presenting it in all the wrong ways.

eh... although that probably means it won't sell. :bomb:

Or maybe it will because lots of arcade rocking horror fans will buy it and be unpleasantly surprised with a deep and subtle game. You never know.

:woohoo:

Am I being too cynical here?

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Am I being too cynical here?

The question should always be "Am I being cynical enough?" ;)

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i dunno, i havent looked at the interview or played the demo, but Mechner is still involved, that has to be a good thing. the music is still not finished, from a cursory web glance.

using time travel in a more involved way is a natural progression for the series, something they must be ripping from DOTT.

if the combat is used about as much as in SOT, except it's much better, that can only be a good thing.

i wouldn't discount this yet.

wont be getting it straight away, though.

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If Mechner is still on the team, chances are the story and dialogue will be solid... although if they are, the demo isn't very representative.

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heh, go figure, u get all excited about a game to find that everyone else hates it :)

i havent tried the demo (and im not gonna either ... dont wanna spoil it for me) but i dont see why every1 thinks its this terrible ... maybe we're playing different games :)

the way i see it, it plays exactly like SoT does, except with a bigger focus on combat. now PoP team said that they'd be focusing more on combat with this one ... if u expected anything else, u really shouldnt have d/l'ed the demo. but did no one else get the fluidity of the combat? because that was what impressed me the most. perhaps (as some have mentioned) the screwed up PC controls may have something to do with it.

SiN

i was kinda hoping they lied? :-/

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Took a brief read through these posts and have encountered many misconceptions that are frustrating to see.

One guy says Persia is now known as Iraq. Actually, its now known as Iran. The ancient persian empire covered a lot of land, and at times included all of modern day Iraq. But Persia is the historical name for the modern state of Iran. Persia is used to describe the nation of Iran, its people, or its ancient empire.

Lots of other talk about arabs and so forth too. Today, people who are called "arabs" are those who have a linguistic, political, or ethnic tie to the people who came from Arabia (now called Saudi Arabia). For instance, many Egyptians consider themselves "arabs" because they speak arabic and are an important part of the arab political world. However, from a genealogical perspective, it may not be entirely accurate to call them arabs. Persians, on the other hand, have none of these things: They speak Farsi, are not ethically arab or "arabized", and have a unique history and culture, and are not part of the arab political world. The mistakes and misconceptions probably come from the fact that Iranians just happen to be neighbours to arabs and other arabized peoples.

Anyways, as for POP:SOT, I liked it on the xbox but the combat was totally repetative and uninteresting. As for the POP:WW, I thought the PC demo is more of the same, which is good. But the combat is still not as engaging as it should be. Anyone that wants to make a game with a combat system these days should play Ninja Gaiden first; they could learn a lot.

-bacc

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Today, people who are called "arabs" are those who have a linguistic, political, or ethnic tie to the people who came from Arabia (now called Saudi Arabia). For instance, many Egyptians consider themselves "arabs" because they speak arabic and are an important part of the arab political world. However, from a genealogical perspective, it may not be entirely accurate to call them arabs. Persians, on the other hand, have none of these things: They speak Farsi, are not ethically arab or "arabized", and have a unique history and culture, and are not part of the arab political world. The mistakes and misconceptions probably come from the fact that Iranians just happen to be neighbours to arabs and other arabized peoples.
While I understand your concerns I think this isn't really relevant. When I say something is Arabian in style I'm thinking of everything that has over the years through movies and other media been established as a particular and very recognizable visual and aural style.

The fact that years of Hollywood have warped our definition of "Arabian" is not our fault. As far as I can tell Prince of Persia is certainly more Arabian or Islamic in style than Persian anyway. Arguing about historical accuracy is something for another thread...

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To answer a question that has since been deleted, I believe Mechner's only role was to approve the game. The story isn't being written by him this time around, but by an agency in LA if I remember correctly.

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"Hi, I'm the artistic director, and I'm a smug git"

I mean really, who puts their own tat onto a character. The design is modern "tribal", so I don't see the arabic connection. Yeah, great artistic direction there.

In fact I fail to see how this new character is at all princely, or indeed Persian (the sunlight and flowing robes, as Bob mentioned). Maybe they are afraid that the american market will shy away from anything associated with Persia (now known as Iraq).

Sure stuff - the interview with the artistic destroyer definitely comes off as everybody - especially the art-buff - is bloody idiots. I heard his stupid voice in my head hours after I watched it. The game might still be great though - and I think maybe the 'director' of the interview was the bloody idiot - it seems like our art buff is reading aloud - not really speaking from his heart. Combine with this with the art buffs primordial fear of cameras = the interview...

About Mechner - I know he was involved in the first one - I really don't know about this one - might check google though....

While I understand your concerns I think this isn't really relevant. When I say something is Arabian in style I'm thinking of everything that has over the years through movies and other media been established as a particular and very recognizable visual and aural style.

The fact that years of Hollywood have warped our definition of "Arabian" is not our fault. As far as I can tell Prince of Persia is certainly more Arabian or Islamic in style than Persian anyway. Arguing about historical accuracy is something for another thread...

Yeah - this is not relevant. Of course there is a big difference between arabs and iranians - but in this context it doesn't matter much. What we talk about here is orientalism - the western romanticised coneception of arabian - the arabian nights fantasy etc.

(allthough - Persia is Iran .... but in this context I think Persia was used in the original POP - exactly because it has these arabian nights associations in the western mind...)

blablabla

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