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Apr 8, 2012

Prince of Persia®

On paper, 2008's Prince of Persia revamp was a pointless game. Don't get me wrong, it had every reason to exist, but its story and mechanics were essentially a long, meandering path back to square one.

Critics and players alike took the game to task for a Prince who didn't so much walk the fine line between rogue-ish charm and loudmouthed dickery as he did wall-run right over it and into Nathan Drake's dirty, half-tuck-stained laundry. He never grew or changed, they said. Worse, he overshadowed the far more interesting Elika, whose grim determination to face her self-sacrificing destiny felt far more at home in POP's equal parts desolate and gorgeous world. And then there was the structure of the game itself, which - among other alleged crimes - traded Death's cold touch for an omnipresent helping hand from Elika. That's right: the Prince couldn't die.

He also, incidentally, wasn't really a prince, which resulted in a chorus of cries from the same folks who get all bent out of shape when they realise that Apple Jacks don't taste like apples.

Regardless, where's the fun in playing an unlikeable, unchanging main character? And with the looming threat of death out of the picture, why even hand me a controller in the first place? The Prince may as well be out for a slightly-more-apocalyptic-than-usual evening stroll - you know, up the side of a building. However, while I acknowledge that Prince of Persia had its fair share of shortcomings, I wouldn't have loved it nearly as much - or, for that matter, at all - if its two most glaring 'flaws' weren't part of the package. The point, so far as I'm concerned, was pointlessness.

From the get-go, the Prince was self-serving, and intentionally antagonistic. He showed up sniffing for gold and ended up chasing tail instead. All throughout the adventure, his go-to line was a melodramatically sigh-stuffed "How did I get myself into this?" I couldn't stand the guy. His game was a high-flying rollercoaster ride through a world one part Ico and 37 parts Okami. He himself, however, was a chore, an out-of-place Nathan Drake clone (voiced, of course, by Nolan North) with precisely none of the charm.

But he was also different. Gaming's past is littered with goodie-two-shoes. Nowadays, meanwhile, edgy anti-heroes are all the rage. But even Renegade Shepard has (so far) managed to save the universe. The Prince, meanwhile, rendered all of Elika's self-sacrifice - and pretty much the entire game - moot by re-releasing the dark god Ahriman, aka the apocalypse just before the credits rolled. Why? Because locking away everyone's favorite world-ending sensation that was sweeping the nation required Elika's death, and when faced with a choice between the whole of humanity and one girl he was crushing on, he picked the girl.

That whole dynamic was made all the more convincing by the Prince's special brand of immortality. If his back was against the wall in combat Elika would channel the powers of a million glowsticks to warp him to safety. If he leaped into one of the game's many colourful, rather pleasant-looking infinite abysses, she'd quickly clasp his hand and bring him back from the brink.

The quiet physicality of their relationship spoke volumes. It was, of course, inspired by Ico, but there are far worse teachers from which to take lessons in believable sincerity. Most games tell us that Lead Male and Lead Female would very much like to play a particularly contact-heavy game of tonsil hockey - usually about five seconds before they proceed to do so. Prince of Persia, however, embedded that attraction into platforming's very core.

Elika regularly saved the Prince, and - if he was nearby - the Prince would gently catch Elika if she was dropping off a ledge or let her hold onto his back while his Man Arms delivered them across some precarious web of vines. Banter-filled dialogue, on the other hand, gave those actions motivation - even if, in the Prince's case, they weren't exactly pure-hearted or altruistic. It was an intelligent use of both show and tell, which also managed to explain away (though not radically alter) game tropes like double-jumping and constant death with magical realism.

And so, love him or hate him, you can't claim that the Prince ever pretended to be something he wasn't. He started out a thick-skulled, self-serving jerk, and pretty much stayed the course in both word and deed. Instead of trite character transformation, the Prince's feelings for Elika emphasised his ugliest flaws. He wouldn't even let Elika take matters into her own hands and save everything she held dear because he had the gall to think he knew better. "Why?" she asked wearily as he scooped her off her Snow White-esque death display table. He merely kept on walking without a word.

Mar 30, 2012

Jordan Mechner finds original Apple 2 Prince of Persia source code

Prince of Persia®: The Sands of Time

The original Apple 2 source code for Prince of Persia (1989) has been found by Jordan Mechner's father during a spot of spring cleaning.

A chuffed Jordan Mechner will now try to convert the archaic disks into a readable format for today's computers. And then he'll share what he can of the original Prince of Persia code on his website.

"My dad called from New York to tell me he was doing some spring cleaning and had shipped me a carton of old games and other stuff of mine he'd found in the back of a closet," Jordan Mechner wrote. "The carton arrived yesterday. My jaw dropped when I saw what was inside.

'Jordan Mechner finds original Apple 2 Prince of Persia source code' Screenshot pop

Apple 2 source code for the original, 1989 Prince of Persia.

"No, I don't mean the stacks of Spanish Drosoft versions of POP and Karateka," he added, referencing the picture. "I mean those three little plastic 3.5" disk boxes nestled among them, which appear to contain the original Apple 2 source doe of Prince of Persia that I've been searching for, off and on, for the past 10 years, pestering everyone from Doug Carlston to Danny Gorlin and everyone who ever worked at Broderbund, and finally gave up hope of ever finding [it].

"I knew it wasn't like me to throw stuff out!"

The original, Apple 2 Prince of Persia game was released in 1989. It was ported wide and far. But it wasn't until 2003, and Mechner's Ubisoft collaboration on Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, that the brand gained the status it enjoys today.

Ubisoft released a not-rubbish remake of the original Price of Persia game for Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network in 2007.

Mechner also wrote the story for the Jerry Bruckheimer Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time film, which aired in 2010.

Jan 16, 2012

Download Prince of Persia on WiiWare, 3DS this week

Prince of Persia®

Two versions of platforming classic Prince of Persia will be re-released this week, Nintendo has announced.

Wii fans can download Prince of Persia's SNES incarnation from Thursday. And 3DS owners will be offered the Game Boy Color version on the same day.

The Prince's Game Boy Color appearance was back in 1999. This week on 3DS the game will cost £4.50/€5.

The Wii Virtual Console version, however, is superior. A port of the extended SNES Prince of Persia, this contains almost double the number of levels as well as various other enhancements.

It's also slightly more expensive at 800 Wii Points (about £5.60).

Two other DSiWare games will be available this week: 40-in-1 Explosive Megamix (800 DSiWare Points - about £7.20) and strategic action title Come On! Heroes (200 Points - about £1.80).

Sep 21, 2011

Games bleeding into real life - study

Half-Life 2

For some, a video game doesn't stop when the power is turned off - their gaming experiences are bleeding into their day-to-day lives.

This can lead to video game-like reactions to real-life situations, Nottingham Trent University and Stockholm University have discovered.

It's called Game Transfer Phenomena.

The study - Game Transfer Phenomena in Video Game Playing: A Qualitative Interview Study - interviewed 42 "frequent" gamers aged between 15 and 21 years old. "Many" of the subjects "appeared to integrate elements of video game playing into their real lives".

The full study must be bought for $30. One amusing excerpt reported on The Metro website describe a 15 year-old boy wanting to use a gravity gun from Half-Life 2 to fetch something from the fridge. And why not?

One 19-year-old Price of Persia: Sands of Time enthusiast dropped his sandwich and immediately his finger used to press the rewind-time button twitched. A natural response.

Another 19-year-old thought he could use World of Warcraft's search function to locate his brother in a crowd. What a good idea.

Apparently half of the gamers interviewed said they'd looked for something from a video game to solve a real-life issue. One interviewee apparently saw a menu of topics available for him to think about (Heavy Rain?); another formulated a list of possible responses after being insulted (Mass Effect 2?).

Of course, there is a darker side to all of this. Use of aggressive, criminal and/or violent fantasies as solutions to real-life problems were reported by "a few" of the players.

The Daily Mail focused on one particular 15-year-old who said that "sometimes" he wants to be able to get a gun and "shoot down" people. "Irritating people", mind you.

"A recurring trend suggests that intensive gaming may lead to negative psychological, emotional or behavioural consequences," concluded report author professor Mark Griffiths, "with enormous implications for software developers, parents, policy makers and mental health professionals."

This research is being followed up by a study of 2000 gamers.

The Game Transfer Phenomena report hits headlines a day after Grand Theft Auto was linked to a shooting spree and eventually a murder onboard a Royal Navy submarine.

Video: What a useful tool the Gravity Gun would be.

Aug 3, 2011

EU PlayStation Store update 3rd August

Red Faction: Armageddon Trailer

Telltale's episodic adaptation of Back to the Future concludes this week with the release of Part 5, free for series owners.

Overall it's a quiet week for the PlayStation Store, with a sale on Ubisoft games the only real sniff of a bargain on offer. Prince of Persia and Assassin's Creed become slightly cheaper, although PlayStation Plus members get bigger savings and bonus content.

PlayStation 3 owners get a demo of Rugby World Cup 2011 (released yesterday on Xbox 360).

There's also Toy Story DLC for LittleBigPlanet 2 and possibly-last ever Red Faction: Armageddon DLC Path to War. All that plus more dosages of extra DiRT 3 and WWE All-Stars content.

Here's the full European listing, courtesy of the European PlayStation Blog:

Ubisoft Special Offers (available until 10th August)

Prince of Persia + Epilogue DLC (was £15.99/19.99 now £9.99/12.99)
Prince of Persia HD Trilogy (was £23.99/29.99 now £15.99/19.99)
PSN Bundle Prince of Persia Classic & Cell Factor (£3.99/4.99)
PSN Bundle Scott Pilgrim vs The World & Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Reshelled & Voodoo Dice (£5.49/6.99
Assassins Creed (was £15.99/19.99 now £9.99/12.99)
Rainbow 6: Vegas 2 (was £23.99/29.99 now £17.49/21.99)

Permanent Price Reductions

Tomb Raider (PSone), Tomb Raider III (PSone), Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (PSone), Tomb Raider Chronicles (PSone), GEX: Deep Cover Gecko (PSone), Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (PSone) - All reduced to £4.79/5.99 each
Soldner-X2: Final Prototype now £7.99/9.99
Soldner-X2: Final Prototype + the Last Chapter now £9.99/12.99
Soldner-X2: Final Prototype + Soldner-X: Himmelsturmer now £12.99/14.99

Video: Back to the Future's finale.

PS3 Games

Back to the Future: The Game Episode 5
3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures 2 - Trial & Unlock (£7.99/9.99)
echochrome II & Offical Soundtrack Bundle (£9.99/12.99)
Fat Princess Super-sized Anniversary Bundle (£11.99/14.99) (contains Fat Princess Full Game, Fat Princess: Fat Roles Expansion Pack, all Fat Princess Avatars and Fat Princess Dynamic Theme)
ModNation Racers (£24.99/29.99)
Assassins Creed: Brotherhood (£23.99/29.99)
Dragon Age: Origins (£23.99/29.99)
3D Ultra Mini Golf Adventures + Fairy Tale Adventures Pack Bundle (£8.79/10.99)
Section 8: Prejudice (£9.99/12.99)
NEOGEO Station: King of Fighters 95 (£7.19/8.99)

PS3 Demos

Rugby World Cup 2011 (Free)

PSP Games

Gen San: The Adventures of a Young Carpenter (£23.99/29.99)
Metal Slug XX (£23.99/29.99)
Mawaskes Puzzle (£15.99/19.99)

minis (PS3 & PSP)

Rasmus Klump in Pingonesien (£3.49/3.99)
Ducati Challenge (£3.99/4.99)
Monochrome Racing (£3.99/4.99)
Arcade Sports Bundle (£1.99/2.49)

PS3 Add-Ons

3D Ultra MiniGolf 2 Fairy Tale Adventures (£2.39/2.99)
Section 8: Prejudice - Blitz Pack (£2.99/3.59), Overdrive Map Pack (£3.99/4.99)
MX vs. ATV Alive! - Flu Unbound Pack (£1.19/1.49), One Industries Rock Star 3 Pack (£1.19/1.49)
Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3 - Time of War Extra Mission (£0.79/0.99), Acguy vs. Acguy Extra Mission (£0.79/0.99), The Legend of the Fastest, Strongest Mobile Suit Extra Mission (£0.79/0.99)
Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 - Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Apex Predators (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Dragons Roar (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Guardians Of The Wood (0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Machinations (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Realm Of Illusion (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Strength Of Stone (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Unquenchable Fire (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Wielding Steel (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Foil Conversion Blood Hunger" (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Dragons Roar (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Guardians Of The Wood (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Machinations (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Realm Of Illusion (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Strength Of Stone (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Unquenchable Fire (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Wielding Steel (£0.79/0.99), Magic 2012 Full Deck Blood Hunger (£0.79/0.99)
DIRT 3 Ken Block Special Pack (£1.25/1.59)
Dynasty Warriors 7 - New Weapon: Great Axe (£0.79/0.99), Original Costume Pack 2 (£3.99/4.99), Original Costume Pack 3 (£3.99/4.99)
Red Faction: Armageddon Path to War (£4.39/5.49)
WWE AllStars Southern Charisma Pack (£1.99/2.49)
ModNation Racers Haunted Props Pack (£3.99/4.99)
LittleBigPlanet 2 - Toy Story Level Kit & Alien Costume (£4.79/5.99), Toy Story Costume Pack (£4.79/5.99), (contains the following costumes also available separately) Buzz Lightyear Costume (£1.59/1.99), Slinky Dog Costume (£1.59/1.99), Rexx Costume (£1.59/1.99), Hamm Costume (£1.59/1.99)
Rock Band Network - Better Off This Way by A Day to Remember (£0.99/1.49), Buried Cold by Rose of Jericho (£0.59/0.75)
Rock Band 3 - Barracuda by Heart (£0.99/1.49), Make Some Noise by The Beastie Boys (£0.99/1.49), No Sleep Til Brooklyn by The Beastie Boys (£0.99/1.49), Superbad Parts 1 & 2 by James Brown (£0.99/1.49), Tell Me Something Good by Rufus featuring Ckaka Khan (£0.99/1.49)

PSP Add-Ons

Buzz!: The Ultimate Music Quiz - Space Quiz (£3.19/3.99)

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