• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands |OT|

EDIT: What the hell is the UPlay stuff? How do I access it?

Uplay is a bunch of rewards you can unlock just by playing the game. When you've earned some points, click on the Uplay icon on the main menu. It'll take you to the site where you just cash in the points. For Forgotten Sands you can unlock a PoP theme, two weapon upgrades, an Ezio costume, and a challenge room.
 

Sadist

Member
Something interesting happened:

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6263144.html

Prince of Persia (Wii) Review Pulled

Camera was criticized in error.

While it's not something we like (or thankfully, need) to do often, we have always and will always own up to our mistakes. Yesterday, we published a review for the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands in which we were highly critical of the game's camera. However, after some further investigation prompted by messages from readers and someone who worked on the game, we've realized that this was in error.

Shortly after starting the game, the reviewer opted to switch from the default camera option to the expert one because he felt that it worked better in combat. He then forgot to switch back to the scripted camera, which, as he's confirmed by playing through a good chunk of the game again this morning, does a much better job of framing the action during platforming sequences.

We regret the error and offer our sincere apologies both to Ubisoft and to those of you who were misled by our original review. We'll post a replacement review for the Wii version of Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands as soon as possible.

Last time this happened was with the Grand Slam Tennis review from Eurogamer.
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
Skilletor said:
Any impressions on the psp version? That looks the most interesting to me.

I initially couldn't get it running on my CFW PSP, neither as an ISO nor as a UMD, but it seems like the protection has been defeated, so I'll patch my game up sometime this weekend and should have impressions not long after that.
 
Rated-Rsuperstar said:
Uplay is a bunch of rewards you can unlock just by playing the game. When you've earned some points, click on the Uplay icon on the main menu. It'll take you to the site where you just cash in the points. For Forgotten Sands you can unlock a PoP theme, two weapon upgrades, an Ezio costume, and a challenge room.

So you have the be online to unlock in game items with in game points?

well thats crappy
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
UPlay is an Ubi-thing, unsurprisingly.
Of the available UPlay-compatible games, I only have ACII and PoP, but going by those examples, it seems that all games have 4 available tasks (seemingly progression-based, not skill-based) worth an increasing amount of points, and those points can be used to unlock any of the available awards for any of the games you own. Seems like both ACII and PoP have 100 points available each by meeting 4 milestones. They also both seem to have 5 unlockable goodies also totaling up to 100 points. Some of us might have an extra 10 points floating around for having been early UPlay adopters.
 
Spent more time on it today and honestly aside from the bland textures and simple Assassin's Creed style combat I'm loving this new PoP. Why couldn't Ubisoft just do this type from the start?!
 
I picked this up today after trading in Alan Wake. I really like this. Not sure why it's not getting more attention because it's a blast.
 
AwesomeSyrup said:
I picked this up today after trading in Alan Wake. I really like this. Not sure why it's not getting more attention because it's a blast.


I know everyone that bitched about PoP 2008 didn't get this. :lol
 
I'd like to add more good impressions, picked this up the other day, just got around to trying it earlier today. Played for about 2 hours and got to the part where you get
the power to control water
and I'm loving it so far. Platforming is ace, the few puzzles I've done so far were well done and the combat isn't half bad although I wish there was a block and counter mechanic and that the game would throw smaller groups of harder enemies at you from time to time as a change up to fighting hordes of mindless idiots. Also the game has a nice flow to it, you aren't in cutscenes for too long and the game transitions to different rooms and environments smoothly as the story progresses.
 

Skilletor

Member
Mejilan said:
I initially couldn't get it running on my CFW PSP, neither as an ISO nor as a UMD, but it seems like the protection has been defeated, so I'll patch my game up sometime this weekend and should have impressions not long after that.

Thanks! :D

Youtube vids are almost enough to make me take the plunge. It looks awesome.
 

EMBee99

all that he wants is another baby
I was cautiously enjoying this when a big, stupid drawbridge puzzle with turning levers and gears just sucked the momentum right out of this game.

Any help on this would be nice and, honestly folks, does this get better than what the first hour or two present because right now, this feels like a slowed-down, muddy, and charmless Sands of Time clone.
 

BluWacky

Member
AwesomeSyrup said:
I picked this up today after trading in Alan Wake. I really like this. Not sure why it's not getting more attention because it's a blast.

Exactly what I did yesterday. I would actually say that Forgotten Sands's storytelling is better executed than Alan Wake's...
 

BluWacky

Member
EMBee99 said:
I was cautiously enjoying this when a big, stupid drawbridge puzzle with turning levers and gears just sucked the momentum right out of this game.

Any help on this would be nice and, honestly folks, does this get better than what the first hour or two present because right now, this feels like a slowed-down, muddy, and charmless Sands of Time clone.

SPOILERS

Going from left to right, spin the third lever twice until you can free a path to move the gear with the first lever. Only move it once. Then spin the third lever once again in the same direction as before to have the blockade move completely out of the way and into the space where the gear was.

See how you go from there.
 

Mesijs

Member
I played more than an hour or so in the Wii version, going to review it. Impressions so far:

yes, it's quite enjoyable! Actually, more so than I thought. It really feels like an old school PoP, like a continuation from the Sands of Time-trilogy. The platforming is fun, the animations actually really look good and until now, the graphics are quite good. Sure, its PS2 level, but they made some nice and quite open environments.

Combat is ok, although there is the waggle thing again. But thankfully, there are a few special attacks that are really, really useful and the camera work is great with these ones, and I think it's a good thing that on the Wii there aren't so many enemies as in the HD-versions of the game, so it doesn't get irritating.

Also, the freezing water and creating platforms isn't in there either, it's really a different game. Didn't play the HD-version but until now, I feel the game design on the Wii-version is quite good. Only a few flaws with the camera that doesn't always work well, although you can also control it, and with the stick movement that doesn't always do what I want. But these flaws only appear a few times in the game.

However, maybe the game feels a little too much as something that we've already played and doesn't add anything unique or spectacular, so far. So until now it's decent, but not more than that.

But, I didn't play a lot yet... so let's hope it gets better still. No negative impression at all!
 

Sidzed2

Member
Here's my review of the game for the PS3 iteration, if anyone's interested:

http://palgn.com.au/playstation-3/16458/prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands-review/

I think this is going to be one of those games which is overlooked, but I daresay it will find quite an appreciative audience in the years to come. It's not a staggeringly impressive or amibitious game, but its core fundamentals are rock-solid. Now, if only Ubisoft could have six months more development-time to beef up the technology and rectify their stodgy combat system (something akin to Arkham Asylum would be nice, hint hint)...
 

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
AwesomeSyrup said:
I picked this up today after trading in Alan Wake. I really like this. Not sure why it's not getting more attention because it's a blast.
Its fun but Im not sure I agree with the timing of the release. All my friends think its a game about the movie and so they are all ignoring it.
 
Just platinumed it :lol

In retrospect I feel my early impressions (see this post) were a bit too harsh, although the critique is still valid in my opinion.

When I did my second playthrough the game redeemed itself. I complained about the slow response of the Prince (I wasn't used to the controls yet) and the sucky battle system, but it seems I wasn't in the "PoP-flow" yet, if you know what I mean. On my second run (with Ezio costume of course) I skipped all the battles I could skip (about 90% of them, I was maxed out already), and the flow of the game was 1000x better, hopping from one end of the castle to the other in no time. I finished my second run in about 3 hours, which was perfect. Once I got into that flow when you can clear all obstacles in one fluid run, the authentic PoP feeling clicked and a smile appeared on my face.

I strongly recommend everybody to do a second playthrough like this, it makes the game feel so much more rewarding. :lol
 
becks said:
I made a PS3vsXBOX360 vid of the game. You can see, that the xbox-version has the deeper colors (...as usual).

For the best way to compare the games, watch it in fullHD and fullscreen:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPQZ0RLOK7A

You do realize this has NOTHING to do with the game's graphics/engine? In addition, you can adjust these settings (saturation, contrast, brightness, whites/blacks, etc. etc.) on your TV to your likings. I can make the 360 version look like your recorded PS3 version and visa versa.
Both consoles simply have a slightly different video output (which is also adjustable on the console level with e.g. the RGB settings).
Oh the memories of dozens of GT comparison videos with "PS3 version is too bright, looks washed out" comments.
 
Played for another hour or so today and the game just keeps getting better. Particularly impressed with the water puzzles as they seem to be a perfect evolution of the Sands Of Time formula.

Just for clarification for anyone on the fence, this game is not a cash grab despite the movie coming out at the same time. Quite simply this is POP done right on the HD consoles.
 
Zaraki_Kenpachi said:
So is this game actually good or just a cash-in from the movie? I liked the 3 games on ps2 so I'm wondering how this turned out.

I got this from gamefly yesterday and I must be at least 8 hours in already. This game is absolutely fantastic. Now bear in mind that I've only played the GCN version of Sands of Time, and Prince of Persia 2008, and I loved them both. I never had a whirl with the so called "bad prince" in the other 2 GCN games.

I think Gabe from Penny Arcade summarized my thoughts to the tee:

"Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands: I've devoted the last two nights to Prince and each night it has been almost impossible for me to put the controller down and go to bed. The puzzles are clever, the level design is inspired and the gameplay is a fucking blast. It simply does not get much better in my book. Prince is like a Roller Coaster. It's not super long but the entire time you're on it your having fun."

That describes my exact feelings on the game. I have Red Dead Redemption that I just picked up, and Super Mario Galaxy 2 is arriving tomorrow, but all I can think about is diving back into this game. Every room I go into just presents the most pitch perfect platforming I've ever experienced (and the original mario galaxy is my favorite game ever). For everyone that thinks the Prince 2008 game "played itself", give this game a spin, it's the exact answer to that complaint.

Sands of Time is one of my favorite games last generation. This game really feels very similar to that, but is that a bad thing? Not at all I say, I'll take Sands of Time style gameplay/world/characters with a current gen graphics boost any day of the week.

This game is absolutely amazing and anyone who is on the fence about getting it I strongly urge to try it out. I only rented it through gamefly but I will definitely be picking this up for my collection in the future, it's really that good.
 

Nymerio

Member
Fuck that piece of shit game. It's so bug ridden, it's not even funny. I've been stuck in traps and had to reload the game, I was sucked in to a ledge and had to reload from the last checkpoint and just now I died and it put me back to the wrong checkpoint. I'm damn sure there was more than one checkpoint between the point where I died and where it's put me back to. I wouldn't even care if I could at least continue the game... I'm in some room where all the doors are closed, leading from that room is a corridor with some swinging axes, I can move down that corridor, but the door at the end is closed. What the fuck is that shit? Tried reloading, quitting the game and then reloading but nothing works. Fuck you Ubisoft, Fuck you!
 
AwesomeSyrup said:
My only problem with this game is the combat is too easy. Other than that I'm loving it.

Have you played any of the others? The prince of persia games are never about combat but rather puzzles and stuff you have to figure out.
 

Kifimbo

Member
Tried the PSP version yesterday. It's basically a side-scrolling platform game with some acrobatics so far. You control the Prince with the D-Pad. Lot of wall jumps. At some point, you can accelarate some objects (like a platform). Very few enemies (2-3) in the first two levels. You can collect yellow orbs. At the end of each levels, you are rewarded for not dying, for collecting orbs and for achieving the fastest time.
 

EMBee99

all that he wants is another baby
The further I made it into the game, the more enjoyable the whole thing became from a platforming standpoint. By the end, the timing gets so precise and moves so fluid, the game becomes platform heaven.

What sucks is having to do all this against a flat, lifeless background. I had zero investment in the story, the visual style was lacking any of the joy found in the gameplay, and some bugs made combat a crapshoot.

If this game had some more time to polish up the rough spots, this couldve been a helluva game. Now it's just a messy shell on a sexy core.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Not a bad game, but I'm definitely not all that into it. It feels a bit ho-hum to me and lacks a sort of spark to keep me going. I know most won't agree, but I even think that Warrior Within was a better game. The angsty prince wasn't great, of course, but the actual design of the game was fantastic. This new game has inferior combat, a more limited structure (WW was more like a Metroid-type of game in terms of progressions), and "samey" visuals.

I'm having some fun, but I definitely don't feel the need to jump back into it.

I will say that the PS3 port is fantastic. I've purchased previous games based on this engine on 360, but it seems like they've finally solved their issues. The framerate is a constant 30 fps most of the time and it looks great.
 

subversus

I've done nothing with my life except eat and fap
I liked WW but hated all other games in series except the original 80s one.

Should I get this?
 

Mesijs

Member
Now 3:30 in and I'm really digging it (Wii version). The levels are cool, not quite as difficult as SoT but not extremely easy either. Really looking forward continuing!
 

Sagitario

Member
StevePharma said:
Just platinumed it :lol

In retrospect I feel my early impressions (see this post) were a bit too harsh, although the critique is still valid in my opinion.

When I did my second playthrough the game redeemed itself. I complained about the slow response of the Prince (I wasn't used to the controls yet) and the sucky battle system, but it seems I wasn't in the "PoP-flow" yet, if you know what I mean. On my second run (with Ezio costume of course) I skipped all the battles I could skip (about 90% of them, I was maxed out already), and the flow of the game was 1000x better, hopping from one end of the castle to the other in no time. I finished my second run in about 3 hours, which was perfect. Once I got into that flow when you can clear all obstacles in one fluid run, the authentic PoP feeling clicked and a smile appeared on my face.

I strongly recommend everybody to do a second playthrough like this, it makes the game feel so much more rewarding. :lol

I wish that "flow" could be available since the beginning...
 

Zapages

Member
Hey guys

Destructiod found a solution to the problem with glitch. If you get it. Then delete your save. The game will load up a back up save file and you can undo that problem area. I hope this type of solution helps for all the PoP Community who unfortunately had to encounter the glitch in the game.

[Note: My experience with The Forgotten Sands was almost entirely free of noticeable bugs or glitches, with one exception that I'd be remiss in ignoring. The title features an auto-save system with one game save per profile; there's no way to manually save your progress. Late in the game, I had missed a jump and fallen to my death... at which point the game decided to auto-save. When the game re-loaded, I found myself caught in an earlier area, and the game wouldn't trigger doors I would need to progress. I was trapped.

Unfortunately, this happened late in the game and I had feared all of my progress was lost. Not quite the case -- I discovered that The Forgotten Sands makes a "back up auto-save" that can only be accessed if your primary save is corrupt or deleted. Once deleted, the game successfully loaded the back-up, which only found me losing a few hours of progress.

I mention this to fully disclose my experience, but note that I feel it was an isolated incident that I couldn't repeat had I tried.]

Xbox 360
1. From the dash board go to "My Xbox"
2. Scroll to System Settings (Far Right)
3. Choose "memory"
4. Open your storage device
5. Choose Games
6. Select "Prince of Prince:TFS"

PS3
1. From the XMB scroll to the games menu
2. Open the save data utility folder
3. Locate prince of Persia: TFS

You most likely have an "Auto Save" file and a "Backup Autosave" file. You can try deleting the "Auto Save" and then starting the game and choosing "Continue" allowing it to load from the backup autosave file. This will hopefully take you to an earlier point in the game that you can continue from. Let me know if this works.


Source: http://www.destructoid.com/rev...n-sands-174013.phtml

Cheers

Zapages
 

jepjepjep

Member
Now that it's out, are there any noticeable differences between ps3 and 360 versions? Not trying to start a flame war, but I have both systems so I'd like to get the best version.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
jepjepjep said:
Now that it's out, are there any noticeable differences between ps3 and 360 versions? Not trying to start a flame war, but I have both systems so I'd like to get the best version.
As noted above, I've always purchased games running on this engine on the 360 due to PS3 issues, but I went for PS3 this time around and find the performance to be very solid. Unlike the Assassin's Creed games the framerate is very solid in the PS3 version. There is minor tearing that pops up occasionally during some cutscenes, but the gameplay is almost always a rock solid 30 fps. It's a very good port.

Is the 360 version better? Probably. I'd imagine the difference is extremely minor, however.
 

BluWacky

Member
Finished it about half an hour ago. A perfectly pleasant way to game a few hours away, and almost completely forgettable afterwards.

I'm sure I'll play it again - I've played through the other POP titles multiple times, they're relaxing and fun - but it's not exactly a killer app or anything. Not that it needs to be - I had fun, and that's what counts.
 
I seriourly want to pick this up this weekend but it's hard to pick up Ubisoft games on release when you know they'll be $20 in 4 months.
 

Sagitario

Member
Mejilan said:
4 months? Surely it won't take THAT long...

2RTZE.jpg
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
samus i am said:
The wii version looks great. I might get this in anticipation of the upcoming movie.

From what little I played of the PS3 and Wii versions, I can say that it's refreshing to see:
1) A Wii incarnation that was a totally different game from the HD version from top-down; and
2) Not a throw-away effort or casual-fest.

I look forward to putting more time into both, certainly.
 
Mejilan said:
I initially couldn't get it running on my CFW PSP, neither as an ISO nor as a UMD, but it seems like the protection has been defeated, so I'll patch my game up sometime this weekend and should have impressions not long after that.
I am not familiar with homebrew but can't you just play normally? just put UMD in and play?
 

TripOpt55

Member
I decided to go back through to get a couple of the trophies I missed and just play it again too. I need the beat boss without getting hit in the throne room trophy and the find and break all sarcophagus trophy. So, I was fighting the boss and thought I made it without getting damaged, but I guess I didn't and since it autosaves I have to either go back to the back-up save or start over to try again. Kind of stinks :/ Not going to feel like doing that chunk of game over again that's for sure. Maybe I'll just wait a few days and try again. Not sure.
 
Top Bottom