Zero Punctuation: Prince of Persia Retrospective
- Thread starter Yahtzee Croshaw
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I enjoyed this retrospective, though I think that the PoP story was actually more planned out than most people give it credit for. The 2nd game was dark, yes, but it was supposed to be-the Empire Strikes Back of the series, basically- and while the feel was disjointed from the first game, (and they didn't give nearly enough backstory for it, in my opinion) it fit in the overall picture, which couldn't be understood at the time; the 3rd game wasn't out yet.
The REAL issue with the 2nd game was that there were glitches in that fucker that could prevent you from completing it, and that is damn near unforgivable. In addition, you had to find all the fucking hidden extra health/sand capsules to complete the game, and making 'bonuses' the only way to actually have enough endurance to fight the final boss is bad cheese, baby.
Plus they removed my favorite part of combat; the Flash hyperspeed moments! It was the only cool thing about the combat from PoP1.
Finally, they decided to place the emphasis on the enemies as your enemy, instead of your actual opponent throughout the game; the environment itself. Think about it; who wants to kill you more; the room you're in, or that random shadowy piece of crap you dispatch with your sword?
There still needed to be work on the combat aspects of the game, especially in the 3rd one, but the storyline was compelling...even as it fell to a few cliches. However, the focus on the environment as your opponent returned, and the combat was the same as the 2nd game (meaning, improved but you still did the same 2 motions for every hard boss: Leap, slow time, grab-stab jump away) so it's not like that involved skill, but it didn't matter; the storyline took the threads going back to the first game and tied them together as well as they could.
If anything, the series suffers from Matrix syndrome, where if they'd been able to realize all three games in one shot then it might've flowed a lot better, but at the end of PoP1 it's done, you're over and there doesn't need to be anything else. Since they could only do the first game, giving a Halo 2 style ending was out of the question (probably a mixed blessing)
The REAL issue with the 2nd game was that there were glitches in that fucker that could prevent you from completing it, and that is damn near unforgivable. In addition, you had to find all the fucking hidden extra health/sand capsules to complete the game, and making 'bonuses' the only way to actually have enough endurance to fight the final boss is bad cheese, baby.
Plus they removed my favorite part of combat; the Flash hyperspeed moments! It was the only cool thing about the combat from PoP1.
Finally, they decided to place the emphasis on the enemies as your enemy, instead of your actual opponent throughout the game; the environment itself. Think about it; who wants to kill you more; the room you're in, or that random shadowy piece of crap you dispatch with your sword?
There still needed to be work on the combat aspects of the game, especially in the 3rd one, but the storyline was compelling...even as it fell to a few cliches. However, the focus on the environment as your opponent returned, and the combat was the same as the 2nd game (meaning, improved but you still did the same 2 motions for every hard boss: Leap, slow time, grab-stab jump away) so it's not like that involved skill, but it didn't matter; the storyline took the threads going back to the first game and tied them together as well as they could.
If anything, the series suffers from Matrix syndrome, where if they'd been able to realize all three games in one shot then it might've flowed a lot better, but at the end of PoP1 it's done, you're over and there doesn't need to be anything else. Since they could only do the first game, giving a Halo 2 style ending was out of the question (probably a mixed blessing)
am I the only one who thinks if yahtzee still had original intros every video this would be the best intro ever? Either that or the best outro.
I don't agree with all of the bits about the third one, I thought that it was near complete redemption. While Farah wasn't as likeable as in the first one, the prince's character was captured pretty well. Sands of time is still the best though. Pretty good episode.
I'm not sure how you figured out it's Silent Hill 1 when the cover is clearly 2.Tonnochi post=6.68312.626262 said:
Not to mention that Yahtzee completely drooled over 2 in his Origins review, making it clear it was his favorite Silent Hill.
Portal, same deal. I mean, he said in this very review the words "Portal Perfection".
I wasn't expecting Yahtzee's fourth favorite game to be Spiderman 2. I would have thought it was Pain Killer. The color of the cover made me think Gears of Wars 2, but Yahtzee has never put faith in future games. Also, the Imp looks nothing like the Doctor. Where did the scarf come from?
Hey Yahtzee! Try comparing Any Prince of Persia with Soul Reaver: Defiance. Tell me why Defiance shouldn't be better when it has 2 playable characters ,A LOT OF WEAPONS, 2 parallel worlds and a story that would make POP look like the old Atari game 'ET'
Right. But I think he'll do a better job than, say, Naveen Andrews.Aginor27 post=6.68312.624545 said:
P.S. Keep up the not-top-5-related posts!
still been meaning to play these games, ive got sands of time , got it free with a pc years back...one which couldn't play anything more advanced than thief: the dark project, and this was 2002..
i have windows on my unholy i-mac with boot camp (i know, the audacity!) but its all laggy and well, the controls suck, but aside from wow, warcraft 3, s.t.a.l.k.e.r and vampire the masquerade: bloodlines i dont play many pc games.
i have windows on my unholy i-mac with boot camp (i know, the audacity!) but its all laggy and well, the controls suck, but aside from wow, warcraft 3, s.t.a.l.k.e.r and vampire the masquerade: bloodlines i dont play many pc games.
spider-man 2. huh. I'm guessing he didn't play it for PC. that particular version was very bad.
Aaah man I can't believe the Fantasy World Dizzy Wikipedia page. That's awesome
"Game reviewer and independent computer game designer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, in his online video reviews for Zero Punctuation named the Commodore 64 version of Fantasy World Dizzy as the best game ever made. As to whether this was intended in an ironic manner, Croshaw himself stated at an ACMI Game On panel on July 10th, 2008 that he was half-serious but noted that nostalgia may have been a factor.[1] However, a recent Zero Punctuation short identifies Fantasy World Dizzy as Croshaw's 5th favourite game of all time (albeit in pixelated form"
someone in the world is mental and not in a good way
"Game reviewer and independent computer game designer Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, in his online video reviews for Zero Punctuation named the Commodore 64 version of Fantasy World Dizzy as the best game ever made. As to whether this was intended in an ironic manner, Croshaw himself stated at an ACMI Game On panel on July 10th, 2008 that he was half-serious but noted that nostalgia may have been a factor.[1] However, a recent Zero Punctuation short identifies Fantasy World Dizzy as Croshaw's 5th favourite game of all time (albeit in pixelated form"
someone in the world is mental and not in a good way
