One of the highest acclaimed games of 2009 was Assassin’s Creed II, garnering numerous Game of the Year nominations and praise from critics across the board it was a mystery where the franchise would go next. Today Ubisoft answered with: MULTIPLAYER. It’s important to note that this is not Assassin’s Creed III, instead it’s more of a side development for the series. There is still single player in Brotherhood, but the focus is on Ezio (from AC2) controlling troops of assassins to take down the Templars. Read for yourself:

Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands doesn’t come out until May 18th, but you can see 1/256th (that is not a calculated decimal) of it by watching the first two minutes of the introduction sequence right here! The short clip depicts the prince’s setup for his latest journey, and a lot of pretty FMV sequences of guys stabbing each other in the face. It’s good to hear the old voice actor is back, can’t wait for the final game to be release. You can watch the trailer below:

There are three new Xbox 360 games coming to Games on Demand this week, so allow me to list them in order of quality:

• Prince of Persia (Review)
• Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway (Review)
• Skate 2.

This week’s podcast continues to dwindle in cast members. Nah no one has left, but Brian leaves thirty minutes in unfortunately. However myself and Slade continue to talk about Assassin’s Creed 2, Mass Effect 2, Moral Choices in video games and where they should go in the future. As well as the future of 3D gaming (if there is one) and mention some of our favorite games. Here are the actual show notes:

Human emotion is the most difficult sensation to recreate in a make-believe environment. Writers strive to arbitrarily force you into caring about fictitious characters. Game developers share this same goal. Games such as Ico and Mass Effect attempt to get the player to become emotionally attached to their NPC companions. Ubisoft Montreal’s latest release, Prince of Persia, undertakes the task of designing people you actually care about. Although the game may not amaze mechanically, what you’ll take away from PoP is the astonishing character development, design, and narrative presented to you.

Prince of Persia has an extensive history — the original was an Apple-II game released in 1989, which then led to a more prestigious SNES sequel in 1994. From this initial success, many others followed.  Most people will be familiar with the series due to the second trilogy, which was released during 2003 through 2005.However, the latest PoP game lacks anything to do with the previous titles. The basic mechanics remain intact, but don’t worry about keeping up to speed with the plotline if you missed out on the other releases.

The game follows the story of a different prince, who ironically is not the prince of anything. The story fixates around The Prince and a princess named Elika trying to repel the evil god of darkness Ahriman from escaping the temple of light, and preventing him from shrouding the world in darkness. It’s your typical “save the world” storyline and there’s nothing special to differentiate it from other similar plotlines.

In order to stop Ahriman, The Prince and Elika must travel around the open desert and heal various “Fertile Grounds” and rid the world of darkness. After enough Fertile Grounds are ameliorated Ahriman is sealed away forever. However, the world is plagued with Ahriman’s followers who will do their best to impede our heroes’ path. Given the situation, The Prince and Elika must work together. Only The Prince can defend against Ahriman’s followers; only Elika can rid the lands of darkness.

Players have direct control over The Prince, whereas Elika follows closely behind during the entire game. The lack of control over Elika clearly defines her as a real person; this is where Prince of Persia really shines. In addition to sticking close beside you, players can talk to Elika whenever they desire, revealing the optional narrative component.

The chemistry between Elika and The Prince is charming and a joy to watch. Their plentiful conversations reach all different types of affairs — from sarcastic retorts being exchanged to discussing the cruel realities of their pasts. The writing fleshes out every aspect of this duo, and makes them believable. Both characters authentically grow on you. Personally, it got to the point where I was rushing to heal the Fertile Grounds so I could unlock a new conversation, it’s that compelling. The only complaint I have with the narrative structure is the fact that it’s entirely optional. Speaking with Elika is not required to complete the game, so it’s possible to skip over some of the most heartwarming exchanges found in a video game.

Prince of Persia takes place in an open world. The game presents its non-linear progression early on, and lets the player decide where to go. The world is set up in a large grid, with four endpoints. The prince must successfully reach the end of all four branches in order to complete the game. Each section has a different boss and accompanying different environment. The Warrior reigns in the depths of the inner city, The Concubine resides amongst the Palace district, The Alchemist spends his time in the observatory and science wing, while The Hunter roams around the open streets and canyons. The variety in the locales alleviates any fatigue after spending a long time in one backdrop.

The nonlinear approach is refreshing and allows a bit of freedom, but also completely negates the pacing. Some sections of the map require a lot of puzzle solving, while others rely on combat. So it’s very possible to overload on puzzle solving and drag your feet through the end of a branch, then repeat the same mistake by doing all the combat focused areas in a row. Another problem that arises is tedious collection quests. After each part of the map is healed, Elika and The Prince must collect enough “Light Seeds” to progress and unlock new areas. This is a lazy way of lengthening the game, but thankfully the light seeds are rather easy to find and don’t require much time or effort.

Mechanically, Prince of Persia is a platformer with combat thrown in to spice up the flow. Platforming is nothing new. If you’re familiar with the series you’ll know what this is about. Running across walls, jumping over beams, swinging on poles, it’s just as satisfying as it was before. There are a few new mechanics introduced throughout the adventure, but it’s nothing to write home about. Occasionally you’ll find yourself jumping off of a ledge when you didn’t mean to, but this rarely ever becomes a bothersome issue.

The other side of gameplay is combat, which unfortunately suffers immensely. Combat has been redesigned to focus on one vs. one combat, instead of managing groups of foes. Whenever The Prince enters into combat, his sense of fluidity and agility is completely lost. Attacking enemies feels awkward and difficult to perform, creating a clunky feeling. In general, combat isn’t very fun either. Accomplishing combos doesn’t feel satisfying, and the problems intensify during boss confrontations. In particular, encounters with “The Warrior” require you to use the environment to defeat him. Each skirmish with this boss is infuriating since positioning your opponent in a spot that’s lethal to him is near impossible.

You’re going to want to get used to this animation, it happens a lot

Luckily Prince of Persia is a very forgiving game. Elika has the ability to reach out and grab The Prince’s hand whenever he’s in peril, and bring him back to the last piece of solid ground they were on together. This safety-net covers both combat and platforming, so any error made in the game is quickly pardoned. Hardcore players may be turned off by the constant hand-holding, but it keeps the focus on having fun with the game, instead of frustration with a difficult sequence. There’s also an achievement for completing the game with less than 100 saves, for any crazy people out there.

Graphically, Prince of Persia is astounding. The game has a slightly cartoon-esqe look to it. The Prince and Elika are creatively stylized, and all the environments look close to how they would in real life, but there’s an obvious flair added to match the tone of the game. The only shortcoming present is lighting. Characters look out of place whenever they’re in dark environments, and in various spots of the terrain you can see shadows slowly forming the closer you get to them. It’s a small problem that wouldn’t really be noticed unless you were looking, but it’s worth mentioning.

I still don’t know if this picture is concept art, or a screenshot, that’s the level of beauty the graphics have

Overall Prince of Persia is a delightful experience from beginning to end. The mechanics might not be groundbreaking or award-winning, but the characters’ narratives are intriguing enough to forgive each mistake made. If you’re an advocate of “video games are art” or “female characters should be more than TnA” you’ll definitely want to see what this game has going on.

However, if you’re not a fan of video game storylines or don’t really care about video games as a medium, Prince of Persia is still a great game. There’s plenty of fun to be had with the platforming. The combat can be deemed acceptable for the most part. If you’re looking for more of what the series does best, you’ll find it right here. If you’ve never played a Prince of Persia game before, this is a great place to start.