The evening Inbox discovers the secrets of Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time, as one reader ponders the morality of photorealism.
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Last minute exclusives
Just wanted to say how much I agree with The Last Of Us preview at the weekend, as I’ve also been playing the demo that came from God Of War: Ascension. Although I think the two demos are different. I really appreciate the fact that Naughty Dog are not just doing Uncharted 4 and I’m glad Sony are giving them the freedom to make something new. Even if it does have zombies in it.
The one thing that I find odd though is the timing. Why is this, Beyond: Two Souls, and apparently Gran Tursimo 6 all coming out just months before the PlayStation 4 Did they all just take longer than expected or is Sony planning to upgrade them to the PlayStation 4 Seems very odd to me, although it is preferable to Microsoft’s lazy attitude, where the Xbox 360 has basically been abandoned already.
Jonesy
Don’t forget to save
I’m surprised no-one wrote in about the secret room in Prince Of Persia: The Sands Of Time. Hidden behind a breakable wall was a portal which led to a playable version of the entire original Prince Of Persia game. In defence of my lateness I only remembered while reading this article on the weekend.
During work on The Sands Of Time Jordan Mechner, the designer of the original game, realised he had misplaced the source code for his original game, and could only track down a Mac copy of the source. Last year he found his original files, over 22 years later, and has posted them online. The moral of the story, always back up your data.
jaheim2002
PS: Just finished BioShock Infinite. Very impressive game, lots of fun. Had a bit of a disconnect between the story being told and the actual playing of the game. For anyone who wants another story focused game I highly recommend Spec Ops: The Line. For those who have already played this game the web series Extra Credits does an in depth analysis which is well worth watching.
A universe far, far away
Whilst many seem to be focusing on classic games for Easter eggs I’d like to know if I’m the only one who noticed the following:
In BioShock Infinite during the cut scene where Elizabeth opens a tear to Paris (before having to close it due to an oncoming taxi) it appears that the cinema she opens it near is showing Return of the Jedi (in French) clearly indicating that she’s opening a tear into 1983 when the film received it’s cinematic release.
ardraaken
GC: It’s not Return of the Jedi, it’s Revenge of the Jedi – the name the film was originally going to have before it was changed… indicating that it is a parallel universe and not our own. A variation of the same scene was one of the first to be shown when the game was being previewed, and generated much speculation as to the nature of the plot.
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Moral limit
With the imminent arrival of a new generation of consoles that I personally don’t expect to revolutionise how we can interact with our games, I was thinking about what the holy grail is: as in assuming the technology can exist (and producing it is cost effective), what’s the best experience I can imagine a game to offer in the far future.
Picture a sandbox game not dissimilar to Grand Theft Auto or Crackdown but with genuinely photorealistic graphics, 69 billion other characters with artificial intelligence indistinguishable from real people (let’s ignore the moral aspects for a minute), and every single pixel or atom in the world (including above and below you) interactive in an authentic way.
Of course, if interacting in The Matrix for real is a bit dull you can put on an Iron Man suit and start flying around shooting people if that’s your bag, or you can buy a spaceship and explore the galaxy, with all the other planets mapped out with as much detail as Earth. You wouldn’t sit in front of a TV with a joypad though; you’d put your brain-reading virtual reality helmet on and ‘be’ your character.
A feature of current games I quite enjoy is playing a game within a game, such as when you find an old arcade cabinet in Grand Theft Auto. In my futuristic version, because the virtual world is literally indistinguishable from the real one, imagine if you put on a VR helmet on in-game, getting lost in a game within a game, a bit like in the film Inception with dreams within dreams.
Anyway I digress – clearly there are many obstructions to producing such a game, possibly not least technical, as I can’t imagine any government allowing a game that lets you carry out realistic atrocities to a world with genuine A.I., which prompts the question how much more realistic can games become as long as we’re obsessed with shooting people
Wriggy74 (gamertag)
Assassin’s Creed: The Show
Hats off to the contributor who posted the link to the article about Nintendo’s relationship with EA over the years, there were also some good links to other articles on the message board itself, very enlightening.
Also, I’ve just been playing the first act from Telltale’s The Walking Dead, it’s a nice change of pace from pulling my hair out playing MotorStorm: Pacific Rift and I’m enjoying it very much so far.
mitchell
PS: What does the Inbox/GC think of Da Vinci’s Demons The first episode reminded me a lot of Assassin’s Creed II, without the charismatic lead character. I haven’t been able to get into it at all, and it’s the sort of TV show I usually like.
It shouldn’t be allowed
Just a warning to the fellow readers. I needed a few games to buff out my LOVEFiLM rental list, thinking Dead Island was OK I threw in Riptide for my PlayStation 3. Oh dear lord what went wrong here The frame rate is horrendous and the game freezes for a second every few minutes or when there’s more than three zombies on the screen to the point It’s totally unplayable. My first gunfight in the game was a slideshow of images.
At first I thought my PlayStation 3 may be going to the heavens to join my Xbox 360, but a quick look on Eurogamer’s technical face off shows the PlayStation 3 version of the game is far inferior to the others and the freezing problem is highlighted. Quite how they are allowed to release it in this state is beyond me. I feel sorry for the people that actually paid for it.
I feel I should do the world a favour and burn the disc rather than send it back so LOVEFiLM can pass it onto another unsuspecting victim.
JB316
Making things worse
First of all, thanks to Big Angry Dad for his feature during the weekend. I wasn’t interested in The Last Of Us before I read it. I’m intrigued now of course. When I started reading about the two different types of enemies my first thought was: ‘I wonder if you can get them to fight each other.’ As I read on it became clear that you had done exactly that (if only accidentally). Clearly you’re going to have to think laterally to get through this game and I always love titles like that.
Secondly, this nonsense between Nintendo and EA. Nintendo are as inscrutable as their countrymen about this and other issues but if I had to guess I would say they’re probably not that bothered about this. EA were trying to bully Nintendo into accepting what will no doubt be a shoddy and overly expensive download service and I’m glad they stood up to them.
If you owned a shop would you let a dodgy Arthur Daley-type character come in and sell watches from the inside of his raincoat and fleece your customers I certainly wouldn’t. Games with endings so pitiful they cause an Internet uproar, extortionate downloadable content that should have been on the disc, and overbearing DRM are three headaches Nintendo don’t have to deal with now that The Worst Company In America has stormed off in a huff.
Mousechime
Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here
One confirmed sale
I’m enjoying all the retro nostalgia recently, I agree with Euclidian Boxes about Clone Wars on GameCube, I had a lot of fun with multiplayer too. Another game I highly recommend is Driven To Destruction on PlayStation 2, it’s one of the best demolition derby games ever made. Very realistic and has over fifteen game modes including races where you tow trailers, race buses and hearses. Also a game of British bulldog (anyone remember that at school! Do kids still play it or does health ‘n’ safety stop it) and a deathmatch mode with exploding chickens!
Best of all it’s got four-player split screen, it’s a game I still play with friends online. This game has a lot of love and lots want a remake. I hope Atari do an HD version, it would sell like hot cakes. Well I would buy it.
rob
Inbox also-rans
I seem to remember on one of the PlayStation 2 Pro Evolution Soccer games, if you edited the club badge on Man Utd. and zoomed right in on a spot it said ‘f****** scum’. As a Liverpool I found this pretty cool when I heard about it!
bag80
GC: That doesn’t sound very likely to us, are you sure that’s true
Anyone remember the SNES birthday cake I posted last year Well, I didn’t think my awesome wife could top that but I think she may have done it… Check the bad boy she got me this year!
Country Mike
This week’s Hot Topic
The subject for this weekend’s Inbox was suggested by reader Keef25 (PSN ID), who asks what is the most embarrassing moment in a game that someone else has caught you playing
Whether it’s the whole of a game or just an atypical sequence have you ever been playing with someone else watching and felt really embarrassed by it – and what you worry it might say about you Perhaps it’s something that was extremely violent or which featured overt sexism Maybe it was terrible dialogue or acting, which you put up with in context but seems ridiculous when viewed separately
Or was it a game that to the casual observer seems to be aimed only at children – or which had an unfashionable theme or setting Maybe you were just playing very badly or failed to solve an obvious puzzle Do you actually care what people think of the games you play and are there some that you would never let someone else see you play, in case they got the wrong idea
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