Prince Of Persia [PS3 / 360]

[prinnysquad]

That was a great section, really cinematic.

I think the camera in this game is mostly excellent. For a game that relies on the full 3 dimensions it's very flexible. I rarely had any real troubles with it.

[toythatkills]

That was a great section, really cinematic.

I think the camera in this game is mostly excellent. For a game that relies on the full 3 dimensions it's very flexible. I rarely had any real troubles with it.

The camera works so well because of the kind of platforming involved, though. There's generally always one specific route through every obstacle, so the camera knows exactly where it needs to be to overcome that specific obstacle. It's almost a 2D platformer, really.

[prinnysquad]

That's why the camera is so good though. It knows it's place and, if things do go wrong, it's very flexible. There are quite a few more open sections, and the camera is still very responsive and assumes sensible positions.

Compare it to the Tomb Raider games, where there are many specific routes, yet the camera flies around erratically. Lining up a jump in Tomb Raider, and sometimes the camera spins to face the character. Madness. So many games have a very poor camera despite the clear and obvious nature of the route. PoP does the camera so well that it's taken for granted. Personally I don't think it hides behind strict linearity.

[gunrock]

So many games have a very poor camera despite the clear and obvious nature of the route.

Going OT a bit, whilst I agree with you wholeheartedly about crappy cameras in most games, have you ever tried writing camera code? I can tell you, it's one of the hardest things I've ever done and I was never happy with the outcome.

It probably explains why so many games camera's are rubbish and why Super Maerio 64's camera is still the pinnacle of 3D game cameras.

[prinnysquad]

I'd well believe it's a nightmare to get right. The fact that 3D games have been the norm for over a decade and so many games still can't get it right is testament to its difficulty.

[EvilBoris]

Most developers hand become really lazy though having a spare stick to control the camera with

[prinnysquad]

Imagine if there was no camera stick though. Every game would need a perfect camera

It's a self-perpetuating skankorama. Bad camera = need for stick = lazy programming = need for stick heightened...

[ItsThere]

Imagine if there was no camera stick though. Every game would need a perfect camera

It's a self-perpetuating skankorama. Bad camera = need for stick = lazy programming = need for stick heightened...

It would be like every game was Mario 64...

[Number45]

Never understood the praise Mario 64 gets for its camera.

[MikeRox]

It's camera still beats out most 3D titles now, which given it was the first game to properly encounter the problem of dealing with a fully free roaming world and is now over 12 years old alone IMO warrants it the praise it's received over the years.

[Brats]

I think Mario 64's camera is far from the best. It's basically a fixed perspective camera where the player has a limited choice of perspectives. It's friggin' awful when Mario is hanging from something and there are several occasions where you have to walk across something thin and the camera shifts perspective slightly so that the player has to adjust the analogue direction to compensate.

For one of the first cameras, it's fab. But there are better.

Back to PoP, does anyone have an opinion on the DLC? I loved the main game. Is this more of the same?

[ezee ryder]

Yeah I finished it 2 days ago and it is pretty good. Gameplay wise it is more of the same with a couple of interesting "puzzles" and the story is expanded on pretty well too.

If you're after 3-4 hours of PoP action then you can't go wrong with the Epilogue DLC

[Brats]

Cheers. I'll go for it .

[toythatkills]

finished the epilogue and it was more of the same really. There were quite a few annoying and frustrating sections (most of them to do with a particular power plate) but still the game manages to be fun.

Not the one where you wallrun a bit and then have to slide down to another powerplate but you always end up slightly too far to the right, was it? That took me many attempts

->Open Spoiler<-

before realising you just had to press RT. D'oh!

->Open Spoiler<-

Elika takes off to "find her people" and totally ditches the Prince with Ahriman on his back, so I'm guessing the next game or DLC will see him trying to find/chase her down.

->Open Spoiler<-

Not sure about that, it'd be interesting, but how would they cope with Prince being able to die? Not much really happened in the Epilogue, did it? I feel very much like we're just back to square one which is kinda nice because a happy ending is going to ruin this, but at the same time, something could have happened!

Anyway, the DLC, enjoyed it! Will play it through again (probably twice) for achievements. It's not as good as the main game, though. It's so... dark. It's beautiful still, but since you're just in one big temple there's none of the amazing outdoor environments with all their vibrant colours, and running around them looking for light seeds was by far my favourite part of the game. Fighting is cool, but trying to force an enemy into a gap two metres wide is more irritating than it ever was with tougher enemies.

[ezee ryder]

Not the one where you wallrun a bit and then have to slide down to another powerplate but you always end up slightly too far to the right, was it? That took me many attempts

->Open Spoiler<-

before realising you just had to press RT. D'oh!

->Open Spoiler<-

Not sure about that, it'd be interesting, but how would they cope with Prince being able to die? Not much really happened in the Epilogue, did it? I feel very much like we're just back to square one which is kinda nice because a happy ending is going to ruin this, but at the same time, something could have happened!

Anyway, the DLC, enjoyed it! Will play it through again (probably twice) for achievements. It's not as good as the main game, though. It's so... dark. It's beautiful still, but since you're just in one big temple there's none of the amazing outdoor environments with all their vibrant colours, and running around them looking for light seeds was by far my favourite part of the game. Fighting is cool, but trying to force an enemy into a gap two metres wide is more irritating than it ever was with tougher enemies.

The one you mentioned didn't annoy me too much, it was the sections involving the green power plate. They are quite lengthy (well I think one was anyway) and sometimes even if you just nick the edge of something solid you fall down and have to start right at the beginning of that particular section again.

Yeah nothing much really happened but it does feel like they are actually going somewhere with the story. I'm just interested to see where they will take the next DLC or game from where the epilogue ended. Maybe

->Open Spoiler<-

we will play as Elika

, that would really mix things up!