Game of the Month: December 2008
- Posted December 31st, 2008 at 01:45 EDT by
- 5,158 views
- 30 Comments
In November, we shocked a lot of readers in choosing Valkyria Chronicles over the much hyped and anticipated sequel to Resistance: Fall of Man. With a beautifully crafted watercolor style and a strategic element blended into a third-person shooter mentality, Valkyria Chronicles is easily one of the most underrated titles of our generation. We didn't have too much of a debacle this month. Nor can it compare to October with LittleBigPlanet, Fallout 3 and Dead Space. Within the limited releases of December, one AAA title shun brightly.
Ubisoft released the only true AAA title this month, Prince of Persia, and while it was a great game, it faced minor competition in Sonic Unleashed. Regardless of the lack of titles released around the holiday season, Prince of Persia is a title worthy of this honor. As many of you may be aware, the Prince has been around for quite some time; the Sands of Time Trilogy is perhaps one of the greatest trilogies in gaming history. Considering the fan following, many were skeptical of the new direction that Ben Mattes and the creative team at Ubisoft Montreal took with the new iteration.
In the end, they delivered a masterful title filled with vibrant color, a variety of detail, strong voice acting and game mechanics that were nearly flawless. Of course, it would be foolish not to mention Elika, easily the greatest A.I. partner ever created. With the ability to save you from plumetting to your death or taking a deadly blow from an enemy, Elika enables you to stay streamlined within the world of Prince of Persia without being forced to sit through infinite loading screens. Futhermore, Elika offers her delightful insight into the plot that leaves our humorous hero carefully rethinking his place in the entire ordeal.
Our beloved Nathan Drake, better known as Nolan North, lent his voice for the Prince, resulting in a superb voice acting display despite the criticism expressed about his accent. Real-life friend Kari Wahlgren matches up perfectly with the Prince as her chemisty with North is exceptional.
As always, we turned to our forum readers to find out what they thought about the game.
“I play a bit every night between bouts of Resistance 2 co-op, and I like it. Beautiful graphics and good gameplay. I don't find it that easy, as Elika has to save me a lot. The boss fights take me a long time to finish also. I guess I'm just crappy at this game, as I don't know how so many people say it's easy. I like the challenge of exploring the environment, and figuring out how to get all of the light seeds.
Graphics are really nice, and the dialog and voice acting is just fine.” – Alpha
“I'm about half way through with it and as one other poster stated, I don't find it easy either. I have the urge to get EVERY light seed so not being able to reach some or figure out how to reach them gets me frustrated and causes Elika to do double-duty on saving my sorry ***. Aside from that, there is a bit of repetition, but thankfully it's fun. It's worth a rental and if you are into acrobatic games and collecting stuff, this is your kind of game.“ – MartiniMan
“Overall, the game achieves what it set out to achieve: a total remodeling of the Prince of Persia franchise. Even the ease of difficulty ends up contributing to the goal; it enables you to focus on the vibrant environment and great atmosphere. The combat is satisfying because of the length of the later fights and cinematic feel, and it also ends up being frequent enough. The platforming looks cool and is rather fun, even with the extreme amount of hand-holding. For the lasting appeal, you get to collect light orbs around the levels which doesn't feel tedious at all; you end up exploring the levels in new ways and get such great views of the beautiful game.” – darkswordsman
“Prince of Persia had mighty large shoes to fill after Sands of Time. I'll be honest - SoT has been my favourite incarnation of the series. It embodied everything you'd want in a Prince game. It got pretty much everything right and besides a somewhat repetitive combat system, it was spot-on in game play. It looked great.
Ubisoft however, have raised the bar. I didn't think it was possible to equal the titanic achievement they made with Sands of Time - but here I am, after 5 hours or so of the new, next-gen PoP experience, amazed that they have indeed matched the innovation and game play success that was my favourite PoP title.” – -Deadpool-
It’s no secret many have enjoyed this great game. Now we look forward to January and, of course, in our crosshairs is Skate 2. Can anything topple it for Game of the Month for January? Let us know below.
Comments
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sidewalkmailbox |
sidewalkmailbox- 1:51am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 1
pop is amazing no replay value though
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big-boss262603 |
OA1995 - 6:12am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 6
50 cent blood on the sand ? looks awesome or lord of the rings
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supamariobrotha |
supamariobrotha- 6:43am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 7
well i think prince of persia deserves to be game of the month but as far as january doesn't bionic commando come out next month because if it does skate 2 has alot of competition
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Byuu |
Midget- 6:45am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 8
I'm sorry but i disagree, lol i thought PoP was horrible, the fact that you couldn't die made the game have no challenge whatsoever and just when i thought you might be able to die *SPOILER ( when your companion is bound in a boss fight )* you are still somehow magically rescued by her...I mean itss got "Prey" Syndrome it's horrible! sure might look pretty, but so does a 50" poster of Jessica Alba, and if i had to pick outta the two it definately wouldn't be PoP
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Sorgan
- 7:25am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 9
I have to say I was really looking forward to this game, but when I finally rented it I was quite disappointed. I think it could of looked much better on the PS3 and have found that while exploring areas, just because a ledge is showing you actually fall right through sometimes.
I also find the gameplay very repetitive to the point of boredom. IMO, this game is only worth renting and is certainly not worth the money to purchase.
EDIT: This game doesn't deserve a rating of 9 at all, at best it is a 7 to 7.5.
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Dogswithguns |
Dogswithguns- 7:36am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 10
Not one of my faves. this game all you do is jump on the walls, swinging from left wall to right, and climing poles to poles, that's it. sorry but i dont like it.
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xLightAcex |
LightAce- 8:07am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 12
I wish the ended the last scene with full 3D instead of cell shading. It could've produced a greater ending.
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Shenlong99 |
Shenlong_99- 11:56am GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 16
@ 8, so u would rather that everytime u fell off, face a game over screen and have to go through all the loading AGAIN before respawning at the exact same point? The whole point of Elika saving u is that it skips the whole "Game Over" screen and allows u to get straight into the action again.
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BOZTRADAMUS |
BOZTRADAMUS- 12:12pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 17
i got 100 % trophys for POP. the 14 hit combo was really hard.
PSN ID - BOZTRADAMUS -
Dragoonlord |
KillZone3000- 1:10pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 18
wat other games were lanched this month??
bcz only remember PoP coming this month.
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Apollyon
- 2:44pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 21
I loved the Sands of Time and it sequels and thus i was interested in PoP.
I saw the good reviews, saw a few screenshots and bought it - and damn it, i never regreted buying a game more since Perfect Dark Zero.
Basically the whole game is reduced to Quick Time Events. Jumping through the areas just demands one button to be pressed at the right time in order to advance ... ofc a little timing is needed too.
The rarely spreead fights are just as "demanding": If you fight normal enemies near a corner they'll drop faster than they appeared. Bosses take more time to beat, but aren't harder to fight - just be quick on the QTEs and they are a goner, or are they? Of course not, since you have to fight the very same bosses about 6 times without almost any variation in their encounters to finally get rid of them.
After cleansing a fertile ground you have to run through the "almost" exact same area again in order to gather light seeds - granted it was fun at first looking at the beautiful scene and the great animations of the prince and elika, but after a while this seed gathering became a pain in the as* (repetitive).
I loved how the story started and expected more like this during the game, however the cutscenes also were rather rare ... but atleast the were funny. (*spoiler*) The ending was such a huge letdown too - i mean really, i don't need a happy ending but atleast give me an ending! Stupd cheap a** cliffhanger ... .
My advice: Rent it, but don't buy it.
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Blazincloud16
- 2:48pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 22
I've known for a long time this game was gonna be good. =)
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GunsOfLiberty |
GunsOfLiberty- 7:11pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 25
POP is great, voice acting is superb the theme and artistic style is beautiful and gameplay is smooth and sort of 'flowing' without any breaks. 9/10
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a_stray_bullet10
- 7:19pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 26
PoP SUCKS. and how the fk could they choose Valkryie Chronicles over R2? lost a bit of credibility i think PSU.
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wetfbbqchiken
- 8:35pm GMT - December 31st, 2008
- 27
^ Valkyria Chronicles beats R2 easily, pop hasnt done it for me so far though... still playing Valkyria :P
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Free_Agent
- 5:13am GMT - January 1st, 2009
- 28
Not surprising really. R2 sucked imo. Well, the first title only recieved hype because it was the only decent game on PS3 for 4 months, so expectations were low anyways. I haven't tried this game yet as I've been too busy with GOW2 horde mode, but I'll probably pick up valk chronicles first.
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SpyroViper
- 5:12am GMT - January 2nd, 2009
- 29
I don't see how an incredibly casual game like POP can be game of the month.. It is too easy. the battles are pathetic, the levels are poorly designed and the controls are like Assasins Creed (which I found boring and easy). I wonder how many Casual Gamers voted for this title, because I think game of the month should go to something deserving and not a crappy casual easy game.
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