Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time ~ review

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a computer game / video game from Ubisoft released in late 2003 and is a reboot of the popular Prince of Persia video game series created back in 1989. A commercial and critical success, the game let players to take on the role of a prince who were tricked into releasing the magical sands of time which turned the occupants of the palace into monsters. To save the kingdom and his father, the King of Persia, he must work together with a beautiful prisoner named Princess Farah and defeat the Vizier who tricked him into releasing the sands. Since the game that I played is for the PlayStation 2, this review would be talking about the aspects of the game on that platform instead of on PC. And also please note that this review will contain spoilers. Without further delay, let's start dissecting Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

First stop, the plot. This video game put players in the shoes of the Prince, the son of King Sharaman of Persia, who had released, unknowingly, the sands of time throughout the kingdom and turning all the occupants of the palace into monsters. With the aid of Princess Farah, the player will then explore throughout the vast areas of the castle to try reverse the situation by returning back the sands of time into the hourglass that had once stored them. I personally feel that the story was just okay at first but as I played along, I fall in love with the story as it became more emotional, engaging and interesting. I also like stories with time travel element in it, so the time travel element in this game also helps in making me fall in love with the plot. I like the growth of the main character, the Prince that players control throughout the game. You can see him slowly learning from his mistakes and bad behaviours and try to wrap things out in his head (that players will learn through his monologues) while this bizarre incident resulting from his action in releasing the sands is happening all around him. The developer managed to create a character that players can root for, something that I feel is important to make the players relate with this story.

The inclusion of Princess Farah made the story even more interesting with the love twist and since the Prince mostly interact with her as there are not many talking characters in the game, she is definitely an integral part of the story as well as the character responsible for the growth of the main character, the Prince. The main villain, the Vizier, is also an interesting character in the game. But sometimes I cannot really grasps what he wants to achieve with his plan and that somehow made me feel like he is not a strong villain that I would like him to be. I personally think the developer could have done a lot better with him and make him a greater villain. One other thing that I would complaint is that it was sometimes hard to follow with the story because of the low-volume of the character's voice during cut-scenes. It was a bit weird since the music that played during gameplay was loud enough but somehow the volume got lowered during cut-scenes. To be honest, it was pretty annoying.

Exciting upcoming video games ~ The Evil Within and Dying Light

Personally, I feel that video gaming is such an expensive hobby. I love console games but the consoles and the video games are so expensive here that I just can't afford to have them, well at least the latest one. But still it's fun to keep up with the news on upcoming games, and here are two of them, both from the horror genre (since I love horror). Let's start with The Evil Within.

The Evil Within is the first video game from developer Tango Gameworks, and will be published by Bethesda Softworks for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows. The video game is being directed by Shinji Mikami, the man behind the successful Resident Evil video game franchise. According to what I read online, Shinji Mikami intended to bring the true survival horror genre back to life with The Evil Within as he was disappointed with recent survival horror video games which put too much emphasis on action. Has you seen the video gameplay of The Evil Within? It looks so scary and horrifying. The graphics, the atmosphere, the monsters and the chasing scenes; everything look perfect! I especially like the apocalyptic scene when the main character ran out of the building, and also the monsters design. Don't you think the monster with the multiple hands looks terrifying? I got chills just by looking at it coming out from the floor. Looks like The Evil Within will be an interesting video game. No words on when it will be released yet but from the official website, it stated that the game will be released this year (2014) so expect to hear more news from the developer soon. You can also check out the gameplay demo in the official site below.

The Evil Within official site

The next video game that I want to talk about is Dying Light. The video game is being developed by Techland for PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Microsoft Windows, and it will be released end of March 2014. The game has a zombie-apocalyptic type of setting, and the players have to explore open areas to find supplies and craft weapons to fight these hordes of zombies. What is more interesting is that the game has a day and night cycle. Judging from the gameplay video that I watched, the night zombies are more frightening and vicious compared to the day zombies. The gameplay does look a bit like Dead Island though, Techland previous video game that featured zombies. I never played Dead Island before but I read comments that the actual game didn't live up to the hype when the trailer for that game first came out. I'm not sure what the fans think about Dying Light; are they excited about the game or are they worried that the final product would not live up to what had been revealed so far in the trailer and gameplay demo? But I think the game would be just fine since I personally think it looks interesting, fun and challenging. You can check out more info from the official site below.

Dying Light official site


Both games look deliciously fun and promising, hopefully both of them deliver amazing gaming experiences for players worldwide. Are you ready to be spooked gamers?