Failing, Falling, and Feeling

[zoozilla]

I said getting saved is pretty boring insted dying i mean if you're stupid enought to miss jump or miss plan an attack i think pop deserves to die... but no no ***** tits saves his life if i was her i woldent bother with the prince.
but since you bring it up, yeah pop4 was pretty boring COMPEARD to the other pop games.

Maybe next time you could not refer to POP's female protagonist as "***** tits"?

And I don't see how it's "boring". I mean, when you fail a jump in POP, you get a nifty little animation. In other games, you'll usually get a blank screen for a few seconds, then pop back into the game. How is that more "exciting"?

 

[Avatar Roku]

Reading the comments on this article I was reminded of an old "death-evasion" mechanic that is somewhat similar to the one employed in PoP4 (in the sense that it doesn't brake the game flow) -- the Revive-o-Matic capsules of System Shock 2 and Bioshock! Some of you may even remember the comments of many PC-gamers on how this mechanic spoils the Bioshock experience.

That's different, because when you were revived in Bioshock, any enemies you damaged were still damaged, meaning that, theoretically, you could shoot an enemy once, die, repeat, and the enemy would still end up dead. Pop is different because they make everything as if you had reloaded.

 

[BoredKellon]

Wow, that was an amazing read and VERY inciteful. As for me I much prefer the Mirror's edge approach and found it to be a much more enjoyable game as the general enviourment and feel of the game matched with great gameplay mechanics realy drew me in. Prince of Persia however just didn't seem to have that same drawing effect, it was like given two interesting books, both have the same basic story and elements in them but the one was just written in a way that really draws the reader in and makes it hard to put down. Both are good an similar, one is just better for certain people and one for others.

 

[Fugue]

I think the Prince of Persia revival mechanism is a whipping boy for its generally low difficulty. You will note several reviews still state that it is frustrating to have to repeat a particularly long sequence of platforming regardless of the save, and the Wings of Ormahzd is a particularly frustrating mechanic.

Frustration at Mirror's Edge seems more angled towards the fact that despite being urged to avoid enemies wherever possible, the game throws segments where you are told you must engage enemies to continue, something Faith is deliberately designed to be poor at. That several of these segments are in fact avoidable does not excuse the mixed signal; many players still engage those enemies on first playthrough, and being killed over and over due to the relatively high difficulty of timing disarms or defeating multiple enemies is a common complaint.

I think the major difference in terms of difficulty, as well as the source of claims that PoP's game mechanics amount to 'excessive hand-holding' comes from the difference in control. Ironically, while many people were skeptical of Mirror's ability to handle platforming in a 1st, rather than 3rd person perspective, the end result is a capable platformer with intuitive controls. Prince of Persia takes a 3rd person perspective, and then automates a lot of the movement so that it is rare that the player will be off angle or off time on any jump. You can perform a string of movements which would require intense concentration in Mirror's Edge to perform by sitting back and pressing the jump key on Prince of Persia.

It's not because you get rescued that the player's sense of achievement is lulled in Prince of Persia. It's because whilst playing it you have an eerie sensation that the game is responsible for most of the cool stuff you're doing. It's similar to Assassin's Creed's "Hold this button down to be awesome" system, only more automated.

 

[FlipC]

To my mind the causes of death for any platformer can be related to one of the following three:

1) Cack-handedness
2) Pixel Perfection
3) Lack of Guidance

The first is obvious, if you hit L1 instead of R1 and do a running roll off a cliff instead of a jump that's your fumble. The only valid whine is for context-sensitive keys when instead of doing a wall-climb to land atop your enemies you do a wall-run halfway across that pit of very sharp spikes.

The second crops up less the assumption being that if you've jumped towards that bar then that's what you were aiming for, provided you're not a metre out either way you should catch it. If you are that far out then see point 1 unless you can complain about faults of perspective.

The third is the simple case of being at location A and trying to get to location B without a single clue how to do it. As there's usually only one 'correct' route every other effort can often lead to messy death. For a leisurely stroll this prompts you to slow down and puzzle things out, for anything with any form of time constraint flashing neon arrows are a necessity.

I've not died in a single platformer without one of those causes, however it's the balance that matters. If I wheeee, thud because I hit the wrong key that's my bad. If I'm pinwheeling my arms because for some reason I couldn't grab that ledge that's passing right by my face or if I'm running off buildings because I'm unsure where I'm going - that's the game's fault.

So two games where you fall a lot and one's declared easy and the other hard... depends why you're falling.

 

[Azzaevil]

I said getting saved is pretty boring insted dying i mean if you're stupid enought to miss jump or miss plan an attack i think pop deserves to die... but no no ***** tits saves his life if i was her i woldent bother with the prince.
but since you bring it up, yeah pop4 was pretty boring COMPEARD to the other pop games.

Maybe next time you could not refer to POP's female protagonist as "***** tits"?

And I don't see how it's "boring". I mean, when you fail a jump in POP, you get a nifty little animation. In other games, you'll usually get a blank screen for a few seconds, then pop back into the game. How is that more "exciting"?

dude you're probly not old enought to play or see the death sceens yet so go away back to the blank out death sence games that you play.
you probly right about the ***** tits thing she barley matches a b cup.

 

[ScarfaceNY]

I said getting saved is pretty boring insted dying i mean if you're stupid enought to miss jump or miss plan an attack i think pop deserves to die... but no no ***** tits saves his life if i was her i woldent bother with the prince.
but since you bring it up, yeah pop4 was pretty boring COMPEARD to the other pop games.

Maybe next time you could not refer to POP's female protagonist as "***** tits"?

And I don't see how it's "boring". I mean, when you fail a jump in POP, you get a nifty little animation. In other games, you'll usually get a blank screen for a few seconds, then pop back into the game. How is that more "exciting"?

dude you're probly not old enought to play or see the death sceens yet so go away back to the blank out death sence games that you play.
you probly right about the ***** tits thing she barley matches a b cup.

"***** tits ***** tits go away ***** tits we dont want ya here go play somewhere else because all you do is stand the and pop out of nowhere to save the prince's dumbass" thats my song lol...Also is she like fuckin psychic or something i think she should die also zoozilla stop being a fag its a game and he has the right to say what he wants dude im not saying you are but dont be a POP fanboy i honestly liked the games until this game screwed up the franchise