I want to introduce you to one of my co-workers, Robby Zinchak. Don’t let his young looks fool you. He’s an up-and-coming associate producer extraordinaire who’s ready to answer all your questions regarding this truly unique, downloadable game. Just don’t ask him to show you his ID. (Just kidding Robby.)

Hi! This is my first time posting here, so I figure I should introduce myself first My name is Robby, and I’m the Associate Producer on FLOCK! here at Capcom. As mentioned previously on this blog, the new episode of Qore (available today!) includes both a video feature on FLOCK! and a fully playable demo!

The premise of FLOCK! is simple: you’re a UFO (the ‘Flocker’) which seeks to abduct animals. Through the levels, you’ll abduct these cute animals by herding them into your Motherflocker (yes, really, we named the ship that :P). But it’s not a simple point A to point B operation – all sorts of peril and surprises lie between the animals and their destination. For instance, in one level you’ll play, there are crops between the sheep and the ship, so you’ll have to make crop circles with your UFO’s depressor beam to make a path for them to cross (finally we know the true purpose behind all those crop circles!). Through the game, you’ll have to contend with numerous challenges. Among these challenges, your flock will face pits, scarecrows, water, bridges, and even trampolines that’ll send them flying!

The full game also includes co-op gameplay, so you can bring a friend in to help you herd the animals. In co-op levels, you’ll have to work together to get your objectives met. For instance, one player may need to lift a gate while another player herds the animals through the gate. It’s a lot of fun, so look forward to it! One of our more unique features is the ability to create your own maps with our built in map-editor. We use the same tool to make the official levels, so you’ll have a lot of flexibility and power in the kind of maps you’re able to make. Plus, you can even upload your maps online where you’ll be able to share them with other players.

Each of the levels (over 50!) is replayable – there are bonuses to beating the map quickly and also beating the map perfectly by collecting all animals. As you beat levels, you’ll unlock new abilities to use and items to place in the editor. Sometimes you’ll need to unlock something later in the game that’ll help you beat a level earlier in the game perfectly. Between all the levels and modes included, we think you’ll be getting a lot of gameplay value out of this downloadable game!

So, hopefully that’s a good introduction to FLOCK!. Don’t forget to download the FLOCK! Winter Qore Demo — you’ll be among the first to ever play the game! It includes a full six levels, with three of the four animals unlocked to play with. We’ve even included the level editor to make your own levels! I’ll keep an eye out for comments here and reply where I’m able to. Keep your eyes out for more FLOCK! news in the coming weeks – we’ll have lots more information coming soon!

While most videogames are based around the idea of causing massive amounts of death, a team at Duke University is working on a game in which the goal is to save it. Virtual Peace is a simulation game intended to help train a new wave of negotiators, where players use diplomacy and work together to deal with a variety of world-changing catastrophes.

They first convene around a virtual conference table but later break into smaller groups. Their task: to negotiate the specific commitments of cash, in-kind and personnel donations that will address immediate needs such as medical assistance, security, water, shelter and food. They also respond to larger issues such as logistical coordination and political rehabilitation.

It's an interesting idea, especially considering this game was helped along by the same studio responsible for America's Army. Project leader Prof. Tim Lenoir says: "We’re trying to train people how to collaborate in groups -- particularly in internationally sensitive situations. The goal is to create an environment where people can practice their negotiation skills -- and it’s a whole lot better use of the gaming engine than shooting ’em up."

I don't know. Organizing relief for devastated families might be noble, but is it as satisfying as shooting an alien in its face? I don't think so.

I've said this about first-person shooters before, but in the interest of fairness, I admit it's completely appropriate to say it of roguelikes too: from one quite valid point-of-view, they're all the same game.

Of course when you look at the games up close this assertion falls apart. This perspective completely discounts Crawl's razor-sharp play balance, ADOM's surprising expanse, Angband's epic struggle against the odds, and Nethack's amazingly complex, interlocking gameplay features. But the core of what makes roguelike games was invented back in Rogue, and a big part of that is the item system practically all the games share.

Many of these items are randomly scrambled when a game begins. If the player saves his game (thus ending his session) and loads it back in later (which erases the save), items will retain their identities. Purple potions will still do whatever they did before the save. But if a new game is started, it will have re-randomized items, and if the player dies, all the item identities figured out are completely lost.

Here is an overview of the primary item categories, with an eye towards a closer examination of each in the future. (Afterwards, we'll have a brief recap of the winners of the 2008 devnull Nethack tournament.)

One-use items, when used, are gone. There is nothing random about them. In most roguelikes, the basic food ration item is like this, a simple, reliable object that fills the player's stomach. Most one-use items like this are types of food.

Since these items are not random, their purpose in the game is more strictly resource-management than the more unpredictable things left by the dungeon litterers. But what happens if there's simply not enough food to survive? Rogue handled this by scattering a few guaranteed rations around its levels, Nethack, ADOM and Crawl players can eat monster corpses, and Angband contains a nearly guaranteed source of food in town.

But the lesson here is one that a lot of people who make commercial roguelikes could stand learning, that non-random items aren't that interesting. Basic roguelike play involves completely searching each level, and if the items are all known then their uses, unless it's loaded with Rogue-and-Nethack-style alternate purposes, will be obvious. Ultimately, roguelike play is about the items found on the ground versus the monsters found in the rooms and halls, with the player serving as the role of intermediary. Anything that detracts from, or makes obvious, those decisions the player must make weakens the game. If all the items found on the ground are pre-identified, like food rations, then that's correspondingly less the player must do to affect his chances of survival.

One-use random magic items are, most often, potions and scrolls. These items are used up when consumed. This plays a major role in the identification game, for even if the result from using the item left no doubt as to its purpose, the item is still lost. Because of this, these items tend to be fairly easy to figure out; the primary cost to ID-by-trial is item loss and negative effects from bad items. Some of these might be bad indeed: the most dangerous item in Rogue was the potion of blindness, which made the game nearly unplayable for a few hundred turns.

A few roguelikes, in addition to non-random food rations, offer one or more random food types. Berries and mushrooms, natural sources of sustenance that may have unexpected, even dangerous, properties are common choices for these. (Shiren's herbs are also like this, even though their other aspects make them a closer analogue for potions.) They are often used as a kind of variant type of potion, and so can, indeed must, have powerful effects, for the nutrition from eating one is almost never worth the risk of identifying it unless the player's character is in starvation mode.

Wearable random magic items are usually rings and amulets. Rogue itself only had rings, which are pretty widely-spread. (It also had the Amulet of Yendor, but that's most of a goal item, see below.) Hack added random amulets, but not many other games have gone along with it. These items are not generally lost when used; they continue to perform their function over time. This eliminates one of the major costs to ID-by-trial, so to compensate most of their functions are subtle. No normal player is going to notice doing an extra +1 to damage. Also, since items with bad effects could have their effect nullified just by removing it, these items are often cursed, meaning the player can't remove it once it is worn without using special means, usually a specific type of scroll.

(Some more recent roguelikes, especially Hack, ADOM and Shiren, have generalized the idea of curses to cover all kinds of items. There, a cursed item will work badly, or in a frustrating or dangerous way, or simply not at all. Some of these games also apply the idea of the opposite of a curse, that is, a "blessing," which similarly improves an item's functioning.)

In D&D, and some other CRPGs as well, a curse is a specific type of bad effect that may or may not make it hard to stop using the item. In roguelikes, a curse is a property of the item separate from its purpose. The curse can be lifted and the item used normally. This doesn't mean the item is suddenly good for you, just that it can be worn and removed freely.

There is one further cost normally associated with these items, and that is food consumption. It's another of those obscure roguelike rules that wearing a ring makes you slightly hungrier over time. (And a couple of rings, hunger and regeneration, make you much hungrier.) The effect this has on the game varies by how perilous the player's food needs already are; in Rogue, the player is often only a ration or two away from starvation, while after the early game in Nethack players usually pass up far more food than they eat. But the presence of the food drain makes clear that developers believe such long-lasting benefits should be compensated for, even if they're relatively minor.

Random multi-use items are a mixture between the two previous types. Nearly all roguelikes use wands (or sometimes, sticks) for this, but there are other types. Usually they have a limited number of charges, and when the item runs out it's useless.

Wands are even easier to figure out than potions and scrolls, and probably still have several charges remaining after an initial trial use, so the resource cost for testing them out is much less. And since they're not wearable, curses don't apply in many roguelikes (unless it's a game with generalized curses). So to compensate, the risk of bad effects is rather greater with wands than the other types. This is helped in that nearly all wand functions involve doing something to a monster. Testing one on a weak monster could be a fatal mistake if the wand turns out to be polymorph, but even something like fire that could whizz by the foe, bounce off a wall, and hit you.

Nethack's spellbooks are a rare example of a multi-use random item that doesn't have charges, or at least not charges that substantively affect the game. (As with many things in Nethack, the precise truth would take a long time to explain.) They must be identified, which might be done by trial. Notably, however, other than the difficulty level of the spell all the bad effects from failing to learn a spell, or reading a cursed book, are the same across spells. Once a spellbook is read, it's always known. (I've always considered this as kind of a missed opportunity; why not make the player figure out what a learned spell does?)

The place of normal equipment is easy to overlook when explicating the roguelike item system. Neither weapons nor armor in these games are randomized in the same way as the other types. A dagger will tend to operate like a dagger, even across games. Leather armor retains its rustproof property without having to discover it each time. The player can acquire knowledge of which items are better and worse and rely upon it between games.

(An aside.... When there is a lot of this knowledge, like of rustproof leather, to acquire, it can contribute to a feeling that the player must "pay his dues" building miscellaneous knowledge before he's allowed to do well at the game. In the old days, this information was either regarded as common—lots of early roguelike players knew about weapons and armor from playing Dungeons & Dragons—or a just reward for clever deduction; now, people see it as just another thing to look up in a FAQ. This is one reason that I believe the future of roguelike gaming leads in the direction of more randomized game elements, as it makes a game more resistant to spoilers.)

While the basic function of normal pieces of equipment are the same, they are still, in a small way, randomized. Weapon and armor pieces carry a property called a plus, named after the concept from Dungeons & Dragons. The plus of an equipment item is hidden from the player until it is identified. The conventions with different games vary; Rogue and Hack-likes reveal the plus of armor as soon as it is worn. Unlike with random magic items, once one +3 long sword is known others of that type are not instantly discovered. Each individual item must be identified to find its plus. Equipment that carries a negative plus (a.k.a. minus) may also be cursed, another property that must be discovered on a per-item basis.

Some games introduce other kinds of per-instance item properties. Angband and ADOM's ego weapons follow this property, an attribute that can be tied to an object that must be identified to discover. Many roguelike games also have artifact items to find; usually these types are identified to the player ahead of time (they are obvious information due to the object's status in legend), but ADOM in particular treats artifact status and name as information that must be identified. But IDing one ego weapon doesn't give insight into others of the same type, and knowing how to make best use of an artifact tends to be spoiler material.

Random magic equipment is something a few games introduced in order to approach Dungeons & Dragons to a closer degree. Mostly, these games are the Hack-likes and ADOM. They include types of weapons and armor that have generic base properties, but also a random magical function. The base properties are tied with the description (snow boots), but each item also has a "real" type (speed boots). The tie between the appearance and magic power is randomized in the same manner as the other magic stuff, so these items vary from game to game. Jungle boots in one game might be boots of water-walking, but in another might be fumble boots.

In a few cases, the "description" of one of these items implies another use, and Nethack's Dev Team is canny enough to also build those uses into the game. Riding boots and gloves are random types, but regardless of their magic, they additionally make it easier to mount and ride steeds. Snow boots make it easier to get around on icy surfaces, although it's possible that its magic type will turn out to be fumble boots, hardly an improvement.

Interestingly, although magic rings have been around since Rogue, Nethack and ADOM provide for random magic armor pieces, and both those games plus Crawl and Angband have artifact weapons (those other two adding "randarts" whose properties vary between games), no roguelike game I'm aware of, major or minor, provides for random magical weapons, on the same scheme as potions, wands and rings.

Finally, there are the goal items. Roguelike games are more about the dungeon than the monsters, so more often the goal is to get some object and escape with it more than to Kill Foozle. This gets a category to itself because, in play terms, these items are often useless, or have an obscure, or purely winning-oriented, kind of utility. Rogue's Amulet of Yendor confers only two abilities: much reduced hunger, and the ability to go up stairs, both of these things being necessary to win. Nethack's Amulet major function is to prevent level teleport, which is necessary to stop the player from escaping thirty seconds after he finds it. Nethack's three "key" items, needed to get the Amulet, also fall into this category. Dungeon Crawl's goal items are runes of which an operator-adjustable number are needed to win (commonly 3, but some players try to collect 13 or even more), and the Orb of Zot, which, like Nethack's Amulet of Yendor, exists primarily to make the player's life more miserable while it's carried.

Surprisingly, marvin did not take away top prize again in this year's devnull Nethack tournament. I sometimes make jokes about his awe-inspiring Nethack skills, but he is an amazing player. This year though he still won 11 games, certainly no slouch. marvin's position as the maintainer of the official Atari window port of Nethack means that his slightly-diminished performance this year gives one pause. Could it be that the reason is a secret round of DevTeam testing aimed at a new release? Interested parties are invited to speculate upon this possibility on message boards throughout the internet. (The preceding statement is an unfounded rumor with no basis in reality. It represents wishful thinking only, and in no way represents a sneaky tactic to prod the Dev'vers into releasing a new version.)

There were more players vying for the trophies this year than any before, likely because of Slashdot's gala 10-year-anniversary article on the tournament. Best of 13, which goes to the player who wins the most games in a row of different alignments, races and roles, was won by hillance. Most ascensions (18 in the 30-day tournament period) was hard-earned by adeon.

The fastest victorious game, in game-time, was played by tenaya, coming in at 8,023 turns. The fastest in real time was played by adeon, bathed in radiance after only in two hours and 22 minutes. The lowest-scored victory was won by nuslayer, who had a scant 24,920 points when he went to his reward.

theta once again won the most types of death trophy, this time "discovering" 161 of the game's reasons for cessation of operation. This was less than last year, but still an impressive display of mortality.

This year's special challenge turned out to be an entire other roguelike game, ZAPM! A science-fiction game inspired by Nethack, it got its own high score, winner and most causes of death scoreboards in addition to its overall challenge board. The game looks interesting in its own right, and may well get its own @Play focusing on it before long. In any event, 87 players attempted it, and 34 completed it.

Yesterday, during the big Atari press conference in London, Infrogames President Phil Harrison mentioned that Atari is planning on future installments of Forgotten Realms games Baldur’s Gate, Dungeons & Dragons, Neverwinter Nights and the racing game Test Drive Unlimited. Being that I am a huge Baldur’s Gate fan, I cannot believe I missed this yesterday, but here it is anyway.

The bad news, at least for fans of any of the above titles, is that none will be released within the next year. However, Harrison did promise that “you will hear more from these but not today, because we’re focused on 2009″. Fine then, dangle the worm out there in front of us, let us bite and then just let us float in the water a bit there Phil. We don’t mind (note the sarcasm).

What else the company may have in store for Neverwinter Nights remains to be seen, because they just released the Storm of Zehir expansion last month. However, the thought of actually getting my hands on another Baldur’s Gate game is what really excites me. The PC games were very fun, and even the console version Baldur’s Gate: Dark Alliance was loads of fun especially with Drizzt popping in at the end (Interplay, Black Isle Studios)– but I won’t even mention the crappy Dark Alliance 2. Wait, I just did. Yeah, it sucked. Hopefully Atari will not make the same mistakes Vivendi and Black Isle did with that stinker should they decide to revisit the console route with it the series. Unless, of course, Vivendi holds the console rights. I have no idea and don’t really care. I just want another good Baldur’s Gate game.

At any rate, Phil Harrision also mentioned what Eurogamer called an “early-09 pledge” for actual retail releases of Sam & Max: Season Two on PC and Wii (no exact date given), and Ready 2 Rumble: Revolution for Wii in March.

As soon as we know more about any of the above titles, we will be sure to let you know. In the meantime, for more information on any of these game, just hit one of the many links.

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• Neverwinter Nights 2: Mask of the Betrayer Ships to North America
• NwN2 Shipping for Mac
• Interplay Reviving Earthworm Jim, Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, Descent, and MDK?
• Neverwinter Nights 2 Gets Cheaper
• Infogrames Makes Offer to Fully Acquire Atari

SPRay is an action-adventure game in which you play an eccentric Prince (Spirited Prince Ray – SPRay) who must save his village from a banished evil Queen who’s returned to capture and enslave the villagers. After donning a magic crown which summons two liquid spraying spirits of the Prince’s personality, he sets out to defeat the evil Queen and her army of anti-matter soldiers. Use the “angelics” and “wicked” spirits to spray water, oil, goo, and other liquids on enemies and surfaces to help you solve puzzles and wipe out evil!

Perform gravity-defying moves as you spray, stick, and slide your way through challenging puzzles

(more…)

Charliesdad asked: Wondering how you addressed the balance issues from earlier entries in the series. For example, Sands of Time was amazing, but going back to it recently the combat wore thin after a while (especially in the first big group fight) to be followed by long stretches of almost no combat. Does the new game fall on one side or the other or is there a middle ground that you all shot for and hit? And Demo tomorrow? Maybe?

First, one of our main goals in combat was to make every fight grandiose and meaningful, to make every encounter feel more epic. Thus, we decided to make the new combat system a duel mode in which every enemy has special attributes, a unique personality, cool moves, and his strengths and weaknesses. Having one enemy to fight at one time gave us much more possibility to push this encounter to the limit. Every enemy is as strong as the Prince and will seize his chance to use the environment, his corrupted abilities to counter every mistake the player makes. Every enemy has a background and their own personal objectives that will help push the story forward. Also, there are multiple combat moves and these will take some time to figure them all out and access the most spectacular combos. Using your glove, Elika, your sword and acrobatics, players will be able to combine those to create some breathtaking moves. This new combat system is not meant to be button mashed, but instead requires timing, strategy and the right combo depending on the situation. Also, many quick real-time mini-games where the player has a little fraction of time to react will keep the tension high. The battle system uses some dramatic camera shots that make every fight feel even more epic. Battles will take place usually before saving a fertile ground and pushing away the Corruption. There are different challenges before healing a fertile ground, one might be an acrobatic challenge, a puzzle, a fight and a lot of them are mixes of them all.
Sorry, there are no demo plans at this time.

KingBroly asked: What’s the framerate like on the PS3 version? I’ve heard this game employs the same engine as Assassin’s Creed, and the framerate on the PS3 version of that…not so good.

Fluidity of control and animation quality are hallmarks of Prince Of Persia games. We would never ship a POP title unless we were confident the player could fully appreciate the movement of the Prince in acrobatics and combat and – simply put – framerate hiccups get in the way of that. They break the

We have some of the most talented PS3 engineers at Ubisoft working for us on POP (and Ubisoft has now made quite a few PS3 titles) and I can assure you the performance on the PS3 is the same as the 360 – a solid 30fps throughout the game.

narde15 asked: are their any trophies?

POP does indeed ship with trophies from day one.

FeaturePreacher asked: Will the prince be able to use different weapons besides the sword that is seen in gameplay videos?
AND
Will the prince be able to level up his combat abilities? I hope the prince has a long list of combat combinations. Does he?

We want the player to feel like the Prince is an adventurer with a lot of experience already – he is an acrobatic warrior who has already been through and seen a lot. As such it made sense to us that he start out this adventure with all his abilities unlocked. Elika, on the other hand, evolves in her abilities as the game progresses, unlocking new magical abilities. What is important to us is that the player still feels a sense of progression and development because the « duo » of the Prince and Elika are certainly evolving as you play.

Finally, simply because the Prince has access to all of his abilities from the beginning of the game, doesn’t mean the players will know how to use them all. If it is your first time playing POP, don’t expect to be able to pull off the 14 hit combos and complete long uninterrupted strings of acrobatics without pausing - you’ll evolve towards that in time as you get more comfortable with the game systems.

SantanaClaus89 asked: Ever since The Sands of Time this series has been in a downward spiral. What if anything has been done to take the series “back to its roots” so to speak?

In POP Sands of Time trilogy, the innovation was the Sands of Time. We felt the need to find a new innovation for this new chapter:
• Open-ended structure
• New combat system
• New artistic direction
• Role of the secondary character, Elika

But you can also rest assured we’ve also kept the core fundamentals of what made the Sands of Time trilogy great.

• The balanced mix of acrobatics and combat
• Excellent visuals
• Highly detailed character and story
• Highly responsive controls
• 1001 night’s universe / fantasy elements

As you read this some reviews will have already hit online (IGN scored PoP 9.3, for example). One of the best compliments that any reviewer has given us so far is that we’ve recaptured the magic and mystery that made the original Sands Of Time so great.

narde15 asked: are you working on a prince of persia, playstation home space? will you consider one in the future?

We are not currently working on a Prince of Persia home space but we might consider it for future games.

DeforMAKulizer asked: What made you guys ditch the realistic style followed in AC and trying out for the new water color style? And which game was hard to code for… AC with its realistic graphics? Or maintaining the water color feel in PoP?
Thanks! Can’t wait to go back to the PoP series =D

We wanted to embrace the fantasy nature that defines every Prince of Persia game. The ‘Photorealistic’ artistic direction that is seen in so many games right now did not fit in well with the magical world we were exploring with this game. We wanted to try something new and the “Illustrative” art style really represents our vision in this game – to make it feel like a storybook.

chaosatom333 asked: I am disappointed that U guys didn’t include any time-shifting powers.
They were awesome. Why did u guys do that?

That mechanic started to feel old to us – it had been copied in many other games and had lost some of its uniqueness. Elika is our new sands of time and I think she more than makes up for their absence.

chaosatom333 asked: How long in production have u guys been?

Three years, start to finish.

chaosatom333 asked: How long is the game relatively speaking? like 12-16 or less. Something like that. How much platforming is there? The more the better imo.
Fights are nice too.

An average player will probably take around 12-15 hours to finish the game if they do the bare minimum needed to complete it. If you take the time to learn all of the backstory of the characters (through our ODD system) and collect all of the lightseeds (to get all of the trophies) I think you can certainly expect more in the range of 18-20 hours.

In terms of the breakdown between acrobatics and combat, it is hard to say for sure due to the open structure of our world. Certainly, though, there is the potential for you to spend a lot more of your time doing acrobatics then combat.

narde15 asked: how big is the world of prince of persia? will their be side quests?

It’s quite big. It will take you some time to travel from one end to another. Also, It depends of the path you take to make your way around. Additionally our world features a lot of vertical gameplay, taking you up to some dizzying heights to survey the world down below you as you progress through your quest. The size and height of our world certainly gives it a massive sense of scope.

Munkeh111 asked: What percentage of the game is combat? I am hoping for a high percentage of platforming!

It’s hard to say for the exact percentage but you will spend more time platforming than fighting that’s for sure. Collecting all the light seeds will definitely make you spend hours exploring the world, platforming and using your head to figure out how to get to that light seed! There are many combats as well.

lifeRPGs asked: What are Ubisoft’s plans for the after-PoP?

I’d be drawn and quartered if I gave away those secrets. Just a few days ago I saw an advanced prototype of an incredibly top-secret game and was floored with how cool it looked and felt. While I watched it being demoed I was furiously taking notes for ideas to draw inspiration from on my next game.

CrimsonFox13 asked: Beautiful art style. I’ve never played a Prince Of Persia game before, although I’ve always been interested. The beauty of this game captivated me. The game reminds me of Team ICO games. There’s a beautiful landscape with platforming involved, like the Team ICO games, and you’re traveling with a woman, just like in ICO. Did you draw any inspiration from either or both of the Team ICO games?

Team ICO is definitely an inspiration for us and both Shadow Of The Colossus as well as ICO were games we played extensively during the development of POP. Team ICO consistently proves that videogames can be so much more then “just” a form of entertainment – they can enlighten, teach, and make us feel. I welcome any and all comparisons to the incredible development talent of that studio.

It was very important to us, though, that our game be incredible accessible and action packed, too. We were not creating a game just for those players who like “art” in their games. We have spectacular acrobatics, incredible combat and a rich story. In many ways we consider games like Burnout influential as well in their immediate accessibility – you pick up the controller, press a few buttons, and right away spectacularly rewarding things occur. This was very important to us in the development of POP.

farmer_steve asked: For somebody who has never played a Prince of Persia game, how would you explain the experience? And what do you think is the main draw to it?

The first Prince of Persia game was created in the late 80s by Jordan Mechner and has become one of gaming’s most well-known franchises. Prince of Persia is a game with a balanced mix of acrobatics, combat and puzzle solving set in a fantastic Persian world where you control The Prince, the most agile warrior of all time as he Runs, Jumps, Flips and Fights his way towards saving the world. All the games are inspired by the 1001 night’s universe and feature an epic storyline with strong character development.

luckettx asked: How many language tracks have been recorded for the Blu Ray release of this game in Europe?

English, French, Italian, German and Spanish. There are other localized versions (one Dutch, another Polish, another Russian) but the main version will have those five languages on it.

Yuriki93 asked: Does this game have anything story-related to the previous games?

No, nothing that will affect the main narrative. We put in a few tongue and cheek references (hint: pay attention to the ODD system) but just as a ‘nod and a wink’ to the hardcore fans. We are telling a new story within the “Book” of Prince of Persia.

SomethingClever asked: From where did you draw inspiration from (games or other) in this iteration of PoP Some of the big reactions to date have been about the voice of the Prince. What led your team to choose such an American sounding voice actor, and was there any concern over people associating that voice to Nathan Drake?

The choice of Nolan North (Nathan Drake) as the voice of the Prince is entirely intentional. When we were designing the character of The Prince and trying to identify his personality, the two characters we returned to most often were Han Solo and Indiana Jones. Both, of course, played by Harrison Ford. Nolan North showed in his characterization of Nathan Drake an uncanny resemblance to Indiana Jones both in terms of tone and delivery. We thought it particularly appropriate given the heavy influence of these characters in the writing of The Prince that the voice actor we use be one who manages to capture the essence of the influencing characters deeply.

zombiefriend asked: oh also i just remembered is PoP going to have subtitles? i rly hope so b/c i have hearing loss and i wasnt able to fully appreciate ACs story like i wanted to

Prince Of Persia, like all Ubisoft games now, is subtitled in all languages.

PlasmaGlory asked: I know that your philosophy with Elika was to make someone that would never hold you back, so what’s to stop someone from just hiding in a corner and mashing the “Elika Button”?

It wouldn’t help much to just tap the Elika button in a corner. The game requires you to use all of the Prince’s abilities combined with Elika in order to be effective. Whenever you need Elika’s Help, she is there to do so, but only if you are doing something as well (ie: fighting, in the middle of a jump, etc).

Standing in a corner and mashing the Elika button will just summons a compass power over and over again – not much help in defeating the guardians of Ahriman.

jazzyrider asked: what additional items are packaged with the limited edition versus the normal package?

• Collectible Limited Edition packaging
• An exclusive look at the making of Prince of Persia
• A Prima digital mini-strategy guide full of developer’s secrets
• A digital art book
• The original soundtrack scored by master composer Inon Zur

sainraja asked: I am looking forward to this but how similar is this to Sands of Time?
Sands of Time was magical! I loved every minute of it. I thought the story was put together very well. It was the Uncharted of last generation! I can’t to try this out but I am hoping it will give me the same feeling that Sands of Time did.

We consider POP to be the spiritual successor of Sands Of Time. We invested a lot of time and energy into trying to ensure that the sense of magic, wonder and mystery that was so special and unique in SOT was reproduced in this new POP adventure while still bringing some strong visual and gameplay innovations to the series.

In terms of your passion for Uncharted, let me simply say I share your enthusiasm. Uncharted for me was an incredible game because it was so much more than the sum of its parts. I have a hard time putting my finger on the one feature of Uncharted that stood out as my favorite while I was playing, but as soon as I finished I wanted to start over from the beginning and play through again. It is easily one of my favorite PS3 games to date.

Dark_Vincent asked: Will there be different difficulty levels?

The game has just one difficulty level, but the challenge certainly progresses as you play and (hopefully) get more comfortable with the mechanics. New traps are released, more corruption infects the world, and the enemies unlock new abilities and combos.

TripOpt55 asked: Hey, I can’t wait for this game. Here’s my questions: Does the game autosave (or how does it save)? Can you create multiple save files?

POP features a ‘save anywhere’ system. No matter what you are doing, you can create a save (new save or overwrite – there is space for 10 save game slots). We don’t save the exact location, though (ie: if you are in the middle of the air and save, when you load you won’t fall to your death) but rather the last stable platform you were on. Don’t worry, though, these are never very far apart.

Zankantou asked: What motivated your team to take the franchise into a radically new direction artistically?
How did you guys come to the conclusion that this new installment should be not, or loosely, related to the previous trilogy in the last generation of consoles?
Is your team considering using this new artistic engine for future games as well?

In terms of the art direction, we wanted to do something new, something unique. Most of our favorite games – the ones that stand out in our minds years after playing them – had unique visual styles that did not try to emulate reality. Additionally, as I said above, we felt a more fantastic artistic direction would mesh well with our fantasy universe and story. Finally, we wanted to take the incredible concept art and illustrations that our teams created as reference material and do them justice by creating the tools and technology needed to make our game look like the illustrations – a highly detailed painting brought to life.

In terms of why we left behind the old trilogy, we felt the story of the Sands Of Time had been told and it was time to move on. We had never planned to continue to tell the story of the Sands of Time Prince forever, and the universe of Prince of Persia has so much potential for other themes to explore. By creating a new Prince, on a new adventure, we’ve added a wealth of material to the Prince of Persia universe to potentially explore in future games.

Finally, I believe very strongly in the artistic choices we took for POP and sincerely hope that this Illustrative style is used again at Ubisoft moving forward. Of course I don’t have any specific details, but I think it safe to say that the response has been positive enough that we’ll likely be returning to this stylistic choice in the future.

In two weeks we're giving away roughly $7,000 in Cyberpower gaming computers. I'm tempted to just call the whole thing off, pack them up, and hide somewhere in Mexico until I'm bored of playing Crysis, but the show must go on!  Congratulations to the following Dtoiders:

MATCH 1

• Wedge $300
• Reaprar $150
• MeepJeep $50

• Alocide $300
• Don'tstaylong $150
• Dunsparce4prez $50

• Willister $300
• Roshey $150
• Lyfeforce $50

Cash prizes will also be sent this week - congrats guys!

What happens now?

Players will also receive a complimentary copy of Left 4 Dead on the PC and given a chance to practice for the final show-down.  The semi-finals will be score-based, whereas the final game will have a bit of a psycho twist ... we'll reveal the final game rules on the day of the match.  Will it be lowest score wins? (I'm dying to try this on multiplayer, actually.)  Should it be as easy as versus mode? Will the contestants be forced to sing Led Zeppelin songs while playing for the benefit of our Ventrilo community?  You'll soon find out. We hope to capture the matches over Source Recorder and stream it back on Destructoid after the match.  

If you know any of these guys, who do you think is taking the big Cyberpower water-cooled Intel Core i7 system home?

PS. Got Steam?  Join our ever-growing Destructoid group. Thanks, Dyslixec!

In two weeks we're giving away roughly $7,000 in Cyberpower gaming computers. I'm tempted to just call the whole thing off, pack them up, and hide somewhere in Mexico until I'm bored of playing Crysis, but the show must go on!  Congratulations to the following Dtoiders:

MATCH 1

• Wedge $300
• Reaprar $150
• MeepJeep $50

• Alocide $300
• Don'tstaylong $150
• Dunsparce4prez $50

• Willister $300
• Roshey $150
• Lyfeforce $50

Cash prizes will also be sent this week - congrats guys!

What happens now?

Players will also receive a complimentary copy of Left 4 Dead on the PC and given a chance to practice for the final show-down.  The semi-finals will be score-based, whereas the final game will have a bit of a psycho twist ... we'll reveal the final game rules on the day of the match.  Will it be lowest score wins? (I'm dying to try this on multiplayer, actually.)  Should it be as easy as versus mode? Will the contestants be forced to sing Led Zeppelin songs while playing for the benefit of our Ventrilo community?  You'll soon find out. We hope to capture the matches over Source Recorder and stream it back on Destructoid after the match.  

If you know any of these guys, who do you think is taking the big Cyberpower water-cooled Intel Core i7 system home?

PS. Got Steam?  Join our ever-growing Destructoid group. Thanks, Dyslixec!

And holding steady because I can’t seem to find any good ingredients in the 130-150 range. I have several stacks in the 160-165 range (I guess you call stacks of Troll Spit “gobs,” eh?). Does this mean I need to grab a crafting buff from an oRvR battlefield objective?

I haven’t found Apothecary to be very interesting to be honest but the health potions I’ve made have had huge impacts on my RvR performance. I can’t count the times I’ve killed someone only to die to the last couple ticks of their lingering DoT or had someone kill me with only a tiny sliver of health remaining. What happened to pets/squigs living on after the owner’s death? I was looking forward to that feature. Waaagh!

Anyway, my normal crafting routine consists of using a 50 brass glass vial, putting in a high end main ingredient, and then loading up the remaining slots with water or enough to make it a “guaranteed to succeed” potion. Those “makes more, weaker potions” or “makes a shorter duration, more powerful potion” ingredients just don’t come into play; mostly because any time I’ve used them, they haven’t worked.

Can anyone point me to a good Apothecary crafting guide? I only know what I know through experimentation and I have a feeling I’m just not getting it. That or it just wasn’t that great to begin with.

I took scavenging as my gathering profession. Was that a mistake? I seem to gather a lot of water and main health ingredients (strangely insta heal only, never any HoT stuff) but I don’t think I’ve ever picked up an enhancement ingredient. That tradeskill is up in the 180s. Curiously, where do these tradeskills cap out? 200?

I have 150 Apothecary and I’m still a n00b! Please help me!

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