Prince of Persia Updated Impressions - New Environment and Boss

We check out a new boss called the Alchemist as he seeks to protect a region called the Vale.

One of the biggest differences between the latest Prince of Persia game and the Sands of Time trilogy that practically defined platforming on the last generation of consoles is the level of openness you're given to explore this game's world. You won't be strung along from level to level as the story dictates. Instead, there are four main environments that you can navigate however you please, with the only limitation being the order in which you unlock your four magical acrobatic powers that determine the path you take between each region. We've previously seen three of the four regions--most recently when we covered the basics of platforming and combat in last week's look at the City of Light--but Ubisoft recently paid us a visit to show off the game's fourth area. Known simply as the Vale, this region is defined by its distinct departure from traditional Persian architecture and the region-specific boss, called the Alchemist, who haunts you at every turn.

Welcome to the Vale.

A lot of the environments in the Sands of Time trilogy were firmly rooted in the aesthetics of traditional Persian palaces and fortresses, and you'll even see some of that in the new game. But the Vale is quite different in its design. There's a wooden, industrial look that replaces the familiar rigid, geometric designs of old. It's described by producer Ben Mattes as a combination of M.C. Escher paintings, Leonardo da Vinci sketches, and the classic adventure series Myst. You'll see towering wooden structures held aloft by tattered balloons with metal wheels that once controlled the local water supply, not to mention a sickly green hue covering everything in the far-off distance. This off-the-wall design affects the game's trademark platforming, too; you'll feel less like you're running amid fallen castles than through someone's slightly twisted vision of a mythical wooden city.

Prince of Persia's story begins with all four regions in the game infected by the corruption of Ahriman, an evil blight that manifests itself in the form of a deadly black substance covering various surfaces and is capable of producing enemies and unexpected hazards at a moment's notice. Your ultimate goal is to heal each area by defeating the regional guardian, or boss. We talked about the massive, brutish Warrior in last week's preview, but the guardian keeping a watchful eye on the Vale is quite different. He's known as the Alchemist, and he's much smaller, a bit less powerful, and far more cunning.

The Alchemist is an imposing figure, but he can be taken down with clever combo attacks.

A lot of th This differences between bosses is no coincidence; one of the Ubisoft Montreal's biggest goals for the game's combat was to give each fight a unique feeling. The Warrior can be taken down by luring him around to an environmental hazard, outsmarting him by knocking him into a precarious pillar, or just tricking him into swinging at you near a ledge and knocking him down into the abyss while he's off balance. The Alchemist, who looks like a skeleton wizard, is much smarter than that, so you'll need to wear him out rather than trick him with one well-placed attack.

The reason for this shift in battle strategies? The Alchemist, being a mage of sorts, is a master of corruption. That disgusting black goop that adorns so many walls and surfaces is essentially a poison for the Prince. But for the Alchemist, it's his biggest defense. You can hack and slash your way through the battle for a bit, but eventually you'll only push the Alchemist into the ring of corruption that surrounds each battle. What you'll need to do is use the Prince's combat combos to your advantage. On the Xbox 360 version we played, A is jump and roll, X is attack, Y is vault, and B is grab--so what you'll do is soften him up with a few attacks, vault above him, and jump onto his rear side so that you're facing him from the opposite angle. This particular combo allows you to attack him facing another direction to avoid pushing him into the corruption, where he can simply be absorbed and teleport to another part of the ring. Battling the Alchemist is all a matter of keeping your momentum going with combos, a strategy that works great here but not necessarily with other bosses.

The new prince maintains the same agility and acrobatic prowess the last one had.

Defeating a region's local guardian will heal that area, removing all traces of corruption to allow you to reach brand-new areas and collect what are called "Light Seeds." These mysterious orbs act as a sort of currency in the game, and collecting a certain amount will allow you to unlock a new magical acrobatic ability that gives you access to certain regions--a sort of choose-your-path approach to laying out the flow of the game's levels. The whole system seems very intriguing, and it even has a teleport function that ensures you won't have to do too much backtracking when going back to collect Light Seeds in areas you've already explored. Combined with the striking new visuals that offer cel-shaded characters and an incredible amount of vibrancy in the environments, this new Prince of Persia feels quite different for a game that maintains such similar platforming mechanics. We'll see how the whole package comes together when it's released on December 2.

Credit: By Shaun McInnis, GameSpot

Dragon Age: Origins Updated Q&A - Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, and Now

Dragon Age: Origins has a lot to live up to, considering its predecessors Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. Executive producer Dan Tudge explains how the new game will stack up.

Dragon Age: Origins is the next role-playing game from BioWare and will tell an epic story in a dark-fantasy world. Although the studio became a premiere console-game developer with 2003's Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic for the original Xbox, it really made a name for itself years earlier with the epic computer role-playing games Neverwinter Nights and the Baldur's Gate series, dating back to 1998. Yet the studio is determined to take all of the best features of its past games and make an even better, more-evolved role-playing game. Executive producer Dan Tudge explains.

GameSpot: We understand that Dragon Age: Origins is intended to be the spiritual successor to BioWare's best fantasy role-playing games, such as Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights. What was it about those games that you definitely wanted to capture in Dragon Age?

Dragon Age will attempt to offer an epic, story-driven experience that tops Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights in every way.

DT: Fans who loved the rich story, interesting characters, and tactical combat in the deep fantasy setting of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights will love what we're doing in Dragon Age: Origins. We're capturing the same great spirit of story, exploration, tactical combat, and character progression that we delivered in those previous titles and bringing it to a dark, heroic fantasy setting. We've taken a lot of what we learned from creating Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights to make Dragon Age: Origins even better, so fans can expect a lot of what they enjoyed about those games, but with next-gen improvements.

GS: Both Neverwinter Nights and Baldur's Gate had long-running stories that spanned multiple games/expansion packs. Over the course of those stories, not only did players' characters become stronger, the characters and world around them changed: key characters died, and allies became traitors. How does the story in Dragon Age compare?

DT: BioWare has always focused on delivering deep, story-driven experiences, where your actions and choices have meaningful consequences. We're taking that even deeper with Dragon Age: Origins by introducing a new feature called "origin stories." You start the game by choosing and then playing through the origin story of your choice. You start off in a unique place in the gameworld, which sets up the way you become a Grey Warden and flavors the rest of the game in terms of your motivations, how you perceive the world, and how the world perceives you. Your choices will open up different story branches, dialogue options, affect how other characters treat you, and change the state of the Dragon Age world by the end of the game. Compared to our previous titles, the story and scope of Dragon Age: Origins is the most ambitious of any BioWare game yet.

GS: While most RPG fans enjoyed the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games, some hardcore players complained that the ethical alignment system wasn't completely balanced--for instance, some characters didn't truly play to their alignments, and also that playing an evil character wasn't nearly as fleshed-out an experience as playing a good character. How will these issues be addressed in Dragon Age?

DT: You can choose which type of hero or antihero you want to be, meaning that it won't always be clear which decisions are "good" and which are "evil." You'll face a lot of tough moral decisions along the way, and sometimes you may have to make seemingly evil decisions for the greater good. The choices in Dragon Age: Origins are not always black and white, but rather, shades of gray. The important thing to remember is that every choice you make will have a consequence. For example, there is a "party approval" system where members of your party may disagree with certain choices you make. If you keep making decisions that they don't like, they may get angry with you, or even leave your party.

GS: Those previous fantasy games were also known for having addictive, hack-and-slash gameplay with plenty of engaging tactical combat. What lessons have you learned from those previous games' battles, and how will they be applied to Dragon Age?

Heh! Time for a bit o' the rough-and-tumble! Dragon Age will feature tactical combat with pausing.

DT: Dragon Age: Origins uses a party-based tactical combat system that is really a next-gen evolution of "pause and play." The action is fast and happens in real time, so if you like to just get in there and hack-and-slash your way through your enemies, you can do that, but you will quickly learn that you will need to think much more tactically if you want to survive. With the pause-and-play system, you can pause the action, issue a string of robust commands to your party members, and then jump right back into the action. You'll have full control of each party member, so you'll have a lot of different abilities and attacks at your disposal, including magic and spell combos. You have a lot of control over the camera, too. You can zoom out to a tactical view so you can see all your enemies and direct your party, and you can zoom in so you're right in the thick of the action. That's where you'll want to be when you land a punishing death blow!

GS: Another highly addictive aspect of games like Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights was their character-advancement systems, which, for veteran players, led to a sort of advancement metagame. Not only did players enjoy playing and advancing their characters, they'd also compare, plan, and strategize about exactly how they'd develop their characters--which items they'd eventually use, whether they'd change classes using the Dungeons & Dragons dual-classing system, and so on. How will character development in Dragon Age compare? Will there be any analogs to dual-classing, for instance?

Swords, not words! You'll determine your party's personal and professional development over the course of the game.

DT: Character progression has always been a core pillar of every BioWare game. In Dragon Age: Origins you will choose your player's race, gender, class, customized appearance, special abilities, and of course your origin. Players will develop their skills, talents, and spells to support their style of play. Do you want to create a healing mage, a dual-weapon-wielding rogue, or a sword-and-shield tank? As their characters advance, players can also choose a class specialization that will unlock advanced talents and spells.

GS: The Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights series also had memorable companion characters that joined you on your quest, and opened up opportunities not only for backup in battle, but also side quests and even romances. How will party relations be expanded in Dragon Age?

DT: The party-approval system plays a big role in the dynamic between you and your party members. Make decisions they agree with, and they'll follow and support you. Make decisions they despise, they may turn on you. Each character has a very unique personality making them enjoyable to interact with. However, it is their interaction with each other that I find most entertaining. There are romances you can choose to pursue or not, and you can also forge strong alliances, friendships, or even betray those around you, with different consequences for your actions. Don't forget that your choice of origin story also heavily influences the relationships you'll have throughout the game.

GS: And again, one of the most addictive qualities of those games for advanced players was taking that top-down look at the games and their characters and planning out party composition and party side quests in advance. How much of that element will we see in Dragon Age? How will the pool of joinable characters be expanded to accommodate a wide variety of play styles, such as the players who want to play a party with nothing but evil characters, or the players who want to play through the game with only two characters in the party, and so on?

DT: You can have up to four members in your active party (including yourself), but you'll be able to swap out members of your party for others throughout the game. Each character not only has their own unique set of skills and abilities, but they also have their own unique personalities and behaviors, which may or may not complement your style of play. You'll meet a lot of different characters along the way, so there will be plenty of opportunities to try out different compositions of party members, each with their own unique advantages or disadvantages. It makes for a lot of great replayability, too. And for those who want, you can play the entire game in tactical view just like Baldur's Gate.

GS: And those games ended up living long, productive lives past their shelf date thanks to toolsets and modifications. How malleable will Dragon Age be at launch with regard to users modifying and creating their own content? What specific plans do you have postlaunch to further extend the game's life with expanded toolsets or other community-focused content-creation tools?

DT: We'll be announcing more details of the Dragon Age Toolset very soon, but for now I'll tell you that we can't wait for the community to get their hands on the new toolset. We really wanted to empower our fans with the ability to create their own next-gen adventures within the Dragon Age universe, so they can expect a lot of great things they can do with scripting, cinematics, objects, and so on. And of course, we at BioWare will provide lots of support on our community site. We do have some very cool plans for downloadable content, but we'll be talking more about that later.

You must gather your party before venturing forth, and you must also wait until 2009 for Dragon Age: Origins.

GS: Finally, is there anything else you'd like to add about the way you hope Dragon Age will stack up against the Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights games?

DT: A big difference between Dragon Age: Origins and our previous fantasy games is that Dragon Age is our own original dark-fantasy universe. It's a completely new world that BioWare designed from the ground up, with its own deep history and lore, so fans will see things that they haven't seen before in other fantasy games. It's also the darkest and grittiest game we've ever made. It's intended for a mature audience, so if you're looking for a fun, sophisticated game with a page-turning story set in a huge dark-fantasy universe, this is the one for you. It's BioWare fantasy role-playing at its finest, and you may even be shocked by some of the things you'll see...!

GS: We can't wait...! Thanks, Dan.

Credit: Staff,Gamespot.com

MLB Front Office Manager First Look

Fantasy baseball enthusiasts now have yet another reason not to sleep.

Just when you thought 2K's five Major League Baseball games (MLB 2K8, MLB Power Pros 2008, MLB Superstars, 2K8 Fantasy All-Stars, MLB Stickball) were as far as any developer could milk an exclusive license in the span of a year, 2K has provided yet another twist on America's pastime. MLB Front Office Manager, developed by Blue Castle Games, places the user in the role of general manager of a Major League Baseball franchise. We had a chance to break down all of the wheeling and dealing in this latest offering at 2K's press event earlier this week.

With batter-pitcher history driving the simulation engine, would-be GMs will have plenty to keep themselves busy on gameday.

As its title suggests, FOM places gamers in charge of managing a professional baseball franchise with a level of control and complexity that will make the casual fan dizzy. Former player and current Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane served as a consultant on the development of the game to ensure as authentic a GM experience as possible. By 2K's own admission, the game targets a specific niche: the roughly 3.5 million participants of Fantasy Baseball leagues. It is 2K's hope that this hardcore baseball audience, many of whom spend two to three hours every day managing their fantasy rosters, will see FOM as a convenient alternative (or even a complement, assuming those individuals forgo sleep).

Your employment as GM begins with the typical character creation features. In addition to aesthetics, though, FOM allows you to assign points to various disciplines such as scouting and player negotiation, and even allows you to select from a number of backgrounds such as a lawyer, former player, or talent scout. Combined, your disciplines and background will affect the facets of a GM's profession in which you'll excel. As you continue your career, success as a GM will earn you points to further increase your disciplines. Likewise, bad decisions will result in a regression of your disciplines and will eventually lead to your dismissal as GM. Of course, with 29 other teams to ruin, chances are that another franchise will offer you a second chance.

FOM features a brand-new engine designed to create a simulation realistic enough to satisfy even hardcore fantasy baseball enthusiasts. In contrast to other simulation engines that factor only player attributes to determine results, FOM utilizes actual stats compiled over the player's career to drive its simulation. This includes factors such as a batter's historical success versus that of a particular pitcher, how effective a pitcher is at high pitch counts, and success with runners in scoring position. As baseball fans are naturally attracted to statistics, FOM includes a level of statistical analysis that could rival most sports Web sites. Various splits are available to track player performance in particular months, home or away, and versus Right- or left-handed pitchers, all of which affect gameplay. If you can imagine a metric, it's probably in the game.

The statistics don't stop with current major league players, either. FOM includes five levels of minor league teams associated with your franchise ranging from AAA ball down to short-season players. Although the actual names of these minor league players can't be used, these players are otherwise accurate representations of the real thing.

Based on the depth of statistics, you can probably guess the level of off-the field depth in the FOM. As GM, it will be your task to engineer trade offers, develop scouting pipelines, negotiate player contracts, and oversee the development of your young talent. You will need to balance your zeal for trading with the effect trades may have on team synergy and player morale. In an additional twist, AI-controlled GMs will have their own agendas and it will be up to you to evaluate their mind-sets when proposing offers. FOM includes multiple levels of player arbitration and even includes a "Japan bidding" phase where franchise can bid for the right to negotiate with some of Japan's top talents. In addition to an offline career spanning 30 seasons, you can even pit your GM skills online against up to 29 other players in an online dynasty.

Although only the most hardcore fans may be able to stomach numerous seasons of watching every pitch, FOM's simulation engine includes a full 3D presentation including accurate in-game player models and stadiums. Fortunately, the simulations play out faster than a typical baseball game, with all of the annoying plate pauses and commercial breaks removed. According to the developer, without user interference, a game will typically play out in about 10 to 15 minutes. While this is an option, you will also be able to call the shots when you choose. You have the option to call down to the dugout and direct intentionally walking batters, make a bullpen changes, call for steals and bunts, and alter defensive personnel and alignments. But you won't have the ability to select specific pitches.

Unfortunately, dressing the part won't make your trade offers any less asinine.

As you may imagine, FOM's interface is menu heavy, providing access to the various statistical metrics and trends to keep you apprised as general manager. What is surprising is that FOM manages to bring this depth to the console as well as the PC. While other console-based franchise management titles have struggled to create effective navigation tools, FOB's vertical menu interface is both clean and intuitive without compromising the depth one would expect from a game in this genre. Top-level categories include submenus (many of which include further submenus) similar to navigating a sports Web site. To help you sort out the complexities of running a Major League franchise, an e-mail feature is provided to keep you appraised on the goings-on around the league.

2K's Front Office Manager should provide hardcore baseball fans, especially those who participate in fantasy leagues, with an engaging and authentic experience in the life of an MLB GM. MLB Front Office Manager is due out in January on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and PC. Be sure to look out for additional information on the game as we approach its release.

Credits:By Shanker Srinivasan, GameSpot