Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

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I played this one for the first time at BestBuy yesterday.
The game is definitely good but unfortunately I have concerns in one area.

Initially when I was finding my way to the palace the camera kept on
revolving around me, the Prince. I must say i am one of those lucky ones who
have not had motion sickness while playing games so far (I shudder to think
about it). But this revolving thing definitely made me very uncomfortable.

Once I was inside, it stopped and I got optimistic.
Just wanted to know if that was something specific to the opening area or
something that I would encounter later again? I am hoping it was because of
some button I pressed and I will not have to face it again. Also I do not
like the idea of playing it in first person view as a workaround as I think
I had the widest grin when Prince pulled himseld up the ledge.

When I finished playing, I saw one of those non-gamer muggles, giving me
that "this guy is crazy" look.

If motion sickness is not a concern in this game, I will put PoP in my queue
with a high priority.

 

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.xbox.games (More info?)

> I played this one for the first time at BestBuy yesterday.
> The game is definitely good but unfortunately I have concerns in one area.
> Initially when I was finding my way to the palace the camera kept on
> revolving around me, the Prince. I must say i am one of those lucky ones
who
> have not had motion sickness while playing games so far (I shudder to
think
> about it). But this revolving thing definitely made me very
uncomfortable.
> Once I was inside, it stopped and I got optimistic.
> Just wanted to know if that was something specific to the opening area or
> something that I would encounter later again? I am hoping it was because
of
> some button I pressed and I will not have to face it again. Also I do not
> like the idea of playing it in first person view as a workaround as I
think
> I had the widest grin when Prince pulled himseld up the ledge.
> When I finished playing, I saw one of those non-gamer muggles, giving me
> that "this guy is crazy" look.
> If motion sickness is not a concern in this game, I will put PoP in my
queue
> with a high priority.


One of the most frustrating problems with many games is the camera control.
The two games that were able to properly design the controls are MechAssault
and Splinter Cell; they separates camera control and character control, so
movement of one doesn't affect the other, which is the way it should be.
Other games try to do us a favor by moving the camera where we should want,
but disappoingly fail. Jame Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, Ninja Gaiden,
and Knights of the Old Republic are some examples of bad control design.
Prince of Persia Sands of Time is bad in a different way. You don't have
true control of the camera; you can only sweep the camera left and right,
and moving the stick up and down zooms the camera in and out. There really
is no reason for that. That's one of the worst control designs to date.
The make it worse, there are a lot of situations where you'd like to take a
quick look around to survey your surroundings, but you just can't do it.
You can often get hidden behind an object, such a a stone column, and
there's nothing you can do to see yourself. You just need to get used to
the bad camera control and hope for the best.

 

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Archived from groups: microsoft.public.xbox.games (More info?)

"Arctic Wolf" <SpamShield-ArcticWolf@mail.com-SpamShield> wrote in message news:<2gnhsmF4j7lfU1@uni-berlin.de>...
> > I played this one for the first time at BestBuy yesterday.
> > The game is definitely good but unfortunately I have concerns in one area.
> > Initially when I was finding my way to the palace the camera kept on
> > revolving around me, the Prince. I must say i am one of those lucky ones
> who
> > have not had motion sickness while playing games so far (I shudder to
> think
> > about it). But this revolving thing definitely made me very
> uncomfortable.
> > Once I was inside, it stopped and I got optimistic.
> > Just wanted to know if that was something specific to the opening area or
> > something that I would encounter later again? I am hoping it was because
> of
> > some button I pressed and I will not have to face it again. Also I do not
> > like the idea of playing it in first person view as a workaround as I
> think
> > I had the widest grin when Prince pulled himseld up the ledge.
> > When I finished playing, I saw one of those non-gamer muggles, giving me
> > that "this guy is crazy" look.
> > If motion sickness is not a concern in this game, I will put PoP in my
> queue
> > with a high priority.
>
>
> One of the most frustrating problems with many games is the camera control.
> The two games that were able to properly design the controls are MechAssault
> and Splinter Cell; they separates camera control and character control, so
> movement of one doesn't affect the other, which is the way it should be.
> Other games try to do us a favor by moving the camera where we should want,
> but disappoingly fail. Jame Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, Ninja Gaiden,
> and Knights of the Old Republic are some examples of bad control design.
> Prince of Persia Sands of Time is bad in a different way. You don't have
> true control of the camera; you can only sweep the camera left and right,
> and moving the stick up and down zooms the camera in and out. There really
> is no reason for that. That's one of the worst control designs to date.
> The make it worse, there are a lot of situations where you'd like to take a
> quick look around to survey your surroundings, but you just can't do it.
> You can often get hidden behind an object, such a a stone column, and
> there's nothing you can do to see yourself. You just need to get used to
> the bad camera control and hope for the best.

I undersand and patially agree with your point. However, to compensate
for the tricky spots, they designed a first-person look-around mode,
by clicking (I think) the Black button. You can't move in this mode,
but you can certainly be hanging onto a column and see all around you.

Also, in some tricky areas, there is also an over-head mode by
clicking the (I think) White button. This is great to see an entire
area that you have to run through.

Many games deal with these problems, especially the modern 3D
platformers. Crash Bandicoot will drive you crazy in some spots as
will Voodoo Vince, mainly because it is often too difficult to judge
the distance you need to jump in order to land. In Prince of Persia,
the auto-cam setup was very mature and nicely done so that I never
once had a problem judging distance. If I missed a jump, it was
because I didn't hold down the A button long enough, especially on
those hanging ropes.

But, I do agree, that there were too many times not to notice that the
camera became a pain in the bum. In corners, behind stairwells, and
especially on the Elevator Mission. I had to replay that level about
ten times specifically because of poor camera activity.

I was glad I played through PoP, but it did teach me that these kinds
of games can be passed by in the future and not much will be lost. For
example, I have no interest in Ninja Gaiden because of my experience
with PoP.