Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones

Once upon a time...
To appease the lowbrow demands of 100 million casual gamers unwilling to spend cash for Ubisoft's brilliant Sands of Time game, the company took Warrior Within into the more digestible realm of "action" and away from the realm of "thinking-man's platformer."

Swords and shadows! Dirt and "bitches!" Warrior was to be Ubi's sinister, consumer friendly modification of the fundamental Sands mechanics that were ever so thrilling and critically acclaimed. But despite best efforts and a healthy dose of hard rocking, Warrior Within cheesily fell short of the amazingly high bar its predecessor set. In trying to appeal to more folks by lining the game with more stuff, much of the original magic was lost. Indeed, an excess of scantily clad women, shadowy beasts and heavy riffs made Warrior Within ordinary, for when all is dark and grimy, even the dark and grimy become bright. A good rule of thumb is to understand when one more stroke is too many and when an excess of magic is drab.

Sadly, it seemed back then that a title of Sands of Time's caliber would just not come, given the new path laid down by Warrior Within for the Prince series. Boy does it ever feel good to be wrong! I'm dazzled. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones is Sands of Time reborn.


Vantage Point
Music, art, acting, acrobatics...story! Each universally applauded part of Ubisoft's first marvelous foray into the Sands of Time trilogy has been recreated here with care and cunning, save for the scarred and craggy, battle-hardened face of our champion. And yet, while this third game offers so much indisputable greatness, it still grips tight to the failing philosophies of Warrior Within in just enough key areas. Two Thrones also suffers slightly from an imposing holiday deadline and the preposterously lofty expectations fans of Sands carry with them at all times.
Narrated now by the somber and knowing Empress of Time in a way that neatly ties the end of Two Thrones to the beginning of Sands, this Prince's journey begins much like Warrior Within or Shadow and Flame, in sea and turmoil. Approaching his home port of Babylon with Empress Kaileena under arm and the Dahaka defeated, the Prince looks forward to rest and comfort, though the smoking ruin of his city will give him none. With his land besieged, his vessel burned, his woman bound, and his house in ruin, the Prince sets out to free his love, reveal his enemy, punish his rivals, and put his home to rights. But even champions are subject to the whims of fate. Along the way the Prince will encounter old friends, older relations and new foes. His story will unwind backward and at once spring forward into a climatic choice between light and dark -- the Two Thrones, one of self-serving indulgence and personal achievement, and the other of unbridled heroism despite consequence.

Reforming the Prince into his original shape was a bloody good idea! Genteel as he is, Yuri Lowenthal's Prince of Persia in The Sands of Time is far preferable to Warrior Within's Wolverine Clone #818. The gruff, self-serving madman who sought to stop the Empress's Sands at any cost was not the young royal plagued by distrust and delusions of glory we all loved. #818 was simply out of place in such a fairytale. Being back in Yuri's shoes just feels right.


Ubisoft also expertly balances Yuri's third Prince between two lines of starkly contrasting motivation, or the two thrones. Throughout the course of this adventure, the Prince must decide what's truly important. He must confront his Dark self as it struggles to gain a foothold on his conscious and he must also fess up to past crimes and move past them regardless of hardship, while listening to awesome music.

By linearly forcing the game on a railroad ride to an inevitable conclusion, and not focusing on the paradoxical "Superman can now fly around the Earth backward real fast" time traveling mechanic to undo old problems and create new ones, Ubi has done away with backtracking and also recaptured the sense of urgency and achievement that were so prevalent in Sands.

There's an actual story here worth seeing. Truly! There're people to meet and save, a villain to thwart and problems to overcome. So move along, young hero, for time is short! Spite the cost of progress and keep going. People will die, but that's unavoidable. Without loss and the potential of greater loss, there can be no satisfaction in victory and Two Thrones knows this -- knows how good it feels to climb that one extra step toward a goal while regretting the few irreversible missteps along the way.

For the most part, Two Thrones also has its gameplay priorities straight: there's combat and there's platforming. Sands of Time separated the two. Warrior Within tried to marry them by populating platforming runs with a fight or two or three. Two Thrones, smarter than the lot, uses platforming as a device to expand combat. The Prince must climb, swing, wall-run and leap his way to a vantage point from which he can quickly dispatch unaware enemies. It's still possible to meet every foe with swords swinging, but there's a real incentive to scurrying up and around enemies before killing them. For one, the new quick kills mean not having to deal with the exact same combat system from Warrior Within, which unfortunately is still marred on occasion by odd character-on-character and character-on-environment collision detection (a byproduct of cyclical development, we assume). Second, climbing with intentions of speed killing means actually being able to enjoy the ensuing God of War-ish mini-games and their visceral conclusions, which also sound great.


The Chain Hurts...A Lot
I really think it's important to appreciate how novel an idea the quick kills are. The best part of Prince is platforming, but without sword clashing action the game runs the risk of feeling lifeless, and so Ubi tied the combat into the platforming in a way to make both types of gameplay better. It's exactly where the series needed to go.
The series also needed some good bosses. Good being the operative word there. Well, Two Thrones has them as well.

Exciting on-rails chariot races and a series of vicious super fiends help break up the classic assortment of sharp traps and new speed killing. All of them are pretty cool. The end boss fight, for instance, is a multi-tiered battle that involves time sensitive platforming, pattern-based combat and even portions of the new quick killing. Those battles that come before it are similarly themed, but differ wildly in execution. Like the finale, the jawless gladiator also requires platforming, combat and quick kills, but the leaping wench is all about the use of existing sand powers to gain an advantage, whereas the axeman and his swordsman companion require tireless parrying and dodging with an eventual speed kill thrown in for good measure. Then there's the enormous garden beast that gets his ass kicked straight away if Prince can stick him in the eye and rein him in like a bronco. Better, the game concludes with a dizzying end sequences that squares the Prince off against his demented alter ego in a dreamlike world reminiscent of the subtle and stylish secret bath Prince and Farah discovered in The Sands of Time's kingly tomb. It's really terrific.

All the while, the adventure is spanning burning rooftops, decadent palaces, palatial gardens, cavernous sewers and towers of such enormity you're sure to walk away with acrophobia. Sands of Time-ish design decisions like those prove Ubisoft was listening to disgruntled fans...intently. But, oily bits of Warrior Within still soak through on occasion.

Though the Dark Prince is an entirely new character exclusive to Two Thrones, he follows the same ideology behind the Sand Wraith in Warrior Within. In terms of gameplay, the Dark Prince is intended to transform players into predators. Unfortunately, he feels underpowered, unpolished and incapable of fulfilling his role. His many chain attacks flail around wildly and his health diminishes constantly, forcing players to snatch up sands of time in convenient crates or by killing more enemies.

his reluctance to drop the "must fight now" combat themes found in Warrior Within -- the Dark Prince and the inevitable rounds of numb goblin hacking that go along with him -- take away from the new ideas of Two Thrones and the better parts of Sands of Time it revived. After a brilliant section of platforming and a very cool interaction with one of the other characters in the game, suddenly we'll become the Dark Prince and have to seek out sands within random crates while chopping goblins. That's how it works, and it puts a serious hurt on the game's flow. The Dark Prince does wield the dagger-tailed chain, which allows him to swing over larger gaps by latching onto sconces and the like, but in combat the whip works like any other sword and doesn't imbue the Dark Prince with any powers more extravagant than what the Prince already has. Thankfully, the Dark Prince only really appears in snips, so he doesn't overwhelm the normal gameplay.

Now we come to it...Godsmack. Dare they resurface? Praise be, they do not. All unnecessarily hard rocking beats have been omitted from Two Thrones. The dynamic music here is crisp and stereotypically Persian in a way that melds Moroccan mixes with the soft wails of spicy Eastern women. The voice, too, as done by series mainstays, is either suitably lively and energetic or appropriately morose and forlorn. Even the effects, complete with spatial echoing and the soft clops of wet leather on stone ring clear. But we have encountered a few minor bugs that abruptly cut tracks off, cause effects to collide with voices and sometimes even stammer speech. Those have been rare, however.

There are less bugs on the graphical side of things, since Two Thrones uses the third iteration of Ubisoft's heavily modified Jade engine. The game still exhibits the smoothest animation around and some of the most dazzling backdrops (that rarely, if ever load), but we would like to see more physics applied to characters and objects, which might improve a missed collision or two. Otherwise, technically Two Thrones is very much like its predecessors. Its style, however, differentiates it from Warrior Within. Its style is what so dearly reminds us of Sands of Time.


Blocks Help Prince Kill
CLOSING COMMENTS
Two Thrones is great. The story is cool, the heroes are likable, the weak are pitiable, the villains are bastards, the major plot points are exciting, the art is grand, the sound is wonderful...and then the gameplay comes. The established Prince platforming is terrific! The new emphasis on acrobatics as a means to extend combat (and vice versa) is exactly where the series needs to go, too. But there can't be so much light without touches of darkness.
On paper, the Dark Prince is a nice way of establishing the real Prince as a character. The darkness's personality highlights the changes the real Prince has undergone throughout the series and elaborates on his motivations, while at the same time contrasting our boy's princely nature with identifiable human failings. It's a fun way of making players feel like champions when they do something heroic. But the gameplay that comes along with his sandy highness works against the overall experience. At times it feels like every bit of wonder is always followed or preceded by the Dark Prince, which represents the sum of Warrior Within's faults -- a reluctant admission that Prince of Persia still aspires to be a simple action game when it's so much more than goblin chopping.

Still, this game is great...damn great. It's a terrific end to a satisfying series.

Read more »

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within

Prince of Persia: Warrior Within is a video game and sequel to Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, a critically acclaimed game released in 2003. Warrior Within was developed and published by Ubisoft, and released on December 2, 2004 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Microsoft Windows.

The game picks up where The Sands of Time left off, adding new features, specifically, options in combat. The Prince now has the ability to wield two weapons at a time as well as the ability to steal his enemies' weapons and throw them. Warrior Within has a much darker tone than its predecessor adding in the ability for the Prince to dispatch his enemies with violent finishing moves.

With the continued success of Prince of Persia, a sequel was made following the same story arc as The Sands of Time and Warrior Within. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones was released on November 30, 2005. A port of Warrior Within was done by Pipeworks, renamed as Prince of Persia: Revelations, and it was released on December 6, 2005 for Sony's PlayStation Portable. The port includes additional content including three new areas not available in the original release.

Synopsis

Seven years after the events of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the Prince finds himself hunted by the Dahaka, the guardian of the timeline. Because the Prince escaped his fate, the Dahaka tries to ensure that the Prince dies as he was meant to. Seeking counsel from an old wise man, the Prince learns of the existence of the Island of Time, where the Sands of Time were created, which is ruled by the Empress of Time. The Prince sets sail for the Island of Time to attempt to prevent the Sands of Time from being created, by traveling backwards through time. He believes that if there are no Sands of Time, the Dahaka will cease to exist as well.

Plot

Exploring the island, the Prince saves a woman named Kaileena, from a woman named Shahdee, in the process traveling back through time using a portal. Unable to grant the Prince an audience with the Empress of Time, Kaileena reveals that activating two towers will unlock the throne room where the Empress hides. The Prince ultimately activates both towers, and returns to the throne room, only to learn that Kaileena is actually the Empress of Time. The Prince kills Kaileena, and returns to the present, believing that he had cheated fate, but soon discovers that when he killed Kaileena, the Sands of Time were created from her remains, so in essence, he created them. The Prince begins to lose hope, but soon discovers the Mask of the Wraith, which is said to have the power to make its wearer coexist in the same timeline with his former self. The Prince finds and dons the mask, transforming into the Sand Wraith. Realizing that he was, in fact, the same creature that he had encountered several times during his adventure and who he thought wanted him dead and that he dies at the hands of the Dahakah while trying to stop his other self. The Prince makes his way back to the throne room, encountering his other self. Remembering how he died as the Sand Wraith, he decides standing idly by and moving out of the way so his other self gets killed by the Dahaka, allowing him to remove the Mask of the Wraith. The Prince had decided on killing Kaileena in the present, rather than the past, which would cause the Sands to be created, but they will not be found by the Maharajah, and thus, he will never have released them in Azad. However various events that he witnessed as the Sand Wraith, as well as the death of his other self, made him empathetic of the Empress and he changed his mind. The Prince forces Kaileena into the present, and tries to convince her that they do not have to fight and thus she has no need to die at his hands. During the conversation the Dahaka appears and the Prince becomes exasperated believing the Dahaka was still after him. The Prince and Kaileena eventually defeat the Dahaka, who was now attempting to kill Kaileena, since she was now in the present. They both then set sail for Babylon together, but as they embrace each other aboard the ship, the city is in flames...

Development

Jordan Mechner, creator of the Prince of Persia character, had worked on The Sands of Time, though not on Warrior Within. He made a statement about the game appearing in Wired Magazine, December 2005: "I'm not a fan of the artistic direction, or the violence that earned it an M rating. The story, character, dialog, voice acting, and visual style were not to my taste."

Notable stylistic changes include:

• The change of voice actors for the Prince. In this game he is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, in the previous game he was voiced by Yuri Lowenthal. Kaileena is voiced by Italian actress Monica Bellucci.
• The Sands of Time featured a soundtrack by Stuart Chatwood, consisting of various Persian influences mixed with hard rock guitars. While Chatwood remained the composer for Warrior Within, the soundtrack became almost purely guitar-oriented, at one point featuring Godsmack's "I Stand Alone" and "Straight Out of Line".^[1][2]

Reception

Critical reviews of Warrior Within were generally positive, though not as positive as Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time^[3][4][5]:

It was commonly agreed amongst popular reviewers that the platforming and adventure elements of the game were equal to, or exceeded, those of its predecessor. The revamped combat system and better integration of combat sequences into the gameplay were also praised, although some reviewers found them boring.^[5] Warrior Within also contained more raw content than The Sands of Time, taking anywhere from 15-20 hours to complete.^[3] The biggest gripe, however, was that Warrior Within was a radical stylistic departure from The Sands of Time - reviewers complained that the game lost a lot of its charm by turning the witty, likeable Prince character into a more aggressive character. The main reason behind this change was cited by Ubisoft as an attempt to garner a wider audience for the title. While The Sands of Time met with critical acclaim, it also met with lackluster sales. Ubisoft revamped the appearance of the series for a broader appeal, which increased sales, but decreased acclaim.

The game also received criticism for uneven difficulty progression and numerous glitches and bugs

Read more »

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a third-person action-adventure computer and video game published by Ubisoft. It was released on November 6, 2003 and is a continuation of the landmark MS-DOS and Macintosh game series Prince of Persia, created by Jordan Mechner in 1989.

The Sands of Time, developed internally at Ubisoft Montreal, successfully captures the mechanics of the original platformer and extends it to the 3D generation. An earlier attempt by The Learning Company to transfer the game to 3D (Prince of Persia 3D) was released in 1999, but failed to meet the standards set by the franchise. The Sands of Time was praised for its visual design, finely tuned game mechanics, and intriguing storyline, winning the game several awards.

The game was developed for the PC, PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, and later a 2D-version for the Game Boy Advance and mobile phones. The success of The Sands of Time led to two sequels, Prince of Persia: Warrior Within and Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, in 2004 and 2005, respectively.

Gameplay

The prince in combat.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time combines exploration and combat to create a unique synthesis. Both elements make use of the Prince's acrobatic capability and agility. Throughout much of the game, the player must attempt to traverse the palace by running across walls, ascending or descending chasms by jumping back and forth between walls, avoiding traps, climbing structures and jumping from platform to platform, making other types of well-timed leaps, solving puzzles, and using discovered objects to progress. The cultural setting of the game provides many linguistically interesting inscriptions to be found on walls.

During combat, many of the same moves vital to the player in other situations can be put to use to overpower enemies. One example is the ability of the Prince to rebound off walls in order to strike enemies decisively. The player can also vault over the enemies' backs and then finish them off in two hits. The player generally attacks enemies and blocks using a sword, although other factors such as the Dagger of Time and its time-control abilities eventually prove to be critical to victory.

A pivotal gameplay element is the Prince's Dagger of Time. It contains "charges" of the Sands of Time from the hourglass that allow the Prince to control time. The Prince has the ability to "reverse" time and travel up to ten seconds into the past. While using this ability, all sounds and previous action play backwards, and the play environment accurately resets to its previous state. For example, if the Prince was struck by an enemy attack during the rewound period, the health he lost will be given back to him, or a bridge that was destroyed a few seconds ago will repair itself. The Dagger also allows the Prince to slow down time, and freeze his enemies, using it as a main-gauche to attack them directly.

The Dagger only comes with a limited number of uses. However, defeated enemies leave behind piles of the Sands of Time, which can be absorbed by the Dagger to replenish its stock. The stock can also be replenished by absorbing Sand Clouds. This encourages the player to confront and vanquish enemies (as opposed to avoiding them) in order to replenish the power to manipulate time during the more tricky acrobatic sections of the game. However, if the player does not absorb the Sand from a fallen enemy in about five seconds, said enemy will come back to life. Extra Sand Tanks can be gained by collecting eight Sand Clouds, and extra Power Tanks (which are used for different powers than the Sand Tanks) are gained by vanquishing sixteen enemies after having collected a new Sand Tank.

Later on, when Farah takes the Prince's sword and dagger, after solving a puzzle he gains an extremely powerful new sword in a large room, which has the capability to destroy the Sand like the dagger.

Synopsis

Passing through India en route to Azad, King Shahraman and his son, the Prince, conquer the Maharajah of India for honor and glory with the aid of the vile Vizier who betrays his leader to aid the foreigners. After looting the city, they continue to Azad. In tow with them are the mysterious artifacts of the Maharajah: the Hourglass and Dagger of Time along with the Maharajah's beautiful daughter, Princess Farah.

Plot

In Azad, the Vizier of the Maharajah tricks the Prince into releasing the Sands of Time contained inside the Hourglass of Time, using the Dagger of Time. The Sands wash over the kingdom, turning all living beings into monsters. The Prince, Farah, and the Vizier remain unchanged due to their possessions; a dagger, a medallion, and a staff, respectively. On a journey to repair the damage he has caused, the Prince teams with Farah to return the Sands of Time to the hourglass, using the Dagger of Time. Throughout the journey, the Prince and Farah begin to grow closer. As they make their way to the Hourglass of Time, the Prince hesitates, and the Vizier uses magic to throw him and Farah into a tomb. Inside the tomb, the Prince and Farah find baths, which they use and show affection for each other. The Prince awakens, and the Dagger and his weapon have been stolen by Farah, who left him with her medallion so that he would not be affected by the Sands of Time. The Prince pursues and catches her, but she falls to her death. Driven by grief, the Prince stabs the top of the hourglass with the Dagger of Time, locking the Sands of Time back into the hourglass, reversing the events of the game to the point before the invasion of the fortress ever took place. The Prince awakens in a camp, still with the Dagger of Time, and makes his way to Farah's bedroom. He tells her a story about the events of the game, because she does not remember due to the time reversal, but the Vizier shows up, and attempts to kill the Prince. The Vizer reveals his intended betrayal during their battle but the Prince emerges victorious and slays the Vizer. He gives the Dagger of Time back to Farah and prepares to leave. When she asks his name, he asks her to call him "Kakalukia," a word of familial significance to Farah that she told him of on their adventures in the previous timeline.

Development and release

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was revealed on March 3, 2003 and was created largely by the same team behind Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell in attempts to "breathe new life" into the action/adventure genre.^[3][4] Initially shipped on November 6, 2003 in North America, the game was later released on November 21, 2003 and September 2, 2004 for Europe and Japan, respectively.^[5]

Version differences

• GameCube (and GBA): Features the original Prince of Persia, and some of the "Making of" featurettes. If the player connects a Game Boy Advance with its own copy of The Sands of Time, the Prince's health will regenerate. This version also features slightly downscaled speech to allow all spoken dialogue to fit on the disc.
• Xbox: The NTSC version features Prince of Persia, Prince of Persia 2, as well as all the "Making of" featurettes. The PAL version only features the original Prince of Persia.
• PS2: Features the original Prince of Persia and the remake of the first level of the original 'Prince of Persia' accessible with a code at the start menu.
• PC: Features a remake of the first level of the original Prince of Persia but is only accessible with a cheat code.
• Mobile phone: Gameloft released this game and its two sequels as mobile games.^[6][7][8]

Audio

Soundtrack

The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Original Soundtrack was released November 3, 2003 by Ubisoft. Stuart Chatwood, of the now defunct Canadian rock band The Tea Party was selected as composer for the game in early 2002. He began drafting and writing material in late 2002 and began the recording process in January 2003. The vocals of Maryem Tollar are featured throughout the game. The ending credits song, "Time Only Knows", original by UNDER17 and vocals Momoi Haruko, is sang by Cindy Gomez.

Read more »

Need for Speed: Undercover

Need for Speed: Undercover is the 12th installment of the popular racing video game series Need for Speed, developed by EA Black Box and published by Electronic Arts. It was released on PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, Wii, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS^[3] and mobile phone in November 2008.^[9][10][11] It is preceded by Need for Speed: ProStreet. According to EA, the game has sold over 5.2 million copies on all 9 platforms combined.^[12] Need For Speed: Undercover was also the last Need For Speed series available in PlayStation 2 version.

Gameplay

Undercover features a new open world map^[13] consisting of 100 miles (160 km) of road^[14] and a large highway system, making it the largest Need for Speed "world" EA has created so far.^[14] The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills.^[15] These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City.^[16] The road system includes four water crossings, going clockwise: the Main Guy Causeway (Ocean Expressway connecting Sunset Hills to Port Crescent via man-made island), the Vale Causeway (Sunset Hills to Palm Harbor), the North T Causeway (Man-made island to Palm Harbor), and the Memorial Tunnel (Port Crescent to Palm Harbor).^[15] Undercover also features a new contiguous highway system.^[7] In previous installments, highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate boroughs.^[17] In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit.^[15] The longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight areas, gentle curves, rest areas and large interchanges.^[15] Lastly, the entire map is open from the start of the game, unlike previous installments where boroughs had to be unlocked.^[15]

The police system is similar to Most Wanted and Carbon. It uses a similar bar graph at the bottom of the screen that moves between the blue "Evade" (shown as green on PS2 and Wii), on the right side, and the red "Busted", on the left side, depending on the player's speed and proximity to police.^[15] The "Cooldown" period after evading pursuing police units returns as well, along with heat levels, speedbreaker and pursuit breakers. Also similar to Most Wanted and Carbon, police vehicles range from generic city patrol cars to federal pursuit cars accompanied by police heavy SUVs and helicopters.^[15] Unlike previous games, the type of police that appear is not entirely dependent on heat levels (i.e. high level police can appear at low heat levels and vice versa) but more on the player's wheelman level (i.e. progress through the game). At a high wheelman level, federal police will immediately join the pursuit, even if the player was at a low heat level.^[15][18] Common police tactics such as road blocks, rolling road blocks, spike strips, and PIT maneuvers are all featured, although some are only used by federal police. In addition, the player gets to drive a police vehicle in a mission in career mode, which consists of stealing a state police car.^[15]

The damage system returns to Undercover and is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet. It differs from ProStreet in that the damage is only cosmetic and does not adversely affect performance.^[15] However, a car can still be "Totaled" in the new "Highway Battle" mode and in some missions in career mode.^[15] During these missions a car damage bar is displayed, which indicates the amount of damage done to the player's vehicle.^[15] The primary goal of these missions is to deliver certain cars without totaling them.^[15] In general, damage is automatically repaired after every career race or police pursuit,^[15] unlike in ProStreet where it had to be repaired by the player at a cost (either money or a "repair marker").^[19]

The customization of cars is similar to Need for Speed: ProStreet but has been enhanced on the level of graphics and detail.^[20][21] The new color palette and the "matte" paint were improved.^[21] The game also features aftermarket parts like Carbon did.^[22] As a bonus, EA added a vinyl similar to the vinyl of the BMW M3 GTR in Need For Speed: Most Wanted.^[23]

The player can gain reputation points as they progress through the game's story by participating in side missions or performing flashy maneuvers in a police chase.^[15] In turn, this grants the player access to bonus missions, adding a small RPG-like element to gameplay.

Plot

A few days before Undercover's release, EA revealed a few plot details. A video was uploaded that showed the player evading capture from the Tri-City Police Department (TCPD).^[2] Another source revealed that the player gets aided by detective Chase Linh and Lt. Jack Keller,^[2] whilst also making friends with a character named Carmen Mendez, played by singer and actress Christina Milian.^{[citation needed]} In addition, six criminal characters were revealed, who are: Chau Wu; Gregory "G-Mac" MacDonald (a former undercover police officer from the TCPD, who's gone native, played by actor David Rees Snell from the television series "The Shield"); Rose Largo played by actress Heather Fox; Hector Maio played by actor Kurt Caceres (from the television series "Prison Break"); Freddy "Nickel" Rogers played by actor Lawrence B. Adisa; Zack Maio played by actor Joshua Alba (brother of the actress Jessica Alba).^{[citation needed]} There are three other characters to note: Jonathon Cross is listed as an acquaintance to "G-Mac", whilst Isabel "Izzy" Diaz (one of the "Blacklist" members in Most Wanted) and Caleb Reece (the main antagonist in Underground 2) are listed as acquaintances to Hector Maio.^[24] Additionally, Rachel Teller from Underground 2 is listed as an acquaintance to Rose Largo.^{[citation needed]} However, these four characters don't appear in the game, making them only a loose connection between Undercover and previous installments in the franchise. Ryan Cooper, the character in ProStreet, is briefly referred to in dialog heard on a police scanner.^{[citation needed]} During this sequence, a police officer says he has a man named, Ryan Cooper, in the back of his car who refuses to speak or remove his racing helmet (this is considered a reference to ProStreet because Ryan Cooper never spoke or was seen without his helmet).^{[citation needed]}

The player is set in the story as a police officer, who goes undercover into the criminal underground of Tri-City, a fictional city where the game is based.^[16] The player has to take on dangerous 'jobs' and compete in races in order to infiltrate and take down a ruthless international crime smuggling syndicate, consisting of illegal street racers and car thieves.^[15] The player's only contacts to the police are federal handler Chase Linh, played by Maggie Q, and later Lt. Jack M. Keller played by Paul Pape.^[25] In time, the player begins to prove himself as an excellent racer and wheelman.^[15] As he goes deeper undercover, he ends up having to take out different criminal "friends" he meets but mistakenly frames Chau Wu, a ruthless leader of a crime syndicate.^[15] Chau Wu then calls the player and tells him that there is only one thing he can do to redeem himself.^[15] There is a car stolen from the dockyards with incriminating evidence in it.^[15] Chau Wu believes G-MAC stole it, and he wants it back.^[15] In reality, Hector and Zack Maio are the ones who stole it, not realizing who the car belonged to.^[15] Carmen, fearful that Chau Wu is coming after her, asks the player to take the BMW M6 (Porsche 911 GT2 on PS2 and Wii versions) from her, however, Chau Wu finds out that the player now has his car.^[15] He phones the player demanding the car back and will use Chase Linh as a hostage until the player does.^[15] As a result, the player takes the car to Chau Wu, hoping to save her but when he gets there, he discovers that Chase Linh has been working with Chau Wu all along.^[15] Chase Linh then murders Chau Wu and his henchman with a silenced pistol recovered from Chau Wu in order to frame the player with his death and escapes in the car, taking any of Chau Wu's possessions that were in it with her.^[15] The police, thinking the player is the killer, come after him but Lt. Jack Keller tells him to lose them and go after Chase.^[15] Eventually, she is apprehended and charged.^[15] Later, Lt. Keller tells the player that Carmen testified in return for not being charged for any criminal offences and that the evidence used against Chase Linh was Chau Wu's PDA, which contained information regarding the dockyard cars and other criminal activities.^[15] In the last scene, Carmen asks the player to drive her to the university because she is currently attending as a med student.^[15]

Development

A Porsche 911 GT3 RS in Need for Speed: Undercover.

Electronic Arts CEO, John Riccitiello, stated that the previous release in the series (ProStreet) was only "an okay game...[and was] not good"^[9] and that Undercover would "be a much better game".^[26] He stated Undercover would have a considerably longer development cycle than its predecessors because the Need for Speed development team had been split up into two teams, both of which would work on a two-year development cycle with future titles, alternating releases between them.^[26] Riccitiello stated he was "torturing" the development team with a tight development cycle in the past.^[26] "When this change was implemented in mid-summer 2007, one team started working on Undercover (giving it only a 16.5 month development cycle), while the other team (that finished ProStreet) would start working on the next title."^[27] Riccitiello also stated Undercover took inspiration from action films such as The Transporter, with a large embedded narrative.^[9][10]

Frank Gibeau (President of the EA Games label) stated during development that due to the fact that the sales of ProStreet didn't live up to EA's hopes for the game, the Need for Speed franchise would go back to its roots (although Undercover was already being developed before ProStreet). "John Doyle (Developer at EA Black Box) said that Undercover would feature a brand new game mechanic and a 'Most Wanted-ish' sandbox style of gameplay."^[27] The game was also provided with an all new damage system.^[11] Andy Blackmore (Senior Vehicle Concept Artist at EA) explained how one of the Porsche cars that was "conceptualized" in the game was then brought to life for the game from a brief description to being approved by Porsche.

Reception

Reception of Undercover was generally met with complaints about the game's easy difficulty and repetitiveness. One reviewer went as far as recommending the game's competitors such as Rockstar Games' Midnight Club: Los Angeles and EA's own Burnout Paradise.^[37]

The IGN review was harshly critical of the PS3 version of Undercover, calling it a "poor game with a ton of problems"^[40] and with "practically zero redeeming qualities".^[37] IGN also commented on how the reason for having an open world environment was lost because a player could only start an event from the map.^[37] However, the Xbox 360 and the PC versions received a higher score in comparison to the PS3 version in the IGN review, due to the fewer severe problems that occurred.^[38][39]

The 1UP.com review called the game only "fairly successful," but praised the games selection of cars and tighter handling on the vehicles.^[18] However, the "leveling" system that unlocks cars and upgrades was criticized for resembling "grinding".^[18]

In general, sparse traffic, wide-open roads, and poor AI led to complaints about extremely easy difficulty, however, one reviewer commented on how this may have been a marketing ploy to target a wider audience.^[37][36][31]

The reception to the live-action cut scenes was almost universally negative, with many critics noting that the videos were poorly acted and lacked purpose.^[36][18] The lack of connection between the crime fighting undercover cop story and the racing gameplay was particularly criticized by IGN who said, "You ... run missions where you steal cars, make 'special' deliveries and things like this now and again, but you never actually see any sequences that show how the cops are putting the evidence together or anything of that sort. Chase Lihn will tell you [what] you need to do to get on the inside of a racing group in order to get dirt on them, and then after a race she'll say 'We have enough, let's move in.' [But you're left asking: How did that help at all?]"^[41] Finally, the in-game frame rate received little praise, and GameSpot particularly criticized the PS3 version for this problem resulting in a lower score on the platform compared to the Xbox 360 and PC versions.

Read more »

Need for Speed: ProStreet

Need for Speed: ProStreet is the 11th installment of Electronic Arts' popular racing game series Need for Speed. On May 21, 2007, Electronic Arts published a teaser trailer of ProStreet, and officially announced it ten days later.^[3] It was released worldwide in November 2007.^[1]

The demo, featuring two races, one speed challenge and one grip race, appeared on Xbox Live on October 26, 2007, on PlayStation Store on November 1, 2007, and on PC on November 2, 2007. The PC version is the last in the series to use CD-ROMs, which are succeeded by the usage of DVDs for the rest of the series.

Plot

The game begins where a former street racer known as Ryan Cooper enters a challenge day and wins it with a Nissan 240SX. Ryan is mocked by Ryo Watanabe the Showdown King .

He then moves on to Battle Machine a famous race organization and he dominates it. He then moves onto Showdown Chicago promoted by Super Promotion and the best organization is introduced, the Super Promotion , there are other organizations in each specific event such as the Noise bomb for drift, G Effect that are a circuit crew, ROGUE SPEED which is for drag, and Nitrocide for speed runs. Each organization has a top race team, Apex Glide, Touge Union, Grip Runners, Aftermix, and Boxcut, respectively. Ryan dominates the showdown and moves onto React Team Sessions. He then moves onto another Showdown and dominates it. He then receives invites to elite organizations of the four Kings of Drag, Drift, Grip and Speed challenge. He beats them and earns their crowns and dominates enough organizations and showdowns to face Ryo who drives a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Ryan beats him and the Super Promotion team leaves Ryo. Ryan then becomes Street King owning all the crowns of the Kings and becomes the best racer in the country.

Gameplay

Need for Speed: ProStreet has taken the series in a different direction of gameplay. All racing in ProStreet takes place solely on closed tracks, making ProStreet the first game in the series since Need for Speed II that doesn't animate illegal racing. Rather, the type of racing appears to be Touring Car Racing. The performance tuning feature is enhanced, compared to previous versions, especially Autosculpt. Unlike Carbon, where only certain body kits can be autosculpted, this can now be applied to all body kits, including stock bumpers and wide body kits. Furthermore, some adjustments through autosculpt impact the car's aerodynamics.^[3]

In ProStreet there are four different game modes: Drag (a race in a drag strip, point to point), Grip (similar to Circuit races but with four different types of Grip races available), Speed (similar to a Sprint race) and Drift.

• Drag race is a simple straight away race that has three heats. There are three types of drag races, 1/4 and 1/2 mile drag races where the fastest time, out of three runs, wins. There is also a wheelie competition where the longest wheelie on the 1/4 mile track wins.
• In Grip races, there are four different modes (Normal Grip, Grip Class (all versions except for the PS2 version), Sector Shootout and Time Attack), the player has a choice to race rough, such as ramming, smashing, or blocking the opponent in order to win the race, or race cleanly and follow the given racing lines. Normal Grip races feature 2 to 4 laps around a circuit track with up to 7 other racers. First driver to cross the finish line wins. Grip Class races take 8 racers and divide them into two even groups. The racers are placed into the groups based on their vehicles performance potential. Group A starts about 10 seconds ahead of group B, both groups race on the same course but are only competing against the 3 drivers in their group. In Time Attack, the driver with the fastest overall single lap time wins the event. In Sector Shootout the track is divided into several segments, with drivers attempting to complete these sectors in the shortest possible time. Extra points are awarded to drivers who 'dominate' the course by holding the fastest time for every segment of the track.
• In Speed Challenge races, players must cross the finish line first to win the race. Players have to be cautious in Speed Challenge at speeds exceeding 180mph.
• In Top Speed Run races, the course is divided into 3 to 9 sections (just like that of Sector Shootout in Grip races) and at the instant a player crosses a checkpoint their speed is clocked and added to that player's score, the player with the highest cumulative speed wins. This is similar to the Speedtrap events in Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and is followed by Speedtrap events in Undercover.
• In Drift, players drift to emerge as the driver with the most points scored in the event. Points are scored based on speed, angle, and how long the drift is held.

Other than gameplay itself, ProStreet features detailed damage modeling, unlike previous Need for Speed games (except for High Stakes and Porsche Unleashed) where damage is relatively little or non-existent altogether. The new damage system introduces more depth of damage (except on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and Wii versions, where the damage modeling has been scaled down due to the limited processing power, so the damage is similar to the previous titles) where any object in the game world has the potential to inflict cosmetic damage breaking off pieces of the car such as the hood,bumpers,side view mirrors, light damage, or heavy damage which reduces performance of a car, and even has the potential to total a car immediately after impact.^[3]

ProStreet features customization of cars. The changes affect the aerodynamics of the cars, and players can test them in an enclosed chamber called the "Wind Tunnel" (all versions except the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions).

The Speedbreaker does not return for ProStreet (as the game lacks a police presence; the Speedbreaker was mostly intended for police evasion, however it returns for the Nintendo DS version of the game).

Online

Online modes are not featured in the PlayStation 2 and Wii versions. However the PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PC versions feature online mode. Unlike previous Need for Speed titles, it is much more integrated into the game; as long as a player is connected to the Internet and logged in, his/her in-game progress is recorded for the purpose of online leaderboards. A player's custom-built car can also be shared online via blueprints, with the creator being given credit whenever their car setup is used for a leaderboard.^[4]

Development

The official title was leaked several months before the official announcement. Soft Club, the Russian distributor of the game, unveiled the name and release date of the game in February 2007.^[5] EA had not until the official announcement on May 31, 2007, given any clue about the game's title

Cars

There are a total of 55 playable cars in ProStreet.(46 on the PlayStation 2 and Wii)(76 with add-ons)

The Collector's Edition for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 adds another 5 new cars. It is available via download.

A Booster Pack for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 added another 16 cars that were made available via download.

The total number of cars available in NFS Pro Street (if the player purchases both the collectors edition upgrade and the booster pack) is 76.

Characters

In Prostreet, the player is Ryan Cooper, a former illegal street racer and a newcomer to the legal side of racing. He is seen only in the very beginning, during showdowns, and after defeating a King; however, his face is never seen, as he wears a helmet all the time in the footage. He also never speaks, much like the main character in the games from Need for Speed: Underground to Need for Speed: Carbon.

ProStreet features some girls cast as characters in the game:

• Krystal Forscutt, a former Big Brother Australia contestant,
• and Sayoko Ohashi are starting girls.

All three announcers voices heard throughout ProStreet's career mode are real-life, professional race commentators :

• Jarod DeAnda (Big-Jay Battle Machine & Noise Bomb) announces live at all Formula D,
• John Hindhaugh (Roger Evans from R3act Team Sesssions & G-Effect) is the long-term host of Radio Le Mans,
• JBird (J-Mack from Super Promotion, Noise Bomb & Rogue Speed) is the official voice of NOPI.

In ProStreet, there are five Kings that Ryan must defeat in a set of challenges to become the Street King.

Expansions

The Collector's Edition is available at the EA Store for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 unlocking 5 more cars and 4 more career race days.^[6]

An expansion pack branded by Energizer Lithium is also available. It adds 16 cars (2 free and 14 purchase) and 2 tracks.This also disables all cheats for the game.^[7]

Customization

Players have a wide variety of decals, vinyls, and paint colours, all very similar to the previous games in the series. Additional extras have been added as well. Players have a huge variety of body modifications, such as rims, hoods, body kits, mufflers, spoilers and roof scoops. The Autosculpt feature, which was first introduced in Need for Speed: Carbon, is featured in ProStreet and plays a significant role in terms of car performance. Although there are more parts to autosculpt in the car, the autosculpting method is for the most part the same. The hood, roof scoop, front bumper and spoiler can all change how a car performs in a race. Autosculpt can affect everything, from your cars handling to downforce. ProStreet now allows you to modify stock and wide body kits as well as hoods, roof scoops, wheels, spoilers etc. A new feature called the Windtunnel is introduced on the PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. It is not available on Wii and PlayStation 2 versions. The Windtunnel, along with Autosculpt, can help you alter and refine your car's performance.

Locations

Many of the races take place on well-known roads. Locations include Chicago (Meigs Field Airport; now disused), Nevada, Europe, Tokyo Docklands (Daikoku Futo parking area), and the Autobahn (A100 Berlin ring road). The Texas World Speedway, a real track in Texas used by the SCCA and in the 70s NASCAR, and also the Infineon Raceway, available in the NASCAR configuration as "GP Circuit". The game also includes many other real world tracks such as Portland International Raceway and Willow Springs International Motorsports Park in the USA, Autopolis and Ebisu Circuit in Japan, and Mondello Park in Ireland. The tracks are the same in all versions of ProStreet.

Reception

ProStreet has been given a rating of 7.0 (good) by GameSpot for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, a 6.5 (fair) for Windows PC, Wii and PlayStation 2, and a 4.0 (bad) for PSP, as well as a 7.0 rating by Game Informer for all platforms. Both reviews have cited the lack of police in the game, the handling of cars being unrealistic, and the fact that ProStreet strays away from its traditional roots of street racing as reasons for the ratings, as well "an overload of in-game advertising and a higher hardware requirement (causing poor sales on the Windows version)." The IGN.com review of the PC version seems a bit more realistic as far as the list of complaints goes. The rating was a 6.9 (passable) but it mentioned the common complaint was that all of the cars had shoddy performance and terribly unrealistic handling.. (However, the handling physics are suprisingly accurate, which may account for lower sales, as the NFS brand is generally an arcade racer, as opposed to a simulation) videoGaiden lambasted the game in its 2007 Christmas special, having harshly criticised its predecessors in the previous two years. The main criticism was that the game was as lacking in substance as the previous installments, but also lacked the high production values of those titles. These were the lowest ratings ever in the series despite higher sales of the next game, Undercover.

The PlayStation 2 and Wii versions were also criticized due to missing content, downgraded graphics and frame rate issues.

Read more »