Cell-shaded prince? Meh... didnt like that. The three prince games were great. Why change the concept?. I liked running, jumping and fighting 3-4 enemies at the same time.

I am not very optimistic about this :(

Oooh, it's rocking that 3D-trying-to-look-hand-drawn look which is so popular with the kids of 5 years ago.

That's a pretty impressive visual style if you ask me,I'm really digging it. Never played the other PoP games that came out but this one already seems to be shaping up pretty well so I may have to take a look at it as it comes along.

I like the look of the new prince of persia, as I liked the previous ones (including warrior within).
Let's hope the fighting system will be as good as warrior within, then i'll be happy!

*sniff* *sniff*
I smell Okami!, no wait, Jet Set Radio, no, no, Okami, No More Heroes, no Zelda, no just another cell shaded game.

@KroKan: No offense meant, but that is the exact attitude which causes games to become stagnant and gives us the same game over and over again just repackaged.

I am very grateful that they are willing to try something different with the new story.

@furiku: You can't really say this game looks anything like those. They're similar in the sense that they are all cel-shaded, but the result for this PoP game looks completely different than anything you listed.

Could be interesting: always nice to see an established franchise trying to go someplace a little different (althouth PoP did that already, with supposedly emo-esque results: only ever played Sands of Time).

Cel-shaded art style is fantastic when done right (Zelda or Okami being the most impressive, although No More Heroes struggled with the hardware I thought - great game, but not great technically) so could add a bit of graphical flair to proceedings.

Looking foward to it - but I don't think it is fair to judge one one fairly unassuming screen shot. But stuff like Open World and 1v1 battles sound promising.

I didn't say that it looked like any of those either. I'm just saying that I think it's a bit old hat.

To quote from myself here. "Just another cell shaded game".

I can see why they'd want to change the style of the game, it was a bit tired by the third game. But going 1-on-1 instead of doing group combat? Could be a very dodgy move, unless the combat is really good.

I love the look of this and the concept ... I've played some of the previous PoP, but haven't been that impressed. This may get me to actually buy one.

looks like Street Fighter IV. On a similar cell-shaded note, where is my sequel to XIII?

So the relatively recent cell-shaded is "and old hat" but the thousands of realistic looking games aren't? strange logic.

Interesting screen - are we seeing a graphics Renaissance happen as we get too close to photo-real?

the next gen version of Vagrant Story in my eyes!

I've only played the old school PoP1/2 and Sands of Time and I remember the prince giving a narrative in Sands of Time. If they were to do that storytelling approach again, I think cell-shading is a fantastic idea to immerse yourself in a storybook :P

"The game will be coming to PC, PS3 and 360 this year and is being developed by the original Prince of Persia: Sands of Time team at Ubisoft Montreal. It features cel-shaded graphics, and scraps the Sands of Time rewind powers. The gameplay centres on healing a corrupted world in the style of Okami, Shadow of the Colossus or The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess."

WHAT HAS SCIENCE DONE!?

Anyone else remember a couple of years ago when 2 gigs of unannounced game promotions got leaked from Ubisoft's ftp server? I think there was some concept art from this in there.

@Syril: There most definitely was.

@TheContender: I'd say cell shading is "old hat" yes. I also believe that while it works in some games, it doesn't work for others. I can't say yet if this will or won't hit the mark, and it's not really my place to do so.

I guess this comes from my experience as I had started working with cell shaded graphics in about 1999 got bored by about 2000.

I suppose they have to try new things, but come on! Cell shading is not new.

Love the look, love the fact that it is unrelated to previous POP's, so instead of being just POP IV, we might truly have a new POP.

I like the cel-shading, because even though a few successful games had that, it's not like most games out there have that look and personally I think it looks very good.

The one-on-one fight is also very intriguing. If they can make a good fight system, I don't care if I have one or a hundred enemies to beat at the same time. Remember people: Quality over Quantity.

man its incredible to see people complain about something that is finaly looking original. when the mass consumers don t have their steroid user/ normal mapped as fuck heroes they don t feel confortable.

Grow up people.

No Wii, then... oh well... im getting used to this by now. :|

I've never played the other PoP games (should though...) but this sounds just plain awesome! Love the look, love the new ideas, and is it just me or does the "one on one" battles sound like a really simplistic but brilliant idea?

Am quite liking the new look of this game. Lets hope its as good as they make it sound.

If they're going for a more 1001 Nights theme, then I think the cel-shading really works. Pick up a copy of the Fables: Arabian Nights trade and tell me that visual style doesn't reek of amazing...just try and tell me :)

I think the style is really cool and adds to the more adventurous nature of this style of play. Looking forward to it!

Assassin's Prince of Creedsia.

See what I did?

I loved the Sands of Time. it was easy to get into, and one of the few games I actually took the time to finish.
I do like th elook of this, but I loved the gameplay in sands of time.

NO! Please don't say the game will be cel shaded? PLEASE!

The graphics and technology involved in Assassin's worked fine, why does it need to be different for PoP? I mean, they could do so much with that engine. It probably would look miles better because it's not a free roaming game. AC is like PoP's cousin. How can they screw it all up like this.

Damn you, Ubisoft. Damn you.

I was worried when I read they were scrapping the Sands of Time powers, I'm not sure what they mean that it's an overused mechanic (presumably they mean in other games)? Perhaps they're talking about games using slow motion for battles? Although Max Payne did that long before SoT IIRC.

Thankfully they say they're putting something else in that achieves some of the same functions, hopefully that means rewinding when you screw up on the platforming sections is still there. And I like the idea of enemy encounters being more like Soul Calibur.

Since Sands of Time is one of my favourite games ever, I look forward to this game in the hope it will play as well as SoT and not be the let down that WW and TTT were.

assasins creed hype is over get the fuck over it already

I'm liking the style of this game from just that one screenshot, and from what I read in the Eurogamer article it seems like they're going in a cool direction with the gameplay. I've always liked challenging 1v1 matches, and with a greater emphasis on boss battles and storyline this looks to be a promising game.

@MugenNoKaze: wat

Also...well, I didn't like wind waker's art style at first, either. It'll probably look good in motion.

Criticizing a game for being unoriginal for using cel-shaded graphics is like criticizing a game for being in 3D.
There are plenty of cel-shaded games with completely different gameplay so I don't know people are whining about.
With this current generation cel-shading has finally come to be able to fulfill its potential.

I love the cel-shading look, and it looks pretty well done, albeit I'm judging from a single screenshot.

I'll take artistic cel-shading over shoddy photo-"realism" any day. Even if photorealism is able to achieve a level indiscernable from real life, I feel that great art direction and style still better portray the fantastical and supernatural effects we seek out for these genre titles.

I've no idea why people are annoyed at the Cell Shading technique.

They're basing it around the Fables and Myhts present in the Arabian Nights stories, making it Cell shaded grounds it into those old art-forms, just like Okami's art form linked the game to it's Mythology and inspiration.

I don't know why Cell Shading is being ripped on so much, but I am getting sick and Tired of "Gritty and Realistic Near Future FPS 4". Assassins Creed was based on Political Events and Assassinations set in a very specific time zone, that they tried to recreate as realistically as possible.

New Prince of Persia is taking place in a fictional universe based on old stories and myths that were illustrated with pen and ink.

I think the difference between the two explains why the different styles suit them... The first 3D PoP was quite caricatured and saturated in it's art direction as well, and I think a lot of people are jumping hte gun on the art style.

I'll reserve any major judgement on it until i've seen it in motion but I have a sneaking suspicion that i will be welcoming our new Cell Shaded Overlords.

Wouldn't photo-realism be more unoriginal than cel-shading? Not that I have anything against a game looking realistic, but I'd say there are a lot more of those than cel-shaded games.

I'm into it so far, can't wait for more shots and more info.

I'm excited that they're focusing on one-on-one battles instead of group battles. It's more in keeping with the original PoP games, which I totally loved on PC back in the day.

Prince of Perisa
Focus #1 - innovate, challenging platforming
Focus #2 - clever puzzles
Focus #3 - combat

If the combat is fun, fine. But I start hearing that this is God of Persia where it's all about the combat; my Warrior Within warning bells will start going off and all still be gone from this franchise.

I've lost a fair amount of enthusiasm over the Prince of Persia games, but that screenshot looks great.

@KroKan: "Cell-shaded prince? Meh... didnt like that. The three prince games were great. Why change the concept?. I liked running, jumping and fighting 3-4 enemies at the same time."

Three games of doing that wasn't enough? I like doing those things too but I'm ready to move on. Keep some good ideas if they can be integrated with the new ones, but forge ahead. For good or ill.

I don't understand why people hated the 2nd and 3rd prince of persia games so much. All three games did have drastically different themes, it's true, but they all held identical platforming and storytelling mechanics (which *worked*) and for the most part - similar combat mechanics. Each of the individual games were a convincing evolution from the previous iterations for me - this seems like yet another evolution that takes less for granted. I, being a PoP fan, have no problem with anything I see here.

Ooh..the team that made the Sands of Time! In the article this game sounds pretty interesting. They're not going to change the fun exploring/puzzle parts and the screen shot looks very nice.

And it's coming to pc! yay! (No, I still haven't bought any of the new systems. Have you seen the price of gas lately?)

Doesn't anyone else notice that these images match those leaked pics a while back of what was THOUGHT to be a early concept of their previous price games. I usually use those for my avatars on message boards. Honestly This design of the prince does have a more Arabian Nights feel to them, which I'm all for

@tomato_kai: ...because Jordan Mechner wasn't involved in the game development at all for the two sequels.

the story sucked, the level design sucked. and even with the 3rd installment's "improvement" over the 2nd one (not saying much). that series pretty much died (at least to my eyes)

and AFAIK, the original developers in SoT isn't involved in the sequels.

That being said, I'm a tad worried about this game because there's nothing mentioned about Jordan Mechner being involved.

I'm actually looking forward to this.
Ubisoft montreal makes a good game, and I love the visual style.
I don't know why people are saying "its cell shaded, so its going to suck."

@tomato_kai: "I don't understand why people hated the 2nd and 3rd prince of persia games so much."

Well, I hated Warrior Within because I love Sands of Time probably more than is healthy. That whole game had a fantastic sense of wonder about it. You get into a new area and would just have to take everything in with wide-eyed awe. The Prince and Farah had a terrific rapport and came off as fully rounded characters. Plus, the Price also had a healthy dose of whimsy in him. Him complaining about Farah to himself while doing backflips between hanging scaffolding was priceless. Plus, it's visual style and soundtrack are spot-on (I still find myself walking around humming the ending song).

Warrior Within took all that joy and focuse-gouped it into a big steaming pile of shit. A light-hearted main character? That won't sell, let's make him an angsty scarred asshole. Monsters made of sand? That won't sell, let's make them erupt in volcanos of blood when you look at them crossways. An soundtrack that is evocative of Arabian Nights stories? That won't sell, let's toss in some generimetal and that Godsmack song from the Mummy 2 (not a crack at Godsmack, as I really like them quite a bit). Bright colors? That won't sell, make it grey, the kids love grey.

Now, I get that the story is written in such a way that some of these changes can be justified. However, those changes took a game that stood out from it's competition and jammed it into that "just another gritty action game" mold. All the wonder and fun I felt from the first game was gone and replaced with the same crap that you could get anywhere else. If WW was the first game of the series, I could have loved it. But it was wasn't. It was a sequel to SOT and basically changed everything I loved about it.

Two Thrones I cannot make a judgment on because I never played it. I took the changes WW made as a slap in the face and refused to give Ubisoft a second chance that generation. The new one I'm open to trying, but it better focus on platforming above the combat.

I have to say I like this new look. You could take that screenshot, put it in a book of Arabian fairy tales, and it would look like a very detailed illustration.

The problem is people seem to think cel shading as more of a fad or gimmick that's already been done, when they should be thinking of it as a style in the same sense that fantasy is a genre.

Lastly, as a game design major, I'm all for moving away from the traditional graphics push. Graphics in games should be all about creating memorable imagery and creating a sense that you are part of a world (which is more about level design, dynamism, and attention to detail), rather than just making pretty pictures. All the polygons in the world won't help games today if they can't figure out that there are other colors in nature besides brown.

Dark Cloud 2 style? Rogue Galaxy maybe?

The Sands of Time was the best of the series. The setting, story, and game mechanics worked together. In hopes of pulling in more folks, they took a darker tone with the last 2 installments, and while some of the newer aspects (combat, Dahaka chases) were good, the game lost alot of its appeal and style. It had GodSmack playing in the background for Christ's sake. I welcome the new style. I love violent bloody photorealistic games, but I like artsy games too. As long as it all melds together to fit the overall theme of the game. I welcome the change, and its good the series is getting fresh reboot.

I was a little scepticle from reading the article, but after getting through the whole thing and seeing the pictures available, I think this is going to be an awesome game.

I think this will be just as good if not better than the Sands of time series.

Can not wait.

It looks... weird. I need some gameplay before actually saying something

Even so, it makes sense: Everybody was saying that after Assasins Creed, PoP wouldn't be the same. That they were too similar. Changing to Cel-Shade would mark the deifference between the two franchises

Noticed some people saying this is the same old cell shading. These people are wrong. Its CELL SHADING WITH GRITTY TEXTURES. I don't recall anyone doing that before.

I just hope this game is made by the original team of the last-gen trilogy. If it is, then I'm all good. Those guys, I can trust.

@nerdBOY01: Um, Crackdown.

I can understand the need to change the game seeing as Assassin's Creed is pretty much what POP used to be, except it's a lot more repetitive..

Bring it on.

open world. I knew it. I called it. now, I'm hoping the gameplay didnt suffer like Ass Creed.

Heh. I'm probably the only person around who was willing to play Warrior Within from beginning to end (got th