PoP - SoT review

As promised, this is my review of "Prince of Persia - The sands Of Time".. and boy is it good..

once in a while a game comes along which has the ability to change the face of computer gaming.. Doom and Half-Life being cases in point.. and I think we can add this game to the list!!

The original Prince game was an icon.. but was followed by the very very disappointing and clunky "Prince 3D".. so Ubisoft was under pressure to deliver a hit with this game.. and deliver they do!!


There are many many innovative features in this game which make you go "wow - thats cool" even as you play it.. the usual Prince palace defence mechanisms involving blades, knifes, et al are all there.. the rope and pole tricks are aplenty.. sword fights are now looking even better and then we have the SUPERB "Time Dagger" - it actually has a "rewind" feature where we can go back a little in time.. if we feel we need to replay what we played just a moment back.. this is an unbelievably COOL feature
.. and is supported by an awesome storyline which actually makes this seen possible..

The dialouge is also quite witty and brought a smile to my lips on more than one occasion.. Farah ordering the Prince around is quite hilarious really!! Gameplay wise.. the 3rd person perceptive gives a lot of scope to to acrobatics and has been used well by the developers.. the puzzles to solve are also interesting enough..

The one really irritating feature of this game was the camera angles.. they have this uncanny knack of changing when we are trying to do some tough task.. just when we are jumping back and forth trying to scale a hiiiiiiigh wall.. the camera changes its angle.. which means that the ky bindings also change.. so unless we adjust very very quickly we are going to jump in the wrong direction.. most probably into a deep chasm!!

But this is a minor flaw in an otherwise fine game.. one more blip : this is actually the first of a trilogy - following up are "Warrior within" and "Two Thrones" - both are already out.. and I am eagerly awaiting tackling these 2 games!! ... assuming of course that I get a copy!!

Score : 88 - DONT miss it

PS : I also played Postal 2 - share The Pain in between.. its a pure time pass violence game like Serious Sam.. with the only real aim being inflicting pain.. which the game does amply well!!

Score : 74 - for the violence addicts!!

Coming up next : "The Matrix - Path Of Neo" - keep watching this space!!

Aaru - Hardly reaches the boundary!

Quite differently from all his recent films, which have all been "different", comes "Aaru" where Surya plays the normal tough-on-outside, good-at-heart action-rowdy hero. The first 45 mins of the movie are very disappointing going thru' the usual motions of song-character intros-comedy sequences in a predictble and jarrring manner.. I was left wondering what had got into Hari..

But then the movie picks up about 10 mins before the intermission and we realize that the director has started working from this point on only.. there are a number of "Hari" touches after this point.. and the movie maintains a rivetting pace till the very end..

Story : bad rowdy.. good at heart.. betrayed by his gang leader.. turns against him.. and wins.. side-story - romance ; even far away side story - Vadivel comedy track..

Surya plays his part well.. he has put in his full effort.. but there is only so much you can do to a character like this.. Trisha plays his love interest quite convincingly (though the reasons for her falling in love with him are hardly convincing).. interestingly she has a number of looong dialouges to mouth.. and she carries them off well enough... Aishwarya plays his "sister" and loud-mouths it thru the character..

There are 5 villains.. 4 of them brothers of the usual kind.. and the last one a cop (I really liked this part).. who can actually think.. He thinks and acts fast.. the way police are supposed to do.. Vadivel gives the comic breaks.. some ok. some falling way flat..

Music is by Devi Sri Prasad.. and he keeps it as loud as possible.. but most of the songs are ok and kind of fit into the movie.. so it all works out for him..

Overall.. a very routine action-violence flick with a lot of profanity which might serve well as time pass... but other than a few moments.. nothing special..

Score : 56