jamescuarterodotcom

prince of persia: the warrior within - i picked this up last spring, played the first two levels and quickly dismissed it as an attempt by ubisoft to make a grizzled, harder-edged character (read: lame) and more combat-intensive game in order to appeal to the mass market. the fact that the theme was provided by godsmack didn’t help. i recently started playing this again and i’m glad i gave it another shot. once you get through those first two levels, the delicously smooth platforming that made PoP: the sands of time such a joy to play returns and is in fact, enhanced by the combat. i can’t believe i let this sit on my shelf for so long. i believe you can pick this up for $19.99 new and i’ve seen it as low as $15 online.

dead to rights II - this game, along with the original, is certainly one that i would file under ‘guilty pleasures’. the graphics are on par with second gen PS2 games, the camera is serviceable at best, the gameplay is simplistic and repetitive, and the storyline may as well be nonexistent. with that said, this is a perfect example of a game being greater than the sum of its parts and would chew up tokens by the dozen if it was in an arcade cabinet at your local bowling alley. the game starts out with the pedal to the floor and doesn’t stop for things like pacing or storytelling. what DTR II lacks in sophistication it makes up for with really fun mechanics, a sweet bullet time system, hordes of generic enemies to blast, implausible yet brutal disarms and you even get to sic an attack dog on your foes. if this game were $50 i’d rate it at a 5. however, seeing how it’s selling for $17.99, i give it a solid 8.