Games Nobody Else Loves But You Do

[chickenplucka]

driv3r
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[FeralOni]

never did play the storyline for driv3r - i just ripped the mighty mighty bosstones 'the impression that i get' album to my original xbox and played around in the 'freeplay' section for hours on end
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R.I.P. DEJA VU - 21/08/2010
R.I.P. Tanya - 16/04/2011

[emech]

[IISpacebreakII]

[Shadow Wave]

[Benza]

Prince of Persia 2008
So it apparently got pretty good critical reception, but the public reception from memory was pretty negative. Atleast bad enough that we'll never see a sequel and got that shitty Prince of Persia movie tie in/midquel... thing instead.

Basically if I had to choose one game that I was allowed to play for the current gen systems and could never play any others it would be this.

I just pretty much love everything about it.

To start with the animation.
Holy shit I think this is probably the best animated game I've ever seen. The prince and Elika just move beautifully through the entire thing, but what really sells it is there animations interacting with each other. The little things like them swapping places on a balance beem, or how if you wait at the bottom of a wall when you do a wall slide the prince will help elika off the wall. Or even how there clothing hangs loose off of there bodies and is effected by the wind even if it's something like a sleeve or something. All in all it's just an absolutely gorgeous game. And while I'm not too sure on the technicality side, I think artistically it's one of the best looking games of the generation (With maybe Mirrors Edge equalling for it)

But the real strength of the animation isn't just that it's good (Which it is) but how it sells the relationship between The Prince and Elika, which I have to say is probably my fave relationship in a game. The relationship developed in so many . There's the obvious things like the dialouges you can start up with the trigger button that develop as the game goes on. But my faviourte is the more subtle things. The dialouge between the two during normal game play evolves as there relationship grows. When you first start the game, if you fall off a cliff Elika will grab you and basically scold you for being reckless. By the end of the game that's all gone and if you fall off a cliff and she grabs you she expresses genuine concern. Simmarlaly, in the vine climbing segments when you first start doing em the prince makes cracks about Elika's weight, but by the end of the game he just does it silently while Elika gets concerned that she's making it difficult for him.

Add to that, every facet of the game is built on building up the relationship between the two. From the platforming being a team effort between the two with your long jumps etc, to the combat being a complex ballet of swords and magic with the two working together in complete unison to take down the enemies.

But the relationship isn't there for no reason, it's there for the ending.Spoilers Follow
And oh shit that ending. That has to be the biggest gut punch of an ending I've ever seen. Not just killing Elika off, but then undoing everything you've done to save her. Without teh amazing build up of the characters and there relationship it would have felt hollow and shit, but with the relationship built up so well, that ending is just fucking perfect. I'm almost dissapointed that the epilogue DLC came out because that ending was just amazing.

TLDR: PoP 2008 tells the most perfect, self contained story in a video game I've ever seen and tells it with some of the most amazing stylistically impressive art on top of it and a great fun solid gameplay.
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[GooberMan]

You know what was actually great about the ending?

I didn't realise at first that you were meant to save her. I left her there dead and walked outside in to an empty-feeling world. I would have been quite content to turn the game off there, but nope, there was DLC coming and I'd heard that it followed on from the actual ending.

tl;dr - gamers are OCD knobs.

The rest of the game was such a letdown though. It was as if they'd made an idiot's guide to the Sands of Time.
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[Benza]

I actually enjoyed the game play, it was really different from the old prince of persias so I get why people were against it, while the old ones were more Mario, carfully timing your jumps and platforming, the new one was more sonic, quickly reacting to things as they came at you.
I mean I prefered the old gameplay, but I didn't not like the new stuff.

The epilouge was probbably better gameplay (much harder, more similar to the older ones) , but worse story wise. Still left on kind of a cliffhanger though. So I really want to see where it would have gone.
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