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Sunday, January 11, 2004

I finished Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time today. I think I do not exaggerate when I say this is one of the finest videogames ever made. The combat is great, the jumping puzzles are great, the story is great, and the visuals are great. Holy moly, drop whatever you're doing RIGHT NOW and play this game.

Jordan Mechner was responsible for Karateka, one of the great early ninja video games. He followed it up with the Prince of Persia games, although I never played either. (Among the dorky extras in this game are POP1 & POP2.) I was pleased to see that Mechner didn't just license the intellectual property for this new game, but was also lead designer & writer -- rock on! It's awesome to see an old school game refreshed in such an unbelievably good way for the modern consoles.

Did I mention you get to run along walls like a total ninja? 6:51:48 PM (comments [])

Found at the tasty Phoenicia Sandwiches:

In case that's insufficiently legible, it's Fry's Turkish Delight, and it is in fact, "Full of Eastern Promise." Although, having tried it, I can't for the life of me understand how Edmund kept chowing down on these things in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. 6:38:12 PM (comments [])

From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Further Reflections is an interesting paper from Henry Jenkins published in the Playing By The Rules 2001 conference. It talks quite a bit about Purple Moon, a company that tried to make quality games aimed at girls. It also talks about The Sims, and how it seems to appeal across gender lines.

I found the article via Don Hopkin's blog, who has more to say on the subject from an insider's perspective (in this case, a developer for The Sims).

Original link to Hopkin's post was from Scripting News. 11:15:58 AM (comments [])