The plot of the trilogy involves the mystical sands of time and a magical dagger that can turn back time. This is also the basis for the recent Jeremy Bruckheimer film, “The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time,” which is in theaters now and is (in my opinion) a pretty good popcorn flick, though it certainly won’t win any Oscars.

Thankfully, Ubisoft decided not to make “Prince of Persia: The Movie: The Game,” despite the plots of the game and film being different enough to allow for that absurd possibility. But much to my dismay, they didn’t make a sequel to 2008’s fanasy-heavy “Prince of Persia” either, which featured an entirely different story and cast. Instead, in order to attract more people who plan on seeing the film, they went back to the much-loved “Sands of Time” saga.

“Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands” for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 takes place in the missing years between “Sands of Time” and “Warrior Within” on last generation’s consoles. The nameless prince has gone to visit his brother who, under attack by enemy forces, decides to release a fabled army. This, unsurprisingly, ends up being a bad move.

Thing is, the story here barely matters, which is kind of a shame. The Prince in “Warrior Within” is very different from the Prince in “The Sands of Time,” so in setting “The Forgotten Sands” between those two games, you would think there’s a lot of room for exploration of the character and everything he went through. But the developers completely missed the boat. The game doesn’t even end with a hint of the events to come.

In fact, oddly enough, the infamous Sands of Time don’t even really play a role in the plot. Your powers – including the classic time manipulation – come from a completely different source altogether. This among other things make the story feel horribly out of place.

Solidifying water plays a huge part in the gameplay.

The gameplay, though, is pretty solid, if unoriginal at this point. All the trappings you would want from a “Prince of Persia” title are here, including a ton of wall running and leaps from platform to precarious platform. This is still a formula that not many other games attempt, much less do well (the closest comparison would probably be another Ubisoft series, “Assassin’s Creed,” which allows for plenty of building scaling), so a new game is always a welcome addition to fans of the style.

That being said, I certainly found “The Forgotten Sands” to be enjoyable. I loved the original “Sands of Time” trilogy, as well as the 2008 fantasy reboot, so I’m always up for more parkour mixed with sword slashing.

The game requires the usual precise jumps and careful moving around the environment, but not to worry. If you make a bad jump and plunge over the edge of a tower, you can always rewind time a bit in order to go back and fix your mistake. This is the twist that made the original “Sands of Time” such a success, and it still works here.

This isn’t a complete rehash, though. The Prince has a few new skills, both for traversal and for combat.

The combat skills, though fun to use, aren’t terribly original or exciting, so I’d rather focus on the ones that matter.

You'll battle hordes of enemies at a time.

This time around, you can manipulate the environment in certain ways. Most notably, you can freeze water and use it to your advantage. For example, if you see spouts of water streaming out the side of a building, you can temporarily freeze them and use them to swing on. Similarly, if you see a waterfall, you can freeze it and run on it as if it were a solid wall.

These freezing powers are accessed by a mere press of a button, and water will stay frozen until you let go of the button, or your power runs out. Later on, this makes for some really tricky (but really fun) sequences in which you must quickly make water solid, liquid, and solid again, depending on whether or not you need to run on it or fly through it.

Another environment power you get later in the game is the ability to “recall” areas of the environment that should be there, but have fallen to ruin. At first, this feels like a total contrivance. You can obviously see where the object in question is supposed to be, and it just seems like a hassle to require the player to press a button in order to interact with it. However, the levels evolve in such a way that this skill seems more important and more entertaining, and by the end I didn’t mind its inclusion.

The controls feel pretty good, and for the most part do their job perfectly. However, I did encounter a few issues where the game would simply not do what I told it to. One of these cases was when I wanted to backtrack a bit in a level, in order to search for a hidden object. As the game was designed for me to go forward, not back, I had a real struggle getting the camera positioned the way I wanted, and then I was unable to make the Prince go exactly where I needed to go, resulting in a few very frustrating deaths. This isn’t a problem for most of the game, which doesn’t try to limit where you go in the world (forward or back), but problem areas certainly exist.

Combat powers can be purchased and upgraded for devestating attacks.

Another such area was near the very end of the game. A certain piece of environment absolutely refused to be “recalled” unless I was positioned exactly where the game wanted me to be, which wasn’t at all where I wanted to be myself. Not only did this result in more frustration, it also resulted in a terrible, terrible glitch that almost forced me to replay through the entire game from the beginning. Part of this stems from the fact that this is only one save game available, and it only ever auto-saves. There is also no form of level select or anything. Kind of a bummer if you want to go back to a favorite section or something.

“The Forgotten Sands” isn’t terribly long – easily under 10 hours – but it is enjoyable. The main problem, though, is that it’s nowhere near as remarkable or memorable as former games in the series, such as the original “Sands of Time” or 2008’s “Prince of Persia.” At times, it certainly feels like a game that they rushed through in order to release it alongside the movie. While it’s certainly better than most movie-related games, and a pretty enjoyable “Prince of Persia” adventure, I do feel like the Prince deserved a little more respect with this game. It could have been better. Instead, it might be more worth a rental than a $60 purchase.

The Wii version of “The Forgotten Sands,” interestingly, is a completely different experience – from story to gameplay. Ubisoft sent us a copy of it alongside this 360 version, so we’ll have a review of that in the future.

Blur has been called “Mario Kart meets Forza,” and after spending some time with the game myself, that holds very true. The game is a high-speed arcade racer not too unlike Burnout, but the main twist in the gameplay is the addition of power-ups. That’s where Mario Kart comes in. The power-ups vary in function, from weapons to mines, from boosts to shields. How you use these power-ups will be absolutely critical to whether you succeed or fail. You can hold up to three at a time – their symbols are displayed beneath your car as you race, and you can hit the X button (on the 360 at least) to switch between any power-ups you hold.

As fun as this system is, what I found even more appealing was how online play works. They have essentially taken the Modern Warfare model of earning experience and leveling up and placed that into a racing game. The result is just as addictive as it is in a first-person shooter. You earn experience, or “fans,” for drifting, hitting opponents with power-ups, dodging attacks, winning races, etc. You also get bonus points for completing challenges, such as “Hit 5 opponents by launching a bolt backwards.”

This sort of stuff should sound extremely familiar to Modern Warfare veterans, so it should come as no surprise that as you level up, you unlock new gameplay modes and customization features. At level three, you unlock the Mod Shop, which allows you to select three features – basically Perks – for you car, such as doing more damage in collisions, or repairing your car any time you successfully use a shield. You also unlock new cars to use and new gameplay modes to play.

Races can involve anywhere from 2 to 20 racers, which can get pretty crazy considering the Mario Kart-style insanity on the race track. Considering every racer can up to three power-ups at a time, you sometimes have to be really careful not to crash ask lightning and missiles are flying around.

I feel that the game is going to live or die based on its online community. 20-player races can be a blast, but what’s going to happen if you can’t find 19 other people to race against? But if a solid community sticks to the game, I think it could be a big success.

The full game will have what I assume is a rather standard set of single-player features, but I have not had the opportunity to try them myself.

Now for the fun part. There’s still a bit of time before the multiplayer Blur beta ends, and I have three beta  codes to give away. If you want one, just leave a comment on this story with your e-mail address. Three random people will score codes, unless only three people comment, in which case everybody wins.  The beta is for Xbox Live only. Sorry, PS3 users.

Blur is coming soon for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and PC.

As you’ll notice, I didn’t mention what Britton went gaga over. You’ll just have to listen to find out.

Tim Poon and I discuss mobile gaming, from its sorry past to its interesting, iPhone fueled present, to its iPad and Windows Mobile 7 potential. Along the way, we get very sidetracked and talk about retro gaming.

Level Up – Episode 3

Just kidding, don’t actually steal stuff (if you do, though, we’d love it if you threw some love our way). While you’re not breaking the law, though, you should listen to episode 2 of Level Up, or download it to listen later:

Fighting:

• Street Fighter IV
• BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger

Platformer:

• Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time
• New Super Mario Bros. Wii
• LittleBigPlanet (PSP)

Shooter:

• Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Left 4 Dead 2
• Killzone 2
• Dead Space: Extraction
• The Conduit

Action / Adventure:

• Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
• Assassin’s Creed II
• Batman: Arkham Asylum
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• Resident Evil 5
• The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

Puzzle / Strategy:

• Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
• Halo Wars

Racing:

• Need for Speed: Shift
• DiRT 2
• Forza Motorsport 3

Rhythm:

• The Beatles: Rock Band
• DJ Hero
• Rhythm Heaven

RPG:

• Dragon Age: Origins
• Demon’s Souls
• Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story

Sports:

• FIFA Soccer 10
• NHL 10
• MLB 09: The Show

Downloadables:

• Shadow Complex
• Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony
• Fat Princess
• Flower

The site that Britton mentioned for those free iPhone games is Appvent Calendar, which is actually a pretty clever and fitting name. Blacksmith Games, the people behind this freebie treasure trove, is handing out a new free iPhone game each day until Christmas, so get them while they last!

And just for the record, I do play a lot of sports games when I get the chance; find me back in 2006, and you’ll rarely see me not playing a 2K sports game. I just don’t own a lot of them because given a choice between a barely revised annual iteration of Madden or an epic cinematic experience like Uncharted 2, I’ll choose Uncharted 2.

Also, just to clarify, I was talking about playing with multiple people on the same team with sports games in the podcast. 4 players with FIFA or NHL = fun, 4 players with NBA = trouble, and, just for completeness, 4 players with a football game = boring for everyone except the quarterback.

This is why rereleasing God of War and God of War II in a collection for the PS3 is an amazing idea. The first GoW sold admirably in retail, but the second one got unfairly shafted due to its late release in regards to the PS2 lifecycle. Putting those two games, which many hold as some of the greatest ever made, is pretty much the best advertising possible for the impending God of War III since those that never played a GoW game before will realize what they’ve been missing out on, and old fans will remember how great those oldies were.

Of course, a straight port wouldn’t be the God of War MO. No, there are actually some pleasant surprises to be had with the collection. First off are the graphics. In various interviews and press statements, it’s been revealed that all of the game’s textures have been redone and sharpened up, the frame rate has been locked into a silky smooth 60 frames per second, and the resolution has been cranked up from the PS2’s 512 x 448 to a deliciously HD 720p. This all may not sound like much on paper, especially for four year old games, but it makes a world of difference in practice. GoW II actually looks so good that it could easily pass for a current gen release. Never has ripping people in half been so beautiful.

In an awesome fever of fan service, Bluepoint Games also saw fit to include Santa Monica Studio’s original behind the scenes videos with the collection. It’s odd that you have to fire these extras up from the Video section of the XMB, but that slight inconvenience is easily negated by how awesome the featurettes are.

There’s also the mild annoyance regarding switching between the two releases while in game: you can’t. It’s unlikely you’ll find yourself needing to go in and out of the two games that this will become a real problem, but it’s unfortunate nonetheless.

Of course, being that nothing else has changed in these games, there’s also nothing else you can read here than reviews back in the day haven’t covered. Kratos’ storylines are always amazing, fighting feels intense without being overwhelming, and the controls make everything you do feel immensely satisfying. With the right stick dedicated to evasive maneuvers, the camera is completely controlled by the game, but it is handled so masterfully you won’t care at all. Best of all, though, these two games are so unapologetically brutal. Metalocalypse fans will definitely be pleased.

There’s also a nice little surprise to be had that’s completely unrelated to GoW I or II, and that’s a code to download the E3 demo of God of War III. This demo alone makes this collection worth it. All those things stated for the full games goes double for the download, and that’s saying a lot given that it’s just a demo of an unfinished game. It looks super sharp and provides a greater thrill through combat than before, especially since the game somehow got even bloodier.

For $40, you just can’t go wrong with this collection. You’re getting two full, universally praised games, a smorgasbord of video featurettes, and one of the most hyped demos to come out of E3. All of that will easily provide you at least 50 hours of fun, which is undoubtedly the best value you’re going to find in just about any medium. Happy revenging!

If you’ve played any other Ratchet & Clank game, then you already know what to expect from A Crack in Time, and you’ll definitely already know if you like that sort of game. Almost nothing has changed except the weapon selection, the graphics, and the story, which can be said about every sequel since Going Commando.

The R&C series has always been known for its off-the-wall weapons, with each game packing in 20 or more new, zany creations for the player to use during their quest for intergalactic justice. Knowing that, it was a really big disappointment to find out that A Crack in Time only has five or so fresh weapons to offer, and even those aren’t all that original. Those five are still definitely fun to use, but half the fun of R&C games is discovering how best to use your ever expanding arsenal. Now that A Crack in Time has largely taken that away from the player, the fun side of things falls to other facets of the game.

The gameplay is pretty much unchanged from previous installments of the series. In fact, once you get Clank back (spoiler alert? Maybe?), series veterans will be pulling off old moves like the long jump sans prompting. Though this sounds like a bad thing, you should consider how well the game handled before and how much fun the core gameplay is on its own. There was really nothing much for Insomniac Games to do except tighten it all up, and tightened it up they definitely did.

After playing the other six non-handheld iterations, it’s clear that A Crack in Time is the best handling one of the bunch. The differences are minute, but just know that experienced or not in the series, you’ll definitely notice how fun it is to simply move about in the world. Shooting, jumping, and wrenching all feel excellently refined and streamlined for faster action, especially the tweaked wrench throw and the hoverboots.

In addition to feeling the best, A Crack in Time also looks the best. Tools of Destruction blew people away back in 2007, and somehow this game looks even better. At certain points during the cutscenes, it’s hard not to think that Pixar had a hand in this. Clank looks especially impressive with his brushed metal texturing and lack of discernable aliasing.

The cutscenes may look great but don’t convey much story-wise. No R&C game’s story has thus far held up to the one from Going Commando, but A Crack in Time‘s somehow seems especially lackluster. The ending is cheesy and predictable, overused action tropes are strewn about like literary sprinkles, and the impetus for Ratchet’s side of the game just feels so bland, despite how much it really means to him. You’ve gone so long being the only Lombax in the universe and felt fine, and now you’re expected to flip everything and believe that getting your parents back is paramount to everything else? No dice. Finding Clank, though, really made going through the entire story worthwhile and ties up Tools of Destruction quite nicely. It’s also pretty fun to watch the story unfold through the game’s dialogue, despite the extremely hit-or-miss nature of the humor.

The game’s style also feels a little stagnant, like week old bagels left out on the counter. The game is about as linear as it gets, the difficulty is definitely on the easy side even on Hard mode, and smashing boxes for ammo and health just feels so uninspired. In an admirable attempt to remedy the linearity, though, the game turns space into an open world where you can land on various planets to find Zoni, gold bolts, and weapon mods. There are only six or seven of these little planets per sector, which is disappointing since they also offer the only platforming and combat sequences that even approach becoming a challenge. However, since the game is constantly rewarding you with experience, bolts, and upgrades for going out of your way to gather these collectibles, it becomes rather addicting trying to fetch all of these goodies and actually gives reason to use your ship.

Flying through space, unfortunately, is a somewhat sad affair. Space travel is limited to a flat plane, which makes dog fights and exploration much more manageable but also a lot less fun. It ultimately leaves an extremely strong desire to play some Star Fox.

If the space fighting mechanics had been more fleshed out, they could have easily been turned into a nice little online multiplayer distraction. In fact, after Up Your Arsenal‘s fantastic multiplayer component, it’s always been disappointing to find out the PS3 R&C iterations never include some sort of competitive or cooperative mode.

However, some unexpectedly awesome fun can be had as Clank in the Great Clock. During these segments, Clank must solve puzzles that involve cloning himself through time pads to press the corresponding buttons needed to open a door. This mechanic (best described as single player co-op) is nothing new for Flash game addicts (Google “Cursor* 10” or “Chronotron”), but it’s fun nonetheless. Unfortunately, as with the rest of the game, there just needs to be more of it, preferably with some increased difficulty as even later puzzles can be solved on your first attempt.

A Crack in Time is definitely a good game. It handles well, looks absolutely stunning, and can offer up plenty of fun. If you’re looking for some new legs on the R&C horse, then you’re out of luck because this is just more of the same. If you’re looking for about 12 hours (more if you’re into maxing out your gear) of high quality Insomniac design, then you’ve come to the right place.