Prince of Persia Rocks!

As I have stated on an earlier blog, I was working on finishing Prince of Persia on the PS3, one of Ubisoft's monster games so far.  I was able to finish it a few days ago and it so totally rocks!  Here's why.

Forget your other ideas of earlier PoP games.  Forget the mild-mannered Prince we got to know on Sands of Time and of the other succeeding titles that were really not that good (they're Two Thrones and Warrior Within I think).  The unamed Prince comes back this time as a grave-robbing, tomb-raiding, smart-mouthed thief, that's right, a thief.  But he's not alone because he joins a runaway princess named Elika for the ride.  The objective: to ride the kingdom of the corruption that covers the entire land.  Hmm.. sounds like the government to me.

As expected from a PoP game, there is a lot of platforming and crazy acrobatics/gymnastics when moving from one point to another in this open world game.  The controls are spot on and wall running and other off-the-wall stunts (literally!) are easy to accomplish.  Battles with the creatures of corruption (this really sounds like the government) is one-on-one with a little help from Elika and her magic attacks.  For completists out there, you can spend a lot of time collecting each light seed from every nook and cranny in the kingdom.  Light seeds, by the way, are used to unlock more areas for you to heal of the corruption.

The game tends to be gentle on the player though as it tells you when to block or what technique to use (sword, gauntlet, or Elika's magic).  Elika's compass acts as your GPS when you tend to get spun around.  In this game, you can never die as Elika always catches you when you miss a jump and saves you when you get your back end kicked by the corruption.  The penalty though is that the enemy's life bar goes up when you were supposed to "die" and Elika saves you.

Over all, this is one game I highly recommend for fans of the PoP franchise or adventure games in particular.  This surely makes up for the other episodes in the franchise that felt empty and mediocre.  This new Prince of Persia will definitely be on the throne of your Playstation 3 adventure game list for a while.

The Aftermath

Yesterday we were finally able to go to the aid of my in-laws. They had been trapped on the second floor of their house due to the 10-foot flood waters that engulfed their area of Cainta all from the liquid rage of typhoon Ondoy. Their vicinity has always been prone to flooding at the fall of hard rain. The house garage has been modified a few years ago to prevent water from entering the garage with the van and the house itself. Nothing though could have prevented this flood from doing the damage it just did.

The van was totally submerged in water for two days. The entire ground floor was consumed by the flood, everything in it, the living room and dining room with all the furniture, now useless. The refrigerator, oven, beds from the lower bedrooms were destroyed and everything covered in mud. It was a depressing sight while fatigue and hunger filled each of them. We brought them food and water and as many clothes as we could hold. As we suspected, everystore in the vicinity has been damaged with no goods to sell. Dozens of people were bringing out their furniture and other once useful belongings, now rendered useless by the ravage of the flood.

As we wash out the mud, dirt and flood water, we have fun as we work together, as if it was a family reunion of sorts. But beyond the laughter, the thought remains, unadmittedly by my father and mother-in-law, how will we recover from this loss and damage? By the grace of God.. by the grace of God..

Flood

This just in: The flood is rising as I type this. The rain has been going on since last night and without letting up. The river across my condo is begining to overflow. The name of the culprit: Typhoon Ondoy. News reached me that the first floor of my in-law's house is already under water.  Their house was renovated and the garage elevated to eliminate the risk of rising flood waters. They were never prepared for this height. Ninang Jude and family are trapped inside their flooded house.  The news reports more areas submerged by the relentless rain.  This is not good. I hope the rains stop really soon and the waters go down... Lord help us...

Typhoon Weekend

It's a stormy Saturday morning here at home.  I'm all alone since Jel has to be at work today.  There's no practise for the band either so I guess I'll have time to play Prince of Persia on the PS3 a little more.  It's a really fun game since you get to run across all sorts of environments.  They say the game holds your hand a little too much by feeding you tips a lot of times throughout the game but for me, I sometimes like that especially when my brain feels tired after a week of stressful work.  And one of the best things about PoP is that you can save anywhere, absolutely anywhere.  Even in the middle of a fight you can save the game.  This is a great feature when you need to drop the controller and go to sleep.  I'll probably write a review of this game once I beat it.

R4 Is Hopeless...

Another day and still no hope for the R4 DS flash cart.  It never seemed to be an issue with me, until Nintendo came up with an uber secure with anti-piracy checks game called Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story.  I'm a real sucker for RPGs so when I heard of this, I was really waiting for it to make its english appearance.  When it did however, it was unplayable with the R4 cart.  The only time I saw this game actually work was with my friend's DS running an M3 DS Real cart.  If our friends from hack land don't come up with an R4 fix (and I finish beating Mario and Luigi: Partners In Time) I'm strongly considering buying an M3.  I just wish I knew where to get one (I hope I can afford it too)..