That sucks, the puzzles' what made the game different on the 1st one.

"I smolder with generic rage..."

I have yet to see a funny one.

Heh, how disturbingly fitting. I enjoyed the first PoP game and will buy this up at the $20 mark, but I've been sensing an overall PRICE OF PERSIA EXXXTREME vibe with the sequel so far.. and now I hear that the puzzles are scrapped for more combat. Still willing to give it a go.

One of the magazines that had a review (I don't remember which one it was) stated that in the beginning, it may feel like they scrappped most of the puzzle solving and made the game more combat oriented, but a little ways in, the game completely does a 180. The second half of the game they said is just like the first game puzzle wise.

As I was playing through the first game, I kept thinking to myself how much better it would have been if the game was all puzzles and no combat at all except for an occational boss fight. I'll wait a bit to pick this one up.

Same here. I"m not big on action games (i.e. Devil May Cry) so I have my doubts as to how much I'll like the new PoP.

That's good to hear!

Yeah, I was worried when I heard it was more combat oriented, good to hear there is still puzzle solving. Hopefully my gamerush copy comes in soon, I am getting worried that they may not get the cube version at all. Kind of makes the whole pre-ordering pointless if they can't even gaurantee you a copy, but I guess that's the price I pay for such a great deal. I may have to get it switched to another game.

I finished the game and I regret to say the puzzles never reach the level of the original. But I should clarify. When I talk about 'puzzles', I mean the stuff like the library or activating the defense system of the first game. Not the "jump here and then climb here, then swing over here" to get from one place to another, or navigating traps. Those are more like obstacle courses, which then sequel has plenty of.

I can only think of two real puzzle during the sequel, and both were very simple. I have a feeling they removed or dumbed down a lot of the puzzles because the actual story of the game should require more. You have to activate two large mechanisms in order to proceed, in fact each mechanism takes up about 20% of the play time. But they are almost entirely obstacle courses and not puzzles.

The music in this new one is so awful that I turned it all the way down in the options menu - not knowing that would affect the sound of the cinematics - so now I get silence when it goes to play a cutscene - I guess I could turn it back up, but I don't know when a cutscene is coming. I'd rather just not hear the music at all.

That's right! The puzzles are loads of fun. Very balanced game!

Alrighty,just finished this sucker and well.....it sucks. There are more glitches in this game than most PC titles (I played thru the Xbox version). Everything from the graphics (the game actually loaded me into the wrong room a couple times), gameplay(on the last boss i got stuck in the floor twice) and sound(it loads the wrong sounds 75% of the time). Additionally, the Prince's attitude this time around is terrible. He sounds like an arrogant jerk most the game. Also, combat is no longer fun...many of the normal enemies take waaaayyyyy to long to destory and their AI is bad as well. However, the platform elements still hold their ground. Honestly, if I didn't blow $40.00 on this I wouldn't of finished it. Rental or greatest hit (miss) at best.

That's because he's EXTREME!

They did this (and upped the rating) to cater to the 12-18 male demograph.

Anyway, hearing more negatives than positives so far. I'll give it a "try before buy" run at the local game store here once the Christmas kids clear up, I really enjoyed the first game.

Why you gots to get all hip hop on me now!

I FINALLY got around to playing this game because I gave up on Blockbuster ever getting it back on their shelf and I just joined an online rental service.

I was really enjoying the game for the most part then I got a little stuck and started reading. I had no idea this game was filled with so many glitches and bugs. All the GameFAQ guides and the one at IGN all mention problems in the area I just completed. Either I've hit one of I've played this game too much today and my brain is shutting down.

I just spent forever getting the water running and activating the towers. Now I make my way back to the hourglass room where there is supposed to be a cut-scene and a boss fight......and nothing happens. I've entered the room a few times just to make sure and nothing happens.

My wife and I had a blast playing the first one together since she liked helping me solve the puzzles. This time around she was upset by the additional combat in the game and I wasn't too crazy about it either. I guess we'll be passing on the third one altogether.

Bump from the past as I finally got around to playing this (picked it up for $10 on black friday last year I believe).

I'm enjoying it. The Prince's new extreme attitude is a bit annoying, but the other poster that said the game gets more puzzle oriented a bit in was right on.

It's battle heavy for the first hour or 2, and then gets back to mostly puzzles, working through traps, etc.

I'm probably 4 hours or so in, just got the key sword and have to activate the two towers to open the gate.

Only gripe would be the bosses are a bit tough and there are too damn many combos--but that just gets back to my dislike of action games I suppose. Thankfully, a lot of the fighting you can just run from.

Yeah, it's a lot better than I ever expected (I too had gottn it dirt cheap). The excessive combat aside, I felt it had a greater sense of exploration that the first. If they'd ditched the EXTREME Prince, it'd be favourite chapter in the PS2 series. The third is good but after a while it all really boils down to stealth kills. Still, the boss fights are the best in the whole series.

Eh, you don't have to do any stealth kills at all in the third game. I usually messed them up more often than not, and I was never penalized. Personally, I prefered the boss fights in the third game because they required more strategy and tricks to beat (and that arena boss was just f'ing HUGE ). The bosses in the second game were just the typical hack-n-slash thing. The one thing that I really enjoyed about the second game more than the other two games was the Dahaka chases.

I think the third is probably my favorite. Just a fantastic game with the best of both worlds. Looking forward to seeing what next gen Prince of Persia will be like. If Assassin's Creed is any indication, we're in for quite a nice surprise...

Yeah, Assasin's Creed looks great.

As for the stealth kills in TTT, although you don't get penalized from messing them up, it's obvious that most of the level design was based around them. Heck, other than the great boss fights, those were the puzzles.

And, yes, the Dahaka chases were great indeed since they forced you to think on the fly how to clear a certain area. It really got you pumped up.