Tantrix

Watched the movie, rented and played the last release of Ubifail, so let's save space to make a review of 2. Don't expect a real indepth critic, it's just my opinion. If you want a more serious review, check out the tomato critic page and this:

//www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape...

SANDS OF TIME. THE MOVIE
Maybe I will hit some of you, but I am honest here.

I didn't enjoy the movie. Alright I did enjoy it, but only on an entertainment level.Really good actors, great soundtrack, a beautiful environment and asgasping pictures of Marokko, and so on on.

But the story? Nah.

It was really, REALLY medicore and I understand why many critics gave this movie so low rates. The story is a cheap family soap drama alla Disney added with macho romanticism. It makes me even wonder if it was some sort of cry of help of America to give up Democracy and decide to get a king (There is even an Iraq-war reference there. I am serious).
The movie was more like LotR and less SoT, even WW had more story dynamics.
And again, Bruckheimer really annoys me with his constant running gag with apples. GODDAMN APPLES!

The only connection it ever had to the game series was the WW-armor and the similar constructure of the SoT game (attacking town, finding dagger, revealing the betrayal,etc.), but I really expected more of it.

And what happened to Mechners great script?

Why has it been so rewritten into some cheesy-shallow hollywood crap? I really don't understand it, then again, it's Disney fearing the wrath of Soccer moms.It's the same with Warner Brothers not allowing Terry Gilliam to work on Harry Potter and instead hiring a C-rated movie director 8(.

The only time I felt it was really Mechner related was the merchant ruling the ostrich races. That was the best part.

Alas I give it a 7/10 for being finally able to see the best movie adaption of a game in history. But a 3/10 for the plot.

THE FORGOTTEN SANDS
The game is utter horrible, the worst game I ever played from Ubisoft.Really, you think PoP'08 was boring, this is an even bigger pile of shit.
Retarded gameplay, really dumb story with no connection to the SoT, and worst of all, they ruined the mystery of SoT 8(.

I suggest reading this dude's preview before continue reading

Plattforming :
One of the strong points was surely the plattform aspect.I thought it was actually cool, some of the acrobatics are really amazing and actually reminded me of SoT trilogy, what bugged me though, was that some of the movements were a copy/paste from PoP2008's Prince and they looked too mechanized, stiff and unnatural, for what that term its worth in a fantasy game. The animations for the most part are really shrubby as if they had problems with the engine they have been working on, or didn't went much into it. At many points it's really annyoing.

Combat:
if I thought PoP2008's was retarded, stolen, and button masher-ish without any need, this one is worse! You can stick to one button to pwn everything on sight, there's different attacks you could hardly call combos and its glitchy as hell... all that's plain annoying, I care about combat, and it totally sucks that that part of the gameplay is even more dissolved than PoP2008's or AC's simple mechanic "counter and strike back"; TFS's combat is the perfect example for one of the most dumbed down dissolved combat mechanics I've ever seen!
The XP deal was a light RPGish/GoW element that I thought it wasnt necesary, and basically ignored it.

Seriously, there are real obvious attempts to steal from GoW. First of all, the Upgrade system. Secondly, getting blue,yellow and red orbs by hitting vases and killing enemies for healing and upgrading. Third real obvious GoW moments, like QTE, killing,killing,killing, and even copying the harpy climbing system and done poorly. Woah. it was so bad, your eyes must bleed.

Story: It was bad , maybe almost as cheesy as PoP2008's, which is not a real great plot to begin with IMO. Its very simple and predictable, some of the dialogues had me like: *Roll Eyes "this is PoP2008's thief with Yuri's voice". The characters are pretty few, which is good in this kind of games, but they were a bit too empty.

*SPOILERS*
The Brother was probably the only one who had dynamic but like I said, the predictable story even killed his showlight. Ratash, the antagonist, wasn't a great character either, he just sprung around towers and spoke some broken Pars, and that was it.
Razia is a real useless btich. In SoT you had a real nice girl as company, in WW you could fight against some nice girls, and T2T had...eh nevermind, what I am saying is that Razia is not a nice girl at all.
All she does is existing in some Pandaimonium, chlling around and talks in a monotone voice "oh, this is what happened, and now you brought up this situation, and you have to do this to stop it". She casts spells on the Prince but they sound more like the Arabian edition of "HURRDURR". A really really unlikable character who is pissing the shit out of you.

What made me really hate her is that she started to explain how the universe of SoT worked and spoiled the whole mystery about how the world was founded by Jinns and shit. BY JINNS! HAH!
they also give another explanation how the Prince got the amulette althought the Prince got this amulette from Farrah at the end of SoT. DAMMIT, STOP MAKING IT WORSE

*/Spoiler*

I really hate the writers Ubisoft hires. First Corey May with other Hollywood writers with the weak scritpt in WW,T2T and PoP'08, and now this Cecil Young. Gash, where are they getting those people?! It was obvious Ubisoft hires some medicore writers, lock them into one dark room and forces them to come up with a plot....

Graphics:
graphics were pretty good, I loved to see that realistic approach back to PoP in this next gen prequel, giving it some WW-vibe mixed with SoT for sure. Perhaps they don't got the potential to be called actual good next gen graphics, but they looked good and its not the most important feature of PoP for me.

The Prince
Perhaps the worst thing Ubisoft could do in this game aside killing SoT and WW would be screwing the Prince up. One of the biggest issues PoP has ever had, game after game, Ubi has given to this very particular individual a different face, and it's really FUCKING ANNOYING.
The WW-change of SoT was really considerable because the storyline goes 7 years after the precedessor and the transition is still there and justifying. However, but WW's to TT's however was completely brainless, the Prince turned into another individual out of the blue in 2 weeks.
And now, we see this horrible face in TFS, he looks like he underwent plastic surgery to like a Michael Jackson with Italian features.
Giving this Prince a WW costume isn't enough, it is the face what matters, what made the game iconic to begin with!
Also, if I was right seeing, they gave the Prince the scar from WW, which happens alot later! PIME TARADOX!

This is what the Prince does all the time in the game, with the hostile army, with the sand army and with his own brother at the end even:
//img37.imageshack.us/img37/6379/blowsomesandsmate.jpg

All in all, the game had some challangable moments, but it was boring, predictable and anticlimatic. A storyline nothing to do with SoT at all, even the magic has no involvement about it.

*SPOILER*
And the game wasn't a game to begin with. Arrows are flying at you, Ratash is trying to throw you with deadly magics, the whole castle is falling apart and you have to avoid the falling rocks if not getting killed. But you know what? They will never hit you. It's just gimmick, a pathetic facade to make you believe you are playing a game. I rather call it an interactive movie.*/Spoiler*

I heard the Wii and PSP version should be alot better, but I neither have a Wii or PSP.

FUUUUUUUUUUU-----