I did a thread search and didn't find anything. Maybe I just suck at using the search function. But anyway, next-gen Prince of Persia is here.

http://prince-of-persia.us.ubi.com/

The link above is to the game's official site. I strongly suggest that you guys check it out if you have a few minutes to kill.

If any of you were uninspired or disappointed by last-gen's Prince of Persia trilogy, I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

This is not only a new PoP game, it is a restart. A new trilogy. And it's being taken in a completely new direction.

Puzzle solving and action-adventure platforming will still make up the basics of the gameplay, but there are quite a few shake ups.

The first change you'll notice is the graphics. You will call it cel-shaded, the developers like to call it "illustrative," which means a combination of cel-shading and 3D special effects. It looks amazing, and I think you'll be really impressed by how much work Ubisoft Montreal is putting into it if you check out all the media at their official website.

The second biggest change that the developers have implemented is in the combat gameplay. Rather than boring you by throwing a bunch of mindless enemies at you and sucking your enthusiasm away with less than stellar combat controls, animations, and responsiveness, the developers have decided that they will only throw one enemy at you at a time, and these enemies won't be mindless. They aim for each battle to play out like a Soul Calibur title.

The third biggest change, and perhaps the more enticing change, in my opinion, is that you get a sidekick this time around. And unlike other games where you would expect sidekicks to get in the way and frustrate the game experience, Ubisoft Montreal is reportedly taking care with AI to make sure she never gets in the way and only enhances the action by taking commands.

Remember the dagger? The same dagger that used the sands of time to help you rewind in case you fucked up during the puzzle solving? The dagger's gone, but the sidekick has magical abilities to save you from falling to death.

The sidekick is also a woman. Once you check out the sidekick at the official site, you'll notice they aren't whoring her up. They're keeping her look very classic and respectable, and I think that adds way more personality to her than otherwise.

Another incentive to check out the official site is that you'll be treated to a trailer with some of the best music I've ever heard, and I think you'll agree.

I also found a sweet video of a developer walkthrough at http://gamersyde.com/news_6890_en.html. It shows the developer playing the game on a PS3, which I think is very encouraging for PS3 owners because as a PS3 owner myself, I worry that I will get the gimped version of a multi-platform game. After watching the developer's talk about how they've come up to speed with the PS3's architecture at Sony's E3 conference, I have more confidence that the PS3 will be the superior version.