New PoP: Heir Apparent info+screenshots of awesome.
 

Yes, the title of the newest PoP is now PoP: Heir Apparent according to Gamespot.

Basically, there's a new character called Elika who is pretty much the Farah of this game, who tags along with the Prince and is actually more useful than Farah, since she can do tag-team attacks with the Prince and help him out with puzzles and climbing. She even has a button mapped to ordering her around. She can't die either. There's also a rewind style mechanic called the Grip Fall which essentially acts the same way.

Screenshots plus artwork: http://www.gamersyde.com/news_6557_en.html
Gamespot hands on: http://uk.gamespot.com/ds/action/pri...ml?sid=6191629

"...unlike in previous games where you fought multiple enemies at once, now have to be taken out one at a time."

So all fights in this game are one-on-one or two-on-one? That SUCKS.

I like everything else about the game though, especially the art style. The new prince looks outstanding, and it's about time you had a companion that couldn't die.

It does? How? I'm sorry, but I played SoT and TT and I hated how cheaty the combat was, especially in TT. You're stuck with a weak dagger for a great deal of the game, enemies KEEP BLOCKING and they'll go 5-on-1 unless you speed kill them.

You were supposed to counterattack and use grabbing/throwing moves.

Actually, in SoT, the best combo was A,Y, which was a one-hit kill because it worked by draining sand. So I guess that one-on-one combat wouldn't be too bad if they ramped up the difficulty a bit.

Am I the only one not digging the cell shading? I dunno, but it just doesnt fit.

Yeah same, I really don't like the art style either. The style looked a lot better as it was during the Sands of Time trilogy, and I hate to see a good art style like that be changed for this next game. To me, it's kind of like the whole Wind Waker deal. The cell-shading is ok, but I much rather prefer the way it was before.

The trailer I saw wasn't very Cel'd, and seems as Cliche as hell.

The very point of prince of persia is wandering alone in a dungeon, with only your wits, a sword, and your physical skill, so why the crap are they sticking you with a magical superchick?

The enemy is apparently THE DARKNESS (Evil Dagnasty Corruption, not Heartless or Phazon, DG Cells, Zerg, what have you), and you play an anti-hero looking character whose love interest is also probably the wielder of THE LIGHT(A tree of life. Like Mana, Shannara, Tales, etc). Yeah. That's totally original.

I'm hoping one at a time means that "You'll fight one boss one at a time" and not like the original Prince of Persia "one guy at a time", because what made the Sands of Time trilogy so great was the freeform multiple opponent combat. Why even have an acrobatic character if all you're going to do is jump around a guy while killing him?

And they're sticking us with a Sidekick? A damned sidekick? She'd better be incapable of being stuck inside objects, and her immortal status better be meant as "Getting the hell out of my way as I kill things." Or a meat shield while I get a nice hidden item or something.

I like what their doing on the grounds that they aren't doing more time-based mechanics, because the first game was fantastic but I think it was perfectly fine ending at that point, not churning out Direct Sequels Because Money Says So.

I'm skeptical but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. When they aren't forced into making sequels and know to do their own thing Ubisoft can turn out some fantastic games.

EDIT: And for that matter it seems like the combat is aiming more towards the stealth kill mechanics and 'you aren't that powerful anymore', which is perfectly fine by me.

From everything I've seen, I have high hopes for the game.

The one-on-one system is intriguing. It is easy to make the argument that one-on-one is boring, and moves too far from one of the series's defining traits: free form multiple-enemy combat. Observe:

...I can't specifically disagree, but I can point out that it's worth having some modicum of faith. The one-on-one dueling can be done well. All it would take is creativity on the part of Ubisoft; how do we make fighting against one enemy as interesting as fighting against many enemies?

There are simple techniques to accomplish this, and not all of them have anything to do with context-sensitive button-prompts. Things like evolving enemy AI which changes throughout the course of the fight, timing-sensitive maneuvers, and overall presentation.

Presentation plays a huge role in how much fun combat is. One really agile guy against one drab-colored boss doesn't sound like a good game, but as past examples have shown, it can be done extremely well.

...Well, yeah. Did we forget that in 2/3 of the PoP Trilogy, we had Farah tagging along for most of the game? Not only was she a sidekick, but if you didn't position yourself carefully during combat, she'd occasionally shoot you.

LASTLY: Typically I'm very much a purist, but personally I dig the new art style. It's indicative of a new chapter for the Prince -- which is good, considering that since Sands of Time, the games just haven't been as good.

Also, I guess I just have different standards. Some people refer to games like Call of Duty 4 as "gorgeous" because they's almost photorealistic. Personally, I don't see what's so beautiful about stroking the high-def weiner; congrats, you made a game that looks a lot like the world outside of my house -- in other words, the world I'm unimpressed with enough to play video games. Gorgeous!

...Well, I'll put it this way: I've never seen a game that looks like the new Prince. The style is definitely original. I will give Ubi credit for going somewhere new; hopefully, given Ubisoft's typically lofty standards, we'll have a visual epic on the scale of Okami or Odinsphere.

...Only time will tell.

EDIT: Watch the developer interview on mudah's Gamespot link. Also: the official trailer for the game looks NOTHING like any of the screenshots I've seen. I'm guessing it is, like a lot of promotional material, from a time before actual work was done and the game was only a green-lighted project.

Provided that Ubisoft both doesn't try and make it anything like the Sands of Time trilogy (Because it's freaking ancient), and stays the hell away from old Godsmack CDs, we should be okay.