what you know about the Prince of Persia series. Let go the Sands of Time. Release your Warrior Within. Ubisoft Montreal has created a new Prince, in a new world, with a new female companion and a very different design philosophy. The longer you hold on to the style of last generation's Prince of Persia, the harder it will be to master the new one. Embrace the change and you're likely to fall in love with the new Prince (or at least his lovely companion).

When we meet the new Prince, he hardly seems princely at all. Little more than a smooth-talking thief, the Prince gets lost in a sandstorm while searching for his donkey, Farah. Of course, this is no ordinary sandstorm. This mystical phenomenon transports the Prince to another land, one seemingly made more of myth than reality. It's here where he fatefully runs into Elika, a beautiful barefoot descendant of a clan sworn to guard the prison of the evil god Ahriman. As bad luck would have it, the two meet just in time to witness Ahriman's release from his prison inside the Tree of Life. His escape releases corruption across the four areas of the world. This corruption will spread further unless the Prince and Elika can heal the infected lands. And so begins your adventure.

Hardware Requirements
Operating System: Windows 98 SE/ 2000/ ME/ XP (ONLY)
Processor: 800 MHz Pentium III or AMD Athlon
Memory: 256 MB of RAM
Video Card: 64 MB GeForce 3 or higher, or ATI® Radeon 8500 or higher, Matrox Parhelia (GeForce4 MX not supported)
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0 or higher compliant sound card
DirectX Version: 9.0 or higher (included on game disc)
Hard Drive Space: 1.5 GB minimum
CD-ROM: 16X or better (not recommended for use with CD-RWs)
Additional Supported Peripherals: ThrustMaster FIRESTORM Dual Analog 3
Controls: Windows-compatible keyboard and mouse

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Fantasy Action Adventure
Release Date: Dec 9, 2008 (more)
ESRB: TEEN

In many modern games, you rain death upon your enemies; how refreshing, then, that your main task in Prince of Persia is to breathe life into a darkening world. That doesn't mean that the forces of evil aren't on your tail in this open-world platformer, but the most indelible moments of this enchanting journey are uplifting, rather than destructive. Similarly, the latest iteration in this long-running franchise is a rejuvenation for the series, and it's an ambitious one, offering up a new titular prince and casting certain game traditions aside in favor of player immersion. And for the most part it succeeds, eliminating illusion-breaking mechanics like game-over screens and long loading times in the process. This re-imagining comes with a few caveats, however, and if you're a longtime series fan, you'll quickly discover--and possibly resent--that Prince of Persia is, far and away, the easiest game in the series. But if you can clear your mind and let the game's magic wash over you, its easygoing joy and visual beauty will charm you into forgiving a sprinkling of flaws.