This has been a good year for both early access games and the Prince of Persia franchise. The Rogue Prince of Persia is right at the center of that Venn diagram.
This roguelite, which was externally developed by former Dead Cells developers at Evil Empire and published by Ubisoft, entered Steam early access in May. I already thought it was a very entertaining and satisfying roguelite then, even if it did have clear room for growth and improvement. Today, Ubisoft and Evil Empire released early access Update 10, deemed “The Second Act update,” which overhauls The Rouge Prince of Persia in some significant ways. That makes now the perfect time to give this roguelite a shot if you just can’t wait for its 1.0 release.
If you need a clear indication that The Rogue Prince of Persia has changed, just look at its player character. Previously, the Prince’s skin color was purple, playing into a very vibrant, comic book-like overall aesthetic. Although The Rogue Prince of Persia retains its colorful art direction, the Prince’s color is now a more natural-looking skin tone. There have also been plenty of other small touch-ups to the art to make it even prettier.
These artistic improvements mean the intro cutscene has been replaced with one more relevant to the story. Update 10 fleshes out the narrative a bit, as the new sequence shows the Prince losing a fight against Nogaï, the king of the Huns invading Persia. He’s then saved by a mysterious figure named Paachi, who brings the Prince to an oasis that doesn’t move forward in time.
Thanks to a bola the Prince is wearing, he can repeatedly set out to discover more about the Hun’s invasion and take Persia back, as he’s sent back to the oasis every time he dies. Then, on runs, there are plenty more new conversations to be had as he meets family, old friends, and new allies. The story content available upon the early access launch was light, so seeing more meat on its bones here is great. Although the story isn’t complete (it’s impossible to do a full run yet), The Rogue Prince of Persia is headed in a positive direction on this front.
Overall, the amount of content has impressively increased through the game’s early access period. The Rouge Prince of Persia now sports nine biomes, 20 main weapons, six secondary tools, four boss encounters, 50 medallions, and 24 unique traversal challenges. The core gameplay is mostly the same. It’s a lot like Dead Cells, with players hacking and slashing any enemies that get in their way with various weapons.
The Rouge Prince of Persia emphasizes movement; the Prince can even run on most background walls. Since launch, Ubisoft has doubled down on that with a new mechanic that gives players a speed boost if they perfectly time enough parkour moves together. That freeform movement system makes The Rouge Prince of Persia ultra satisfying to play and only gets enhanced further as new biomes like the Mines and Artisans’ District are added.
Combat also still feels very polished, and several new enemies and bosses will test your skills in new ways if you haven’t played The Rogue Prince of Persia since its early access release. The Medallions system, which gives the Prince mid-run buffs, has also been simplified, so it’s easier to create powerful builds without worrying about the positioning of each Medallion in your inventory.
On a meta-progression level, there are also many weapons, medallions, and skill tree upgrades that players can now earn in the oasis with Soul Cinders. That sort of meta-progression felt lacking upon the early access release, so it’s good to see the foundation of this game’s structure get stronger. While many of these changes may be small individually, cumulatively, it’s clear that The Rogue Prince of Persia has come a long way in just six months. If you’ve been putting off checking this game out, Update 10 is a perfect time to dive in.
The Rogue Prince of Persia is available in early access on PC. There’s no release date for the 1.0 version of the game yet, although Evil Empire says Update 10 marks the midpoint of the early access phase.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.