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Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time Offers New Gameplay Mechanic
Ars Technica has a great look at the latest installment in the Ratchet and Clank series, "A Crack in Time." Along with the great looking graphics and same great gameplay, A Crack in Time offers a brand new game mechanic: "time pads." Time pads allow you to make a copy of yourself and move through a series of action, then shift back to "real time" and interact with your past self. "It's a game mechanic that's hard to describe in words, and wrapping your head around it inside the game isn't much easier when it's first described with an example or two. You have to play with it and bend time to your will before you see just how ingenious the whole thing is. The puzzles begin simply and grow harder as the game moves on. The use of time is done very well and elevates what we've played of the game from another platforming experience to something truly special."
Sounds like the movie "Next".
When I read the description, the first thing I thought was that it was the little Cursor*10 flash game. Very cleverly done, it kept me busy for a while.
http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html
Time Donkey!
Where... where what? Oh. He went back in time to finish the post.
Anyway, GP I think was referring to different mechanics that braid had that were not in POP. The "rewind time from death" was in Prince of persia before Braid. But Braid had pads on which you could stand and be outside of time or the rewind/forward time controls. In a seperate mechanic, Braid had worlds where you would do one thing, say jump down to a lower platform and hit a switch to open the door on the upper level. You then rewound time, door goes back closed, but when you let time go forward, a shadow form of you would redo the action you just did, you'd see the shadow jump down and open the door. You could then move through the door.
I never played prince of persia, but I was under the impression neither mechanic was seen in it.
The new rachet and clank sounds like it has a more complicated combination of both of those mechanics seen in braid
It's a well known fact that the first *popular* game to do something is the *first to have done it ever.* I can't count the number of popular games touted as the "first to have done something" when in fact it had been done ages prior.
"Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad." [Ecclesiastes 7:3]
We've been working on this gameplay mechanic for more than a year now with our UT3 mod Prometheus. Here's a link to one of the completed levels to check it out. It's nice to see that others also see this as a new gametype that has a lot of potential. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRjU2IcJ1BM We've been making this mod for the latest MakeSomethingUnreal contest and have placed 1st for Phase 2 and 2nd for Phase 3, Phase 4 just closed a month ago and our fingers are crossed.
Uh guys, you mention Braid all the time and it's time-reversal schtick... What about Prince of Persia: the Sands of Time? It's not as prevalent in the game but it was released many years beforehand.
Just putting that out there.
Perl, n. A language spoken by Eskimos.
Also of note: Cursor*10. Less direct interaction, but more planning ahead.