In the Call Me Ishtar column we look back at some of the biggest bombs in video games over the years that have earned a special place in the infamy of the medium.

The original Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time was about as close to a surprise hit as a major studio can release these days. After a couple of failed attempts to reboot the Persia franchise, The Sands of Time did so with style that few games can match. A year later the follow-up Warrior Within was released and with it Ubisoft showed in a short period the right way to reboot a franchise, and the right way to kill one.

So much negative has been said about Warrior Within that it’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it is a fairly decent game in many ways. A lot of the adventure elements from the first game return, and it certainly packs a larger scope. What’s notable is not that the game wrong, but how it went wrong. Most sequels fail by not being enough different and ultimately feeling like an expansion pack. Warrior Within tried the opposite route. (more…)

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In the Call Me Ishtar column we look back at some of the biggest bombs in video games over the years that have earned a special place in the infamy of the medium.

The Tomb Raider series has suffered tumultuous past. While the original was, along with Super Mario 64, one of the titles that defined 3D platforming, almost every subsequent title in the series was a let down. Tomb Raider II was more of the same, but refined to near perfection. From there, however, the series went in a downward spiral.

Still, it wasn’t until Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness that gamers learned just how far the series could fall. Hyped as an vast expansion of the series, Angel of Darkness marked the series’ debut on the PlayStation 2. It managed to bring with it many sins of the past, and a few it cooked up on its own. (more…)

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