Marvelously written, Sam. Beautiful balancing of idiosyncratic Runyonesque darkly-comedic screenwriting onto hard-hitting, sentimentally drowning Shakesperean tragedy. Every swing hits to the chest in the best-worst way possible for majestic Noir glory. Technologically polished too, added physics and guntotting madness for our trigger-happy amusement which just clicks abundantly satisfying to distract us from the emotional damage. Seems awfully more downing if we say goodbye to Sam Lake's Payne from here onto the Rockstar sendoff. There's no reason for that incredible catharsis that final Poets of the Fall needle drop to hit so tremendously by the end. The witchcraft of evocative storytelling.

An astronomical improvement, literally a blockbuster with stratospherical interaction before that became the norm. Struggling opening, but proceeded to feed me thrilling combat sequences- A mesmerizing building jump cutscene that lives rent-free on my head and escalating hoops of fire for trigger-happy adrenaline. Trains folding into tunnel visions quests of heroic glory, gun-totting knights and falling debris sandwiched seamlessly with puzzle breathing rooms. It's a straight-up Indiana Jones gourmet. Totally prime.

Definitely a warm-up, prototypical Prince of Persia with guns. It's visually, sickeningly green at times with plastic trees as the summit of 2006' forest aesthetic. Some of it's shoddy physicality didn't age well, the granade throw control-tilt gimmick sort of amused me back in the day, but also added to it's hellish clunkiness. Cute parts alongside the simplicity of third-person combat, somewhat struggles with things like an abhorrently difficult motorboat sequence. Very much paves the way for it's infinitely more polished sequels.