Ico / Shadow of the Colossus

Actually, come to think of it, the game reminds me a lot of Myst, only with far different design aims.

Shadow of the Colossus looks pretty unbelievable, especially in these two screenshots:

http://ps2.1up.com/do/slideshow?pager.offset=13&mt=0&cId=3134836&mId=2243553
http://ps2.1up.com/do/slideshow?pager.offset=9&mt=0&cId=3134836&mId=2243557

I played it for a couple of hours, it looked good but then I had to fight something and the curse of No Reflexes struck yet again.

: /

I helped a friend play through this by watching her do all the puzzle stuff (saying nothing throughout on pain of pain), then taking the gamepad whenever the ghosts appeared and beating the crap out of them.

Check the video review for this. it looks amazing.

uh kinda weird but, like the 1up review said, you totally do start to question yourself for killing the colossi... their deaths are really bathetic... and the score is awesome, but your mileage may vary on mawkish classicism

I've done the first three. The freedom to approach your problem via trial and error and experimentation is fantastic. And it's beautiful. And the score is good. And it's been a long time since I've felt guilty-ish over actions in a game (last time might have letting one of those asshole knights die in Conquest of Camelot). Good stuff. Unfortunately I have a paper to write.

how you getting on? I've got 8 defeated from the weekend but I've not been relaxed enough to play it over the past couple of days and just found myself stressed out with all the aimless, listless riding...

that's just me after work though so I've been concentrating on other games

Big words, Adam! I'm v. interested in this game. If I traded my Xbox in for a PS2 today, it would be to play Katamari and this.

Did you read what Penny Arcade had to say about it today?

boring personal anecdote time: playing sotc for me is such a fkn chore right now cos it means I need to lug my PS2 downstairs to the only telly in the house with NTSC 60hz. compatibility... so roll on sunday so I can play it relaxed...

what was your final time?

My copy of Ico is in New Orleans (I am not) so I won't get to give it another shot until December. I'm going to play through SotC on the hard mode and do some of the time attacks. Actually, I'm going to go do that right now.

: /

farrr toooo looooong

I actually like Tim's rambling, sprawling non-reviews. If you just accept from the beginning that there will be plenty of tangents and a healthy dose of bullshit, they're generally amusing to read when you're bored at work. If you're into that sort of thing.

quoting myself from the PS2 thread:

the reason ico is good is because it is not afraid to be boring. if you don't appreciate the game it is because you have forgotten how to be bored properly.

Most of the same things could be said about SotC, except the fighting in that game is extremely satisfying, frightening, and generally much more engaging than whacking shadows with a stick 50 times. And that difference alone is enough to make it a much better game.

the second to last battle, of course, completely doesn't count. i mean omg

the opening of the gates/walking across the bridge sequence and subsequent cutscene is the most heart-on-string i've ever been while playing a videogame

was it only the japanese version that had the lightsaber?

The flying colossus (#5 I think) is a bitch though, I can't seem to get all up on him.

I just want to see the ending.

Are the outcomes of the, uh, controllable parts inevitable?

http://www.dyingduck.com/sotc/making_of_sotc.html

the whole game is very ambiguous!

I'm stuck on the sandworm colossus. Oy vey, what a beast.

It took me fucking forever to notice the sticks on the ground in the hellhound level (my tv is small and dark), but that one was still cool.

I've only just started playing SOTC. 3 Colossi down. This is so much better than ico! I'm definitely not doing it properly though. Is the time attack an option after you finish or should I be watching my time on my first play through?

http://www.penny-arcade.com/images/2005/20051021h.jpg

This:

I am enjoying it! It's funny, when you're climbing the colossi the music is all "Oh what a valiant hero you are" and then as soon as you kill one it changes to "FOR SHAME............."

-- Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 11:28

Is v v OTM

I like having the horse even when it takes forever to make it go anywhere! Camera is a real pain as well, I just can't get used to it at all :(

I also have just learned what that gauge is. I feel shame u_u

time attack is after you finish

Ah that would make sense. Are the colossi in the same positions?

you actually go straight to them from the temple, you'll see.

(so yes, but it won't matter)

Ah, got ya. You just meet them in sequence and start hammering lumps out of each other?

nope, you can pick which one to fight from the little statues in the temple. yr getting ahead of yrself, beat the game first! :D

by positions I thought you meant locations, sorry

Such a great game.

Ah right. I suppose I should try beating it first. I has teh fear of sandworm, last and the flying one. I probably shouldn't have read the thread!

One of the best games ever made, I think.

want!

Buy!

(You really won't regret it)

Unless you're as big a game-hating grinch as me.

tracer, I saw this online new for £10 somewhere recently. I'll try track it down again

easily one of my favorite things ever. not one of my favorite games ever, but favorite THINGS ever.

in other words, i love it just as much as my sofa and penis.

was at game - http://www.game.co.uk/ViewProduct.aspx?cat=10248&mid=325704

but it's out of stock now, sorry : /

it's greatest hits now, so it should be that price everywhere.

unless you don't get the greatest hits things in the uk?

cd try subscribing to the stock alert, I guess?

x-post

yes, you do, but it's called, alternately, xbox classics and ps2 platinum... not sure that shadow of the colossus is platinum over here just yet and either way it would be £20 and not £10 even if it was platinum, if I remember correctly

Yay to enabling TH!

Tracer, play.com on the markey place there's a copy for only £14.99!

With free delivery iirc.

I am the only person who doesn't like these games. ;_;

Me, me! Oh actually I loved Ico.

SOTC is a fine, really fun game. It's got nothing on Ico though.

i couldn't wait.

i've already beat the first two baddies.

and now i'm spent!

Well hopefully you tidied up afterwards...

I didn't like ico but I like this game. I think it's the lack of boring. That said, finding the third took forever. TH: look for gaps. That's all I can say!

i've also only just started playing this after having had it for a year or so. it's magnificent!

there's something nice about this game in that it's not like crack, the way most games are, trickling little bits to you, one or two drips at a time, always making you want to see what the next bit is.. each battle here is so monumental that it's like - wow, OK, i'm done for tonight.

i know, you kind of have to catch your breath after each one

i sort of love that it's probably the only game to generate a whole big file on gamefaqs that's not actually about how to play it but just story speculation!!

http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/924364/41817

we should have a gamefaqs nerd lol verbosity thread:

|Statement of purpose| (002)
The purpose of this here document is to combine all known and documented
theories concerning Shadow of the Colossus' storyline into one large
reader-friendly FAQ, and this is the statement that states that as being the purpose.

haha

Busy weekend, went from 5 to 12 (I think that was starting figure anyway). I have 13 next. Story so far makes no sense. So far I've been relatively lucky but wow, it can take forever to figure out how to either get there or beat the colossus. V frustrating!

Oh wow @ Number 13. Wow wow wow wow wow wow. Just WOW!!

which one is that?

To avoid spoilers, google it. I wouldn't want to spoil the amazing surprise that it is!

I am not building this up too much guys, it is incredible!

ohhhh yeah that one is amazing!

i should play this through again; i'm remembering the littler ones as being way more tricky to figure out.

It's finding the things though. That can be the real challenge. Up until you have to figure out how to beat them. There was one that was like a bull and that was impossible to figure out. Took me forever!

Wow, now I am watching youtube videos of "unusual' SotC kills.

i've finished off six of the mf's and have found them all right off the bat, i guess that'll change soon

Oh yes. Yes it will. Number 14 just beaten. That took a loooong time :(

FINISHED!!!

Amazing game. More when awake etc.

awes~

BLEW your MIND didn't it

These games made me realize that you could get far more versimilitude and/or graphic realism out of lighting and camerawork, as opposed to trying to perfectly render human skin. Knock the frame rate of SotC up to 60/30 fps or so, and you'd get damn-near-video quality.

Couldn't get on yesterday. Actually played first colossus again to show epic scale to guests.

Basically the end: wow. WTF. Totally worth playing for really! Methinks I'll have to go online to understand one or two things (that I won't go into here for fear of spoilers).

As for the time trials, not a chance. I'm done for the while I think, it was funny last night realising that when you don't have to play that the controls are actually pretty frustrating, especially the camera.

The look and feel though? Wow. Just wow.

gff: it did.

yeah, i did something to the camera, can't remember what - inverted it i think? anyway i did something and sudenly it behaved the way i thought it should

haven't played this in many days, it's sitting there waiting for me - to echo my own comment above, though, for some reason i'm not ANXIOUS to get on with it, it's totally OK that i'm not, it's there and will be there; most other video games DEMAND that you play them - not this one. and this feelings makes me like it even more, treasure it even more, i almost don't want to finish it because i don't quite want it to ever be over.

"spoiler" talk is weird - there's no plot really!

Tracer, there's not a plot as such but when you first see a colossus that's the best part! Such a rush. Also why play the whole game if you know what's coming. Apart from enabling time trial and hard mode of course!

I tried the trick with the camera. It was just counter-intuitive the way it automatically panned etc. Best part was finding that you can move the camera during cut scenes. Savage.

finished. WHAT a game!

(i think i still prefer ico.)

bestest colossuseses: 7, 10, 13.

I should play this again soon. I never did finish the time trials or hard mode.

I can't remember which is which! I'll have a look online later and see. What did you think of the end film?

I just started Ico and I'm already lost.

Leave it that way. Walk away from the terrible game!

Ico isn't too hard to figure out. Where are you stuck, poly?

I got stuck at the part where the black thing pulls the girl into the hole, which is roughly the beginning of the game. It took me like an hour to realize that all I needed to do was walk up to her and press R1.

Then I dragged her around the castle and now I'm stuck again. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but SOTC made a lot more sense to me.

Ico, esp. once you've finished it, is beautiful and wonderful and perfect. Even if you think it's strange and boring-ish, the payoffs in the last third of the game are even better than the v. end of SOTC.

I have a Jap PS3, and am thinking I would like to play SotC upscaled. Would the fact that this game would be entirely in a language I don't understand be a barrier to enjoying it?

Hahaha, no.

the part where the black thing pulls the girl into the hole, which is roughly the beginning of the game.

Well now that you've got that sorted, know that this is going to happen a bajillion more times.

The only thing I can think of you'd really want SotC in English for is the hints you get when you're stuck on how to kill one of 'em, but I think the story would be fairly self explanatory from the visuals if you don't care about the details. GameFAQs would cover you either way on both of those fronts.

In fact, they have the entire game script here:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/924364/39549

i sort of love that it's probably the only game to generate a whole big file on gamefaqs that's not actually about how to play it but just story speculation!!

Not by a long shot. Check out Killer7's FAQs some time. There's a lot of this crap, nerdz be overanalyzin'.

never heard of Killer7! but yeah, you're right.

Dude Killer7 is the awesomeness.

http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2005/TECH/fun.games/08/01/killer7/story.killer7.cu.jpg

i've been trying to do the time attack stuff ... and it's hella hard!! reminds me just how long i took to beat some of those guys

i'm confused about the progression after you beat the game once, too. like, i'm back in the temple, and i can pray by each statue to start the time-attack, winning a new item after every two wins (whistling arrows, w00t).

but, then what? I can also leave the temple and go beat the colossi again, "for real" (did the first one, again, just to see). but what mode am i in? what good does it do?

i read some gamefaq thing that you have to beat the game in normal, do the normal time attacks, beat the game in hard, then do the hard time attacks... and you have enough strength and life to do [big secret though obvious thing].

but then i saw a youtube of someone doing [big secret though obvious thing] w/o all that, so, like, what's the point?

Link?

yo dudes -

have you guys seen beowulf!??

there is a fairly long scene that is a STRAIGHT. UP. RIP. of both the bird colossus and the water colossus, with our hero clinging desperately on

The movie or the game?

Or the epic poem?

My workplacei s going to see Beowulf at the IMAX on Friday. I will try and play some SoTC before then... to catch up.

the movie!

SotC is still so beautiful

when are they gonna do one of these bad boys for next-gen

Demon's Souls is a forthcoming RPG that has been likened to SotC because of its giant-size monsters. screens look incredible.

I was just thinking about how this is probably a top five game for me. What a great experience.
Here's a video of the tech demo. Where's my fuggin next gen sequel!

Yeah, it was my favorite video game experience of the last ten years for sure. If they had found a way to make the parts between colossus fights more engaging (though I liked the spareness of it), it would probably be my favorite game period.

loved ico, hated colossus.

Rumor is that Team ICO has something ready to show at E3.

absolutely LOVE SotC, top 5 game for me.

i still haven't played Ico, need to find a way to do that.

colossus is top 5 for me too, loved that game

so, shadow of colossus only this time you ride the colossus?
yeah, that could talk me into buying a ps3

is that actually a thing?

also... where do i know that music?

yeh, that musics bugging me as well, its from a film - i'm thinking Miyazaki or Coens?

oh, youtube comments say Millers Crossing.

ahhhh

yeah, that could talk me into buying a ps3

yep!

People who have played these games, please estimate percentage of time spent walking around doing nothing but getting from pt A to pt B and also estimate how much of this drudgery you believe is essential to the enjoyment of these games.

30% / 22%

You aren't doing nothing; you're looking for the colossus. Sometimes that's can be a bit of a puzzle, given the lack of a HUD. It's a little bit like if you had a horse in Fallout, and there weren't any dudes out in the wasteland.

i have totally wished for that horse in fallout, and that i didn't have to worry about molerats & raiders.

i got the perk to keep the molerats off. And the bears.

"You aren't doing nothing; you're looking for the colossus."
The colossus is where the shiny thing is. When there's a vast grass plains in between you and the shiny thing, it's no puzzle at all that you have to drudge drudge drudge drudge all the way there.

i guess it's boring but it helps to set the scene. i found it kind of soothing, and it would have felt like a very different game if you went directly from colossus to colossus.

Yeah, I don't want to eat a dinner of a steak and a banana split; there's gotta be some greenery and soup to levy that shit out.

it's no puzzle at all that you have to drudge drudge drudge drudge all the way there.

I don't know, it took me a while to find some of the later colossi.

It's not greenery and soup; it's a waiter deliberately stalling for time and handing you more bread baskets.
I get the idea of different paces, but how much are you willing to put up with before you "leave the restaurant?"
please estimate how much more grind you could endure for these games.

hey guess what philip nunez you're wrong

Yeah, I don't want to eat a dinner of a steak and a banana split

all the more for me.

the grind killed colossus for me. it was all grind, even after you'd found them it was a grind to kill them.

i experienced no "grind" at all, until the last colossus anyway

one man's grind is another's healthy labour.

I have a game for you grinders:
"Desert Bus
Desert Bus is the best known minigame in the package, and was a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthly's preview. The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada in real time at a maximum speed of 45mph, a feat that would take the player 8 hours of continuous play to complete, as the game cannot be paused.
The bus contains no passengers, and there is no scenery or other traffic on the road. The bus veers to the right slightly; as a result, it is impossible to tape down a button to go do something else and have the game end properly. If the bus veers off the road it will stall and be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, they will score exactly one point"

I'm not asking as a rhetorical put-down on grinders -- I genuinely want to know the limits of what you are willing to put up with from a game, specifically these games, because I think it might be possible to modify them for the purpose of extending the distance between you and the collosumuses.

um, dude, I gave you percentages. you're moving into troll territory now.

"um, dude, I gave you percentages. you're moving into troll territory now."

As much as I'd like to make a game mod to cater to one dude, I'd like get a few more stats before making the attempt. But yes, I was thinking primarily of shortening the game before people responded in the opposite direction.

BTW I have no idea how to go about doing this without seriously breaking the game. The last time I tried doing this it was just hex-editing some dungeon RPG which would give you insane stats but would crash randomly.

I honestly think removing all the in-between "exploring the world" parts of Shadow of Colossus would break it. If all you want is boss battles and nothing but, you're better off with a flash game.

I guess the main point is that this game is not for dudes with short attention spans who crave 'stats'.

the scenery was pretty, the ambient sounds are great, keeping your eyes peeled for fruit and white lizards is fun and honestly it doesn't take that long to find your way through, 3-5 minutes maybe? even on the maze-y ones. i have no idea wtf ur complaining about, fuck outta here with this bus to vegas bs

The 3-5 minutes are especially long if you are watching someone else play. In fact, the more craft the game employs at conveying vast wastelands, the more excruciating it is.

BTW I am all about the grind -- I ended up playing Super Mario Bros solely for the endless underwater world, but that game doesn't foist the grind on you as mercilessly as this game does.

"this game is not for dudes with short attention spans who crave 'stats'."
I'd be happy to remove the score and lifebar meters if you think this will enhance the game. To me the lifebar feels particularly redundant since the game already offers you plenty of feedback re: relative health, and I'm not sure what the score is supposed to represent anyway.

Since when is there a score on the screen?

I'm fine with getting rid of the lifebar meters as long as the game replaces it with something that makes sense, but that was a small concession that I was willing to deal with, and the lifebar disappears most of the time.

i like slow movies too

when are we gonna get a bela tarr xbox tie in, i ask u

bela tarr game will be on ps3; hi capacity bluray innit

other famous director's slow game:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/ca/Takeshi_no_Chosenjo_boxart.png/256px-Takeshi_no_Chosenjo_boxart.png

"Completion of the game requires several unorthodox uses of the Famicom system, such as using the second controller microphone to speak while playing pachinko, or not touching the controls for 60 minutes. "

What is a game you enjoy so we can shit all over it.

um... ducktales?

you mean FUCKTALES, the famed spanish shit machine?
Fuck that game. Fuck it in the BEAK.

(actually i like ducktales)

(yeah it's pretty good)

oh you mean suck tales

i assume you're referring to duck fails

My childhood is in tatters!

in the BEAK

holy mackerel @ that video!!!!

pretty sure it's a griffin or a cat not a mackerel

you guys

The 3-5 minutes are especially long if you are watching someone else play.

not sure how this is relevant tbh, most games are pretty boring if you're not the one doing the playing.

i'll concede that SotC might have been better with elegant puzzles in the terrain, a la Tomb Raider, rather than the long horseback rides. but that would have been a different game. the horseback rides gave the game a kind of simple, innocent purity that i appreciated. the pleasure simply of going. but then again i'm a guy who actually likes cutscenes, so...

^^ hate cutscenes but agree with this

"the horseback rides gave the game a kind of simple, innocent purity that i appreciated. the pleasure simply of going."
I have no problem with aimless wandering as a choice, and in fact I play many games in this fashion (mario series, tetris, some racing games [perversely trying to evade the invisible barriers that prevent you from going backwards]) I have no problem with cutscenes either so long as you can skip them. Have you ever played that caligraphy ps2 game? LONGEST UNSKIPPABLE INTRO EVER.

"not sure how this is relevant tbh, most games are pretty boring if you're not the one doing the playing."
It's especially relevant when you're not the one doing the playing!

go read a book!

http://www.amazon.com/review/R1J4ZPKVXGB3X2/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm

omg

the camera angle makes me feel as though he has suspended me from his ceiling and is slowly torturing me by telling me his reviews of videogames he's played

Put a shirt on for crissakes.

comments are hilaire

He's got a pretty sweet video review of God of War 2 up as well.

WATCHING MOVIES- SINCE I WAS A CHILD I HAVE ALWAYS ENJOYED A GOOD MOVIE AND WHAT IS FUNNY THAT I ALWAYS HAD SUCH A LIKEING FOR FILMS AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE WHILE MY FRIENDS WAS OUT PLAYING I WAS HUDDLED IN FRONT OF THE TV WATCHING OLD B/W FILMS OF THE 30'S UP TO THE SIXTY'S , I JUST COULD NOT GET ENOUGH, CLASSIC-DISNEY-HORROR-
SCI-FI , I WOULD WATCH ANYTHING EVEN THE CHEESEY STUFF, UNTILL I FOUND MY CALLING IN THE VIDEO BUSINESS I WOULD USE MY SKILLS OF WHAT PEOPLE SUCH AS MYSELF WOULD FIND ENTERTAINING I DID WELL AT THIS FOR 7 YEARS A BUILT VIDEO STORES AND WATCHED THE ONE'S THAT HAD NO PASSION CLOSED, WHEN I CAME UP WITH RENTING NINTENDO 1 YEAR BEFORE IT HIT, I KNEW THAT I SHOULD BE WORKING FOR MYSELF MAKING BETTER THINGS HAPPEN FOR MYSELF, I HAVE HAD SOME SET BACKS BUT IM ON THE RIGHT PATH TO GET BACK TO WERE I WAS, THIS AMAZON IS FOREVER.

That guy should have people with bloodied limbs trying to escape from his basement in the background. Would definitely be better than SAW. Would rent.

this amazon is forever

Boy, that kid got debrowned in a hurry. Still, looks like I'm getting a PS3.

http://penny-arcade.com/images/2009/20090608.jpg

HILARIOUS!

talking to my pal travis.

Travis: i hope it's something like it has to leave to become a guardian and fulfill its noble bullshit destiny or something
Travis: so it's still depressing but at least it's not horrible
Will: it's called the last guardian, dude
Travis: i know
Travis: that's what i mean
Will: do you know what happened at the end of the last mohican?

he got a haircut?

from the neck up, yes.

So over the holidays I picked up something called a "Playstation 2" and spent the last month playing through Shadow of the Colossus. Just completed it.

So this game was pretty goddamn amazing. From the outset, I was drawn into its calm, foreboding world. Felt like I was undertaking Herculean labors - both sentimentally in theme and in frustration - but the whole experience was really inspiring. Easily one of the greatest of its generation. Definitely up there with Killer7 as a groundbreaking, emotional experience in the medium. Lots of love.

Ico is also v. v. good.

wtf? today i heard on this news thing that 15% of japans students are addicted to the internet/games. and i see this shitty looking game and im very confused how this is possible. no action just for wimpy men who have no.. how should i put this.. balls so to speak. games are supposed to be exhiliraing. like sex. now take the new alien vs predator. great graphics hopefully frightening and blood/gore. that is a game. not some child running around with this wierd ass homosexual bird thingy throwing stones at samurais in stone armor? seriously. what the fuck.

^^^
to be read out loud in a booming Austrian accent.

these are both coming to PS3 early 2011, apparently

in the BEAK

new castlevania game apparently has a few good SoTC ripoff bosses. i've only made it to the first one and i dig it. def hits the colossus buttons.

rest of the game is god of war ripoff for which ymmv.

Lost In Shadow is a puzzle platformer with an aesthetic thats heavily influenced by Ico/SotC. Really digging so far (out in EU already as A Shadows Tale)
preview here http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-lost-in-shadow/17-3378/

nice. kind of amazing that it's taken like 5 years for people to start biting that shit. or maybe the market can only bear a very light load of enormo-boss games.

So like... this is out, right? The HD refix?

I think I'm going to get this today

ps3 only, right? i would be so excited to play SotC again if it was being re-released for 360. never got a chance to play ico.

Now that is sad, why cause it's intertsing

yep, it's out last week. Best Buy actually had it for $25 - it's sold out online but the price might still be good in stores though. I hear it's kinda buggy though :(

:o

in what way?

most of the complaints I've seen have been from people trying to catch those lizards - apparently they can just suddenly disappear sometimes. there are also lots of folks bitching about the horse controls being all fucked up but I suspect that they may just be idiots.

yeah, that may be post-Red Dead standards raising...

(i don't remember the lizards!)

i thought the horse controls were pretty fucked up in the original but i haven't played the remake.

pretty sure i didn't catch any lizards.

i caught some lizards. just because i read a guide that said to look out for lizards. it was hard!

Started playing the HD versions. Played through the first colossus just to see how it looked, and then skipped to Ico which I'd only played a bit of. It's remarkable how much better these games look than many current gen games. Art design really matters.

Fuck, SotC looks incredible in 3D.

!!

just bought this; may not play anytime soon but just wanted to know i could

haha that is exactly my approach - I have arkhams asylum and city plus uncharted 3 to do first

I bever had a PS2, so was super excited to get a chance to play these.Bought it, tried both games, sold it. I would love to watch someone play it who didn't find the controls and/or camera absolutely shit. Loved the design of both, but I sure as hell didn't enjoy my time with either.

Bever? I never.

dunno about ico but i found the controls/camera of shadow amongst the best of any game i ever played?

In the colossus fights I din't have a problem, but between the horse controls and that camera wanting to be all cinematic and hanging off the side of the horse's rear-end I got way, way tired of it. Called it a day after colossus #2.

Some people don't like chocolate

I like eating it not making it. Far too much of a chore instead of something fun.

controls were the biggest issue i had with both games, really cut into my enjoyment

Hey forks - next time I'm in NYC can I watch you play these games? I'll bring beers.

Totally!

i remember the controls being a little clunky outside of the fight segments, but it didn't really matter because there was no rush in wandering around the countryside. it didn't affect my enjoyment of the game, and controls/feel is usually the most important thing for me.

Forks - I have no idea when I'l next be there (it was easier to get there from Maine than Texas) but I promise I'll be in touch. Time to expand my ILX "real life" meetings past Nate, Alex in NYC, call all destroyer and Scott.

i have a big couch and multiple systems and will be happy to hang out.

When the time comes you get to pick the beverage.

In SotC I had to go into the settings and invert the horizontal/vertical camera. Helped a lot.

no the horse stuff is a bunch of nothing, there's no reason to gloss that (especially compared to red dead) but it's just an intermission really, a moment to let your heart stop racing

making you ride the horse around w/o fast travel is one of those design decisions that seem stupid for a while but becomes genius near the end.

GAMES AS ART etc.

i really enjoyed the exploration and the sense of not knowing what's over the next hill
the zelda effect if you will

watching a playthrough of this (SotC) on youtube might be even better than playing it in some ways, just to be able to appreciate the colossi without getting carpal tunnel from hanging on them.

free on ps+ this week

i got the hd version of these. playing ico first, its dope

they fall asleep if you leave them in the save chair

Picked up that HD collection recently too. Played through Shadow twice (rare for me) on PS2 and it stands in memory as one of my favorite games. Hope it holds up. Looking forward to Ico too. This is like the first thing that makes me wish I had a 3D capable TV.

Is their new one ever going to come out? The Last Guardian or w/e? Feel like it's been in development forever.

i played ico for PS2 for the first time this year and really wanted to like it because it looks/sounds amazing but the actual gameplay was such a drag. like only playing the boring parts of N64 zelda games or something.

THANK YOU

ico would be great if the combat was better or if there was just no combat at all. as it is its just repetitious and annoying

yeah that was one of the worst parts. like i get that they wanted to give you a compelling reason to not leave the princess behind but battling the demons with your stick felt as shitty as a tiger electronic version of street fighter.

finished ico and dug it, although the combat does suck

i killed the first colossus of sotc and i already kinda hate the controls

these motherfuckers sure do love bridges

Controls take some getting used to. At the time it reminded me of OG Prince of Persia. Hit jump a second before you need to jump type thing.

it was mostly the camera and aim options, im used to setting vertical axis to 'inverted' but they mislabeled it, never seen a game get that wrong before. i also didnt get that the circle was a stamina meter. game is pretty sweet though, great concept

the platforming in sotc is seriously fucking terrible

admission: i gave each monster about 10 mins of dicking around before looking up what to do

dicking around the colossus

http://paradigmposters.weebly.com/store/p13/Shadows_of_the_Colossi.html

prob just me but the last colossus is such a ramp up in difficulty that it just seems to me like a huge 'fuck you' from team ico

It was easier for me than some others, but it's definitely the longest and most unforgiving.

I feel somewhat ashamed that I never finished this beautiful, one-of-a-kind game

I think I sort of got sick of riding around on that fucking horse

i was up all night trying to beat that final colossus, very upset
beat him the next morning after like three tries. it was like a crossword puzzle

it took me forever but a friend just played this for the first time and was disappointed at how easy the last one was.

Have we mentioned this is currently free on PS+?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXLZvsSmBIs

want

if i'm being honest, though, it does look like a PS3 game. but it's probably too late at this point to optimize it for PS4

This does not look good to me but I found Ico and SOTC both pretty frustrating so maybe just not for me.

fallout 4 looks like a ps3 game

It was inevitable, if it was ever actually released at this point, that it would be released for current-gen consoles, but still: bullshit.

They could at least throw us a PS3 bone on this one, given the delays.

xp tbh I'm not that impressed by the visuals with the new Fallout either

more hyped about the stupid wrist toy

(Not to get too far off topic but) I just started playing Fallout 3 this week in light of all the F4 hype and, after spending forever playing Skyrim, the graphics have been a bit shocking. Not so hot!

I wonder if the griffin actually has much freedom of movement or if it's just programmed to progress along a line.

seems to be like ico's follower where it responds to call button

i think i have very low standards for graphics, i just don't care that much. i've been amazed since 16 bit.

i'm in for Last Guardian, hope the gameplay is compelling.

on the beth front tho i think every scrolls & every fallout game they have made has looked hideous pretty much from day 0.

re: last guardian i am LOVING the animation on the kid, so evocative

run animation feels a little sloppy on the loop but i'm assuming they're still in beta

I really really need to play through the first games but the PS2 emulator is still struggling w it.

Trailer does a great job of showing off the fiddly controls, annoying camera angles, repetitive sound palette, and infuriatingly obtuse NPC.

haha

Ico: shadow of duke nukem forever

I like the way he runs down stairs and that environment is amazing

Yeah complaints about graphics seem to be missing the point - it's beautiful for reasons other than polygon count, and the amazing stuff they're doing with light, Ico was doing on the PS2.

Also Penny Arcade back in 2009.

Basically I'm hype for this just as More ICO.

*flags post for penny arcade link*

It's still beautiful, it's just that given the wait and that it's jumping to the next console generation after so many years, it adds to the general disappointment. If they released it as an End of Life PS3 title it wouldn't bug me.

tbf, it could end with both the boy AND the gryphon dying.

finally played Shadow for the first time yesterday! everyone is right, this game is amazing. took down the first 2, about to go for 3. it has a weird backwards jump i haven't mastered... the presentation and animations in this game are really impressive. holding onto a colossus as it tries to shake you off is SO MUCH FUN.

yeah this is amazing. on the 4th boss now, the one with 4 spider-like legs, with no idea what to do. ran away and got a ghostly message to try hiding underground. now i'm in some dungeons trying to figure out what to do about the giant monster upstairs. this game is amazing. the presentation is wonderful. it is an open world game but it flawlessly gives you directions on what to do. a large part of the pleasure is in figuring out for yourself what to do. the cutscenes are beautiful and ambiguous. what are the black spirit entities? why does a similar black ectoplasm grab at us after we take out a colossus? then we go through the Stargate?

this game is thick with atmosphere. sadly the bloom and glow and authentically emulated Playstation 2 video effects is still a little too costly for me. diving under water slows the game to an unplayable sludge. i'm playing on PCSX2 1.5.0 w Direct3D11(Hardware) at 2x native resolution and it is SMOOTH, nearly 60fps with some drops to 75% at times.

the horse animations are AMAZING. still the best videogame horse? i think so. i love the cinematic asymmetrical low angled camera! the ambient soundtrack is perfect. SOTC is ridiculously good.

can you take out these bosses in any order, sequence break it like Dark Souls?

60fps? That must be nice. SotC felt like it frequently ran at 15 frames per second on PS2. Looked beutiful nonetheless.

There's a specific order IIRC.

Yeah, pretty sure there's a forced sequence.

I figured out that the Ico/SoTC collection is one of the like four PS3 games you can remote play on the Vita but it seems like a shame not to see it splashed across a big screen.

eh it's not 60fps all the time. for most of the boss battles it is well below but yeah i don't really care either way. i think i played through Mario Galaxy 2 for the first time at more or less half speed the whole game.

here are some screenshots. i know there is an HD version of this game but the PS2 original still looks really good imo.

http://i.imgur.com/ecd9WXI.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/7b7XqFy.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/vBqP33V.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/aspPjPT.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/uMwzXC2.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/D0dIJZa.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/nV0pUbS.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/uDWNcGW.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/JPF3SJe.jpg

yeah this game is amazing. i am playing through trying not to follow any hints online and it is working out. the level design is really well done, it is harder to get lost than in MGSV. speaking of, i feel like the horse in that game is inspired by this horse. same buttons to run and mount/dismount, even.

grabbing the one colossus's beard was SO COOl! damn i had no idea that was going to happen! i love this game so much! the water one was amazing as well. the pacing is just incredible, you spend 50% of your time just traveling, wandering around this beautiful open world. the level design is really nice. the level design on the bosses is incredible.

who would have thought the way to make good platforming in 3d was to have the platforms move and be unstable? genius. this game is brilliant.

i posted this in another thread but here's a page about unused assets in the SotC code:

https://tcrf.net/Shadow_of_the_Colossus

Some general spoilers if you're going through the game right now.

yeah don't look at that until after you beat the game for sure

love reading your reax btw Adam

Yeah, I kinda want to replay it now even though I'm already in the middle of playing 27 other games.

This was one of the first games (maybe THE first) I played on PS2, certainly one of the main selling points of the system for me. It was a staggering leap forward from the PS1 games that I hadn't played in five years because my system was in another state. A real bear in spots but such an amazing game. I do wonder how much of a challenge it would be now that I've been neck deep in the PS3 for a couple of years.

just took down #12. every time i play i am marveling at the seamless design at work here. no text boxes. no chapter or mission titles. no gui menu. if you turned off the subtitles there would be no text in the game at all? incredible. environment-based storytelling on the most subtle level.

i see why people can say this game is art. the game is very strong in what it wants to present, it is a kind of mastery of the technology to tell an emotional/abstract story. it is tempting to stuff a video game with so many unnecessary conventions of the form and to see someone take a step back and do the opposite, to go the minimalist route, is wonderful. there are 16 enemies in this entire game. that means every encounter has received maximum attention and is guaranteed to blow your socks off. and it does!

the game removes all unnecessary video game trappings like a gui or ammo (unlimited arrows!) or experience or equipment or standard enemies and throws them all out. so all of the non-boss gameplay that you do where it is just you riding your horse to the next colossus and it is majestic and cinematic and stuff, all of it is charged with this anticipation. you aren't thinking about how to level up, you are thinking about how amazing the next boss encounter is going to be!

the music it plays when you kill a colossus is so sad and beautiful!

you gonna play ico too?

one of the weird video gamey-things is the stopping before every boss to shoot down some peaches or whatever to increase your stamina

Yeah, see, I didn't even know that was a thing until many years after I played and beat it so it's apparently not even necessary.

this game is the best, wish there was a PS4 version so i could play it again.

Ha, I just remembered: not only was this the first game I bought for my PS2, the SotC/Ico collection was one of the three games that I bought at the same time as my PS3.

i had no idea about the trees and lizards until halfway through. the game is not very hard once you figure out what to do. i don't think a longer life or stamina bar would really be all that much help.

i'm down to the final 3! i hear the ending is amazing so i can't wait...

haven't tried Ico. i guess i need to play that next.

had a clear memory of wanting to buy this because of the rapturous reviews (i generally play stuff years late). the dude at gamestop tried really hard to warn me off -- "it's supposed to be a fighting game, but there's no fighting. you just ride your horse around, and there's nothing there. then there's a huge boss, but you can only do one thing."

And there aren't any sniper rifles or rpgs, and I didn't see a single prostitute the entire time I played. F minus.

very rarely do i get out of gamestop w/out wanting to smack the dork behind the counter

goole i checked it out late due to the hype and was not let down at all.

it is a boss rush game. Zelda where instead of going into a dungeon to fight the boss, the dungeon IS the boss.

lol gamestop dude. i have seen his ilk online. the game is "lacking content" and has an "empty world with nothing to do".

like giving a Picasso to a chimpanzee.

adam i have played the game and love it

i still have never played Ico

ico is more clever, a little more emo, less beautiful

oh yeah goole i read your previous comments about the game and i think we are totally on the same page! it's really quite an amazing game in many ways. the hands-off approach is a huge breath of fresh air.

if you removed all the enemies from Dark Souls and left the bosses, it would probably feel pretty similar to this. you'd need different music too, of course.

You just sold me harder on the Souls games than any of the previous rapturous praise has.

i am on the final boss. had to take a break. wow this is epic. i was just hanging for dear life from the rings on the right fingers of this giant demon and leaping from ring to ring while my grip meter beeps away letting me know I'm about to lose grip.

the sense of scale here is unparalleled.

holy shit that was a good ending! and it kept going, with this jaw-droppingly beautiful tone poem thing going on even while the credits were rolling. amazing. i don't want to spoil anything. the hype is real.

i really like where the story went. wow. it kind of makes me want to play the game again.

Ico sounds cool tho. its more platforming? i like the Tomb Raider-style levels in SOTC

What is the best way to play this game? Has PC emulation caught up or do I need to track down a PS2 and a legit disc?

If you have or would prefer to have a PS3 (which I would recommend), the remastered SotC and Ico have been released as a twofer disc and are also available for download individually in the Playstation store.

Apparently my boyf's brother has a PS3 that he doesn't use bcz there is now a PS4?? and SotC/Ico is $20 on amazon!

Yeah, I think that's roughly equivalent to what the digital versions cost collectively. Pull that trigger!

Just be forewarned that there isn't any swearing and you can't run over any old ladies in a car. These are definite deal-breakers according to most GameStop employees.

Ico sounds cool tho. its more platforming? i like the Tomb Raider-style levels in SOTC
― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Saturday, February 27, 2016 2:08 AM

its more puzzle platformer with some crap action fighting here and there but similar atmosphere as sotc. i think dragon's dogma is also out for pc now. its not made by team ico but its game mechanics are really good, like a mashup of elder scrolls, dark souls and some sotc-like climbing huge enemies to hit weak points

My 30 minutes of hands-on time with The Last Guardian was not bad, exactly. The game looks beautiful, its environments are stunning, and its puzzles are clever and satisfying, often with multiple layers to figure out. There's a core gameplay loop around solving a puzzle to get to a new room, then figuring out how to get your bird-dog friend to follow. That loop is strong, and it helps reinforce the relationship between the protagonist and the pet.

For as much as The Last Guardian nails the broad feeling it's going for in this demo, it whiffs on the details. Specifically: It feels awkward as hell when it comes to actually controlling the main character. The protagonist doesn't walk so much as he lurches in whichever direction you've pushed the analog stick. Much of the demo focuses on platforming, but his jumps have a stickiness to them, a sense of inaccuracy that could be played up as realistic weightiness in the right game but just feels frustrating here.

sounds... exactly like ICO/SotC then...

we have a thread for last guardian right? i was just thinking about how i bought my ps3 explicitly for that game back in 2010! It's the gamer Chinese Democracy at this point; there's no way it'll reach expectations.

sad but sounds accurate, uly

Chinese Democracy exceeded my expectations by ever appearing - I would question the sanity of anyone who expected it to be good.

As cozen says, this sounds like more of the same good good stuff.

Fiddly controls are what we grew up on dammit AND WE LOVED IT

this looks pretty damned good in 4k

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GV-OmR1Vo8

Yesssss!!!

ugh I still have yet to play this game :-/

*this games

yeah this is one of the greatest 3D games ever. everything about the game is incredible. every boss fight (and every journey to the boss fights) feels epic and grand. the gameplay is seamless, smooth, non-intrusive. no need for maps, markers, quests, NPCs, etc. you have a sword that you can hold up and the light it reflects shows you where to go. just follow the light. it is that easy. brilliant.

jeez the remake is astonishingly good-looking huh

have you got it? I'm going to give Rime, which seems to be in a similar vein, a play-through before taking the plunge. I never played SotC on the PS2 so am looking forward to it.

yeah, started playing it this morning and took down the first three colossi as my wife looked on in horror at my savagery

it’s pretty remarkable tbh - it’s a total remake rather than a remaster but it plays just like the original, only at a silky 60fps* rather than the notoriously juddering ps2 version

(* on PS4 pro)

and it’s less than £25!

By 'plays like the original' do you mean 'has a camera like a lazy eye which seems much more interested in a random patch of grass than the giant you're supposed to be focusing on'?

well, yeah

The most Terrence Malick of video games

I am psyched to play this, loved the original. Will probably wait until I’m bored with Monster Hunter, the other, way different game of killing giant monsters.

sounds great BG, looking forward to it

The Last Guardian (long intended for the PS3, thanks for the bait and switch Team Ico) is still pretty much the strongest argument for me to eventually buy a PS4, so this just the cherry on top.

hate to tell you but last guardian was all but unplayable imo. i lasted three hours.

psvr last guardian is great tho

you just get to hang out with trico for a bit and feed him snacks while craning your neck to look into his big beautiful eyes

it’s all i ever wanted from the base game tbh

yeah Last Guardian looks great but is unplayably janky I think. Trico is cool though!

adding one more voice to say that the last guardian was bad - there are some interesting concepts in there but it's mostly boring and unattractive and a pain in the ass to control. but i didn't really like ico or shadow of the colossus that much either.

i should point out that i think shadow of the colossus was one of my all time favorite games! and i bought a _PS3_ for last guardian. the gameplay is just SO bad.

finished last guardian recently, enjoyed it. controls weren't too bad just annoying that the kid stumbles around like a drunk

Ico is all-time for me, I definitely enjoyed Shadow Of The Colossus as much as I could considering that it's a game where you're frantically and randomly grasping at patches of fur

Ico tho wow

An entire game devoted to the pleasure of architecture and space

Ico’s one of the few games I ever played co-operatively - a friend heard about it and liked it and came over to play my copy, handing off the controller to me for the hitting shadows with sticks bits.

SOTC was good to play and complete once, and I’d consider the remaster assuming it’s got the hidden secret fruit thing from the original, which I heard about after I finished it. But it’s a very different game.

Hidden secret fruit??

it's a game where you're frantically and randomly grasping at patches of fur

FINALLY

(i mean finally someone gets it, not finally a game where you're frantically and randomly etc etc)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/924364-shadow-of-the-colossus/faqs/58447

Right?

Good game! but I think I played it around the same time as Grand Theft Auto and the gameplay is reallllllly repetitious

Ico is perfect tho, perfect game, want a remaster, want a sequel that’s the exact same game but in an enormous tower built into a wintry mountaintop.

I’ve never felt an unique a pleasure as being somewhere in Ico and seeing a parapet or a windmill that I’d struggled with hours earlier, way off in the distance

Oh the soundtrack to Shadow Of The Colossus is hilariously bad imo, this dramatic James Newton Howard in top gear bullshit that completely doesn’t suit the slow motion climbing up a snuffleupagus

Hidden secret fruit??

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Thursday, February 15, 2018 2:43 AM (five hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, I have the PS3 upgrade and I was baffled when I looked through the list of trophies you could acquire for a number of things I had no idea you could do in the game.

Huh... interact with fish and turtle...

I tried to interact with the birds a number of times on the PS2 but the camera made it kind of a nightmare and I gave up.

One nice thing about the PS3 version (that I THINK was absent from the PS2 although I might have just never utilized it) is the ability to remap your buttons and tweak the camera movements in several ways. I assume that carried over to the new remaster?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQNeYbBiCKw

!

That was pretty great. I made it 16 minutes in before I suspected there could be significant spoilers (which the video impressively avoided before that, for the most part), but when I finish the game I'll definitely finish the video. I love the idea of game designers hiding things that are bigger than mere jokey easter eggs (almost as much as I love posters being citing by their dumb screen names). One of the best aspects of Breath of the Wild was all the substantial stuff you could do or get lost in that was completely irrelevant to the completion of the game. I suspect people are still figuring that one out, too.

That was amazing, thanks so much ulysses!

really, really good video

Tremendous

I've taken down ... six or so Colossi, and it's all kind of the same? I start at the ruins, the sword points the way, I take as long as I want getting there, thing eventually makes its grand entrance and I climb up it somehow, hold on and stab it where I need until it's dead. Fortunately, the scale and spectacle itself is pretty thrilling, so that makes up for the actual battles (so far). I wish the Divine Beasts in Zelda were this impressive.

well yeah the game is from the ps2 era when full production console games had a smaller scope and focus

josh

The actual battles do a good job of twisting the formula iirc

The game looks absolutely gorgeous.

So I've killed three colossi, each one more tedious and annoying than the last. Is this going to get any better?
― ledge (ledge), Wednesday, 15 March 2006 09:34 (thirteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

(that video was good though, and i've gotta have some respect for a game which can make people disappear into insane yet seemingly plausible conspiracy theory rabbit holes for years on end)

I'm on the ... 8th monster? And this is the first one (maybe the second?) I had to look up online, since I had no idea what to do or how to do it, and the cryptic hints were no help. In fact, knowing the solution now, there is literally no way, even with those hints, I would have figured out what to do. (I'm sure I'm not the first one to joke that the camera is the toughest colossus to beat of them all.)

Fingers cramping up from holding down the grip trigger button all the time the ultimate boss iirc

Another monster or two down. I'm going to chalk this up to a great experience but probably a bad game. Equally repetitive and novel, thrilling and boring, which is weird but it's a mix that makes it worth playing even if playing it is not particularly interesting or challenging, imo. ("Challenging," that is, after you spend forever figuring out the thing you need to do to make the monster do the thing, which doesn't feel like solving a puzzle so much as a PIA you just have to do.)

Holy shit, monster number 11 or so - the one in the lake - was so frustrating and lame it made me want to quit the game. For starters, it's a bullshit "hint" to say "get to higher ground" when you are on the back of a monster taller than everything except the giant bridges and mountains you can't reach. Beyond that, this is the first time the camera totally fucked me and trapped me under water, but since you can't drown (apparently) I had to quit the game and try again. And then once you figure out the monster mechanics, you once again have to do the same shit, again and again, over and over. I couldn't ask for a better looking game, but this thing plays like a demo.

Maybe it was the 12th colossus? Gah, I hope so.

i've probably already said this multiple times in this thread but ico/shadow of the colossus/last guardian are all cool, innovative concepts undone by terrible clunky controls and bland environments. such overrated games.

Dragon monster was more fun, but still ultimately kind of lame. I think I am almost done? might as well just finish it.

This game was from before 3rd person 3d games had good controls

i played the tony hawk ps2 games so i know that isn't true

Regardless, they made it all snazzy for PS4 - it looks gorgeous and there is clearly a ton of work put into it - so it's a mystery why so much of it kind of runs like shit or seems sort of underdeveloped.

That said, the second bull monster that involves knocking down towers, that was a bit more fun, too, so that's two in a row after a tedious fallow period. It's an aggressive boss, which is more engaging than giant things that just lumber/fly/walk around sort of aimlessly while you patiently (or impatiently) wait for it to lift up its foot and check to see if it stepped in colossus poop or whatever. It's not really puzzle solving if the solution is mostly patience.

I dunno, I wish there were more challenges or enemies or something between bosses. Now I see why so many people said Breath of the Wild sets the bar so high for open world games. Then again, this is really no more open world than Dark Souls, and that game was a blast, constantly interesting/challenging.

Ico has no flaws - I don't remember problems with Shadow of the Colossus, but I only played it the once.

OK, last couple of monsters, particularly the final colossus, were pretty cool, even if the combat (as such) remained pretty simple. The ending was very satisfying, too, though I felt sad for the horse. As well you're supposed to, but honestly I felt bad throughout, since you're forced to take him along and he's such a loyal steed who puts up with so much abuse.

*spoilers*

jeezus christ the end sequence

the sleeping lady finds the baby (where Wander fell into the pit of darkness) while the limping horse he killed off slowly climbs up the stairs? that's kinda fucked up

hahaha, you have discovered one of the great endings

it was a very nice surprise after what happened just before (regarding Wander's fate), which i unfortunately jokingly predicted before playing the game. i didn't think it would actually happen!

overall i had a blast playing it, though!

of the two notorious issues with the game that are frequently mentioned, i found the controls to be sluggish but functional, and the camera to be awful in certain sections (like swimming under a beast) but ok for the most part. maybe they were improved a bit for the remaster?

also, lol, i didn't realize until the very last shrine that i was supposed to shoot the lizard, and soon afterward also realized i could pick up the little glowing piles of dust. oops! up until then i was very impressed at the restraint in adding "collectibles" to the game

the glow piles were new to the remaster! there's an insane story behind it.

a story within the game behind it, or a developer story? either way i'm curious to hear it!

also i see that there were also piles of fruit i was supposed to be collecting?

and probably also hidden locations near each of the shrines. i ran across in the woods, a little cave hideout with some human stuff in there, and an -ACHIEVEMENT- popped up. that was the only one i found, so apparently i was very bad at exploring despite spending literally hours trying to hop up the sides of mountains that i didn't realize were impassable boundaries

I didn't learn about the lizard thing until well after I beat the game. I don't think it was common knowledge back then.

tread lightly with this i suppose
https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/11/17001204/shadow-of-the-colossus-sword-of-dormin-how-to