Ico / Shadow of the Colossus

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.

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