Shadow of the Colossus [PS2]

[MrHat]

I'm just getting started. I'll win eventually.

Or maybe not. My recent asshole-ness may be due to caffiene (and the fact that I haven't had any before today in months).

OMG

That must be why I have a splitting headache tonight.

[Signe]

I'm just getting started. I'll win eventually.

Or maybe not. My recent asshole-ness may be due to caffiene (and the fact that I haven't had any before today in months).

You should get some more often.

[stray]

Hey, you're the one who drinks Fiji water. That means you're in the same boat I'm in (but what that boat is, I don't know...).

[Signe]

Oh.  I thought you meant something else entirely by this: 

(and the fact that I haven't had any before today in months)

Sorry. 

[stray]

Oh.  I thought you meant something else entirely by this: 

(and the fact that I haven't had any before today in months)

Sorry. 

Shit! I just noticed that I have almost 300 posts more than you now.

What the hell?

It would seem that my comment on caffiene really has taken on two meanings. So don't apologize.

[Daydreamer]

I thought there were going to be 12 colossi?

[Fabricated]

I finally picked up the game rag with the demo.

Really pretty. Shitty framerate and rather crashprone though. Hope that gets ironed out in release.

I can't see many people buying it stateside though.

[WindupAtheist]

No year-number behind the title, no rap music on the soundtrack, no pseudo-patriotic hokum used as a marketing tool, and no goddamn motherfucking ding.  I don't own any modern console and thus won't be playing this, but here's hoping it sells a billion copies.

[ahoythematey]

Every time you take a colossus down is like one giant motherfucking "DING! GRATZ!".

[schild]

They've been advertising the shit out of it. It'll sell... To people that didn't buy Madden.

[NiX]

Did anyone pick this up? Came out yesterday. Played it for a bit in the store and I think I might just pick up a PS2 for it.

[Shockeye]

Did anyone pick this up? Came out yesterday. Played it for a bit in the store and I think I might just pick up a PS2 for it.

Sauced has it and so does schild. Both are orgasmic over it.

[NiX]

Oh it's orgasmic all right. Can't wait to get my hands on a PS2 and play it tomorrow.

[Shockeye]

Oh it's orgasmic all right. Can't wait to get my hands on a PS2 and play it tomorrow.

I bought a PS2 in order to play it.

[Nija]

I don't see why everyone is spooging all over the place. Ain't even that fun.

[Shockeye]

I don't see why everyone is spooging all over the place. Ain't even that fun.

Why do you hate fun?

[schild]

Actually, Shadow of the Colossus is the most cinematic game I've ever played. The blur and puzzle type climbing bosses are magnificent.

[Signe]

I miss Strazos and Aaron... where are they?

[stray]

Who's Aaron?

[Nija]

I guess if you're like me and hate shit like final fantasy, you won't enjoy this game. What's cinematic to one person is 'incredibly fucking boring' to another. 15 fps doesn't help it either.

[Sauced]

A friend at work brought in his PS2 component cable for me today.  I might die playing it in progressive scan on the 42" DLP, but it seems fairly clear that that's the way it's meant to be played.

The only complaint I have so far is some bugs I found during the lightning gecko boss.  The game locked up on one occasion, and on another I fell through the world, a wonderful experience I never thought I'd see on a console game.

Other than that, the whole experience has been sublime.  I've been trying to savor it, so I've only gotten through 9 of the Colossi.  I imagine someone could get through it the first time in a single 6 hour session, if one were so inclined.

[stray]

Hmm...I thought this was supposed to be more akin to Ico than FF.

I don't like much of the FF series either, and if it's like that, I won't buy it. If it's like Ico, then I will.

[edit] Or are you just using Final Fantasy as a catchall for anything Japanese?

[Nija]

Not necessarily ANYTHING Japanese, I like a lot of Japanese-developed games. I just like the ones with actual substance.

I've been playing it in 480p, 16:9 and it's still just not that impressive. The controls aren't that great, the framerate is horrible, the camera angle is claustrophobic, and what I hate the most is just how desolate the whole world is. It's like you're playing the video game equivalent of an oil painting depicting a field.

I didn't play Ico, I just heard the BUZZ about it and it inspired me to try the sequel. The last FF game I enjoyed was FF2 for SNES.

I'm guessing I'd hate Ico too.

[Sauced]

It's like a Westernized version of ICO.

"It's called Wanda and the Colossus"
"But I think ICO was a poor choice, marketing wise."
"Oh fine.  Shadow of the Colossus."
"BRILLIANT!"

[Kail]

Personally, I didn't like ICO, but so far I'm having a lot of fun with Shadow of the Colossus.  It's definitely got some issues with it (some annoying camera issues, some repetitive.annoying control problems, and I'm not nuts about the storyline thus far, though I haven't finished it), but in my opinion, the ratio of fun stuff to not fun stuff is pretty good.  The game is about you killing giant monsters, so that's what you do.  You don't have to push blocks and crap into piles, you don't have to collect keys, you don't have to power-up your magic meter, you don't have to go shopping for potions, none of that.  You just fight giants.  For me, it's a novel enough game that I can overlook the problems, but I don't think it's going to be the game for everyone.

I don't know that it shares a lot with ICO outside the graphics.  The characters and world look a lot like the characters and world in ICO (stylistically, I mean), but the controls are different, the pacing is way different, and the gameplay is COMPLETELY different. On the other hand, I don't know that I'd compare it to Final Fantasy at all, save that they both have storylines.  About the closest thing I can think of would be something like Zelda, but without the dungeons and towns, and just a series of boss fights.  There's a bit of a story there, but you're not (at least, not as far as I've gotten) going to be, y'know, learning the "TERRIBLE TRUTH" about "the incident" that happened fifteen years ago, or anything like that.  It's basically just a framework for the game.

[schild]

I'm on the last two Colossi now. I'd like to compare the game to God of War cinematically (obviously the gameplay and story simply aren't there). A lot of the camera effects (I've had no problems with the camera aside from a couple minor hiccups) and Colossi entrances are breathtaking. There's a lot of good in this game and the bad is negligible. I've got less than 5 hours on the clock and I've killed 14 of them. It's not a long game, but considering how fulfilling taking out a Colossus is, I think it's money well spent. Though, there were 2 of the guys who weren't so giant and seemed like copouts. The other 12? They've been fantastic. The flying colossus in the desert and the lakebound one with the jaw for a head were just outstanding.

From a design point of view, the bigger colossi are moving stages, this is something that simply hasn't been done before (at least not to this scale) and Ueda has shown his chops as a platform designer. It's good stuff.

[voodoolily]

In some respects it seemed that the two non-uber colossi were more challenging, because a) they're way faster and b) they're armored. The final one has had Sauced screaming profanity and stomping his foot (sorry, honey - I just think it's really cute!). It is the Uberest Colossus EVAR.

I agree that it doesn't share too much with Ico, except that perhaps both stories take place in the same land/time. They seem to speak similar languages. I can't really see any similarity to FF, not even aesthetically. The Moral Dilemma-As-Story is a welcome change to adventure games. I will say this, though: it IS THAT BEAUTIFUL. It is breathtakingly gorgeous, and the music is almost painfully poignant. I showed the opening cutscene to my dad, who's a huge fantasy/Tolkien fanboy and I cried AGAIN watching it the second time.

[schild]

There are a couple pieces of music that are just astounding. Some of the best I've ever heard in a video game. I'm on the last colossi now. The one before him had an annoying magical weak spot. So I went to dinner halfway through beating him (har har). Really though, this is more an experience than a game. I look forward to what Ueda and Co. can do on the PS3. Too bad they have 4 year development cycles. Valve much?

[schild]

Just beat it.

Easily one of the most fulfilling games to come out in years. One helluva ending. If you have a PS2, I really can't recommend this game enough. The controls are awkward, but our hero is no ninja. He's a guy trying to bring his woman back to life. The landscape is magnificent and the levels (as in the Colossi) are some of the best I've ever seen.

Oh, and if you have a widescreen TV, I'd highly recommend playing it in 480p and 16x9.

[voodoolily]

Yeah, Sauced beat it yesterday too, shortly after I posted. Incredible ending. This is the only game I've ever experienced where I actually have sympathy for the "enemy" and am sad to see them die.

Edit: and it was cool to see how this may have actually been Ico's prequel, rather than a sequel.

[Sauced]

I think Schild is really selling the 2 "smaller" Colossi short.  I thought they captured an emotional level of pity that games haven't touched before - you're either exposing a fear (and watching it cower), or using it's mindless stupidity to smash it up, watch it stumble around with its face all kinds of fucked up, and in both cases it felt more like putting them out of their misery. 

Totally second the nod towards playing in 16x9 with progressive scan enabled.  When I first hooked it up, VL aptly noted that it almost looks *too* good, but having the additional viewing area helps keep the camera jitters to a minimum (with a few gnarly exceptions).

For me, the game really starts once you beat it.  My biggest complaint was the lack of "Hard" mode, where at the very least I could turn off the Voice-In-The-Sky clue giver.  Hard mode is fantastic - the grip meter is cut in half, and there's at least one additional vital spot on each boss that I've made it through so far.  On the first one, it's on the back of his arm, for example.  In my opinion, the game should have been this hard to begin with - it's hard to bitch about the controls when you don't have time to think about it.