Credit goes to Daylahs at N-Philes:
1. Suffice it to say that the only thing (well, pretty much the only thing ) you will be dealing with combat-wise are the 16 colossi. The bull like creature you saw was the smallest colossus, he is just a little larger than a normal bull. He is the only one that is even vaguely "small". Agro is your primary mode of transport, he has a crucial role in dealing with a few of the colossi, he can be hurt (but not killed, whole animal rights thing ), but heals quickly. There are some minor weather changes in the game, it is not always sunny and happy, lets just put it that way. The art book idea has come up and is in discussions.
2. When you defeat a colossus, you are taken back to the temple and given another tid bit of the story. Then you need to go and find the next colossus. There are no other creatures to fight along the way. There are some things you will be able to find along the way, but I am not at liberty to discuss these at this time.
3. If you don't know squat about Ico, you will have some suprises; if you are a fan of Ico, you will have some extra suprises. There are some things that you can find and pick up in the game that will add to the experience, however most are not available the first time through the game. Pretty much you have a sword, a bow and a horse the first time around. No, with all of the work that goes into each colossus, we wanted to make them all available. I don't want to give it all away, but I can say that there are at least 2 water colossus.
3. The texture pop-in (and framerate issues in early versions) is getting better with every build. At this point we are in bug fixing and optimization mode, so we are going to make it as good as possible. 2. We do support 16:9 and Progressive Scan. 3. Sorry, no HDD support. 4. The language is a made up one (like Ico, in fact, same as Ico) with English Subtitles. 5. More information on demos soon. sorry. 6. There are so many diverse environments in Shadow, I think you will be very happy. 7. Well, its unlockable, that's kind of like gift wrapped. Do you peak at your presents before xmas? All I can tell you is that there are a number of interesting things that will be possible once you have made it deep into this game. I know that I am very happy with it.
4. The HUD actually turns itself off when not in active use. so when you are riding around and taking in the beautiful landscape, nothing there. When you are clinging tenaciously to the back side of some giant beast about to get punted accross the battlefield, the simplistic HUD is visible. The controller config has been carefully thought out so as to be intuitive in the context of the different actions you need to do at the same time (i.e. hold on for dear life, camera lock on the colossus, power up a jump, etc.). The team feels that they have it down and trust me, it will grow on you. There is a great bunch of music on the game, I currently do not know if it will be available to the public. sorry. There are some other puzzles involving the environment, console like hoppy-jumpy puzzles to get to the colossus. Some navigation challenges as you are trying to get through the expanse of the world. yes, we are working on a strat guide.
5. okay, this is the hardest one for me to guage. I have handed builds to folks who were good / great gamers and they could run through a couple of colossi pretty quickly (2-3 colossi in 75-90 minutes) and then hit the 4th colossus and spend 3 hours on just that one trying to figure it out. I can say with pretty high confidence that with a strat guide (no figuring things out, just doing, read as cheating ) and NO DEATHS (good luck on this one) the game could probably be beaten in 8-9 hours. Realistically, without a strat guide and dying a few times it will take 12 + hours. And this is for the first time. I am not going to name names, but some of the media have received (p)review copies and a few have taken over 20 hours to beat the game. Once you do that you get a few unlocks, a new mode (or two). There is a lot of replayability as the Colossi do not always cooperate the same way.
http://boardsus.playstation.com/pla...by_date_&page=1
Number 3 mentions ICO. Possibility there will be a connection?
1. Suffice it to say that the only thing (well, pretty much the only thing ) you will be dealing with combat-wise are the 16 colossi. The bull like creature you saw was the smallest colossus, he is just a little larger than a normal bull. He is the only one that is even vaguely "small". Agro is your primary mode of transport, he has a crucial role in dealing with a few of the colossi, he can be hurt (but not killed, whole animal rights thing ), but heals quickly. There are some minor weather changes in the game, it is not always sunny and happy, lets just put it that way. The art book idea has come up and is in discussions.
2. When you defeat a colossus, you are taken back to the temple and given another tid bit of the story. Then you need to go and find the next colossus. There are no other creatures to fight along the way. There are some things you will be able to find along the way, but I am not at liberty to discuss these at this time.
3. If you don't know squat about Ico, you will have some suprises; if you are a fan of Ico, you will have some extra suprises. There are some things that you can find and pick up in the game that will add to the experience, however most are not available the first time through the game. Pretty much you have a sword, a bow and a horse the first time around. No, with all of the work that goes into each colossus, we wanted to make them all available. I don't want to give it all away, but I can say that there are at least 2 water colossus.
3. The texture pop-in (and framerate issues in early versions) is getting better with every build. At this point we are in bug fixing and optimization mode, so we are going to make it as good as possible. 2. We do support 16:9 and Progressive Scan. 3. Sorry, no HDD support. 4. The language is a made up one (like Ico, in fact, same as Ico) with English Subtitles. 5. More information on demos soon. sorry. 6. There are so many diverse environments in Shadow, I think you will be very happy. 7. Well, its unlockable, that's kind of like gift wrapped. Do you peak at your presents before xmas? All I can tell you is that there are a number of interesting things that will be possible once you have made it deep into this game. I know that I am very happy with it.
4. The HUD actually turns itself off when not in active use. so when you are riding around and taking in the beautiful landscape, nothing there. When you are clinging tenaciously to the back side of some giant beast about to get punted accross the battlefield, the simplistic HUD is visible. The controller config has been carefully thought out so as to be intuitive in the context of the different actions you need to do at the same time (i.e. hold on for dear life, camera lock on the colossus, power up a jump, etc.). The team feels that they have it down and trust me, it will grow on you. There is a great bunch of music on the game, I currently do not know if it will be available to the public. sorry. There are some other puzzles involving the environment, console like hoppy-jumpy puzzles to get to the colossus. Some navigation challenges as you are trying to get through the expanse of the world. yes, we are working on a strat guide.
5. okay, this is the hardest one for me to guage. I have handed builds to folks who were good / great gamers and they could run through a couple of colossi pretty quickly (2-3 colossi in 75-90 minutes) and then hit the 4th colossus and spend 3 hours on just that one trying to figure it out. I can say with pretty high confidence that with a strat guide (no figuring things out, just doing, read as cheating ) and NO DEATHS (good luck on this one) the game could probably be beaten in 8-9 hours. Realistically, without a strat guide and dying a few times it will take 12 + hours. And this is for the first time. I am not going to name names, but some of the media have received (p)review copies and a few have taken over 20 hours to beat the game. Once you do that you get a few unlocks, a new mode (or two). There is a lot of replayability as the Colossi do not always cooperate the same way.
http://boardsus.playstation.com/pla...by_date_&page=1
Number 3 mentions ICO. Possibility there will be a connection?
Good stuff anyway...but I wonder about the whole "going back to the temple each time" thing. People will bitch about backtracking...and so will I, I'd rather have a more "sort of" straight-forward adventure, like in ICO.