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[sixteen-bit]

ICO looks like an average current gen game. Mindblowing.

Did you get to the water yet?

 

[B-Genius]

1 hour and 10 minutes later... I finally decide to go to my first colossus.

I've been too busy doing everything including training my Agro skills and hunting down some of the fruit and lizards. This is gonna take me 30+ hours but I don't give a shit. This is how I played it the first time, this is how I'll play it this time.

Get the hell off the internet and back to your 30+ hour game.

Gosh darned spoiled brats with their not abusing their means of playing.

You have no idea how painful this is with the beautiful Japanese LE box sitting on my desk with no PS3 to play it.

 

[ultron87]

I wish you could start SOTC on Hard straight away.

Cmon PS3, just wirelessly detect the save sitting on my nearby PS2 memory card.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Did you get to the water yet?

He did say average.

 

[goonergaz]

Just found out the avatars are on EU PSN today...

Ico & Shadow Of The Colossus Avatars

Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar Bundle 1 (£0.79/€0.99)
(This bundle includes the following content, also available separately)

Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 2
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 3
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 4
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 5
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 6
Avatars are available separately @ £0.20/€0.25 each

Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar Bundle 2 (£0.79/€0.99)
(This bundle includes the following content, also available separately)

Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 7
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 8
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 9
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 10
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 11
Avatars are available separately @ £0.20/€0.25 each

Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar Bundle 3 (£0.79/€0.99)
(This bundle includes the following content, also available separately)

Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 12
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 13
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 14
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 15
Shadow Of The Colossus Avatar 16
Avatars are available separately @ £0.20/€0.25 each

 

[nelsonroyale]

This is all I can find

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVklokNTAI

Two seconds of new footage showing some horrible slowdown

well, at least from the new scene, the visuals look like they are there...so maybe they are using the extra time to get the game running smoothly this time around. Huge dev time, no excuses.

Hmmm, the last second of the vid looks like new footage too, or at least a newer build...looks more inline with the screenshot posted earlier in the thread, visuals have been improved

 

[LiK]

No Ico avatars?

 

[popsicle_sundays]

My copy arrives tomorrow, I am super excite GAF! I have never played either of these but I know I will enjoy them.

Are these games where I will want to blast through Ico so I can play SotC sooner? Or is Ico amazing in it's own right?

 

[Salaadin]

Did you get to the water yet?

I died when I saw it again. I remember it being good on PS2 but still....sooo nice. That whole area is just amazing.

 

[ScOULaris]

Another tip for the newbies:

Jump then hold R1 and press Square. It's a jump stab that is incredibly useful. It does as much damage as a fully charged normal stab.

My copy arrives tomorrow, I am super excite GAF! I have never played either of these but I know I will enjoy them.

Are these games where I will want to blast through Ico so I can play SotC sooner? Or is Ico amazing in it's own right?

Play Ico first. It is amazing.

 

[.la1n]

He did say average.

 

[goonergaz]

No Ico avatars?

it's odd, I copied and pasted from the official heads up - they say Ico but no Ico ones listed...I guess I'll find out tonight

 

[base shagohod]

Mine's coming in from Newegg tonight. Sooo excited.
Never played either of em before, and I've got pretty high expectations, considering how much everyone else loves these games.

 

[PooBone]

So last night I played about 3 hours, killed the first 6 colossi and walked around exploring the world for quite a while. Ate lots of fruit and 3 or 4 white-tailed lizards. Few comments/observations:
1. The sixth colossus is by far my least favorite in the game. I often will associate a colossus with the path to reach them, and this one has the most boring hall walk, followed by the most boring fight and the most boring looking colossus in the game. Glad that one is behind me.
2. There's so many little touches that Team ICO is able to nail without the graphical prowess of the next gen consoles. I remember being struck by this the first time I played the game and it still rings true. Through quality art they're able to make things like big splashes, waves, forests, etc, look more realistic and believable than engines or games with more horsepower under the hood, all because they are brilliant artists.
3. There's a few areas of the game that give me cold chills, like the lake with portions of ancient ruins still standing. The desert to the southwest of the temple, the beach from ICO, turning the corner and seeing colossus #4 just chilling there.

Still a fantastic game, and against all my fears it has been able to completely suck me into the world and make me want to explore and let my horse trot instead of all-out sprint to the next destination.

 

[Neuromancer]

My copy arrives tomorrow, I am super excite GAF! I have never played either of these but I know I will enjoy them.

Are these games where I will want to blast through Ico so I can play SotC sooner? Or is Ico amazing in it's own right?

I've always liked Ico much better. SotC is no slouch though.

 

[kizmah]

Just bought the game. Seeing as I didn't own a PS2 back in the day this will be my first time playing these. Finally!

 

[electristan]

this has probably been asked before, but does anyone know were to get a high res version of the SotC art you see when choosing which game to play?

 

[bigdaddygamebot]

I wish you could start SOTC on Hard straight away.

Cmon PS3, just wirelessly detect the save sitting on my nearby PS2 memory card.

Sony fails again!


...except that I'm really, REALLY looking forward to obsessing over the time attack modes and redoing everything all over again on Normal...and then Hard.

 

[MikeE21286]

Nice....just checked and my copy from the newegg deal comes in today.

Played SotC back on the PS2, but only beat about the first 6 or so Colossi

Spoiler

I think I go to the flying one

Never played ICO 0_o

Pretty pumped for both of these.

 

[PooBone]

Nice....just checked and my copy from the newegg deal comes in today.

Played SotC back on the PS2, but only beat about the first 6 or so Colossi

Spoiler

I think I go to the flying one

Never played ICO 0_o

Pretty pumped for both of these.

That one is

Spoiler

number 5

 

[mattiewheels]

Is there no way to exit back to the game select screen except resetting?

 

[gdt]

First time playing Ico. Need a bit of help.

I'm just after the 3 or 4th save point, after using the crane.

Spoiler

I knocked down the chandelier at the top of the room, now I'm at the bottom trying to knock down the last support for the bridge. I see some explosive crates (at least I think they are), and I pile them around the column. I can light my stick using a candle, and then what do I do? I swing it at the crates and nothing happens.

 

[Salaadin]

First time playing Ico. Need a bit of help.

I'm just after the 3 or 4th save point, after using the crane.

Spoiler

I knocked down the chandelier at the top of the room, now I'm at the bottom trying to knock down the last support for the bridge. I see some explosive crates (at least I think they are), and I pile them around the column. I can light my stick using a candle, and then what do I do? I swing it at the crates and nothing happens.

Spoiler

Right outside the bottom door are some bombs. Carry one in with you and place it near the support. Light your stick and then light the bomb.

 

[epmode]

First time playing Ico. Need a bit of help.

I'm just after the 3 or 4th save point, after using the crane.

Spoiler

I knocked down the chandelier at the top of the room, now I'm at the bottom trying to knock down the last support for the bridge. I see some explosive crates (at least I think they are), and I pile them around the column. I can light my stick using a candle, and then what do I do? I swing it at the crates and nothing happens.

Spoiler

You're looking in the wrong room.

edit: I AM TOO SLOW

 

[sixteen-bit]

Is there no way to exit back to the game select screen except resetting?

Game is great. Why would you want to quit?

Yeah. I fucking hate that.

 

[Lord Error]

Well said. It's remarkable to me that Ico was such an accomplishment for animation on both artistic and technical levels, yet you never heard them screaming from the rooftops how amazing or revolutionary the movements were.

Yeah, the only thing they ever noted to be proud of was Yorda's dress animation - which was also probably done partially through IK, probably a first for its time too.

 

[Clunker]

I only got to play about an hour or so of Ico, and just watched the title sequence for Shadow, and it only reaffirms my belief from years ago that Ueda's games were actually PS3 games sent back through time and back-ported to somehow work on PS2s.

I was initially feeling bad about missing out on a lot of the great games coming out this fall, but since my gameplay time is so limited lately, I think I'll be okay with just savoring these two gems for the next few months. <3

 

[RedSwirl]

What really caught me off guard here was how they did the title screen of the whole collection. The simplicity, the art, the music. It's one of those title screens that I could just chill to.

 

[BruiserBear]

Bugs me that there is no background art in the XMB. They should have thought of that.

That bugs me also. I don't really think it's something they didn't think of. It seems like choice. A choice that makes no sense. Why would people not want XMB art? I love that stuff. It's just cool to check out when you load up a game.

 

[dark10x]

Yeah, the only thing they ever noted to be proud of was Yorda's dress animation - which was also probably done partially through IK, probably a first for its time too.

It's amazing how humble they really are when it comes to their technical prowess. The visuals they delivered in 2001 were visionary in so many ways. The animation techniques they used, the lighting, the shadows, etc. It was all a preview of the direction game visuals would be heading, I thought.

SotC is just as impressive and pushes the PS2 beyond its limits.

From what little we've seen, The Last Guardian is looking very impressive as well, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were struggling with the hardware like many other Japanese developers and have simply required much more time than expected to complete the project.

What really caught me off guard here was how they did the title screen of the whole collection. The simplicity, the art, the music. It's one of those title screens that I could just chill to.

It's also very quick to appear with virtually no loading before you see it. Lets you get into the game very quickly.

 

[Lord Error]

From what little we've seen, The Last Guardian is looking very impressive as well, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were struggling with the hardware like many other Japanese developers and have simply required much more time than expected to complete the project

I think they're struggling with their extremely lofty ambitions, and it wouldn't surprise me if the game will end up being sub-hd or run at less than ideal framerate, much like their other games to be honest.

What TLG appears to be doing is really complex, the kind of stuff that you'd expect in some high end tech demos, but they have to make a game out of it, not just one room that showcases what they're doing like a tech demo would do. I mean when I look at the TLG footage, it strikes me that anything can be animated and interacted with at any point, and that everything has weight and volume to it. It's hard to describe why, and I'm sure it's not entirely correct, but that's how it looks like. Add to that a fact that there's an AI controlled creature that your player is able to interact with, and it can quickly become a computing nightmare.

As an example of what I'm saying, take a look at the portion of the video posted earlier when the gryphon jumps down from some higher ground. All the stone plates on the ground it jumps start to wobble, and so does the boy standing on them. Then another video a few pages back shows something being pushed down the bridge, and then the bridge starts collapsing. There's just this sense than anything in the world can move realistically if it needs to.

 

[Yoshichan]

I'm too emotional when it comes to SotC... I'm crying left and right, only Ueda games can make me feel this way

*goes back*

 

[Tizoc]

My copy came with a voucher that has a code to get Videos and dynamic themes but when I enter the code I get an error stating the code isn't accepted.
I take it said videos aren't up yet on PSN?

 

[PooBone]

I'm too emotional when it comes to SotC... I'm crying left and right, only Ueda games can make me feel this way

*goes back*

While I like SotC as a game more, I'm this way with Ico, especially for the last couple hours of the game.

 

[Takuya]

That bugs me also. I don't really think it's something they didn't think of. It seems like choice. A choice that makes no sense. Why would people not want XMB art? I love that stuff. It's just cool to check out when you load up a game.

I think it was done on purpose, so that you install a dynamic theme, it wouldn't be covered by the XMB art from the game disc.

 

[BruiserBear]

I'm too emotional when it comes to SotC... I'm crying left and right, only Ueda games can make me feel this way

*goes back*

I've never cried while playing a videogame, but I've never played either of these games, so we'll see......

Got my copy yesterday, but haven't started it yet.

 

[Neuromancer]

My copy came with a voucher that has a code to get Videos and dynamic themes but when I enter the code I get an error stating the code isn't accepted.
I take it said videos aren't up yet on PSN?

US? All that stuff is on disc here.

 

[dark10x]

My copy came with a voucher that has a code to get Videos and dynamic themes but when I enter the code I get an error stating the code isn't accepted.
I take it said videos aren't up yet on PSN?

Which region? All of those were on the disc for me (the second icon that appears beneath the game itself on the XMB).

 

[Tizoc]

US? All that stuff is on disc here.

Mine is an EU copy.

 

[flyover]

I'm too emotional when it comes to SotC... I'm crying left and right, only Ueda games can make me feel this way

*goes back*

I started it up last night, and I was like that one boyfriend of Elaine's on Seinfeld whenever he heard "Desperado."

 

[Yaska]

Euro codes won't work until 10th Oct according PS EU blog. Got my game today and damn I love the reverse coverart!

 

[Issun23]

Mine is an EU copy.

Over at the European PS blog they said the videos will be up the first week of October.

 

[Yoshichan]

I've never cried while playing a videogame, but I've never played either of these games, so we'll see......

I don't think anyone can get as emotional as me with SotC though. I've got a lot of background with the game, tons of shit happened in real life and this game changed so much.

 

[Tizoc]

Euro codes won't work until 10th Oct according PS EU blog. Got my game today and damn I love the reverse coverart!

Thanks for clearing it up and yeah the reversable cover looks sweet X3

 

[RoadHazard]

Just picked up my EU (Swedish) copy. I've never played either of these games before (yeah, shoot me!), so I'm very excited about this!

Some pics if anyone is interested (sorry about the quality, my phone can't take a decent picture under anything other than super-optimal conditions):

Regular cover:

Back (with Swedish text, which kind of surprised me):

Disc & manual:

Reversed cover (all HD remasters should do this!):

I've just started playing ICO, and I like it so far! However, I'm a tad confused regarding whether or not I actually need to bring Yorda with me wherever I go. I tried running off without her at one point close to the start of the game, just to see what the consequences would be, and... there were none. In fact, doing that made that particular section much easier. By not having her with me, I completely skipped a battle sequence (the shadow things don't appear when she's not there), and also a puzzle section (the one where

Spoiler

you use some kind of crane to move a large box hanging on a chain - without Yorda there, you can just run straight through this part

). This particular section brought me back around to her, allowing me to continue on with her from there. So, where is the incentive to bring her with you in cases like this, where you don't actually need her?

 

[Salaadin]

I've just started playing ICO, and I like it so far! However, I'm a tad confused regarding whether or not I actually need to bring Yorda with me wherever I go. I tried running off without her at one point close to the start of the game, just to see what the consequences would be, and... there were none. In fact, doing that made that particular section much easier. By not having her with me, I completely skipped a battle sequence (the shadow things don't appear when she's not there), and also a puzzle section (the one where

Spoiler

you use some kind of crane to move a large box hanging on a chain - without Yorda there, you can just run straight through this part

). This particular section brought me back around to her, allowing me to continue on with here from there. So, where is the incentive to bring her with you in cases like this, where you don't actually need her?

Sometimes you have to leave her but always take her with you anytime you are able. Minor spoilers regarding this:

Spoiler

Sometimes, Shadow Creatures will spawn when you leave her. You can be a load screen and away and several ladders high when the screen will freeze and you hear her yell. You have to book it straight for her then and hope that you make it on time.

 

[RoadHazard]

Sometimes you have to leave her but always take her with you anytime you are able. Minor spoilers regarding this:

Spoiler

Sometimes, Shadow Creatures will spawn when you leave her. You can be a load screen and away and several ladders high when the screen will freeze and you hear her yell. You have to book it straight for her then and hope that you make it on time.

Ok... But during this section I didn't have to leave her. In fact, I'm pretty sure I was supposed to have her with me, since that whole (small) puzzle depended on it. Without her there, I could just run through it, and after a while I was back with her again (having lowered a bridge, allowing us to continue on). And also, like I said, I was able to skip a battle sequence by doing that section alone.

Guess this doesn't really matter much, but I feel a bit uneasy not completely understanding the "rules" of the game. I though it would punish me for leaving her behind for an extended period of time (and distance - I was running around doing stuff outside, while she was left inside), but it did not.

 

[corrosivefrost]

I'm pretty sure, if you don't want trophies, you can go buy copies of the PS2 games on eBay and run them through an emulator on a high end PC...

Strangely, while I think 360 has the option to turn off notifications, which includes achievements, the PS3 only has an option to turn off sign on notifications. You can hope for a firmware update in the future, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

 

[Empyrean Heaven]

Out of curiosity, is anyone actually using the regular boxart and hasn't flipped it?

If so, what the HECK is wrong with you?

 

[sixteen-bit]

I'm pretty sure, if you don't want trophies, you can go buy copies of the PS2 games on eBay and run them through an emulator on a high end PC...

Strangely, while I think 360 has the option to turn off notifications, which includes achievements, the PS3 only has an option to turn off sign on notifications. You can hope for a firmware update in the future, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

I didn't know that. I thought turning off notifications disabled the trophy notifications too.