Videos of Shadow of the Colossus

[McFly]

Art direction doesn't make up for low resolution, blurry, washed out repeating textures and atrocious shimmering.

5026 posts doesn't make up for the kind of posts you make. By your definition, all 3D games from last gen are worthless.

Fredi

 

[megateto]

Art direction doesn't make up for low resolution, blurry, washed out repeating textures and atrocious shimmering.

Which makes it all more incredible to see how they have managed to create such an amazing atmosphere...

 

[London Geezer]

Then you wonder why some masterpieces like ICO don't sell well...

 

[DigitalSoul]

Who cares what PC-Engine says, he apparently has no appreciation for aesthetics. This game is looking quite astonishing. One thing I like about ICO is the sheer scale of the environments and SOC takes it a step further.
I'm really diggin the horse animation too

 

[Shrike_Priest]

"Art direction doesn't make up for low resolution, blurry, washed out repeating textures and atrocious shimmering."

Ehrm... yeah it does

I'd take SOTC over Doom 3, DOA3 or Half-Life 2 anyday.

In my eyes this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen.

The fact that it doesn't have detailed textures means diddly-squat.

Monet painted with big-ass brushes, and never cared about detail, but he caught the light, and made beautiful paintings. Team Ico catches the light, the atmosphere, and makes beautiful games.

 

[PC-Engine]

Art direction doesn't make up for low resolution, blurry, washed out repeating textures and atrocious shimmering.

5026 posts doesn't make up for the kind of posts you make. By your definition, all 3D games from last gen are worthless.

Fredi

Uh no I didn't say they're worthless. As a matter of fact, there are many games on PS1 that are great even though they're a pixelated mess. It's just that some people have higher pain thresholds than others.

"Art direction doesn't make up for low resolution, blurry, washed out repeating textures and atrocious shimmering."

Ehrm... yeah it does

I'd take SOTC over Doom 3, DOA3 or Half-Life 2 anyday.

In my eyes this is one of the most beautiful games I've ever seen.

The fact that it doesn't have detailed textures means diddly-squat.

Monet painted with big-ass brushes, and never cared about detail, but he caught the light, and made beautiful paintings. Team Ico catches the light, the atmosphere, and makes beautiful games.

It's retarded to compare different games from different genres using nothing but art direction.

 

[London Geezer]

Ok

So how about:

Hi res textures and perfect IQ doesn't make up for bad art direction?

 

[_phil_]

It's retarded to compare different games from different genres using nothing but art direction.

How's that ? , if the point is to compare art direction and visual approaches ?

Most game not only suffer bad art direction, but are set up in the same boring stereotypal and badly designed (if design at all) set of location .

ICO was fresh air in every sensitive way.SOTC looks right on track.

 

[PC-Engine]

Ok

So how about:

Hi res textures and perfect IQ doesn't make up for bad art direction?

I have no problem with that true statement.

 

[mech]

Classic PC-Engine stuff right here!

The first ICO was technically not that great, but goddamn it had atmosphere and awesome art direction! IMO the art direction MAJORLY made up for any problems with the engine - the game looked stunning.

I can't wait for this game, looks awesome

 

[London Geezer]

I must say, i'm a big size queen, and hearing how epic and BIG and HUGE the game and the bosses will be, i can't wait

 

[Squeak]

Monet painted with big-ass brushes, and never cared about detail, but he caught the light, and made beautiful paintings. Team Ico catches the light, the atmosphere, and makes beautiful games.

No no, PS2 is a Rembrandt renderer! Limited colour palette, atmospheric lighting and detail only on the important stuff.

 

[Devourer]

I'm sorry but this game is just bewtifool.

First one

Second one

Third one

Fourth one

And the Hands on impressions



PS: only the first video is actually very impressive, the others are kinda useless... but still...

PS2: And errr... gotta love IGN's commercials....

The real fun of Shadow of the Colossus, though, are the boss battles themselves. I'm sure that gamers who battled Tidal Wave in 2004's Transformers know exactly what I'm talking about here, but if you never played that particular game, just imagine the biggest videogame boss you can remember and multiply it by ten. In fact, I don't think I've seen enemies as huge and intimidating as I have than those found Shadow, both in terms of scale and design.

This game looks just marvellous. Can't wait.

 

[megateto]

Some first hands on impressions from Tokyopia's Justin:

Well, I'm not going to have time for a proper write up, but basically: imagine a super original action-adventure game set inside the context of ICO's etheral art direction, but expanded into a much more varied set of HUGE environments.

You start in a temple, grab your horse (very fluid control) and set about tracking the first collossi with your light sword. Hold the sword up to the sky and ride (very Gandalf) with the sunlight gleaming off it into a focused point -- that's where you'll find your enemy.

Some highlights:

- the emergence of the first collossi in the demo is spectacular, you reach a dead cliff, but your sun-sword tracker thing is gleaming upwards. You abandon your horse and climb up and up, eventually as you reach the top the camera takes control and you see giant head thunder past you in the ravine below. Lots of dust and absolute silence, except thundering footsteps like you can't imagine. Crazy cool.

- Taking the damn thing down took me about 10-15 minutes, and I was pretty much shaking at the end with adrenaline. It's hard to describe this combat aspect as it's pretty much different to any kind of action you've experienced. Best to experience for yourself at E3.

It's just a demo for now but I can't wait to see the other environments, how to track all the weird other collossi. Also worth mentioning the E3 demo features just one of the medium sized beasts. Pretty crazy.

Link

 

[cybamerc]

I don't think PS2 is powerful enough for what they're trying to achieve with this game. Sure, the giants looks awesome and the overbright lighting is very pretty but environments look like crap. The scale is impressive but who cares about scale when everything looks so bland (a problem I also have with the new Zelda)? Furthermore, Shadow of the Colossus suffers from several technical shortcomings. The textures are truly atrocious and the LOD engine is last-gen material.

Quite frankly the ICO media I've seen looks better to me because that game seems to have been designed with the limitations of the hardware in mind.

 

[V3]

(a problem I also have with the new Zelda)?

WW was bland too and so are most Zelda. The most colorful Zelda would either be Minish Cap or Four Sword and probably the CDI Zelda.

Quite frankly the ICO media I've seen looks better to me because that game seems to have been designed with the limitations of the hardware in mind.

ICO was a Playstation game. I think it was even playable on it too. Maybe they'll do the same with SoTC Doubt it though.

 

[London Geezer]

I don't think PS2 is powerful enough for what they're trying to achieve with this game. Sure, the giants looks awesome and the overbright lighting is very pretty but environments look like crap. The scale is impressive but who cares about scale when everything looks so bland (a problem I also have with the new Zelda)? Furthermore, Shadow of the Colossus suffers from several technical shortcomings. The textures are truly atrocious and the LOD engine is last-gen material.

Quite frankly the ICO media I've seen looks better to me because that game seems to have been designed with the limitations of the hardware in mind.

As i said, we could start listing a whole lot of technical "shortcomings" in ICO and SOTC, but that would be missing the point entirely, right?
Besides, it's normal that a relatively enclosed game like ICO might look better under certain circumstances than an impressively expansive game like SOTC.

They could have used the JAK3 engine and eveyone would have been happier (except PCEngine obviously). But again, that's missing the point of what the ICO team are primarily trying to achieve. (That's "atmosphere" if anyone skipped through that part)

 

[cthellis42]

Weak! I'm positive that bridge isn't structurally sound! How dare they force such tripe off on me!

 

[wco81]

God of War has a sense of scale in some sections. There are sweeping vistas but most of the action takes place in more confined environments. There's a lot more action so most of the game occurs in these very detailed, glossy interiors.

The graphics are beautiful but the frenetic action doesn't quite lend it the same atmospheric feel as ICO.

 

[Panajev2001a]

I don't think PS2 is powerful enough for what they're trying to achieve with this game. Sure, the giants looks awesome and the overbright lighting is very pretty but environments look like crap. The scale is impressive but who cares about scale when everything looks so bland (a problem I also have with the new Zelda)? Furthermore, Shadow of the Colossus suffers from several technical shortcomings. The textures are truly atrocious and the LOD engine is last-gen material.

Quite frankly the ICO media I've seen looks better to me because that game seems to have been designed with the limitations of the hardware in mind.

As i said, we could start listing a whole lot of technical "shortcomings" in ICO and SOTC, but that would be missing the point entirely, right?
Besides, it's normal that a relatively enclosed game like ICO might look better under certain circumstances than an impressively expansive game like SOTC.

They could have used the JAK3 engine and eveyone would have been happier (except PCEngine obviously). But again, that's missing the point of what the ICO team are primarily trying to achieve. (That's "atmosphere" if anyone skipped through that part)

ICO had plenty of views with very very far draw distance, SOTC increases the world's size much further and the game allows you to move through it much faster: thanks to LOD tricks as well ICO can displaythe awesome views of the castle's outside, but the new engine developed for SOTC can make less assumptions.