ICO and Shadow of the Colossus (SotC) Collection Catch-All

Need to get back and finish SotC... darn Dark Souls has sucked me in.

Orphu wrote:

Well, it was originally a PS1 game that was up-fitted to a PS2 game when development ran long. Looks pretty good considering.

It looks amazing for what it is, but I've been spoiled by Uncharted

A few hints for those struggling with controls in SotC:

* Contrary to some posts above, the rolling does help. Use it to avoid damage from shock waves, and to dodge projectiles. I used it quite a bit.

* It's a lot easier (and faster) to get on your horse if you jump onto him. Don't bother trying to come to a complete stop and pressing triangle. Just run at him, jump, and hold the grab button. Done. If you accidentally jump when trying to mount the horse, just press grab and you'll climb on.

* You can stand up while riding the horse. It helps when timing a jump-grab from horseback.

* To stop on a dime, hold back on the reins and press the giddyup button.

Ico is really quite lovely if you stick with it. The textures were carefully tuned for SD CRTs, so they don't have quite the same luminescent loveliness they did on the PS2 -- the inherent fuzziness of CRTs made many of the scenes look nearly real, where on high resolution plasma it's much more obviously textured surfaces. If you squint and defocus your eyes a little, you'll get a sense of the beauty of the original.

But no, you won't mistake it for a modern game. SoTC, on the other hand, could have been released in the last couple years.

I finally finished up Ico last night. I played through it a couple of times on the PS2 and it's in my top three games of all time so it was great to play through again in HD.

I'm extremely impressed at how well the game holds up. Yeah, combat can be a little annoying at times, sometimes Ico doesn't quite jump where you want him to and a few of the textures don't look that great in HD. Those are incredibly minor complaints, though, and overall the game is just as breathtaking as it was the first time around.

Having played it before it makes me appreciate the level design even further. That castle has to be one of the most well-designed environments in any game. They do such an incredible job of showing you where you will be going and showing you where you've been. You'll come around a corner, see an awesome piece of the castle below and then end up there a couple of hours later. Or you'll have gone through a tough section and an hour later look down to realize you are now up above that spot. It's brilliant and gives a sense of "place" that few games achieve.

And the ending... yeah. It'll be holding its place in my top games for a long time to come.

Now on to Shadow of the Colossus! I played through it once when it first came out and from what I've seen it looks like the HD update is going to be fantastic.

Not a lot to add here. Just wanted to say how glad I am to finally get to play these two games after years of reading about them. Just finished Ico last night, and it lived up to all of the praise I've read.

Great game, anyone like me who missed this because they never owned a PS2, get this.
Don't miss this chance to play these classics.

Also just popping in to say how amazing these games are. I wasn't a big console gamer when they came out originally. I'm starting with SotC, which has always been on my list of shame. I'm not sure what the general feeling is due to my intentional radio silence regarding the games, but I had to share my emotional reaction to this thing with someone. I'm not finished with it yet, but I see lots of threads along these lines here on the forums, and look forward to reading them when I'm done.

Anyway, SotC has to be one of the saddest games I can remember playing. There's a terrible sense of loneliness as I seek out the each colossus, and when I finally get to them, I just don't want to kill them. After finally getting through the first battle, I was a little shocked at how....wrong it felt. There's obviously something sinister about the entities sending me out, and all of these poor things seem to be minding their own business, snoozing in the sun, etc. until I show up and stab them in the head repeatedly. Their models and sounds magnify the effect.

I'm stunned to say that in an age when I'm 100% okay hunting down 10 wolves for their skins in some games, I almost feel like the only way I'm going to win SotC is to turn the thing off before I kill another sad giant. You just know that the 'price' they warned me about is going to make the end of this terribly depressing murderous rampage that much worse. But of course, I know I'll keep going. Not because I want to 'win', but because the emotional response they've been able to elicit is too precious to put aside.

This is one of the best games I almost never played. The best part is that I still have Ico waiting in the wings (and hopefully The Last Guardian coming soon).

Played this 10 plus years ago and obviously stuck with me. I beat it in one night at my friend's house as I didn't have a PS2. Was one of the most fun, frustrating, and favorite nights of gaming I remember. Jumping back in now. Wife got me a PS2 for Christmas a few years ago and I have been building out the collection. Two colossi down and counting. Fun to be back in the world. Need to get a up res device though.

Hobear wrote:

Need to get a up res device though.

The HD remakes are really good on PS3. They even fix some of the frustrating control issues. Have you played Last Guardian yet?

tuffalobuffalo wrote:
Hobear wrote:

Need to get a up res device though.

The HD remakes are really good on PS3. They even fix some of the frustrating control issues. Have you played Last Guardian yet?

No but one day I'll round out my console collection with a ps3 and ps4. Had a 360 last gen and mostly pc now. Can't wait for Last Guardian.

Actually, this reminds me. I went to play the SoC HD version on my PS3 recently. The load times for startup were pretty crazy, and once I got in, the audio was way out of sync on the opening movie, and there were some weird audio cuts. After the opening, it seemed fine from what I played, but the opening was real weird. Has anyone else experienced that, or is it just more evidence that another of my PS3s is in the process of crapping out?

Chaz wrote:

Actually, this reminds me. I went to play the SoC HD version on my PS3 recently. The load times for startup were pretty crazy, and once I got in, the audio was way out of sync on the opening movie, and there were some weird audio cuts. After the opening, it seemed fine from what I played, but the opening was real weird. Has anyone else experienced that, or is it just more evidence that another of my PS3s is in the process of crapping out?

Sorry, it was fine for me.