You know that feeling, when you want a game to be released right a-bloody-way, when you want your sweaty mitts on it, when you want it in your console, with the curtains shut, the sound cranked up, doors locked and refreshments close to hand.
Of course you do, it?s a natural emotion in all gamers?, who follow the scene closely, spending hours discussing the latest screenshot of a game a year or two away from release, who dissect every single nuance of press releases, picking up on things which have and haven?t been said ?.
It?s an affliction for which there is no remedy (when the games we have been waiting for eventually gets released, there is always another ten to take their place), but there is a little something which slows down Gamers? Psychosis to bearable levels.
The demo disc, possibly the only redeeming factor of ?Official? magazines. They give you a small glimpse into the future, for an hour or two the shakes subside, breathing becomes easier (demo discs are the gaming equivalent of a pack of Tunes), the hot sweats disappear completely. A good demo disc will be played over and over and over, with you picking the meat from it?s bones like a gaming vulture, whilst a bad demo disc could destroy any hopes a title might have of residing in your software library, even though the apologists spring out of every inter-web gaming forum claiming that the demo is an early build, that the game is completely different from the demo in your hand, that you should wait for the final product before passing judgment.
Today, surprisingly enough, I was woken by the postman knocking the **** out of my front door. I really should get to bed at a more sensible time, that way I can be waiting for the bastard to appear and surprise him by opening the door before he even gets to it (maybe when this online poker addiction works its way out of my system I will do). Today?s little gift from him to me was something I have been anxiously waiting for the past week. My OPM demo disc was finally here.
This month, the US version of Official Playstation2 Magazine has a demo disc which is possibly my most sought after this entire hardware generation. Shadow of the Colossus, the pseudo-sequel to Ico (in my opinion one of the greatest games this gen.) features heavily.
I wasn?t going to get this demo, I wanted to wait until the final game appeared. I had this strange idea that I could hold out, that I would appreciate the game more if I entered into it with no idea of what to expect. I have been trying (and failing) to stay away from every screenshot, to miss every single preview of the game, every press release, every hands-on forum post ? its been an hard time for me, but I was managing pretty well.
And then the demo was announced, and my will power crumbled. I contacted a friend who lives in the US, and begged her to hook me up. I didn?t even want the magazine that the disc shipped with (the US version of OPM is just as dire as any other official mags in my eyes), all I wanted was the goodies, the disc and nothing but the disc.
Before I placed the game into my PS2 I did my normal ?pre-game? warm-up. The blinds were closed, and curtains shut (for double darkness protection), the TV was polished to a shiny finish, toilet duties were taken care of, and refreshments were carefully set out. Finally I felt that I was ready, and the game was inserted.
The usual ?demo disc? bull**** was dispensed with, and Shadow of Colossus was selected from the menu.
Immediately an option came up asking me if I wanted to proceed in Progressive-scan mode. Sadly, I am in-between hi-def screens, so I can?t comment on what the pro-scan delights on offer are, but to see them offered on the demo only highlights the promise that they will be there in the final game.
The game loads with a short movie (using what looks like the in-game engine). We follow our hero along a mountain path, through a forest and ultimately to a temple area. Going through the temple (still in-game movie here) you come to a bridge. The camera slowly pans out, revealing that the bridge is a monstrously huge construction over a desert, stretching for miles into the distance, where you can just make out what looks like a massive mountain. The sense of scale as the camera pans out is jaw-dropping, your character and his horse eventually look like tiny dots on the bridge, which is just looking larger and larger (when you eventually take in the bridge foundations in the desert the only words that spring to mind are ?holy frack?). One particular scene has been stuck in my mind all day, its raining heavily and our hero plus horse are trying to keep dry under a branch. Its only a small scene, talking a second or two in length, but it just looks so bloody good. The over-cast sky looks perfect, the greenery against the drab-ness, the silhouette of the horse against the darkness, that single scene could be screen-grabbed and printed out, and wouldn?t look out of place in many art galleries (sad geek fact here that I am not ashamed of admitting, I actually printed out some negative images from the original Ico and used them as artwork to decorate my walls).
The game proper opens with you asleep on the floor of a huge cavern. Everything looks Ico-ish, though it?s a darker, grittier Ico than what we remember. The use of lighting is still excellent, from the sunlight shining through gaps in the architecture, to the shadows in the farther reaches of the cavern. In front of you is what appears to be an altar, with a girl asleep on it, ala sleeping beauty. Whereas everything about your character is dark and gritty, the girl is clothed all in white, and radiates a shining light. It feels very much like Ico did, except this time the girl can?t wander off (thank ****). Your horse is grazing near-by (grazing is probably the wrong word, just standing there is more accurate) but it comes over at your whistle (pressing the X button calls your horse). Checking out my immediate surroundings shows me that I am in what can only be described a temple, as well as the altar which the girl is placed on, there are what appear to be recessed alcoves, in which huge statues have been placed. Each statue represents one of the Colossus, but I won?t go into too much detail about that. There are two options open to you, exit the temple, or go deeper into the cavern. Being the curious gamer that I am, I headed into the depths, to which I came to another Ico-ish moment. You are in a vast room, with a spiral ramp in which the only way is up. So up I went, going round and round and round until eventually I reached the top, in which there was a locked door and nothing else (probably locked off for the demo). I then had a tombraider moment, when looking down I noticed that the room I had started off in had a pool directly in the center. So I jumped off the highest point, and when I hit the pool I realized that the water was only inches deep. Still, its always good to get that first death out of the way.
Restarting, and this time I exited the temple. You discover that the temple is in fact the massive mountain you viewed earlier from the bridge, and that this massive mountain is dwarfed by mountain ranges which you can just make out in the distance. All around were grass plains, and I had to decide which direction to head. So, calling my horse to me, I mounted up and proceeded straight ahead.
I need to stress something here, one of my mates owns two horses, and I know how they look when moving, how their muscles contract, how the wind and movement makes their manes and tails dance around. And guess what, so do the games animators/artists. Everything looks realistic. They have nailed that horse perfectly. You don?t control the horse via conventional gaming methods (control the horse as you would the character) but by using character-controlled reins and spurs. Want the horse to speed up from a canter to a gallop, then you have to stick the spurs in, want the horse to veer left or right, saw on the reins till the horse changes direction. It feels strange for about 10 seconds, then it feels oh so natural.
Riding the horse at full gallop for about 5 minutes brought me to the closest mountain range. Dismounting, I noticed vines in the side of the cliff-race directly opposite me. Once again a strange control method was thrust upon me. Rather than walk up to the vines, and then start climbing automatically, I had to jump as high as possible, and grab the vines with another button press. You hold on by keeping that button pressed down, and you can climb in any direction. But, the game uses a grip system, which can only be described as an evolution of that seen in MGS2. Hold on too long, and your grip meter disappears (it goes down gradually), and once it goes completely so does your death grip, and you will fall. You can counter this by jumping higher, and then grabbing hold again. So you can be held on tight, at the same time as you are pre-loading the jump, then you let go, jump high, and grab tight again. It requires timing, but adds a new perspective to the genre (and it feels bloody good when you get it right).
Finally, after much falling, and climbing back up, I am at the top of the cliff. There is another grass plain up here, so I venture onto it. The ground starts to shake, and suddenly a cut-scene kicks in. My first sight of the Colossus is via cut-scene, and all I can see of it is a shuffling pair of feet which tower over me. I then realized that you can manipulate the camera during cut-scenes, which gives you a first person view of what your character is seeing.
The feet have disappeared into dust clouds, the dust rising with every heavy footed stomp. Looking higher I see the waist and then the lower arms of the beast. Another huge vibration kicks in, and I see that the Colossus is wielding a club which is easily ten times larger than my character. Finally I am far enough away that I can see the Colossus in its entirety, and the cut-scene finishes.
The Colossus is majestic. Even though its armed with a club, it doesn?t appear to be evil, and it doesn?t attack me, or even look like its going to threaten me in any way. It?s just going on about its business, the same as how I would go on about mine, ignoring the ant which is shuffling around near my feet.
But, I have a sword and a bow, and human nature being what it is, this big bastard needs to go down. The question is, how am I going to do it?
Saturday mornings watching Sinbad hold me in good stead here, or was it Jason and the Argonauts. Anyway, my plan of action was to run up behind the monster, climb up its legs and stab it up till it falls.
First part of the plan goes well, I run into the dust storm, and make my way to the Achilles of the Colossus. There?s tufts of fur growing there, which provide me with enough hand-holds to start climbing. Its hard work though, the beast isn?t staying still, and each step comes close to throwing me off. I decide to implement part two.
I stab my sword into the Achilles tendon of the Colossus, and it drops to one knee. Now, in those movies I watched so diligently as a kid, this would cripple the beast enough for me to climb up to its head and deliver the deathblow. I think the designers had seen the same movies though, and rather than cripple, the stabbing just resulted in me trying to hold tight to an extremely pissed off 150-foot monster. My grip meter was dangerously close to disappearing, and I was only up to the knee joint. I could just make out a ledge above me, which looked as though it would a place of respite to catch my breath and plan out my next move. Pre-loading the jump I let go, and missed the ledge by inches.
I fell to the floor, shaken but not completely stunned. Rising, I switched to my bow, and fired a few arrows at the creatures face. I thought I was out of range of the beast?s club, a thought which was to prove my last when it came crashing down on my noggin.
In a short demo, Shadow of Colossus has proven to me that it is going to be regarded as one of the best games of 2005. And that?s without exploring everything that the demo has to offer, without describing the haunting soundtrack, the breath-taking vistas, and the instinctive controls. I am just gutted that I now have longer to wait until I get my sweaty mitts on the final game.
Of course you do, it?s a natural emotion in all gamers?, who follow the scene closely, spending hours discussing the latest screenshot of a game a year or two away from release, who dissect every single nuance of press releases, picking up on things which have and haven?t been said ?.
It?s an affliction for which there is no remedy (when the games we have been waiting for eventually gets released, there is always another ten to take their place), but there is a little something which slows down Gamers? Psychosis to bearable levels.
The demo disc, possibly the only redeeming factor of ?Official? magazines. They give you a small glimpse into the future, for an hour or two the shakes subside, breathing becomes easier (demo discs are the gaming equivalent of a pack of Tunes), the hot sweats disappear completely. A good demo disc will be played over and over and over, with you picking the meat from it?s bones like a gaming vulture, whilst a bad demo disc could destroy any hopes a title might have of residing in your software library, even though the apologists spring out of every inter-web gaming forum claiming that the demo is an early build, that the game is completely different from the demo in your hand, that you should wait for the final product before passing judgment.
Today, surprisingly enough, I was woken by the postman knocking the **** out of my front door. I really should get to bed at a more sensible time, that way I can be waiting for the bastard to appear and surprise him by opening the door before he even gets to it (maybe when this online poker addiction works its way out of my system I will do). Today?s little gift from him to me was something I have been anxiously waiting for the past week. My OPM demo disc was finally here.
This month, the US version of Official Playstation2 Magazine has a demo disc which is possibly my most sought after this entire hardware generation. Shadow of the Colossus, the pseudo-sequel to Ico (in my opinion one of the greatest games this gen.) features heavily.
I wasn?t going to get this demo, I wanted to wait until the final game appeared. I had this strange idea that I could hold out, that I would appreciate the game more if I entered into it with no idea of what to expect. I have been trying (and failing) to stay away from every screenshot, to miss every single preview of the game, every press release, every hands-on forum post ? its been an hard time for me, but I was managing pretty well.
And then the demo was announced, and my will power crumbled. I contacted a friend who lives in the US, and begged her to hook me up. I didn?t even want the magazine that the disc shipped with (the US version of OPM is just as dire as any other official mags in my eyes), all I wanted was the goodies, the disc and nothing but the disc.
Before I placed the game into my PS2 I did my normal ?pre-game? warm-up. The blinds were closed, and curtains shut (for double darkness protection), the TV was polished to a shiny finish, toilet duties were taken care of, and refreshments were carefully set out. Finally I felt that I was ready, and the game was inserted.
The usual ?demo disc? bull**** was dispensed with, and Shadow of Colossus was selected from the menu.
Immediately an option came up asking me if I wanted to proceed in Progressive-scan mode. Sadly, I am in-between hi-def screens, so I can?t comment on what the pro-scan delights on offer are, but to see them offered on the demo only highlights the promise that they will be there in the final game.
The game loads with a short movie (using what looks like the in-game engine). We follow our hero along a mountain path, through a forest and ultimately to a temple area. Going through the temple (still in-game movie here) you come to a bridge. The camera slowly pans out, revealing that the bridge is a monstrously huge construction over a desert, stretching for miles into the distance, where you can just make out what looks like a massive mountain. The sense of scale as the camera pans out is jaw-dropping, your character and his horse eventually look like tiny dots on the bridge, which is just looking larger and larger (when you eventually take in the bridge foundations in the desert the only words that spring to mind are ?holy frack?). One particular scene has been stuck in my mind all day, its raining heavily and our hero plus horse are trying to keep dry under a branch. Its only a small scene, talking a second or two in length, but it just looks so bloody good. The over-cast sky looks perfect, the greenery against the drab-ness, the silhouette of the horse against the darkness, that single scene could be screen-grabbed and printed out, and wouldn?t look out of place in many art galleries (sad geek fact here that I am not ashamed of admitting, I actually printed out some negative images from the original Ico and used them as artwork to decorate my walls).
The game proper opens with you asleep on the floor of a huge cavern. Everything looks Ico-ish, though it?s a darker, grittier Ico than what we remember. The use of lighting is still excellent, from the sunlight shining through gaps in the architecture, to the shadows in the farther reaches of the cavern. In front of you is what appears to be an altar, with a girl asleep on it, ala sleeping beauty. Whereas everything about your character is dark and gritty, the girl is clothed all in white, and radiates a shining light. It feels very much like Ico did, except this time the girl can?t wander off (thank ****). Your horse is grazing near-by (grazing is probably the wrong word, just standing there is more accurate) but it comes over at your whistle (pressing the X button calls your horse). Checking out my immediate surroundings shows me that I am in what can only be described a temple, as well as the altar which the girl is placed on, there are what appear to be recessed alcoves, in which huge statues have been placed. Each statue represents one of the Colossus, but I won?t go into too much detail about that. There are two options open to you, exit the temple, or go deeper into the cavern. Being the curious gamer that I am, I headed into the depths, to which I came to another Ico-ish moment. You are in a vast room, with a spiral ramp in which the only way is up. So up I went, going round and round and round until eventually I reached the top, in which there was a locked door and nothing else (probably locked off for the demo). I then had a tombraider moment, when looking down I noticed that the room I had started off in had a pool directly in the center. So I jumped off the highest point, and when I hit the pool I realized that the water was only inches deep. Still, its always good to get that first death out of the way.
Restarting, and this time I exited the temple. You discover that the temple is in fact the massive mountain you viewed earlier from the bridge, and that this massive mountain is dwarfed by mountain ranges which you can just make out in the distance. All around were grass plains, and I had to decide which direction to head. So, calling my horse to me, I mounted up and proceeded straight ahead.
I need to stress something here, one of my mates owns two horses, and I know how they look when moving, how their muscles contract, how the wind and movement makes their manes and tails dance around. And guess what, so do the games animators/artists. Everything looks realistic. They have nailed that horse perfectly. You don?t control the horse via conventional gaming methods (control the horse as you would the character) but by using character-controlled reins and spurs. Want the horse to speed up from a canter to a gallop, then you have to stick the spurs in, want the horse to veer left or right, saw on the reins till the horse changes direction. It feels strange for about 10 seconds, then it feels oh so natural.
Riding the horse at full gallop for about 5 minutes brought me to the closest mountain range. Dismounting, I noticed vines in the side of the cliff-race directly opposite me. Once again a strange control method was thrust upon me. Rather than walk up to the vines, and then start climbing automatically, I had to jump as high as possible, and grab the vines with another button press. You hold on by keeping that button pressed down, and you can climb in any direction. But, the game uses a grip system, which can only be described as an evolution of that seen in MGS2. Hold on too long, and your grip meter disappears (it goes down gradually), and once it goes completely so does your death grip, and you will fall. You can counter this by jumping higher, and then grabbing hold again. So you can be held on tight, at the same time as you are pre-loading the jump, then you let go, jump high, and grab tight again. It requires timing, but adds a new perspective to the genre (and it feels bloody good when you get it right).
Finally, after much falling, and climbing back up, I am at the top of the cliff. There is another grass plain up here, so I venture onto it. The ground starts to shake, and suddenly a cut-scene kicks in. My first sight of the Colossus is via cut-scene, and all I can see of it is a shuffling pair of feet which tower over me. I then realized that you can manipulate the camera during cut-scenes, which gives you a first person view of what your character is seeing.
The feet have disappeared into dust clouds, the dust rising with every heavy footed stomp. Looking higher I see the waist and then the lower arms of the beast. Another huge vibration kicks in, and I see that the Colossus is wielding a club which is easily ten times larger than my character. Finally I am far enough away that I can see the Colossus in its entirety, and the cut-scene finishes.
The Colossus is majestic. Even though its armed with a club, it doesn?t appear to be evil, and it doesn?t attack me, or even look like its going to threaten me in any way. It?s just going on about its business, the same as how I would go on about mine, ignoring the ant which is shuffling around near my feet.
But, I have a sword and a bow, and human nature being what it is, this big bastard needs to go down. The question is, how am I going to do it?
Saturday mornings watching Sinbad hold me in good stead here, or was it Jason and the Argonauts. Anyway, my plan of action was to run up behind the monster, climb up its legs and stab it up till it falls.
First part of the plan goes well, I run into the dust storm, and make my way to the Achilles of the Colossus. There?s tufts of fur growing there, which provide me with enough hand-holds to start climbing. Its hard work though, the beast isn?t staying still, and each step comes close to throwing me off. I decide to implement part two.
I stab my sword into the Achilles tendon of the Colossus, and it drops to one knee. Now, in those movies I watched so diligently as a kid, this would cripple the beast enough for me to climb up to its head and deliver the deathblow. I think the designers had seen the same movies though, and rather than cripple, the stabbing just resulted in me trying to hold tight to an extremely pissed off 150-foot monster. My grip meter was dangerously close to disappearing, and I was only up to the knee joint. I could just make out a ledge above me, which looked as though it would a place of respite to catch my breath and plan out my next move. Pre-loading the jump I let go, and missed the ledge by inches.
I fell to the floor, shaken but not completely stunned. Rising, I switched to my bow, and fired a few arrows at the creatures face. I thought I was out of range of the beast?s club, a thought which was to prove my last when it came crashing down on my noggin.
In a short demo, Shadow of Colossus has proven to me that it is going to be regarded as one of the best games of 2005. And that?s without exploring everything that the demo has to offer, without describing the haunting soundtrack, the breath-taking vistas, and the instinctive controls. I am just gutted that I now have longer to wait until I get my sweaty mitts on the final game.
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