Shadow of the Shadow of the Colossus
by peterb
Some of you may be wondering why there haven’t been many gaming articles lately. I believe the reason is that both psu and I are playing Shadow of the Colossus, and are desperately looking for some angle from which we can claim that it does not contradict our long-held position that “Boss” battles are stupid.
We can’t dodge the topic forever, though. Look for our comments on Shadow of the Colossus soon.
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Tell me one thing: should I buy this game? I hear on the one hand that it is a life-altering experience that will lay waste to my preconceptions of gaming, beauty and, indeed, life itself. I also hear that the graphics are stuttery and look more like “valiant attempt” than “accomplished work of genius.”
Oo, is your ‘ittle pet theory feeling sore? I hate when that happens.
You could always go play _Blood Will Tell_, a game with 48 boss battles, each of which is about as creative as _Colossus’s_ save-game screen. I’m sure that would reconnect you with your sense of ranty injustice.
General answer: should you buy _Colossus_? Yes. Is it the most beautiful thing ever? Well, yes, but it’s also clearly aiming at 120% of what the PS2 hardware can handle. The flaws are easy to spot. There is texture pop-in; there is model pop-in. It doesn’t feel stuttery to me, but that’s because it tries to cover with fake motion blur when the frame rate drops.
I don’t care. It’s got an 83% success rate at what other games aren’t even trying to do. That’s totally the right thing to do.
(To return to the original topic: the gameplay is also fun. Peter(s), if you’re still looking for a topic lead, try comparing the notion of “boss battle” in action games to the notion of “puzzle” in adventure games, and see which _Colossus_ is closer to.)
I believe I have the angle that I’m going to take with this, but I wanted to finish the game first because my feelings about Ico were very different before and after I finished the game.
Damn your eyes you US gamers and your six to twelve to infinite month lead times over Europe! I must wait…
Ralph Waldo Emerson, wasn’t he the guy who dissed Jane Austen?
How dare a quote by him appear in a post about a game that comes as close to art as anything else out there!