Ico (PS2)

I made a point of ordering a European import version, with the original Japanese cover art: http://img434.imageshack.us/img434/3027/icogoodcover0yp.jpg to save my eyes from the soul-searing abomination that is the cover they made for the Western release: http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/8561/icoshitecover7fl.jpg

The entire game takes place inside a single vast castle of madness, that could have been lifted straight from the etchings of Giovanni Piranesi. You will spend a good 10 hours inside this castle and the interconnectivity of the environment here is phenomenal, probably the best I've seen.

For those not familiar, the game is all about solving environmental navigation puzzles in order to escort a rescued girl through the castle (and escape yourself). The girl has limited mobility compared to you, and thus you must create different paths allowing her to progress whilst keeping with each other as much as possible in order to protect her from the shadow monsters that frequently try to claim her. You can't die yourself (unless you fall from a great height), but it's game over if the girl gets caught by the shadow beasts and you don't rescue her in time.

Overall I think it's a genius game with awesome atmosphere and art, occasionally marred by slightly quirky controls.

I've already pre-ordered Shadow of the Colossus, which is Team Ico's follow-up to this game. 

Played this mind boggling boardgame.
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/17282

I don't really know where to start. It's a game made for young girls, and the objective is to shop as fast as you can. Each player starts at a shopping center parking lot with some pocket money and a credit card. There's an electronic complex in the middle of the board that, after pushing a button, says to you in a nice digitized voice how many squares you can move. Then you go to shops and buy stuff. When you run out of money, go to the bank to use your credit card. All these events have some randomity which comes from using your credit card with the electronic reader in the center of the game.
There are sale and clearance placades at some random shops, and they are shuffled at times - often it's good to try to get to those shops.

What this game does to young person's world view is slightly interesting and more disturbing. The objective is just to shop virtually anything as quickly as possible. Running around the pink-coloured mall frantically chasing sales and clearances and getting more from dad's bottomless well of money with the credit card doesn't sound like very constructive or a way of life I'd like to raise my daughter to.

Buying for buying's sake, stuff you don't really need. It seems like a complete lunacy. Maybe it cannot be viewed as anything else in history. Or then a joke from the eighties. :) 

You should have tried this instead:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/6113 

oh my god. This is the best game I've played in years. I had my doubts originally with the whole franchise crossover thing and all, but boy! Those Wachowskis really put my fears to rest as soon as the game started! Wow, what great fluid combat and pretty graphics. I wonder if Doom 4 will use the Path of Neo engine. I always wanted to try living in the world of the matrix and now I can! It's just like another Matrix film but I can do whatever I want! Swell!

Well, that's the review I would have written if I was 12 years old and semi-retarded. What the fuckity-fuck is wrong with the twats that made this game? It looks like someone shat on an N64. And if I turn the graphics up high all I get is too many reflections and 10 frames a second, great. I guess a geforce 6800 isn't good enough to play this abortion of a cash-in.

First you get too many intro movies, then a shitty in-game cutscene where you see the models for the first time. Jesus, the neo model looks more like Optimus Prime than Keanu Reeves. Then you take the red pill (unless you're smart) and fall down the rabbithole, or the "awful mirror shader brought to you by 1995" then you get some bonus random 3d shit with shiny code going everywhere.

Soon you get your first cutscene: stuff stolen from the first movie but ingeniusly re-edited, apparently, by the same pig-fuckers that put together an episode of MTV's cribs. Then you get some combat. Imagine the best combo you could possibly do in Prince of Persia. Keep that mental image; in Path of Neo you can probably do that combo by clicking the mouse a few times. Really fun if you're the kind of gamer who enjoys opening and closing folders.

I'm so very angry. It's a huge insult to anyone who can dress themselves or count into double digits to release this as a 'game'. This is worse than apartheid, it is filth. It's the bloody glitch in the matrix, and if you complete this game or even enjoy it you are most likely a horrible paedophile nazi. 

oh my god. This is the best game I've played in years. I had my doubts originally with the whole franchise crossover thing and all, but boy! Those Wachowskis really put my fears to rest as soon as the game started! Wow, what great fluid combat and pretty graphics. I wonder if Doom 4 will use the Path of Neo engine. I always wanted to try living in the world of the matrix and now I can! It's just like another Matrix film but I can do whatever I want! Swell!

Well, that's the review I would have written if I was 12 years old and semi-retarded. What the fuckity-fuck is wrong with the twats that made this game? It looks like someone shat on an N64. And if I turn the graphics up high all I get is too many reflections and 10 frames a second, great. I guess a geforce 6800 isn't good enough to play this abortion of a cash-in.

First you get too many intro movies, then a shitty in-game cutscene where you see the models for the first time. Jesus, the neo model looks more like Optimus Prime than Keanu Reeves. Then you take the red pill (unless you're smart) and fall down the rabbithole, or the "awful mirror shader brought to you by 1995" then you get some bonus random 3d shit with shiny code going everywhere.

Soon you get your first cutscene: stuff stolen from the first movie but ingeniusly re-edited, apparently, by the same pig-fuckers that put together an episode of MTV's cribs. Then you get some combat. Imagine the best combo you could possibly do in Prince of Persia. Keep that mental image; in Path of Neo you can probably do that combo by clicking the mouse a few times. Really fun if you're the kind of gamer who enjoys opening and closing folders.

I'm so very angry. It's a huge insult to anyone who can dress themselves or count into double digits to release this as a 'game'. This is worse than apartheid, it is filth. It's the bloody glitch in the matrix, and if you complete this game or even enjoy it you are most likely a horrible paedophile nazi. 

 

i mean, it was actually worse than the enter the matrix games. 

I've always wondered what a game made by pig fuckers would be like. 

Starbuck, all about mailing that to the developers ;). 

for president 

http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2001/ps2/ico/0713/ico_screen025.jpg 

How is that pretty or 'awesome art' 

Like the Doom 3 engine, it looks like shit when it's just a still shot.
Also it has more to do with the compositions and atmosphere of the scenes, not with how pretty (or not) the rock textures are. 

You know, there are more to games than just random screenshots interpreted horribly out of context.

Also, what czg said. 

Prey is the perfect example of a D3 engine game that look really meh in shots and great when moving. I couldn't give a fuck about it when I saw the early shots, but after I saw the E3 trailer it shot to the top of my FPS most wanted list.

Ico is one of those games that pisses me of purely because I've never played it (not ever having owned a PS2) and everybody spazzes over it all the time. The time I saw it moving, it looked cool, but I didn't particularly want to play it... just watch it and look around the castle. It looks really relaxing to play, and seemed to have quite a strange atmosphere. 

I browsed thru gamespot screenshots section - it's the average shot from the bunch. (neither best nor worst)
Blame me for having a helpless "mapper syndrome" but that's a room with same dull tile texture over all the surfaces, misaligned too.
Even if there is bumpmapping and dynamic light its still a dull badly textured scene.
And (from the screenshots) most other areas look about the same - dirty brown...

Now I even think there must be truly brilliant gameplay and thick atmosphere to compensate for such a lack of pretty visuals. 

Is right about Prey. Although the video did show a lot more than the shots did.

As for Ico, whatever. 

 

I'm playing Shadow of the Colossus by the same team. The monsters are awesome and the landscape is pretty nice, and the architecture is sort of passable.

It is the PS2, so it's not like I have very high expectations. 

I've been currently playing an obscene amount of Fable. It really is quite the game, not deserving a lot of the crap it got from plenty of folks. The Expansion isnt particularly terrible either. 

the main complaint was, that its shorter and smaller than mororwind and basically same story no matter if u are good or bad, despite developers promises 

Best RPG on the Xbox IMO; I enjoyed it a lot more than Jade Empire.

Still yet to play Fable:TLC, but I believe it's basically the same game but with extra stuff thrown in. 

740 meg, screenshot looks real nice, feedback on Blues so far has been very positive.

List of download links here http://www.teamkilled.net/display/article/star-wars-empire-at-war-demo-released/ - the AOL link at least is a direct download link so is easy to use with download programs etc, saves all the cocking around trying to find direct links that other sites force you to do / stop you from doing >:( 

what is this game like ? All the reviews seem to be spooging but what is it ? More action than rpg ? Fun ? 

I haven't player KOTOR2, but I REALLY REALLY liked the first one. Very fun game.