shadow of the colossus

[Berkley Mist]

[Bill]

I don't think you can make claims about which game is more technically trying on the system unless you've got some very detailed specifications. Please, quote me some poly counts. Compare for me the difference between God of War's lighting engine and SotC's.

The answer to your question is if you're being a weiner about niggling shit now you're going to be just as big a weiner at the end of the game. So go play something else.

[Berkley Mist]

Sorry for stating an opinion in opposition to a staffmember. My humble and bowing apologies, oh master of all that is gaming.

[Bismark]

God, fuck off with all of that. Jesus. Either discuss, argue, whatever, but don't play that fucking card.

GoW has more polys per character, but the world itself doesn't have a lot of depth. You can't run for miles into the distance of a streaming world. Because SotC's world is that big and running at all times, it tends to slow things down.
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[dlomyhero]

[Berkley Mist]

I played it enough to notice several problems. I was simply asking if these problems are throughout the game or only in the first couple of battles, or what have you. This homehow got translated into Pboi speak for what a terrible person I am for asking that question.

[Bill]

[Berkley Mist]

No, I'm not that kind of person. But I am the kind of person to ask if a game improves over the course of gameplay.

The first hour I played of Shining the Holy Ark for Sega Saturn, for example, I hated it. I hated the engine, I hated the blocky graphics, and the cheap deaths.

But after I put a few more hours into it, and started mapping out the dungeons on paper and getting into the whole D&Dness of it, I enjoyed it on a different level, despite the nagging flaws.

[Bill]

If you're not that kind of person then why didn't you at least try to figure out how to get up his leg rather than just quitting as soon as you stopped moving?

You played for five minutes, dude. And from your description, it doesn't seem you even got around to stabbing the giant glowing weak point on his leg. If so, you essentially haven't started the fight. You've basically played none of the game. You've seen the way the horse moves (which is much better than animal animation in a lot of other games), you saw a framerate stutter and then you said "God, does this ever improve?"

So just go back and beat the first colossus. This time pay attention to the big glowing bits. Finishing it will tell you what the other fights are like, more or less (there's obviously some variance, but the mechanics are mostly the same). If you don't like it, quit.

[Berkley Mist]

Fair enough. One downside is I refuse, on principal to read walkthroughs. The in game narration said to find the creature's weak point by focusing reflected light from my sword onto it, but I never saw anything different from one part of his anatomy to the next, so I suppose I just wasn't doing it right. When I didn't see anything, I just decided to run up and climb his leg, and no matter what angle I tried it at, I couldn't get any higher than his knee cap. On both legs.


I'll give it another go when I finish Radiata Stories.


In the meantime, Christmas NiGHTS was one of the greatest freebies ever. Nice avatar.

[Jordo]

I'm never one to get too hopped up on the quality of graphics. The main technical issue I had with SotC was the sometimes shoddy camera-work. I can't fault you for being annoyed at minor details, but sometimes you need to learn to sink into that game's world and judge it from there. At first I was unimpressed with Suikoden and it's rather elementary gameplay, but as soon as I got into the story (and got my castle), it has since become one of my favorite games ever.

I'd say at least beat two colossi, then decide if you want to repeat that process 14 more times. Now that the ending and gameplay has finally sunk in, I do regret buying the game instead of renting it. I hate the term "overrated" because it's cliche, but I do think this game was definitely blown out of proportion due to a drought in new games. It's certainly not a bad game (or even just an average game), but I wouldn't put it on a Top 10 list anytime soon.

[Terry Cheesecake]

[Sino]

Way to offend!
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[Berkley Mist]

Last night I killed the first and got squashed trying to stab the feet of the second.

I think I'll kill one more after this one before shelving it. I will say that continued use of the horse to cross the landscape really hammers in the idea that the designers were big fans of Ocarina of Time.

You are right, Jordo. The camer is terrible. I don't know how many times I had to manually revolve it trying to get on the back of that sucker's leg. The camer angel just kept spinning about for no reason, causing me to end up running in the wrong direction or grabbing at a leg that was no longer there.

[Mugsy]

I would tell you a way to avoid camera problems in the first battle, but I don't know if you'd want the help with it, being that you don't like strategy guides, and I'd basically be handing you a strategy.

Honestly, the camera didn't bother me. I enjoyed moving it around for the most part. There were a few times it slowed me down, but not enough to really irk me.

Yeah, there definately is the OoT feel in this game, and even the horse riding controls are more or less the same. And that was the only thing that bothered me about both games, was the horse riding controls. I had a hard time controlling the horses the way they were intended to be controlled. I don't know how they could improve it, but I hope future games find a less annoying way of moving about with them.
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WAAAOOOOOOOWWWW!

[Bill]

It's been suggested, and it seems there's some truth to it, that people are having trouble controlling the horse because they're trying to drive it like a car. It should be treated more like an actual animal, that you shouldn't try to steer as much as direct. It'll figure out how to move mostly on its own.

[Mugsy]

Maybe that's true, but whatever it is, it often leads me into screwing up somehow. One time I jumped off the horse while trying to stop by turning immediate left in front of the cliff that drops way down into the giant desert area and because I couldn't slow down fast enough (I didn't realize it at the time) I got thrown all the way the fuck down to the sand. I know it was my fault and all, but I just keep thinking that there has to be a better way, you know?
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WAAAOOOOOOOWWWW!

[Bill]

Well it's not like the horse would've jumped off.

[Mugsy]

I know, I was trying to get off. Just not into a canyon. I know it's only a small problem and mostly my fault for not being able to handle the controls correctly, but it can be avoided if a better control system arises.
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WAAAOOOOOOOWWWW!

[Bill]

Part of the problem is that they didn't list half the commands one has while on Agro. Pull back on the stick and hit X for a full, immediate stop.