I’m transfixed by the specific channel-surfing feel the Xbox one has where it’s this mixture of clear enthusiasm and the most mercenary money-making cynicism possible.
On one end you have like, these bizarre experiments in play where it’s just this weird unbounded space of like “trends” but reinterpreted through this chunky semi-broken engine so you have half-modeled off-brand lego pikachus recreating Fortnite dances while also hitting each other with bats
And then on the other end there’s these comically brutal “Sponsored” games which are, as far as I can tell, stolen levels retitled like “TikTok Obby” that attempt to trick kids into in-app purchases by taking an obstacle course and making it so every time you jump over an obstacle a prompt to buy (with real world “Robux”) a Gun or a Magic Carpet automatically comes up with “A” to autoconfirm
i like how sotc feels in my memory and i think i’m ok with leaving the ps2 version back in 2005, though maybe the ps3 version is worth checking out? unless you just think the game is boring, in which case i can’t imagine these more updated versions would change your opinion of it much. then again, though, idk, i have yet to try the ps4 remake (likely will soon since i just got it via ps+) but i really wanna say it’s one of the most “game which belongs confined to its specific time and context” type of games i’ve ever played
like, it’s probably pretty good, or at least an interesting game. by the time it came out i think i felt like it’d been drained of the magic ico and sotc had, to me, and i just never picked it up. i’m gonna have to come ‘back’ to it with different expectations
Actually I should have explained: I was playing the ps3 remaster. I bought this ico/SotC collectors package 5-6 years ago and never got around to SotC. Loved Ico though. Definitely was gorgeous and so is SotC, but the actual act of playing was pretty awful. Already bored of the conceit after two bosses. Do they mix up the formula at all in the later bosses? If not maybe I will just watch a let’s play.
I also have a ps3 copy of portal 2 I have never played. Should I expect to be similarly underwhelmed if and when I ever put that disc in?
I think there’s something wonky with the PS3 version of SotC in particular, where the game is based on the PAL PS2 version and, I guess due to a mishmash of frame issues, results in your stamina depleting much, much faster than the original.
PS4 SotC is weird in that parts of it really are astonishgly beautiful, at the cost of scrubbing a lot of the original games more economic and comparatively minimalistic looks. A lot of it still looks good! It just loses a lot of character in the process.
Also Wander’s just got a weird looking face in that one.
Played some Warframe today. Did a couple runs through the space side of the current event with my brother and shook out a few tweaks I made to the avionics of the ship. Knocked out sorties, too, then moseyed on to other stuff.
Played through “Close to the Sun” as it was free over on the EGS. Was a reasonably enjoyable B-ish grade scifi horror flick. The voice acting was unexpectedly solid. The atmosphere was suitably tense for large portions of it, though some issues with the responsiveness of the controls caused the atmosphere to deflate pretty hard when one encountered a death, or two, or five.
Popped into Amid Evil to give the mini-level they added a run through and, as I did the last time I played that game, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Haven’t really been playin’ much of anything else lately.
Ah that makes sense. I had a lot of trouble getting to the 2nd boss’ weakpoint before the gauge ran out. Was pretty frustrating and has soured me from playing much more of the game
Yeah, I remember playing it back when I first got a PS3 and thinking “god I don’t remember being this bad at this game.”
Good thing I sold my PS2 copy as soon as I bought that collection
Yeah it definitely undercuts the whole transformative nature of your actions.
Plus, unless they’ve patched it since I heard about it, the final Colossus is I guess missing a lot of the environmental effects that were in the PS2 version? Like the dirt and debris that falls as you scurry through those tunnels and it attacks from above. I feel like a lot of the remasters this gen overlook those subtle little details that, I mean, it doesn’t fundamentally change the game, sure, but their absence robs them of their feel.
Yes. The basic idea of finding and destroying all the sigils remains the same but the colossi vary wildly in size, shape, and specific tactics you need to get onto their fur and start clambering around
Ive only ever played the NTSC PS2 version. The stamina draining extra fast would definitely fuck up the game lol you get a bonus to stamina every time you beat a colossus so they balanced how much you need for each one pretty deliberately
It is certainly at least worth checking out a let’s play of the later bosses and admiring the designs
The fifth colossus at least is something I’d say is worth experiencing rather than watching. It was a powerful video game moment for me back when the game was brand new, at any rate.
Portal 2 was the first PS3 game I ever played. I know that opinions are mixed on it but I had fun with it and even played it a second time a few years later. If the main appeal for you is clever and challenging puzzles rather than narrative, though, you might want to focus on the co-op levels.
That’s interesting, the tightly-controlled cinematic-platformer design of Ico and Last Guardian are the ones I’d drop before Shadow of the Colossus. It’s very important for me to create my own tableaus and futiley try to escape impending fate in a massive world; I get itchy with the relentless burden of expectation on entering every single new room in a game like Ico or Last Guardian or Limbo or Another World, despite the craftsmanship and sustained mood.
Portal is an incredible gem of a game, a perfect little object that could only be made because they weren’t sure if it was going to catch on, but had a really strong idea and great writing.
Portal 2 is the blockbuster sequel with all the good and bad that comes with that. It’s a lot of fun and often bombastic, it’s not nearly as clever or self-contained, and the writing is really accessible and funny without the razor-sharp edge of the first. It’s still one of my favorite games, and I also recently replayed it. I found it to be extremely enjoyable and the voice acting is top notch.
The co-op in Portal 2 is fucking incredible though.
I cant play ICO because the first time I did I couldn’t figure out to reach down to pull girl up a ledge so I pushed at the edges of what I could do for like 2 hours with a steadily advancing migraine. You should have seen the weird shit I came up with as I slowly went a little nuts. Now ICO just creates a little migraine on the edge of my imagination.
