What Was The Last Game You Played?

[Miguel Sanchez]

 

Hitman (PS4, 2016)

Hitman is a game in which you play as a hitman. Don't you love something that gets straight to the point? You are Agent 47, a catastrophically bald man with a barcode on the back of his head who works for an organisation called the ICA. He gets jobs to go to places and take out targets. Oh for life to be so simple.

Unlike previous Hitman games the missions aren't based solely around the structure of a story. The game was released episodically, with the first training area made available with other locations following (I think) every month. Thanks to the wonders of modern gaming I'm coming to the game well after Hitman 3's release, so I don't need to worry about waiting for my fill of follicly challenged murdering. 

I think in previous reviews of Hitman games (I'm pretty sure I've played all of them up until this point, I suppose aside from the other one called 'Hitman' because I started at 2) I've mentioned my somewhat tenuous grasp on stealth games. I'll usually start off for the first couple of levels trying to play in what I assume to be the "proper" manner. Then something bad will happen and I'll give up. Out come the guns. This Hitman ultimately gets around this quite well by the virtue of only having seven distinct locations with targets in them, with a focus on repetition and exploration.

I'm sure in one of those previous Hitman write-ups I opined that it seemed strange that you were rewarded for trial and error. In real life you wouldn't be able to try several times to take out a target. You wouldn't be able to do what you can do here, hide in a bin and wait for them to do a lap of a building and come round again to your location. It all felt a bit unnatural to me. Luckily, the people creating this Hitman seem to have found away around this. You have targets, you have objectives, you have the assorted environmental and situational means of luring and killing them, but you also have a Challenge system which tracks your completion of these. This simple choice incentivises exploration and multiple playthroughs, and the concept is much more engaging as a result.

If you're a complete dunce like me, there are now 'Opportunities' where the game effectively signposts you through special kill methods. What's that? You're over-hearing someone say that the ultra-famous model at this fashion show looks just like 47? Well, wouldn't it be nice if you were directed straight to where that model is? This can almost feel like cheating. Or insulting. Somehow though, it works. It's ultimately still satisfying to follow a convoluted yet daring method through to its conclusion. These Opportunities are only some of the scripted assassination methods, so there are still ways you can take out your targets without being led by the hand.

Gameplay is straightforward third person action stealth. You can take cover, you can decide on your gear before you start a level. You can unlock more gear by completing Challenges for each area. You can interact with the environment to lure people around, then you can knock them out and steal their outfit to get around more easily. Control of the stealth and shooting is fine, although trying to aim for headshots with your pistol can be frustrating. If you're forced into shooting multiple people in a room - and I always felt like a failure when I did have to shoot - then there's enough leeway for you to retake control of a situation and still feel like a cool assassin. Agent 47 also has "Instinct", where you press a button and he enters x-ray vision, showing you where people and targets are. This helps, although now that I think about it I don't think it's explained how he can do this. I know how because I've played previous Hitmans, but does this follow on? Is it canonical? Will new players think he's actually just magic? Either way, get ready to press R1 in the next third person game you play and be disappointed when you remember you don't have that feature.

Speaking of carrying the gameplay outside of the game, you know when you've become immersed in a game over weeks and you start seeing it around you when you're out? Hitman has this. Walk into a supermarket and you'll feel this compulsion to hunch over the tomatoes, trying to blend in while looking at your surroundings. That solitary employee there who's just turned a corner, you could chase after them, knock them out and put on their uniform. You could drag their body and hide it in a freezer. Is this the sort of thing people who think video games are a bad influence are afraid of? If so they should give it a try anyway because it's really cool.

The different levels are all brilliantly made. They're large, detailed and absolutely filled with things to interact with. People, rooms, outfits, objects, vantage points, everything. I don't think even the most obsessive Hitman fan could have exhausted every detail in the month between each level's release. I still enjoyed some areas more than others, so here's a brief rundown of each:

Paris - A big house with two targets in it. Various ways of getting to each floor. A great introduction.

Sapienza - A big house with one target in it, another underground and then a seaside town added on the side not really doing much. Looked pretty, but getting to the two targets could feel convoluted and Opportunity-reliant.

Marrakesh - One target is a military general in an abandoned school. The other is a wanted criminal in a foreign embassy. I'll leave you to guess how easy it is to access those. Made better by one kill method where you killed them both with an APC cannon.

Bangkok - A big hotel with one target on the top floor and another wandering around outside. I'd say there was some social commentary at play, but they were both rich arseholes. Strangely uneven.

Colorado - Four targets inside a militia compound. Especially annoying because there were several levels of militia disguise which limited your movements through different areas, but they all looked the same to me.

Hokkaido - A nice nod to the end of Blood Money (I think) with a ninja costume and somewhere in the remote Japanese mountains. Contained, but not constrained.

I really can't overstate the sheer volume of gameplay available in each location. In addition to the base story targets, the game's structure allows for a near unlimited amount of mission objectives. Each location comes with Escalation contracts where you go through five stages with an initial single target escalates into multiple, or in certain ways, or other modifiers. Some of these are a bit outlandish, but they show how effective the level design is that there's so much Hitmanning you can do. There are other unlockable missions I didn't have access to, so I really think there are hundreds of hours in this. That's before you even get to the online custom contract creation, where you can create your own missions or play ones other people have set up. If Hitman is your favourite series, then I think this game must have been perfect for you. The menu layout is quite confusing but that's about as far as I can go for criticism.

I mentioned the story earlier. Story might be too strong. At the end of each level you get a minute of cutscene suggesting a conspiracy of some sort. I don't know, I don't care. It honestly feels a bit at odds with the game's structure with the distinct locations. I'm happy just turning up and killing people, I don't really need it linked together. There are bonus missions too in the Sapienza location which really do exist outside of the story and this just backs up my point. Trying to frame the locations feels like a token gesture that doesn't add anything. Since there have been two subsequent Hitman games following this I'm going to guess or hope that the story develops but here, it's not doing much.

On a technical level I have to thank IO Interactive for making this game. The open levels with hundreds of people and interactive objects made my PS4 Pro's fan blow so loud I opened the top and properly cleaned it for the first time since I bought it in 2017. One of the screws on the power supply was stripped so I couldn't access the heatsink properly so it took a solid hour and a half of cotton buds, cable ties and tweezers trying to pull out the layer of dust. Since then, and with the dust cover I bought for it when I'm not playing, it's been completely silent. I even turned on HDR (which I couldn't use before because of the noise) and in its default unlocked framerate state, still no noise. Absolute bliss. I can't tell you how much more enjoyable this makes playing games. If you're not as fortunate as me, a 30fps mode is available. I do not recommend it. 

I've had this in my backlog for a while through PS+ and I'm glad I got around to it. Hitman as a character and series is something that's been around gaming for a while, and I think this is the best format it can exist in. From what I remember of the PS2 games they were quite rigid and structured. I'm not sure if linear is the word, maybe constrained. This 2016 reboot reinvented the formula while still retaining everything that made it so popular, and it really doesn't put a foot wrong anywhere.

[Stellaboz]

Recently finished the FF7 remake again and I've downloaded Lego Harry Potter and Metal Gear 5. Started out with HP, lots of fun as are most Lego games.

[SweeperDee]

53 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

Recently finished the FF7 remake again and I've downloaded Lego Harry Potter and Metal Gear 5. Started out with HP, lots of fun as are most Lego games.

I've restarted MGS5 after 100% it twice not long after it came out. Still as good as I remember, story notwithstanding. Gameplay has aged like a fine wine. FOB inflirtration missions are a lot more fun as well since everyone has basically progressed past the beginner stages and their bases are actually tough to sneak into now. 

[Stellaboz]

Wait, its a multi player are you saying? Refund incoming.

[SweeperDee]

2 minutes ago, Stellaboz said:

Wait, its a multi player are you saying? Refund incoming.

No no, it has a multiplayer component but you don't need to get involved at all. It's still primarily a singleplayer game.

[Stellaboz]

1 hour ago, SweeperDee said:

No no, it has a multiplayer component but you don't need to get involved at all. It's still primarily a singleplayer game.

Phew OK. Thanks.

Loved 1, 2 and 3 of the MGS series. Never played 4 so skipping straight to this when I eventually get time to play.

[Richey Edwards]

On 23/03/2023 at 23:13, Miguel Sanchez said:

 

Hitman (PS4, 2016)

Hitman is a game in which you play as a hitman. Don't you love something that gets straight to the point? You are Agent 47, a catastrophically bald man with a barcode on the back of his head who works for an organisation called the ICA. He gets jobs to go to places and take out targets. Oh for life to be so simple.

Unlike previous Hitman games the missions aren't based solely around the structure of a story. The game was released episodically, with the first training area made available with other locations following (I think) every month. Thanks to the wonders of modern gaming I'm coming to the game well after Hitman 3's release, so I don't need to worry about waiting for my fill of follicly challenged murdering. 

I think in previous reviews of Hitman games (I'm pretty sure I've played all of them up until this point, I suppose aside from the other one called 'Hitman' because I started at 2) I've mentioned my somewhat tenuous grasp on stealth games. I'll usually start off for the first couple of levels trying to play in what I assume to be the "proper" manner. Then something bad will happen and I'll give up. Out come the guns. This Hitman ultimately gets around this quite well by the virtue of only having seven distinct locations with targets in them, with a focus on repetition and exploration.

I'm sure in one of those previous Hitman write-ups I opined that it seemed strange that you were rewarded for trial and error. In real life you wouldn't be able to try several times to take out a target. You wouldn't be able to do what you can do here, hide in a bin and wait for them to do a lap of a building and come round again to your location. It all felt a bit unnatural to me. Luckily, the people creating this Hitman seem to have found away around this. You have targets, you have objectives, you have the assorted environmental and situational means of luring and killing them, but you also have a Challenge system which tracks your completion of these. This simple choice incentivises exploration and multiple playthroughs, and the concept is much more engaging as a result.

If you're a complete dunce like me, there are now 'Opportunities' where the game effectively signposts you through special kill methods. What's that? You're over-hearing someone say that the ultra-famous model at this fashion show looks just like 47? Well, wouldn't it be nice if you were directed straight to where that model is? This can almost feel like cheating. Or insulting. Somehow though, it works. It's ultimately still satisfying to follow a convoluted yet daring method through to its conclusion. These Opportunities are only some of the scripted assassination methods, so there are still ways you can take out your targets without being led by the hand.

Gameplay is straightforward third person action stealth. You can take cover, you can decide on your gear before you start a level. You can unlock more gear by completing Challenges for each area. You can interact with the environment to lure people around, then you can knock them out and steal their outfit to get around more easily. Control of the stealth and shooting is fine, although trying to aim for headshots with your pistol can be frustrating. If you're forced into shooting multiple people in a room - and I always felt like a failure when I did have to shoot - then there's enough leeway for you to retake control of a situation and still feel like a cool assassin. Agent 47 also has "Instinct", where you press a button and he enters x-ray vision, showing you where people and targets are. This helps, although now that I think about it I don't think it's explained how he can do this. I know how because I've played previous Hitmans, but does this follow on? Is it canonical? Will new players think he's actually just magic? Either way, get ready to press R1 in the next third person game you play and be disappointed when you remember you don't have that feature.

Speaking of carrying the gameplay outside of the game, you know when you've become immersed in a game over weeks and you start seeing it around you when you're out? Hitman has this. Walk into a supermarket and you'll feel this compulsion to hunch over the tomatoes, trying to blend in while looking at your surroundings. That solitary employee there who's just turned a corner, you could chase after them, knock them out and put on their uniform. You could drag their body and hide it in a freezer. Is this the sort of thing people who think video games are a bad influence are afraid of? If so they should give it a try anyway because it's really cool.

The different levels are all brilliantly made. They're large, detailed and absolutely filled with things to interact with. People, rooms, outfits, objects, vantage points, everything. I don't think even the most obsessive Hitman fan could have exhausted every detail in the month between each level's release. I still enjoyed some areas more than others, so here's a brief rundown of each:

Paris - A big house with two targets in it. Various ways of getting to each floor. A great introduction.

Sapienza - A big house with one target in it, another underground and then a seaside town added on the side not really doing much. Looked pretty, but getting to the two targets could feel convoluted and Opportunity-reliant.

Marrakesh - One target is a military general in an abandoned school. The other is a wanted criminal in a foreign embassy. I'll leave you to guess how easy it is to access those. Made better by one kill method where you killed them both with an APC cannon.

Bangkok - A big hotel with one target on the top floor and another wandering around outside. I'd say there was some social commentary at play, but they were both rich arseholes. Strangely uneven.

Colorado - Four targets inside a militia compound. Especially annoying because there were several levels of militia disguise which limited your movements through different areas, but they all looked the same to me.

Hokkaido - A nice nod to the end of Blood Money (I think) with a ninja costume and somewhere in the remote Japanese mountains. Contained, but not constrained.

I really can't overstate the sheer volume of gameplay available in each location. In addition to the base story targets, the game's structure allows for a near unlimited amount of mission objectives. Each location comes with Escalation contracts where you go through five stages with an initial single target escalates into multiple, or in certain ways, or other modifiers. Some of these are a bit outlandish, but they show how effective the level design is that there's so much Hitmanning you can do. There are other unlockable missions I didn't have access to, so I really think there are hundreds of hours in this. That's before you even get to the online custom contract creation, where you can create your own missions or play ones other people have set up. If Hitman is your favourite series, then I think this game must have been perfect for you. The menu layout is quite confusing but that's about as far as I can go for criticism.

I mentioned the story earlier. Story might be too strong. At the end of each level you get a minute of cutscene suggesting a conspiracy of some sort. I don't know, I don't care. It honestly feels a bit at odds with the game's structure with the distinct locations. I'm happy just turning up and killing people, I don't really need it linked together. There are bonus missions too in the Sapienza location which really do exist outside of the story and this just backs up my point. Trying to frame the locations feels like a token gesture that doesn't add anything. Since there have been two subsequent Hitman games following this I'm going to guess or hope that the story develops but here, it's not doing much.

On a technical level I have to thank IO Interactive for making this game. The open levels with hundreds of people and interactive objects made my PS4 Pro's fan blow so loud I opened the top and properly cleaned it for the first time since I bought it in 2017. One of the screws on the power supply was stripped so I couldn't access the heatsink properly so it took a solid hour and a half of cotton buds, cable ties and tweezers trying to pull out the layer of dust. Since then, and with the dust cover I bought for it when I'm not playing, it's been completely silent. I even turned on HDR (which I couldn't use before because of the noise) and in its default unlocked framerate state, still no noise. Absolute bliss. I can't tell you how much more enjoyable this makes playing games. If you're not as fortunate as me, a 30fps mode is available. I do not recommend it. 

I've had this in my backlog for a while through PS+ and I'm glad I got around to it. Hitman as a character and series is something that's been around gaming for a while, and I think this is the best format it can exist in. From what I remember of the PS2 games they were quite rigid and structured. I'm not sure if linear is the word, maybe constrained. This 2016 reboot reinvented the formula while still retaining everything that made it so popular, and it really doesn't put a foot wrong anywhere.

Nice write-up mate.

I was a massive fan of the first four Hitman games back in the day, and this reboot was a much needed refresh of the Hitman series. The previous Hitman game Absolution was not great tbh - it was a bit generic.

[GNU_Linux]

This week I have mostly been shooting nazis.

[RuMoore]

Just finished Plague Tales and thought it was wonderful - 8.5/10 Something lovely about the consistency of the style they were going for. The rat mechanics were really cool to progress with, by the end you really felt like you had earned your powers. 

A lot of games nowadays feel like Unreal Engine 5 experimental f**k abouts with diabolical voice acting and don't quite capture your attention that the truly authentic games do. Plague Tales definitely bucked this trend for me. I started off cynical and ended up fully invested. 

I recently played the intro to Callisto Protocol - about 45 mins with 25 mins being cutscenes... and it was so generic I actually felt like I was playing some AI chatbots idea of a fun game. 

[Miguel Sanchez]

Jak X: Combat Racing (PS4, 2017 - originally PS2, 2005)

Remember that time in the PS2 era when a game series would get a racing game? I'm not sure if this was a prolonged thing or I'm just imagining it. Crash Team Racing was obviously a classic. Rayman got a four player racing game (without vehicles) and Naughty Dog stayed in the game with Jak and Daxter, putting out Jak X a year after Jak 3. Despite my professions of love for the characters and series I never played this at the time. I don't know why. Fortunately the miracle of modern technology means I could revisit this missing part of my gaming history. I'm grateful the opportunity exists. Take the fucking hint, Sony.

Following on from Jak 3's introduction of land-based vehicles for racing and exploration, Jak X thankfully improves the driving physics and confines them to race or combat. Unlike standard kart racers things are much faster and more open. A single lap of most circuits is at least a minute and a half, and the width of the track coupled with the fact you're almost constantly using boost just makes everything feel massive. There are four cups in the game's Adventure mode with cars you can unlock and upgrade, with things getting faster and more difficult as you progress. 

The game's sense of speed and scale is really strange. You have boost, you can drift (although I wouldn't recommend trying to do it often) and you have attacking and defensive weapons, but everything just feels huge when you're on the track. The racing is centred on weapons as much as the driving and this is why there's so much space - to be able to line up shots and make the most of the firepower. I think it works from a gameplay perspective, but considering how much I love the series it's a shame the setting just goes by unseen. Haven City passes by in a blur. So does Spargus. So does some ice, and some desert. 

Adventure Mode is technically centred round a story, but I think the writing took up about five minutes of the game's total development. Our heroes get poisoned in a blackmail plot to win the Kras City Grand Prix Championship or whatever it's called. It's a slow acting poison though. The antidote is timed to be given to them immediately after the final race. I almost feel like I'm insulting you by actually typing this out. Either way, if this was to be the swansong for Jak and Daxter and Keira and Samos and Torn and Ashelin and Sig then I feel really quite short changed. It's barely even worth trying to frame it when this is the best you can come up with. 

Along with races there are other game modes, and this might be a first for this kind of game. They're all good. Turbo Dash gives you pickups which you charge up by boosting, with a point and a fired projectile once you're at 100%. Freeze Rally is like the classic CTR time trials. You have a time to beat and tokens dotted around that temporarily stop the timer. Death Race puts endlessly spawning NPC cars in front of you and tasks you with killing as many as you can. Bonus points for a combo. The same system applies to Rush Hour, where the NPCs are driving at you and you need to crash into them. This mode exposes the.... let's call it unrefined driving physics. Sometimes something will happen that pitches your car round. When you're driving flat out, it's fun and easy. When you come to a stop, or hit the wall, or something else impedes your progress, it's a bit more irritating.

Actually I lied, there are various arena/combat modes and they're not good. There are only ever six cars racing or competing at a time and the open maps here are absolutely huge, multi-layered affairs where you can take a solid thirty seconds to go from one side to the other. Only to get blown up and have to start all over again. The AI isn't very well optimised for these modes and they feel like a bit of a letdown mixed in with the racing.

Why did this trend of racing games ever stop? Why isn't there a BioShock kart racer where I can skid through Neptune's Bounty shooting fireballs at a Big Daddy? Am I overestimating the proliferation of the genre? It feels like something that was big and then just went away. I know you still have licensed kart racing games but they're things like Garfield and Spongebob and it just feels like something that's only aimed at a younger audience. Am I in denial about how old I am? The somehow generic yet inescapable mid-00s rock soundtrack doesn't mean anything, actually. I did enjoy it though. All games should have that kind of music from that time playing at all times, regardless of genre.

Another thing present here that you don't get anymore is an assortment of Easter eggs and behind the scenes videos. Seeing Daxter's voice coming out of an actual human is a bit odd, but it's still great to see. Why aren't things like this in games nowadays? I'm not expecting games to ship or download with a full on documentary included but is it really that much work to have someone float about the office with a phone and produce some interesting accompaniment for people who might be interested?

Looking back I think I summed up things too well in my opening. I had never played this despite loving Jak and Daxter. I've played it, I enjoyed it, it made me want both more Jak and Daxter and more kart racing games. Get to it Naughty Dog, I don't think you're too busy these days.

[Busta Nut]

On 10/02/2023 at 07:31, 54_and_counting said:

Started days gone (i know its not new lol) enjoy the concept and what they tried to do, reminds me of a mix between mad max and last of us, just dunno if i have it in me to play another game of grab everything and craft everything 

Stick at it for a while though 

Days Gone is a great game. Only played it a couple of year ago myself but I loved it.

[RuMoore]

Finally got into Skyrim after a few attempts in the past. Enjoying it a lot, one playthrough will deffo do me but I can see how some people can play it over and over. 

Anyone know if the guys behind it are working on a new game? 

Edited April 10, 2023 by RuMoore

[djchapsticks]

On 10/04/2023 at 18:50, RuMoore said:

Finally got into Skyrim after a few attempts in the past. Enjoying it a lot, one playthrough will deffo do me but I can see how some people can play it over and over. 

Anyone know if the guys behind it are working on a new game? 

Elder Scrolls 6 was announced a few years back at E3 but isn't expected until 2026

[Miguel Sanchez]

Shadow of the Colossus (PS4, 2018)

Sometimes I start a write-up of a game in a style which explains what it is to people who haven't played or heard of it. Sometimes I do this because I think it's a bit obscure. Sometimes I do this glibly if I think the game isn't any good or if it's a bit ridiculous. I don't really know how to start off writing about Shadow of the Colossus, because if you're reading this you probably know what the game is and don't need it reduced to the simplest description by way of an introduction. At the same time I feel a duty to expand this game's audience if at all possible, so I hope I manage that.

In Shadow of the Colossus you play as Wander, a boy who steals a horse and a sword and takes his dead or dying girlfriend to The Forbidden Lands, a vast, sealed off landscape with a giant shrine in the middle of it. He places his woman on a plinth in this shrine, then a voice called Dormin appears from the ceiling and tells him in the second person that they can bring her soul back if he just goes and kills sixteen "colossi" dotted around the lands.

It's been a while since I've played the original. In saying that I've only ever played the PS3 version, not the original PS2. I'm going to keep my comparisons confined to the one section later on, rather than constantly going on about it.

Gameplay in Shadow of the Colossus is simple. You have a sword, a bow and arrow, and a horse. You hold this sword up and it shines a beam of light in the direction you're supposed to go. You follow it and it leads you to a Colossus. Each Colossus has one or two weak spots and you have to figure out how to reach them to stab them enough to kill them. This usually involves jumping on to and climbing up them, so you have a stamina meter on screen which runs out the longer you're climbing, or jumping, or clinging on while it tries to shake you off. Outside of the Colossus fights there are some trees with fruit on them you can eat to increase your health, or strange shrines with shiny-tailed lizards crawling around which you can eat to increase your stamina.

If you're unfamiliar with the game, it's at this point I surprise you by saying that's it. That's all the game is. Travelling to sixteen boss fights through an open world with virtually no interactive objects. How, then, is the game so brilliant?

Conquering the Colossi is a thrill in itself. It's been long enough since I last played the game that I didn't remember how to beat all of them immediately, so I got to experience the satisfaction that comes when you figure out how to stop one of them, or even get close enough to them to be able to stop them. The game is well named too, because for the most part you feel completely overwhelmed by the sheer size of what you're facing. Some are a bit small (11 and 14 are phoned in, really) but the mixture of feelings when you finally scale one of the giants - awe, fear, relief, panic, desperation, it's not really explainable until you're up there fighting for your life. Wander can take quite a lot of fall damage so you're not really fighting, but you don't remember that when the stamina bar starts ticking.

The best thing about the sense of scale is probably how different it can feel from fight to fight. Take the fifth Colossus for example, effectively a giant bird. You shoot it to make it swoop down towards you, then jump and grab on to its wing and pull yourself up. The swooshing feeling when you're in the air has you bracing yourself in your chair. You go from that to clinging on for dear life as it flaps its wings and twirls in the air, trying to throw you off. Compare this to the fourth Colossus which wanders around looking to see where you've gone when you duck into one of the holes in the ground you need to use to distract it. Just a large, almost dinosaur-like thing whose house you've wandered into and are now buzzing around like a fly. This is before you even get to the bipedal Colossi who are much more violent. Each fight feels like a struggle, but because of the variety it's never something you just get used to.

I'm going to make one quick comparison to the original here. Part of the sense of scale in the original was down to how the camera and control functioned, or didn't. You could barely see all of the Colossi in the frame at once, especially if you were attached. Wrangling the camera with one stick and Wander with another felt impossible enough, but the clunkiness of the PS2 controls caused by the limitation of the hardware contributed to this. The remake retains this. The camera is a pain in the neck and trying to jump and climb on any kind of surface is even worse. I was so happy at this. Controlling Wander isn't supposed to be easy. He's a young guy who's doing something completely terrifying and unthinkable, and this should be reflected in the controls. Thankfully, it is.

One thing that still surprises me about this game after all this time is the replayability. As much joy as there is in actually reaching a Colossus, then defeating them, this doesn't actually get old. On my way to the platinum here I defeated them all seven times. My first playthrough, normal time attack, hard time attack, a hard difficulty run, an easy difficulty run, another quick run on normal and then one final one on hard. There's a New Game+ option which lets you continue upgrading your health and stamina with each Colossus you beat. There's an in-game reward for this which doesn't really offer you more gameplay, just an extra, small area to explore. The time attack modes offer items such as new weapons or map upgrades, but if you can beat the hard time attacks then you don't need a sword which does slightly more damage. Even after all of those playthroughs, I was never bored. Even knowing the story and what happens, I was never bored. I never stopped being impressed. Even after finishing the game in about two hours on hard, I never felt like I had any advantage over the Colossi.

I think I worried too much about comparing the remake to the original, so I'll get it out of the way before I continue. I've mentioned the gameplay but I was probably more worried about graphical upgrades. Part of the original game's charm was in the sparseness of the environment which seemed like a necessity due to the resources available. Would things change if that detail improved? No. Well, no and yes. Everything is more detailed and more engaging as a result, but it doesn't feel any different. The Forbidden Lands are huge, and they still feel huge. They're empty, and they feel empty, but the sense of atmosphere that makes the world so engaging is still here. It's just a bit less obviously one or two texture tiles copied and pasted as far as the eye can see (or the game can draw).

The best example of how impressive the environment is is a personal one. As I was playing I took loads of screenshots of different areas. I think I have over a hundred sitting in my capture gallery. I did this without the game's photo mode which I didn't realise was there at first, but offers a range of filters and things to really let your artistic side out. For me, I didn't need them. The game and the way the game looks inside of individual images was striking enough for me. The only time I really try to make a point of taking screenshots in games is when I'm capturing a funny subtitle to use to start one of these write-ups. Shadow of the Colossus not only motivated me to just take in the ambiance, it let me. Traversing the Forbidden Lands offers you the time to actually appreciate your surroundings in a way other open world games with a lot more in them just don't.

The two changes I don't like are cosmetic. Originally Wander's stamina bar was a pink circle which would grow and grow until it went outside the boundaries of the screen. I liked this because it was a bit rubbish and didn't really make sense. It's now just an actual bar above the health, and as I type I've realised why I don't like it. When it took up a quarter of the screen you were more acutely aware of it running out, and you felt more urgency to complete whatever you were trying to do. That's lost, and it's a shame.

The most significant change in the remake is probably Wander himself. In the original he looked a bit like a generic potato-faced low-res person from a pre-HD game. Someone whose face looks like it was designed about three minutes before the game went to print. This, along with a plot-sensitive change to Wander's appearance throughout the game, somehow fit the situation because it was easier to see the deterioration as the game went on. He's someone out of his depth doing extremely demanding things, and being able to see the effect of that is a significant part of character development for someone who only talks in the opening cutscene.

New Wander looks like a secondary character from a Final Fantasy game. Shiny androgyny. It could work, but he looks too good throughout for the same sense of vulnerability to be there. Riding the horse is a pain, grappling Colossi is a pain, and he makes all the same noises, but Wander himself seems less significant than before. Just on that point about the noises he makes, one thing carried over from the original I found slightly unsettling is the sound and the music. The sound in this game is exceptional. Colossi fight music is equal parts tragic, spectacular, desperate and rousing. It'd be nice if each Colossi had their own unique themes, but the music's still good. Wander and his horse Agro's sounds just feel like real creatures going through what they do. The minimalist sounds of the Forbidden Lands perfectly complement the feeling of scale and lost grandeur. The problem is they're all exactly the same and to begin with I found that really disconcerting. All the memories I have of the original were triggered by those sounds, but I was playing something which looked and felt different. I got used to it, but it's something to keep in mind.

I don't want to go into detail about the plot for two reasons. One is if you know the game, you know the plot. Two is if you don't know the game, well, you won't have read this far, but if you haven't played it then go and do so immediately. It's better than I'm making it out to be. Actually a third reason is something I realised after I'd finished this time and was reading up about the game, watching videos and exploring the assorted theories fans have cultivated about this over the years, as well as Ico and The Last Guardian.

Much of the Forbidden Lands and the Colossi is unknown. Each Colossi alone features a raft of details which invite questions that are never answered. What is the structure surrounding 8, 14 or 15? What happened to the top of 12? Why are they the only things here, when clearly some sort of civilisation existed in conjunction with them? Why are there so many things lying around that look like they come from Ico? What connection does the ending have with Ico? The structures you encounter are impressive in their own right, but if you actually speculate about their construction and apparent abandonment they take on a new level of mystique and awe.

This is why I think Shadow of the Colossus is one of the all time great video games. It transcends the format in a way very few others have ever managed. Just starting from scratch with no prior knowledge, you'll finish the game in eight hours at most. You'll know everything there is to know and see everything there is to see. We've already covered the minimalist gameplay. It's the atmosphere, the art direction, the sound, the concept, everything else that combines to make something greater than the sum of its parts. This remake was released twelve years after the original. Twelve years is two generations in video game terms. Yet the game still persists. It still inspires the awe, the obsession, the speculation about everything you see.

There are hundreds of hours of video online of people exploring the original game and finding assets and things cut from the final game. The speculation and theorising about the world is even more imposing than the game itself. In my mind, this is what makes a truly great story and world. The sort of thing which inspires its fans to this extent. I can wonder what the temples and massive structures are, or how they were built. I can wonder what the Colossi are. I can wonder where Wander comes from, or where the priests who chase after him came from. I can wonder what Dormin is, or what they represent, or how they got there. I'll never get an answer. Some things are clearer than others, but for the most part the game remains as shrouded in mystery now as it ever has.

This is why the game persists. The recognition from players that they've experienced a unique world with a clear yet undefined history. Think of the tales that captivated you as a child. Books, television, film, whatever. How much time did you spend thinking about them? How much did you imagine yourself as part of that world, interacting with the characters? That's what Shadow of the Colossus does. The remake is just as effective at this as the original. The greatness here goes well beyond gameplay, even if that minimalism is an integral part of it. The time between original and remake filled with Ubisoft open world collectathons probably exacerbates this feeling, but the notion of an open world video game with sixteen things to do and a largely non-interactive environment feels like something that wouldn't happen now.

As I was playing the game and had the above epiphany, I realised something else. I've played other games where I've had that same reaction, but had an emotional response to go along with it. The moments of realisation when playing Journey and BioShock are probably the two best examples for me. I don't remember if I had that feeling when I played Shadow of the Colossus for the first time. I know it took a while for Ico to get under my skin as much as it did, so I'd guess and say no. Right now, for everything I've just described, that all feels like an objective assessment rather than an emotional one. The rush of taking on the Colossi is an immediate, visceral response but I still feel like I'm recalling all of this consciously in a way I never did with the other games I mentioned.

Part of this is probably my age. Or the amount of time I've spent writing things like this, at probably 99% my own benefit. If anything I think this makes the game even more impressive, that it's still able to cut through to me and make me appreciate it.

I can only end here by repeating what I said at the start. If you know, you know. If you've never experienced it, you should. Whichever the case is, I'm glad this game exists. I'm glad the remake was a success, and I hope a some point that genuine gaming landmarks like this get the respect they deserve, and get preserved like this.

[RuMoore]

Doing my second playthrough of Jedi Fallen Order in preparation for the new one which is getting very good reviews. 

I pray to God they rework the mini map. The worst map I've seen in any game ever, I have no clue how that made it through testing. 

[TxRover]

Just got the Trilogy of spiffed up GTA III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas purchased on Steam for $29.99 (Sale through May 5th perhaps?). Enjoying Vice City with the sound up, rolling around town.

[SweeperDee]

On 10/04/2023 at 18:50, RuMoore said:

Finally got into Skyrim after a few attempts in the past. Enjoying it a lot, one playthrough will deffo do me but I can see how some people can play it over and over. 

Anyone know if the guys behind it are working on a new game? 

Developing Starfield, kinda like a cross between Elite Dangerous and Skyrim. Skyrim in space basically. Looks ambitious as hell, already been delayed a few times. Should be a masterpiece or a fucking disaster knowing the devs.

[BFTD]

28 minutes ago, SweeperDee said:

Developing Starfield, kinda like a cross between Elite Dangerous and Skyrim. Skyrim in space basically. Looks ambitious as hell, already been delayed a few times. Should be a masterpiece or a fucking disaster knowing the devs.

It'll be interesting to see what's going on with the engine - they're using an updated version of the Creation Engine that was introduced for Fallout 4, which is based on the Gamebryo engine they were using twenty years ago. I know everything's "based on" something else, but Bethesda's games have been notorious for becoming ever more glitchy as time's gone on, with the patched-up engine usually taking the blame, and they got found out big-style when Fallout 76 was riddled with bugs and didn't have the content to hide behind.

There also seems to have been a bit of backlash against the Bethesda RPG formula in recent years, so if this does literally turn out to be Fallout/Skyrim in space - dead-eyed NPCs asking to be brought dilithium crystals before glitching out of existence - they might not like the review scores they're given this time.

[RuMoore]

6 hours ago, SweeperDee said:

Developing Starfield, kinda like a cross between Elite Dangerous and Skyrim. Skyrim in space basically. Looks ambitious as hell, already been delayed a few times. Should be a masterpiece or a fucking disaster knowing the devs.

I just had a look and saw it's not gonna be on PS5. That's unbelievable they must have one hell of an exclusivity deal with Xbox. 

[BFTD]

On 01/05/2023 at 18:12, RuMoore said:

I just had a look and saw it's not gonna be on PS5. That's unbelievable they must have one hell of an exclusivity deal with Xbox. 

Microsoft bought ZeniMax, who own Bethesda.

Won't be long before we need a wallchart to trace all this shit through.