Shadow of the Colossus: Screenshot Overload!

Can't wait.

Sony plan spoil XBOX 360, and Nintendo will do the same with Zelda, I think Sony will deliver Final Fantasy XII to stab Revolution launch.

Mmmmm....That does look good and I shall look forward to sampling it. Look like Sony have something to shout about this time that isn't car based and a damn good thing too.

Now if only EA could learn from this example.

Sony don't get to choose when FF12 will come out, being developed and published by Squenix so it'll come out whenever they want it out. Which is somewhat ironically Octoberish I think.

Oh please! Anybody who looks at those pics and thinks that it will have even the slightest effect on the next gen xbox launch really is the most dedicated of fanboys. The age of the PS2 hardware is all too obvious, with poor texture detail and the lighting is just terrible - The images looks 2 dimensional without consistent lighting across the whole scene. Just take a look at current gen pc games to see just how much of a difference there is in hardware capability. I have to admit, the concept sounds intriguing, but to be in awe of the graphics... well you're living in the past.

Are you for real? Ico and Colussus are both lighted from "natural" lightsources, e.g. the landscape's "sun".

What you call "consistent lighting" is really movie-style lighting with extra (artificial) lightsources. That is the ligting that is really terrible, because it screams "move not reality" at you.

You need to get out more, and look at how the big ball in the sky actually lights things. Unless it's cloudy, you do not get "consistent lighting across the scene", you get shadows.

I can't really see the launch of a PS2 game spoiling the launch of a console. That's like the release of a CD single spoiling the launch of an artist...

FFXII looks awful. Graphically it's fantastic, but the changes in gameplay sound disastrous. To do away with ATB systems altogether and implement the system from Kingdom Hearts sounds... silly, especially in such a well-followed series of "classical" console RPGs.

And I agree with this Penny Arcade strip on the subject of one-upping.

To be honest, I always thought Ico looked a lot better graphically than most Mid-Gen Xbox games did. Especially in motion, some of those animations are so lifelike it's uncanny.

a talented animator can make a stick figure more lifelike than most video game characters... problem is most of the really good ones already work for the likes of disney and pixar and such... most companies would rather take the slighlty more akward look of Mo-Cap cause it looks better than bad animation and is cheaper than good animation... plus the media like to tout its use in previews and reviews of games, hell its even ont he back of alot of game boxes, check out enter the matrix if you want to see what bad motion capture use is all about. its a shame the masses dont mind a stiff horibble walk cycle and s**tty transitions as long as there are slick MoCap special moves mixed in, its F@#%ing painfull for me to watch.

and on a barely related note... some of the best amature flash animation i have ever seen... he even uses motion tweening in such a way that it blends in with the hand drawn bits (Saves him time and makes the file size smaller, whoever made this is damn clever)... damn funny too!
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You forgot tomention that the song's damn catchy. Want an mp3! WANT NOW!

that too... i dont have the mp3, although thanks to my clever use of basic html and notepad i was able to download the flash file, i can send to you if you want. just need an email addy... incase you dont care to post yours, mines the ever formulaic jchagan80@hotmail.com, im not shy :P

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So you're a dedicated fanboy after all! Good for you! Really, if you think that is an accurate representation of real light, you're the one who needs to get ouside more. Look at Splinter Cell (Not the PS2 version), Half Life 2, etc... Those games which put to good use the decated Texture and Lighting hardware on a current gen Graphics Accellerator. The Playstation simply does not have the dedicated hardware needed.

Couple of obvious examples of what is wrong with those pics:
None of the textures have bump or displacement mapping, so therefore no light can be reflected accurately from them. This is obvious in the trees and the stone walls, and i'm sure the giant if it was shown in more detail.
Picture 10 shows the main character standing, looking out of a doorway with light streaming in (you can even see the light rays in the image), however the shadow does not match the direction of the light. You'll notice none of the steps or any pillars are casting shadows either.
You'll also notice that the main character in all of the images is consistently the same colour, with the exception of the "shadows", which are dark and also consistently the same colour. In the real world, the angle of incidence affects the colour when reflected from a surface.
In image 7, the main character looks like a cardboard cutout stuck onto the image... the lighting is all wrong and looks more like a cell animation cartoon character, where it is literally stuck onto the scene.

There are many, many problems with the ageing PS hardware and the "realism" of those images, which should be more than obvious to anyone playing current generation PC games. I'm not by any means saying that current gen hardware can generate a perfect representation, but it is a lot closer than those PS generated images you claim to be realistic.

I think you seriously need to head over to the Interesting Read topic and take stock of what's been written. Forcing gaming into the next generation just because games can look better, have fancier bells and whistles, and fulfil your geek-o fantasies is killing game development - unless you're happy to pay over a hundred dollars for a next-gen game?

Are you?


PS. given thtat there are no other shadows in Picture 10, it's impossible to say whether that shadow is being cast incorrectly.

ok i think you guys are kind of talkign abotu two different things... i believe the overal area light and the way the objects are lit looks very natural against the background, it is a difuse light that woudl not cause severealy dramatic shadows so it not only gives the game a soft etherial (Sp?) look but it also makes the "no real time shadow" making ps2 look as realistic as it can.

yes its true that the ps2 cant do real time shadows the same way the xbox or a pc can but it can still make for natural looking lights on objects even if they dont shadow each other. i think what he was talkign about is more the quality of the art direction than the hardwares ability to calculate real time shadows or even specularity and reflections.


Config: in regards to the "a good read indeed" post, what about splinter cell? one of the best games made this generation, made by a good developer, produced on a yearly basis, and a game that litteraly woudl not have been possible on the last generation because of its graphics. an entirely new experiece made available by increasing the power. before splinter cell stealth involved hiding inside a card board box or the open back of a truck (not that metal gear isnt a great game).

can't we all just get along?
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I don't think a world of real-time shadows and lush environs makes for a significantly different game to one where it's pre-calc'd and low-res. A game of this genre could have been realised on the PS1 or N64 - it just wouldn't have looked as nice, and that wouldn't have sold. In fact I think the biggest hurdle would have been decent AI. Anyway- let's face it, when you're playing a "hide and seek" simulator, the scenery has to interesting to look at ;)



Oh, that would be soooo boring.

Who cares about textures? Give me gameplay. Recently replaying Mario64 on DS has reminded me what games should be about. That was the most fun I've had playing a game since, well, Ico (contrary to the SPOnG writer's leader, actually difficult to overrate... best game in my 20years of playing). I couldn't give a polygon about how good Half Life 2 looks, all I want is a quality (spiritual) sequel to IMHO the best game ever. I'm not a fanboy, just an evangelist.