Shadow of the Colossus – Fire & Sonic

Make Me Play Videogames: What’s Going Wrong Here

There’s no two ways about it: this experiment with Shadow of the Colossus is not going well. I sit down to decide what to do with my evening, and as my glance strays towards the PS2, SotC disc slumbering away in its tray, I remember that I have Space Marines to paint. Episodes of Glee to watch. Dishes to wash. The catbox could use cleaning.

Apparently I don’t want to play this game anymore.

There’s a lot to like about Colossus, and I touched on some of it in the last podcast. It’s beautifully atmospheric. The designs of the colossi are interesting, and the puzzles are interesting to figure out and solve. I’m just looking for a bit more, I suppose.

Continue reading Make Me Play Videogames: What’s Going Wrong Here

SonicFyre Episode 5

A podcast recorded, edited and published in less time than it takes to gestate an elephant. Rejoice!!

>> 00:00 Intro and Game Demo Reviews. We tried out Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter, Supreme Commander 2 and Just Cause 2.
>> 16:00 Fyre completed her first run through of God of War III. Get ready for the love!
>> 26:00 SonicRob gives an update on Shadow of the Colossus, the current selection for Make Me Play Videogames and JRPG weirdfest Persona 4.
>> 36:58 A digression regarding amphibians and Fyre adds to the list of forbidden handles for What’s My Name?
>> 39:15 SonicRob speaks to The Girl Who Played with Fire and the movie of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
>> 45:14 Rob continues hogging the mic to talk about KickAss. We talk about HitGirl and what’s wrong with her.
>> 54:48 Fyre reviews Clash of the Titans and notes an odd similarity between two previews.
>> 1:08:25 We talk about Snow Crash and wind up the show!

SonicFyre Episode 5 MP3 1:12:36 66.4MB

Make Me Play Video Games #2: Among the Ruins

For your amazingly belated second voting opportunity, you’ll be choosing whether I finish Shadow of the Colossus or Bioshock.

Shadow of the Colossus (hereafter Shadow or SotC) was released in America and Japan in October of 2005 for the PlayStation 2. It was created by Team Ico, the developer responsible for the cult game of a similar name, and published as a first-party release by Sony. SotC itself is essentially a series of boss battles broken up by travel across a vacant landscape; the player seeks out the colossi and must then use the environment and his own ability to climb on the giant enemies in order to scale them and attack their vulnerable points. The game is noted for its mournful atmophere, lack of enemies outside of the sixteen eponymous colossi, and musical score.

And yes, I’ve made sure my PS2 still works.

Bioshock was released in August of 2007 by Irrational Games, previously best-known for the creepy space jaunt System Shock 2 and the Freedom Force series of tactical RPGs. Bioshock has been described as somewhere between a spiritual successor and an outright ripoff of System Shock 2. Gameplay is strictly in the first-person and consists of both combat and the exploration of a ruined underwater city. Fighting requires using guns as well as what are essentially magic powers such as telekinesis and elemental attacks. Bioshock’s story in particular has drawn a great deal of attention for its exploration of the philosophy of Ayn Rand as well as its deconstruction of various video gaming tropes.

So! This is the time in the post when we decide:

	or
Simulation of the love life of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman		Libertarian Wet Dream

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