Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

[CaptainZombie]

IGN Review - 8.5

The Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection reminds me that video games can match the evocative and thrilling qualities of any other creative medium. While Ico's gameplay mechanics show their age and Shadow of the Colossus didn't quite take me to the same place it took me more than five years ago, this collection astounds.

Technical updates aside, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus deserve more than just one trip down memory lane.

Destructoid Review

To the new player: I've slapped a lot of scores on a lot of games in my games-writing career, but I'm asking you to forget about scores for now. Both of these games remain at the top of my list of games to recommend, even today. I really can't think of any other games that I'd recommend more. The originals are both so lovingly crafted and inspiring that I think gamers 50 years from now will still be talking about them. No, they're not perfect, but they're both fine examples of brilliant game design, and they both put forth an experience you won't soon forget. Please, play these games.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Oh IGN, stay "edgy" with your scores!



Anything less than what they got in the past is blasphemy. Yeah, True Story!

Interesting that the 3DS "remasters" of Zelda or StarFox did not suffer the same fate however with IGN scoring.

Either way, I am so stoked for this game collection, as well as The Last Guardian. These two games are some of my favorites in the 30 years of gaming.

[Flawless]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Technical details is all I care about with these collections, and being able to play Shadow of the Colossus with a locked framerate and no tearing will be worth the price of admission alone.

[Leon]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Definitely getting this since I never played them on PS2.

[myghty]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Its out already? I really want to get this & totally forgot.

[CaptainZombie]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Its out already? I really want to get this & totally forgot.

It's out 9/27.

[myghty]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Ah ok. Thanks, I still have time to beat other games before I get it then!

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Two Japanese commercials for the collection... just gorgeous!

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[sportznut02]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Definitely getting this since I never played them on PS2.

I have never played them either. Could someone tell me what these games would compare to.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

I have never played them either. Could someone tell me what these games would compare to.

It is best to probably read the Wiki...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ico

They were phenomenal! Two of my favorite games of ALL TIME in my 30 years of gaming. ICO being in my top ten!

[rdmcfall]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Man, this sucks. Sold my PS3 after playing through Uncharted 2 because we never turned it on. Now there's UC3 and this Ico/Shadow collection. Lesson learned. So tempted to buy a slim, as Ico and Shadow are two of my favorite games of all time.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Man, this sucks. Sold my PS3 after playing through Uncharted 2 because we never turned it on. Now there's UC3 and this Ico/Shadow collection. Lesson learned. So tempted to buy a slim, as Ico and Shadow are two of my favorite games of all time.

You should have known UC3 was coming ... and also not only ICO/SotC, but The Last Guardian, the third game in the series of Team ICO games.

Which is a MUST HAVE if you loved the other two.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Guardian

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The PS3 just had a price cut too, so perfect time to jump back in.

[youvalss]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

I just saw "The NeverEnding Story" again. The kid from SOTC reminds me of that kid from the movie, the one who went on a journey to save Fantasia.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

I just saw "The NeverEnding Story" again. The kid from SOTC reminds me of that kid from the movie, the one who went on a journey to save Fantasia.

Actually ICO reminds me of Bastian and SotC Atreyu, the one with the horse Artax.

Pretty cool that you bring that up.

[Flawless]

Re: Ico &amp; Shadow of the Colossus Collection (PS3)

Tech Analysis: Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection HD

The immediate impression you get from the HD version of Ico is that Bluepoint has done a good job in making the visuals shine in high definition. The low-resolution "fog" has lifted, allowing the full detail of Team Ico's original art to be PROPERLY appreciated. There's also a "full pixel" mode that liberates the PS3 version from the borders of the original game, giving the game much more real estate on-screen - boosted all the more by the move from the original's 4:3 aspect ratio to the full 16:9 widescreen experience.

Ico also runs at three different resolutions, depending on how the PlayStation 3's XMB is set. Go for the default standard 720p and you get the expected 1280x720 framebuffer, with MLAA implementation - a good choice for a game like Ico. With Display Settings at 1080p, Ico delights with a native full HD framebuffer, again with MLAA applied - making it the first full 1920x1080 title we've seen to be running the computationally expensive post-process, providing a wonderfully crisp, eye-pleasing image. Switch over to stereoscopic 3D, and we have full 720p resolution per eye - again with MLAA engaged.

Despite official word from Sony that both HD remasters support "full 1080p HD resolution for a stunning, razor-sharp presentation", Shadow of the Colossus appears to have some issues with fill-rate, resulting in the game supporting native 720p and an upscaled 1080p that sees a base 960x1080 resolution upscaled horizontally, resulting in obviously rectangular pixels.

Again, MLAA is supported on all modes - fine for 720p and 3D - but not so good on the scaled 1080p mode. As pixels are being expanded horizontally by 100 per cent, the sub-pixel crawling issues we sometimes see with MLAA are amplified somewhat. The standard 720p output is our choice for the best balance of picture quality and performance

In actual fact we see a locked, v-synced 30 frames per second with Ico no matter which PS3 resolution you choose, which is obviously a good thing. However, bearing in mind that the game runs with ease at both 1080p and stereo 3D, there is a little lingering disappointment that 60Hz wasn't offered as an option at 720p - the PS3 could easily manage it based on the evidence we have from the more demanding display modes.

We see the same adherence to 30 frames per second on Shadow of the Colossus - which is a significant improvement over the original PlayStation 2 game. Elements such as cloth physics emulation, fur rendering and multi-sample motion blur only really came into their own on the HD generation consoles with their more powerful CPUs and programmable pixel shader graphics cores, but Shadow of the Colossus combined all these technologies on PS2 - the result being a wholly unique-looking game - albeit one with an often disappointing frame-rate.

With the upgrade to PlayStation 3, the experience is now so much more consistent both in terms of look and feel.

Ico provides a compromise-free 3D experience that doesn't shift from the target 30 frames per second and actually provides a tangible gameplay benefit: locating enemies and environmental details in 3D space is a lot, lot easier than it is in the 2D game where you sometimes need to use a little trial and error to leap up onto chains or judge the distance between platforms.
...
Moving on to Shadow of the Colossus and it's safe to say that the game is something of a disappointment for those with 3DTVs.

Performance is the real issue here, though. In many respects, running Shadow of the Colossus in 3D is highly reminiscent of playing the PS2 game. We see the same problems with frames rendered over-budget causing sustained frame-rate drops: the smooth 30FPS of the 720p version regularly drops down to the 20 and 15FPS we experienced with the game's original release. In really stressful scenes, we've actually witnessed it go lower than that.

The recommendation is clear then: whether it's 720p, 1080p or stereoscopic 3D, Ico delivers the goods - full 1080p really is quite lovely, in particular. With Shadow of the Colossus, our suggestion is to manually reset your XMB Display Settings to 720p in order to avoid the upscaling artifacts and the noticeable performance drop

In the final analysis, it's safe to say that Bluepoint has done some solid work in bringing these legendary games to the PlayStation 3. Perhaps we aren't quite seeing the level of attention put into the overall remastering work that we saw in the superb God of War Collection: Volume II, but it's safe to say that the class and quality of the original games more than makes up for it.

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus are timeless classics that transition beautifully into the high-definition era - and as such, this compilation package is highly recommended.