Zero Punctuation: Shadow of the Colossus

[PlasticTree]

Christ, you must love saying something nice about a game for once.

..And no, I'm not saying hów good that must feel.


Personally I'd love to play Shadow of the Colossus, since I never had the opportunity to do so. Meh, I bet this game costs way too much on E-bay these days.

 

[Harkonnen64]

Can I come up to the tree-house too, Yahtzee? I'll bring chips (or crisps as I believe they're called in Australia)!

 

[Warforger]

You realize that the vast, VAST majority of people playing SC2 absolutely suck at it, right? They might have potential, but even a ton of people that still play Starcraft 1 have no idea how to play. You can't base a game's depth off how its worst players play. The only reason tabletop games don't have "spamming units" is because the sort of casual players that actually expect that sort of thing to work anywhere above bronze won't make the commitment to pay for all the crap needed to play tabletop. Dawn of War is not a bad game, you're just straw-manning it based on its worst players.

Oh yah, maybe having played with the pro's qualifies as "straw-manning it based on its worst players".

You have to use tactical thinking, fight for map control and preserve your units in Dawn of war. Same with starcraft but you can afford to lose troops if you did more resources in damage to your opponent. I don't know what games you are playing.

Yah which is like the first or second tier. Let's put it like this, if you lose one squad of Space Marines in DoW, is it that devastating? No you can just build more. You could throw away an army then build another one while the enemy is walking towards your base.

That claim is laughable at best. Especially in the face of games like World In Conflict or Ground Control.

Seriously? Re-read what you just typed, and tell me how a game would ever end if every time you lose your army you could just "build another one while the enemy is walking towards your base." Losing military units without inflicting comparable damage leaves an opening in your defenses, which must be addressed by focusing on military production which harms the rate of economic growth, or taking the chance of not focusing on production which risks a counter-attack that can REDUCE your economy, giving the opponent a long-term advantage. It also shrinks the size of your future army while leaving the opponent's army the same size, which he can continue to bolster to remain at a military advantage and contain you while he expands, or he can expand immediately without risk of being overpowered, either way putting you at a long-term disadvantage that can cost the game. Only a fool would charge straight into an enemy base after a close victory and hit the rebuilt army. Any decent player would use the victory to establish map control and deny expansion while he secures the lead. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Have fun staying in Bronze forever.

Ahuh. Surely you knew that was a exaggeration? How's staying in Freshman English forever doing for you?

Let me rephrase what I find wrong. There isn't as much tactical decisions as much as it is who can spam faster then the other by having the most economy points, this is how by the end of tier 2 the strategy is over because now your just focusing on amassing the largest army and picking off your enemy, so basically you win by early game, otherwise you just sit around the rest of the game achieving little.

My point was that every individual unit is very unimportant and disposable, if you lose one space marine squad, fluff wise its devastating, but game wise time to get another one.

 

[Samcanuck]

Well how about that. THAT is doing something different. I really enjoy your show Yahtzee. I respect that you are exploring an element outside your niche....so thumbs up from me. Seeing the odd good game (especially nostalgic) gives comparison and is entertaining.
You did that with psyconotts, correct? (Yes, the spelling is crap...but nothing like a pint after work, eh). Anyways, keep up the good work man.

 

[Waif]

Well done ^~^! Thanks for the upload ^~^! I have heard that Shadow of Colossus is a great game. I suppose this just confirms it >~<!

 

[Eldarion]

Oh wow, you're no higher than gold, are you? Spam the best unit? Yeah, don't worry about scouting, adapting, positioning, cheesing, harassing, expanding, denying, sniping, hiding, or countering, just mass Stalkers every single game. You're guaranteed to win, right?! Come back when you're Diamond, and I /might/ take you seriously.

Positioning? Ha. Funny. The rest are all aspects of spamming the best unit. Fuck I was good at Warhammer 40k TT and Chess but when I got on DoW all everyone was talking about was what unit was the best to spam.

You have to use tactical thinking, fight for map control and preserve your units in Dawn of war. Same with starcraft but you can afford to lose troops if you did more resources in damage to your opponent. I don't know what games you are playing.

Yah which is like the first or second tier. Let's put it like this, if you lose one squad of Space Marines in DoW, is it that devastating? No you can just build more. You could throw away an army then build another one while the enemy is walking towards your base.

That claim is laughable at best. Especially in the face of games like World In Conflict or Ground Control.

"Is one unit of marines a devastating loss?" It would be if you were playing anyone decent. The sudden loss of 200 requisition+squad reinforcements and heavy weapons upgrades can delay your teching speed more than enough to cost you the game. If you let yourself lose squads and you opponent retreats/dances/outfights you and doesn't lose squads sure you can build another marine squad, but your opponent can also build another squad and have those troops plus the ones you didn't manage to kill. You'd get overwhelmed or out teched. You clearly don't play anyone even half good at that game. Any dawn of war player worth anything will tell you to do your best to maintain map console and to avoid losing squads. You just didn't play beyond the tutorial level. Any RTS is just spamming units if you don't know how to play.

Seeing as how you clearly never played more than one or two matches with another first timer, I don't think you can judge a game you don't know squat about.

 

[ark123]

You know, there are Colossi in SC2....
Just sayin'

 

[ark123]

I've no idea why people bother discussing SC2 with people that say things like "It's only mining minerals and spamming the best units".
Would you discuss Team Fortress 2 with someone that said "It's just cartoons jumping around" or COD4 with someone that said it was "just walking around and occasionally clicking your mouse or pressing a button"?
No, you'd understand the person has no clue what they're talking about or are just simplifying an universally acclaimed game for the sake of trolling.
Don't feed the trolls, people. Just be glad you get to play SC2 and experience what is, by all accounts, an amazing game.

 

[LazyAza]

Are people still bugging yahtzee about sc2? the dood has about as much interest in the genre as he does jrpgs, leave him alone people

Also I never finished Shadow of the Collossus, cant remember why. Pretty sure I only had one or 2 bosses left as well.

 

[joe the janitor]

What a quinky-dink! I just bought shadow of the colosus last week!!!

 

[Shadowfaze]

That was... unexpected. I was so sure it was going to be SC2 this week! What next, he reviews Beyond good and evil? He defiantly should do that.

 

[Zanaxal]

Shadow of colossus is just too repetetive for my tastes, the monster might be different for every encounter but one is essentially doing the exact same thing 100 times over in a different setting. REPETITIVE

 

[Mr. Elemenopee]

Well I've been reading alot of posts on this and I just want to comment on the many people who keep saying it'll be hard to find. I usually can find a copy of it at my local Game Stops. If you don't have one, well bummer. But it's not too hard to find that you absolutely must go online to find.

OT: Well... I guess that was on topic? Well still got to beat the game, but man I hate having to find the Colossi sometimes only because my internal compass is worse than my compass in games. And I hate using the map just because I'm stubborn... Only thing I wanna say right now.

 

[Fatal-X]

Well Yahtzee, it's your loss. Starcraft 2 is really good.

Anyways, I must play someday Shadow of Collosus, wanted to do it a long time ago.

 

[Ericb]

I never thought you'd make this review, event after seeing the one about Silent Hill 2. Thank you, seriously.

This game made me witness one of the neighbourhood tough guys feel really bad about killing an enemy character. Incidentally, the giant low-flying snake-thing. Because, basically, it's just flying away scared of you.

Seeing that made me believe.

And yes, Shadow of Colossus is damn, damn, DAMN good. Points for pointing out the points where its flaws and shortcomings are more noticeably pointable.

The "fall-and-climb-it-up-again" thing got bad sometimes, but the great atmosphere and gameplay made it really bearable. Most of the time.

Action games lose effectiveness when they're just a steady stream of nasties lining up for sucker punches.

*cof*God of War*cof*.

Don't feed the trolls, people.

Like most sound advices, most people won't listen.

 

[Ericb]

Goddamnit, I reloaded the page five times and my post didn't show up. So I post again and then it does.

Pretty sneaky, you slow updating server you.

 

[traineesword]

On topic, its odd how Yahtzee's description of the Collosus made me think about some of the Monsters you get to fight at later stages in Monster Hunter. Sorry if i set down some firewood, i'll just leave it at that.

Let's get off the SC2 high horse and deal with the fact that some one compared SOTC to Monster Hunter.
Let's start here: platforming combat > bonking things on teh head with Excel Spreadsheet stats.

when did i say i was comparing the fighting styles? but now you mention it, i just think you sounded really ignorant in your post... seriously, when i'm hitting things on the head in MonsterHunter, i'm not thinking "734 damage that time! ooh, a critical, thats a nice 1926damage in the bag minus that from the 9000000 health it has to get...". i'm instead concentrating on how the monster moves and deciding my next action. (such as which attack i should use next, whether i should finish my combo and roll, which direction i should roll in or whether i have enough time to sheath my weapon to fully focus on dodging. as well as which area i should attack next in order to break more parts of its body, which could put me at a advantage later on in the fight) Yahtzee's anti-excel and powerpoint is funny, but to actually not recognise that as hyperbole; genuinly believing the game is comparable to such applications is something that i want to find hilarious, but simply can't.

However, i do admit, platforming is fun and what experience i have with it (Prince of Persia, Obscure, etc.) i have thoroughly enjoyed, so i can see the many positives of it being a core part of combat. However, i've never played Shadow of the Collosus, and can't really say much about the fighting style (not nearly as much as i could in Monster Hunter), so i can't really compare the two. But at least i admit i am ignorant and don't bother trying.

My first post in this thread was referring to how the descriptions of these Collosus could also be fitted onto certain Monsters from the MH game, i.e. making the earth shake uncontrollably as they merely walk, parts of the environment literally growing off them... that was all i was comparing, perhaps only gently highlighting the fact that Yahtzee missed out on some of these epic fights because they were too far ingame, despite going through the well-reknowned long time it takes to ride your horse from one destination to another. it was supposed to be a smile and move-on because no-one gives a toss post.

and wait, Soul Calibur 2 highhorse? i know it was a good game, but you've just got to let it go that not everyone is willing to play it (!)

(!)<-- used to highlight sarcasm, i'm just making sure. incase you were ignorant of that too

 

[Babitz]

I really don't get it what you sc2 fanboys are trying to achieve by forcing him to play a game from a genre he doesn't like. Like you would play something like that.

Anyway, Yahtzee mentioned Deus Ex in quite a few reviews already. Wish he would make a review of it. Best game ever, IMO.

 

[samsonguy920]

Almost sounded like it hurt him to admit it was Damn Good. Hope that ending didn't cripple him.

 

[FallenMessiah88]

...And so we come one step closer to revealing Yahtzee's top five greatest games of all time tag team!