Six Things that keep Shadow of the Colossus from greatness

Flaws within the shadow

Man that's a long title. Anyway, a few friends recommended me a game called Shadow of the Colossus years ago. Intrigued after how they praised it time after time, I bought it with my own money at a discount sale at ShopKo, in hope for a great completion of a supposedly perfect game. It never happened as I grew tired and had an urge to play other games at the the moment. I never hated it but the curiosity of the future bosses intrigued me to keep it as a wonder.

I loved it then and praised it just like my friends did. Years have passed since then and I realize the flaws more now than I have ever before. I just recently purchased the Ico and Shadow fo the Colossus HD Collection on the PlayStation 3, and I've discovered six game ruining flaws that ultimately ruined my past love for such a beloved game.

6 - The empty HUB

As you progress through Shadow of the Colossus you'll eventually notice the empty HUB before you. Venturing towards the next Colossus feels shallow with no class to speak of. Sure, the scenery can be quite gorgeous in some areas (mainly where the Colossus are present), but exploring the boondocks of the map is almost unnecessary.

Aside from the fruit trees, save shrines, and the overabundance of lizards, there's nothing left to persuade you that you are living in an actual world.

5 - The Colossus not being so colossal

The title says it all, really. Don't get me wrong, most of the bosses are huge in stature and provide a much welcomed "Wow" factor but the smaller Colossi are relativity tiny when compared. Several completely destroy the concept of being colossal which is the main gripe of the game. If they were to have a gimmick different than one another - sort of like the Hawk colossi - it would have been acceptable.

A las it's not. When I play a game about huge enemies I want, believe it or not, to see huge enemies. I don't want to be face-to-face with a rinky dink one that barely intimidates me. All of which is why I found some of the bosses in Shadow of the Colossus disappointing.

4 - The bow and arrow

If there weren't already enough annoyances in this game, the bow and arrow's mediocre cursor is an additional fault. Increasing your grip meter can be achieved by finding save shrines in which you can spot a white taled lizard. Killing it with your bow and arrow can be an absolute hassle at times. The cursor is orange and the dot is thinner than an arrow itself. To top it all off it's inverted and the lizard runs all over the shrine avoiding your existence. This is not a challenge, it's annoying.

3 - Agro

That fucking horse. It's unreliable in every aspect thinkable. From riding it to even just calling its name. Riding it in narrow paths is a tedious session indeed. Consistently pressing the X button just to make it go faster (for some reason it feels the need to slow down randomly), is annoying. If you are being chased by a gigantic sand worm you better be running at full speed you stupid animal.

Getting on the horse alone is annoying. A button press can't just show up can it? No, I have to hang onto to the idgit, pull myself up, then begin my horsey ride. It takes Agro seconds upon seconds to reach me. I've even caught him walking to me from a long distance.

2 - Unused space

There is nothing worse than a game that makes you explore an empty HUB in search for essentials. I've estimated that 30% of the world map of Shadow of the Colossus will never be explored by the player if he plays through the storyline by itself. In the abandoned 30%, there are few shrines and trees to increase your health/stamina. Instead, the shrines are substituted as random locations. Random locations including a destroyed ruins or even some unusual rocks.

What is with that? There is no way to mark the map of where I've been whatsoever. The world is too massive to make mental notes of exactly where you've been. The art style isn't exactly wondrous and by that, i mean a lot of the areas look the exact same. Now that is poor game development.

1 - Camera Angles

With sloppy controls comes mediocre, unreliable camera angles to compliment the somewhat poorly executed gameplay. A lot of the time, I found myself monkeying with the camera whilst hanging onto a colossi draining my grip gauge causing tedious mishaps resulting in falling. So much that, I mainly remember adjusting angles more than actually playing the game itself. Walking around in narrow settings causes the angles to become bizarre resulting in unnecessary frustration.


After my play-through, I not only had mixed feelings but feelings of pleasure. While the fun moments are fun, the flaws written in this feature are oh-so apparent that it should displease everyone who plays. Of course, SotC isn't by any means a bad game but one that receives more credit than it deserves.

Shadow of the Colossus does contain its fair share of flaws even if its fanbase likes to pretend it's perfect. Like any other game out there, it's not, even if its core quality misleads many.

Call of Duty World at War

At one time, World War II shooters were a huge thing for the video game media. After what felt like hundreds of clones, the genre and the World War II theme as a whole, was wearing thin as Treyarch - one of the two development teams that work on the Call of Duty franchise - had a different vision for the sub genre, with a mindset of delivering a grittier, M rated adventure. And boy, did they hit the nail on the head.

With that being said, I can't say that the grittier look pays for itself. It certainly enhances the experience, but the faults arrive quickly. To be quite honest, jumping between the stories of Private Miller and Petrenko really boggles one's mind; not that the storyline has depth to it, but that you have no idea what's really going on throughout the entire game. With Petrenko, you're slowly reaching Berlin, Germany but with Miller, well, it's just a cluster of random battlefields with no back story or story development whatsoever.

The missions within weren't all fine and dandy either. On Miller's side, you storm beaches you've recognized before in thirty different games relating to the same historic events. If the objective isn't to follow your Captain, it's to plant charges while fighting off hordes of Japanese soldiers (and their generic, overused character design), you've seen in every mission prior. Petrenko's side isn't far different with a few gimmicks to separate the ultimately boring "follow me" missions.

World at War's difficulty is more than a problem for novice players. Trying to casually complete World at War on Veteran is nearly impossible with random grenades spawning everywhere around you. In one instance I completed an objective only to walk forward into a grenade I was unaware of. After my death the game reminded me to watch out for the "grenade indicator" which never appeared on my screen whatsoever.; of course, this wasn't the only time suffering from this issue but it's one problem future Call of Duty titles improved slightly.

Enemy AI is even worse. You're almost always with a squad of four or more, so why does every Nazi have to aim their guns at me and only me? I mean, I know I'm going to be the one to kill them (since my team has terrible AI as well), but seriously. If every Japanese officer aimed at one person during the War, there would have been a lot of wasted ammo, a lot of dead people and every one who wasn't participating would be dangerously confused.

As I mentioned before, World at War really nails the grittier World War II atmosphere. Storming the beaches of Peleliu isn't a bright day in the park. Everything is either dirty or destroyed. Debris, destroyed buldings, huts, decaying wood structures, bodies, abandoned guns; all of which is realistically laid out as if humans were inhabiting them. The water effects compliment the nighttime stages with stellar wave patters and detail. The character design may be stiff here and there, but overall the characters look great if rehashed.

If completing the campaign alone sounds scary, or if you just don't feel like completing on your own behalf, grabbing a friend or hopping online with random players wouldn't be a bad idea. Two players cooperatively or competitively complete missions from the campaign on selectable difficulties. Sort of like Modern Warfare's Arcade mode, except cooperative.

World at War introduced the critically acclaimed Nazi Zombies game mode and it caught fire almost immediately. Of course, it's not as polished as Treyarch's sequel, World at War's zombies still holds its own. Each stage shares its own set of characters; with that, every stage has its own setting with unique goals and layouts. Opening doors to reach new, powerful weapons while unleashing hordes of merciless zombies is a risk worth taking. Repairing boarded up windows and killing the zombies before they reach you is the key objective, which never seems to live.

Random bonuses will also drop. These bonuses are designed to help you make it through the wave you're on even if it's a wasted effort. Insta-Kill makes every zombie vulnerable to instant death by one knife hit or one bullet and the symbol is shaped like a skull. The atom bomb symbol explodes every spawned zombies sometimes automatically ending that wave when used strategically. Max Ammo's symbol is shaped like a ammo crate and, believe it or not, gives you maximum ammo for your guns.

Playing Zombies made me realize how much I wish the entire game was a zombie shooter a la Valve's Left 4 Dead series. The environments are laced with creativity and horrific scenery. Barbed wired fences with fungus slowly consuming them, deteriorating wood, broken steps, debris overlapping the floor or even blocking off most of a room, decaying zombies etc., all provide an atmosphere most developers miss when creating a horrific atmosphere.

The atmosphere presented, both audio and visually, are some of the best the first person genre has to offer. World at War's voice acting is on the downside, with no character development to provide a reason to continue onwards. I don't feel bad for these men at war whatsoever due to the fact I know nothing about them. Reznov has potential to his story and is continued through Treyarch's sequel, Black Ops, but at what cost? Why not do the same for the rest of this shallow cast?

Multiplayer wise, I can't help but feel at a dead end; it's completely littered with hackers much like Modern Warfare's community. On numerous accounts, I've witnessed people flying across the map to slaughter my entire team with their aim assist and god mode enabled. With that, the community is relatively small; around 8000 users play this on a daily basis which makes it hard to find a different group of players that aren't cheating. The small community is also quite depressing as I couldn't play some of the game modes due to the lobbies being graveyards.

But, I'll be fair: I have played many matches hacker-free. After putting twenty hours into the overall game, I've come to the conclusion that World at War's online and balancing is very enjoyable compared to other outings in the franchise and, if it wasn't for the surplus of cheaters, would be highly recommended.

Conclusion-

If you're late to the party, there isn't much to recommend. The online is a graveyard full of dastardly ghosts, whereas the offline is a bipolar teenager. With the community the way it is, Nazi Zombies isn't enough to warrant a purchase for a title that has aged abundantly.

8/10

Rune Factory Tides of Destiny

How bad would it stink to be trapped in your best friend's body? How about trapped in his body for what could be, forever? Just ask Sonja, one of Tides of Destiny's protagonists on how that's going.

Starting off any ordinary day on Fenith island, Aden and Sonja are enjoying a quiet, Spring day doing their normal every day things. A bright flash of light from nowhere abducts Aden and Sonja and drops them off nearly a century in the future. Unfortunately, after the event, Sonja's soul is trapped within Aden's body for an unknown reason and can control him at will. Though the story is explained poorly to the player and with every character "just going with it" it all feels generic.

The RPG elements really shine. I found the combat to be really interesting and the challenge very fair. The addition of having statistics for walking, running, jumping and pretty much anything you can think of is unique. Even bathing has a leveling system. Crafting is a big part for a more convenient experience with Tides of Destiny. Crafting furniture, potions, and weapons is quick and easy. Your stamina bar (a.k.a. Rune Points), can be replenished by making food dishes like fried fish, sushi, desserts, and even pizza!

Unlike previous installments in the Rune Factory franchise, Tides of Destiny has a new game play element: exploring the ocean. A huge part of this is by the help of a giant Golem named Ymir. Exploring the ocean results in finding islands on the ocean floor, to pull up and, you named it, explore. The smaller islands aren't too different from one another. You will endure the same smaller islands and wrecked pirates ships throughout the adventure.

Along with the ocean concept comes being a friendly neighbor. Completely optional to an extent, being nice to your neighbors results in leveling up their Friend Points. Talking to them, giving them gifts they like and even doing quests (some required), will result in their friend points increased. After leveling up the character you can have a private chat with them, learning more about who they are and what makes them intriguing.

Unfortunately the majority of the quests are the same quest repeated to no end. Which is a huge complaint. Talking to your neighbors can be migraine inducing. The reused dialogue isn't likeable and even the more interesting dialogue is still uninteresting, if not redundant. Every day you will encounter the same greeting and the same conversation from the day before.

The farming is also watered down (pun intended). Capturing monsters to do your dirty work in exchange for cheap monster cookies takes away the fun. Certain monsters plant certain types of vegetables, trees, and minerals. Over a course of four different seasonal islands (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter), helps filter which monster goes where. After the crops are done growing, you simply harvest them to do with your own free will.

Another potential plus to having monsters is the choice to have them fight with you throughout the game. They honestly do provide a nice ace-in-the-hole and even help distract enemies/bosses. Though their flawed AI is a struggle but when they do cooperate they can provide you with the upper advantage.

Graphically, Tides of Destiny doesn't awe. Being a port of a Wii game, the resolution and textures do look better but that's not saying much. The anime cut scenes are absolute eye candy. I was thoroughly entertained every time they showed up which wasn't often enough.

For the most part, the soundtrack is bearable. With an enjoyable tune here and there, I found myself very annoyed by the same songs everyday. Throughout the entire day on Fenith island you will only hear a few songs, depending. Every other island has the same song playing and the temples have bland layouts with even more bland songs. It's the one aspect of the game I found least enjoyable beyond belief.

Conclusion-
I never got to try the Move controls with this one, but with this game being the way it is, I can't help to think it wouldn't change much. The random storyline, reused dialogue, annoying soundtrack and rehashed quests weigh Rune Factory: Tides of Destiny down to the bottom of the ocean.

Unless you're a fan of the series, stick to your current RPG, there's nothing to see here.

5.75/10

Frogger Returns

Frogger Returns is, believe it or not, awful. The presentation is just awful. No opening whatsoever, you're just thrown into the game with nothing to be excited about. Talk about an eye grabber.

Single Player offers four limited game modes. Arcade Mode plays like the classic arcade version trying to surpass the already established high score. Time Trials is fairly self explanatory. Score Attack is more for beginners allowing you to practice reaching the highest score possible. Free Play, however, is practically Arcade Mode minus the lives system; making progression easier than ever. None of which provides a reason to purchase this title as we've seen this before people.

Multi-Player is even worse. Classic Mode is basically racing to see who can reach 3/5 goals, first. Territories is actually fairly competitive; after capturing a post, your opponent can take it away from you providing a challenge, depending. Collector and Fly Feast are basically the same thing. You and your opponent try to see who can collect the most flies which are all scattered throughout the level. The only difference is that Fly Feast has a time limit.

Ugly.

With no online functionality whatsoever there's barely any replay value to be seen. Every mode is limited to the same map. Talk about variety! And with only four game modes, I can see people putting this down after an afternoon, if that. With all of this revolving around a 2 player limit, makes watching even more tedious than actually playing.


Frogger looks like a poorly animated schizo. I say schizo because he looks scared out of his mind and for good reason, too. This game is atrocious. All four levels look either too dark or too grainy. Nothing looks good besides maybe the water. The PlayStation 3 version is a little easier on the eyes compared to the Wii version, but that's like saying rotten cheese smells better than dog crap.

What's even worse are the noises I keep hearing! From Frogger Returns that is. The music is forgettable. I can't force this enough that this has to be the worst soundtrack in a video game. It feels like the same 20 seconds are being repeated over and over in every level. Splashes, car horns, trains screeching as they pull the breaks, and rats squealing like their toenails are being ripped off, would give anyone a migraine.

Conclusion-
Do yourself a favor and stay far, far away from this unbearable game. Frogger Returns has nothing new to offer. Unless you're not used to crap.

2/10