I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Sony's Game Developers Conference keynote had two memorable components: the introduction of Home , their Second Life-styled real world, and Little Big Planet , a game about users creating their own game levels and sharing it with others. The contrast between the two could not be greater. Home appears as a 21st century Microsoft Bob-style metaphor of all the functionality of the Playstation 3. Users can design and layout their realistic environment, and, as repeated multiple times during the presentation, players can purchase merchandise from the Sony store online to show to their friends. The question that comes to my mind when thinking about Sony's Home is "what's the point?" Second Life conjures up a similar question, but the level of flexibility and sharing is miles beyond anything Home offers. Little Big Planet approaches the "problem" of what to do with an internet connected console with an entirely different, more interesting and plausible approach...

In Shadow of the Colossus, you assume the role of a young man trying to reverse the death of his lover. He travels to a temple at the end of the world and is tasked by a mystical voice to defeat 16 colossi to bring his beloved back to life. These colossi are awesome, giant beasts made of stone, hair, and metal. Some tower over you like living skyscrapers and the ground cracks as they walk about. Though they have an unfamiliar shape, they aren't exactly monsters. You don't find them attacking villages or setting fields ablaze; they are most often pacing about a remote cove. While their scale is jaw-dropping, their gaze can leave the deepest impression; while some throw looks with squint-eyed malice, many look with open, empty eyes like a bear at a zoo. Your quest to kill these creatures doesn't allow you the unassailable moral high ground as other games do. You are told to kill all 16 of these creatures to bring your lover back; exchanging sixteen (arguably) innocent lives f...

I am now a proud owner of the new PS2 thanks to a surprisingly good deal at EB . Quick thoughts on it so far: Size Wow. I thought the GameCube was a small system, but it towers over the PSTwo and looks to be three or four times the volume. The size and color make it difficult to find when you are looking for it in a messy pile of game systems. (Not that I would know of course. This is purely hypothetical!) Top loading Argh, I wish it was a side loader so I could pile other systems on top of it. The top panel feels a bit flimsy, but hopefully the top loading will allow boot disks to emerge allowing region-free play. Loading times The loading time for games seems to be sped up a slight amount. Winning Eleven 7, a game that has load times of over a minute, probably had 10% less load time compared to my previous system. The 10 second load times of Taiko Drum Master have virtually disappeared. From the few games I tried out, it seemed the shorter the original load time was, the greater t...

Update - Here's a movie of the game from the SCEJ web site. Looks awesome! The second game by the Ico team is Wanda and the Colossus . And the details from Quarter to Three's Japanese wunderkid, Kitsume : In the game there are only three characters the designers characterize as "living" (and one of them they do so vaguely). The rider of the horse, the horse and a girl found in a wasteland altar, who they say of, "Is she living? Is she asleep? It looks like a girl who has completely lost her soul..." So the main character wants to resusciate here somehow and determines to fight the "colossus." The horse will form an important support role and by pressing the R1 button, you'll be able to get a grip onto a colossus. Then you'll be able to try and climb it and find its sweet spot. The designers say they want to make the giant golem-like creatures seem less like monsters and more like mysterious entities, as well as they aim to create the fie...