Posts tagged Shadow of the Colossus
The advancement of the art of storytelling in video games
Oct 7th
Shadow of the Colossus' simple, spare storyline has been repeatedly acclaimed as a high-water mark in video game storytelling.
Even before Mario trekked through the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue the Princess and Pac-Man was pursued by a quartet of ghosts, video games have been a storytelling medium. As games matured from simple sprites to a multi-billion dollar industry, so the scope of video games increased —in terms of graphical fidelity, size and scope of game worlds, and the potential for storytelling.
The problem, though, is that only two of those three aspects have seen real growth to this point. While our favored medium is still maturing, it’s encountered some growing pains in finding the right way to tell a story — and the right kind of stories to tell.
Warning: Spoilers for Grand Theft Auto IV, Bioshock, Metal Gear Solid, Fallout 3, Fable II, and Shadow of the Colossus follow.
The Backlog: Pre-PAX lovefest
Sep 4th
The funk of 40,000 nerds awaits Nick at this year's Penny Arcade Expo. Expect the show floor to look much like this, a scene from the exhibit hall at the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo.
Here we are. The beginning of a three-day holiday weekend, the first day of the Penny Arcade Expo up in Seattle, and time for another week’s worth of gaming recounted in our Backlog. It’s been the calm ahead of the storm here, with Nick preparing for a feast of gaming at PAX, Aaron enjoying some comfort gaming, and Doug preparing to dig into some modern classics.
The Backlog: Of Dark Knights and Dead Consoles
Aug 28th
Marge would be proud
It’s been a bit of a difficult week for the Silicon Sasquatch staff. Nick spent much of the week reformatting and fine-tuning his computer before hauling it up north for the sixth annual Penny Arcade Expo and its thousand-seat LAN — a stressful experience, and one that leaves precious little time for gaming. Doug’s third Xbox 360 fell under the alluring spell of the Red Ring of Death and is currently drifting towards Valhalla. And Aaron? Well…Aaron’s the lucky one who actually got to sit down and play through Batman: Arkham Asylum.
Daily Recap: April 13, 2009
Apr 13th
Imagine me presenting the daily news from behind that desk, and with that mustache.
Welcome back to the stage of history. After a weekend away, we’re back at it, and I’m delivering the news updates for the week.
First off, it appears Netflix may be expanding its console reach. Stories surfacing today suggested this may be occurring based off of Netflix posting job listings for “Engineering Leader – Gaming Platforms,” a position which the postings say would require “prototyping, testing and building the Netflix experience for gaming consoles.” Could PS3 and even Wii users know the joy of Netflix streaming soon? Perhaps.
Daily Recap: April 7, 2009
Apr 7th
Another day, another dearth of major developments. But as they say, “no news is good news.” As a journalist, I interpret no news to mean no job. But hey, it’s not like we’re writing for this blog to make any money. Read the rest of this entry »