Posted: 2:15 AM - Jul 24, 2001
While some people may be avoiding the usual regular Playstation jampacks, the ps2 jampacks so far have been great. The newest jampack: summer 2001 has some very slick demos video previews and downloads. Two of these demos have caught my interest. Actually, when I bought it I was more interested into
Soul Reaver 2 (Im a BIG Kain fan) I ended going wild for a game on the disk that I havent successfully been able to pry my hands off of. You probably have never heard of Ico, or read a little bit about it. Spok was saying good things about it on IRC, but I was not really interested. But Im positive now that Sonys final version is going to be the sleeper hit of next month. (Unless they really fu*^ it up) I know a lot of people want to know all about Soul Reaver 2, so Ill do that first.
Soul Reaver 2:
Comparing the original Soul Reaver to the demo for the sequel is amazing. While the demo itself does not give any information of the story for the sequel, it does show some awesome play mechanics for the game and shows awesome architecture that will be in the final game. The first thing you will notice is the soul reaver itself. Unlike before, you can activate and inactivate it by going into the glyph powers menu (by pressing select) And unlike before its with you even after you get hit with it activated, but there is a catch. Each swing Raziel does with the Soul Reaver depletes his health, meaning you would probably want to use it on harder enemies. Combat has been improved with a block button and strong attacks which when near an enemy and you press triangle Razeil will do a special type of attack which adds more variety to combat. (Its cool watching Razeil doing a side kick) there are also more nasty ways to finish off your foes. (As if impaling them with staffs isnt disgusting enough) With your claws you can finish of opponents by (literally) slicing them in half having a torso crawling one way and the other part squirming around until you suck in there soul (ewww) Raziel can now change his Soul Reaver into different colors to open up different doors that are locked with it. Some give special powers also, such as the ability to blind a certain enemy with the dark soul reaver. You will use changing the ability to switch between planes more often, and there are more different spectral dudes to fight. I also have something great to report also, THERE WERE NO BLOCK PUZZELS IN THE DEMO (thats for all the people that played the first game) It seems Soul Reaver still needs some a.i. improvements as most enemies are slow and stupid. There also is the same dull music, which plays over and over again that really gets to you after a little bit. I also have notice some freezes, but that could be the demo disks fault.
Ico:
With barely any publicity or hype, Ico is going to be an amazing game. Ive been playing this demo for a couple days now, Ive already spend as much time on it as the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo (its not as deep, but impressive) The reason Ico amazes me is the fact that it has to be the strangest and most bizarre game I have ever played. The demo sheds no light on the games story, which according to IGN.com is beyond strange. Ico is a young teenager who happens to have been born with horns on his head, similar to a devil. The villagers from his village find out about the boys horns and decide to do with him as they have done with kids with similar fates. Afraid that he is a demon, they bury the kid alive in a strange pot and send him to a dark castle. Ico survives and now must escape the horrors of the castle and aid a strange princess out as well. The fact that Ico speaks a imaginary language is the first thing odd about this game, that and the interactions with the princess which is the main focus on the game play (the princess if your interested is some sort of soul trying to posses a body and I said it was bizarre) by holding R1 next to the princess you can grab her by the wrist and pull her around. You can even led a hand a help her up ledges or in some extreme circumstances lend out you hand over a giant cliff (part in the demo) and she will actually jump for it from the other side! Combat is typical, but the monsters are pretty freaky. While all of this may sound odd, Ico is a game that you REALLY need to play other than watch movies or screens. I could best describe the feel of Ico as a 3rd person adventure game. It beyond strange, and I think a lot of gamers may want to play it just to see how strange it is. The demo it self is breath taking, especially with the graphics, the demo looks better than most X-Box games that have been shown. The second room has amazing lighting effects, and the last area (the only one outside) really pushes what the Playstation 2 can do especially with the water effects and the imposing structures and parts of the castle that seems to stretch forever. Ico does have its problems. The princess needs some a.i. tweaking (that sounds a funny) periodically she wonders off in an unrealistic manner, but I think thats not much of a big deal.
-vidiot-
[Edit: just fixing the broken image links...![]()
]
Soul Reaver 2 (Im a BIG Kain fan) I ended going wild for a game on the disk that I havent successfully been able to pry my hands off of. You probably have never heard of Ico, or read a little bit about it. Spok was saying good things about it on IRC, but I was not really interested. But Im positive now that Sonys final version is going to be the sleeper hit of next month. (Unless they really fu*^ it up) I know a lot of people want to know all about Soul Reaver 2, so Ill do that first.
Soul Reaver 2:
Comparing the original Soul Reaver to the demo for the sequel is amazing. While the demo itself does not give any information of the story for the sequel, it does show some awesome play mechanics for the game and shows awesome architecture that will be in the final game. The first thing you will notice is the soul reaver itself. Unlike before, you can activate and inactivate it by going into the glyph powers menu (by pressing select) And unlike before its with you even after you get hit with it activated, but there is a catch. Each swing Raziel does with the Soul Reaver depletes his health, meaning you would probably want to use it on harder enemies. Combat has been improved with a block button and strong attacks which when near an enemy and you press triangle Razeil will do a special type of attack which adds more variety to combat. (Its cool watching Razeil doing a side kick) there are also more nasty ways to finish off your foes. (As if impaling them with staffs isnt disgusting enough) With your claws you can finish of opponents by (literally) slicing them in half having a torso crawling one way and the other part squirming around until you suck in there soul (ewww) Raziel can now change his Soul Reaver into different colors to open up different doors that are locked with it. Some give special powers also, such as the ability to blind a certain enemy with the dark soul reaver. You will use changing the ability to switch between planes more often, and there are more different spectral dudes to fight. I also have something great to report also, THERE WERE NO BLOCK PUZZELS IN THE DEMO (thats for all the people that played the first game) It seems Soul Reaver still needs some a.i. improvements as most enemies are slow and stupid. There also is the same dull music, which plays over and over again that really gets to you after a little bit. I also have notice some freezes, but that could be the demo disks fault.
Ico:
With barely any publicity or hype, Ico is going to be an amazing game. Ive been playing this demo for a couple days now, Ive already spend as much time on it as the Metal Gear Solid 2 demo (its not as deep, but impressive) The reason Ico amazes me is the fact that it has to be the strangest and most bizarre game I have ever played. The demo sheds no light on the games story, which according to IGN.com is beyond strange. Ico is a young teenager who happens to have been born with horns on his head, similar to a devil. The villagers from his village find out about the boys horns and decide to do with him as they have done with kids with similar fates. Afraid that he is a demon, they bury the kid alive in a strange pot and send him to a dark castle. Ico survives and now must escape the horrors of the castle and aid a strange princess out as well. The fact that Ico speaks a imaginary language is the first thing odd about this game, that and the interactions with the princess which is the main focus on the game play (the princess if your interested is some sort of soul trying to posses a body and I said it was bizarre) by holding R1 next to the princess you can grab her by the wrist and pull her around. You can even led a hand a help her up ledges or in some extreme circumstances lend out you hand over a giant cliff (part in the demo) and she will actually jump for it from the other side! Combat is typical, but the monsters are pretty freaky. While all of this may sound odd, Ico is a game that you REALLY need to play other than watch movies or screens. I could best describe the feel of Ico as a 3rd person adventure game. It beyond strange, and I think a lot of gamers may want to play it just to see how strange it is. The demo it self is breath taking, especially with the graphics, the demo looks better than most X-Box games that have been shown. The second room has amazing lighting effects, and the last area (the only one outside) really pushes what the Playstation 2 can do especially with the water effects and the imposing structures and parts of the castle that seems to stretch forever. Ico does have its problems. The princess needs some a.i. tweaking (that sounds a funny) periodically she wonders off in an unrealistic manner, but I think thats not much of a big deal.
-vidiot-
[Edit: just fixing the broken image links...
]
