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What 'The Last Guardian' creator learned from 'No Man's Sky'
The video game world is vastly different now than it was in 2007 when Fumito Ueda and his team began working on The Last Guardian. Nintendo dominated the hardware market with the 3DS and Wii while the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 trailed in console sales by millions. Assassin's Creed, BioShock and Mass Effect debuted, kicking off a fresh round of long-running AAA franchises. Today, we have the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PS4 Pro, and Nintendo is attempting to rebound from slow sales of the Wii U. Day-one patches are normal, pre-order DLC bundles are standard practice, we're on the ninth Assassin's Creed and, sometimes, indie games are indistinguishable from AAA titles. This is the brave new world that Ueda will release The Last Guardian into on December 6th. Over the past nine years, he's kept an eye on the video game industry and he knows that the market is volatile. He knows that the industry has changed. Fans are used to a constant barrage of information, trailers, screenshots and interviews about upcoming high-profile games. Sometimes this marketing strategy works out just fine. And sometimes, No Man's Sky happens.
'The Last Guardian' soundtrack is getting a vinyl release
Pumped for The Last Guardian? Yeah, we are too. The long-awaited follow-up to Ico and Shadow of the Colossus stars a young boy and a giant feathered creature called Trico as they explore a world filled with broken, temple-like structures. The emotional puzzle-platformer has an equally distinctive soundtrack -- the work of composer Takeshi Furukawa -- and Sony has dropped a few extra pieces of news about audio in The Last Guardian.
'The Last Guardian' is delayed until December
The long-awaited PS4 exclusive The Last Guardian has been pushed back to December 6th. The game was originally scheduled for October 25th, but apparently has more bugs than anticipated. "To ensure that The Last Guardian delivers on the experience that the game's creators have envisioned, we need to take the extra time to work on those issues," President of Sony's Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida told fans through a blog post.
Fear and faith: 'The Last Guardian' is an incomplete opus
"Yes, I worry. All I can do at this moment really is pray." Fumito Ueda has been working on The Last Guardian for almost 10 years, and in just four months time, it will be released on PlayStation 4. At E3 2016, Ueda showed me the fruits of his labor and shared his fears about the reaction to its eventual release on October 25th.
'The Last Guardian' is a stripped-down sort of beautiful
The Last Guardian needs to be perfect. Fans of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus have been waiting for this, the third game from director Fumito Ueda, since it was announced in 2009. As issues with its production went public and development appeared to slow to a crawl, The Last Guardian entered the misty, nostalgic realm of what if in many fans' minds. Then, Sony opened its E3 2015 press conference with a gameplay trailer of The Last Guardian on PlayStation 4, and those nearly forgotten dreams were suddenly reality. The trailer featured a young, toga-clad boy and Trico, a massive cat-bird-dog creature, as they traversed cavernous, crumbling ruins bathed in brilliant sunlight. Their journey, however, has roots in a prison cell buried in the dead city's tall, grey walls.
'The Last Guardian' is still happening and it's coming to PS4 in 2016
The Last Guardian. It still exists and Sony opened its big E3 showcase with footage of a toga-clad boy exploring ancient structures with his giant behaving-like-a-pet Fox-Hawk-Dog beast. Fumito Ueda's beautiful on-off-on-again game is filled with the stylistic licks of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but now with the power of PS4 beating behind it. The E3 event finally showed off how the game will play out, with your beastly buddy doing its fair share of destructive creation -- and also coming through in a pinch. The long-delayed title is coming next year. Can you believe it? Check here for everything happening at E3 2015!
Rumor: Team ICO working on not one, but two PS3 games
So Team ICO's working on a new game for the PlayStation 3. Not altogether surprising considering that ICO and Shadow of the Colossus remain two of the most well respected and well received video games on the PlayStation 2. But what if we told you that one internet forum rumor had them working on not one, but two games for Sony's high-def colossus? One is even rumored to be "close to ICO and Shadow of the Colossus in terms of atmosphere and setting."Though we didn't hear anything at Sony's Gamer's Day event, a source deep within Sony's corporate bowels brushed himself off and revealed this exclusive screenshot to us, seen above (note: we're not serious, but we wish we were). Would two more masterpieces from Fumito Ueda's team brighten Sony's spirits (and sales figures)?[Via PS3F]
Shadow of the Colossus cameo in new Sandler, Cheadle flick
GameBump spotted this Shadow of the Colossus appearance in a trailer for the upcoming Adam Sandler drama Reign Over Me, which also stars Don Cheadle. So does Fumito Ueda's wonderful PlayStation 2 epic play a significant role in the plot? Probably not. Still, that a major Hollywood production would opt to use a game that is not easily recognizable to a mainstream audience is significant enough. Unfortunately, the cameo, as framed by the trailer, is pinned to the old stereotype that when guys get to playing video games they neglect more important obligations (okay, sometimes we do), but the usage of Shadow of the Colossus also ties into an overarching maturation of the games industry; one that is forcing mainstream perception to shifts its view and embrace the critical impact games have on many adult lives. Nice work, Mr. Binder. [Thanks, Aaron]
Ueda: ICO isn't a video game
In this interview with Wired, Fumito Ueda (the creative mind behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus) talks about the difference between ICO and "conventional" video games. It seems Ueda has tried to distance the product from the negative connotations of the term "video games"; whether that was successfully accomplished rests in the opinions of those who view games negatively.The interview also talks about some of the design decisions behind Shadow of the Colossus--it's an interesting insight into Ueda's creative processes. Update: Warning, the article contains spoilers for Shadow of the Colossus.
