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3G Vita launch bundle $200, select PS3 Greatest Hits $15 at Best Buy
If you simply cannot wait for potential Gamescom news concerning the Vita, Best Buy is offering the 3G Vita launch bundle and the plain old Wi-Fi version of the system for $200. Select titles from the PS3's Greatest Hits library are also available for $15 apiece. The launch bundle includes a 3G-compatible Vita, an 8 GB memory card, and an AT&T DataConnect Session Pass for $200. According to Best Buy's listing for the bundle, it also includes an offer for a free PSN game, but it seems to have expired in May 2012. Still, this pack is a nice way to save on a memory card and some on-the-go online gaming. If you'd prefer to sidestep some savings and spend more money later, the non-bundled version of the Wi-Fi Vita is also $200. A cut from the PS3's Greatest Hits library is also yours for cheap if you can beat others to the checkout. Playstation All Stars: Battle Royale, Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time, God of War: Origins Collection, Twisted Metal, Infamous 2, ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection, Killzone 3, LittleBigPlanet Karting, Gran Turismo 5: XL Edition, LittleBigPlanet 2: Special Edition and LittleBigPlanet: GOTY Edition are all available in limited quantities for $15. Playstation All-Stars and Sly Cooper: Thieves In Time are also crossplay compatible, meaning that you can pick up some cheap games for a cheap Vita.
PS Plus Europe explores Amalur, Demon's Souls, Ico/SotC in June
European PlayStation Plus subscribers have plenty to keep themselves busy with when the rain inevitably lashes down on Wimbledon next month. June's Plus update brings two very different breeds of RPG to the PS3's Instant Game Collection in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning and Demon's Souls, as well the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection. All three games arrive a wee bit early on May 29. Meanwhile on Vita, June features Rayman Origins and Coconut Dodge Revitalized for the portable. Both Vita games join the Collection on June 5. Coconut Dodge Revitalized is the next Futurlab PS Mini to get the HD treatment. As before, the self-explanatory (or not) 2D high-scorer gets leaderboards and trophies support on Vita. As ever, the revolving door that is PS Plus means new arrivals are countered by departures. Hitman: Absolution, Joe Danger 2, and Dead or Alive 5 leave the service on May 29, followed by Sine Mora on June 5, and Futurlab's Velocity Ultra on June 12.
Rumor: PowerUp Rewards offers big discounts on Sony PS3 collections
Supposedly GameStop is planning a PowerUp Rewards member-exclusive sale from November 1 through November 14 for select Sony PlayStation 3 collections. Titles rumored to be on the cheap include Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection ($10), Jak and Daxter Collection ($10), Uncharted 1 and 2 ($15), God of War Saga ($20), Infamous 1 and 2 ($15), Killzone Trilogy ($20), the collector's edition of Journey ($15) and Ratchet & Clank Collection ($15). The rumored prices come courtesy of a NeoGAF thread featuring deal-seeking gamers.We called a few local GameStop stores and the employees we talked to said there's no indication on their end a sale is incoming. A few employees mentioned seeing the GAF thread, but had no email correspondence or indication in their system of the promotion. We've followed up with GameStop corporate as well because we totally want this to be a thing. Ico and Shadow of the Colossus for $10? Yeah, we totally back that idea.
Ico HD to soon get Remote Play patch on PlayStation Vita
Sony is "almost ready" to patch in Remote Play support for Ico on the PlayStation Vita. Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida, the tease that he is, yesterday tweeted the above photo of the 2001 game's PS3 version running on a Vita. A few minutes later he clarified, saying the patch was almost complete and that more information will follow.Remote Play lets PS3 owners access their system remotely on the Vita, including playing certain supported games. Back in E3, Sony announced future Remote Play support for Ico along with its spiritual successor, Shadow of the Colossus, and the first two God of War games. That suggests functionality for these games is included in the upcoming patch. We'll likely know more at this year's Tokyo Game Show, for which Sony recently announced its lineup.
Ico/Shadow of the Colossus heading to PSN next week; Crysis 2 and Tom Clancy classics too
This week's PlayStation Blogcast revealed that Ico and Shadow of the Colossus will be available next Tuesday, January 17, through the PlayStation Network. Regularly priced $40 at retail as a bundle, the two games will be $20 apiece on the PSN. Other retail games being added to the PSN next week include Crysis 2 for $40, along with Tom Clancy titles Rainbow Six Vegas and Splinter Cell: Double Agent for $20 each. If the idea of touching discs has held you back from Ico or Shadow of the Colossus, now's the time to check out these artistic milestones.
Amazon sales today include Ico, Bulletstorm, Xbox 360 Kinect bundle
Amazon's got a set of game-themed Lightning Deals starting at 11am PST (2PM EST). Since all we have are clues, we can't tell you what the prices will be -- with the exception of the Xbox 360 Kinect 4GB bundle with $100 Credit. That'll be the regular price of $300 (offset by that credit). Other clues suggest we'll see deals on The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection, Bleach: Soul Resurreccion, SOCOM 4, and more. The retailer also has a Black Friday sale up, offering discounts on a selection of "action games and accessories." Those offers include No More Heroes: Heroes' Paradise for $20, Super Street Fighter IV 3D Edition for $18, and Bulletstorm for $18.
Amazon: $20 off two PS3 Dual Pack bundles
Would you like four PS3 games for $60? If so, Amazon has got a deal for you, as it's offering $20 off the purchase of two Dual Pack game bundles. The deal applies to God of War: Origins Collection, the Resistance Greatest Hits Dual Pack, the Uncharted Greatest Hits Dual Pack and, of course, the recently launched Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection. If you're new to this whole gaming thing, we're fairly certain that picking up Shadow of the Colossus, Ico and the first two Uncharted titles for $60 may be the best decision you will ever make.
Ico & Shadow of the Colossus trailer busts out the critical acclaim
If the succession of review scores found in this Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection launch trailer doesn't bang it through your head: both these games are good. Not "good" in the roller coaster Call of Duty way, but in the appreciation of a playable, developing art form and stuff.
Deja Review: The Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
We're of the firm opinion that your time is too precious, too valuable to be spent reading a full review for a game that was already reviewed many, many years ago. What's the point of applying a score to a game that's old enough to be enrolled in the sixth grade? That's why we invented Deja Review: A quick look at the new features and relative agelessness of remade, revived and re-released games. It would be difficult to think of two games that have so unanimously been labeled as masterpieces by gaming critics and consumers alike than Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. Each possesses a unique beauty possessed by (regrettably) so few other games: Ico with its sense of childlike wonder and grand adventure, Colossus with its abject desolation and foreboding. They're poignant, and sad, and (fortunately for Sony and Team Ico) inimitably timeless. The Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection pairs HD-remastered versions of the two titles in one tidy $40 package. Their visual revivification -- the most substantial improvement over the PS2 originals -- isn't quite as thorough as ground-up reconstruction of Halo: Anniversary or the total reskinning of Ocarina of Time 3D. But it's certainly enough to make these once-beautiful games even more staggering. %Gallery-130949%
Bluepoint Games offers insight into MGS, Ico, God of War remake process
At one point, God of War, Ico, and Metal Gear Solid games were all being made in the same location ... in Austin, Texas. Well, remade, anyway. Bluepoint Games, the company behind the God of War, Ico/Shadow of the Colossus, and Metal Gear Solid HD Collections, recently explained elements of its process to Edge. According to company president Andy O'Neil, Bluepoint reverse engineers the games, rather than collecting the original source files and recompiling. "The problem with source asset drops is that you don't know if it's the final shipped data," O'Neil said. "People will go and make last-minute changes." Of course, Bluepoint is careful to keep the games running as-is, even when that keeps bugs found in the original versions. Some bugs were fixed for the PAL Shadow of the Colossus update --- "But it was a deliberate decision: this can break the game," O'Neil explained. "But we won't change anything without talking to the original developers."
Preview new bonuses for the old games in the Ico/Shadow of the Colossus Collection
Next week's ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection will have HD ports of both Team ICO's beloved games -- as you might have guessed from the name, and the box. It also has a lot of bonus content, including some new video material, as detailed by the PlayStation Blog (and sampled above). The disc includes the concept video for "NICO," a prototype the team worked on before ICO, as well as a new roundtable discussion and behind-the-scenes developer video. Oh, and there's new footage of The Last Guardian, the new game allegedly being worked on at the studio. But what we really want to see is Fumito Ueda and crew discussing "the original US packaging for ICO." We don't know whether to expect an attempt at justification, or just an apology.
ICO and Shadow of the Colossus has reversible boxart, Last Guardian not at TGS
The North American box art for the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection is ... not super great. We're no graphic designers or anything, but we do prefer our game cases to be a tad less hideous than that. Fortunately, the flipside of that cover plays host to a much more appealing vision: A stylish representation of the Japanese and European cover for ICO, and a slightly modified version of the European version of Shadow of the Colossus -- neither of which are obstructed by gaudy frames or signage. We hope the inclusion of this good-looking cover is enough to fill you with goodwill towards Team ICO, because this next part certainly won't: PlayStation Blog has revealed that The Last Guardian won't appear at the Tokyo Game Show. The blog explains, "we can assure you that Ueda-san and the rest of the development team are hard at work to bring his lofty vision to life and deliver the very best gaming experience possible." We just hope they can do so before the heat death of the universe.
Eurogamer compares ICO, Shadow of the Colossus PS2 and PS3 incarnations
Eurogamer's Digital Foundry previously speculated what Team Ico's ICO and Shadow of the Colossus would look like in HD, but now they've gotten their hands on the real thing. Obtaining Bluepoint Games' conversions allowed the site to match up the PS3 and PS2 versions side-by-side. "The good news with the PS3 version of Shadow of the Colossus is that the performance is much more consistent, with none of the sudden lurches between 30, 20 and 15 frames per second that characterized the PS2 original," the site notes. "Both Ico and Colossus on PS3 run at 30 frames per second ... and while we might have hoped for a locked 60FPS, quite why Ico can't hit that target is a bit of a mystery, the final code that Bluepoint Games has handed in ticks pretty much every box that Ico and Shadow of the Colossus fans would want." Head on over to Eurogamer for the comparison videos for ICO and the full 13-minute Shadow of the Colossus opening.
Take a look at the gorgeous openings of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD
Sure, you've already shed dozens of sympathy tears over Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, but have you ever shed tears of joy from the sheer beauty of the games, now updated to high-def? Well, these two videos, showcasing the opening to each game from the upcoming Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection re-release, may cause a bit of eye-born precipitation. At very least, they'll serve to get you extra pumped for the September launch of the remastered duo on PlayStation 3.
Bonus content detailed for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD
As if owning HD versions of two of the best games of the previous generation wasn't enough reason to pick up the Ico & Shadow of the Colossus Collection, Sony has revealed bonus content that will be included with the PS3 re-release. In addition to the remastered games, the collection will also include two dynamic PS3 themes, one for each title. Also included with the collection will be "a ton of exclusive video content from ICO, Shadow of the Colossus, and The Last Guardian." While bonus content for Ico and Shadow of the Colossus is certainly nice, any content related to the mysterious Last Guardian is very enticing indeed.
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus HD trailers are too pretty, too soon
As legendary singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka kind-of-almost said: Waking up is hard to do. If you, like us, are still bleary-eyed from the shock of no longer being unconscious, you're probably not ready for the potent, otherworldly beauty of these Ico and Shadow of the Colossus (HD) trailers.
Shadow of the Colossus' lost ending
Team Ico head Fumito Ueda was looking through his notes, and discovered a tantalizing piece of gaming ephemera: a storyboard of an unused ending from Shadow of the Colossus. We're pretty sure it doesn't constitute a spoiler, because, well, it isn't the ending, and it's a difficult image to parse anyway. Looking at the picture, we think we can just barely make it out ... it looks like ... Wander is waking up to discover that it was all just a dream! And then there's a knock on the door, and it's Argo the horse and all of the Colossi. And they've all brought birthday presents, and a Colossus-sized pizza with all your favorite giant toppings! If you'd like to inspect the image for yourself for evidence of monolithic birthday parties, you can find it in slightly larger form after the break. We're not trying to make it a puzzle or anything -- that's just the size of the image that Ueda tweeted.
ICO and Shadow of the Colossus collection coming this September
We might have guessed this was coming, after final release dates were just announced for Japan, but now it's official. The once-delayed ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection for PS3 has now been dated for North America. You'll be able to feel bad about destroying ginormous creatures, and yell at a teenage girl, in glorious HD and 3D in September, the same month it arrives in Japan.
Ico and Shadow of the Colossus arriving separately in Japan on September 22
Following the recent delay of the ICO and Shadow of the Colossus remakes, Sony Computer Entertainment has now provided a new release window for the PS3 games in Japan: September 22. In that region, each game is sold separately for ¥3,980 ($50). Sony is also offering a single box with both games in it for ¥6,980 ($87), which adds a 100-page booklet and dynamic PS3 themes. Along with the announcement, new Japanese sites have opened for both ICO and Shadow of the Colossus And if you listen closely, you can hear Ico calling you past the break of this post, beckoning you toward the new trailer. Can you hear it? Buhhhhhhhhhhh!
The Last Guardian, Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection delayed
Perhaps it's best that we don't hasten the inevitable, tragic death of a majestic creature or its adventurous boy companion. Sony has announced a worldwide delay for The Last Guardian, the third of Team ICO's wistful adventures and the first to debut on PlayStation 3. In a statement on the PlayStation Blog, creative director Fumito Ueda says The Last Guardian had to be bumped out of its original holiday 2011 launch window "to provide more challenging and better quality of content to users and to fulfill First Party Studio's obligations." He assures readers that the development team is working at a "fast pace," while ensuring a "First Party Studio" level of quality. "I sincerely apologize to all the customers who have been waiting for "The Last Guardian" for so long, but I beg for your patience," he said. "I will also announce the new release timing at a later time." Please, Mr. Ueda, there's no need to beg. We understand, and appreciate your dedication to -- what's this? The ICO and Shadow of the Colossus Collection has also been pushed out of Spring 2011? So ... whoa. UEEEEEDDDAAAA!!!!!
