Shadow of the Colossus—a game that looms large on the consciousness of video gaming history—got another full-on PlayStation 4 Pro trailer (here's the one from June showing off mostly different footage). You can see the detail that went into every texture from the opening moments. Yes, you're the young man Wander, riding your trusty steed, Agro. But look at the textures and shadows in this narrow hall! And look at how it throws the doors wide open on the scenery down below as they ride forward!
It's a good trick. You get the dim lighting of the narrow hallway. You get the solid stonework. You get palm leaves casting shadows along bumpy surfaces. You get the bright yellow sun beaming through an overcast skybox. And you get a long, long sight line all the way down to a desert-swept ground, hundreds of feet below, and a straight and narrow bridge heading a country mile out to a dark castle.
Then we introduce the colossi themselves, one bursting through an ancient wall, rock particles breaking out in every direction, falling with a weight that a lot of game developers don't get right when designing their own busted architecture.
One colossus looks like a monkey holding a tower for a club. Then there's a rat-faced flying colossus, perching on a different tower. Then a flying serpent soaring above the ruins. A bug-eyed Sparta-mask-wearing one. Then it cuts back to the monkey colossus, a black spray of blood shooting out of its brain pan. Back to the flying rat with you dangling off its shoulder. Sparta colossus brings its pillar of a weapon down on you, or monkey colossus eats it, with the ground breaking up on impact. Either way, the message is clear: You must bring these beasts down.
This rebuilt-from-the-ground-up-for-PS4 Shadow of the Colossus is coming sometime next year.
