Shadow of the Colossus is going to be made into a movie.

I was going to just make a post that said Sony can go fuck themselves, but I've now thought better of it. Instead, I'm going to tell them exactly why their ape brains are apparently venting too many nutrients, because this is fucking retarded.

According to Variety, Sony is readying a film version of Shadow of the Colossus, to be written by Justin Marks. Who is Justin Marks, you ask? Let me tell you. He wrote the fantastically deep and thoughtful Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Sony, let me ask you a question. What the fuck is wrong with you? Are you fucking serious? What, from the long list of, I'm sure, excellent films this dude has written, has given you the impression he could pen a story for Shadow of the Colossus? Actually, I'm getting ahead of myself. What makes you think Shadow of the Colossus could, in any conceivable way, be turned into a film that resembles something other than a freshly-laid loaf?

You see, there is a very important thing that a lot of industry leaders seem to just not realize, or not give a shit about:

Games, as a medium, is way different than film. Something that works well in a game won't necessarily work at all in a movie. I have the same problem with Bioshock being fucked over, but this right here goes above and beyond the call of duty (and no, that shouldn't be made into a movie, either). There is absolutely nothing in Shadow of the Colossus that would lead anyone to believe a film should be made about it. First off, what would it be about? The game had a story, but it was pretty much all subtext and inference; you got out as much as you put in. The genius and beauty about it was the journey, not the dialogue or cutscenes. If I were a betting man, I'd lay a sizeable chunk down on there being a fucking sappy, drawn-out love story between a couple of asshats I hate looking at. I'll say this much, though - if I had any sort of confidence in a movie studio to at least try their best to keep every single thing about the game that made it special intact, then I would only be, on a mad-as-piss scale of 10, at about a 10. But my confidence levels being what they are, I'm now at about a 35, give or take.

Face it, Sony, you're not going to keep its spirit intact, you're not going to have minimal dialogue, you're not going to have it be ten hours long, you're not even going to keep the story the same, and you're sure as fuck not going to get me to go see this god damned debacle.

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Gaming Flashback: Silent Hill 2 - Welcome to the Sins of Your Life

Let's cut to the chase: Silent Hill 2 may still be the greatest character study in gaming history. It's also still one of the most consistently organic games ever made.

To start off, I must say that if you are reading this, you should expect a lot of spoilers, as this is a retrospective on a game that, if you haven't already played it, you should immediately stop reading and go find a copy of it to play.

Now back to the topic at hand.

In many ways, it is actually inappropriate to look at Silent Hill 2 as any kind of sequel, despite the fact that it shares the location of its predecessor. Realistically, Silent Hill 2 redefined why the town of Silent Hill existed, and more importantly, gave it a valuable purpose.

Gone were the conspiracies and cult conflicts of the first game. Silent Hill 2 didn't even require you to understand the history of the town, and realistically, you were better served without knowing it when playing the game. Instead, the sequel (in name only) created a more intimate portrait of a smaller cast of characters, and gave the town a utility for existence. Silent Hill wasn't just a living, breathing game world. It was a personified character all on it's own, with its own motivations and intentions.

More importantly, Silent Hill 2 was successful in the way that it fused the gameplay experience metaphorically into the inner conflicts of each of its characters. To the little girl, Laura, Silent Hill was simply a normal town that had been deserted. She had no inner demons to cope with, or past sins for which to atone, and as a result, no origin for reconciliation. She was a pitch-perfect portrayal of innocence not yet lost.

In contrast, for James Sunderland, Eddie Dombrowski, and Angela Orosco, Silent Hill was a proving ground for facing inner demons and a place of punishment for the guilty conscience and past transgressions. Those who were unable to cope were destroyed, be it physically or mentally. However, for those strong enough to survive, Silent Hill was also a place of self-redemption.

That determination was left up to the player, and it is also in this function that Silent Hill 2 elevates itself to one of those few masterpieces where gameplay, story, and outcome intertwine into one unified purpose. Choices made by the player, and therefore James, affected whether or not James would find self-redemption, and unlike other games, where player choices can be arbitrary and usually unrelated to the story itself, Silent Hill 2 made them organic.


Examining the suicide knife left on the table by Angela? Then you've made James realize suicide as the means to an end. Do you look at the portrait of your wife and the drawing that Laura left on the window? Then James would realize the error of his ways and disengage himself from Maria, allowing him to leave the town with Laura and have his moment of confession with his wife. Do you ignore all of those, and simply attach yourself to Maria, the double of your wife meant to punish James for his sins? Then you better be prepared for James to leave Silent Hill with Maria and be punished all over again with Maria becoming terminally ill, just as Mary did.

Even the monsters you fought in Silent Hill 2 also existed seamlessly with the town and plot, each being a physical manifestation of the very demons and sins the characters were facing. Angela, who was facing both torment and sin, was forced to face her childhood molestation in the form of a boss shaped like a disfigured bed. Unfortunately, for Angela, she was not able to overcome her torment, nor the sin she had committed when she burned her house down and killed her mother and father. Her fate, then, was left with an eternity of burning, oppressive flames.

As for James, nothing was more perfectly symbolic than facing his sin face-to-face, with a crimson-colored version of his wife, through Maria. Throughout the entire game, every moment of James' interaction with her was a deliberate dance, started by luring James in with seduction and nostalgia, followed by driving against him with persistent guilt, and then ultimately making him watch as she is repeatedly killed in horrifying ways, all while James is helpless to stop it.

It is for all these reasons, and so many more, that Silent Hill 2 remains as one of the most complex and poignant character studies ever attempted in a video game world. By providing a dichotomy of punishment and redemption, the town of Silent Hill creates doubt as to whether or not it truly is evil. For those drowning in their sins and inner struggles, Silent Hill may be their only hope of coping.

Silent Hill is of your own making. Read more...

The only Conan game you ever need to play!!

I'm a huge fan of the early 80's classic Conan the Barbarian. So it's a shame that over the years no developer has ever given Ahnold his just video game treatment....or have they?!

Dust off the Ps2 and travel with me back to 2002..with Sony's The Mark of Kri. This under appreciated classic gem fires on all the right sadistic cylinders and will show you a bloody...and I mean bloody...good time!

OK..so the main character is named Rau and not Conan.., but you can tell that the designers clearly had a hard-on for Arnie's sword and sandal epic. Everything from the Mako-esque opening narration to the unlockable black war paint (like the Schwarz sported when he assaulted Thulsa Doom's all night orgy paradise people soup party) SCREAMS Conan!! Believe me when I tell you this is not a bad thing!

The game is rightly focused on it's clever (even by today's standards) melee combat system which allows you to target and take on wave after wave of A.I. controlled meat sacks. A quick sweep of the right analog stick will place icons over your enemies heads and you're in business. The opponents are idiots to be sure...but the vicious combo system will simply delight you as you dole out punishment to these low I.Q. video game special edders. Human tent pole with a spear...check...decapitations...check... You will become the whirling dirvish of doom as Rau chops and impales his way through the story.

I personally take sick pleasure in the graphical style which looks like a 90's era Disney cartoon gone bad. The key plot points are told through great hand drawn style cut scenes and the music is intense at all the right times.

At a time when money is tight....a game like the Mark of Kri is just begging for you to put it out it's bargain bin misery...so what are you waiting for...seek out Rau and make him a welcome dismember to your Ps2 family!!

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