Best Game You Never Played: Ico

While everyone will be busy with games like Crysis and Halo this holiday season, it's easy to forget that games can have a milder, less violent tone to them. I know, it's true, like zomg!!!

One such game came out for the PS2 back in 2001. It was called Ico, and it was from the same developers that brought us the excellent Shadow of the Colossus. I'm sure many people have heard of the game, but have never tried it, seeing how it has had limited releases in the past. But I urge, if not beg you, to try and pick up a copy of your own.


The story is simple, you play as a young boy, named Ico, who is being sacrificed at a castle with apparently no admission fee, because of the set of horns that have grown on his head, which supposedly brings his village bad luck. While locked away in his "sacrificial pod" some rumbling of the dated machinery of the castle loosens the rock the pod is sitting on and thus it tumbles open, freeing our protagonist. Along the way, you find a girl named Yorda that was also locked away, and thus you being your quest to escape the castle.

The main gameplay mechanics are simple, and is similar to what we have seen in games like Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider. You explore the environment, solving puzzles that will lead you to the next door. But in this game, you also have to guide Yorda around since she has a magical power to open certain doors to make you progress. Of coarse, Yorda is not as nimble as you, so you must leave her behind and create simpler paths for her to follow, sometimes using her as elements of the puzzles themselves.

Just to throw in a bit of action, occasionally shadowy figures will come and try to capture Yorda, which obviously prevents you from moving further. A fairly simple combat system involving a piece of 2x4 also adds a challenge in itself since attacks must be planned and quick. This adds yet another level of depth to the game.

On top of all this, you also have a fantastic artistic style (yes, similar to SotC) with a great use of Bloom lighting, atmospheric sound effects, and the perfect musical score.


The icing on the cake though is your connection to the characters. You really care for Ico and Yorda, as they obviously care about each other. This is further supported with a story that gives you just enough to know whats going on, and it all leads to a satisfying ending.

My only complaint was that it was rather short, but the fun to be had is well worth it. If nothing else, it offers up a true gaming "experience" that not many titles can mimic.

Vista, a second much angrier look

Okay so I'm done explaining away Vista's problems the way a mother says her sons manic depression has nothing to do with the lack of attention she offered (this is not my mum!) Alright so I've had Vista for several months and after much ooing and awing at the nifty little features Vista brought into my life I came to a Foot to Crotch conclusion

Vista would be great, if it worked.

I read all the great things Vista does like DX10 and improved Security, and other little treats that should've keep me going until the next Windows and got rather giddy. But after months of lying to myself the sweet treats of innovation and new don't add up to shit in your palm if the damn thing doesn't function.

I mean it, Vista is the most frustrating thing I've had to go through since I got it. First programs never worked right, I couldn't open up jack without Vista having a panic attack and the bloody support is craptastic.

This must be tough for those who don't own Vista to fully comprehend so here's a list of things I would rather do than install and use Vista again.

-Stub a broken toe
-Wipe myself with an angry otter
-Buy a copy of Water World on DVD
-Sit between a man who smells and a woman who snores on a trip to New Zealand

However after all the cursing and twitching was over I managed to collect myself when I realized; Vista reminded me just how shitty ever other version of Windows has been excluding the yawningly successful Windows 98 and the only other real choice Windows XP.

I'm sorry Microsoft but you're stuck up cheerleader OS just ain't cutting it, maybe its time to loose the flare and work on some integrity.

Team Fortress 2

Now I know all you readers out there missed my brilliant quips for the past month or so and have been beating yourselves with a sack of marbles wondering where I've been. We'll to put it straight I've been hibernating amongst schoolwork and video games, but enough about me; lets talk Team Fortress 2

Being the sequel the original Team Fortress, TF2 (T for Team,F for Fortress and 2 for the IQ of people who ask what TF2 means later on) picks where the last one left off; killing other players as a variety of classes which give you some sense of individuality. You have your spy, heavy weapons man, soldier and annoying scout; all of which have their weaknesses and strengths. No horse dung.

Moving on the Game is a fresh breath into the pre-teen Ritalin consuming genre where clicking as fast as you can = pwnage (sorry for sounding like a twit, it was only for effect). The game forces you to know you're class and how to use them effectively. And that's about it really.

I'm serious, it's not the gigantic leap in multiplayer gaming you all thought you were getting into when you proceeded to let Steam sodomize you with another piece of Half Life 2 spin. The maps become more lame than Samuel Jackson in "Invincible" after several hours of play and there are still those annoying twats who find glee in drive nails through your ears into your lungs.


But aside from the shortcomings I still love the game and would greatly enjoy to be the only person on the planet who thinks its merely 'meh; but I simply cannot. Granted the game isn't the multiplayer game I was looking for but it is a gigantic flamethrower to fire leap until compare to Counter Strike and all the other FPS rip offs that have a gimmick. TF2 doesn't have a gimmick. The class system really does matter and truly puts the Team in TF2 (vomit). Letting the tard who cleans the dishes in a school dining hall pick your class is a poor decision because you actually have to put some thought. Provided you aren't the pubescent hyperactive child who thinks Halo is better than a steak and a blow job and have made it all the way through to the end of this rant, or said tard who cleans dishes.

So in two seconds of closure because formal conclusions are for Philosophers and Historians, buy TF2 please and learn to like your teammates

MS Office Goes Online... Sorta

With free solutions for productivity coming from the likes of Open Office and Google Docs, Microsoft seems to be feeling the heat, and thus have now come up with Office Live Workspace. This new tool, being apart of Windows Live, will allow users to access online tools to view, but not edit, files such as Word documents and Excel spreadsheets.

It makes sense, since there will probably be no chance in hell that Microsoft will give up its favorite hoe for free while it can make the easy money pimping (forgive the lame reference). However, keeping it free has its price. While a beta is only going to start later this year, Microsoft has supposedly designed the program to support ads.

Whether this read-only tactic will actually work is still debatable. Microsoft has a firm grasp on the offline office productivity side, but will they have enough time to grab it online as well? Stay tuned to Devicing for updates.

The New Zune Just Got Cool

Microsoft annonced today the second generation of thier Zune portable media players, and it seems they took all of our complaints to heart and actually made the player that much more attractive, design wise and functionality wise.

So, lets start off with the big one, called the Zune 80, obviously since it is now updated to a 80 GB hard drive. The screen is overall a bit larger then the original, while the entire device itself is much smaller, with dimension of 2.4 x 4.25 x 0.5-inches. The device also features a new design of its d-pad, so it doesn't fool the consumers that it is a clickwheel or something, but it still has a very similar layout.

The other models are either a 8 or 4 GB flash player, which as you can see is a bit smaller, and offers all of the software perks of the larger one. One thing to note is that screen size is smaller, and unit size is larger then the recently announced Ipod Nano, so keep that in mind. The original Zune will still be around, with the name Zune 30, for its 30 GB hard drive, but thankfully it is also getting a full software upgrade just like the other models. If you already have one, check for a firmware update since you also get the upgrade.

The software is probably the most important change, since you still get the same features as the original, but now with more support. You get h.264 and MPEG-4 video support, as well as podcast support. Wi-fi is actually used now, where you can sync it with a PC, but can not download songs directly from an online store. Also, that whole 3 day or 3 play policy for music sharing, its now only 3 plays, which gives us a little bit of freedom I guess. Finally, the interface has been redone, and is supposedly much easier and faster.

Another nice change is that the Zune store is going DRM free for all of its songs, which is a big plus, but still no word if previously bought songs can be changed, or even what labels are being supported.

Overall, $250 for the Zune 80, $200 for the Zune 8, and $150 for the Zune 4 are not bad deals, and may actually be a contender against Apple this holiday season. Expect these things to ship sometime in November.

(Source)