Shadow of the Colossus

[peter]

I'm playing this on my new PS4 and am blown away by.....???.....well, just everything about it. It looks absolutely stunning. When you take your trusty steed Argo down onto the beach for a gallop the trail you leave in the sand is just like the trail you leave in the sand, the waves roll in and bowl you over just like waves rolling you in and bowling you over and the surf foams and froths just like surf foaming and frothing.

But the main wonder of this 'game' is how it works, despite there being nothing in it! No people, no cities, no baddies popping up from behind every rock trying to kill you. No hidden treasure, no side quests (and a minimal main one that I haven't even started yet) - just you and Argo and a great big world for you to explore, the rewards of which are simply the world itself. Don't get me wrong, there is stuff to do (yesterday while swimming under a lake's surface I discovered I could hang from the fishes tails and be pulled around under the water), but at present I just seem perfectly absorbed doing nothing. This is exploration in a way that other 'open world' games don't achieve, the gaming equivalent of Pooh Bear's favourite occupation and I love it.

[Cagliostro]

Yeah, I was absolutely in love with it when it came out for the PS2 originally. I got it and Ico for the PS3, but haven't upgraded again to be able to play it on the PS4.
I have been playing something that has a very small connective link to Shadows of the Colossus in that it is an open world that you can have a lot of fun just exploring the countryside without actually furthering the story for hours on end. It's called Horizon Zero Dawn, and I'd highly recommend that one. It does fill up the countryside with people and....let's just say "things to fight", but it's done in a glorious and haunting way, and the storyline is amazing and touches all my emotional buttons both with storylines, side quests and just the thrill of certain moments. One of my favorite videogame moments of all time happens in Shadows of the Colossus (without spoilers, it involves a difficult to mount flying Colossus), and I can definitely add another one from Horizon Zero Dawn that will hang with me for a long time to come. I am especially impressed with this game, and as a nearly 50 year old gamer who has gamed the majority of my life away, I find myself with such little time to play games these days, but I have been dragging this one out as long as I can because I enjoy it so much. And I'm a little afraid that they aren't going to stick the landing, if you catch my meaning.

I just want to add that maybe the less you know about this game, the better. At least that was what worked for me.

[peter]

Cag - that is an extremely welcome post, because by chance I have that very game in my (small) 'waiting to play' pile as we speak! I've not long had my PS4, and have been experimenting with a few games to date. I've made short inroads into Witcher 3 and Assassin's Creed Origins (I think - the Egyptian one anyways) as well as Shadow of the Colossus. I'm now playing Uncharted 4 - A Thief's End and will probably see this one through as it is a more contained thing. I also have Fallout 4 to play, so I've got enough gaming potential to keep me amused for many a month really!

[Cagliostro]

Uncharted 4 is amazing as well. I really enjoyed that, but had followed the series since the 2nd one. It's not my usual type of game that I enjoy, but it was wonderful. And the other one that followed without Nathan Drake was especially good too, and not much of a time commitment.
The Last Guardian is made by the people who made Shadow of the Colossus, and was the big reason I bought a PS4 (and the PS3 for that matter as it was originally supposed to come out on that console), but strangely enough, I've never finished it. It's pretty amazing, but I lost my steam for that game for some reason. I keep meaning to go back and start it over again, but...I dunno.