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NICO (ICO's sequel): first screens!


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Thanks to a kind forum member at Neoseeker.com, here are a crapload of in-game action shots:

 

Vergleich.jpg

 

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic1.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic2.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic3.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic4.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic5.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic6.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/nico.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/Vergleich.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic7.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic8.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic9.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic10.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic11.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic12.jpg

http://people.freenet.de/finalsun3/pic13.jpg

 

Notice the staggering scale of the gameworld. And I thought ICO was overwhelming, get a look at that massive monster thingy in NICO! Also, it looks like you'll be able to ride horses, and be joined by other rare horned boys. The screens show them chasing after that huge beast, jumping from their steeds, and onto the beast - omg, do I have to do that in the game?!

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The thing I didn't like about Ico was that it seemed to confined to be considered an epic, it basically took place in all the same area.

 

Nico seems to be the complete opposite, and I have a feeling it's going to be a classic when it's released.

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Originally posted by SamandMax

The thing I didn't like about Ico was that it seemed to confined to be considered an epic, it basically took place in all the same area.

 

Nico seems to be the complete opposite, and I have a feeling it's going to be a classic when it's released.

 

Hmmm, I never even considered that ICO was trying to be epic. If anything, its intent was that of intimacy and sometimes opposing elements - between ICO and Yorda, between the unyielding, forbidding castle and the two mortals, between innocence and painful rites of passage. NICO, on the other hand, looks to explode beyond the intimacy and bring narrative to a far more vast plane.

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1)I agree, homo.

2)A while back, there was a whole bunch of (uncorroborated) information from a friend of Ueda (ICO/Nico director) on the ICO GameFAQs board. For example, as to the question "Will Ico and Yorda be in it?" he answered, "Yes... in a way." There were lots of other much more informative things said (like Ueda's desire to make the world much more interactive, and that he's got a huge fantasy world in his head, but he's going to continue the enigmatic feel for Nico, releasing only tiny bits of info), but I don't remember most of it, and I believe it's expired off the board.

3)Ni is Japanese for 2. IIRC, YMMV, IDNSJ: The text on the screen is credits, one being an animator, the other being some sort of "designer" (Engrish for content creator, such as level designer, artist), I forget. Both were on the ICO staff.

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Oops. :o Didn't recognize you there, trep. Hello. :) I s'pose I could call you by your real name, providing I remember it (Beiddie? err...), which I don't.

 

:grnbounc:

 

ICO withdrawal...

 

Yeah, Nico looks and sounds to be real cool.

 

If I happen to remember any other details from the GameFAQs thread, I'll post them. I remember it being mentioned that some of the staff to a trip to the Grand Canyon a year back to get some inspiration. That's all for now...

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I really hoped they made ICO on pc...but i guess that's just "silly ideas" :p

 

Anyway i hope NICO shall be on the PC...

 

From what i know ICO was so good because it never thought it self as being THE GAME. It kept a slow profile and some genious and simple ideas.

And actually i have heard that it is very difficult to get it, as there were little copies...thus making also a kind of a myth :)

 

-------------

 

Trep...would it be ok for me to ask of what that "homoludens" means? :D

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Originally posted by pleto4_ryan

I really hoped they made ICO on pc...but i guess that's just "silly ideas" :p

 

Anyway i hope NICO shall be on the PC...

 

From what i know ICO was so good because it never thought it self as being THE GAME. It kept a slow profile and some genious and simple ideas.

And actually i have heard that it is very difficult to get it, as there were little copies...thus making also a kind of a myth :)

 

So far not even any rumours floating around of a PC port - after all, Sony has it under its grip. It also wasn't marketed here in the States [North America] very well at all (stupid suits). It could really have won all our hearts over, as it's a fairly easy game to master, and the way it's created and presented thematically is so charming to the mainstream and casual gamer. I mean, I can see fricking soccer moms and that moron Senator Lieberman playing ICO!! That's how ubiquitously attractive it is!

 

Trep...would it be ok for me to ask of what that "homoludens" means? :D

 

Latin: 'man who plays games'

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Originally posted by Homoludens

Latin: 'man who plays games'

 

the homo sapiens who luden ludens? :p

 

This actually reminds me a film where they were trying to learn latin(in a school) and most words they were saying was Homo sapiens....homo blah homo blah...etc....:confused:

 

---------------------------------------

 

:deathstar....................:deathii:

........pick your self....

pick your deathstar

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ICO and NICO are very unlikely coming to the PC. Developed and published by Sony, and using a bunch of neato proprietary graphical effects to show off the Emotion Engine, it would not only be hard to port, but defeat the purpose. Not only that, but if the rumors are true, the team is working fulltime on Nico, and the game didn't get enough North American revenue to justify hiring somebody to port it. IMO.

 

There's a man across the hall who sounds like Ernie (I think... the short, non-banana one). It's hard to keep from laughing.

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Originally posted by Lazy Z

Whoa! That looks amazing. I just hope they can retain that "magical" feeling of the original.

Same here! What i liked about ICO was its charming simplicity. Hope they won't try to make it "epic" this time around (with dozens of huge monsters and larger-than-life guns :p )

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Originally posted by Igor S1

Same here! What i liked about ICO was its charming simplicity. Hope they won't try to make it "epic" this time around (with dozens of huge monsters and larger-than-life guns :p )

"Epic" doesn't have to mean "cluttered." I'm confident that the team can (through their daring use of non-traditional graphics and camera angles, not to mention Ueda's goals for expanding the interactivity of the world 100-fold) make the game epic without losing that magical feel. What (I'm hoping) will be gone is the close, "familiar" feel. This game is going to hand us our asses, and leave of out to dry, and I'm going to continue to mix metaphors so long as I'm speaking in pure conjecture.

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Yeah, i exaggerated with "epic" a bit- i'm quite sure there won't be any of big guns and unnecessary monsters (if first game is anything to judge by). I'm just saying i'm bigger fan of little, intimate stories (what ICO certainly was and i think people like it especially because of this- it somehow separated it from the rest of games (or at least most of them)), than big epic ones... no matter how good they are put together.

Anyway, screens are looking great and i'm holding my breath :)

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Originally posted by twifkak

ICO and NICO are very unlikely coming to the PC. Developed and published by Sony, and using a bunch of neato proprietary graphical effects to show off the Emotion Engine, it would not only be hard to port, but defeat the purpose.

 

Interestingly enough, I absolutely cannot visualize playing ICO on PC. Somehow it truly takes advantage of the low resolution of the t.v. screen, creating a sort of dreamlike, sunwashed haze over the gameworld. No PC game yet has actually made me feel the heat and blinding light of the early morning sun like ICO has. Technically, I think this is radiosity lighting we're talking about, the same lighting that Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon will be using. I think if ICO were ported to the PC it may lose this quality, unless they incorporated some kind of filter (like in SH2 with that graininess), and even then the luminosity may be heavily compromised.

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Originally posted by Homoludens

Interestingly enough, I absolutely cannot visualize playing ICO on PC. Somehow it truly takes advantage of the low resolution of the t.v. screen, creating a sort of dreamlike, sunwashed haze over the gameworld.

ICO is actually played at half-resolution on the PS2. I think that's just because it's a complicated engine that couldn't run at full resolution at a decent speed (as it is, we see slow down occasionally). Others like to conjecture (or maybe read it?) that it's because Ueda wanted it to look like an impressionist painting, though. Take that for what you will. I think it's better on the TV, a)because non-gamers are more easily able to be "immersed" on consoles, b)because it uses the vibration effectively.

 

There is definitely radiosity lighting in ICO, but there are other, much cooler effects. The HDRI lighting -- when there's something brighter than the brightest white possible on the TV, the darken the rest of the screen instead, and they blur the edges (like the human eye). Volumetric lighting. Motion blur. But that's just MO. I didn't really notice the radiosity until I really looked for it, but I suppose subtle things can be very powerful.

 

Help me out, s; what's "Le Petit Prince"?

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