![]() Set in folkloric Nippon (Japan), the game opens with the narration of a 100 year-old myth. While not a screenshot from Okami, the game immortalizes iconic images like this in its visuals.Īmaterasu, the Japanese female solar deity, in the form of a white wolf is the lead character referenced by the title. This visual approach drawing from art history has bled into Okami’s gameplay and the use of the Celestial Brush which allows the player to draw lines and shapes on the tv screen in order to trigger certain abilities. Taking cel-shaded graphics to the next level, Okami is a living, animated ukiyo-e woodblock print in the style of the Japanese Edo period (1600AD-1860AD) with its hard black-stroke outlines and vivid watercolors. This is largely because of Okami’s distinctive presentation. Some of its fairy tale moments might fly right over the heads of many North American gamers, to say the least, but the heart and themes of the game remain true and archetypal without coming off as trite or dispensable. Expect several trips to Wikipedia while playing Okami. Okami draws heavily from Japanese mythical history and folklore to craft its story and settings. It’s a Japanese word which means “great spirit” or “wolf”, so its a kind of wordplay. Okami translates roughly into something in English, I’m sure. Still, I would recommend getting a hold of either motion controller to get the full immersion into this watercolor world and its unconventional gameplay. It’s not much of a loss to forgo the motion controls. I had the pleasure of playing through Okami with the use of the Wii’s motion controls the first time and though I didn’t have the PlayStation Move motion controller (because I’m not a nerd) when I played the Okami HD edition, I still found it an enjoyable game nonetheless. Critical praise despite poor sales eventually resulted in Okami returning to the PlayStation, to the PS3 specifically, for an updated high-definition remaster in 2012. Originally developed by Clover Studio and published by Capcom, Okami was first released on the PS2 in 2006 and then to a more widespread reception on the Nintendo Wii in 2008.
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![]() For example, to bring down a flying colossus, the bow might come in handy. The puzzle-solving is ingeniously designed based on each colossi's natural abilities and mannerisms. ![]() It's all up to how you use these tools to take down the colossus. When I say "limited", all you really have is a sword and bow (with the occasional torch). With weak points strategically placed on vital parts of its body, players must figure out ways to engage the colossus by using the environment and the limited tools at their disposal. Instead, each colossus is designed like an elaborate puzzle. The mission of slaying colossi isn't as simple as running up to it and hacking away at its feet until it dies. This makes the game remarkably accessible, and removes the extra padding that often weighs down open world games of this scale. Instead, your one objective from the moment-to-moment gameplay is basic: highlight a path to your next target colossus using your sword, travel to its domain, and slay it (a boss rush, if you will). There are no smaller enemies to fight, no meaningless objectives to complete, and no fluff to pad out the game's length. ![]() Shadow of the Colossus is unlike any other action/adventure game on the market, largely thanks to its rather simple gameplay loop. With so much empty space, Shadow of the Colossus fills it with a sense of wonder, mystery, and intrigue - a palpable, haunting atmosphere that few games rarely achieve today. The Forbidden Land features wide open spaces, vast stretches of deserts and fields, and hidden paths in mountains to explore. Finally, Shadow of the Colossus was realized to its full potential on current-gen hardware, and it's truly a sight to behold.īy comparison, Shadow of the Colossus' open world might not scale the ambitious sizes of games like The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, but it more than makes up for its epic scale with the most unique and expansive open world ever put to a video game. While the PS2 game's art style was a limitation of the PS2 hardware back then, Bluepoint had more freedom on the PS4 to create a far more dynamic and immersive world, including fantastic new animations and visual touches for characters and the colossi themselves. Without spoiling too much of the story, the climax is emotional, intense, and well worth the long and epic journey that must simply be experienced to be believed.īluepoint Games did a phenomenal job in the graphics department for Shadow of the Colossus on PS4, taking what Team Ico achieved all the way back on the PS2 and making significant upgrades to its overall visual design. The lands speak of ancient magic that can resurrect his fallen lover, but it comes with a catch: Wander must first slay sixteen enormous creatures that roam the Forbidden Land. Taking place in a far-off, mystical kingdom called the Forbidden Land, Shadow of the Colossus follows the story of Wander, who travels to these lands with his horse, Agro, and deceased lover in arms. Shadow of the Colossus drew a lot of people in thanks to its powerful story - and I use the word "powerful" as the most apt description of its narrative. ![]() I won't be divulging in too many spoilers (since you may have already come across some content about the game), but I'll do my best to condense these points on why the title is a quintessential play on PS4. However, I've decided to compile a more comprehensive look into the numerous reasons why Bluepoint Games' landmark remake of Shadow of the Colossus on PS4 should be high up on your must-play list if you haven't given it a chance. I've already written my fair share of content about my favourite video game of all time, Shadow of the Colossus, from reviewing it on PS4, to dissecting just how effective its open world is, to getting behind-the-scenes to explore the cut colossi from the game. ![]() ![]() This slider can add or subtract body contrast, and you can toggle down to additional sliders that move the body lighting effects relative to the lighting position set in the lighting direction control, or adjust the hue and brightness of your highlights and shadows. ![]() To help give more control over body lighting, there’s now a Body Contrast slider that works with the masking controls (if you don’t have Automatically Find Background on in your preferences, you’ll need to turn on the Layers panel and give the background mask a little help). The Lighting Brush (which works like dodging and burning) has moved from the Tools panel to Lighting & Coloring where it really belongs. Working your way through the controls and sliders, combined with the sophisticated AI facial recognition and algorithms, gives you such intricate control over your images and so much potential for different looks and professional-looking final images that it feels like a waste of time and effort to do it “the right way” for all, but perhaps the most high-paying (read, demanding) clients. So let’s take a peek at what’s been added to the PortraitPro 22. Simply opening an image in PortraitPro can get you halfway there. Photographers, designers, and photo editors know that it can take many hours (and layers) to do a soup-to-nuts portrait retouch. But who doesn’t like a quality shortcut? Each time I have an opportunity to test and review PortraitPro from Anthropics (this time, PortraitPro Studio Max), I get excited to see what improvements they’ve made to what I know is already a great piece of software. Speedy Retouching that Keeps Getting BetterĪs a Photoshop user and aficionado, naturally that’s my gold standard for retouching portraits. ![]() Oceanic transform faults (OTFs) are prominent linear features in the ocean-basins, offsetting mid-ocean ridges by tens to several hundreds of kilometers and hence juxtaposing oceanic lithosphere of contrasting age (Fox & Gallo, 1984 Wilson, 1965). Our observation evidences extensional tectonics at OTFs. Comparison of correlations suggests that age-offset scales better with the morphological parameters, along with scatters mostly at small age-offsets, indicating small-age-offset OTFs are unstable due to their weak lithospheric strength. We find that correlations between morphological features and spreading rate are rather weak. Moreover, correlations between these morphological parameters and related tectonic factors (e.g., spreading rate, age-offset) were investigated in this study. Using the most complete and advanced compilation of bathymetric data from ultraslow- to intermediate-spreading ridges, we parameterized the morphological characteristics of OTFs and extracted length, width and depth for each transform fault from the compiled bathymetric data. Block diagram and map view for Question 7.In the past 5 decades, studies on oceanic transform faults (OTFs) have revealed significant complexity in their morphology, which calls for detailed quantitative analysis to study the processes controlling the morphology of OTFs. Right Lateral Transform Fault.ģD interactive model of Figure 17: Figure 18. This is true no matter which block you are standing on, because it is relative motion! Sometimes, transform faults will be marked with the relative motion directions on either side of the fault (Figures 17 and 18). In a right-lateral transform fault, your friend on the opposite block moves towards your right. In a left-lateral transform fault, your friend on the opposite block moves towards your left. Imagine you are standing on one side of a transform fault looking across the fault to a friend on the other side. The fault plane can be vertical or at an angle ( Figures 17 and 18). In transform or strike-slip faults, one block moves laterally relative to the other block – it does not matter which one is the hanging wall or footwall. Thrust Fault.ģD interactive model of Figure 16: Transform or Strike-slip Faults Reverse Fault.Ī reverse fault that has a shallowly dipping fault plane (perhaps less than about 45 degrees) is called a thrust fault (Figure 16). In map view, the hanging wall rocks will be older than the footwall rocks, due to erosion of the uplifted side ( Figure 15). This motion can be determined by tracing the offset of the beds in a vertical motion in a block diagram. In reverse faults, the hanging wall moves upwards relative to the footwall. Normal Fault.ģD interactive model of Figure 14: Reverse Faults In map view, the hanging wall rocks will be younger than the footwall rocks, due to erosion of the uplifted side. In normal faults, the hanging wall moves downward relative to the footwall ( Figure 13 and Figure 14). There are three main types of faults: normal faults, reverse faults, and transform or strike-slip faults. ![]() A good way to remember this is to imagine a mine tunnel running along a fault the hanging wall would be where a miner would hang a lantern and the footwall would be at the miner’s feet.įigure 13 (Click on link): Hanging wall, footwall, and scarp of a normal fault. In a dip-slip system, the footwallis below the fault plane and the hanging wall is above the fault plane. Dip-slip motion consists of relative up-and-down movement along a dipping fault between two blocks, the hanging wall and footwall. Normal and reverse faults display vertical, also known as dip-slip, motion. If it is visible at the surface, it is called a fault scarp (Figure 13). The plane along which motion occurs is called the fault plane. Faults are the places in the crust where brittle deformation occurs as two blocks of rocks move relative to one another. |