Una de las preguntas más frecuentes que se hace un jugón cada vez que damos un salto generacional es:

¿Cuanto nos acercaremos al fotorealismo esta vez? Este sueño se suele acerecentar después de que cada compañía muestre demos técnicas en las presentaciones de las consolas que rara vez son alcanzadas en la vida útil de la misma.

Todo el mundo recordará la sensación que provocó Gran Tursimo 3 la primera vez que se mostró :

GUAU !!!! Es fotorealista, sin emabargo el tiempo pasa y ahora miramos hacia atrás preguntándonos como podíamos decir tal cosa.

Pues bueno, otra generación más, y como espera para el Gran Turismo 5 Polyphony nos brinda un Prólogo de su obra que una vez más lleva los gráficos una paso más allá.

Viendo ésto, ¿que es lo primero que se os viene a la cabeza?

Las comparativas Realidad VS Ficción ya no parece tan abismal :

Realmente el fotorealismo en un juego dudo que se alcance en bastante tiempo, pero desde luego esto ya se acerca bastante, y apostaría lo que fuese que al 90% de la gente le metes cualquiera de esas imágenes en medio de unas fotos de coches y serían incapaces de distinguirlas.Algo completamente in game llevará todavía más tiempo alcanzarlo, pero de las imágenes que he puesto hay alguna in game y son alucinantes.

Hay muchos juegos que son un claro ejemplo de obsesión , como puede ser un Metal Gear o un Smash Bros., pero sin duda ninguna Gran Turismo representa el culmen de la obsesión por la perfección.

No hay día que entre en el foro en el que no lea algún comentario en el foro en que alguien pide la "Evolución" de un cierto juego o saga. Hasta aquí la cosa es totalmente comprensible, y hasta diría que más o menos necesaria.

Bueno pues ahí va mi reflexión ....

Hay que diferenciar entre Evolución de una saga y destrozo de la misma. Creo que la evolución de una saga hay que hacerla siempre en base a los usuarios que la conviertieron en tal, es decir, sus fans y nunca en base a una casualización de la misma y dejando de lado a los primeros. Un juego nunca debería dejar de lado las señas identificativas que hicieron que dicho juego fuese seguido con afán por una comunidad de jugadores que hizo posible que se creara la franquicia.

 Yo soy de los que el cambio del Resident Evil 4 le sentó como una patada en los huevos,hecho que hizo que mi interés por la saga bajase mucho, lo mismo que pasará el día en el que me quiten el increíble diseño de mazmorras del Zelda,el plataformeo del Super Mario, el equilibrio entre narrativa y jugabilidad de un Metal Gear o el  perfeccionismo y mimo de un Gran Turismo.

Cada uno de la lista de los juegos que he puesto arriba (excepto el Super Mario) tienen algunos puntos mejorables, y sería de agradecer que algún día se solucionasen, pero si algo guardan en común es el trabajo y mimo que recibe cada entrega, que está a años luz de la inmensa mayoría de los juegos.

* The Legend of Zelda : El único problema que le veo a la saga es que a veces puedes sentir una sensación de Déjà vu en la resolución de los puzles. ¿Me importa? Algo sí, pero es algo esencial e identificativo de la saga y me gusta. Cambiarle el sistema de mazmorras para mí es matarlo.

* Super Mario : Perfección en estado puro, no cambiaría nada.

* Metal Gear Solid : Lo único que le pediría a esta saga es que el mundo fuese UNO, y no tenerlo dividido en fases, un mundo persistente en plan Zelda y el juego sería perfecto. Quitarle la relevancia a las conversaciones por códec, cinemáticas, reflexiones,... es matar la saga.

* Gran Turismo : Mejora de la física de los choques y penalización de los mismos, pero pedir un sistema de colisiones como el del Burnout / MotorStorm, es una tontería, ya que ni el GT ni FM no tendrán nunca un sistema de colisiones así, simplemente porque se basan en justo lo contrario, el objetivo es premiar la conducción limpia y no los choques espectaculares como en un Burnout.
Con el tema de los daños del Gran Turismo es donde leo las mayores burradas que se pueden encontrar en un foro, hasta el punto de leer que de simulador no tiene nada porque un simulador tiene que tener daños, pasando por el forro las telemetrías al dedo del juego o el sistema de físicas de los coches en condiciones normales de carrera. Si hay algo que ha hecho que ha convertido a Gran Turismo en el rey de los juegos de coches es que ese acercamiento a la realidad se ha hecho siempre en detrimiento de la jugabilidad, si algo por ser real se hace injugable se saca y punto. No quiero una comparativa entre GT Vs Forza (ambos me parecen soberbios)y cada uno con sus puntos fuertes.

Pue eso ...

-- Snake Out 12.06.2008 --

"Hola soy gafapastismo y ésta es la primera entrada de mi blog."

Esta sería una forma bastante usual de comenzar esta andadura sino fuese porque recuerda en exceso a la primera vez que vas a un centro de rehabilitación, por lo que mejor pasamos de presentaciones ....

Supongo que todo el mundo tuvo la incertidumbre de cuál debería ser el tema al que le dedicar la primera entrada de un blog.En el caso de vandal,el tema debería estar bastante claro y la pregunta se traslada a que juego le otorgas la relevancia suficiente para tan alto premio.

En mi caso, pocas dudas tenía al respeto, y ese juego es Shadow of The Colossus, sin duda ninguna, la sorpresa más agradable que viví nunca desde el Metal Gear Solid.

El problema de tratar de hacer una entrada en un blog de algo referente a este juego es que no puedes abordar ningún tema que no fuese debatido hasta la saciedad en cualquier foro de videojuegos  que posea una cantidad significante de usuarios, y mucho menos en Vandal.

Yo mismo hice hace poco un tema en el foro de PlayStation 2 en el que recopilé varios wallpapers,arworks e imágenes tanto del Shadow of The Colossus como de ICO.

Sin embargo, dedicaré esta primera entrada a poner una serie de datos curiosos acerca de las dos obras de Ueda, muchos de los cuales serán conocidos de sobra por los seguidores del genio, pero alguno de los cuales seguro que os llamarán la atención.

Pongo la lista en inglés, pero su comprensión creo que es bastante sencilla.

1. Fumito Ueda doesn't hand sketch concepts, he works directly on 3D software

2. Wander whispers Mono's name right after the 8th battle in Shadow of the Colossus

3. The US version of ICO is remarkably different from the other two. In the PAL and Japanese versions there are more puzzles, different camera angles are used, enemies are more aggressive and on a second playthrough players are awarded with a 2 player mode, different ending and translated speech for Yorda

4.  There is one word from Yorda which is never translated; the one she says when Ico sees her on the beach

5. The secret weapon in the non-US versions (which looks similar to a lightsaber) increases in length and power the closer Ico is to Yorda when holding her hand

6. One of the references quoted for ICO is the Japanese comic Galaxy Express 999

7. All cutscenes in Shadow of the Colossus are rendered in real-time

8. A glitched shadowy dove and a darker Mono figure can be sometimes seen during the cutscene after the 8th battle

9. While the game never specifies, Wander's sword slash can be used to take down minor vitals such as the one on the first colossus' ankle

10. The cyber-code used by Sony for the new Eye of Judgment cards is strikingly similar to the language used by Yorda. This is because some members of the staff worked on ICO as well

11.  In ICO - the game - Ico loses both horns during his battle with the queen. In the novel, Ico still has one left as he leaves the castle

12. Miyabe Miyuki, the author of the ICO novel, created a background for all the characters and the castle. According to her it was Yorda's grandfather who built it

13. In 2004, when the team revealed Shadow of the Colossus, they had in mind to let the player choose the order in which to fight the giants

14. They were also considering adding smaller enemies at one point

15. The working title for the Shrine of Worship was "Hokora" which is a Japanese shrine for kami (gods) not worshipped in the bigger temples

16. If you put your Shadow of the Colossus disc into your PC you may notice that the data file for the game is still called nico.dat

17. There are bats in Shadow of the Colossus. They can be found in some of the caves

18. Japan enjoyed a much warmer welcome to ICO. To celebrate the release Sony organized a party with live versions of Ico and Yorda and prepared a life-size painting of the two

19. On a similar theme, for TGS 2005, Sony built models of the idols in Shadow of the Colossus to decorate the demo area

20. Posters which were used during this show are today selling for $500 on popular auction sites

21. Although it's difficult to notice there are actually 17 different types of opponents in ICO, all with different strength and hit points

22. Ico's horns originally pointed downwards. This can still be seen in some of the storyboards used for the game's cutscenes

23. Contrary to Shadow of the Colossus, ICO was always called the same since the very first pilot movie

24. In the original concept Ico would have had to carry a blanket. This can be seen in an early build of the game, when it was still aimed for PSone.

25. Some early artwork then shows what this blanket would be used for: to cover Yorda while she's sleeping

26. Ico's first encounter with Yorda happens in a dream where he sees her as a dark shadowy figure. In an early concept both Ico and Yorda's shadow had horns in this scene

27. The saving shrines in Shadow of the Colossus are built like giant memory cards

28.  The collapsing bridge scene in the second game's ending (right after Emon and his men escape) mirrors a puzzle in ICO where the protagonists have to cross an invisible bridge which materialises when Yorda takes a step. This suggests that the magic behind both is the same or very similar

29. According to Japanese folklore, the Hotaru (Japanese fireflies) are symbols of the Hitodama - the souls of the newly dead. If you look closely, they make an appearance at the lake in the middle of the forest during the intro sequence to Shadow of the Colossus (the one before the main screen). Could they be a reference to Mono's recent death?

30. To win the mace/light stick in ICO, the player had to play a game of basketball

31. Yorda had a haircut done the day before the master was due

32. The team went horse riding to get Agro's animations right

33. Fumito Ueda visited the Grand Canyon to research Shadow of the Colossus

34. Originally ICO was meant to be released on PSone because then the PS2 didn't have many good games

35. ICO's concept was inspired by a Japanese TV commercial with a lady holding the hand of a child, walking through the woods

36. Yorda was the one to wear horns

37. She was also going to have cursed runes on her hand

38. ICO's story was to be very different. Yorda was a princess trapped in a small room and the boy a slave worker in the castle who found the room and helped the girl escape

39. Simon and Garfunkel's Scarborough Fair was used as background music in the original ICO pilot movie, which was used to pitch the game to Sony

40. It also became the inspiration to ICO's theme song, You Were There

41. You Were There is sung by a boy, Steven Geraghty

42. Staff members used to wonder why they were working on Yorda's strange movements (strolling around, following birds) because they didn't affect gameplay in any way

43. Ueda went for these because according to him "we are all attracted by the quirks of girlfriends"

44. Many more of these "quirks" were planned but time was an issue

45. Ueda had never been to a castle prior to ICO so he based the queen's castle in the game on the work of artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi

46. Deserted cars near rice fields and semi-built up areas in the Japanese countryside were the things which at first inspired ICO's castle

47. The team intentionally avoided using the maximum graphic specs in order to give ICO something different and make it stand out

48. Fumito Ueda started working on Shadow of the Colossus even before his first game was released in Europe

49. Shadow of the Colossus was at first called NICO, a pun on Japanese word "Ni" meaning "Two"

50. ICO is a pun on Japanese expressions meaning "Let's go"

51. The team was considering calling Shadow of the Colossus "Dragon Hearts" and "Dragon Peace" before the story was even planned

52.  Fumito Ueda's own interpretation of ICO's ending is that Ico is dreaming of meeting Yorda once again. The second water melon ending is another dream Ico has

53. His interpretation of the ending in Shadow of the Colossus, on the other hand is that Wander sires the line of horned children

54. Ico was given horns because it was not easy to make a distinction between the two characters from a distance

55. The Japanese name of Shadow of the Colossus, "Wander to Kyozo" doesn't refer to the main character's name. It was used to show what the game's about - to wander around and colossi

56. In ICO's two-player mode, Yorda can carry bombs

57. She can also swim, if prompted to by using bombs to drop her into water

58. Amusingly, Fumito Ueda was so modest, he failed to have an English acceptance speech ready at the Game Developer Choice Awards 2006, clearly not expecting the game to win the "Game of the Year" award

59. Yorda is 16 years old

60. Shadow of the Colossus was featured in the movie "Reign Over Me". Reason for choosing it was "You could see where someone who was dealing with 9/11 would be engrossed by a giant that keeps collapsing over and over again"

61. Fumito Ueda decided to go for a video game career when he thought "how wonderful it might be to be someone who touches others through his creations"

62. He filled 11 roles in the development of his first game, ICO

63. One of them was to design the logo and draw the box art himself, which was inspired by the art of Giorgio de Chirico

64. He also single-handedly created the pilot movie in three months using Lightwave 3D, which he taught himself

65. When the team published an advert on Weekly Famitsu Magazine looking for staff to work on Shadow of the Colossus, some 500 applications were received

66. 10 people made it to team

67. Only 1 of them satisfied Ueda's standards of quality

68. All of the animations in Shadow of the Colossus were drawn by hand

69. Someone from the team mysteriously added an early model of Mono in a scarecrow pose in the door to the secret garden in the demo. It's mostly strange because the garden was only reachable by using a jumping glitch in that build

70. More than 24 colossi were designed for Shadow of the Colossus

71. A squirrel was added to the ending in Shadow of the Colossus in PAL territories. It was also added in the Japanese 'PlayStation the Best' version

72. There were some songs which were composed for Shadow of the Colossus but never made it in the game. They can be found in the original soundtrack CD

73. The bridge in Shadow of the Colossus spans through half the game world, making it the largest bridge in any game yet

74. In ICO, the caskets in which horned children are imprisoned have little slits. They're not for the children to look outside considering they would be facing the opposite way.

75. Ico's language is a deformed version of Japanese, intended to sound familiar to Japanese players

76. Yorda's runic language is written by substituting backwards Japanese Romaji and spoken backwards Japanese

77. The language in Shadow of the Colossus is the same as the one Ico uses but it's been more deformed by adding in Romanisation and Latin dialect to make it sound more ancient

78. Wander's shadow, when being sucked in the pool in the ending of Shadow of the Colossus, can still whistle for Agro

79. The baby in the same ending is controllable. You can press any of the face buttons to make him wiggle around and cry

80. Fumito Ueda's job application letter to Sony included a picture of a cat

Para terminar, como no podía ser de otra forma,alguna imagen de regalo para deleite de vuestro sentido de la vista :

Crearé una sección de imágenes en donde pondré todas las capturas del Shadow y del ICO que tengo, que son unas cuantas.

Un saludo.