Thanks goes out to Bill Harris' Dubious Quality for bringing up Sony's upcoming Shadow of the Colossus and the Sony site that just opened with a trailer tied to it.
Back when ICO came out (my review) and I did a review for it we had a big discussion at CG about whether a 4 hour game really deserved to be in the 90 percentile or not. My argument was that the art, gameplay and immersion combined to totally dwarf the length of the game. There has simply not been a game like ICO since it came out. The game itself feels like a successor to the Delphine games of years past (Out of this World, Flashback and Fade to Black) and the immersion is just unparalleled.
When word first started churning a while ago that there was a NICO in development by the same developer I got really excited. When I later found out it wouldn't be a direct sequel to ICO I felt disappointed, but I was still really interested in the game. When the first shots of Wanda and the Colossus (as it was once named) came out I was hooked again. Then at E3 I was watching the Gamespot Live program when they showed off Shadow of the Colossus and I was just floored by how beautiful it was.
This game will be an odd one simply because the only enemies to your character are the Colossus monsters and the whole game is supposedly made up of you finding them, finding the weak spot with your sword (in an LoTR type homage) and getting to that weak spot and defeating the Colossus. If this game plays anything like ICO it is going to be one of the best games of the year. Chances are it won't sell very well, but the legion of ICO fans will probably snap it right up. The game is due in September and I personally can't wait!