Linger in Shadows: beautiful, mysterious new PS3 game

by Andrew Yoon { Mar 26th 2008 at 5:30AM }

What is Linger in Shadows? To be honest, we have absolutely no idea. This new real-time video showcases some stunning footage which raises many questions, and offers almost no answers. SCEA's Santa Monica studios is known for greenlighting some truly unique (Everyday Shooter) and epic (God of War) games. From this very first look, Linger in Shadows looks to satisfy both qualities. We can't wait to find out more.

[Thanks, Joe!]

Tags: linger-in-shadows

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

MJ @ Mar 26th 2008 5:58AM

Now that was strange. Don't let the start put you off, watch it all the way through, reminds me of silent hill for some reason.

Poor dog lol.

Kabapu @ Mar 26th 2008 6:16AM

It kinda reminded me of Shadow of the Colossus actually.

Taylor @ Mar 26th 2008 7:44AM

Anyone else thinking Lost's smoke monster?

Michael C. Sherrin @ Mar 26th 2008 10:13AM

Kabapu has a point. Could this be the new Team Ico game?

*******

Michael C. Sherrin
http://www.prodigeek.com/

FrankTheCrank @ Mar 26th 2008 2:42PM

That was Twin Peaks weird.

Snutz @ Mar 26th 2008 6:04AM

I don't think I'm alone when I ask, what the hell was that?

Syn @ Mar 26th 2008 6:06AM

My thoughts exactly. Not impressed, nor excited anymore.
The pictures had me curious, the trailer killed it.

russell @ Mar 26th 2008 9:05AM

yeah. this was a stupid, long, and drawn out waste of time.

chiki @ Mar 26th 2008 9:36AM

giant puppy on roof. cut to giant kitty on a roof. puppy flies. turns into stone. cut to robot octopus.

W T F

ill trooper @ Mar 26th 2008 1:37PM

You guys sound like grumpy old men. Heaven forbid you can't understand something right away.

jimmithmail @ Mar 26th 2008 6:13AM

I have a feeling that what we're looking at is not so much a game as a tech demo of some new engine. Notice the way they show-reel different materials and dynamics. I doubt the "plot" of this video has much to do with the actual game, if indeed a game it is. Perhaps the black mist has some correlation with the game though.

That said, the dynamics of it seems promising and the cloudy stuff i the beginning looks good.

2Perfect @ Mar 26th 2008 7:15PM

I agree. The dog might have something to do with it because in the opening "credits" or whatever, the clouds formed a bunch of people and a dog.

The other things don't seem to make sense at all.

Pistolaero @ Mar 26th 2008 6:16AM

If this is a trailer, it ranks as one of the worst I've seen in quite a while. As a tech demo, which it more than likely is, it seems cool albeit random as hell. Kudos on the music.

Pistolaero @ Mar 26th 2008 6:22AM

Sorry, I gotta stop speed reading. It clearly states at the top that this is a real-time video. Obviously not meant to be viewed as a trailer.

leiwei @ Mar 26th 2008 6:22AM

There's no basis to this whatsoever, but some guy in n4g noticed how the tentacle 'monster' looks like something from the ICO games. In any case, I don't think this is any way related to Team ICO, but if in some alternate universe that it was, it'd be kinda cool if the title of the a sequel was something along the lines of Linger In the Shadows of the Collossus

leiwei @ Mar 26th 2008 6:25AM

I also doubt this is the video the BBC guy talked about. It seems nothing like a game at all and more like a tech demo, or something you see off apps that test how great your video card performs.

DomoBraden @ Mar 26th 2008 6:32AM

To quote Towely, "I have no idea what's going on".

...It's pretty though. My initial thought was that maybe this was Team ICO's new project, but then I re-read the article and it says "SCEA's Santa Monica studios", so that basically rules out that theory. I'm going to guess that the theme of the game will deal with either dreams, the subconscious mind, or the afterlife.

To those of you that are criticizing the video because it gives no indication of what the actual game is like, think of it this way -- it was produced this way in order to gain your interest, induce curiosity, and show the technology all while keeping the actual game almost entirely under wraps. Looking at it that way it's very well done, artistic, and effective.

...The whole flying dog part was a definite "lolwut" moment though, I'll give you that.

TobberH @ Mar 26th 2008 6:35AM

This is not a game. It's a realtime demo made for the Breakpoint demoscene event: ttp://breakpoint.untergrund.net/

And for those of you who have no idea what the demoscene is, read more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demoscene

WC @ Mar 26th 2008 7:00AM

Thanks for posting real info. My first thought (about 1/5 of the way through) was that this looked like a demoscene thing. It didn't look like a game at all... Too disjointed and weird without any real reason for the things that were happening. That thought only grew stronger the more I watched.

Having said that... As a tech demo, it fails. It didn't demonstrate anything that couldn't already be done. In fact, everything -has- been done. Pretty sad.

Popfrogs @ Mar 26th 2008 12:02PM

Hah, that's exactly what I saw in the first 10 seconds, I was saying to myself, this has really heavy demoscene influence. The 2d logos overlaid on random 3d stuff, etc.

Consolcwby @ Apr 16th 2008 8:26PM

I thought it looked like a demo! All it's missing is a cool scrollie! I Love me some scrollies (made them once upon a time!) =D

Niels R. @ Mar 26th 2008 6:40AM

Indeed, it isn't a game.

It was already published on monday by onAxis: http://onaxis.blogspot.com/2008/03/amazing-in-game-demo-shown-running-on.html

**** @ Mar 26th 2008 6:59AM

If it's not a game then why do they go to the trouble of identifying two lead characters right at the start of the video? The two human faces were from character design sketches and had nothing to do with showing off any kind of new tech. Also, you're exactly right, that squid monster's mask looks exactly like a face of a colossus. Male and female protagonists? Colossus reference? The working title giving a nod to the last game? Yup, I'd like introduce everyone to the final installment of Team ICO's trilogy.

Sup @ Mar 26th 2008 12:10PM

It IS a techdemo done by Team Plastic, a European demogroup.

It's a bit sad that a PS3 news site isn't informed about that.

GRT @ Mar 26th 2008 8:20AM

I thing the game is "Underdog vs The Lost Smoke Monster".

Seriously, they could've lopped about 4 minutes off the front and made it all more interesting. The 'futuristic dystopian city' thing is such a worn out trope that it immediately puts me off. Ditto the color palette. And the dog and cat absolutely fail the "uncanny valley" test.

My reaction certainly wasn't "beautiful and mysterious" but I suppose beauty *is* in the eye of the beholder.

Haiddasalami @ Mar 26th 2008 9:13AM

Lol poor dog. It couldnt kill the cat. Anyways nice tech demo. The clouds looked brilliant though in some areas looked blockish but that may have been due to me watching in sd.

Popfrogs @ Mar 26th 2008 12:05PM

http://www.demoscene.ru/english/news/ go there and keep clicking till you get the h.264 version of it. You can probably also watch that on your PS3.

Stumper @ Mar 26th 2008 9:25AM

I'm pretty sure it's the trailer for icanhascheezburger.com - the game

Daniel @ Mar 26th 2008 10:19AM

Well played, sir.

KTHXBAI

Nate @ Mar 26th 2008 9:58AM

@ WC - In a day in age when people are still orgasming over crysis and drooling over MGS4, I think this is a spectacular tech demo. That was a ****load of different and crazy stuff going on. sure, if you prepare right, you can do this or that and look good, but in-game, real-time, and that variety of stuff? it was pretty darn good.

xs3ro @ Mar 26th 2008 10:23AM

Nah, this is not a game.
It's just a techdemo from the demoscene.

Pralaya @ Mar 26th 2008 11:31AM

beatiful and evocative.
I would like to see more games/arts/videos like this.

Popfrogs @ Mar 26th 2008 12:03PM

There's plenty of it in the demoscene but thus far it's mainly PC based. http://www.demoscene.ru/english/news/ is a good place to start, and first mention on the site today is the demo shown in this article.

Popfrogs @ Mar 26th 2008 12:53PM

By the way Andrew Yoon, Everyday Shooter is from Jon Mak, SCEA Santa Monica was just the publisher.

Organic_Shadow @ Mar 26th 2008 1:45PM

Not only is this late, but it isn't a game. Was posted a while back when it was shown. Name, details, everything except video.

aeglos2003 @ Mar 26th 2008 1:50PM

I think this tech demo or wathever it is looks pretty bad compared to many new games such as UT, or MGS4 demo, or anything next gen, the doggy looks terrible and the cat looks like a ps2 render. I'm beggining to loose my faith in the PS3, everything is done on 360 and ported to ps3, GTA, RE 5, and all multiplattaform games, that's pretty sad. even rock band on 360 is superior cause u can use gh3 controlers, if they had tested the ps3 version before launch day they wouldn't need to pay activision for releasing the patch, it sucks.

Popfrogs @ Mar 26th 2008 4:00PM

You dunce, this was done for fun by hobbyists, and I'm betting it didn't even have access to the RSX chip (i.e. it was done as a software render under Linux).

If you can make something better using software rendering with no development kit, I'll give you my left lung.

Renholder @ Mar 26th 2008 2:39PM

I cant believe what i see. i honestly expected to see 33 (now probably more) comments of praise and amazement after i watched the video. If this was a game i would trade in my MGS4 paid off pre order to play it no questions asked.
Its deep unique and though provoking. in a time and age where 90% of the video games we play contain cold bloody murder, thoughtless unimaginative plots and music scores a game like this would me more than welcome

basil ghazi @ Mar 26th 2008 2:41PM

i liked it !!!!!!!!!!it was cool 4 me!!!!!!!!

knives @ Mar 26th 2008 5:04PM

I read from numerous sites that this is in-game. Impressive

knives @ Mar 26th 2008 5:14PM

This has to be a game or a future project. There is no way a group of developers would make this video which seems fantastic and just consider it a techdemo or w/e it is. It would be cool if it is a game.

aMIGA_dUDE @ Mar 26th 2008 5:20PM

Visually brilliant.

I am starting feel sorry for Nintendo and Microsoft. Not!

The PS3 is making there Wii and XBox360 so last gen. ;)

jcgrech @ Mar 26th 2008 5:57PM

Those bastards--they killed Agro, I mean the dog.

mnemo @ Mar 27th 2008 11:50AM

Great, I sent this to PS3Fanboy on MONDAY. :-( No video was available back then, though.

mnemo @ Mar 27th 2008 11:54AM

Popfrogs,
no it wasn't done in Linux because you could see that is was started directly from XMB. Also it has "Sony Computer Entertainment presents" at the beginning, which shows that it was made with the official SDK. They also exited to XMB via the PS button at the end.

I saw this via the livestream from Breakpoint '08 on Sunday evening and was blown away.