Of hurry

I'm such a nerd I've played Shadow of the Colossus to celebrate my undergraduate degree.
Ok, it was more like "it's finally over and  now I can do something I want to". But anyway, it's definitely one of the greatest games I've ever played. And then, as usual when I'm marvelled, I start looking for more material. No, I don't have ICO here. I've stumbled upon this american podcast where they play through certain ammount of the game each week and then discuss about it. It's nice to see the progression of their impressions throughout the game. But I was a little puzzled at how two out of the four members didn't really enjoy the game. It's not that I'm huge fanboy who can't take critics, cause my favorite member (Gerritt, I think) turned out to be one who didn't even finish the game, but, oh man, half of them were not having a good time when playing it.

But then that guy said he probably didn't enjoy the game because they had to get to a certain point of the game to talk about it on the podcast, so that made the experience a little stressful. If he had more time and no pressure to get to the colossi and slay them as soon as he could, he could probably have enjoyed it more. He could have tasted it better. And I think that's the point, Shadow of the Colossus has to be tasted slowly.

It's something I've heard in another podcast, where they have a term for this game-tasting experience. It's a portuguese word, hard to be translated. Anyway, they mean getting immersed in that world, playing as if you're the character. The true role-playing experience. The walking-slowly-button is vital for this kind of experience, they say. I couldn't agree more.
Of course, maybe Wander would actually want to rush to every colossus and slay them as soon as he could, he'd have a reason to do so, I don't think he was crossing that barren world for sight-seeing. In fact, ignoring every passing ruin and bridge just in order to get where I needed gave me a feeling of urgency. But sometimes, when I decided to walk slower through the plains, the whole lack of music and just the sounds of Agro's galloping suddenly filled me with melancholy and a feeling of anguish and loneliness, and I started instrospecting Wander's mind. What a burden. And how selfish this all is, killing these poor giant bastards who sometimes are so indifferent to me. Oh man, there's so much to be said about the experience.

Anyway, that's one nice realization: hurry handicaps tasting. I think I can use that to improve my texts. Going along with the flow, explore it all slowly, no hurry to get it all done. Relaaax, dude.