flOw PS3 Debut Trailer

By: Derek Yu

On: February 7th, 2007

thatgamecompany‘s flOw is hitting the Playstation Store on February 22nd, according to Kotaku. It looks quite beautiful! Although I’m still skeptical about whether the gameplay is compelling enough to keep me playing for very long.

Posted in Action, PS3, Videos | Tags: thatgamecompany

Ugh

truly the ps3’s halo killer. And to answer the question, no, it won’t keep you playing for very long. It’s a 10 minuter…and it’s free to play now if you really wanted to…in which i do not.
BenH

Is this the power of CELL? ;)
RoboSheep

Just who does Sony think they are marketing this game to? The early adopters are the hardcore gamers and will want their killer FPS (their “Halo Killer”) if recent trends show anything. Flow is a game, but just barely. There’s no score, no real punishment for dying, and nothing to do except make a pretty creature in a relaxing environment.
It’s not about the game play it’s about the “beauty” and “Simplicity”. Unfortunately, for Sony people that spent $600 on a high-end system aren’t going to be impressed by that idea, they want something “kick-ass” and “hardcore”.

Just given the target market of Flow I think it would do much better of on the Wii, which seems to be a heaven for casual gamers.
Felan

Not to mention the Wii controller is the perfect means of interaction for a game like this.
http://www.arsecast.com DrDerekDoctors

Utterly bemused by this “game” being so successful. It’s like a screen-saver with ideas above its station…
meh

flow is beautiful and boring
http://16x16.org nenad

I’m 100% with DrDerek.

I could never understand on what grounds this “game” got all that publicity and praise. It’s mildly boring and somewhat lacking in rhythm and tension.

For a game that is allegedly trying to employ the Csikszentmihalyiâ€™s Flow theory it’s surprisingly jerky and sluggish, thus irritating (at least the flash version I “played” was). Though I’m sure the PS version will be a lot smoother.

If you’re an unexperienced casual gamer and want to dive deep in the gaming Flow – take Raiden II instead :D
BenH

“flow is beautiful and boring”

That pretty much sums it up in one sentance.
http://www.arsecast.com DrDerekDoctors

Mmm… Raiden 2… *drools*

And yes, I agree with Meh entirely. Nice looking but nothing going on upstairs upstairs. Just like Paris Hilton.

Only nice looking.
Boooring!

And to think indie developers are always faulting mainstream publishers for putting out crap that emphasizes graphics over gameplay!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the artsy fartsy approach to game design isn’t going to fly. Nobody will pay for games that aren’t fun â€” not even rich people who want to look sophisticated and have money to waste (you can’t hang a video game on the wall next to your Jackson Pollock).

There’s always the National Endowment for the Arts. Get Uncle Sam to shake down the great unwashed who just aren’t smart enough to recognize your brilliance!
Radix

I think fl0w has the potential for a real game in it. It has the basics there, but unfortunately those basics are intended to be the whole game.

When I first started the flash game, knowing nothing about it before hand, from the first few minutes of play I expected something like EVO: Search For Eden in a petri dish. Start as a little wiggly thing, then evolve in various ways depending how the game is played. While there’s an element of that in there, you can only mutate in one way and a purely visual effect anyway.
Lorne Whiting

Dang. I played flOw for at least three hours.

Damn you Sony, why do you get the awesome-ified version
tamat

The next game will be “flOw: Atlantic Ocean”, and afterwars we will have “flOw: Caspian sea” with more violence and undercovered sexual plankton relationships.
Andy

I’d rather spend the money on an old PS1 shooter (that will happily run on PS3) that won’t send me to sleep after 5 minutes of admiring the pretty graphics. It isn’t too hard to track down R-Type Delta or Einhander, and they can be had for presumably around the same price, but you might spend more than 10 minutes playing them.

I think this might be a problem for PS3. The PS1 and PS2 were/are so big that the cheap used games – including plenty of classics – are just clogging up the shelves waiting for someone to give them a good home. When I can buy Gradius V for $5, why the hell am I going to get excited over some experimental flash game that I can mess with for free on the net.
DrDerekDoctors

I think we’re all drifting away from the central issue, which is that FLOW is shit. ;)
MrMalekMisters

flOw: PMS anyone?
http://www.arsecast.com DrDerekDoctors

LOL! Would you play some bloated sluggish tampon in it or something?
MrMalekMisters

Yeah, but not at first. You have to “evolve” up to that stage.

Man, if only real life PMS wasn’t as repetitive as flOw. :'(
wulff

flow is a bad elektroplankton wannabe clone