Linger in Shadows

Developer: Plastic
Publisher: SCEA
Release Date: Oct. 9, 2008
System: PS3
ESRB Rating: E
Official Web site

In a nutshell: The PS3 goes to art school and gets all pretentious on us.

0:00 While cleaning out my email I stumbled upon a months-old download code for this piece of self-described "interactive art." It might be unfair to expect a whole hour of interesting content from something like this, but they are charging money for it, so I don't think it's that much to ask.

0:01 The title screen appears after a decently long bit of loading, only there's no title, just a close-up of some sort of stone robot with undulating wires flitting about. Reminds me a bit of Shadow of the Colossus. I love the deeply resonant string music in the background.

0:02 My menu choices are "Linger," "Watch" and "Linger in Shadows and demoscene." Er, let's try Linger, I guess.

0:03 We start with a shot of an orange sky, which slowly pans down to fluffy white clouds. As the camera falls through a hole in the clouds we see painted images of what I assume is the development team, along with their names in stylized text. The ethereal music helps set the mood.

0:04 Once we get through the clouds, everything fades to black. Then the scene quickly rewinds, complete with VHS-style sounds and image distortion, back to a scene with a picture of a woman and some silver orbs hovering around a shiny cylinder. Leaning the controller to one side or the other rotates the orbs around their cylindrical axis. Shaking the controller, meanwhile, distorts the entire scene and threatens to undo reality itself. It looks like something's trying to break out of the TV!

Read the full review at Crispy Gamer