Jamin Smith writes: Fumito Ueda and Team Ico are masters of pulling the player into the worlds they've created. The tactics employed in doing this are simple: get rid of every non-diegetic device that reminds you that you're playing a game at all. There are subtitles for the rare snippets of conversation, but everything else you'd normally expect from has been banished. There's no health bar, no resource meters, no score - no HUD at all, in fact - no collectibles that disappear when you run over them, and no loading screens. It's just you and the world behind the screen.
