Wow! Finally, someone who actually knows how wonderful these games are!
And I get what youre saying, and I agree. What they did with SOTC was get the essential selling points of Ico, and make it 10x better and cooler. I always found SOTC to be the sadder, more mysterious counterpart to Ico. At times, I would be reluctant to kill a Colossi, merely because of how gentle and unwavering some of them were. There's this large argument going on among SOTC fans over how the game translates into a moral and philosophical aspect (ex. is killing a gentle colossi just to save the girl really something you'd do?), but ive never really understood that. =P
I think the reason why I do prefer Ico is because I'm sort of a "less is better" sort of guy. I loved its simplicity, the "cold, mysterious" setting and background music...the puzzles were pretty fun too. And I guess, in some weird way, the idea of a little boy saving this princess always seemed appealing to me.
you are a lucky man, my friend. at least you have the means to get a ps3. im stuck with an xbox360 and wii, and what i'd give to get a chance to play the last guardian. supposedly, the game is going to come out late fall or winter this year. so, it should be good since they took their time. the giant is supposedly a griffin, i believe. oh, and if youre looking for something similar to the last guardian, theres this game for the xbox called majin and the forsaken kingdom. its not really a great game, but it gives a little taste of what the last guardian should feel like.
and right back at you! you have awesome taste in games. suikoden. the legend of zelda. okami. ico. SOTC....what other awesome games do you play?

haha.