God of War III Review
Bye, Zeus.
Version tested: PlayStation 3
Although I doubt you could count on Kratos to guide you through your Classics GCSE, it's hard to think of many other games that understand their source material as well as God of War. Sony's audience, like Homer's, is looking for the release that violent heroics can bring, an escape from drudgery into a vivid world where the emotions haven't been simplified so much as heightened.
Just look at the animations: whether it's opening a chest or opening someone's chest, Kratos puts everything into it. Shoulders quiver and shudder, knees buckle under the strain, there's audible grunting. He gives it his all, and, on the other side of the TV screen, so will you.
And so has Santa Monica Studios. With God of War III, fans of the series will find a game that's been refined and expanded. The basic approach, including the combat system, level flow and pacing of bosses and puzzles remains largely untouched. But everything's bigger, grander and more elaborate.
That said, the story of God of War III couldn't be simpler: the game is basically about climbing a mountain to kill the man that lives at the top. The fact that the mountain is Olympus, the man at the top is Zeus, and things kick off with a boot in the face that drops you all the way back down to Hades only adds to the enjoyment.

Rip Torn pads out the cast. He was presumably chosen because his name fits so well with Kratos' basic move set.
It's not BioShock, in other words, but such a loose framework has given the developer the chance to let rip with the detailing - and the detailing is beautiful stuff. True to the standards set by the previous instalments, this is a staggeringly good-looking game. Set-pieces are gigantic but artful, consumed with sweeping arcs of the camera and huge, intricate environments, while the sky overhead is latticed by flaming comets and boiling wreckage as heaven itself comes apart.
The animation is brutal, but never less than graceful: characters leap and dodge like murderous ballerinas, and bust into wet pieces as if there's an Olympic Gold available for Most Attractive Dismemberment. The locations take you from the brewing black pits of Hades, where bodies of the corrupted fall through the sky in a manner that provides a queasy spin on a certain seventies disco classic, to the rippling, art nouveau corridors of Poseidon's house. And if you can even notice the frame-rate amid this particle-heavy carnage, you'll realise that it never falters.
All this tech and artistry has been devoted to a very basic pleasure: kill absolutely everything on-screen. The thing you have to understand about Kratos, right, is that he can yank a person's head off. No, actually, the thing you have to understand is that he does this all the time: it's an enterprise he finds himself involved in sufficiently often that it probably doesn't even crop up in his Monday afternoon psychotherapy sessions any more.

The solutions to the game's puzzles are almost always simpler than you expected.
So angry at the world that he's literally purple, God of War's vengeful Spartan is almost comically deadly. His has always been a world drawn entirely in black and white. OK, and red. It's a place with no need for an in-game morality system; early on in part III, crawling along a flaming ledge, Kratos spots a peasant, surrounded by flames and steep drops, waving for help with a button prompt floating overhead. The option to be nice? This is new. Not really - that prompt isn't to lift him to safely, but to mash his face against the wall. Good work.
That kind of casual capacity for butchery means that God of War III has to begin where most games end: it has to deliver on a level of ghoulishly thrilling spectacle other titles have the time to steadily build up towards, and it has to do this pretty much all of the time, without it ever getting dull. It has to be insistent rather than shrill, epic rather than merely bombastic. Santa Monica Studios has done that, and then some besides.
Where it begins, in fact, is where God of War II ended, with a failed assault on Mount Olympus: a twisty ramble up a pathway that turns out to be the arm of Gaia, the Titan, followed by a fight against a towering mini-boss crab with a horse's head. It's vibrant and vicious, topping the famous opening to the previous game: gore splashes through the air with each strike, the ground is constantly shuddering, attack formations shift unexpectedly, and, when the beast finally dies, it bows out with an astonishing showering of intestines and fireworks. Phew. That's the first two minutes done.
This explosive introduction revels in shifting perspectives to almost Mario Galaxy proportions, sending the hulking Kratos running up, underneath and over things, clinging to the brambles above him to negotiate sudden drops, or being flung across vast chasms and saving himself with a sudden chain-swing at the last moment. Meanwhile, the background tears up in blasts of colour and light as towering gods with designs straight out of Jack Kirby decimate the landscape.
Even before the credits, then, this is a game where something is always erupting, where around the next corner you're going to see something bigger, crazier, uglier, more beautiful, than what you saw around the last, whether it's a three-headed tiger leading an army of clanking skeletons straight at you, or a glimpse of the gigantic Chain of Balance that buckles the warring worlds of man and gods together.
Man and gods, eh? The wider narrative of God of War III is essentially a bickering domestic soap opera between characters the size of fjords. These hulking misfits provide the game with its regular bosses, as Kratos does a bloody-fingered re-editing of the classics which suggests that the real reason Christianity eventually took hold in Europe wasn't because it had a better after-life package, but because there was nobody else left upstairs.
It's a tantalising list of targets, each familiar name accompanied by an unlikely twist. Hercules, when he finally arrives, is a jealous meat-face, his hulking body covered in scar tissue. Helios is a flashy gadabout nipping around arrogantly in a shining chariot, and Hermes is a catty know-it-all whose backchat indicates that he could have had a lucrative future as a judge on televised talent shows if he hadn't run across a large purple man who really wanted to borrow his shoes.

Double-jumping can be a little fiddly, but checkpoints are generous.
Along with the grim designs and oddball characterisations, as ever with this series, each boss has a delightfully creative way of expiring, with multi-part fights playing out in some extremely queasy bursts of stage-management, whether you're piling somebody into a wall of spikes, ripping the fingernails off of a giant's hands, or sinking your hooks so deep into the bubbling flesh of a colossus that you tug out their very soul. Yuck.
And it's the final moments of an encounter in which the game twists the knife somewhat. An early boss-clubbing flips the perspective to the deity's viewpoint in his dying moments, as you pile on a final brutal lamping. It's a chance to see what manner of monster you're playing as, and it actually got through my skin a little, hardened as it is by years of headshots, disembowelments and off-the-chart Pringle consumption.
The game threaded in between the god-mashing lives by a handful of simple, entirely agreeable rules that should hardly need reiterating to series veterans. Rule one: all statues should eventually come to life eager for a fight. Rule two: every 30 minutes you should either get another power, a new weapon, or something really dazzling and huge to work over. Rule three: almost every one of life's problems can be solved by ripping several people's heads off.

Old enemies return, as do old combos.
Occasionally someone flings a puzzle your way. A minority of them are pretty limp (there's a truly ghastly Guitar Hero moment), but most are fairly clever this time around, riffing on the likes of Portal and Echochrome while making the mechanics seem new again, blending devious simplicity with an endless gift for conjuring pretty vistas. The best, however, are more than mere palate-cleansers - they're sharp and ingenious and peculiarly comic. Finally, the very best are physics brainteasers that involve kicking dogs around.
Most of the game, however, is still given over to fighting. God of War's combat may never have had as much depth as some of its competitors, but it makes up for it with freakish beauty and a devastating talent for creating just the right hit response. The handful of attacks for each weapon are very satisfying to use, and the feedback is horrible and delightful as heads rupture, limbs flail, and hot blood splashes onto polished marble floors.
There are new touches, like a battering ram move that you should definitely work out of your system before the next time you pick up your three-year-old to give them a friendly ride on your shoulders, but the series' classic combos are waiting for you like old friends. There are some truly brilliant weapons, too: different kinds of chains to smack people about with, one of which contains a brutal electrical kick, that good old flaming bow and arrow, metal boxing gloves and a super-powered torch called the Head of Helios. Because it's a head. And it belonged to Helios. (Guess how you get that.)
Powering up each weapon, via a method that remains largely unchanged from the original games, provides a welcome space for personal choice in an otherwise entirely scripted experience, but the real pleasure of the toys you're given is how accessible they are. God of War III makes it so easy to switch between them on the fly, sensible button configurations spread across the triggers and D-pad meaning you can mix things up and use all the equipment at your disposal with no fuss.
Even the most tentative player will soon be striking from a distance with arrows, stunning with a quick blast from Helios, before softening victims with the Chains of Exile, and then finishing them off with a single swipe from the Claws of Hades. Enemies provide additional scope for mayhem, each coming with their own gimmick, from sickle-handed wraiths you have to yank bodily out of the ground prior to a hammering, to centaurs just itching to be sliced down the middle.
And yes, the series remains bold in its use of QTEs, a mechanic that other games still implement awkwardly and often with a faint air of embarrassment. As with everything else in this game, it's a combination of focused use and shameless delight in brutality that sees Santa Monica Studios through. God of War III gets away with so many button prompts because they offer a change of pace from hammering away at light and heavy attacks, and because they allow some of the world's greatest game animators to really pile on the showmanship.

When Kratos eats a mushroom, he powers up to become Super Kratos. [Double-check this bit. - Ed]
One very early example sees you pulling off a monster's claw, prising open its rib cage, and then goring it with its own talon. You're fighting on top of a giant stone woman at the time. Moments like that are probably worth the odd floating triangle symbol, especially when it means that all those regular boss fights you're going to slog through can be about crystal-clear cinematic unpleasantness rather than grinding attrition. Besides, any game that includes on-screen prompts telling you how to "agitate a harpy" can't be doing that much wrong.
Everything is enhanced by a camera that is spry and decisive: canny in its attempts to balance usability with spectacle, confident enough to zoom out when it wants to give you a sense of grandeur or ease in close to wriggle after you through impossibly tiny cracks in a mountain. Cinematic ambitions never get in the way of a willingness to frame the action as intelligibly as possible, while the game is happy to waste unexpected prettiness on anything at all, whether it's a humble trigger puzzle enriched by the face of a huge god frozen beneath your feet, or a block-pulling episode offered a touch of mysterious opulence by the towering form of a nearby tree that pulsates with a Titan's heartbeat.
The result of all this is a game that exists in an enviable goldilocks zone. God of War III is exactly the experience fans are expecting, most likely. It's polished but never impersonal, vast and explosive but never merely deafening. It's Scalextric adventuring, to be sure, but you'll rarely feel as confident to let a game lead you down the track, safe in the knowledge that it's only going to tug you towards fun.

For me?
Everything it does is big - even switching between menus results in a sound that resembles someone taking a blow torch to a brontosaurus - and most of the things it does are surprisingly clever, too, like turning a Titan's body into an ingenious finishing move or threading complex stages together so tightly that you almost never have to backtrack.
It's repetition with refinement, in other words - which sounds a lot like mythology, come to think of it. All those ancient stories have probably survived because they kept things simple and delivered what the audience was expecting, focusing on the characters, the emotions, the signature moves and the really huge fights.
God of War III is much the same: a technical marvel, but with all the clever stuff turned towards the aim of very basic gratification. There are no branching paths, no complex decisions, and no multiplayer modes, but this particular game is all the better for it, since the results are rich and focused rather than drawn-out and a little ragged. Ultimately, if you want to revel in old-school pleasures decked out in the very brightest new armour, this is about as good as it gets.
Oh, and in case I didn't make this entirely clear, it includes the absolute best dog-kicking puzzle you'll ever see.
9 / 10
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Comments (187) 2 years ago
Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!
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Good score. Now time to read it.
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Decent review but doesn't really explain much other than its a nicer looking GOW2.
OK that massive GOW3 ad thats started to appear around the article looks gaudy and makes the review look sketchy. Sort it out.
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I can imagine it now
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Still, must buy... If only I could afford a PS3...
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Which is exactly what a lot of people want, why change a winning formula too much? Has been a must buy for me for a very long time
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The review sounds exactly as I expected, it is more of the same in terms of gameplay, but thats exactly as it should be. This is the last time we will see Kratos so its right that theres no deviation from the things that made GOW 1 & 2 so memorable.
Could have steered away from the spoilers though EG.
*And if anyone disagrees with me Im gonna freeze your ass with a Medusas head
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Look forward to playing this.
And also reading all the pissy fanboy rants about a game getting a 9.
A fucking 9 kids. That used to be good...
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Well, this game at least makes one of them when it comes out on the 19th. Not sure if I can justify buying a PS3 to play 3 games when I already have a X360 though :s
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"Negative me" guys!
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Please guys, try not to turn this into a fanboy thread.
It was always going to be a fanboy thread.
As for the game, it sounds really sweet, I'll take one please.
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Reading the article is enough..Now to go read Kotaku, IGN and gamesradar thoughts
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Mass Effect 2 is a good game... I wouldn't say a system seller though.
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/still guilty, more money than sense etc etc... hope the wife never finds out how much it was.
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Not to you. ME2 is a game for grownups.
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+1. Nice.
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9/10 is an excellent score for part 3 of a series. Count yourselves lucky Ellie didn't review it
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Numbers schnumbers.
Want this game, mind.
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My 9 year old cousin plays it. Can't say he's a grown up...
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This review makes me glad I have my copy on pre-order, though. Enjoyed reading it, good job Mr Donlan.
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]http://uk .ps3.ign.com/articles/107/10750...[/link]
9.3 and 9.4(AU)
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Yeah mark me down you idiots, I don't care. I don't understand why a game with such wafer-thin gameplay is so loved. What a load of rubbish. Same with Devil May Cry and its ilk.
(BTW Muscleblade, for what it's worth, you're correct. Sadly there's far too many cretinous sheeple that will lap up this kind of highly-linear endless-button-mashing gameplay.)
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Yeah because you're opinion is better than everyone else's. Grow up. Just because you might not be a fan doesn't mean other people can be. Each to their own. Or are you just an xbot troll?
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Haha. Very nice!
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I'll see your negative and raise you an ignore.
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Love the fact that you prolly clicked on the review, skipped to the end, saw the score, and left a comment on a game you already decided you hate.
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]http://ww w.destructoid.com/review-god-of...[/link]
10/10 from Destructoid.
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I hope the new Castlevania game is more my cup of tea.
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*Grins foolishly and rubs hands together*
God damn I'm looking forward to this game!
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It's just sad that fighters and hack'n'slashers are just not the type of game that appeals to me.
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"Meanwhile, the background tears up in blasts of colour and light as towering gods with designs straight out of Jack Kirby decimate the landscape. "
Kudos for mentioning Kirby. He was definitely one of the best.
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But then again, tastes are different, eh?
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1) Waa waa waa QTEs are rubbish
2) Boo hoo hoo killing things is boring
3) Winge winge winge don't have a PS3 but didn't want the stupid game anyway
4) Blub blub blub this sequel keeps the core mechanic from the prequel. Why couldn't they have reimagined it as a dating simulator!
5) Gibber gibber I'll wait for a REAL review from (whoever gives the game the lowest score)
6) Sniffle sniffle EUROGAMER you biased sons of bitches this is such a 10!!!
7) Dribble dribble if its not got like 60 fps then its a game for noobs
Place your bets in as 7 / 3 / 6 / 4 / 3 / 8 ! Winner gets a go on the upcoming sequel to God of War - God of Love.
EDIT Cheers dudefather, added to list
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Methinks you need to look a little closer to home for a prime example of "biased"
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Plus I hear they haven't skimped on the boobies either. WIN.
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You forgot "EUROGAMER IS FULL OF CASUALS WHO CANT REVIEW HARDCORE GAMES" and "DIRTY 360 FANBOYS NEG REPPING ALL TEH COMENTS CAUZE THE'RE JEALOUS"
I think you nearly have enough for a Bingo card there
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Edge 7/10, I'm taking bets
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Will most definately be buying this.
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Exactly this. GOW is sooo overrated. Just like the SDF.
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if you haven't played uc2, demons, kz2, heavy rain, ff13 (ps3), lbp, gow3, gt5 etc - ur not gaming this gen
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ahhh nvm!"
It's not a thread, its the comment section to a story on the main page. Are you seriously suggesting that 360 owners shouldn't read the main page?
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if you haven't played uc2, demons, kz2, heavy rain, ff13 (ps3), lbp, gow3, gt5 etc - ur not gaming this gen"
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Thumps up for the reviewer. Must have been a real challenge.
If someone asks me to explain how great this game is, I'm done in a few sentences
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I wish it did...My wife usually does...
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a Fanboy ?
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You can even buy DLC to have even more hair. You can live your glorious beard fantasies vicariously through it.
Reason #23 why Tim Schafer is a genius.
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I know what you mean,I have no desire to play the part of some bald bloke-I am some bald bloke dammit.
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However.....eurogamer and other reviewers praise this game for somethings that they said were bad in other games, which just goes to show that reviewers are biased towards the 'name' of a game these days.
I will be picking this up at some point.
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What do you mean "these days"?
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Anyway, I've got a gift card with God of War written all over it.
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"they had to give Uncharted 2 GOTY because just about everyone else did, they would have revealed themselves as the DIRTY FUCKING BRIBE TAKING DOG FUCKERS THAT THEY ARE."
Simmer down mate. I like the PS3 better meself, but EG did spend weeks on weeks covering UC2 before and after it came out. Very few games (exclusives and multi-platform) have gotten that kind of coverage. Plus all this rage is probably bad for your blood pressure
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Because a good game is a good game regardless of the hardware it's running on, and big games like this are often the tipping point which convinces people to finally buy a machine?
Nah, because everyone's a fanboy. Obviously.
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Decided I'm going to do GoW2 first (never played it) before I get round to this.
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"Because a good game is a good game regardless of the hardware it's running on, and big games like this are often the tipping point which convinces people to finally buy a machine? "
Tipping point, for gamers not fanboys.
For instance, I've seen posts on EG of 360-only owners who used to say in 2007-8 "not worth buying a PS3 for just this game" and have been saying that since then for almost every major PS3 exclusive. How many "just this game" do I need to read before I conclude that it's an immature asshole who only owns a 360 and has invested too much of himself/herself into it?
EDIT: I'm sure, if you read through the comments, there's a very good chance you'll probably find another one of those "not worth buying a PS3 for just this game" asininities.
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/looks at wallet *sigh*
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But on the visuals I must say that it come second best to Darksiders
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I can see only rage and chaos.
This is precisely what a GOW3 thread should contain.
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"Having played through the demo I must say that I am somewhat underwhelmed maybe the finished game is that much better. I dunno just seemed like a glossy PS2 game and brought nothing new to the mix.
But on the visuals I must say that it come second best to Darksiders "
Ah! Of course!
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Was your comment trying to demonstrate that I'm sort of blinkered 360 fanboy, well I bought as PS3 last week and the only game I have to date is Killzone2 and have downloaded the GOW3 demo was unimpressed. Still playing through Forza & Bayonetta.
My gamertag is the same on the PS3.
See it is possible to make a comment without bias
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More of the same button-mashing to "impressive" visuals, then?
Yeah mark me down you idiots, I don't care. I don't understand why a game with such wafer-thin gameplay is so loved. What a load of rubbish. Same with Devil May Cry and its ilk.
(BTW Muscleblade, for what it's worth, you're correct. Sadly there's far too many cretinous sheeple that will lap up this kind of highly-linear endless-button-mashing gameplay.)
Says someone who:
- rated "Castlevania: Circle of the Moon" and "Bloodrayne" both 6/10
- rated "Doom 3" and "Doom 3: RoE" both 7/10 while rating "Far Cry" 6/10
- rated Heavy Metal F.A.K.K. 2 9/10
- rated Breath of Fire II and IV 6/10
- rated Final Fantasy VII 6/10
- rated GTA 3 6/10
- rated Serious Sam 8/10
This, sir, shows that you have no clue what you're talking about. "Circle of the Moon" and Bloodrayne receive equal scores? Aha, ok. GTA3 is a 6, too. Alright. Doom has always been known for it's extremely deep gameplay, so it's clearly a 7, other than that dull Far Cry game, let alone Serious Sam, an obvious 8 in that category due it's exceptional open world design and non-repetitive gameplay. FAKK2 is a 9, of course, while FFVII is a 6.
Don't get me wrong, all of those are good games (except Bloodrayne), some of them even outstanding ones. But don't come in here insulting people while you yourself have some _very_ questionable opinions on quality gaming.
Lest we forget, the mandatory flame: You seem to be a moron, no?
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Oh and fanboys ... if you can't get a girlfriend then pay a prostitue 'cos you guys need to get laid then you'll realise there's more to life than games console willy waving.
(edited to get rid of the spam)
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Two absolutely fucking brilliant games that still hold up extremely well. Easy to pick up & have a quick session on, & easier still to get completely immersed in for a few hours.
Can't wait for this one.
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well, to be honest its mostly pissed fanboys getting owned by people with a superiror grasp of the English language
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Then again, I only played the demo, and I hear that the demo of Bayonetta wasn't really that good either.
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I'll have some Yakuza action instead please shopkeep.
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Sigh ... yeah a PS3 would be nice.
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This made me laugh.
I have nothing else to add to this thread. Resume the pissing contests.
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I'm so hyped up about this game... I avoided Bayonetaa and Dante's Inferno for it so I wouldn't be sick of the genre when it came out... shame it's been put back to the 26th though in the UK.
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Oh well, 9 is still a great mark and even if it had got a shit review I'd be all over it
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edit:
All of those who hate this for being a button basher, mustn't have played or enjoyed Golden Axe or Streets of Rage back in the early 90s.
This is the 2010 Golden Axe, IMO.
Bring on the spinoffs in the next couple of years with multiplayer co-op and versus modes, hopefully!
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It's been a few months since I played the demo (downloaded from the US store if I recall correctly, might have been an email invite thing or something), and I believe I simply quit during the minotaur (or was it some other creature?) battle.
I've never been good at these types of games, and though I would certainly have made it through if I had persisted (hell, I did finish GoWII a few years back if my memory serves me right, or at least got most of the way through it), I was so fed up with repetitive hack and slash combat games at the time that I simply didn't feel like bothering anymore.
As I said though, this review certainly did do a good job at convincing me that I probably should give the final product a proper try. But I guess I could start with replaying the demo
Edit: Just watched the Gametrailers video review. This definitely looks way too impressive to dismiss even if I don't care much for the game genre anymore, and whether or not I actually make it all the way through (which I do with preciously few games - hell, I stopped playing Uncharted 2 in one of the very last chapters several months ago and haven't gone back and finished it yet).
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Now, after this I promise I won't buy any more games until I've cleared out my "To Play" pile.
Has there ever been a first quarter as good as this for gaming? So much quality...
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I've never played or really know much of anything about the GoW series... I played the demo but literally played for about 2 minutes and had to stop. Don't hate me, I'm not saying the game isn't great or doesn't deserve the plaudits it's getting but for me personally I don't see what the fuss is about any of these kinds of games.
From reading the review the majority of it is basically violence from beginning to end, and going by my limited exposure to the demo for me it is simply not a rewarding experience and ultimately I don't see the point. I suppose in a way I just fail to enjoy the idea of combat being about transposing moves and attacks to button combinations. I feel like gaming as a whole could be doing so much more and I hate to criticise this as clearly A LOT of people still love this style of gaming and clearly there is plenty of depth in the combat. For me it just feels outdated at this point.
To add my further 2 cents I fail to be impressed by the graphics either I'm afraid as they just feel quite basic, spruced up PS2 style visuals and it's all a bit in-your-face art direction wise. Games could be doing far more to really involve you in the world visually and spacially. Simple things like the sense of physicality and the involving lighting and atmospheric effects in Killzone 2 for instance immediately bring credence and involvement to the game.
I think really it comes down to my need for a sense of realism. Not the utter ambition shattering realisation that things are ultimately rather humdrum, but more the idea that if I could be a God of War and literally unleash my hell on the world what would that feel like, what would it look and sound like, how would I, sitting there destroying lives en masse, really feel about the carnage I was wreaking. I think games can aspire to be more than games, to attempt to put players into these situations and affect them in some way, not simply to quench a thirst for a quick blast of destroying hordes of identikit and badly animated faceless soulless enemies.
With interactive entertainment seen in the likes of Heavy Rain or even something as simple but beautiful as Braid, I can see the begginning of 'gaming' as something more than just games, and there's no reason why more developers couldn't at least attempt to lend some more heart into their creations. Just look at Avatar, a film which by the end made many people feel for a moment that they no longer wanted to be a part of the human race, so ashamed of it the experience of watching the film had on them. Now imagine a game that can affect you in such a way, surely an interactive medium has far more of a chance of doing such a thing but to a much deeper degree. Something you would remember many years from now, not killing your millionth idiotic enemy by pressing X a few times.
Stupidly long grumpy ramble over. I hope people will comment in their thoughts rather than neg this comment.
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But then i bought GoW2 and felt hugely let down by it.. The graphics made me say "wow" but the gameplay itself never did.
I think my current plan is to get ff13 then get this 2nd hand in a few months time cheap once everyones played through it (like i did with the last one)
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Two completely different games. Oh and had this game on pre-order for months, I can't wait. (must finish FFXIII by then)
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Great review, this game really does look stunning. I wonder if there will see a little bounce in PS3 sales...? GOW3 needs a good TV Ad Campaign...
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excellent franchises have gone bad sooner in the past - * thinks of the excellent TR and its sequels *
edit: 2 neg for voicing that some franchises have gone bad sooner than sequel 3? haha... that's amazing...
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Having come from Dante's Inferno it was quite noticeable. I played the demo again last night and it didn't seem as obvious because I haven't played Dante in a while.
Edit: A neg on my comment. Christ, are people that sensitive about games?
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I'm pretty sure it does as the recently released demo is the very same build they used at E3 back in June last year.
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Yes Mario Galaxy is great. It's also over 2 years old so most of us have played and finished it. While we await Mario Galaxy 2 some of us would quite like to play some other games.
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Playing through the original again in the collection. Just as amazing as I remember & im blown away by just how impressive the HD make over looks. Cant wait to see how good GoW2 will look on it. Should have them both completed just in time for this leaving me fully pumped up for it.
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I sort of lost interest in this after the demo - It just didn't have the appeal to me as before when it seemed fresh. Felt way to similar, the graphics while looking very good but nothing above already out there - this not a criticism. The fighting felt fine but a little clunky and also limited especially compared to Bayonetta's smooth and fluid fighting also fighting more spectacular.
I will probably get this, but not right now! May be 2nd hand in few months...This is probably due the experiencing the fighting in Bayonetta which does feel/looks better plus the skill required too (esp harder levels); also Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 fighting/skill just feels better too then the mainly button mashing I found in GoW.
GoW fans willl love this though.
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Bayonetta has an utterly shite story and characters and crap irritating J-Pop, if you want to compare them God of War wins hands down in those departments.
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From the look of your game collection you don't own a PS3, the games not out yet and there's no such thing as a cracked PS3 so how the hell have you managed to play the first 2 hours and compare the game to Bayonetta?
XBox360 time machine FTW
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public int GetTrueScore(score){
If (ps3_exclusive){
score++;
}else if (360_exclusive){
score--;
}else{
//do nothing
}
return (score);
}
resulting in much more accurate scores:
MGS4 = 9
ME2 = 9
Bioshock = 8
God Of War 3 = 10
Halo 3 = 9
Heavy Rain = 9
Halo ODST = 7
// just a bit of fun, really
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Your "bit of fun" is really starting to hurt my feeble little brain as far as the Bioshock score is concerned.
Ow hell, I give up ...
Edit: spelling (see, it really hurts)
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- Bitter xbox faboys that can't stand a PS3 exclusive doing well;
- Bitter PS3 faboys that can't stand that GoW3 didn't get the 10/10 they are convinced it deserved (without having played it).
Either way EG you seriously need to rethink the ridiculous rating 'feature'...
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^
^
- normal person who just read this post and decided to go back and neg the original for the hell of it.
I haven't really.
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Like others this was also a day one purchase for me regardless of a review score.
"gore splashes through the air with each strike, the ground is constantly shuddering, attack formations shift unexpectedly, and, when the beast finally dies, it bows out with an astonishing showering of intestines and fireworks"...I just can't wait anymore!
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AFAIK it's meant to depict a cheer (can't find a link though).
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did the chap really have not anything more constructive to say than "\o/"? half the users here - taking myself just as the average - doesn't even understand the damn thing. What do you want the netz to do for a retarded comment like he made? praise him? he could have well written "first" or something alike!
edit: changed "you", "you", "you" and "you" into "the chap", "he", "him" and "he" - there it is stylistically even better.
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I agree it doesn't add much but IMHO the voting system is not meant to judge poor taste but to curb fanboys. As it is currently being used it's stimulating fanboy-wars even more though...
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Looks A W E S O M E !
Sorry to say this but you're not a real man if you don't enjoy the thought of killing in this game! I kid of course...however I do hope that the people commenting about how bad violence in games is are at least females (@citizenHUNTER - wink wink!).
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errr what
looking forward to this one!
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I've been following reviews and articles on your website for about 6 months and think its the best site for gamers. The articles are clever and well written. Also, I tend to agree with your review scores and feedback more than IGN, gamespot or 1up. However, for my favorite franchises I have been waiting to read your reviews until after I finish the game because more often than not your review is not spoiler free. For example in this review you mention there are Titan boss fights, something that has not been previously announced and is a significant story spoiler. To give another example, in your modern warfare 2 review (an excellent review by the way) you go into major details about the airplane scene. This scene was meant to be shocking to the player, something you hit on in your review. It WOULD NOT have been shocking if i read your review before finishing the campaign. Anyway, I find reading your reviews very enjoyable, but for me I'll just glance at your score to see if the game warrants a purchase, then read the body after ive completed the single player.
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God of war 3 = 10
ME2 = 9
I would stop reading Eurogamer reviews if that was the case.
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1) the box is nice, but a bit tacky. it's also not the best quality plastic in the world, it's a bit tinny.
2) soundtrack CDs (bit meh)
3) artbook is just a soft booklet type thing, not even a mini hardcover so a bit of a poor effort (unlike the US versions)
3) GoW collection and GoW3 - these are just the standard discs. i don't think they've announced a separate EU release of GoW collection but I imagine it's coming, based on the disc and packaging. it looks exactly like a retail disc, has the (18) approval and all the usual info etc on the back.
for £110? i dunno, i don't feel ripped off, but like i said i'm a sucker for this sort of thing (and i'm fortunate enough that i can afford it, for now). i think most people should probably wait if they just want the games (or import!)
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yeah, i know they haven't announced it or anything, i guess all i'm saying is that the collection packaging (blu-ray sleeve, disc, etc) looks exactly like a retail SKU, with all the approvals, system info, blurb/features, screenshots, etc. my thinking is that if they weren't going to release it standalone, why go to all that trouble? They could have just put a plain 'title with pic' sleeve on it.
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But.....
Come on....
Fess up....
You did the review without completing the game didn't you?
You played the demo and maybe had a look at the first level, but that's as far as you got.
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It looks bloody amazing tho even if its being clever about it.....
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I'm too early in for me to have an overall impression of the game but so far so very, very good.
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Big fat 10/10 for me.