God of War 3 is here!

[Bosstone]

I tend to lag a few years behind cutting edge console gaming. I just picked up GOW 1 used for $12 yesterday. I’ll probably get GOW 2 in a few months if I like 1.

[pricciar]

I am looking forward to buying it. With the PS2 I made it a habit to only very rarely buy first day of release games. But, with the PS3 I broke that rule far too much. As much fun as the God of War 3 demo was i am still going to wait until it’s selling for 25 dollars in a year or so and enjoy all of my other games (including an earlier version of God of War which I have never finished.) while I wait.

[Cubsfan]

Well I just beat it. Thought on the story in the spoiler box. MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW

[spoiler] I thought all of the levels were pretty amazing. The sheer scale was breathtaking. There were really no surprises in the story at all. The fact that Hercules is your brother was somewhat surprising.

Weapons wise I was a little disappointed. All 4 weapons played just like the BoE. I had the Blades and Lion Gloves maxed out by the end and didn’t put a single orb into anything else. Didn’t upgrade a single other thing. I rarely used any of the extra powers. The Hermes speed was pretty useless, though the air dash was nice.

The conclusion, though action packed, was somewhat disappointing. I spent the whole game thinking they made Kratos a little TOO heartless and 1-tracked. He was killing EVERYTHING. I realize that he’s an anti-hero, and I always rooted for him to get to Zeus, but he killed a huge number of innocent people/titans for no reason. Kind of made it harder to root for him.

I also didn’t like that he grew a conscience out of no where during the last 10% of the game. It was jarring when he tried to stop Pandora.

I also wasn’t a huge fan of the “darkness” level after killing Zeus. It went on far too long IMHO.

And finally, I thought killing himself to release “hope” to the world was bizarre.

All in all a great epic ending to a great epic series, I just wish he would have stayed in character through the bitter end. [/spoiler]

[yojimbo]

Just had a fight with Hades. So far, very impressive visuals and gameplay is very smooth. Have noticed the R1 bug a few time that was mentioned above.

[Least_Original_User_Name_Ever]

Thought you guys might like this.

[capeo]

@Cubsfan

GOW 1 had some really tough sections (anything with rolling blades, jumping), though the puzzles were all fairly easy.

GOW 2 had barely any blade/jumping sections, though there were a few.

I’m 75% through 3 and there have been none so far.

Be aware though that there is a (bad) glitch with the game that is pretty infuriating. Basically R1, which is used to open chest an move objects, is gltching so that he keeps letting go of things while you are holding the button, so in effect he grabs, releases, grabs releases, etc… It can be maddening. The only fix right now seems to be to plug the controller into the PS3 while playing. This worked for me and eliminated the problem. They need to patch the game though ASAP to fix this. It also effects the double jump, as on more than one occasion I’ve been jumping over a pit and go to double jump and the second button press doesnt register.

I haven’t encountered this glitch at all! That’s weird. And I’m about eight hours in and loving the hell out of it.

[capeo]

@The_Hamster_King

By tightly controlling where the camera looks the dev team minimizes how much of the level they have to build.

Actually that’s not true at all. All the levels are fully rendered as the camera constantly swings about and gives you views of every nook and cranny. The reason the camera is controlled by the game is because the devs wanted to control every aspect of the cinematic feel of the game. It’s a huge part of the game and really brings the epic feel of it to light when the camera pulls back to reveal the massiveness of what you’re fighting while swinging in close when you deliver a special move. It’s really beautifully used actually.

[Hoopy_Frood]

@capeo

Actually that’s not true at all. All the levels are fully rendered as the camera constantly swings about and gives you views of every nook and cranny. The reason the camera is controlled by the game is because the devs wanted to control every aspect of the cinematic feel of the game. It’s a huge part of the game and really brings the epic feel of it to light when the camera pulls back to reveal the massiveness of what you’re fighting while swinging in close when you deliver a special move. It’s really beautifully used actually.

That and they want to hide secret XP chests, or at least that’s what they did in the first one.

[capeo]

@Hoopy_Frood

That and they want to hide secret XP chests, or at least that’s what they did in the first one.

LOL. Good point. And yes they still do that.

[Phatlewt]

I have a bit of a problem with boss fights. I don’t really like them. To me, the fun part of the God of War games is in the wise array of abilities that Kratos has. You have a lot of choices in what types of attacks and movement you need in a fight. Even when there is an optimal tactic, it’s a lot of fun to mix it up and try new things on different foes, often with spectacular results. Exploring this is one of the things I like most about God of War.

Unfortunately, boss fights tend to remove these choices and set you on a linear path of specific attack strategies. The challenge is more in identifying the strategy you’re supposed to use than in your ability to use Kratos’s abilities to their maximum effect. For me, this almost always boils down to trial and error, having to retry boss fights several times before I can identify all the enemy attacks and learn to counter them. It’s not that this is a bad gameplay mechanic per se, it’s just not nearly as fun to me as being able to dictate the flow of combat.

I don’t doubt that God of War 3 will provide lots of the great combat that I love. I just felt like a mini rant since I had to fight Poseidon for the first 45 minutes of play..

[control-z]

@Phatlewt

I have a bit of a problem with boss fights. I don’t really like them. To me, the fun part of the God of War games is in the wise array of abilities that Kratos has. You have a lot of choices in what types of attacks and movement you need in a fight. Even when there is an optimal tactic, it’s a lot of fun to mix it up and try new things on different foes, often with spectacular results. Exploring this is one of the things I like most about God of War.

Unfortunately, boss fights tend to remove these choices and set you on a linear path of specific attack strategies. The challenge is more in identifying the strategy you’re supposed to use than in your ability to use Kratos’s abilities to their maximum effect. For me, this almost always boils down to trial and error, having to retry boss fights several times before I can identify all the enemy attacks and learn to counter them. It’s not that this is a bad gameplay mechanic per se, it’s just not nearly as fun to me as being able to dictate the flow of combat.

I don’t doubt that God of War 3 will provide lots of the great combat that I love. I just felt like a mini rant since I had to fight Poseidon for the first 45 minutes of play..

I have to agree, they often take all the lessons you’ve learned and throw them out the window for some arbitrary puzzle with one solution.

Although there are some inventive boss fights out there.

[HazelNutCoffee]

I’ll definitely be picking this up soon. I recently played Dante’s Inferno and every review I’ve read said it was a crappy version of the GOW series. I’ve never played any of the GOW games so I suppose this is a good a time as any to start. I did like Inferno but parts of it annoyed me so I hope GOW lives up to its rep.