God of War

[Sky]

Nekon, I think you're alone on this one.

Silent != nonexistant.

[Nija]

Having beaten DMC2/3 and Ninja Gaiden, and the Hurricane pack, I'm going to disagree with you.

This game is lightyears beyond Devil May Cry, but if you can't see that in 90 minutes of playing I'm afraid you're beyond help.

Ninja Gaiden is a good comparison, but the story, camera, and controls are better in GoW. I don't really think you, or anyone, can get away with the "it's repetitive!" excuse. Every game is repetitive. Every game.

[Gong]

I'm not saying it's a shit game because it's repetitive (relative to other games). It is a pretty good game, for sure. I'm just saying I don't see why it's being treated like robot Jesus when it's an evolutionary step rather than anything particularly new.

To go back to my WoW comparison - by quality standards, WoW has significant advantage over previous iterations of the PvE-based MMORPG. Yes it's a quality game, but it's not different or new enough that I'm going to flip the fuck out over it. That's how I feel about GoW.

[schild]

Alright. Here's the thing, up until now most people still regarded Mario as the penultimate platformer.

In truth, God of War is more like Zelda. But it's better than Zelda + Mario.

It's raised the bar. It's better, stronger, faster.

[Yegolev]

Actually, I really would like to play this game. I just have a thing about fixed camra games. They irrationally annoy me.

God of War will cure your affliction.  I can only think of one time when the camera could have been a hair better, but in general moving it would only have served to help me hop to another platform a tiny bit easier or allowed me to see an area the designer didn't want me to see.  GoW not only set a new bar for fixed camera use, it also delivers a kick to the ball sack of any other game's fixed camera implementation by making it look so easy to do it right.  I swear, as long as you don't forget and hit the R stick, you'll be fine.

[Yegolev]

In truth, God of War is more like Zelda. But it's better than Zelda + Mario.

I think it is a lot like Castlevania, myself, if I were to compare it to some other game.  I realize that might draw fire, but it's the truth.  Not as much like DMC, especially since Dante is as original as anything coming out of Japan.

If you are just tired of games in general, this is not your cure.  The cure for being bored with snowboarding is to spend a day on skis, you know.

[Nekon]

I'm not tryin to start a flame or anything, but better then Zelda? What kind of blashphemy is that?

I never said I didn't think it was a good game, it just doesn't seem to me as anything barrier breaking, like Gong mentioned about WoW. Mechanically and graphically i'll say its a good game and physics are handled well. (As well as a fantasy can be.) It just isn't anything new, thats all i'm trying to say. If you love those kinds of games, then by all means go for it and more power to you. I am just stingy with giving it any praise as being something revolutionary to the platform game style.

[schild]

I'm not tryin to start a flame or anything, but better then Zelda? What kind of blashphemy is that?

It's better than Zelda. Zelda hasn't broken any barriers since the ORIGINAL TITLE. Or at least no barriers as big as allowing you to save your games. I get the same amount of enjoyment out of the original NES title that I do Windwaker or Ocarina. God of War has a more mature story, MUCH deeper gameplay, and above all - rejuvenated the platformer genre (for me at least). I never said it was revolutionary. If I did, I lapsed. It just happens to be the best platformer for this generation and any. And that's saying a lot from me, I'm a total whore for Mario 3.

[Nija]

Nekon, you guys need to sit down and finish the game, then talk about barriers and what's been broken and what hasn't. Where did you quit? After the Hydra?

[Nekon]

I quit after arriving in the desert and watched my friend (not gong) play for a few hours.

[Sky]

I'm trying to figure out why it's robochrist, too.

Reading through here, it seems it's CONSOLE robochrist. Which would certainly explain my total ambivalence about the title.

[Yegolev]

Just remember that Robot Jesus is essentially an improved version of the original.  You still get your beloved Son of God, only now with laser eyes and armpit rockets, immunity to thorny crowns, and more attitude than Poochy.  Same with God of War... it's still a console game, for Robot-Christ's sake.  What do you fuckers want?  If you want a solid console video game that is a lot of fun and has top-notch quality and polish, play God of War.  If you want something that won't be invented for ten years, or something with wormsign the likes of which not even God has seen, or if you hate fucking jumping, then you might want to avoid this title.  There's a lot of jumping.

[Jamiko]

Damn this game is going to take me forever to finish, I am so lame. I'm still trying to push the damned box down the ship in the beginning and the archers keep busting it apart. Yeah, I know I can kick it and I can figure out when I should kick it, but damn I suck at this game.

[Merusk]

Wise fwom da gwave!

My brother lent me this on Halloween and I've been playing it when the kids were in bed.  Jesbus but it's a wonderful game, I've never had as much fun in any action scrollers but this one just grabbed me.  The upgrades, moves, combos and story telling are all fantastic, and anyone who hasn't played it yet but has a PS2 really, really should.

So my real reason for rezzing this is I just can't get past the Challenge of Atlas. I didn't have a single problem with any part up until here.  Fucking timed kill-thousands-of-fucking-monster bits.  I've almosed wussed-out a few times when it's asked if I wanted to go to an easier difficulty.    Anyone have any tips for how they managed this bit?  I've almost broken the controller a few times now, and I've gotten angry enough my wife told me it was time to turn off the PS2. Heh.

[Hanzii]

I finally got to try it on a friends PS2 (after building him a dual core pc to keep him occupied).
Nice and violent, but balancing on beams sucks as entertainment and I quit i discust after spending 30 minutes pushing a fucking crate across a ships deck... I've just wasted two fucking huge hydras, but a bunch of guys with arrows keeps ruining my trusted crate.
Crates in computer games always signal sucky moments, but that crate is the WORST CRATE EVER!





... now I'm playing Civ4 (on a my own new dual core AMD box with SLI... talk about unused potential, but Civ prevents me from installing any of the games, that would actually push the pc to its limits.)

[Merusk]

I finally got to try it on a friends PS2 (after building him a dual core pc to keep him occupied).
Nice and violent, but balancing on beams sucks as entertainment and I quit i discust after spending 30 minutes pushing a fucking crate across a ships deck... I've just wasted two fucking huge hydras, but a bunch of guys with arrows keeps ruining my trusted crate.
Crates in computer games always signal sucky moments, but that crate is the WORST CRATE EVER!

Kick the crate and it doesn't go BOOM.  The truly sucky crate comes later when you have to kick it on to a button then run behind a door before it closes.  However, even that was a piece of cake compared to "kill a hundred zombiemen and armored zombiemen before the moving wall crushes you! Haha! By the waay, they grab and interrupt!" ARGH

[Nija]

Key to that area is the SWORD. My first time through I used the blazing whip stuff just because it was fucking awesome, and I had trouble in that same exact spot. Took me awhile.

My second playthrough I just maxed sword ASAP and man, I beat that thing with probably 15 seconds to spare. So try that. Keep in mind when you change to the sword, the O button becomes another attack instead of a grab, so you have a lot of extra combos to use with the O button tossed into the mix. Some of them you can keep up constantly.

[Merusk]

Ok, so next question is how do you max the sword.  I need 3500 orbs and I'm only sitting on 1500 at this point.  It'd be easier to hit level 3 of Poseidon's Rage (AOE Magic) than it would be to hit level 2 of the sword right now, even if I had  orbs..

[Nija]

What I meant by 'max swords' - my second play through I spent ZERO orbs until I unlocked the sword. Then I dumped them all in sword, and continued to until it was maxed. Might be too late now. I don't really remember what the best level 0 combo was for sword, it might not be enough for that part.

The blazing move that I whored to pass that part is where you flip up and whip the chains out and bring them straight down, hitting people directly in front of you. Hard to aim it while you're getting slapped around on the bridge though.

[schild]

I had everything except Medusa's Gaze and the Zeus spell maxed out by the end of the game.

Poseiden's Thunder is the most broken thing in the game. It can beat anything. It's the first thing you should max out.

[ClydeJr]

When I eveacuated from Hurricane Rita, I took along my PS2 since I wasn't sure how long I'd be gone. A friend in Dallas loaned me his copy of GoW and I played through the first level and partially into the second level at his place. At the beginning of the second level is a minigame thing where you have sex with those 2 chicks off screen. That was quite awkward to do when your wife is standing next to you, especially when she already doesn't like the game because of all the blood.

After the hurricane was gone and we were heading back to Houston, the wife asks "So, did you have sex with any other women?"

[Yegolev]

After the hurricane was gone and we were heading back to Houston, the wife asks "So, did you have sex with any other women?"

Classic.  Oh, and sorry. =)

[Pococurante]

He could at least answer the question... 

[Nija]

Kill the smaller ones before they become full size. They then vomit out even more little ones and the whole process repeats itself. Go apeshit with lightning, killing as many of the little ones as you can.

It's funny, people hear about it and think 'meh, action game, i've played thousands i'll pass' or 'bought off the review sites, no way the game is that good. plus it's an action game, and ive played a million'. It's amazing what a little bit of polish and playtesting will do to a game.

Game of the year.

PREDICTION SUCCESSFUL!

http://bestof.ign.com/2005/ps2/24.html

edit: oops, jumped the gun. I guess they announce the overall winner next week. Civ4 vs RE4 vs Jade Empire (haha) vs God of War.

All excellent, except the (haha) in my opinion. Played and loved the other 3. THEY ARE ALL WINNERS GUYS, IT'S LIKE T-BALL.

[HaemishM]

I haven't played God of War, or Civ 4, but I can safely say I don't think any of those games hold a candle to RE4. I KNOW Jade Empire doesn't.

[schild]

I haven't played God of War... but I can safely say I don't think any of those games hold a candle to RE4.

Haemish, you're wrong.

Edit: Let me be more through. RE4 is the best survival horror game I've ever played. It was the rebirth of a genre. God of War is the best platformer I've ever played. It was better than all the marios and castlevanias and sonics of years past. It, however, was a genre that didn't need rebirth. Innovation nudges RE4 above God of War, but gameplay, storyline, and graphics certainly do not. They're on par with eachother.