God of War III

[RCA]

The demo is out.

EPIC is what I got out of it so far. I don't remember GoWII so some of the moves and abilities threw me off a bit, like using a double-jump and holding X for Icarus's wings to glide. The left and up D-pad buttons allows you to toggle between your normal blades and a special type of fist that allows for super strong attacks (but your mobility suffers). Also the bow and arrow weapon I forgot about but remember. Luckily they explain each power as you need them.

With all these new attacks and techniques, I am sure they will utilize them in a way that will frustrate the SH*T out of most (when it comes to puzzle solving). I am sure at one point I will need to use an arrow to grab a flying beast to then use icarus's wings to glide to a vent in which I will need to use some other super power to grab onto a ledge etc. The more powers the more difficult the puzzles. I was already frustrated at the demo.

As for the game play, just like your old GoW run and gun type attacks. I usually use the light attack that makes Kratos spin like heck so he attacks many at one time. The timed screen events are super epic you will see when you have to kill a Griffin and a certain god (hint hint).

All in all, the game so far looks amazing and I can't wait to see where the series goes next.

[ProudNissanFreak]

Picking this up eventually, I loved the previous GoW games, and this one is going to top them both. I hope we get the Blade of Olympus again, that thing was awesome.

[RCA]

More game play...Spoiler for more god deaths and puzzle spoilers (German commentary ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1Y7KVNhAfU&NR=1

Ok this game looks amazing. Seriously. Some are saying game of the year. If it doesn't have to compete with Uncharted 2 then from the looks of it, GoWIII gets my hands down vote.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I'm looking forward to the game. The demo was awesome (I've had it for ages thanks to the District 9 Bluray) and it hints at great things. It also hints at some annoying things, too, though. Like the damned vertical flying sequence and the still-too-prevalent quick time events. Until GOW gets rid of quick time events, it'll never make my list of GOTY candidates.

GOW is a lot of fun, but it also gets really frustrating at times due to some very bad habits on the developers' part.

Chains of Olympus is easily one of the top 5 PSP games ever, though...and considering what they were able to do with the PSP, I expect great things from the new game.

[RCA]

I love the quick time events. With out them how would you kill the Hydra in the first GoW?

The unique quick time scenes make for some really gory kills. Instead of quick time events would you like it to go into a movie cut scene? The QTEs keep you involved and allows for special kills that wouldn't be possible otherwise. Imagine killing Ares with just your blades and no QTE, it would be boring and repetitive. Just waste away at a health bar until he is dead.

Some QTEs can be annoying like killing the non boss enemies, but you don't need to use them in most cases. It just gives you a second option so you don't have to kill 50 cyclopes the same way every time.

Can you post some of the bad habits the developers have? I would love to pick your brain about how you feel about the game. You are a very opinionated gamer. I am interested

[MinisterofDOOM]

Quick-time events are not "involved" anymore than turning up the volume on a movie is involved. They're feigned involvement. I agree that that is the reasoning. But they are not a good solution, simply by virtue of the fact that they aren't particularly fun. The golden rule of whether to include a feature in a game should always be "is this fun?" If the answer is "no" it shouldn't be in the game. Doesn't matter what it adds to the game if it isn't fun. And there are other ways they could make the boss fights more interesting or even genuinely dynamic, they just need to get creative. Have a boss with multiple weak points who dies differently depending on which (or in which order) you kill. Or have the boss die differently depending on which weapons you're using, etc. Button-mashing isn't interactive or dynamic, and choosing to have it activate different sequences doesn't change that. It's not the QTEs that are involving, it's their results. So find different ways to achieve those same results.

QTEs are one of the devs' bad habits.

Another is their pacing, which I recently mentioned as an aside in some other thread around here. SCE Santa Monica aren't the only developers guilty of bad judgement in this department, but it really shows in GoW because the rest of the games tend to shine so much. I don't like how the game often throws wave after wave or ogre after ogre at you, time and time again. A lot of times I find myself thinking "Is this EVER going to end?" Combat is great, but fighting the same monsters in the same spot repeatedly isn't rewarding or interesting. At least let me move on and fight the same monsters in a DIFFERENT spot. Fighting one, then two, then three, then four ogres is just not fun. It's aggravating. I can appreciate the need to pose a challenge but, just like QTEs, there are better ways to do that. I don't remember who said it or where, but I remember reading an interview with a game developer years ago who stated that you should NEVER try to increase game difficulty by merely throwing more monsters at the player. It is rarely fun and certainly not very interesting. Find more creative ways to pose a tougher challenge. Throwing successively bigger waves of the same baddie at me in the same spot is not fun AND does nothing to move the game forward. It destroys any feeling of progress and just gets in the way.

[numbnuts240]

i need to pre-order this game. i saw some commercial that said if you pre-order it, you'll get a code or something to unlock a special costume which gives kratos improved stats (faster and something else, iirc).

[RCA]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPXFf1eNai4

4 days left and it looks sharp. Great review!