God of War 3 Review
The Good
- Awe Yeah, the combat is just fun
- Stunning Visuals
- Boss Battles are Challenging
The Bad
- It ends
- No Help / Hint’s during puzzles
- No HUD/ on screen navigation
My first exposure to the God of War franchise was when Sony released the re-mastered God of War Collection (God of War 1 & God of War 2) on 1 blu-ray disc including trophies. It was a great first exposure to the characters, story and game play. We all remember the ending of God of War 2 where Kratos was on the back of the Titans while they scaled Mount Olympus in search of Zeus and looking for Revenge. This means one thing and one thing only it’s March and Kratos our beloved God of War is back making his debut on the PlayStation 3.
Obviously the game starts with Kratos standing on the shoulder of Gaia a titan, who urges her fellow titans to climb Mount Olympus and kill the gods for once and all ending the rein of all mighty god Zeus. The camera pans around and shows this mere molecule (Kratos) enjoying the ride. Kratos main job is here is to protect Gaia from the relentless attacks from Poseidon with most the battle taking place on the titan herself. A confrontation with Gaia ends up with Kratos arriving in the land of the dead where he must battle Hades and defeat him. I personally had such a hard time battling Hades the game recommended I switch difficulties.
Next up it was time for Kratos to make his way into the City of Olympia and track down Helios during the course of wandering through the city you poised to help a titan by shooting down Helios using a ballista. This was like target practice, quite challenging at first but shooting him down provided me with instant gratitude. Using the head of Helios to light the way it’s time to head down the path of EOS. Later on you’ll battle your bitter rival Hercules and after disposing of him it’s time to check out Poseidon’s chamber where you speak to the goddess herself Aphrodite. Next it’s time to make for the Pit of Tartarus and look for the Omphalos Stone. Remember Crono’s from God of War 2, he’s back and it’s time to rumble.
After that it’s Time to return to Daedalus’s workshop, escape Hera’s Garden, then head into the hidden passageway to find Pandora and to escape the Labyrinth before it’s too late. Finally you arrive at the Chain of Balance where you must break it and return to Pandora. It has arrived time to Battle the mighty Zeus.
There isn’t a whole lot changed in terms of combat, it’s the same formula just polished up from previous versions. Of course there is a bunch of new weapons like the blades of exile; the army of Sparta is one of my favorites. These Spartan Warriors surround Kratos with shields and spears, these warriors attack those who cross Kratos path. You also are immune from taking damage during the casting of this spell. The Claws of Hades are cool but you have the blades of Athena and I haven’t found much use for them. One of the favorite new items is the head of Helios this allows the Kratos to shine a light and kill enemies. The finishing moves are just over the top, gratuitous, fun to execute and enjoying to watch. One of the big things I’ve noticed over its predecessors is that the level design and the variety is quite noticeable and makes the game a lot more enjoyable. The boss battles are challenging, fun and cross between fighting the Gods and the Titans is a good mix up. I wish I could battled more titans.
Sony Santa Monica has developed a visual masterpiece, the sense of scale of is incredible, the way the camera pans out to show everything and you see Kratos this little spec on screen. One small noticeable improvement all game developers should take notice of is during quick time events placing the buttons on the side of the screen. This draws the player’s attention to focus on the quick time event so they can enjoy the action. The camera, I loved how the camera pans to show the incredible sense of scale, detail and just awe dropping moments throughout the game. However, I wish I had more control of the actual camera at times. I’d love to be able to look out the titans or gods from Kratos point of view.
One of the biggest dislikes in the franchise I’ve noticed and still isn’t rectified in God of War 3 is there is no HUD system on screen. This is more of a personal preference rather than a fault of the game. I am not a great puzzle solver at any game and the lack of “hint” system in place has caused me great frustration at different stages of the game. Sure when you get to a puzzle the camera pans around showing you where you start and where you end. If you half way through solving a puzzle and get stuck why not implement a “help” button similar to Uncharted 2? It’s simple, easy and if you don’t want to use it don’t press the button.
Honestly there isn’t much wrong with God of War 3, the things I mentioned above are small personal preferences I like in games. I understand why there not there. The facts are God of War 3 does what it does and does it better than the original 2 game’s. Isn’t that what sequels are for? Improving over the original games while sticking to the key successes of the franchise and God of War 3 does that well. If you like Kratos, the storyline, the button mashing and the gruesome finishing moves and oh yea did I mention an artistic masterpiece? God of War 3 will sell a ton of copies, hell it may even sell a few additional PlayStation 3 systems. Why would you miss out on potentially one the best games of this generation.
read moreDual Triggers for PS3
I came across these a few months back while browsing on amazon.com, by snapping onto your PS3 triggers they are suppose to replicate what the Xbox 360 controller triggers feel like. As someone who spends the majority of his time playing on his Xbox 360 the PlayStation 3 controller can feel like a foreign object in my hands. Thanks to the Dual Triggers for the PS3 designed by PDP using the PS3 controller feels more natural and has allowed me to spend more time playing games on my PlayStation 3.
If your interested in buying them check out Amazon.com or PDP’s website
Uncharted 2 Review
One of the best games to date on the PlayStation platform is Uncharted Drakes Fortune developed by Naughty Dog studios. They brought back are favourite womanizing witty character Nathan Drake. What you get with the Uncharted franchise is a mash up of James of bond meets Laura croft. By this I mean you get the action intense sequences with a male character that all the women love. Then you have you have the exploring puzzle solving aspects from the Laura Croft franchise. Combine these together and have Uncharted 2 Among Thieves.
From the moment you start Uncharted 2 you will notice how gorgeous this game is, in fact I will say I don’t there is a better looking next gen game. This games audio is a reason to get a surround sound system or a very end set of headphones is to experience the audio. The gun sounds; the rain and music simply compliment and go hand in hand with this game. The voice acting is simply brilliant throughout the game Nathan Drake will simply leaving you laughing at the remarks he makes. The supporting cast in the game also has some tremendous voice acting. The actors can only do so much with a script that the writing team gives them and wherever Naughty Dog found these writers they deserve a big pay raise.
Uncharted 2 does not do a whole lot different from the first game but it just does it better. The combat in Drake’s Fortune was one of the weak spots of the game, the team over at naughty has greatly improved the shooting mechanics and it certainly shows. Enemies are no longer bullet sponges unless they are completely covered in Kevlar armour. The cover mechanics have also greatly improved allowing Nathan slide from cover to cover effectively. Blowing enemies up with grenades is always fun but it was a real struggle in first game which involved using the D-pad or six axis. Now all you have to do is aim and tap L2. It’s much easier and more effective. Melee combat is just more fun to use as well and there are several trophies available to encourage melee combat. There is also a heavy focus on stealth whether it be shooting enemies from ledges, pulling enemies off of ledges or running down the very quietly and then knocking out the enemy.
I played it on normal and beat the game just under 10 hours that has Nathan Drake searching for a mythical city of Shangri-La because he wants unravel the mystery of Marco Polo’s voyage from China in 1292. After spending time with Kublai Khan, Marco departed with 14 ships and 600 passengers and crew but when he arrived at destination he only had 1 ship and 18 passengers. Throughout the course of the game Nate encounters friend Flynn who turns into a foe, Chloe, Zoran Lazarevic, our good friend Sully and Elena.
One of the biggest editions to the game is multiplayer. There is Co-operative multiplayer as well competitive multiplayer. First up for co-op will allow 3 players to take on roles of Nathan and 2 other characters as they make their way through gun fights and team based objectives. Should one of your comrades should fall you will need to revive them and I have to say as someone who was downed a lot good teammates are key to this mode. Gold Rush has players team up to get a treasure and return it to their base. You also have survival mode where you take on wave after wave of bad guys or girls. For competitive play you get the usual deathmatch, elimination and capture the treasure and much more. There is a bit of RPG element to the multiplayer as you can gain ranks and in turn allows you to buy perks or upgrades with the cash you earned in game (if you finished Uncharted you’ll start with 80k). Levels have been taken right out of the first player campaign so that means you can climb up to the get the higher ground on the other team. Naughty has also implemented a party system that works extremely well for a Playstation 3 game.
If you own a Playstation 3 there is no reason why you shouldn’t play this game. It’s gorgeous looking, it’s funny and it was one of the first games in a long time made me completely lose track of time. The single player campaign is epic and multiplayer is quite fun and for 60 dollars this game is a steal!.
read moreIt’s that time of the month.NPD numbers!!!!!
A $299.99 120 gig PlayStation 3 soared it’s way outsold the Nintendo Wii and Xbox 360 for the first time in a long time. If you recall last month last months NPD post, I predicted the PlayStation 3 would outsell the Xb0x 360.
- Nintendo DS – 524,200
- PlayStation 3 – 491,800
- Wii – 462,800
- Xbox 360 – 352,600
- PSP – 190,400
- PlayStation 2 – 146,000
Software sales for the month of September saw Halo ODST do very well, Wii Resort and Madden 10 do very well. The interesting fact is there isn’t much different between the Madden 10 sales on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.
01. Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360) – 1,520,000
02. Wii Sports Resort (Wii) – 442,900
03. Madden NFL 10 (Xbox 360) – 298,600
04. Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (DS) – 258,100
05. The Beatles: Rock Band (Xbox 360) – 254,000
06. Madden NFL 10 (PS3) – 246,500
07. Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 (Xbox 360) – 236,000
08. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PS3) – 212,500
09. Guitar Hero 5 (Xbox 360) – 210,800
10. The Beatles: Rock Band (Wii) – 208,600
Ghostbusters: The Video Game Review
The game starts like a movie with a full introduction and opening credits and then you’re greeted with the Ghostbusters theme song we all came to know. The opening level of the game consists of the team training a new recruit who they call the Rookie. He’s faced with capturing ghosts that have escaped from the containment unit.
From the moment the rookie strapped on the new prototype proton pack and got lectured about why proton beams should never cross paths. I felt like I was actually part of the team. Too bad there is no punishment in game for crossing paths which I was a little disappointed with.
The single player campaign follows a story around a large PKE wave hits New York City and sends the team on a variety of missions to capture a wide variety of ghosts. Throughout the game everything you do is scrutinized by a douche bag named Walter Peck who is now in charge of the Paranormal Contract Oversight Committee who was appointed by the Mayor. During the course of the game you meet Dr.Ilyssa Selwyn a museum curator who’s ties to this mysterious events leads you to find and destroy node’s and node guardians at the Sedgewick Hotel, The New York public library, the museum of Natural history and the final node being a mansion that rises from the middle of the Hudson River.
The basic game play consists of firing your proton stream at ghosts, weaken down and throw out a trap and slam them into a trap and pick up the trap and you have a ghost captured. You earn cash on each mission which can be used to purchase weapon upgrades throughout the game. You’ll also receive upgrades from Egon as the game progresses since you are experimental weapons specialist. One of the first things I upgraded was the trap; the upgraded trap makes capturing ghosts a lot easier.
This game also features a multiplayer aspect which consists of the 4 Ghostbusters cooperatively blasting and capturing ghosts. There are six jobs (game play modes) for you to enjoy. The six game modes are survival, containment, protection, destruction, thief and slime dunk. If there was ever a game that did not need multiplayer Ghostbusters is it. After a long and drawn out campaign last thing I wanted to do was run around and capture more ghosts. I had my fix and that’s all I needed.
Overall I had a lot of fun using the proton beam to weaken, slam and capture ghosts, my biggest complaint is I feel the game dragged on too long. It also has a 60 dollar price tag which is probably a little too high but you need to pay for all the original Ghostbusters for incredibly funny voice acting work they did. If you can find this game for 40 bucks and want to experience would it would be like to weld a proton pack, I would highly recommend you do.