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JakEastside v3

Everybody says that there's no such thing as a perfect game, so why did everybody throw 10s at games like Halo and BioShock when they had flaws that were addressed?

-MoarPlz-

armchairnixon sees you doing that thing there...

armchairnixon sees you doing that thing there...

DeeBG

I don't like the 'QTE' in any game really. I understand the design reason, and it's a good reason -- however they get to be pretty horrible sometimes. Some parts of Heavenly Sword for example the animation is so fluid and so much going on I sometimes laid the controller down just to watch them and lost a battle or two the first time I got through the game. The QTE in the demo is pretty typical of the other GoW titles, so I don't know if you can really bash it as it's expected. I didn't have the problem mentioned, but I could see that happening. Even with console controllers it can be hard to get events like that properly if someone has a quirky pad.

Mongoosekun

supercrap

neoraul20

Sounds like me (sorry 3 posts)

cherrybomb

this i have yet 2 understand. if you guys played the other two then why bother playing this on "normal" when everyone should be playing this on hard rather unless you consider yourself a wimp & not up to the challange of beating the game on this setting the first time around. weak. Beating all 3 games on hard 1st time around is more fun rather than a speedrun.

cherrybomb

u my friend, are weird.

cherrybomb

Cleared the game on Normal. And then Spartan mode (didn't try the God mode). Cleared Challenge of Hades in three seatings. Game is so short.

Still a GREAT game though. ;p

rhugghed

I appreciate you talking of the difficulty and how it can make you lose interest. It happens to me as well. I know many people are reluctant to talk of a game being to hard because it may make them look not 'hardcore' or something. I am someone that is not afraid at all to admit my less than awesome gaming skills. Yet, I love to game. I would put my collection of systems and games against anyone's - in terms of money spent and volume. However, this doesn't make anymore of a great gamer. I am average. I am strong at some games and blow at others. Anyway, back to the point. I will buy this game to experience what I can of it, but if what you say is the same for me, it will be another game I don't finish. Oh yeah, I keep nearly all my games even if I don't finish them - I don't sell them off or trade them. I am a gaming pack rat!!!

BTW, this is my first venture into the God of War realm so being a prequel it is cool I waited. After this I will likely attempt the PS2 ones (and likely add to my substantially long unfinished game list).

Sega-man1993

*SPOILER*

were you referring to the save point before Charon's boat? I also failed to save with about 1/4 of my hp left and died but to my surprise it was actually part of the script lol

I would also say that this game lacks big monster boss battles like in the console versions. Fighting Hydras and all that were awesome

And its about 3-4 hours too short

KaliKOtt

@Mr.SithNinja: First of all i've been playing games for close to 20 years, i own every system since the NES (even the really crap ones) and my monthly games budget routinely makes my friends cry. I'm confused as to how this separates me from other gamers. I think the main discrepancy between your view and mine is that you think this new form of gamer with a specific vocabulary is actually a good thing, while i think it's clique-making and in some cases downright elitist, and it should be crushed like the social virus it is.

"I fail to see where judging anything on the experience you get from it would be wrong."
You're absolutely right there, because i argue judging on the experience is what is important. The difference is i believe in judging the individual experience, or we wind up shoved up the arse of relativism where games turn into an arms race of presentation, and then we're back to square one.

Of course this is all my opinion, and i've been trying to stress that. And i KNOW it's a douchy thing to do, but it's still my feelings on the subject. Call me crazy but i believe most people are entitled to opine on the work of others; saying "you can't criticize my music because you don't make this kind of music" is backwards. If we didn't have this kind of simple insolence we're basically talking emperor's new clothes type scenarios, and hopefully that's not what we're after.

But as Crecente says, it's just the start. So i'll stop being a negative nancy and hope for the best :)

Sunjammer

Adam In Texas

Andyli1004

montster

Captain Internet

Save point -- its a portable game, and the one thing I hate most is when I save a game, then have to put it down for a while and when I come back to it, I cannot for the life of me remember what I was supposed to do, or where I was in the story. I personally dont mind the repeated cutscene.

By far my favorite psp game. Must own for everyone.

Braham

If the story focused on his DECISION rather than the outcome of what was to come, C.o.O. could have been the emotional tear-jerking equivalent of King Kong.

Kratos is not only a bad-ass but also an emotionally complex and disturbed character. The importance of his decisions in this game carry through to the sequels and are very cool to see play though...yet, for some reason, the decision you make as Kratos feels...tacked-on, disconnected...it feels unimportant, from an emotional game play connection, to an extent.

For those of you who can focus on the importance of story rather than "gameplay time", C.o.O. delivers better than the greatest Hollywood blockbuster...yet disappoints in the same exact way.

naughtyco

Brian Crecente

So is Mr. Crecente; this review is spot-on.

eastx

You call review points such as graphics, sound, game play, and replay value inane. As a gamer, those are extremely important things to know about before you buy a game. Graphics: Will this look good on my HDTV? Sound: Will the game make use of digital surround to make the game that much more enthralling? (With you being a composer I am shocked to see you miss the value of that one.) Replay value is also very important when considering a game purchase. Do I want to spend $60 on a game that I can plow through in less than 8 hours and have no interest in playing again? Knowing ahead of time that games like Mass Effect offer more than 40 hours of game play initially and other sub plots and story lines for using alternate characters as well is a major plus.

I do agree that the score system (1-10) needs to go because too many "outside stresses" can factor into the final score, hence Gertzman-gate. I for one, find nothing wrong with the pro/con list in a game review. It is actually a benefit to be able to quickly scan the reviewers points and decide if it matters to me or not.

I don't believe a single review style should be applied to all forms of media. The experience that one gets from theatre or books is not the same as what you get from games. So why should the reviews take on the same character?

In my opinion I believe you completely missed the mark on the "experience card". I fail to see where judging anything on the experience you get from it would be wrong. To use what you say should be format of the way games should be reviewed as an example: Wouldn't you judge a writer or theatre actor on the emotional experience you received from their ability to convey the essence of the story? If an actor trips and falls flat on his face on stage or forgets his lines and distracts you from the "experience", would that not be the same as a jenky control system or poorly placed save spot? Should it not be judged on these things?

In my opinion as a gamer, I greatly appreciate the review format that has been used on this site. It's quick and to the point at the same time giving me a strong overview of the general feel of the game. I got what I wanted from it. If you are looking for something else, then I am sure that Google can find you something more to your liking.

Quite frankly, I find it extremely arrogant for someone to basicaly stroll into someone's place of business and call them out for not knowing what they are doing, especially when they work in a completely unrelated field. Oh and by the way... Anybody to prefaces their rants with the phrase "I hate to be a complete douche but..." or "No insult intended, but...." might as well be saying "I AM a complete douche and I am going to illustrate exactly why as I insult you."

The bottom line here is that all reviews are nothing more than one person's opinion. Who are we to judge the way they go about expressing it?

Mr.SithNinja

There is nothing wrong with rehashes if you ask me as long as the game is still fun to play after the 100th rehash....

sainraja

Sweet Tooth

DiabloTerrorGF

I completely agree on your stance on reviews otherwise; scores can go die. However your current format effectively has a score system; number of pros versus number of cons, wether you like it or not those are going to be the values used for at a glance comparison. If you truly wanted to abolish scores, which have the sole purpose of allowing at-a-glance summaries, you'd avoid trying to summarize in the first place.

I'd like game reviews to take on the character of some book and theatre reviews, where actually reading the literature of the review is what lets you gauge for yourself. Anyone that has more than a cursory interest in games know they are too complex to weigh by inane stuff like "graphics", "sound", "gameplay" or other such Gamepro style idiocy. Thinking about such a complex beast being judged against some kind of imaginary binary standard makes my skin crawl.

A scoreless game review should rely on the reviewer's ability to convey his or her personal experience playing the game more than his or her ability to compare past experiences to the one currently in question.

In my lousy one-man opinion, game journalism need a solid step backwards into childlike naivitè, because at the core that's the element that enthralls us. I wish we'd go back to the time when what engine drove a game didn't matter worth a damn, total play time in hours weren't part of the scale, development costs weren't part of the common language and terms like "pacing" and "replay value" weren't invented yet.

Methinks this is why games have become so undecipherable to newcomers; the language is so damn specific and the scores rely on such arcane terms.

Bah this is turning into a rant. Sorry. But i stand by my opinion.

Sunjammer

qte's were made for god of war... they fit perfectly and add a little spice to the gameplay, the main issue with them is if they pop up unexpectedly, but if you're playing god of war you have to expect a qte.

great game. truly awesome. let's not forget it's 5 solid hours of gameplay... very little 'exploration' or 'dialogue' ... or grinding or anything. RAD done good imo.

oh and i like this new review system, far too many have some weird agenda, and because it's written in a 'matter of fact' way you're led to believe that a game might be bad or good just because a reviewer likes it or just wants people to quote him more.

comedy

They could have/should have put it on two UMDs for the retail price they set it at.

Booji-Boy

MURDERFACE

Therin

AnthraxJunkie

The Legend of Zelda
Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link's Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora's Mask
Oracle of Ages
Oracle of Seasons
The Wind Waker
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Phantom Hourglass.

BS-Zelda
Zelda Game and Watch
The Wand of Gamelon
The Faces of Evil
Zelda's Adventure
URA Zelda
Link's Awakening DX
Four Swords

And lets not bring up Pokemon…

No mistake though, i have no burning desire to play GoW2, and i wont pay much attention to GoW3 unless it does something incredible. I have also played most of the above so im not really complaining

Accordion

GOLD5

The decision to run our own reviews was in part motivated by the observation that todays typical reviews seem more about satisfying the ego of the review's writer and the game's publisher than as a service to game players and, in a very small way, developers.

To summarize: Metacritic and site of its ilk are the hobgoblin of video games.

Brian Crecente

I get severe hand cramps whenever I play it for more than an hour. The layout and the weight certainly adds to the torture.

@Brian Crecente:
Very spot-on review Brian. It's good somebody mentioned the QTE getting annoying when the thumstick/analog nub gets into play. It slips and doing quarter or whole circle motions aren't really its thing.

My first play through with it was already on Spartan. You can only imagine how many times I mashed the buttons to try and see if I can skip the final boss' cutscene.

It's also a bit weird that they'd only let you skip the scenes AFTER you beat the game.

Still, an excellent job by RAD. Makes you enthusiastic on what their next project is. Especially since we know it's for a console.

excaliburps

gstaff

MyLittlePwny

A save AFTER the big cut scene BEFORE a big boss battle? That happens WHEN? Thats right, it dosent, the point being the scene should be skipable, not that the cut scene is ill placed.

MyLittlePwny

This effectively shifts Kotaku from a position where they're basically entitled to be FANBOYS and get away with it, and moved on into a realm where opinion matters in a whole different way.

I can only really speak for myself, but i come to Kotaku for free speech and varied video game news, sometimes biased even, as most of the really interesting reading has come from some of the regular commentors. Opinion pieces are welcome, but a structured, "complete" take on games is, frankly, not the staff's forte, and it shows. Kotaku as a blog gives me the notion that things are moving around in video games, and plunking down for some reviews is so backwards.

To be all meta on this, reviews are slices of past written in stone. It's bad feng shui for a site that otherwise swims on the surface.

My $.2 of bile. Please don't hate me, i just felt i had to say it eventually.

Sunjammer

one game that comes to mind as getting that right IMO was Advent Rising...

they had cutscenes, which were skippable, but it said "skip cutscene?" and then gave you the choice...
which is great because there's been many a time when i accidentally hit a button and then i'm dropped in the middle of a level and have no freakin' clue what i'm supposed to do :-P

mAaron

Why is this not more obvious?

Spoony Bard

Serves the stupid pirates right... :)

bellini

BigDanG

MrPerson

PSP owners owe themselves this game.

crashlanding

You bumbling idiot.

Antiterra

SinistarX

Fuck that, 40 bucks for 5 hours of gameplay? Suck it.

painuser

Oh well, I'll see for myself soon enough. I've received my import copy, but I'm saving for a short trip I'm taking next month.

@ph15h: Nah, they won't, people will just download them, as usual... Have a looksy here - it's scary when you think that those numbers are taken from only one torrent website.

Antiterra

in Canada too! oftentimes they just ...forget to send the goodies along to the canadian stores, but not this time! woot!!

joelface

JonC

dabu

taidan19

Morphine16

too many games too little time, and money

Seiven

thambone

Thank goodness for the mid-battle checkpoint, or my PSP would have wound up in pieces on the floor. Though I found the latter part of the battle a lot easier than the first part before the checkpoint.

Z-Word

WHAT? You rather it not be there and have to start from even FARTHER BACK when you die!? I think you're blaming the save point when you should be blaming the unskipable CUT SCENE.

MyLittlePwny

Hamsnibit

steliosco

ph15h HATES ph15h

Great review! I have really enjoyed the game so far.

-EDGE-

kw4k

Fluffy22

PSP controls > PS2 for God of War - I hated evading with the second analog stick. Kudos to Ready at Dawn for making PSP controls work.

inkedgamer

TheIrishNinja

Furious_Liver

Cheebahawk

DigiMish

DigitalHero

iToke

@Brian Crecente: Come on, Crescente... Don't blame it on the controls :D

7ucky

I recently started playing Elite Beat Agents again, and had been stuck on the last song on Hard mode. Without easy cutscene skipping AND the DS sleep mode, I would have been too frustrated to beat it.

Bluecell

@usfslacker:
db9 is right. It's not a DS - the battery won't die if you put it to sleep overnight. Actually on a PSP sleep is about as good as off and should last at least a week. Playtime I'm not sure of because my battery is 3 years old and starting go go bad on me (as all 3 year old Li-Ion batteries do...) but I can get at least 3-4 hours of playtime from this game with it on one charge. Kind of weak, but it's usually about 15 min between save points and even if the battery dies it just goes to sleep and holds on to where I was until I get it to a charger.

fuchikoma

NPlace

Longest I've ever gone with it like that was 3 days, without a hitch.

Norellicus

DigiMish

Norellicus

sascha23

If it does, great! I'll go smack aforementioned friend in the head. :)

Spoony Bard

lordofsword

Ha, thats part of the complaint about having the save before the cutscene, the save area is also the last checkpoint, so when you die you revert back to before you saw the cutscene. I must have watched it nearly a hundred times!

@usfslacker:

First, the PSP is …a Portable Playstation. It was created with the ability to feature home console quality games in mind. The Sleep function is also perfect for pausing the gameplay at any time, using the absolute minimal battery power, and then being able to jump back into the game exactly where you left off.

@taidan19:

While i do agree to some extent, perhaps more emphasis should be put on "done for the third time" as opposed to twentieth.

Having only played the original God of War and this PSP version, im a little tired of the gamplay, but the presentation is far beyond most other titles.

Accordion

I agree, the cinemas are the pain when you have to fight a difficult boss.

It's like me right now, stuck in God mode in the last boss and I have to watch the cinema all over again.

Dumad

United States Military Overseas, the base i live in is in italy, but its technically american soil.

mentalboy11

emag

DigiMish

Pombar

liquid_kore

I do have two big complaints so far that make it look bad:
1. You can leap 10 feet in the air, but you can't leap over a 6 inch rock because debris has infinitely high invisible forcefields around it. In Tartarus, this gets REALLY obvious when the mighty Kratos can't step over rubble that an 80 year old with a broken hip could clear.
2. They really seem to like giving you a brutal battle, THEN a savage fight harder than the bosses, THEN a big empty dead end puzzle room that takes forever to get out of, all without a save point, so if your batteries die or you want to play something else, you have to go through hell just to get back to the boring spot where there's nothing (except one non-obvious thing) to do.

Other than that, it's awesome. If I beat this, I'm totally going back to play the first two. I may stall out on this one though because the difficulty curve goes straight up. I was marching through the whole game but now that I've hit Tartarus I have to redo every fight a dozen times just to continue. If it stays that brutal, there's just no fun to be had...

fuchikoma

XGamerX

True they aren't so good in other games but this "QTE=fail" trend of late is getting silly.

Astrofox

I got through Final Fantasy Tactics: WOTL without exiting once to the menu, by just flipping it on and off.

NO one else does this. Certainly, Nintendon't.

Spoony Bard

db9

db9

Jamez

All cutscenes should be skippable (and to a lesser extent, pauseable), but they should do it via some confirmation menu; I don't want to accidentally skip a cutscene that I wanted to watch :(

Norellicus

When God of War rehashes "awesome gameplay" it is called a good thing. When Nintendo does something conservative with a famous franchise we call them out. I'm looking forward to the day when using the nigh-exact same movelist from your past games is not given a thumbs up.

taidan19

Brian Crecente

This game's problem is definitely the second one, as is most of the PSPs library. It is miserable to take on the go. Between save points and the PSPs sub par battery keeping me from being able to pause it and put it in my pocket, this game will be staying at home for me to play in the long bursts it demands (If I even get to it with Smash Bros. sitting there) while my DS travels pretty much everywhere with its VERY portable games.

Also, quick time events, and every game that has ever used them save for RE4, need to go straight to hell. Laziest game design I have ever seen. Nothing to take me out of a game than flashing PRESS X NOT TO DIE in my face.

usfslacker

I doubt I'd enjoy it anymore on a PSP. Those controls seem to be made specifically to thwart any attempt at playing an action game.

SquirrelPhister

jackal888

Because people such as myself would smash their PSPs if they had to replay an entire huge section of baddies just to get back to this incredibly hard boss?

Norellicus

liquid_kore

Mr.SithNinja

Ah, I see.

OGHowie

MasterOfPastures

KingDavid73

ban_hammer

cebukid(im rick james, bitch)

Nevertheless, I'm excited to pick it up. It'll be my new business trip companion game!

Spoony Bard

goldwings

Saint Anima

Brian Crecente

Isn't that a good thing?

Looking forward to playing the game.

OGHowie

igpx407

Fulgurator

XGamerX

(i live in armed forces europe)

mentalboy11

Cruithne