Welcome to the latest in our long running, fan favorite and potentially future award winning series of exclusive blind reviews. Today we’ll be looking at God of War III, a PS3 exclusive developed by Sony’s Santa Monica studio scheduled for release on March 16th, 2010. Without further ado, or the benefit of having played even a second of the game, here are our thoughts.
God of War III: Kamp Kouncilor Kratos
Kratos in a quiet moment of contemplation, deciding on a new career path.
As everyone knows, at the end of God of War II for the PS2 Kratos activated a super-weapon built by Archimedes, called the Mountain Fire, that killed every last living Olympic God. With his vengeance achieved and no one left to fight, Kratos is forced to take a job at a summer camp owned by Socrates to pay the bills.
Camp Nowannawigo caters to a very exclusive clientèle of Zeus’ illegitimate children. A bit of a handful for most, Kratos is able to keep the campers in line with his popular lessons in hunting, fishing, swimming, wrestling and tennis. For a time Kratos is happy, his life a cross between the prologue in 300 and one of the Bill Murray-free Meatballs sequels.
That idyllic life, swimming in the lake and playing grab ass with the female councilors in the Greek wilderness, was shattered one day when invading hordes pour over the mountains from the north and east. As Kratos discovers, hearing of the power vacuum left by the Olympians’ destruction, Norse, Hindi and even Mayan gods have marshaled their forces in an attempt to conquer the Mediterranean world.
Quetzalcoatl went as the Cowardly Lion for Halloween this year.
As these factions do battle over land and worshippers, Kratos races to secure the lives of his charges. In this, the first God of War title on the PS3, the developers have leveraged the huge jump in processing powers to place him amidst enormous, pitched battles as feathered serpents, avatars and valkyries clash in the sky and blast the earth. The effect is dramatic and gorgeous, setting a new benchmark for house-guest impressment.
Taking a page out of games like Ico or Prince of Persia, Kratos is not alone on his journey. Unlike previous games, in GoW3 he has a constant companion, Socrates, whose special dialectic powers can be used to dumbfound certain enemy types. Also along for the ride is a trail of prepubecent children, survivors of the camp who Kratos must usher to safety.
Combat is mostly the same as previous entries, with the additional wrinkle of the escort mechanic. Kratos also gains the use of some new weapons inspired by his work at a summer camp. At any time, even in the middle of a combo, Kratos can switch from his signature chained blades to an archery set, a hot dog skewer or a kerchief.
The biggest difference comes from the shift in scale and the new multi-boss battles. Many levels end with Kratos and his group finding two or more gods fighting each other. Kratos must join the fray to clear the path forward. He can do this by killing every boss present to keep the area free of divine influence, or helping kill one while making a pcat with the other. Often this means gaining a new ability not otherwise available, but playing favorites with any one faction can have have negative repercussions elsewhere.
It’s an interesting, if perhaps unexpected direction for the series. The rough areas in the narrative, however, are more than worth it for the epic brilliance of fighting Odin and Krishna simultaneously in the skies above Sparta. For that, and other set pieces like it, I would not hesitate to recommend God of War 3 to anyone with even a passing interest in action games.
A screenshot from David Jaffe's next PS3 game: Tight Cotton
Bloggers today were thrilled to learn prominent game designer David Jaffe, the man behind PlayStation games Twisted Metal and God of War, has once again shot his mouth off with some controversial snippet in a throw away twitter post. No word yet on what exactly he said, but second hand reports suggest it may have been “ludicrous”. Other evidence point towards a possible disparaging remark about a competing platform.
Over the last few years Jaffe, and a handful of industry personalities like him, have become a cornerstone of gaming coverage. Bloggers and journalists around the world have come to depend on cutting and pasting quotes out of context in stories with provocative headlines and incredulous commentary in order to garner links, drive traffic and keep the ctrl-c, ctrl-v industry afloat.
In that climate, being the first to republish the latest tweet or facebook status has become incredibly important. More and more Twitter or blogspot outages and general internet congestion can be attributed to gaming journalists constantly refreshing their browsers in order to break the latest scandal.
At press time we are still unable to confirm what exactly it is Mr. Jaffe said in this most recent dust up. Google reports they are working to restore his blog within the next few hours after what they had presumed was a denial of service attack. The Whitehouse has yet to issue a statement on the matter, but the Obama administration is reportedly aware of the growing problem.
Forced to comment on the assault at Infinity Ward on Monday, Activision released a statement outlining their plans to ride the Call of Duty into the ground. In addition to the Treyarch developed Call of Duty expected this fall and an anticipated Modern Warfare 3 in 2011, a spin-off game from developer Sledgehammer is also due in 2011.
Rumors are already swirling as to the nature of this new direction for the franchise, but the following video sent to us from a source inside Sledgehammer points to a rather unexpected direction. Internally, the game is being called “Call of Duty: Boot Camp” and describes it as a Wii-based fitness game starring R. Lee Ermey, of Full Metal Jacket fame, as the abrasive Drill Sergent who will whip your lazy ass into a lean, mean fighting machine.
Apologies for the video quality. It’s from a Wii game, what can you do? Other rumors are already swirling about more unannounced Call of Duty games outside the FPS mainline including titles described as a “God of Warfare”, a “Chow Line Mama” cooking game and “WarVille” for Facebook.
News broke late today about a dust up between Activision and the leadership at Infinity Ward, the creators of Call of Duty. Perhaps more alarming than the sudden departure, and apparent firing, of the studio’s founders is the original report from G4tv.com which confirms the existence of Activision’s long rumored Gestapo.
Infinity Ward employees sent numerous twitter and facebook updates as Bobby Kotick’s goon squad surrounded their building and stormed the premises. The artists and programmer valiantly defended their cubicles with airsoft guns, nerf darts and shaken-up cans of soda, but they were eventually routed. A reliable death count is not available, but pictures on twitpic show harrowing scenes of carnage where blood and Mountain Dew stain every surface and action figures litter the floor.
Bobby Kotick recently gave the key-note address at DICE in Las Vegas, a speech that seemed engineered to rehabilitate his public image as a duplicitous, evil man. With the incident at Infinity Ward coming so soon after, one has to wonder if Kotick hasn’t been forced to reveal his strength far sooner than he would have liked. No longer will he be able to build his army in secret, but it remains to be seen whether their is time enough left to counter his dominion.
Sony today announced the successful conclusion of their long planned experiment with time manipulation. Ken Kutaragi, father of the PlayStation, designed the PS3 console with an undisclosed time manipulation component designed to be remotely activated over the PlayStation Network. The goal was to create a world-wide network of flux capacitors, simultaneously generating the desired tachyon manipulation field across most of the globe and leveraging the distributed computing power of the PS3’s CPU to perform the necessary calculations.
PS3 owners experienced the experiment, which caused the individual consoles to shift slightly out of phase with our space-time continuum, as a 24 hour interruption in online services and an error code that prevented many games from playing, even offline. The issue was quickly dubbed the ApocalyPS3 on Twitter and various game blogs and forums, but as of this writing the time shift has ceased and all PS3s are once again operating normally.
In a press conference this afternoon, Sony Computer Entertainment head Kaz Hurai apologized for the inconvenience to their loyal customers. “The error code was an unforseen consequence of the chrono-bridge generated between this frame of reference and 1999, but gamers should take pride in the role they played in one of Mankind’s greatest technological feats.”
While every blog and their brother is out there giving you hands on impressions of the graphics and gameplay of the long awaited follow-up to Blizzard’s original sci-fi RTS, here at Gamer Blahhhg we’re taking a more comprehensive view of the beta. Anyone can give you a rundown of the map types, units and mechanics of the sequel’s beta. A number of sites are even streaming live video of multi-player matches. But what about what it’s like to not be in the beta? Who is going to tell that story?
We are!
This issue was first brought to our attention by JHAPSBER69, long time lurker at NeoGAF, who was shocked to find he had not been invited to participate in the beta. “I started seeing all these blog and forum posts about the beta starting, but when I signed in to Battle.Net I couldn’t find any way to download the client.”
It was only later that JHASBERG69 realized he had never even gone through the procedure required to be considered as a beta tester. “I could have sworn I signed up months ago. I think they must’ve lost my application or something. Anyway, my account is totally set up for beta consideration now.”
A survey of various forums and personal blogs suggest that stories like JHASBERG69’s are common. With the breadth and depth and detail of available StarCraft 2 Beta coverage available on site after site it is easy to forget about the unlucky minorities who have been marginalized by their exclusion from the testing process. Some bloggers on Live Journal have even published suicidal thoughts or pictures of self mutilation. Support groups for the disaffected have started to pop up as well.
NiteBITCH_candlewax, admin of Zerg Wives Homefront, one of the larger support communities on Live Journal, emphasizes a historic perspective. “We have to think of ourselves like the mothers and wives who watched their men leave to wage war in some far flung land. It’s our responsibility to rise up, keep the home fires burning and maintain the engines of industry. In that way we are full participants, no matter what my registered games list on Battle.Net says.”
No word from Blizzard on when, or if, the beta will be expanded.
The Saints just before they heard they were being downsized.
In a surprise announcement today following the conclusion of Superbowl XLIV, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell outlined plans to transition from their current focus on physical matches to a system of virtual matches played out in a custom version of EA’s Madden videogame. Citing mounting concerns over the long term health problems associated with repeated concussions and other injuries commonly suffered by players and budgetary pressures created by ever increasing salary caps, the League’s leadership, in conjunction with the individual team owners, came to the conclusion that digitally simulated contests were the inevitable future of Football. By making the transition sooner, rather than later, the NFL hopes to win the support of an entire generation raised on social networking, iPhones and Xbox Live.
With this announcement, EA’s exclusivity deal for the NFL license has been extended through 2030. Details on the version that will be employed in official matches were spares, but comments from EA’s Peter Moore point towards a 11v11 networked match where every position on the field in controlled by a human player. The custom game will also support sophisticated real-time spectator features allowing for a high fidelity television feeds and internet streams with live, human commentary.
Initial reactions to the news could best be described as stunned bewilderment. The Player’s Union filed a protest immediately. The negative fan reaction around the country quickly overshadowed the celebration of New Orleans’ first championship. Representatives from the Arena and Canadian Football Leagues began talking almost immediately about expansion in hopes of absorbing displaced players and disgruntled fans into their own organizations. It is unclear what the full ramifications of this shift will be, but millions of football fans will be watching the changes with apprehension.
Disreputable news outlets are reporting the findings of a Pennsylvania housewife who dreamed last week that the deadly H1N1 virus, known colloquially as the swine flu, is the result of a mutation that occurred when SARS was exposed to Grand Theft Auto 4. Video game critics Dave Grossman, Jack Thompson and countless Fox News pundits nearly wet themselves with excitement when the story broke as the various news outlets started booking self proclaimed violent video game experts for television appearances again.
Algebra, Computer Science AND Biology? WOW!
Crusading zealots suspect the original disease was bombarded by the same video game-based radiation that turns shiny happy people into ruthless mass-murderers creating the deadly new pandemic. They have urged the creation of reeducation centers attached to major hospitals where children can experience a therapeutic form of hyperbole and brow-beating expected to purge their diseased bodies of the demonic game influence before they cross the veil.
The video game industry has yet to respond to this latest development, though one developer we spoke with today said, “that’s the stupidest thing anyone has ever said,” but asked we not use their name. The CDC also refuses to comment on the situation, acting as if the story did not even merit denouncement.
Look, I don’t think it’s exactly newsworthy when a publisher announces a special collector’s edition of a game is coming, so you can imagine how little it interests me to hear there will be No Heavy Rain Collectors Edition for US. You mean to say the thing never promised isn’t happening? How is this news, again?
Sometimes boats will sail out to the international date line to celebrate New Years first.
Most other publications spent much of their run up to the Christmas break publishing lists of their top games published in 2009. Some have even been working on “games of the decade” articles looking at the medium going back to 2000. We here at Gamer Blahhhg find the division of time into discrete units rather silly. I, for one, have no respect for what constitutes a “day” or what others might believe is a “healthy” sleep schedule.
To that end, our list of the top games in 2009 is not restricted to titles published this year. You may find the following list capricious and without purpose, but that’s no less true of any other top ten or games of the year list out there. Without further ado, GamerBlahhhg.com is proud to present our favorite games of 2009 (played).
Final Fantasy 12 (PS2) – 2009 ended up being the year I finally put a ton of time into this game. I have a tendancy with big RPGs like this to play a bunch when I first buy them, get burnt out and then leave it on the shelf for a long time. The story is really big and the different systems so complex that it can be intimidating to try and pick up where you left off. I had to do a bunch of reading to get back up to spead, but I was able to reorient myself enough to bring my party to the brink of the final battle. I love the game. It has great graphics for the PS2, I love the gambits both in theory and in practice. I’m having enough fun that I’ve put off heading into the final battle to putter around doing a bunch more hunts.
Torchlight (PC) – Currently on sale for $9.99 on Steam (and briefly at $4.99), even at the full price of $20 this is one of the best values of the year. It’s an amazingly refined take on the Diablo style action RPG. The 3D graphics are simple, but expertly crafted and delightfully colorful. The pet mechanic is a blast and the developers have perfectly balanced the character progression and loot acquisition. Top it off with a wonderful score and environments that never wear out their welcome and it’s hard not to be in love with this game.
Need for Speed: Shift (PC/PS3/360) – I’ve never really been a huge racing game fan. I’ve owned a few Gran Turismo games and mostly played the rally modes. Hardcore simulation has never been my thing. But NFS: Shift does an amazing job rewarding your time with experience and money for better rides. I didn’t mess around too much with the tuning, but the upgrading did have a nice RPG feel to gaining improvements. And I actually had a lot of fun with the racing. There was a good variety of competition types allowing you to level up how you wanted to and the invitational races giving you an early glimpse at higher class hardware was a nice touch.
Dragon Age: Origins (PC/PS3/360) – When this game was finally released this fall I devoured it rather ravenously. I don’t think I even realized how strong my craving for a high production value spiritual follow-up to the Baldur’s Gate was. But DA:O just hit the spot sooo good. Great combat, interesting story, fun characters, fantastic voice work and, overall, some really strong graphics. Obviously the engine Bioware created for the game didn’t handle wilderness areas too well, but castles and dungeons were realized in gorgeous fashion. When I finally beat the game after some very long sessions I found I was still eager to go back, try a different race, a new origin and see how the game changes based on the various tough decisions you must make in the story.
Titan Quest (PC) – Another older game I’ve had for a long time but never really gotten into until this year. This was a big game more me in the spring. It’s actually impressive how well the graphics hold up. The levels are huge and gorgeous and streamed seamlessly. The music is very good as well. I really enjoyed the ancient setting, as opposed to the commonly used medieval one. In fact, I had far more fun playing Titan Quest than I ever did playing the vaunted Diablo 2.
Defense Grid: The Awakening (PC/360) – I’ve only owned this game since the beginning of the Steam Holiday Sale about a week ago. I just beat the story mode tonight and Steam tells me I’ve logged almost 23 hours. Not a bad value when you consider I only payed $2.49. Just a blast of a game in the tower defense genre. It looks great, plays better and offers all sorts of great strategic potential. I’ve been playing the crap out of it and loving every minute. Some of those levels are hard!
Borderlands (PC/PS3/360) - Unfortunately, this is one of those games I’ll need to get back into next year. I played a bunch right when it came out, fell in love with the shoot and loot gameplay and their distinctive art style but set it aside to play Dragon Age and Torchlight. Still planning to go back because, despite some flaws, it is just flat out FUN!
Mass Effect (PC/360) - Admittedly, the sequel is just around the corner, but I only managed to get around to beating Mass Effect 1 early this year. I had a ton of fun with the game, but there are some serious areas of improvement I’m hoping the sequel addresses. It’s funny how much I enjoyed playing despite so many glaring flaws. Issues with texture pop in, half baked gun play, horrible, horrible vehicle controls and pointless side quests all seem to fade away thanks to a very engaging stories and a well realized universe.
Fallout 3 (PC/PS3/360) – As a big fan of the first two Fallout games I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed a bit to see Bethesda pick up the license and create a sequel. I wan’t an isometric 3rd person follow-up. But there’s a lot to love in the game Fallout 3 turned out to be. There’s so much to do. The wasteland is just epic in size and the environments are incredibly rich with detail. I’ve never been a fan of Bethesda’s Morrowind games, but placing that style of game in the more interesting fallout universe with the more interesting S.P.E.C.I.A.Ls character system was a big improvement.I sank a ton of time into this game last winter so I guess my disappointment wasn’t too great.
Far Cry 2 (PC/PS3/360) – This was the game of summer for me in 2009. Forget that piece of crap Avatar game built on its engine and play the original in a beautifully realized, seamless African landscape. Well, sure you get a load screen when you go in a building, but you can walk or drive from the jungle to the desert no problem. The gun play is also great. With a huge variety of weapons to procure you are afforded a ton of freedom in how you tackle enemies. The game has issues, mostly in the way it fails to deliver on the promise of two rival factions in the actual gameplay. But it offers so much it’s hard for me to fault it too much. I have high hopes for the sequel.
So that’s it, our top ten in no particular order and adhering to no particular release window.
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