God Of War III May Be Familiar, But It's The Refinements That Make It The Best In The Franchise.

God Of War III is being criticised for being too familiar to its predecessors, but it’s a line of critique I feel intrigued to counter. Playing God Of War III, I couldn’t help but notice the ways in which Sony Santa Monica took something familiar and made it better. On a surface-level, the tweaks aren’t particularly apparent, but there are so many things tweaked to improve the experience. From the combat to the controls, God Of War III simply “feels” better, and while that’s an ambiguous statement, allow me the opportunity to justify…

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Games Are Going To Win BAFTAs Tomorrow. Here's Who We Think's Gonna Win.

Guess what? It’s the BAFTAs tomorrow night. And that means all the glamorous folks involved in putting together the games you loved last year will be heading to the red-carpet to (hopefully) collect a copious number of gongs. We’ve teamed up with VoucherCodes.co.uk to bring you our definitive list of predictions ahead of tomorrow’s big event. Remember, if you see any game on our list you’ve not bought yet, VoucherCodes.co.uk might just have the Amazon code you need to get it for a steal.

Hit the jump for our full list of predictions.

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God Of War III's Length Really Isn't A Topic For Discussion.

How short is too short in video games? Well, how short’s a piece of string? It’s astounding to see the number of people commenting unfavourably on God Of War III’s length. “But God Of War III is only eight hours and Final Fantasy XIII is fifty – I’ll rent Kratos’ epic last hurrah instead.” Quality over quantity – how many have heard that phrase? You should have, it’s a popular comment and it’s absolutely relevant to this point of discussion. It doesn’t matter how long God Of War III is – because every moment of that perfectly crafted adventure is mind-blowingly amazing. So exactly what are you complaining about again?

There’s been forum-posts, blog stories and comments all over the Internet the last few days. Apparently Sony Santa Monica’s studio director claimed God Of War III is 12-hours long. Whatever – it took us nine hours in our review playthough. Does that make the game carry less value? Absolutely, absolutely not. Every single moment of God Of War III is pure epic thriller. Set-piece after set-piece. Perfectly constructed puzzle after perfectly constructed puzzle. Gorgeous vista after gorgeous vista.

Compare that to Final Fantasy XIII’s adventure. Drawn out corridors. Lengthy convoluted cut-scenes. Yes, the experience will last you longer. But it’s also watered down. Make no mistake, Final Fantasy XIII is a good game – but if you’re comparing the length between Square Enix’s game and Sony Santa Monica’s – simply, you’re doing it wrong.

It’s not God Of War III’s length that’s important: it’s the journey. So what if you can complete it in less than ten hours — you’re going to see things in that span of time that you’ve never experienced before. And that’s really the true point of discussion here.

Justified: Why You Need Yakuza 3 In Your PS3 Collection.

We’ve been playing Yakuza 3 this weekend and have fallen in love. We’re in head-over-heels admiration for Sony’s risky Japanophile experiment. But why’s it so good? Well ahead of our review (check back mid-week for that), we wanted to justify the reasons why you should rush out to your local game store and pick up this under-rated gem right now.

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Screenshots Don't Even Do It Justice.

I’ve been searching the archives: Bioshock? No way. Goldeneye? The bungie jump was cool. Shenmue? “Fuku-san!”. No matter how deep I dive, I can’t find an opening as strong as God Of War III’s. A sixty-minute period in which everything that makes the God Of War franchise a success is crammed, turned on its head, and amplified to 11. As of next week, when people talk about Playstation 3, and particularly the power of the system, I hope they have flash-backs to the opening sixty-minutes of God Of War III. They are unbelievable.

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Heavy Rain's Characters May Not Be Perfectly Performed, But Draw You Further Into The Drama.

Over the past months I’ve had the privilege of playing two extremely unique games. Heavy Rain and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are both arguably flawed titles if you pick them apart. But let them stand on their own merits and they’re inspiring. I don’t want to do other games a disservice in my appraisal, I have plenty of love for more formal titles (I’m enjoying the heck out of the uber-generic Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing), but I just want to highlight how much I think developers of any game need to learn from Heavy Rain in particular. Whatever the game, whatever the gameplay, it’d be nice to care about the characters.

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Take Your Pick: The Surprise Sony Announcement This Week Could Be Any Number Of Games.

Geoff Keighley’s promo video for this week’s GameTrailers TV threw a surprise for most Playstation fans. During a show-reel of Playstation 3 games, Keighley announced that this week’s episode of GTTV would see the unveiling of a “surprise Sony sequel”. But what could that game be?

Obvious choices would boil down to Killzone 3 or Resistance 3. Both games are known to be in development, and an announcement outside of E3 or GDC could be perceived as exciting. But, with due respect to GDC, such top-tier Sony franchises are likely to find their place in an E3 or GDC, rather than on GTTV. However, Keighley’s comments on Twitter suggest the game might still be a huge release. In a response to a Tweet regarding the graphic fidelity of Playstation 3 exclusives, Keighley responded, “wait until you see what they’re doing next… very soon on GTTV”, hinting perhaps that the game reveal may be a graphical power-house. In all honesty, despite the unlikelihood of the announcement on GTTV, Killzone 3 would be a surprising announcement due to Killzone 2 being released in the last 12 months.

However, we still consider Resistance 3 and Killzone 3 announcements to be too top-tier for an episode of GTTV, and certainly not quite the “surprise” Keighley teases. We’ve taken a hard think about the “surprise sequel” and reckon it could be one of the following: rumoured Warhawk sequel Starhawk; a PS3 Syphon Filter game developed by Sony Bend; David Jaffe’s latest game, assumed to be Twisted Metal; a new entry in the MediEvil franchise; a sequel to MotorStorm.

All games sound feasible, all would be a surprise, and all have the potential to push the Playstation 3 hardware to its limits. In all honesty, we’d say the most likely announcement would be Starhawk — but we’d be really, really excited if Syphon Filter or MediEvil got announced. We think Twisted Metal will be at E3.

So, valued reader, what do you think the surprise announcement will be? What are you hoping for?