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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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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Rant. Rant. Rant. Rant. (Read).

The message boards know best. Or so they think. The words of a dozen no-name opinionators like myself. Free expression without the need for comprehension. Are you people reading what the journalists are saying about Playstation Move, or just ignoring them? Quicker to go out on a whim I guess. “Shit is shit”. Until someone says that, erm, it’s actually not. Which you might actually hear if you stopped ranting and read what the critics have to say: without being revolutionary many journalists are agreeing – Playstation Move is pretty darn neat.

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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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Uncharted 2. Bioshock 2. Modern Warfare 2. MAG. Is There Too Much Cross-Over?

It seems to me that every video game has multiplayer these days. More or less. And even when it’s debateable whether a game should have multiplayer (Bioshock 2 springs to mind), the resulting component tends to be rather impressive. But that causes its own sub-set of problems, particularly for someone like myself who has to play through multiple games a week. There just isn’t enough time for all this multiplayer.

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Something About Games Set In The Wild-West Has Me Excited Like Nothing Else.

Growing up, I’ve never had any interest in movies set in the wild-west. Sure, I can remember cold winter afternoons, sitting next to the fire with my Grandmother, watching some tired old tosh set about Pawnee Bill; but I’ve never once considered the genre a favourite. Which is strange, because anytime I think of wild-west games, I think of them with great fondness.

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Grand Theft Auto's An XBOX-Connected Franchise Now? Right.

I know Sony won’t pay for exclusives and I think that’s admirable. After all, would I prefer Grand Theft Auto IV DLC exclusivity for 12 months, or a whole new Wipeout game? The $50million Microsoft paid for that GTA DLC is probably in a similar ball-park to what would be spent on a mid-large PSN release (perhaps less) and thus, absolutely I’d take the latter. But when it comes to franchises such as Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy, I do wonder why Sony are letting Microsoft bully them.

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