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God of War: Ascension (PS3, Series Prequel) - Live stream 8AM PST 4/30

M

mattp

Member
gundamkyoukai said:
Bullshit they all try to tell a story , hell DMC2 mess up the story so bad they did prequel right after which had near 90 mins plus of cutscenes .
This whole idea that Japanese action games don't focus on story is a joke IMO.
If you want to say they focus on combat then that makes it worst as DMC2 was awful game in terms of combat and NG3 seems to be the same way .
GOW IMO has not hit the low point that's both those series have which is why even thought i don't like prequels i still look forward to the next one .
Click to expand...

eh, i would say you're both half right
you can't tell me bayonetta or dmc3's stories are written seriously or meant to be anything but nonsense and fun. the games are 100% designed around the gameplay mechanics, while god of war is more of a balance between mechanics and a big epic story/setpieces
 
K

KingK

Member
As far as the GOW game rankings, my opinion is

2>3>1>Chains (I haven't played Ghost of Sparta yet. $40 on PSN is still way too much and I don't want the UMD version because I plan on getting a Vita eventually)

All of them are excellent games though. And 3 would be my favorite if it weren't for that bland section with the huge room of huge boxes. It has the best combat and "WOW" moments though.

Also, I don't give a fuck about the story in God of War games, tbh. It just needs to be there as an excuse for me to kill and maim gods and creatures in the most brutally gory ways imaginable.
 
P

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
gundamkyoukai said:
Bullshit they all try to tell a story , hell DMC2 mess up the story so bad they did prequel right after which had near 90 mins plus of cutscenes .
This whole idea that Japanese action games don't focus on story is a joke IMO.
If you want to say they focus on combat then that makes it worst as DMC2 was awful game in terms of combat and NG3 seems to be the same way .
GOW IMO has not hit the low point that's both those series have which is why even thought i don't like prequels i still look forward to the next one .

Hell GOW is not even my favorite action series DMC is but GOW has done allot of things right .
Click to expand...

The thing that DMC and NG share is some troubled development. Itagaki left in a hurry right when 2 released, and Hayashi doesn't know how to make a game which is why NG3 is how it is. With DMC, 2 lost the gameplay director, and the whole game was a mess. It specifically tried to make the gameplay easier to cater to a bigger market, but they overdid it. It also screamed rush from a story perspective as half the stuff you do ingame doesn't have any coherency with the story.

GoW always switches directors, but that so far has only impacted the story. Big names for the gameplay in other action games changed around, which is why those franchises have hit such low points. The gameplay also hasn't evolved much, but something like DMC1 compared to 3 barely seems like the same series.

The story is a reason to go from point A to point B. They want to put something there, but it's hardly a focus for most action games. GoW has more focus on it than the others, even if they all attempt something, there's clearly a difference in what they're going for.
 
R

RiverBed

Banned
StoppedInTracks said:
GoW3 had such cool weapons. Best in the series. Every single one of them was unique AND had its uses in the game.

Personally the moment I got Nemean Cestus I used them exclusively because GOD DAMN @ brawler Kratos:

cestus_rendere5jwg.png


kratos_cestus6bkwo.jpg
Click to expand...

Me too; once I got the godly boxing gloves of doom (what I call them) I never went back- even with boss fights, if it was possible.

I also want to know what happened at the end of GoW3 -SPOILER-

the body moved off the cliff. Who did it? Or did Kratos drag himself? What about Kratos' brother that was briefly mentioned (other than Hercules)?
 
D

Drek

Member
AngryMoth said:
What bothers me is I just don't see SM voluntarily making a 3rd god of war prequel when they could have moved on to something new (I know there is probably another team that did so but still). I hope they come out and say otherwise because I'll have a lot more faith in the project knowing the decision came from the team, but this just reeks of being a Sony mandated game. The franchise has grown too big for them to let go of.
Click to expand...

1. They weren't really prequels, neither tells the full story of how he aligned with Ares. One is a side story of the time after that and another fills in the back story of his childhood. A real prequel of his adult life before, up to, and after his deal with Ares is the real prequel story and it hasn't been done yet.

2. Those were done by Ready at Dawn, SM hasn't done one yet.

3. Sony has always been very flexible with their in house teams.

My ideal path for the franchise would be for

1. GoW:A to be a big, open battle field epic telling Kratos' life as a Spartan captain and servant of Ares.

2. WayForward to do a 2D God of War side scrolling action platformer on the Vita starring Kratos and dealing with another of his tasks between killing his family and going after Ares. Make it along the lines of the original Castlevania games (with a touch of the Metroidvania power growth).

3. Transition at or near the PS4's launch to a new main character with God of War 4 set in Norse mythology using similar large scale epic battles. The main character takes the place of Tyr after he is killed by Loki via setting Fenrir free. This would allow for a dramatically different character type from Kratos, allowing for an entirely different line of motivational story arcs. You tie the new character together to the old franchise by giving him chain blades again, but replace the kopis style swords with viking axes. Obviously at some point you get to play around with Mjöllnir. :)
 
V

Veelk

Banned
hey_it's_that_dog said:
Your points are all well-reasoned, but I think you're going back and forth a bit carelessly between what the creators intended the character to be and what a subsection of the fanbase perceives him to be. Yes, shitty 13 year olds probably see Kratos a certain way, but that has never prevented me from admiring certain things about his character (in the context of video games, not compared to characters from TV, film, or literature).

He's simple but well realized in the sense that his narrative character and his mechanical character (his animations, his combat style, even the way he opens doors and hits switches) are wholly consistent with one another. I've never fixated much on the story aspect; I think it's pretty good for a character action game. I won't pretend it's anything more than that. What I like best about GOW is how physical it feels, and that happens to be related to their aim of making his anger feel manifest in all of his actions (mechanically speaking).
Click to expand...

I think it's one and the same. The interviews that I've seen have all revolve around the same idea. "Kratos is sooooo strong and brutal and badass...but you kinda feel sorry for him, because bad stuff happens."

I will admit, however, that the fanbase irritates me far more than the actual game. I'm conscious of it. It's been like that since I was like 12, so I don't think I can move past it at this point. I find it so stupid though. The only other time I've personally seen so many people heaping such mindless praise on a work of fiction, to the point where they imagine it to be more than it actually is is twilight. That's how I think of this series, the male, videogame version of twilight. It'd be one thing if it were merely shallow and pandering like it is, I could forgive that. But to have millions love it on top of it FOR that? As a pretty huge action game fan, this disgusts me.

But yeah, I do agree that Krato's storytelling through action and design is pretty good. They just never did anything with it.

SLEEPS7ALK3R said:
Your problem is the same as with Athena, writing Kratos off as a senseless brute simply because he's a soldier. He kills, maims and dismembers without flinching, but only because that's what he has been trained to do for a lifetime. Even so, there is still a sliver of empathy within him. It's not that hard to believe that Sparta, a militaristic nation, trained soldiers to be ruthless and unfeeling in combat but still honour and respect a set moral code. It's humans embracing their nature, which is violent and egotistical. Those are prime examples of elements of tragedy.

When DMC filters all the cheese and melodrama, we can say it's on par with GOW.
Click to expand...

Kratos IS nothing more than a senseless brute. Her mistake is that she underestimated what his misery would drive him to do. Even the greatest of simpletons doesn't always do what you expect. The only genuine empathy he ever shows is to his wife, which is never explained. And for good reason, because there is no way to show how Kratos would believably come to care for this woman other than as a fuck bag. Besides that, the only time he shows empathy is when he loses something he considers his. "Zeus killed MY army? THAT BASTARD". No, not a single one of his moments of empathy come off as genuine.

Kratos is a fucking moron who has bad stuff happen to him because of his own dumb ass, and because this bad stuff happens, this is suppose to be tragic? Please. By that logic, every character who has ever had something bad happen to them is a tragic character.

And, gods almighty, Athena. God what a shit character. "Oh, hello Kratos. You killed me 5 minutes ago and I went to this wierd place no other gods went to for some reason and I learned some shit that completely changed my values, motivations and character in general. I also got these for you, they were just sitting around. No, of course I'm not going to tell you wtf happened, lol, the writers needed me as a plot device to make you go on another game long fetch quest. Have fun!" Some of the laziest wriitng I've ever seen, goddamn.

And in over 5 pages, you still never really said what DMC3 did wrong. If cheese and melodrama bring it down so much for you, then Kratos' hamminess or the terrible dialogue in GoW bring it down just as much. Try looking at the actual content, then we'll talk.
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
You know what's weird? I recently picked up the GoW Collection on the cheap with a Best Buy gift card (I now have both HD Collections and GoW3... the entire series on PS3!), and am finding myself enjoying God of War 1 more than 2.

When I played them both on the PS2, I absolutely preferred GoW2 and thought that it was as massive improvement over the first game. Back then, I thought that GoW1 was overrated, and then the sequel came out of nowhere and blew me away. Now that I am revisiting them in HD, I find myself more impressed with GoW1 than 2. Even graphically, it seems to look better in this HD rendition. Maybe it's just the high-contrast and bold lines of the texture work in the first game, but GoW1 looks much sharper and less washed out than GoW2 in this collection.

Am I alone on this? I tried asking in the GoW Collection |OT|, but that thread was long dead by the time I came around. Maybe I'm just numb to GoW2 since I've replayed it a couple of times, whereas I am just not revisiting GoW1 for the first time in years.
 
K

KingK

Member
The Cestus is the best alternate weapon in the series by far. Soo good. I would really like to have a Spartan spear and shield for this new game (I know it was in Ghost of Sparta, but that's the only game I haven't played yet).

Also, regarding God of War 3, I've been stuck on my hard playthrough for months at the part right after the box labyrinth where you go back to Hades and immediately have to fight the Cerberus and 3 goat guys. I remember this being the hardest fight in the game my first time through, and it seems impossible on hard lol.

I've beaten all the arena challenges so beating Titan mode is really the only difficult trophy I have left before I can get the platinum.
 
B

Bebpo

Banned
What time is the official announcement supposed to be?

KingK said:
As far as the GOW game rankings, my opinion is

2>3>1>Chains (I haven't played Ghost of Sparta yet. $40 on PSN is still way too much and I don't want the UMD version because I plan on getting a Vita eventually)

All of them are excellent games though. And 3 would be my favorite if it weren't for that bland section with the huge room of huge boxes. It has the best combat and "WOW" moments though.

Also, I don't give a fuck about the story in God of War games, tbh. It just needs to be there as an excuse for me to kill and maim gods and creatures in the most brutally gory ways imaginable.
Click to expand...

You should play Ghost. I'd rank them about the same and Ghost would be behind 2 and above 3.
 
R

Ricky_R

Member
Drek said:
1. They weren't really prequels, neither tells the full story of how he aligned with Ares. One is a side story of the time after that and another fills in the back story of his childhood. A real prequel of his adult life before, up to, and after his deal with Ares is the real prequel story and it hasn't been done yet.

2. Those were done by Ready at Dawn, SM hasn't done one yet.

3. Sony has always been very flexible with their in house teams.

My ideal path for the franchise would be for

1. GoW:A to be a big, open battle field epic telling Kratos' life as a Spartan captain and servant of Ares.

2. WayForward to do a 2D God of War side scrolling action platformer on the Vita starring Kratos and dealing with another of his tasks between killing his family and going after Ares. Make it along the lines of the original Castlevania games (with a touch of the Metroidvania power growth).

3. Transition at or near the PS4's launch to a new main character with God of War 4 set in Norse mythology using similar large scale epic battles. The main character takes the place of Tyr after he is killed by Loki via setting Fenrir free. This would allow for a dramatically different character type from Kratos, allowing for an entirely different line of motivational story arcs. You tie the new character together to the old franchise by giving him chain blades again, but replace the kopis style swords with viking axes. Obviously at some point you get to play around with Mjöllnir. :)
Click to expand...

Not only that, but if Naughty Dog had the freedom to pitch a game like The Last of Us to Sony with success, I'm sure SM would have the same privileges considering their size and input on so many first party IP's.

I'm sure a second SM team could be working on anything they wanted right now. However, Sony needs/wants more GOW games and they will get them out one way or another, so their influence on their devs is undeniably present.
 
Z

zerokoolpsx

Member
KingK said:
Also, regarding God of War 3, I've been stuck on my hard playthrough for months at the part right after the box labyrinth where you go back to Hades and immediately have to fight the Cerberus and 3 goat guys. I remember this being the hardest fight in the game my first time through, and it seems impossible on hard lol.

I've beaten all the arena challenges so beating Titan mode is really the only difficult trophy I have left before I can get the platinum.
Click to expand...
That part took me hours to finish on Titan mode. I went on youtube to see if there was an effective strategy. At the end, I dodge, and kept dodging until I saw an opening. Eliminating those satyrs took priority. Really annoying if left alone.
 
T

Tambini

Member
KingK said:
Also, regarding God of War 3, I've been stuck on my hard playthrough for months at the part right after the box labyrinth where you go back to Hades and immediately have to fight the Cerberus and 3 goat guys. I remember this being the hardest fight in the game my first time through, and it seems impossible on hard lol.

I've beaten all the arena challenges so beating Titan mode is really the only difficult trophy I have left before I can get the platinum.
Click to expand...

Yeah that bit is hands down the hardest part of the game..such a pain. Felt good once I finally did it though.
 
B

BHK3

Banned
Teh Hamburglar said:
Either you die the hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Click to expand...
image.php


gundamkyoukai said:
The same can be said for both NG and DMC.
To me there has not been 1 bad GOW game yet .
Click to expand...
They haven't been bad, but just not all that amazing. I loved gow1 and thought gow 2 was the perfect sequel in almost every regard. 3 was just action but horrible environments and puzzles. Sure poseidon was good and all but hades could have been more but other then zues there were no other fights that were good. That scorpion was the cheapest thing on god mode, hated it.
 
K

KingK

Member
Bebpo said:
You should play Ghost. I'd rank them about the same and Ghost would be behind 2 and above 3.
Click to expand...

I really want to, but I've been waiting for it to hit $20 on PSN. I could get the UMD for under $20, but I want to future-proof my collection for Vita and the PSN price is still $40.

zerokoolpsx said:
That part took me hours to finish on Titan mode. I went on youtube to see if there was an effective strategy. At the end, I dodge, and kept dodging until I saw an opening. Eliminating those satyrs took priority. Really annoying if left alone.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I keep trying to save all of my magic for the final round and then spam the spartan sheild+arrows spell, but I'm always nearly dead already when I get to the final round lol.
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
KingK said:
I really want to, but I've been waiting for it to hit $20 on PSN. I could get the UMD for under $20, but I want to future-proof my collection for Vita and the PSN price is still $40.
Click to expand...

Why don't you just by the Origins collection? It's by far the best way to experience both CoO and GoS.
 
E

Endo Punk

Member
BHK3 said:
They haven't been bad, but just not all that amazing. I loved gow1 and thought gow 2 was the perfect sequel in almost every regard. 3 was just action but horrible environments and puzzles. Sure poseidon was good and all but hades could have been more but other then zues there were no other fights that were good. That scorpion was the cheapest thing on god mode, hated it.
Click to expand...

Hercules fight was also amazing!
 
B

Bruiserk

Member
ScOULaris said:
Why don't you just by the Origins collection? It's by far the best way to experience both CoO and GoS.
Click to expand...

I don't know about him, but for me I have already played chains 2 or 3 times now. Not looking to play it again. They only sell ghost of Sparta individually for ps plus members, which I am not :/
 
S

ScOULaris

Member
Pistolero said:
So prequel is another word for lame...Didn't know that. So thanks gaf!
Click to expand...

It's only lame in this case because there have already been two prequels in this series, and we've seen a shit-ton of explanation into Kratos' backstory already in the mainline entries.

It just seems limiting given the plot progression of the last five games and Kratos' progression, gameplay-wise.
 
W

Wray

Member
So if this is still based on Greek Mythology, what other type of creatures could we conceivably fight? We already got most of the main ones.

Cyclops
Medusa
Harpies
Minotaurs
Chimeras
Kraken
Etc

What are some that haven't been incorporated yet?
 
Gsak

Gsak

Member
Wray said:
So if this is still based on Greek Mythology, what other type of creatures could we conceivably fight? We already got most of the main ones.

Cyclops
Medusa
Harpies
Minotaurs
Chimeras
Kraken
Etc

What are some that haven't been incorporated yet?
Click to expand...

Kraken is not a Greek mythology monster actually.
 
near

near

Gold Member
I'm sure they guys at Santa Monica will produce a polished end-product, but it looks like the same formula applied to a different scenario. I'm unconvinced tbh.
 
Gsak

Gsak

Member
I'd like to see a GOW game, where the Norse (or Egyptian) Gods, after seeing what Kratos did to the Greek Pantheon, train their own warrior and send him to defeat Kratos. And once that story is told, we can finally have closure on Kratos and move on to other mythologies.
 
R

RockmanWhore

Member
I hope they'll change a lot of stuff gameplay wise. I love GoW's gameplay, but it's not very deep, and after so many similar sequels, it's really getting old.
 
K

KingK

Member
One of my concerns is, who the hell are we going to fight? All of the gods and heroes were killed in the other games, so we can't kill them now. And if we're not fighting Gods or iconic heroes, how could the fights live up the epic standards of the series?

This is why moving on to Norse or Egyptian mythology just makes so much more sense. There's nobody left to kill in the Greek setting.
 
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