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God of War Ascension |OT| Gods up, Foes down

I don't think you can criticize someone for running to health and magic. It's what any aware player would do. Sometimes I am on the losing end of engagements -- why would I stay and fight to my certain death when I can possibly regain some health and return to win? I agree the SP is mediocre. And I agree that the MP has problems -- but I still think it works surprisingly well. Some weapons (the Spear included) are incredibly annoying to fight against. There is a Zeus spear that shoots out this little ball that is incredibly annoying. Lag does exist -- especially with the grapple. The connection quality varies greatly (is this game P2P?). But there is room to simply adapt. Some things are incredibly difficult to adapt to but there is enough flexibility where one can only blame the game to a limited degree. Maybe it's just not for you. I think the concept and execution for this component can be considered successes. But the longevity and impact of the mode could be considered a failure. I think SSM's response has been an absolute failure. The fact their community manager frequented hype threads more than this one is slimy as fuck.

I think its fair game to criticize running. Some weapon skills make it easier for certain characters to run as opposed to others. Not to mention its fair to criticize that putting health items in the game was a stupid decision. It only reinforces that player behavior. But yes, a player is only doing what the game design favours to win. In this game's case, running away is often the best option.

@bold-specifically: Good lord I fucking hate that. TMPS3 ESP was like... a no show post launch :/
 

TDSpartan

Neo Member
The Fist of Ares loses against the Crest. And, no, not all magics have the same priority. They are different. I'll see if I can't confirm this by joining a free-for-all with a friend and trying it sometime later this week.

I'm pretty sure the Hades grab will tank through the crest and connect. Seem to recall that happening a while back. I don't know about the Fist, I always figured they would both hit.. or whichever was triggered first. My point was that all magic in that class ( low cost, quick cast) have extremely high priority, not just the crest. The aura type magics (tide of redemption, the hades leech thing) are different. Now we have ultimate magics, which I assume have the highest priority of anything in game.
 

Xtpro

Neo Member
I rarely play Match of Champions, and if I do I play the bigger 8 player matches. My main focus is in CTF and TFOTG. In those game modes I have 89% win ratio and that's maybe the main reason I enjoy this game so much. Of course combat with some ridiculous clown who spams magic and runs away when he has 3/4 health left can be really frustrating, but there are always such clowns in other multiplayer games too. You just have to deal with it.

I play with my brother often and it's funny how some people always blames the game if they die. Even though my brother has more than 2 k/d ratio, anytime he dies there's some kind of problem with the game and he expresses his feelings about the shitty developers. I rarely die because of issues with the game and when it happens I don't get upset; my opponents have the same problems so it's a fair fight in my opinion.

Like I said previously, I never play 4p Match of Champions so I can't say if people there are using more annoying tactics, but in other game modes I've had no problems against SOB or any other specific weapon. Well okay, there is one weapon that's frustrating to play against to. That is Zeus's second sword which is the most OP weapon in the game, I got stats 20/1 and 18/1 in a row when I was leveling it up, but I stopped playing with it right at the moment third level hit in.
 

Endo Punk

Member
Ugh! Everything sparkles and despite being an extremely linear game SSM considers the fanbase so braindead they have to always pan the camera to show the the route ahead. Fuck sake! Their 4th game and they still act like it's 2005, get it together SSM. Im done with this franchise until it grows some balls.
 

BadAss2961

Member
Ugh! Everything sparkles and despite being an extremely linear game SSM considers the fanbase so braindead they have to always pan the camera to show the the route ahead. Fuck sake! Their 4th game and they still act like it's 2005, get it together SSM. Im done with this franchise until it grows some balls.
The camera pan actually cues me to go in other directions to look for secrets.
 

leng jai

Member
Well the patch finally arrived but it seems I have lost all motivation to even play (I bought it at launch). Tried it for 10 minutes and I still have some audio delay in the cutscenes. Dafuq
 

TEH-CJ

Banned
For a game you don't have?

I'm saying this game needs new dlc and new patches. The thing is, most of my mates play this game so I have been playing my brothers copy of the game. I wont lie, the last couple of days I have had a lot fun with TDSPARTAN and couple of other friends.

I have still encountered numerous bugs and glitches and bullshit that should never happenand and it still frustrates me beyond belief, it's just a lot more fun when your playing in a team of good players as opposed to playing with randoms that can't play for shit and offer no team support.

traded my special edition and put that money towards the PS4 pre order. Still kept the Kratos statue though :)
 

rdrr gnr

Member
DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT DISCONNECT
 

Shahed

Member
Anyone else find this game really buggy? As in it freezes the PS3 to the point I need to reboot it?

It's very rare a game makes the PS3 freeze for me, so it's always a surprise ehen it happens. Been about 5 times for me personally, and no idea as to how many other times for other people in the house. That's more freezes than I got in the last 1-2 years combined I think. Happens in the splash slides at the beginning before I get to the title screen
 

Gypsy816

Neo Member
Anyone else find this game really buggy? As in it freezes the PS3 to the point I need to reboot it?

It's very rare a game makes the PS3 freeze for me, so it's always a surprise ehen it happens. Been about 5 times for me personally, and no idea as to how many other times for other people in the house. That's more freezes than I got in the last 1-2 years combined I think. Happens in the splash slides at the beginning before I get to the title screen

Hello! Are you unable to reach the main menu at all?
 
The surround sound mix in this is horrendous. You know your game has issues when the stereo option sounds better.

The menus are also ugly and cluttered.
 

iamvin22

Industry Verified
what in the world is going on with the SFX in this game? major SFX loss during SE's and game play. its almost not even playable. lots of audio cut off.

boot flow gets past epi warning message then sits on a black screen forever. i always have to re-boot the game. how did this even past Sony's own compliance team?

i am so upset with this game because of all the bugs i am running into.
 
I've been playing this over the weekend. It's by far the most frustrating game in the series but man if the environments and boss battles aren't fun to see. I really enjoyed the scale of the snake sequence.
 
Finally finished! ^_^

After not touching this for well over a month, I started a new game yesterday and just finished it a couple of hours ago - I gotta say, I enjoyed it a lot more this time than when I first played it. Once you get used to the combat the fun factor ranches up a notch. I got up to the trial part pre-patch and then just lost complete interest........the patch did improve the sound a bit, but it’s still far from perfect. The repetition, lack of music and lack of interesting story really does hurt the game. On the plus side the graphics were of course amazing, and I really grew to love the furies. I thought they were pretty great enemies. Speaking of the furies –
the last boss fight kinda disappointed me after all the hype about it. I mean it looked fantastic, but during the fight I was expecting the locations to constantly change and for the fight to have more interesting/unique things happening.
Overall I thought the game was fairly good but definitely one of the weaker God of War’s.
 

Emwitus

Member
HALLO GAF! I'm about to break this freaking disc! Who the heck thought it was a good idea designing that battle of achmides where your fighting multiple medusas? Game was great up until this point....frustrating at times, but great. Now i'm literally about to trash this disc and watch the rest of it on youtube. SHIT

/rant
 

Toppot

Member
HALLO GAF! I'm about to break this freaking disc! Who the heck thought it was a good idea designing that battle of achmides where your fighting multiple medusas? Game was great up until this point....frustrating at times, but great. Now i'm literally about to trash this disc and watch the rest of it on youtube. SHIT

/rant

Make sure you have the game patched, they made it easier.

Best tip is to fully upgrade the items like slow down and orkros thing (I forget the name sorry) and use them as much as possible.
 

Kak.efes

Member
Heads up. If you're a PS+ member, GoW 1 & 2 are free on the US store (not the trial, but the full game purchase). It's a bug that probably figures to be rectified soon, so get on it.

HALLO GAF! I'm about to break this freaking disc! Who the heck thought it was a good idea designing that battle of achmides where your fighting multiple medusas? Game was great up until this point....frustrating at times, but great. Now i'm literally about to trash this disc and watch the rest of it on youtube. SHIT

/rant

It's not too frustrating if you approach the encounter really deliberatively. Read this thread for tips, it helped me.
 
Finished the game this evening, overall a pretty pedestrian entry in the series.

Once again, the production values were tremendous, but I felt like Sony had already blown me away in God of War 3 and that this was just the after party. It must be hard following on from the best looking game of the generation, but Ascension is a stunning looking game regardless of it not quite reaching the same bar. As far as gameplay goes, the improvements made to the combat system were worthwhile. I appreciated the new special moves you could perform after rolling, as well as the L2 special attacks and all of the new alternative rage and magic attacks - even if sometimes it could all feel like it was straining the controls a bit. I did not really miss the other weapons from past games as I did not really use them much and felt that there was enough variety here already. One aspect of the game that I absolutely loved was the puzzles involving time manipulation and the other special moves. It not only looked brilliant, but also really busted my brain at times when it combined multiple instances into the one puzzle. The sense of being on an epic adventure is also, as always, second to none.

However, for all that the game gets right, it has a lot of problems that shouldn't have been in there. Most annoyingly: bugs, bugs, bugs. Ascension is really rife with technical issues like missing and delayed sound effects, glitches, and even a couple of crashes during the final boss. The most odious was a bug involving the time healing on some fallen ledges, which if you do it too far forces you to restart from checkpoint because the camera spazzes out preventing you from decaying it again. I had to consult I guide to see what I was doing wrong, and many people had the same issue in the comment section. As I said a few posts back, the surround sound is really poorly balanced, with the music being far too quiet and the bass being too deep for some attacks. It took me a good 20 minutes to calibrate it all properly so it wasn't too ear busting at any point. These things really should have been caught in QA testing.

As for problems with the game itself, these run a bit deeper. First of all, the plot was a mess. There was potential in there, even if it was a fairly run-of-the-mill, find the maguffin to solve everything story that the GOW games are known for. What broke it was the way that it jumps around far too much. It tails off on a flashback for hours and by the time it returns to where it left off, you just think "huh!? why am I here? oh yeah, that". It does this a couple of times, and i'm pretty sure there is even a flashback within a flashback in there. It jumps around so much that by the time it all comes full circle for the ending "ah-hah" moment, it possesses zero impact.

The main issue I had with gameplay was the camera. There are too many times when it pulls out too far and it is impossible to see what Kratos is actually doing. When i'm being attacked by 5 goat people, I do not want the fight to be reduced to the size of a postage stamp. The worst examples were the early fight against the Hekatonkheires when it's tearing the platform to bits, and also when you are on the back of the mechanical snake as it moves through the level. Sometimes the framerate could suffer as well, dipping under 30fps during effect heavy attacks. Gameplay is always more important than spectacle! Other issues with the gameplay are more minor. As a long time GOW player, I struggled throughout the game with grab being changed to R1. It would have been an idea to have a re-mappable or a classic control scheme. Bosses, aside from the visual spectacle of the Hekatonkheires and the jaw dropping final boss, were rather forgettable and too QTE laden even by GOW standards. Some of the enemies were also not balanced well from a difficulty point of view, like the green spider ladies in high heels being ridiculously easy for an enemy introduced 2/3 in, and compared to other toughies like the medusa.

But the overall biggest issue I have with the game is that I guess i'm just fatigued of the franchise. In 6 games, I feel like it's shown me all it possibly can, and like other old guard franchises (Metal Gear Solid, Resident Evil, Halo), it's now getting to the point where the more they add, the more convoluted it's getting and the more the original story and character of Kratos is being diluted down. I think i'm probably done with the series for good now unless a reboot happens with new mythology (or if a PS4 game looks so good that I unfortunately cave just for the visuals).


6/10 - a bit tired, but worth a rental.
 

Toppot

Member
Thought I'd do a litte 'review' the new 'Blades Armour DLC'. I didn't buy them, CE season pass comes in useful! =P

Chimeran Armour - FREE
Stats Per Piece:
LV1 +15% Physical Power, -15% Cool Down
LV2 +16% Physical Power, -14% Cool Down
LV3 +17% Physical Power, -13% Cool Down (Predicted)

Looks cool but the cool down reduction is insane, you are better off wearing LV3 Artemis Armour with the small health cost, unless you really want 6% extra Physical Power for a fully upgraded set at the cost of L1 moves taking ages to recharge. Looks very cool but can't see me using it once I've upgraded it.


Chaos Armour - $2.99/£1.99
Stats Per Piece:
LV1 -3 Health, +15% Elemental Resist
LV2 -2 Health, +16% Elemental Resist
LV3 -1 Health, +17% Elemental Resist (Predicted)

Basically the same as Medusa Armour. Another 'Tank' armour. Pain in the arse to level up unless you use Posieden who has a lot of health anyway. Looks funky but it's pointless overall, unless you really want high Elemental Resistance for some reason.


Armour of Callisto- $2.99/£1.99
Stats Per Piece:
LV1 -3 Health, +9 Cool Down
LV2 -2 Health, +10 Cool Down
LV3 -1 Health, +11 Cool Down(Predicted)

Basically it's the same as Griffin Armour (Unlocked by doing Trail of the Gods). Fairly ok armour when LV3 if you want lots of cool down, not too useful for high level Hades players but for everyone else, if you like cool down and don't want to unlock Griffin Armour, this is for you. Looks pretty nice to.


Blade of Thanatos - $2.99/£1.99
Stats:
LV1 +5% Physical Power, +7% Elemental Power
LV2 +6% Physical Power, +8% Elemental Power
LV3 +7% Physical Power, +9% Elemental Power (Predicted)

Used this a bit and it's only ok. L1 + Sq throws it out an ok distance like a boomerang, can knock enemies back if I remember right. L1 + Tri throws out the sword and leaves it in the ground, leaving you standing still unable to dodge till the sword comes back or you press Tri. Both attacks are Elemental. I don't think this will become a peoples favourite unless there is a stupidly good combo you can do with it, just too slow and leaves you too vulnerable to attack.


Blade of Artemis - $2.99/£1.99
Stats:
LV1 +5% Physical Power
LV2 +6% Physical Power
LV3 +7% Physical Power (Predicted)

Pretty good sword, nice and quick overall, all physical attack. L1 + Sq is a spin attack that does nice damage if you land all the hits. L1 + Tri is same as Blade of Ares. Big long slam of sword that goes a distance. Looks very nice and plays fine. Is probably the only bit of paid DLC worth getting.

TL:DR
Might as well get the free armour, Blade of Artemis is the only one worth buying in this DLC, if you need yet another good sword.
 

TDSpartan

Neo Member
Armour is very disappointing. Two clone sets and a set that's inferior to Artemis. Meh.

I disagree with Toppot on the swords though.

The Blade of Thanatos has touch of death combos. Sword is mean and decent stats.

Blade of Artemis is okay but for some reason got saddled with just about the worst stats of any weapon in the game. It's all about the specials though, and they are decent.

The Sq special juggles (ripped straight from the namesake in GOW1) and the tri special is similar to the 9 Ares sword, but it gives a knock away instead of juggle so inferior.

EDIT: Also, wow the dlc is actually CHEAPER in Australia. Shocked. (IIRC $2.15 AUS a piece)
 

rdrr gnr

Member
Thought I'd do a litte 'review' the new 'Blades Armour DLC'. I didn't buy them, CE season pass comes in useful! =P

Chimeran Armour - FREE
Stats Per Piece:
LV1 +15% Physical Power, -15% Cool Down
LV2 +16% Physical Power, -14% Cool Down
LV3 +17% Physical Power, -13% Cool Down (Predicted)

Looks cool but the cool down reduction is insane, you are better off wearing LV3 Artemis Armour with the small health cost, unless you really want 6% extra Physical Power for a fully upgraded set at the cost of L1 moves taking ages to recharge. Looks very cool but can't see me using it once I've upgraded it.


Chaos Armour - $2.99/£1.99
Stats Per Piece:
LV1 -3 Health, +15% Elemental Resist
LV2 -2 Health, +16% Elemental Resist
LV3 -1 Health, +17% Elemental Resist (Predicted)

Another 'Tank' armour. Pain in the arse to level up unless you use Posieden who has a lot of health anyway. Looks funky but it's pointless overall, unless you really want high Elemental Resistance for some reason.


Armour of Callisto- $2.99/£1.99
Stats Per Piece:
LV1 -3 Health, +9 Cool Down
LV2 -2 Health, +10 Cool Down
LV3 -1 Health, +11 Cool Down(Predicted)

Basically it's the same as Griffin Armour (Unlocked by doing Trail of the Gods). Fairly ok armour when LV3 if you want lots of cool down, not too useful for high level Hades players but for everyone else, if you like cool down and don't want to unlock Griffin Armour, this is for you. Looks pretty nice to.


Blade of Thanatos - $2.99/£1.99
Stats:
LV1 +5% Physical Power, +7% Elemental Power
LV2 +6% Physical Power, +8% Elemental Power
LV3 +7% Physical Power, +9% Elemental Power (Predicted)

Used this a bit and it's only ok. L1 + Sq throws it out an ok distance like a boomerang, can knock enemies back if I remember right. L1 + Tri throws out the sword and leaves it in the ground, leaving you standing still unable to dodge till the sword comes back or you press Tri. Both attacks are Elemental. I don't think this will become a peoples favourite unless there is a stupidly good combo you can do with it, just too slow and leaves you too vulnerable to attack.


Blade of Artemis - $2.99/£1.99
Stats:
LV1 +5% Physical Power
LV2 +6% Physical Power
LV3 +7% Physical Power (Predicted)

Pretty good sword, nice and quick overall, all physical attack. L1 + Sq is a spin attack that does nice damage if you land all the hits. L1 + Tri is same as Blade of Ares. Big long slam of sword that goes a distance. Looks very nice and plays fine. Is probably the only bit of paid DLC worth getting.

TL:DR
Might as well get the free armour, Blade of Artemis is the only one worth buying in this DLC, if you need yet another good sword.
Nice. Thanks for this. Most everything seems throwaway.
 

grendelrt

Member
Finished the single player today on this, after waiting over a month for the patch to fix the sound. Yeah still major sound issues at the end for me, some parts of the game were fine other parts were really bad. On the final boss fight the sound kept dropping out and coming in delayed, really shitty way to experience the final boss fight, kills immersion. I lost some major respect for Santa Monica, I have always bought GoW games day one, and for them not to fix such a major issue but label it fixed, ugh.....
 

rvy

Banned
You can't see it in the store or see it in-game after downloading?

It appears with the price on the PSN Store. It shouldn't since it's free, right? I downloaded the CE content just fine, soundtrack, theme and avatars, but the new DLC doesn't appear free.
Maybe it's just for the CE with the Kratos statue or something.
 

Toppot

Member
It appears with the price on the PSN Store. It shouldn't since it's free, right? I downloaded the CE content just fine, soundtrack, theme and avatars, but the new DLC doesn't appear free. Maybe it's just for the CE with the Kratos statue or something.

The Steelbook is only a Steelbook Edition or Special Edition. You have to get the Collectors Edition (The one with the Kratos Satute), to get the season pass for all future DLC.

Special Edition said:
8076934589_787e46d613.jpg

Collectors Edition said:
 

Gypsy816

Neo Member
It appears with the price on the PSN Store. It shouldn't since it's free, right? I downloaded the CE content just fine, soundtrack, theme and avatars, but the new DLC doesn't appear free.
Maybe it's just for the CE with the Kratos statue or something.

Like Toppot said, if you redeemed a code that came from the CE (Kratos statue etc) you should have the Season Pass which allows you access to future DLC like this for free. :)

Sorry for the confusion!
 

Kak.efes

Member
Jump slicing is all anybody does in multiplayer now. It's effectiveness needs to be reduced, or at least take away the ability to juggle your opponent after you connect.
 

rdrr gnr

Member
Jump slicing is all anybody does in multiplayer now. It's effectiveness needs to be reduced, or at least take away the ability to juggle your opponent after you connect.
It's very good, but starting a parry always means that person is vulnerable. So, if I see a player who is doing that often, I will prep for a parry and usually kill them with my combo. It's effective but not so much that it needs a patch. Chains, on the other hand, should go away now.
 

Kak.efes

Member
It's very good, but starting a parry always means that person is vulnerable. So, if I see a player who is doing that often, I will prep for a parry and usually kill them with my combo. It's effective but not so much that it needs a patch. Chains, on the other hand, should go away now.

Really? I've never had a problem running away from someone using chains. If you're stuck in a corner, you're screwed though.
 
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