God of War looks much better in 480p, you must turn off the soften mode first.
Visit this site for all your HDTV needs:
HDTV Arcade
The effect progressive scan will have depends a lot on how you currently play games.
You need to be using screen size greater 32" for real benefits to kick-in.
LCD screens, Plasma panels, DLP/LCD projector and good TV's will already de-interlace a 480i signal and turn it into 480p. How good they are at doing this depends on the quality of the de-interlacing solution.
A lot of people say that something like an DVDO iScan HD when fed a 480i signal can output a better 480p picture than the progressive scan mode of some games.
If you have only been using an S-video connection or god forbid just composite then the step up to 480p through component is huge.
For must console games 480p is effectively doubling the games resolution. 480i mode uses only 240 lines of resolution. (This is a simplification)
For fixed panel displays like Plasmas and LCD they only display in progressive.
Another thing to take into account is the native resolution of the display device. There is not much you can do to get a decent picture if the source signal needs to be upscaled, de-interlace, etc.
480p looks best on a 480 resolution display, the 1 to 1 pixel mapping gives a clear, brighter more vibrant picture. With HD already here having only a 480 resolution display seems a bit redundant.
You can get both your PAL GC and Xbox to output 480p very easily. With the GC you get Freeloader and buy US releases. With the Xbox you need to apply the softmod using Splinter Cell or Mech Assault and then run the Enigmah Video Selector app. To get the most out of 480p on the PS2 you need to be able to play US releases because most PAL PS2 games lose their 480p option, e.g. GT4, SCII, God of War, Burnout(s), Socom, etc.
The problem with a lot of GC software is it is only 4:3 only.
The HDTV site will cover all this sort of stuff.
Best looking 480p titles by platform:
GC
Star Wars: Rogue Leader II
F-Zero GX
Metroid Prime
Xbox
Splinter Cell 3 Chaos Theory
Ninja Gaiden
Far Cry Instincts
PS2
Primal
Burnout4
God of War