@kaler

This is my review of God of War 2. The plan is to add entries as I play through the game. This review is NOT spoiler free.

It is 12:30AM and I’m sitting on my couch watching a satellite image of the globe. It is hard work being the God of War. I sit and vegetate. I relax my thumbs and my brain from the previous activity.

I’ve been playing GoW2 for the past hour and a half. Episodes of TV shows are queued up on the PVR, email sits waiting to be read, and RSS feeds update themselves in anticipation. A big stack of books sits on the dining room table. I cleaned the motorcycle earlier today but the tub is still filthy.

I peek out the window at Granville Street. It is a Thursday night, but the strip is busy. DJs are spinning, drinks are being served, and girls wait to be flirted with.

With all of these distractions it can be tough to finish games. Check my gamer card. I’ve accumulated a measly 155 achievement points. I am the ultimate game browser. Pick up a game. Play for 2 hours. Throw it in the pile. The original God of War was the last game that I could be bothered to finish.

The globe continues to spin. North America is lit bright whereas Europe is dimmer. Since it is the middle of the night on this side of the Atlantic there are more Folding@Home clients cranking away.

I pondered between playing on the PS2 rather than testing the backwards compatibility of the PS3. So far it has worked like a charm. The PS3 upscales the image fairly nicely. Of course there are jaggies present, but that is soon forgotten. Having a wireless controller makes up for the lack of rumble.

N’Gai Croal just finished up a 4 part series on GoW2 (1, 2, 3, 4). N’Gai (it’s pronounced EN-Guy) is a fantastic writer. His writing and critical analysis is amazing. The back-and-forth discussion that he has with Stephen Totilo is better than anything I can recall from Siskel & Ebert, or Ebert & Roper, or even Roper & Kevin Smith. Yes, even Kevin Smith.

Coincidently, N’Gai is also from Vancouver. Listen in on this podcast from Gamasutra. A variety of topics are covered.

In the interview, Croal discusses his interview technique, the differences, as he sees them, between coverage of games from the mainstream press versus the enthusiast press, his passion for new forms of media dissemination such as blogging and podcasting, working as a minority in the gaming press, and his take on critical game industry trends.

I have a fairly skewed concept of reality. If something isn’t available in the downtown peninsula then it must not exist. What is this Burnaby that you speak of? New Westminster? Huh?

God of War 2 was a myth to me until yesterday. Every time I stepped into Futureshop to purchase a copy, none would be available. So, I intently followed along N’Gai’s articles as I waited for Futureshop to replenish their supplies.

In preparation for GoW2, I watched the film 300 on its opening weekend. An hour and a half into GoW2 I have no problem saying that it is a better experience than the film. Just over a year ago, Roger Ebert claimed that video games were an inherently inferior medium. I think it is time to revise the old debate about games as art.