93 replies to this topic

[Saintsy]

[Axe99]

Jumped on this arvo for an hour or so - enjoyed everything I played - the half an hour of SP I got into was classic God of War - the physical attack and being able to grab weapons mixes up the mechanics a little, but it's reliably what we've grown to enjoy, and I'm a fan . Online, I jumped into a couple of Trial of the Gods games (Coop vs beasties) with a random, and it also went well - didn't feel laggy at all, and was very enjoyable - don't really have an idea of how deep it is, or how versus will hold up, but looking forward to playing more

[Batty]

Overall GOWA has some interesting ideas...sp lacks the polish of GOW 3 (looks and plays cheaper) indeed of a GOW game generally. Have my doubts about the change to the finishing mechanic but no doubt this is a quality game overall and i will attempt to plat it. Bit of the kz2 to kz3 about it.

MP suffers from poor matching for parties - it's biggest fault is its inability to actually get a player into a game. Once in, gameplay is quite confusing and unbalanced.

Coop trials has some interesting ideas, but rotating maps and time limits interfere with enjoyment.

Still early days for me and my opinion will probably change the more I play it.  Love the sackboy Kratos figurine.

[GasClown]

Batty, on 16 March 2013 - 10:03 PM, said:

sp lacks the polish of GOW 3 (looks and plays cheaper) indeed of a GOW game generally.

I think this is a given every time a developer decides to slap mp onto a game. This game should have stayed single player focussed. It's a shame the reviews it's getting, GoW has always been so highly praised.

[Axe99]

GasClown, on 16 March 2013 - 11:42 PM, said:

I think this is a given every time a developer decides to slap mp onto a game. This game should have stayed single player focussed. It's a shame the reviews it's getting, GoW has always been so highly praised.

I think part of the subdued nature of the reviews is due to the similarity of the SP with the previous games in the series. So far I've found the SP has played very well, and the new 'O' attack/environmental weapon mechanic adds a new layer to combat.  The pacing is solid, but the story is a bit confused, and I think that's what's got people struggling - the violence lacks a context, and without that it's just a lot of beating things up.  The actual arenas, combat and action seem just as good as ever.  Personally, I thought the visuals were as good (and in some places a bit better) than GoW 3, but they're not as consistent.

Agree with the biggest challenge to MP being the matchmaking (hello every matchmaking game ever made - it's not as bad as UC3 or KZ3, but it's not as good as jumping in a server you know already has a game underway).  Played a couple of hours now, and it's far less confusing for me.  It is, however, the same old 'unbalanced by design' approach that seems to have won the design battle (mainly because that's what everyone plays, can't really blame the game developers when it's what most gamers seem to want), and moreso than some other games, so you'll more than infrequently find yourself hammered by a magic spell or a special weapon you're hours away from unlocking.  I did enjoy it, though - it's very polished for what it is, and I reckon I'll put a good few hours into it.  It's definitely new and fresh (and part of the confusion people will experience will be because of this - MP shooters and racers borrow a lot of design and gameplay decisions from each other, so we've learned half the game before we've even played it - GoW:A we're pretty much learning from scratch).  Personally, I'm glad they added in the MP - it adds a new and unique MP experience, that is enjoyable and deep.  Of course, I'd have preferred they'd kept it a bit more balanced for playtime/XP, but that's a battle that's been well and truly lost this gen, at least in mainstream games .

[spectre51]

They changed the controls?

[Axe99]

spectre51, on 17 March 2013 - 02:34 AM, said:

They changed the controls?

A little - not by much, but there are some subtle tweaks (namely the 'O' side of things).  Would need to fire up GoW III to provide a proper run-down of differences.  Controls online are pretty close to SP, they've done well - although I've found myself going from MP to SP and wondering where my special attack had gone

[Batty]

Axe99, on 17 March 2013 - 02:05 AM, said:

Personally, I thought the visuals were as good (and in some places a bit better) than GoW 3, but they're not

Looks kinda...pixel shaded here and there. What's with the generic Sony font on the save notification and where are my save points??? GOW is supposed to have save points so I know when to have a rest...with this one it's so damned hard to stop playing lol

[Aromaci]

Can't believe how outraged people got over the 'Bros Before Hoes' trophy  I've seen much worse in other games and no one complained about them.

[Saintsy]

Aromaci, on 17 March 2013 - 07:35 AM, said:

Can't believe how outraged people got over the 'Bros Before Hoes' trophy  I've seen much worse in other games and no one complained about them.

I just don't get it.. I mean fuck, in RDR, you hogtie a woman, drag her behind your horse, place her on the traintracks and watch the train run her over for a trophy! But calling it 'Bros Before Hoes' is far too serious? Just like tiny tina is "totally racist" haha!

[Axe99]

Batty, on 17 March 2013 - 05:37 AM, said:

Looks kinda...pixel shaded here and there. What's with the generic Sony font on the save notification and where are my save points??? GOW is supposed to have save points so I know when to have a rest...with this one it's so damned hard to stop playing lol

Agree on the save point and save point font thing - it seems right odd.  It does save regularly, but it's damn hard to tell when!  As for the visuals, played more this arvo and still think it looks better, but a bit less consistent - that digital foundry mob reckon it's more accomplished as well, and they can say it using far bigger words (and I'm guessing oodles more understanding, lol) than I can...

http://www.eurogamer...f-war-ascension

One thing, though, is their focus on making it look cool, at the expense of gameplay - they did it a bit in GoW 3, but they've gone further with it this time, and I think it takes away from the actual gaming bit - ie, when the camera pans out so far to see the epic scene, but you're a tiny speck on the screen, fighting other tiny specks - very hard to time blocks in these situations!

One thing that does come to mind playing this, is that we've probably hit the technological ceiling for spectacle in these kind of games - the PS3 lets Sony Santa Monica do pretty much whatever it wants visually - the PS4 difference will be better resolution (1080p instead of 720p), and presumably nicer textures and models, but the experience will be pretty similar.  If they want to make these kind of games stand out in the future, they'll have to work more on the storytelling, characters and gameplay (I quite like the gameplay already, but after playing a bit more, I think that GoW:A is the strongest GoW yet in most fields, but the weakest on storytelling).

Anyways, enough talk, time to play more God of War .

[spectre51]

I think Kratos's story has run its course, I struggle to see where they could fit another story in that wouldn't feel cash-grab to me.

[Axe99]

spectre51, on 17 March 2013 - 09:36 AM, said:

I think Kratos's story has run its course, I struggle to see where they could fit another story in that wouldn't feel cash-grab to me.

Aye, and I think it's starting to show in this installment - am about half-way through the SP now, and it's very well done and enjoyable - the action, pacing, acting and visuals are all excellent (some of it is really excellent - top notch stuff) but it feels less coherent and consistent, and I think the reduction in context is what a lot of the reviews are noticing (although many of the reviewers don't identify this as the issue, and instead rattle on about something that's often irrelevant).  The storytelling and coherence has started to improve now, but it still hasn't reached the level of earlier games.

Personally, I'd prefer if this was the last 'God of War' game - by all means carry on some of the gameplay ideas in another series ('Hammer of the Celts' or 'God of the Nile', lol), but GoW:Ascension is just on the cusp of pushing the IP beyond its limits.  And Santa Monica are exceptionally talented (story aside, GoW:Ascension is arguably the best, or at least equal-best, in its class this gen) - would be interesting to see what they'd do if they tried their hand at something else .

[Outlaw]

While i love God of War, i agree that it might be time to end it.

Santa Monica could try something else, maybe egyptian mythology.

Still waiting to play GoW Ascension though.

[Batty]

Played a few more hours and holy cow there is some eye candy...some of the graphics are phenomenal.

[GasClown]

Outlaw213, on 17 March 2013 - 09:01 PM, said:

While i love God of War, i agree that it might be time to end it.

I don't think they need to completely end it, Kratos is an iconic character. Maybe they should shelve it for a generation and like you said, focus on something else, then perhaps revisit it with a completely new perspective/approach from another studio later down the line. I think (from what I see) is that the formula is so well perfected it can't move beyond that anymore (it's peaked) - it's now becoming stale and needs to be reborn in a new form. Kratos (and chaos) will rise again! haha.

[Axe99]

Well, the game warms up as it goes along, and not far from the end I'm having a great time..... until the Trial of Archimedes hits - I swear, it's the largest difficulty spike I've seen since Battletoads!  Playing on normal, because I'm crook and am not looking for too much of a challenge, and up until this point, I'd died a few times on some of the more difficult bits, but was generally an appropriate difficulty level.  Then it opens up a can of whoop-arse on you, with the toughest fight you've seen so far.  Followed by another two tough points with no checkpoints or health pickups.  I've got through the tough fight five times so far, but left so weak after it that I get hammered straight after. Checked walkthroughs, and am trying reasonable strategies - I'm just not that good at these types of games - which is why I'm playing on normal!  Soo disappointing that a game that's so well put together design-wise has this choke (from a gameplay design perspective) thrown in there.

/rant

Anyways, apparently they're going to patch it, which is good, or I honestly doubt I'd finish the thing.  Really enjoying it up until about an hour of gameplay ago.

[spectre51]

Read about that part Axe, have you had a look at this guide if you don't want to wait for the patch.

[Axe99]

spectre51, on 22 March 2013 - 09:21 AM, said:

Read about that part Axe, have you had a look at this guide if you don't want to wait for the patch.

Thanks for the link .  I'm just going to wait for the patch - I've attempted it so many times now it's becoming tedious (the number of gorgon killing mini-games I've finished must be in the thirties by now......) - last night I had another three attempts after posting, after reading a bit more, and I was literally glazing over during them.  First God of War that's ever bored me into submission, lol.

They're all good tips (if someone else is reading this, and keen to get into it), but you still have to hit that pretty well to get through - Orkos takes a fair while to pop out, so spamming him'll get you hit a fair bit unless you're genuinely good at the game (which I'm not ). Leaving rage metre filled is important, switching between Areas and Hades powers helps well.  Spamming Amulet is deffo good.  And deffo go in fully upgraded - was fully upgraded a chapter or two ago, without the upgrades I doubt I'd make it through the first third.

[Doomystic]

I've never played any of the games in this series and I must say am really enjoying it at the moment. I have hot to a point though (maybe same ad Axe?) on normal where round after round of enemies keep attacking (the floor changes into death alley) and no health. Its beginning to feel like groundhog day the amount of times I've failed. But enjoying it heaps and restarted on easy (noob) mode. Don't judge me its my first crack at GOW.