God of War III Review: Olympic Glory [Review]

Bombastic, titanic, brutally imaginative and even occasionally subtle, God of War III is the latest, best reason for a gamer to save money and skip action movies. The better thrills are on a disc on my PlayStation 3. Just five years since the first God of War comes God of War III, a game that sticks the landing of the grand technological leap beyond the PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3. Tortured mortal Kratos is back to conclude a narrative trilogy that has energized one angry man to wreak vengeance on the heroes and villains of Greek mythology. You’ve got blades on the end of chains, wrapped to this man’s wrists, a variety of moves to use and hordes of mythological beasts and beings to slay. At the beginning of this new game, in a moment set immediately after the end of God of War II, Kratos is scaling Mount Olympus on the back of Titans to eradicate the Greek pantheon, including its leader Zeus. That is an ambition quest, and ambition is the quality with which to measure this game — against movies, against games, against other God of Wars. This PS3 exclusive, a stubbornly single-player action game in this era of seemingly mandatory multiplayer, is vicious and violent and built not without risk. God of War III is a sequel that is less innovative than its predecessors and one recklessly indulgent in game design cliches and possibly unwise homages to other games. It excites the same synapses as the best and most macho action movies, a clash of the Titans. But it is as a video game that it best be judged. Loved The First 10 Minutes: The first minutes of Half-Life 2 intrigue. The first minutes of Super Metroid unnerve. The first minutes of Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Bros. may represent two facets of perfect fun. The opening playable sequence of God of War III is equally wowing, perhaps the most impressive controlled combat sequence to ever start a game. Extraordinarily, this sequence, worth experiencing fresh if you haven’t heard about it already, is surpassed later in the game. Titanic Struggles: God of War III’s main innovation is the animation of some of its terrain. Some levels that would seem to take place in a forest or on a massive bridge actually are occurring on the backs and limbs of Titans, the largest characters I’ve ever seen in a game. They are sometimes our terrain, terrain the flexes and moves and turns our world upside down. They are sometimes, amazingly, background players, monsters in the distance that reach into the foreground to mess with us. They are also the best justification for owning a large and high-resolution a TV as possible. Witnessing spectacle at this scale is a reminder of how massive the mountains of reality and our imagination can be and how quaint the virtual worlds we’ve played in have been so far. Extra Weapons : There is little surplus in Kratos’ latest war of gods. This game presents a massive scale, but it has neither massive playtime other games may have nor the wasteful distractions its predecessor did. Kratos’ journey sends him up and down the strata of Greek mythology, down to Hades and up to the palace of Zeus. On that journey, even when areas are returned to, little time feels wasted. Everywhere, Kratos is tasked with something new and interesting to do, one challenge at a time. Kratos is also armed with an expanding arsenal of powers and weapons, all of which feel relevant to the fiction and interesting to use. Most action games that offer a large arsenal assume players will specialize and allow a gamer to neglect the variety offered. God of War III expects and justifies the player’s use of every last thing offered in the game, each square foot and each new blade or power worth experiencing. Those God of War Cliches : It’s a God of War, so Kratos will be growling a lot. He’ll have extraordinary off-camera, semi-interactive sex. He’ll have context-sensitive super-kills, doors that only open when the player mashes a button and experience points to gain and then spend leveling up weapons and abilities. I am not a fan of series cliches — trappings, as they can fittingly be called. God of War III adds far less to the series formula than it replicates. But, this time, it was hard to mind, because everything controls so well and passes so quickly. Plus, if you activate the sex scene for a second time (that’s what pro reviewers do, you know), someone involved in the scene makes an ESRB (games rating board) joke. Fourth-wall-breaking, sure, but I can stand a game that acknowledges which buttons it is re-pressing and moves on. Stuff That Shouldn’t Have Worked, Worked : Maybe video game design progress was another failed myth. Forget player-controlled cameras, God of War still doesn’t have one. This is a game with invisible walls that block Kratos from jumping and dashing to places it looks like he should go (but the designers don’t want you to take him to). In an era of immersive games, this game risks embarrassment for retaining the series’ use of the illusion-shattering appearance of button-prompts. Many millions spent on rendering Greek mythology, so convincingly that you think you can smell Hercules’ armpits, are potentially ruined by the appearance of PS3 thumbsticks on the TV. They are there to let you know it’s time to press them or twirl them, probably to provoke some brutal beast-killing move. Theoretically they and the lack of camera control and the invisible walls should be the archaic ruin of this game. No. They instead make the case that following the developers’ mandates, proceeding on the prescribed path and doing what one is told, can make for the most exciting of thrill rides. Choice and progress be damned to Hades. Subtle Touches : Once in a while the God of War III developers get so experimental you might think their artsy neighbors who made poetry-game Flower snuck in and added some grace to the grunt of this production. But let’s give the God of War III folks the benefit of the doubt that they are responsible for the game’s spare but impressive experiments with perspective and control. To give one vague example, there is a moment when Kratos needs to walk toward a blinding light. The game’s camera suddenly closes in tightly on Kratos’ back, one of his arms extended, palm spread, to block the light. The player will soon realize that the only way to make Kratos advance is to use a PS3 control stick to keep Kratos hand in front of the light. The controls of the game have been changed for this one sequence, the struggle redefined. Other, smarter moments like these appear just often enough to signal that God of War III isn’t just a game for manly men, but for manly men who can appreciate a dash of subtle artistry. The Best Bosses : I’ve not battled and bulldozed a more interesting set of bosses since I cleared Metal Gear Solid 3. Each of God of War III’s bosses, until its disappointing final one, are imaginative and impressive spectacles. Some are a test of combat strategy and endurance; others are semi-interactive cut-scenes. Most are superb and like little else you’ve played before. Something About Yourself: How angry are you? By the end of God of War III, you will know. Hated Reading: Occasionally, Kratos can stop and read. Why? To teach the player about where in the mythology he is. In these moments, the game’s voice-acting is replaced with text-reading and the player is finally given camera control, but only on a swivel so a vista can be observed from beyond a book where Kratos has stopped to read. These should be the vista moments, the time to stop the car, get out, stretch legs and smell the mountain air. Instead, they are the clunky moments that are begun and ended with unintuitive button prompts and turn our hero from a convincing man of wrath to a dull tourist. God of War III has much that is magnificent to look at; it is unfortunate that the designers couldn’t find a better way to compel gamers to pause and take it all in. Decline Of The God: God of War III peaks, but after an amazing ante-upping sequence of excellent action and puzzle-based levels, it leaves its best moments behind. The game, as svelte as it is and as clear of time-wasting tedium as it should be praised for being, nevertheless glides through a less interesting final third. Be prepared to be amazed by this game, but be prepared to be left a little hungry at the end. How thrilling can a summer blockbuster movie be for those whose hearts have withstood the rush of God of War III? Not very much, I think. Action games are at risk of seemingly equally outclassed. God of War III ends quickly and with a surprisingly artful finale, and, yes, it offers the ability to replay it in a harder mode or with new difficulty and power tweaks. It has a few tough new timed challenges too. But it does boldly risk the trade-in or the sell-back after its 10-hour adventure has been finished. It risks being a game you’d play once and then move on. But it is a game, more so than any I’ve played in a long time, that feels unforgettable — unforgettable minute after minute so that you won’t even forget the mid-boss you tackled in hour three or the block-pushing puzzle in hour eight. Credit the exclusion of repetitious sequences or uninteresting goals and the inclusion of well-controlled spectacle. This is a game that is so mighty in its expression, so loudly in your face, so boldly an advertisement of the power of the PlayStation 3, that it leaves its mark, punches its impression in your memory and seems too good to chuck. This game shows off and gets it right. It is an Olympic achievement, worthy of Kratos’ burning drive. God of War III was developed by Sony Santa Monica and published by Sony Computer Entertainment of America for the PS3 on March 16. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Yes, I played its sex game a few times. I also upgraded all but one of the weapons to the maximum and enjoyed slaying all but one of the gods. Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ .

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God of War III Review: Olympic Glory [Review]

MMO Parents Take Care of Virtual Toddler While Real One Starves [Addiction]

A Korean couple is said to have neglected their infant – to the point of starvation – while they fed their own online gaming addiction in Internet cafes. The Sun ’s reporting this, so, let’s get our sensationalism detectors on. The couple allegedly raised a virtual toddler in a game similar to Second Life , called Prius Online (pictured) while leaving their real one home alone each day with just a single bottle of milk for nourishment. One day they came home to find the child dead and called the cops, claiming they found the child dead when they had awakened. Investigators noted the child’s dehydrated condition and weren’t buying it. An autopsy later said the child died of starvation. This all happened back in September actually. After the infant’s funeral the couple disappeared and were only recently arrested. Don’t think they were bingeing on the MMOs however: “”Due to our sense of guilt, we have not been to a PC gaming room over these five months,” they told an investigator. Mighty damn big of them. Gamers’ Tot “Dies of Starvation” [The Sun via Hot Blooded Gaming]

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MMO Parents Take Care of Virtual Toddler While Real One Starves [Addiction]

Disney’s Guilty Party: Family-Friendly and Fun…Really. [Impressions]

Wii owners who have suffered through countless me-too mini-game collections and lame party games often consider the term “family-friendly” the kiss of death. But Wideload Games (Stubbs the Zombie), the studio recently acquired by Disney Interactive, is aiming to erase that stigma with Disney’s Guilty Party. The new, er, family-friendly entry is a who-done-it mystery game that takes its inspiration from old school Scooby-Doo cartoons, boardgames like Clue, and even procedural crime dramas such as CSI. Supporting up to four players, Guilty Party stars a family of super sleuths. The colorful cast of investigators , from the trench coat-sporting Columbo type to the Murder She Wrote-like grandma, are packed with personality. Additionally, the game’s brimming with fun, witty, well-acted dialogue that, like a Pixar movie, can be enjoyed by young and old alike. Rounding out the cast is a long line of potential suspects, also delivering great voice work. From the snooty butler to the nervous doctor, there’s no shortage of suspicious peeps to point the finger at. Their in-game interactions are a hoot, but some nicely polished cutscenes also serve to sell the appealing style. The gameplay has you interrogating-and often accusing- key suspects. Clues like a person’s height, weight, gender, and hair length are gleaned from your investigations. And while the early cases are meant to be cracked easily, later ones involving multiple similar looking suspects, require you break out your sharpest Sherlock Holmes skills. The investigating doesn’t just involve dialog-driven interrogations though; a variety of inventive mini-games also help you uncover clues. One such challenge had me clearing dust from a desk with a few Wii remote swipes in search of hidden hints, but my favorite tasked me with keeping direct eye contact with a nervous suspect. Using the pointer and an on-screen pair of eyes, I had to match my virtual peepers with the suspect’s eyes even as she repeatedly attempted to avert my gaze. While I didn’t get to see it in action, a Wideload designer described a more difficult version of this same game where the suspect places her hands over eyes, forcing the player to honk her nose to get them to open again. As the mysteries become more complex, the areas you investigate become much larger. An early case might unfold within a multi-room mansion, and only include a handful of potential suspects; but much later in the game, armchair detectives will find themselves scouring an entire cruise ship to interview all its guests. You don’t necessarily have to tackle these more complex cases by yourself though. Sure, you can play competitively, taking turns against other clue-crackers and racing to solve the mystery before them. But I’m betting the most fun will be achieved when a group gathers to work together on a case. Whether passing a single remote around or simply listening to the advice of family and friends, Guilty Party has the potential to be at its very best when great minds come together. Supporting the title’s quirky characters and engaging gameplay is a beautiful art style. The pop-off-the-screen visuals have an almost Pixar-like appeal that layer the experience with plenty of charm and personality. While I only got to see a couple of cases solved, I look forward to cracking more, not just because the core concept is so satisfying, but because meeting new characters and exploring fresh areas is half the fun. Guilty Party really does have style to spare. In addition to individual mysteries in the main game mode, which are all tied to an overarching plot, Guilty Party boasts a customizable party mode. Here, players can create their very own mysteries down to the last detail, mixing things up from the pre-packed cases and adding tons of replay value. Not since accusing Colonel Mustard of murder with the lead pipe in the study have I had so much fun solving mysteries. If Guilty Party can sustain the engaging style and addictive gameplay I got a glimpse of, it holds the potential to make family-friendly Wii gaming fun again.

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Disney’s Guilty Party: Family-Friendly and Fun…Really. [Impressions]

2K Sports to Rock Video Game Consoles with Major League Baseball 2K10 Soundtrack

Major League Baseball 2K10 (X360) Pearl Jam, Phoenix, The Sugarhill Gang and many more to get fans pumped for the virtual baseball season.

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2K Sports to Rock Video Game Consoles with Major League Baseball 2K10 Soundtrack

News: Midway titles disappear from XBLA

Are they being moved to the Game Room? Midway Games’ Xbox Live Arcade portfolio has, as if by magic, mysteriously disappeared. Gone are Mortal Kombat 3, Defender, Gauntlet, Paperboy and Smash TV. Are they being held back for the release of Game Room – the virtual Xbox Live arcade space – this March? Or have they fallen foul of legal muddy waters, as they belong to a company that no longer exists? Read more…

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News: Midway titles disappear from XBLA

The Nintendo Download: And Justice For Some [Downloadables]

Our new gallery format for The Nintendo Download highlights the fact that, other than big releases like Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All, DSiWare and WiiWare titles aren’t getting nearly as much exposure as they should. Just look at the lineup we have here. DSiWare Spotto! from Nintendo? Nothing to see here. I had to grab a WiiWare screen for Virtual Toys’ Spaceball: Revolution, and title images for EA’s Scrabble Classic and Gameloft’s Real Soccer 2010. I’m just saying that some of these titles might sell more than a handful of copies if someone would tell us what they are before we read the official descriptions, which can be found alongside the pictures in the gallery below. Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: JUSTICE FOR ALL Publisher: Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Players: 1 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Blood, Mild Violence, Suggestive Themes Price: 1,000 Wii Points Description: Phoenix Wright is back as the second game in the popular Ace Attorney hand-held franchise comes to the WiiWare service. As Phoenix Wright, you’ll play through four shocking new cases in first-person perspective. The game features two unique game play modes. In Investigations Mode, you’ll survey crime scenes, interview witnesses and gather evidence. You’ll then present findings, listen to testimonials and examine witnesses in Court Mode. JUSTICE FOR ALL also includes a new “Psyche-Lock” feature that allows Phoenix to use a line of questioning to reveal inconsistencies in witness testimony. Art of Balance Publisher: Shin’en Multimedia Players: 1-2 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Wii Points Description: Grab your Wii Remote™ controller and build a balanced stack in this physics-based puzzler, featuring 100 levels that challenge not only your skills but also your imagination. The game is easy to pick up and hard to put away. Play alone or invite a friend to grab a second Wii Remote controller and drop in at any point for co-op play. There’s even a dedicated two-player split-screen “versus” mode for extra fun. WarMen Tactics Publisher: CALARIS Players: 1 ESRB Rating: T (Teen) – Blood, Violence Price: 800 Wii Points Description: In the year 2013, civil unrest across the globe has prompted world leaders to merge the police and military into a single force called the Department of Control. This force is opposed by a resistance made up of former military members who refused to join the Department. Marco is one of them, and the game tells his story. Join Marco as he is deployed on a mission to destroy scrambler devices placed around the city. Created to reflect the realities of urban warfare, the game requires players to take cover behind walls and other obstacles as they strive to defeat enemies and advance to the next post. Spotto! Publisher: Nintendo Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Cartoon Violence Price: 200 Nintendo DSi Points™ Description: Meet Spotto, a plucky duck on a mission. Ill-behaved ghosts have kidnapped Chikkie Wowwow, President Wowwow’s daughter. Spotto, being the world’s foremost Bombirdier, must follow these ghosts to a haunted house and use his trusty bombs to blast the baddies. Take control of Spotto, adjusting his aim with the stylus and trying to toss bombs into the ghosts’ mouths in 50 “explosive” stages. Along the way, you’ll avoid obstacles (or use them to your advantage), find powerful Super Bombs to inflict even more damage and even encounter a frighteningly large ghost or two. With multiple modes of play and numerous solutions for successfully blasting ghosts to pieces, this is one haunted house you’ll want to visit often. Spaceball: Revolution Publisher: Virtual Toys Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Fantasy Violence Price: 500 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Spaceball: Revolution will put your intelligence and skill to the test as you solve puzzles in a futuristic environment. Copy the figures that appear on the top screen, using energy balls that make the boxes correctly change color. It won’t be an easy task. Different obstacles will be thrown into your path, challenging you to polish your aim and think rapidly. Fifteen different levels are waiting for you in Spaceball: Revolution. Are you up to the challenge? Scrabble Classic Publisher: Electronic Arts Players: 1-4 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Scrabble, one of the world’s most popular board games, is enjoying a tremendous surge in popularity, both online and in the real world. Scrabble for the Nintendo DSiWare service allows you to play this exciting game in both Single Player and Multi-Player modes. Real Soccer 2010 Publisher: Gameloft Players: 1-4 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Real Soccer is back for the most exciting season yet. Choose from more teams than ever before and compete in new stadiums around the world. Lead your team to victory on the field and make tactical decisions as the coach. Prehistorik Man Publisher: Interplay Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) – Mild Violence Price: 800 Nintendo DSi Points Description: Life is hard for Sam the Prehistorik Man. With three-and-a-half hours of work each week, there’s barely time to fit in all the sleeping, eating and cave-painting that needs to be done. When greedy dinosaurs guzzle his village’s winter food source, Sam gets mad. Armed with his best club and his powerful hunter’s voice, Sam needs your help to proceed through 22 levels of food-gathering and dinosaur-bashing. With fast-paced action, hundreds of secret areas, weapons and unlikely vehicles to find, you’ll need to be smart. Well…smarter than Sam, anyway. Sonic & Knuckles Original platform: SEGA Genesis Publisher: SEGA Players: 1 ESRB Rating: E (Everyone) Price: 800 Wii Points Description: Sonic, the world’s fastest hedgehog, continues his adventures in this fourth installment of the Sonic The Hedgehog™ series. This time, he buddies up with his former enemy, Knuckles the Echidna, in order to defeat the evil Dr. Eggman (a.k.a. Dr. Robotnik). At the end of Sonic The Hedgehog 3, Dr. Eggman’s ultimate orbital weapon for global domination, the Death Egg, was badly damaged in an epic battle with Sonic. The Death Egg, losing power rapidly, hurtled back down to the planet below and crash-landed on the mysterious Angel Island again. Now Sonic and Knuckles must put a stop to Dr. Eggman once and for all before Eggman and his no-goodniks find the secret to Angel Island’s floating power, the Master Emerald. This game features Lock-On Technology, which allows you to play as Knuckles in other Sonic titles available for the Virtual Console, including Sonic The Hedgehog 2 and Sonic The Hedgehog 3, as long as these titles are part of your Virtual Console library.

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The Nintendo Download: And Justice For Some [Downloadables]

Review: Darwinia+

Flat mates. For gamers of a certain age, Darwinia can be an overwhelming experience. So many familiar ideas, references and images are stirred into its pulsating digital broth that it feels like your brain’s been soaked in a gravy of pure nostalgia. Sentinel. Tron. Centipede. Worms. Space Invaders. 3D Ant Attack. Syndicate. Fat Worm Blows A Sparky. Lemmings. The Settlers. Chaos. The retro flavours pile up, bounce off each other and spiral away in joyful new directions. Yet for a game so clearly assembled from traditional ingredients it still feels bracingly new, even in this revamped console edition. Accidentally hacking your way into the digital domain of Dr Sepulveda, you discover a glowing neon world overrun with an evil virus. The good doctor, looking not unlike Sir Clive Sinclair, quickly schools you in the ways of his virtual creation. An artificial life experiment gone horribly awry, your task is to rid the land of the virus and make it safe for the stiff, inanimate, yet strangely lovable green stick-men known as Darwinians. To aid you, there are two main tools at your disposal, one being a squad of gun-toting soldiers who can blast away at the snaking virii, and later lob grenades and call in airstrikes to remove more persistent manifestations of the infection like ants, spiders, centipedes and hovering undulating octopus things. Read more…

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Review: Darwinia+

Imagine Town Spearheads Ubisoft’s Online Game Initiative [Ubisoft]

Imagine Babies? Imagine Doctor? Try Imagine Town, the virtual world based on the successful game series, spearheading Ubisoft’s online gaming lineup for fiscal year 2010-11, with Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms, Trackmania 2, and two unannounced titles in the works. During today’s sales report for the third quarter 2009-10, Ubisoft talked up its focus on online gaming, with hopes for the company’s first online revenue pegged on Imagine Town. Based on the successful Nintendo DS series for girls, Imagine Town is a virtual world where young girls can make their dreams come true. Imagine Town will be tied in with UbiWorld, Ubisoft’s gaming portal for girls, launched quietly sometime last year, while we were busy avoiding things aimed at young girls, apparently. According to an Ubisoft representative on sales results conference call, UbiWorld has been a huge success, growing to more than 800,000 users today from 200,000 in November 2009. The company expects the community to grow to more than a million by June, and once Imagine Town launches, that should translate into a nice revenue stream for Ubisoft. “This is a great online opportunity for Ubisoft, as this game will leverage the huge customer base and brand recognition of the Imagine series,” a representative explained. Along with Imagine Town, Ubisoft is bringing Might & Magic Heroes Kingdoms to the UK and North America, having already released the game in France, Trackmania 2, and two more titles, which have yet to be announced. Online games were two of three pillars Ubisoft mentioned during the call, with casual titles and sequels receiving equal attention.

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Imagine Town Spearheads Ubisoft’s Online Game Initiative [Ubisoft]

Wonder Festival Brings New Toys For Tales, Muramasa, Yakuza & More [Toys]

Wonder Festival 2010 Winter was held over the weekend in Japan, and featured loads of cosplayers . It also featured loads of new video game toys. While we’ve shown you some of the figures on display ahead of time, many more made public debuts at the show, like these guys: Jack Frost from Persona, Muramasa’s Momohime, Virtual On goes cute, some Tales of Vesperia figures and a blurry, yet still tempting, “Super Action Statue” of Yakuza’s Kazuma Kiryu. ワンダーフェスティバル 2010［冬］レポ 企業ブース編その [Hobby Stock]

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Wonder Festival Brings New Toys For Tales, Muramasa, Yakuza & More [Toys]

Happy 10th Anniversary Sims [The Sims]

On Jan. 31 2000 Electronic Arts open the floodgates to another one of Will Wright’s off-kilter, but strangely addictive games. Over the next ten years the Sims franchise sold more than 100 million copies and became the best selling PC franchise of all time. You may not have been around when the first game hit, or maybe you haven’t stuck around through to The Sims 3 and expansion packs due for the title later this month, but chances are you’ve at least tried one of the games in the franchise. Here are a few fun facts for you Sim addicts and those new to the franchise. While creating Simlish , the fictional language spoken by Sims, the development team played around with using bits of Ukrainian and Tagalog. Wright suggested using Navajo. The currency of the Sims, Simoleans , were named after the slang term for the Sixpence (Simon) and a French gold coin called a Napolean. The Sims 3 official community site hosts 300 content downloads every minute on average. The most popular download over the years has been hair. The first object created for The Sims was the toilet. Satisfying one of Maslow’s most basic needs. In 2004, a Dutch family was selected by EA to live in a glass house for four days to promote The Sims 2. Will Wright, not content to sit back and let the Simoleans roll in, once introduced a nasty virus to the world of the Sims. The plague quickly spread throughout the virtual world before players finally tracked it back to pet guinea pigs. The French love The Sims almost as much as they love Jerry Lewis. They even created a postage stamp honoring the game. Make sure to swing by our podcast later today if you’d like to chat with some of the people behind the game live.

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Happy 10th Anniversary Sims [The Sims]

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