God of War: Collection

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When I converted from XBox to Playstation a few years back, God of War was one of the first games I bought that was exclusive to the PS2. I've always loved Greek mythology, so I suppose that may be part of the reason why I quickly fell in love with the tragic story of Kratos. After finishing GoW1, I eagerly awaited the release of God of War 2. It was truly amazing that the PS2 was capable of producing such beautiful graphics. The story was even better than the original, and it left me hanging for part three in this wonderful franchise.

I've been patiently waiting for God of War 3 to hit the shelves, so I was quite surprised when I found out that the original two titles in the series were being remastered in high-definition for play on the PS3. I got my copy home, opened it, and loaded it onto my PS3. I'll just tell you right now that ALL of the content from the first two games is on one Blu-ray disc, including all of the extra features from disc 2 of GoW2.

So, is this worth an upgrade????? The answer is a resounding YES!!!! If you are a fan of the series, then you owe it to yourself to get this title and enjoy all of the improvements that have been made to both games. First of all, they have both had an overhaul in the graphics department. While GoW1 still doesn't quite measure up to the latest PS3 graphics standards, it is a big improvement over the old PS2 version. The game now fills the screen on a widescreen TV, and there is a noticable difference in the details of the graphics. The sound has also been improved and adds to the overall enjoyment of playing back through one of the greatest games ever created. You will also notice that the rumble feature is present, and there is quite a nice trophy collection for each game. Some of the trophies are quite funny. For instance, in GoW1, you can earn a trophy by dying so many times that the game offers you the ability to move to an easier setting. It was fun dying over and over just to earn this trophy. It's been a long time since I played GoW1, but it was amazing how much of the game I could remember.

The storyline for both games is completely the same, but the improvement in the graphics and sound is well worth the cheap purchase price for both games. This set should keep you busy trying to earn all of the trophies while you wait to get you paws on GoW3 in March 2010. And just to make things a little better, the demo that was available at E3 for God of War 3 is now available to anyone who purchases this collection. And let me tell you, the demo will leave you waiting in anticipation for the arrival of what will surely be the best game of 2010. In my humble opinion, God of War is one of the most enjoyable game series I've ever played. OK, ok, before I close out, I'll come clean. It's just so much more enjoyable ramming your blade down the throat of a minotaur and watching the blood gush out in high definition. Or maybe grabbing one of the bad guys and pulling their body in half with a mighty torrent of HD blood going everywhere. Yes, it does bring a smile to one's face to relive such great gaming moments in the clarity that only HD can provide. Whether you are a longtime fan of the franchise as I am, or if you are new to the God of War trilogy, you MUST get this new collection. I guarantee that you will NOT be disappointed.

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I loved the God of War series and have always thought that the franchise is a major staple in the history of gaming and may single handily define Sony and their consoles. The fairly new anti-hero has established himself as a greatly unique character in the video game world. With his painfully deep back-story, to his constant deception by the gods of Olympus, Kratos is a character that fans can truly appreciate. Within the few years Kratos has existed, he has truly become something remarkable. From the PS2 to the PSP, Kratos has always been one of the most interesting lead characters in a game franchise. However, several years into the PS3 life cycle, Kratos has been absent from the new hardware. Sony has revitalized God of War with this collection so that even those who have purchased newer, non-backwards compatible PlayStation 3 hardware may be able to revisit the games that helped set a new standard for action games.

God of War Collection is just that, a collection of the first two games in the trilogy. The two games tell the story of Kratos' initial deception at the hands of the gods, all the way to his epic confrontation with Zeus himself. The disc features all of the original content from the first two games, but all stored conveniently on one disc. Running in native 720p, as compared to upscaling to 720p via backward compatible units playing the PS2 versions, the games run much smoother than their last generation counterparts. With great anti-aliasing being utilized, the game looks like a new game all on its own. It's almost impossible to think that these were once PS2 games. The one thing that Sony did overlook when producing this game was enhancing the cut-scenes of the game that utilize the in-game engine. These still appear to have the same resolution of the original games since when the game gets to these moments a drastically noticeable drop in resolution occurs. This is just a minor flaw and I can completely overlook it since I still think they look fairly good, just not as good as the rest of the game.

If anyone has not played the first two games of this franchise, then I highly recommend this game. If someone owns the original two games, I also highly recommend this purchase since you will be missing out on trophies and native 720p resolution. The game also comes packaged with a voucher for the demo version of God of War III. So there is really no reason why someone who owns a PS3 should not pick this game up, even if you've played the originals they fail in comparison to this version. If you've ever been interested or intrigued by the series, now is your chance to get the first two parts of the trilogy for the same price it would cost to purchase the two PS2 versions.

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So what does Sony do when the new PS3's are NOT backwards compatible? They bring back two of some of the best selling games made for PS2, and upscaled to 1080p! I just bought my PS3 a few weeks ago and got this game last week because I did not play them on PS2. And I was truly satisfied with this terrific game.

If you're new to the historic fiction-action/adventure/puzzle genre, think of titles like Prince of Persia: Sands of Time and Lord of the Rings II & III. This game blew any other game in its genre out of the water.

Pros:

+Great adventure and story for both games Incredible scope. Can't say enough about that.

+25-plus combined hours of just playing the games straight through on normal difficulty with medium exploring

+Extras challenges, unlocked features, and hidden power-ups when exploring in both GoW I & II

+Challenging and fun puzzles along with incredible action

+Awesome action sequences that require quick reflexes

+Two games for one, and for a cheap price

+Almost everything looks better in HD and great frame rates

+High replay value (5/5)

Cons:

-Certain cut scenes looked low quality after upscaling, but did not take too much away from the experience

Not too many negatives. I'm glad I got this game and I know I'll be revisiting this to play in the tougher challenges and tougher settings (as I only played through the normal settings the first time).

For the casual gamer who wants to check out this highly addicting game, rent first then buy if you want to try the challenges. But for the fan eagerly awaiting God of War III, this is a must have, just to play through and get prepared for the end of the trilogy.

Other games I enjoyed are Bioshock and Dead Space.

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Because I never had a PS2 I never had the opportunity to play the God of War series. Everyone I spoke to said they were some of the best games, they have ever played, but because I never really wanted a PS2, God of War I and II were two games I figured I would never be able to play. Even after purchasing a PS3 I still was unable to play these games because the new PS3 systems do not have backwards compatibility. Luckily these two games were re-mastered and re-released for the PS3 so I finally had the opportunity to play these games. Long story short, I realized that the raving stories about the God of War series were correct.

God of War I looks really good considering it's a fairly old game. The developers did a very good job in remastering it and this is very apparent when you view the cut screens (which were NOT re-mastered). Though not true surround sound like other PS3 games like MW2 or Drakes Fortune the sound is still pretty good.

Game play wise Kratos' movements are very fluid, and its not hard at all to pick up the game and start playing without having to learn complicated moves. Even though this game is basically a hack and slash, it's a step or two above a pure button masher. While you can kill some enemies by just mashing buttons, other enemies require a little more thought in how you fight and defend against them. For example, the minotaurs will always give you health if you kill them a certain way, but if you just mash button to beat them, you will probably wont get health and in certain parts of the game, this health is crucial to your survival. Other enemies require you to press the right button at the right time in order to finish them off. Miss a button or take too long and you have to start the sequence all over again. On paper this does not sound fun, but actually playing the game it flows flawlessly with the combat sequences.

The storyline is very well written, you are Kratos a Spartan warrior looking to defeat his master, Ares after the God of War causes him to slaughter his own wife and daughter in Kratos' blind quest for power. As your journey progresses you are aided by the other Gods such as Poseidon, Athena and Zeus in order to defeat the insane war god.

This game is more difficult than other games and it requires patience and persistence to prevail. However, because the game was so fun and rewarding to me, I never got to the point where I just became so frustrated and give up altogether. There is an extremely difficult and frustrating area in Hades' realm where you are forced to climb spinning pillars of knifes and just being grazed by one of these knifes causes you to fall down to the bottom forcing you to start all over again. But after 15 tries or so, I finally got through it and saved immediately to prevent having to do this all over again.

Speaking of saving, God of War does an EXCELLENT job of managing checkpoints and save points. In WAY too many games you are at the mercy of the developers that seem to like having gamers repeat certain tasks over and over and over again before they reach a checkpoint. In addition, save points (if there are any) are also too far apart. However in GOW it's quite refreshing that you are hardly ever forced to do tedious tasks repeatedly thanks to a generous checkpoint system. This comes in very handy when you are in the later stages and die often. Once you get by a difficult part you are almost guaranteed to cross a check point and so when you die again, you don't have to do the difficult task you just took 10 tries to complete. In addition to checkpoints, you also have access to save points. Though not as numerous as checkpoints the save points are also quite forgiving, and you can use them multiple times whenever you like provided you can find a way to get back to them.

God of War I has an amazing storyline, excellent cut sequences (though low graphical quality), and near flawless combat system. Put all these things together and you have a game worthy of 5 stars despite some extremely difficult sections. But wait! There is another game in this collection, God of War II.

God of War II takes place a few years after Kratos' defeat of Ares, the Gods have rewarded Kratos for his services, but later on he is betrayed and he is stripped of all his powers so he now he is intent on revenge of the remaining gods of Olympus. As the gods have aided him the first time around, Kratos now gets aid from the Titans as they are also enemies of the Gods.

God of War II offers slightly better graphics and a more polished look. In addition the cut screens this time around seem to have also been re-mastered and look much better than the cut screens of the previous title. Though God of War I is quite graphic in its own right, God of War II steps it up, and should be enough to satisfy those of us who enjoy seeing Kratos ripping bodies in half and snapping the necks of anyone who dare oppose him. Kratos is ruthless, and this game does an extremely good job in capturing that in both combat sequences and the cut screens.

Other than the better graphics, the combat system and game play remain virtually unchanged. However there was no need to change them, as it was already great. So there is no need to fix what wasn't broken.

The difficulty of God of War II while still quite difficult doesn't seem quite as hard as the original one and if you were able to defeat God of War I, you should be able to beat God of War II as well. The most difficult part for me in God of War II was when I had to defeat 7 endless waves of enemies with only a couple of health and magic chests. Even this became easy once I changed my approach in fighting instead of mashing buttons. If you go into this game thinking you can just mash buttons to advance you will be disappointed. Just like the first game, some combat sequences require careful planning, timing, and PATIENCE.

Luckily in God of War II the checkpoint/save system has also remained virtually untouched, and this is a good thing. As I said before this was a god send especially in the more difficult areas. I really wish more game developers would do the same thing, instead of thinking gamers really enjoy having to do things over and over and over again.

To me God of War II seems to be shorter than God of War I and the spectacular ending to this installment is not really and ending at all, but a precursor to God of War III which will be out in a couple of weeks.

If you have already played and beaten these games on the PS2, then you may be able to do without playing through them again on the re-mastered versions. However, if you haven't played these games yet, then I urge you to go ahead and do so. Usually I don't go back and play old games that I never played before, but with God of War: Collection I am glad I made an exception. Now that I have beaten them, I am suffering from withdrawal symptoms and am eagerly awaiting the 3rd installment. In the meantime, God of War II does have a challenge mode which should keep me occupied until March 16th.

This collection is HIGHLY recommended especially if you have never played the series before, and with two weeks to go until God of War III, you should have just enough time to beat them and be caught up.

Really a no-brainer here; 5/5 starts and at this price for TWO excellent games, it is a steal.

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In this busy gaming holiday season where it seems as if countless amazing games have come out, time is a precious commodity. I had Uncharted 2, Assassin's Creed II, Modern Warfare 2, Demon's Souls and Valkyria Chronicles lined up and awaiting my attention. So what have I been spending my time on these past few days? God of War: Collection is what! Having played the original ps2 releases, I was absolutely blown away at the HD remastery on the ps3 of the original source code. I can't commend enough the job that the original programmers did at creating clean and scalable code. This game now stacks up to many current games graphically and the epic scale and gameplay still cannot be beat. If you have never played the GoW series, please rush out, knock over any old ladies along the way if necessary, and start playing immediately. Old timers will also find this a worthy buy because the upgrade in picture and sound quality is startling.

Summing up, this is an awesome makeover of a legendary series, bundled up nicely in one BD disc, that is worth your priceless time.