God Of War: Chains of Olympus

[miffy495]

Bought it yesterday on my way to work. Between buying it and now, I have worked an 8 hour shift and studied for and written an exam. I have also beaten God of War: Chains of Olympus. So, first impressions: it's pretty short.

Also pretty hard to put down, which is normally a very good sign but in this case seemed mostly to serve to emphasize the shortness. Don't get me wrong, usually I don't like to judge a game based on its length. Some of my favorite games can be beaten in around an hour. Especially if there's replay value, there's no problem with a short game, but after the awesome that was God of War II I expected a little more meat to this installment. The story doesn't even really get going until about 20 minutes from the final boss, who herself is a bit of a letdown. Basically you fight the first half of the Gannon battle from the end of Ocarina of Time without the awesome second half to follow it up.

The controls translate really well for the most part, although the standard GoW complaints apply to the attacking, where the animation takes so long you're not quite sure if you've entered the proper combo or not until about 10 seconds after you hit the buttons, though the enemies can interrupt you at any time. Also, the "rotate the stick this way" quick time events don't work so well with an analogue nub, meaning that the QTE bits are if possible a bit more irritating than usual. Still, those are minor quibbles that are only little specks on an otherwise great job of controlling a proper 3D action game on a handheld.

Graphics and sound, wow. Just wow. In fairness, it has a bit of a handicap in that it's the first game that Sony has allowed to use the full 333mHz of the PSP, while all the previous games to hit the system have been underclocked, but holy crap does it show. Stellar visuals. As good, if not better, than God Of War II was on PS2. It's just that pretty. Only minor problem was that something just seemed a bit off about the climbing animations. Couldn't put my finger on it. Just looked a bit wonky when Kratos was scaling something. Again, minor thing only noticeable because everything else was so damned pretty. The music is the typical GoW fare as well, meaning nice booming orchestral soundtracks and generally epic music all around. Very good.

Of course, this is all by handheld standards. Compared to its PS2 brethren, this game is a very enjoyable slight step down for the series. Expecting a handheld version to live up to it's big brothers on console is a tad unfair though, so on its own merits Chains of Olympus is one of the better games I've played on the PSP. Shame I beat it in less than a day. If you have a PSP and liked the GoW games on PS2 check it out, though if you have the option, renting would probably be a good idea.

[Wrestlevania]

Finished this last week in about 3-4 sittings.

The game is good, but technically it's astonishing.

It's a shame they somewhat take liberties with Greek mythology, but overall it's still respectful and mindful of the original tales. (Some great use of key mythological figures too.)

Overall I'd give it :tup: and, mercifully, the only real detractor is the rather course and unnecessary 'wenches' mini-game early on.

One thing that's not great through out is the Quick-Time Events--my principle gripe being that the required actions are bound consistently to correspondingly-positioned face buttons. It's just a random sequence every time, whether you're slitting an undead gladiator's throat or blinding a Cyclops.