I pulled a bit of a marathon the last two nights in order to finish GOW before starting Crackdown, which I know I will playing the hell out of. I am having a bit of a hard time trying to put to words what a masterpiece GOW is. Playing as Kratos I felt like a mad man. Game play mechanics like mashing buttons to finish off an enemy, holding a button to open crates and doors, mashing a button to get heavy doors open all did their job in making me work for my progress.

The scope of the game is enormos. Within ten minutes of starting you are in the middle of a great battle and fighting an enormous boss. When I arrived at Athens and saw the massive Ares destroying the city, and its residents doing everything they can to destroy him I thought I was nearing the end of a very short game. Next thing I know I am on my way to one of the greatest dungeons I have ever played through. The puzzles and sense of discovery were amazing. The designers of the game always led you back to where you started and showed you what you just finished. Like “here, look at this awesome thing you just did.”

The perfect example of this is just before going into Pandora’s Temple, which is chained to the back of a giant Titan named Kronos, you meet an old man digging a grave who goes on to tell you that the grave is for you. About six hours of game play later you are climbing out of that same grave via a mysterious rope that drops down to you. If you haven’t played it, its hard to explain. But its damn cool.

Excellent game. Can’t praise it enough.

First up in my pile pf shame is God of War. Released in 2005, I never played God of War, or a number of games in my “Pile of Shame” because I sold my PS2 when Halo came out. GOW is outstanding. I am almost shocked at how good it really is, and how much better it is than almost every “next gen” game I have played on my 360. It combines details from games like Tomb Raider and Prince of Persia and blends in some classic movie action scenes similar to something you might see in an Indiana Jones movie. The control is tight, the action intense and the story is engaging. If God of War 2 were coming out for PS3 I would go out and get one when it is released. Its that good.