God of War 3

Kratos is back, with some new (bloodthirsty) inventions...

Brutality, violence, revenge and boobs. All words that encompass the God of war franchise, and the latest does not make any attempts to move from this successful formula.

God of War 3 (GoW3) is the fourth game in the series and puts you once again in the shoes of Kratos on his never ending quest to bring death and destruction to the Gods of Olympus!

The game picks up where God of War 2 (GoW2) left off, scaling Mount Olympus with the Titans at his back. Straight away you get an idea of what the developers had in mind and that word is... epic. Everything about this game is designed to make you stand back in awe.

Changes to gameplay could be missed at first glance. Early on Kratos gets an upgrade to his blades which, while still virtually identical, add another level to the battle system. As seen in previous games, bridging the gap between multiple enemies can be a pain in the arse. With the new blades this as easy as hitting water when falling out of a boat.

More changes were readily apparent in boss battles. Pressing a particular button at a specific time has also been tweaked to make things easier. Now the button icon will show up in a particular area on the screen (i.e. triangle button will always appear at the top of the screen). This completely eliminates the annoying part of previous incarnations of hitting X when you meant to hit O then feeling the need to feed your controller to the TV screen.

On a low note, this is where the game has some bad points about it. The new combat system makes things incredibly easy. The challenge that was put forward in GoW2 without these additions felt like the right mix of everything. GoW3 seems to pump virtual steroids and uber hax into Kratos that allow him to completely obliterate anything that stands in front of him. We mean this literally too, there is a new move where you can grab an enemy then charge into other enemies with him like a battering ram.

This move alone is extremely over powered and makes Kratos nigh invincible during its duration. You'll still find a challenge here but it seems a lot easier then its predecessor.

That's about where the bad stuff ends though and you're left with nothing but gold. The change in battle mechanics, the bosses themselves and of course the brutal (emphasis on brutal) finishes are all rewarding and beg to be replayed over and over again.

The scaling, scenery and graphics are all extremely high quality. The smooth transitions in the heat of battle are seamless and really immerse the player. We could count on one hand the number of times we had to wait while the next part would load, all without installing the game on the HDD. The developers deserve a special mention for getting the most out of the PS3 hardware while still making sure the game runs smoothly with no impact to gameplay.

For fans of the series there's probably every chance that you already own this game and are simply reading this as validation of its sheer brilliance. For everyone else we wonder why it's not in your consoles right now. We do recommend playing through GoW1 and GoW2 as well because finishing the battle is just as good the path getting there was. A must have for all PS3 owners.