Blitz it and trade?

I'm going to get this when I get paid too

I was going to grab it just now but common sense prevailed as my pile of shame kept flashing before my eyes.

A stack. Or heap. Or more aptly, a list.

tin_robot wrote:

JRPC wrote:

tin_robot wrote:

HO-LY SHIT!!! About 20 minutes of meh and then...

Where are you up to? I got as far as...

Spoiler:

...the dwarf...

...then had to stop as I remembered I was supposed to be walking the dog/asleep. Probably won't get a chance to go back to it until tomorrow, so intrigued to know if you're wooing at stuff I've seen, or that I'm yet to encounter.

Yeah that's where I am. But the...

Spoiler:

...guy at the house fight thing proper blew my socks off. 

Gotcha...  If I'm honest I felt that dragged on a bit, but I think some of Kratos's old man grumpiness must have rubbed off on me.

I suspect you're going to be in for a great time with this thing.

Woh, that were fucking mental!!!

Promised id save it till my daughters over later though.

hylian_elf wrote:

A stack. Or heap. Or more aptly, a list.

Easier traversal and retrieval, trufax.

Played a bit, dunno mang. Combat is going to take a bit of getting used to. 

Gorgeous though - best rock representations in the medium, ever.

Downloading the fucking wazoo off this baby.

Paul the sparky wrote:

A reasonable £47.99 in GAME, which is lucky as there's nowhere else in Newcastle city centre to get it.

Got my copy there too.  GAME's pricing policy is weird - this is going several quid cheaper than Far Cry 5 (srsly, whose still buying that shit?!) and buggy niche titles like Kingdom Come.  WTF?!  @Dante

Not finding the fighting tedious at all. 
Especially not that fight I think you mean.
felt like

Don’t forget, the original GoW also got lots of perfect scores. And that wasn’t exactly amazing or that good. Combat was rubbish.

Hello Crayon, you've been neglecting us.

hylian_elf wrote:

Most reviews out there mean nothing. A lot of people gush over nowt. So I’m taking the ‘Zelda-level’ reviews with a pinch of salt, personally. Hence asking for opinions from people on here that I often find myself sharing tastes and opinions with. 

Thanks for reply, Tin. Helpful. I do get taken in by shinies nowadays so that’s a positive for me. Could still impulse buy. 

Cinty is another I kinda agree with a lot. Where is he?!

I’m about, just got things going on at the mo. Ask and you shall receive:

I have this and I’ve played it up to around a half or a third of the way through, I’d expect. A lot of reviewers have referenced other games when reviewing GoW and most of those comparisons feel accurate - especially The Last of Us and the Tomb Raider reboot. So, i’ll make comparisons too, where appropriate.

Early impressions were very similar to Tin’s - it’s good, the axe feels satisfying, but it’s lots of walking and then hitting things. Pace-wise it’s very Last of Us; lots of walks through scenery before moving into a fight, and then a continuation of the forward journey. TLoU was a game I really wanted to like, like most Naughty Dog stuff, but that I bounced off simply because I rarely enjoy ND’s gunplay (though TLoU was better in this regard than Uncharted) and I often find the puzzle sections either too simplistic (TLoU) or good but under-utilised (Uncharted). But this is also why I’m really enjoying God of War - it keeps the satisfying pacing and loop but keeps the quality up by doing 2 things very right. Namely, the combat is fun and not too drawn out, and the puzzle sections are numerous and enjoyable.

Puzzle sections come in a few varieties - unlocking chests or doors by activating runes around an area is the most common method for optional areas and secrets, while story locations often require you to move around an area to remove obstacles, destroy something etc. - this then often leads to the ability to access a new area / walkway and change perspective, where you can then deal with a previously inaccessible aspect of the puzzle. This is where the Tomb Raider comparisons come in - if you've played the reboot and remember the puzzle room “tombs” then you can imagine how GoW does it; a single large room or series of connected rooms that has a multi-stage puzzle that must be dealt with by taking note of various aspects of the environment. The puzzles are pleasingly deep, and can take some time to complete as you progress through the game.

Combat is slow and physical. I was a bit worried about it, tbh, before launch because videos I had watched made it look clumsy and janky, but in practice it works well. Juggling an enemy in the air before throwing your axe at another enemy to freeze it, then switching to hand-to-hand for another, parrying and shield slamming against an incoming attack, before stunning and grappling it is always satisfying. Then the combat opens up, and you’re balancing magic-like runic powers (in light and heavy varieties), as well as the various abilities your child has, and combat becomes very deep. The close camera means I can imagine a lot of people getting frustrated with this - you will get hit from the side and behind, and this will continue to happen until you learn to pay attention to the calls your child makes, which also means that people who play this without a good sound system or headphones will be losing out. Enemies hit hard and come in numbers, and a lot of the combat is won and lost purely due to the (in)ability to manage enemy positioning and numbers. However, once you figure out how to work skills together, you can be aggressive. A recent fight where I didn’t just defeat a series of tough enemies, but actively tore them apart ranks as one of the most satisfying encounters in recent memory.

There are boss fights, but most of them don’t feel like out and out bosses - more like mini bosses at the end of a set piece. For me this works simply because the standard cannon fodder enemies are far more dangerous and varied than in most games, and a good number of them require attention and strategy to defeat. Plus, the game has a habit of having large numbers of minions attacking during boss fights, amping up the scale and difficulty and leading to some truly epic moments once the first few hours are out the way.

Coming back to the pace, it’s also worth noting that this is a game you should explore. I followed the story pretty closely up until where I’m at now, and have now gained access to a lot of places. The game actively says, via NPCs, that you can continue directly or your journey, or take your time to look around, and so I’ve spent most of this morning just doing side-quests and exploring. And this is where the first impressions of the game - it’s good, and fun, but not the second coming - turned into me realising it’s very good indeed (but still not the second coming - but then again, I didn’t think Zelda was the second coming, either).

I’m gonna describe a one-and-a-half hour sequence that is completely optional - i’ll spoiler it for anyone that doesn’t wanna now details, but I think it’s a good demonstration of how GoW approaches the exploration and discovery:

That’s the loop of the game - exploration leading to discovery, leading to more exploration, in a similar way that The Witcher 3 and Zelda: BotW managed. And along those little jaunts there would have been around 20 or so secret chests to discover or unlock, as well as lore tabs to learn - there’s secrets everywhere. Remember, all of the above was optional - following the main story path would have meant you never see that area - and this is not Ubisoft-style busywork side-content either. Characters see things, do things, learn things, then talk about things as they continue to travel - areas lead to areas, and reward curiosity, as this is a game that has been designed and iterated to within an inch of its life.

Oh, and the kid is great. Seriously. I was worried after the videos that he would be annoying and never shut up. This is not the case - sure he never shuts up, but he’s awesome nonetheless.

So yeah. It’s not the best game in the world but it is very, very good and would probably end up on my GotY list - it really picks up after the slow and steady opening few hours. It’s also a game that’s supposed to be enjoyed and taken slowly - take your time, look around, experiment. I’d absolutely recommend picking it up - especially if you’re someone like me who wanted to like game like The Last of Us etc. but find some of the core gameplay outside the environments and storytelling to be unsatisfying. It doesn’t do that much that’s original, but what it does do it does well.

Edge gave it a:

digi wrote:

£53 on psn, mates going halfs though so its downloading. Lets see what alk the fuss is about eh.

What happened to Yakuza 6???

Last section was epic as fuck. Really well put together game - really enjoying it a lot now.