I Am A God

On the way home from David's seminar, we stopped off and FINALLY picked up my reserved copy of God of War III. I've been playing all evening, and so far I've brutally murdered two gods. Poseidon was a pansy, and Hades is my bitch now.

I'm playing on the "Spartan" level, which is equivalent to "Easy" in other games, and it's still wearing me out. I understand it's supposed to be a difficult and 'challenging' game, but some of the controls are just plain stupid and annoying. One of the worst is the "rapid O mash" that's required every five seconds. I can't physically mash the O fast enough with my thumb. I have to set the controller on my leg and smack at it in a jabbing/smashing motion with my first two fingers. Half the time, I end up hitting something else and failing the challenge. It's quite annoying.

Another issue I'm having is that the double-jump is so touchy. You have to time your second hit perfectly to get the bounce off, and I tend to either be too quick or too slow everytime. I've died waaayyy more times just from jumping off a cliff than to actual foes. It's stupid. The best part of the game for me is the mental challenge of figuring out the puzzles, and guessing at what you're supposed to do. I don't know if it's a symptom of the "Easy" setting, but they've really dumbed that section down a lot for this one. I don't recall it as much from the first game, and I never played the second (I know... blasphemy), but they are really bad about spelling the answers out for you before you even get a chance to try. Say you're supposed to move a rock to activate a switch. Instead of letting you figure it out, when you first enter the room there will be this obvious pan over that zooms in on the rock and then follows your best path to the switch, where it will zoom in again. It's like playing Trivial Pursuit with that guy that's constantly dropping 'hints' while you're trying to think of the answer on your own. "It's something you eat... you had one for lunch... peanut butter and jelly ____?..." I always want to punch that guy.

I know I sound like I don't like it, but I do. It's just that the creators have done to this game what they always do: mistake annoying controls for difficulty, made all the gameplay about button mashing, and ruined the intellectual attraction that the first game had. ::sigh::

Oh well... here's hoping Portal 2 is a better sequel game!