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God of War Ascension |OT| Gods up, Foes down

double jump

you haven't lived until a random little kid ask you "how do you make love".
I finally finished the game the other day on normal. 7 hrs and 53 sec. was my finish time

A few things I have noted

the bros before hoes trophy was blown wayyyyy out of proportion. you see why when you finish that section.

The trials on normal mode are a cake walk, I got threw it on the first try. I could have had an easier time with it do to the fact that I was expecting something super extreme which it wasn't. I think the only people who are having problems are those that didn't fully update most of their gear. My Blades of Chaos,Fire of Ares,Soul of Hades,The Oath Stone of Orkos along with my magic and health meters were maxed out when I completed it.

there were some bad glitches. Luckily nothing game breaking but I had restart my ps3 three different times because of them.

imo
god>gow2>gow:a>gow3

I haven't played the hd psp games but now I want moar gow so I'm seriously thinking of picking that collection up.
 
The trials remind me of those great spinning spires with blades that you had to work your way up in the first God of war... Hell even David Jaffe said it was a fuck up. Hope they fix that shit, cause It's been a long while since I've thrown a controller... The trials pissed me off too much.
 
Dark Sector, Goldeneye 007 Reloaded, Brink... these are games that have generally scored 7s. Does God of War Ascension really fucking keep company with these games? What the hell happened with the media response to this release?

Dark Sector is somewhere between a 5-6, so GoW: A 7/10 is a bit better!
 
The trials on normal mode are a cake walk, I got threw it on the first try. I could have had an easier time with it do to the fact that I was expecting something super extreme which it wasn't. I think the only people who are having problems are those that didn't fully update most of their gear. My Blades of Chaos,Fire of Ares,Soul of Hades,The Oath Stone of Orkos along with my magic and health meters were maxed out when I completed it.

You don't have to be a completionist to actually have fun with a game.
 
If I redeem the 30 day PS+ trial that came with the game, will it add 30 days to my current sub, or will it not work?

Also, never realised that Sony Pictures made Breaking Bad :p
 

Risgroo

Member
Finished the game today! While it wasn't as good as GOW2,3 and GoS, I still had a lot of fun. Final boss was awesome, and more than made up for the trials.
 
I don't know if patching in a checkpoint or two during the trial will make it any better, it might just make things worse.

Say you make it to the 3rd wave but with 5% health, you die in one hit and it loads you up at the start of the 3rd wave with 5% health, rinse repeat. That would be even more frustrating than the bullshit it is now. The best way to fix it is to have every enemy (except harpies) give a few health orbs upon death by any means; nothing drastic like, 25-30% regained but something like 10-15% would be fair. let the player take some punishment without totally fucking them over.

That's my main problem with this game and why I feel Asscension is the worst of every GOW except COO, I feel I am fighting the controls more than the enemies. In every previous GOW, if I wanted to do something, I could do it: roll away in one motion; instantly and reliably block/parry; target one specific enemy, etc. I can't do that shit in this game. The huge gauntlet at the end of GOW2 is one of my favorite parts of the series because -- while yes, it's a tough battle against nearly every enemy in the game in successive groups, just like this Trial of Fuck You, That's Why -- I never once felt that I was hit, stunned, frozen, or killed because the mechanics screwed me over; I was in control 100% of the time and any fuck-up was my own. I never got close to that feeling at all in Asscension. And you know what? That fight had a couple chests in the middle parts. Amazing, huh?

It feels to me that the devs thought, "Well, this takes place before he became a God, so he shouldn't be that powerful, more like a normal man." But they seem to have forgotten that Kratos is a motherfucking DEMI-GOD! I should be ramming my fist into these enemies' guts and ripping out their spines -- not slapping them with two attacks and cowering in my invincible block, waiting for an opportunity to slap again; or just spamming the "new and awesome" grapple shit to abuse the i-frames because if you try even the simplest combo you get knocked the fuck out of it by a fart or a strong look of discontent. Kratos has a tougher time fighting 6 goatfuckers than he does fighting a 1,000ft tall, multi-limbed monster, how does that make sense?

Also: fuck the guy who decided it was OK to go back to the shitty, slow-ass bar filling when you upgrade your stuff. Remember how people complained about that in the first game and then you fixed it in the sequels? What the fuck happened? I have 24,980 orbs at the start of the Trial of Fuck You, That's Why and to sit there for near 20 fucking seconds (yes, I timed it) watching a stupid bar fill every... fucking... time...
 
I got to the 4th boss last night
after you ride all those snake buses and he is a dog with wings and scorpion tale

yeah, he sucks. Threw my controller at my ikea dresser and broke controller and the drawer is glass-ish so it shattered. I'll try again today.

I don't have any elementals upgraded, which ones should I use on him?

I'm enjoying the game so far, the levels and scenery are amazing. I really just feel like I can't do anything when I'm closely surrounded to gain seperation and single out an enemy. In Ninja Gaiden I can just Izuna Drop until the cows come home. The combos take too long to get going for me here. Its very frustrating.
 

protonion

Member
I'm just about to begin the trials. Don't know what to expect. Though so far on normal I've never died in combat.

I love it. It could even top GOW2 for me.
I'm happy they were very bold designing the puzzles. GOW3 was a huge let down there.

My only complaints are the L1+x counter and some lack of polish here and there.
 

aristotle

Member
I got to the 4th boss last night
after you ride all those snake buses and he is a dog with wings and scorpion tale

yeah, he sucks. Threw my controller at my ikea dresser and broke controller and the drawer is glass-ish so it shattered. I'll try again today.

I don't have any elementals upgraded, which ones should I use on him?

I'm enjoying the game so far, the levels and scenery are amazing. I really just feel like I can't do anything when I'm closely surrounded to gain seperation and single out an enemy. In Ninja Gaiden I can just Izuna Drop until the cows come home. The combos take too long to get going for me here. Its very frustrating.

If you are that anger prone, seriously just give up now. I'm not trying to be snarky but that fight is a cakewalk compared to what comes later. Take for instance just one fight I had last night: 2 Elephantaurs and anywhere from 5-10 armored Satrys (with shields, sowrds, and slings) at once. If you're on Hard start over on normal; if on Normal go to Easy. People are not kidding when they say this is the hardest GoW yet.
 

Bruiserk

Member
And that concludes my Hard playthrough,now looking back at it this is the worst of the console games but easily tops the portable ones,nice game overall.It should have featured the General Kratos era,at least 3 over the top crazy bosses like Poseidon but on an even bigger scale along with the current ones,less puzzles,more action and straightforward storytelling.

Less puzzles? May I ask why? I enjoyed every puzzle in this game.
 
I think the game needed less puzzles too. I think it utterly destroyed the pacing in this game. I was getting bored and thinking to myself, "Great, another puzzle," while rolling my eyes.
 
If you are that anger prone, seriously just give up now. I'm not trying to be snarky but that fight is a cakewalk compared to what comes later. Take for instance just one fight I had last night: 2 Elephantaurs and anywhere from 5-10 armored Satrys (with shields, sowrds, and slings) at once. If you're on Hard start over on normal; if on Normal go to Easy. People are not kidding when they say this is the hardest GoW yet.

Really? That sucks. I don't feel like starting over I'm already like 3 hours in. I'll try to be more strategic. I dont know, I'm a freak at Ninja Gaiden, I just can't get to mastering this fighting style.
 
Finally made it to Delphi or whatever it's called. So far I'm having a blast and I'm actually tempted to replay the whole thing over again up this point, but I'll reserve that urge for a complete second playthrough or whatnot.

Still looking for high-quality direct feed of the game with specific things happening on screen. I see Gamersyde has some nice footy so I'm using that for now :)
 
I finally finished the game the other day on normal. 7 hrs and 53 sec. was my finish time

A few things I have noted

the bros before hoes trophy was blown wayyyyy out of proportion. you see why when you finish that section.

Yeah, by what I heard from the Sessler review
I thought that it was an actual curb stomp that caved a chicks skull in. There was a stomp, but no skull smashing and it didn't even kill her.
Still...just the name of the achievement is pretty dumb and doesn't really help their case.

Finally made it to Delphi or whatever it's called. So far I'm having a blast and I'm actually tempted to replay the whole thing over again up this point, but I'll reserve that urge for a complete second playthrough or whatnot.

Still looking for high-quality direct feed of the game with specific things happening on screen. I see Gamersyde has some nice footy so I'm using that for now :)

I'm replaying now with some relics turned on that have automatic wins on the QTEs and regen health. Also playing as
olive skin kratos
I'm having a great time.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
I'm about to start my Hard playthrough. Should I use a separate profile if I don't want to lose the access to chapter select on normal? The message about it deleting all your saves and chapters is confusing to me.
 
I'm about to start my Hard playthrough. Should I use a separate profile if I don't want to lose the access to chapter select on normal? The message about it deleting all your saves and chapters is confusing to me.
Yeah, probably. I read on a trophy site that when you have played on hard you can't chapter select on a difficulty other than hard.
 

SteeloDMZ

Banned
I'm stuck in the chains/rotating wheels puzzle after you fight the elephant monster. What the f are you supossed to do? i've been here for like an hour.

Edit: nvm, got it.
 
I should be ramming my fist into these enemies' guts and ripping out their spines -- not slapping them with two attacks and cowering in my invincible block, waiting for an opportunity to slap again; or just spamming the "new and awesome" grapple shit to abuse the i-frames because if you try even the simplest combo you get knocked the fuck out of it by a fart or a strong look of discontent. Kratos has a tougher time fighting 6 goatfuckers than he does fighting a 1,000ft tall, multi-limbed monster, how does that make sense?

I was going to rant about the combat system, but that about covers it. There's no decent rhythm or feel to the combat, and everything is made worse by camera angles that often don't show me the enemy that I should parry. I still don't get the rage and magic stuff. Execute a flawless 100 hit combo to get to use more powerful attacks? Eh. This would have been a good GoW game with better combat; now it's just frustrating and disappointing.
 
Hard, but it depends on how good you think you are and how well you are at anger management. ;)

If you beat it on hard, the trophy cleanup will be simple on easy/normal/(maybe) hard.
Well I've Platinumed all 5 GoW games so far. I've heard that this one is the hardest yet so I don't know.
 
This game was pretty good (not great), but it's too short. It doesn't help that the devs tried to extend the game with puzzles. That's a tell tale sign that they're running out of mythology to pull from.
 
It has NG+, it just doesn't let you pick a higher difficulty compared to what you beat the game on.

Yeah, I've absolutely no idea what the point of this interpretation of ng+ is. You can basically repeat everything you've already just done, on the same difficulty, and not be able to unlock any trophies or otherwise earn anything new.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
This game was pretty good (not great), but it's too short. It doesn't help that the devs tried to extend the game with puzzles. That's a tell tale sign that they're running out of mythology to pull from.

I didn't really get that impression here. 3 was much worse regarding padding considering they didn't seem to know how to make an entire game based around "Kill Zeus" without having Kratos go after random shit like the flame which he now randomly needs to kill a god, despite ripping off heads with his bare hands, not to mention he would've killed Zeus already in 2 if Athena didn't step in. I also got the impression they spent an inordinate amount of time getting the intro and cronos segments to work which ended up making the game feel more all over the place. The next to final boss of the core trilogy is not a god, it's a random ass scorpion. Wut.

I seem to be in the minority of what I like with God of War, though. I love scale when it's applied to environments, such as the Steeds of Time in 2 and the Statue of Apollo in Ascension. Similarly when it gets applied to fights, like the Colossus of Rhodes in 2 being over the whole city. I do not necessarily like it for big huge bosses, which I don't feel are ever mechanically interesting. People always want them to top things like Poseidon and Cronos when Hades and Hercules were much more entertaining to romp with. I love puzzles when they are done well, which the ones in Ascension were. I didn't get the sense there were too many or they were grouped together as a lot of battles happen inbetween them.
 
I didn't really get that impression here. 3 was much worse regarding padding considering they didn't seem to know how to make an entire game based around "Kill Zeus" without having Kratos go after random shit like the flame which he now randomly needs to kill a god, despite ripping off heads with his bare hands, not to mention he would've killed Zeus already in 2 if Athena didn't step in. I also got the impression they spent an inordinate amount of time getting the intro and cronos segments to work which ended up making the game feel more all over the place. The next to final boss of the core trilogy is not a god, it's a random ass scorpion. Wut.

I seem to be in the minority of what I like with God of War, though. I love scale when it's applied to environments, such as the Steeds of Time in 2 and the Statue of Apollo in Ascension. Similarly when it gets applied to fights, like the Colossus of Rhodes in 2 being over the whole city. I do not necessarily like it for big huge bosses, which I don't feel are ever mechanically interesting. People always want them to top things like Poseidon and Cronos when Hades and Hercules were much more entertaining to romp with. I love puzzles when they are done well, which the ones in Ascension were. I didn't get the sense there were too many or they were grouped together as a lot of battles happen inbetween them.

It just seems like that Ascension had bits that were really, really long and as a result it left me feeling pretty empty. I mean, look at how long it took to get to the Oracle, to rebuild the statue of Apollo, etc. You're looking at a lot of hours spent on doing two or three tasks. God of War 3 was also packed with battles Hercule, Cronos, Hermes, Helios, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. That doesn't include sub bosses. The real reason that Kratos was calmer in this game is that he didn't have anyone to irk him other than the Furies. I was incredibly disappointed with the boss battles in this game. This really feels like it should have been a Vita game, to be honest.
 

moolhy

Banned
I just realized the "Bros before hoes" was directed at Orkos betraying his mothers to help out Kratos, not referencing the fury getting curb-stomped by Kratos seconds earlier.

It's not as obnoxious as Sessler made it sounds once you see it in the proper context.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
It just seems like that Ascension had bits that were really, really long and as a result it left me feeling pretty empty. I mean, look at how long it took to get to the Oracle, to rebuild the statue of Apollo, etc. You're looking at a lot of hours spent on doing two or three tasks. God of War 3 was also packed with battles Hercule, Cronos, Hermes, Helios, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. That doesn't include sub bosses. The real reason that Kratos was calmer in this game is that he didn't have anyone to irk him other than the Furies. I was incredibly disappointed with the boss battles in this game. This really feels like it should have been a Vita game, to be honest.

3 actually didn't have that many god boss fights. Hermes and Helios had small segments applied to them, and Hera was also just killed off. It did have more happening, Ascension in particular has a weirdly slow start and Kratos doesn't say much at all for the first half.

I know what you mean about spending too long in places, but I like stuff like that when it's done well, i.e. the statue takes a very long time due to the immense scale of it. Once I came out and realized I was only at the foot was a good "damn" moment. Personally it adds a lot to the sense of place when I finally do reach the head I can think back to how long it took, and it feels like a much more cohesive environment. 3 ended up using portals to teleport around which I also disliked considering that.
 
Do you need an online pass to play the multiplayer? I'm think about renting the game to try the multiplayer, but I'm not going to bother if it needs a code.
 
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