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[Sorral]

It's matter of bad quality video? I'm asking, because I'm not that sure. Don't remember those terrible grounds in GOW3 but I could have a bad memory.
Another thing: why the characters have so huge hands? Characters are not realistic in GOW, ok, but I don't remember hand so disproportionate.

I hope that you are not being serious or you are just trying to troll me. Not being mean or anything, but I kinda can't tell at this point.
It doesn't take much to see that the video quality is pretty bad. Kratos's details are lost compared to the demo that I have played (Or even simply the pictures in the OT..). I will ask again: Have you tried the demo? Or even checked the trailers/pictures in the OT to see the textures?

I didn't think the last level was difficult and frustrating, I really enjoyed it, not sure what those other critics are talking about?

There was a mention of a part that some reviewers got stuck on for a while. I am not sure if it will be as bad as they seemed to make it out to be.

 

[ubersticky]

One trophy is called "Lubed up" lol

 

[GoddyofAus]

Watched Sesslers review on Rev3 and he was not happy at all with the "Bros before Hos" trophy and what you have to do to achieve it. I would say I have to agree with him. It sends a pretty ugly message.

 

[Radec]

Watched Sesslers review on Rev3 and he was not happy at all with the "Bros before Hos" trophy and what you have to do to achieve it. I would say I have to agree with him. It sends a pretty ugly message.

Lets not do this again.

 

[dan999]

Watched Sesslers review on Rev3 and he was not happy at all with the "Bros before Hos" trophy and what you have to do to achieve it. I would say I have to agree with him. It sends a pretty ugly message.

Because mythological monsters are women.

 

[i-Lo]

I do have agree on Kratos' hands looking a touch too big (esp. in cutscenes). I do not remember them being that huge in GoW3.

 

[BruiserBear]

Have the developers made any comments regarding a patch for the crazy difficulty spike so many reviews have mentioned? Because I literally won't buy the game unless I know that is going to be fixed. I'm not interested in banging my head against a wall for hours on end.

 

[zoukka]

Have the developers made any comments regarding a patch for the crazy difficulty spike so many reviews have mentioned? Because I literally won't buy the game unless I know that is going to be fixed. I'm not interested in banging my head against a wall for hours on end.

Err how can you even tell whether its too hard for your skill level? A lot of these journos are super casual when it comes to anything remotely challenging.

Also ths spike tower and the caged victim parts were awesome in the previous games.

 

[M.D]

Speaking of difficulty levels... that boss fight with Zeus inside of Gaia drove me insane. I tried that shit so many times, and it took forever until I could finally grab the fucker. I'm actually convinced my game was bugged!

 

[Chuck Norris]

The reviews are not as high as I hoped, but I'm EXTREMELY proud of what we accomplished. If you read the reviews they say it plays like a God of War game...good that is what we were aiming for . The way I look at it, it comes down to the fans, if they like it then we did our job. Look COD, got 83 on metacritic but sold 20+ million, or Psychonauts critics loved it but the average gamer not so much.

Each area of the game has its own challenges. Certain SP levels are very complecated to create/design (Example - Hecaton. The opening level). Getting in and reworking Kratos/combat was a big challenge. The way we work everything really comes together late in the project. With MP, building the tech and design"formula" of how the game works/plays took ALONG time. We put people on it that were able to power through those challenges. I understand that some people look at the MP and discount it, but I believe there is a ton of great content there. Most importantly it feels like GOW, and plays different than everything out there

It's sad that all you aimed for was to play like a God of War game. This series should be about ambition and being the leader of the pack, not being what we expect. You made a great game here, but after five games in the same formula it was past time to shake things up. I can't think of too many franchises in gaming that go that long without a considerable formula shake up. Especially considring God of War 3 finished the saga, I felt like it was time for something new. And it's clear I'm not alone there. I dunno if it was due to politics not allowing you to go for something a lot fresher, but I'm simply not surprised that critics are panning it.

Hopefully the all time low scores allow for you guys at SSM to sit back and really think what needs to be done, whether its a rest for the franchise or an all new direction. new character, new mythology has seemed the logical way to go for a long time and been discussed by a lot of fans. But you guys have ignored that option (while Jaffe himself said he would have gone that way already).

 

[meta4]

Speaking of difficulty levels... that boss fight with Zeus inside of Gaia drove me insane. I tried that shit so many times, and it took forever until I could finally grab the fucker. I'm actually convinced my game was bugged!

Something must have been definitely wrong with your game. That boss fight was pretty easy from what I remember.

 

[meta4]

It's sad that all you aimed for was to play like a God of War game. This series should be about ambition and being the leader of the pack, not being what we expect. You made a great game here, but after five games in the same formula it was past time to shake things up. I can't think of too many franchises in gaming that go that long without a considerable formula shake up. Especially considring God of War 3 finished the saga, I felt like it was time for something new. And it's clear I'm not alone there. I dunno if it was due to politics not allowing you to go for something a lot fresher, but I'm simply not surprised that critics are panning it.

Hopefully the all time low scores allow for you guys at SSM to sit back and really think what needs to be done, whether its a rest for the franchise or an all new direction. new character, new mythology has seemed the logical way to go for a long time and been discussed by a lot of fans. But you guys have ignored that option (while Jaffe himself said he would have gone that way already).

This. I cannot agree with you more. It is so disappointing that SSM just felt it can just replicate the same system that they have been employing all this while and not be more ambitious with it's SP. How about more open world? RPG elements? More enemy variety, More different animations etc etc..So much potential here and unfortunately it is just a retread. You could have experimented here with the underlying system so that it could have given a solid foundation for the next mainline iteration taking the criticism and the positives from this game. Pretty disappointing that is not the case.

 

[M.D]

Something must have been definitely wrong with your game. That boss fight was pretty easy from what I remember.

After trying so many times, I looked it up and some people said there was a bug where the prompt to grab him never shows up. I don't remember if I loaded another save, but there was definitely something wrong with it before.

I even looked at a walkthrough to see if I did something wrong, but I did exactly what I supposed to do and should have got that prompt instead of fighting him forever

 

[Amir0x]

It's sad that all you aimed for was to play like a God of War game. This series should be about ambition and being the leader of the pack, not being what we expect. You made a great game here, but after five games in the same formula it was past time to shake things up. I can't think of too many franchises in gaming that go that long without a considerable formula shake up. Especially considring God of War 3 finished the saga, I felt like it was time for something new. And it's clear I'm not alone there. I dunno if it was due to politics not allowing you to go for something a lot fresher, but I'm simply not surprised that critics are panning it.

Hopefully the all time low scores allow for you guys at SSM to sit back and really think what needs to be done, whether its a rest for the franchise or an all new direction. new character, new mythology has seemed the logical way to go for a long time and been discussed by a lot of fans. But you guys have ignored that option (while Jaffe himself said he would have gone that way already).

Honestly the series should be God of War, but they should really consider taking up Jaffe's idea of having the series move onto covering other Godly universes. You could really mix up the mechanics while maintaining the soul of the franchise and mixing up characters, locations and story types.

I'd LOVE an Egyptian or Norse or Hindu version of God of War.

It'd blow people away if the next God of War on PS4 did something like that. Just a tip if they want the next in the series to continue the strong sales and reviews.

 

[meta4]

Honestly the series should be God of War, but they should really consider taking up Jaffe's idea of having the series move onto covering other Godly universes. You could really mix up the mechanics while maintaining the soul of the franchise and mixing up characters, locations and story types.

I'd LOVE an Egyptian or Norse or Hindu version of God of War.

It'd blow people away if the next God of War on PS4 did something like that. Just a tip if they want the next in the series to continue the strong sales and reviews.

Religious nuts in India will start attacking Sony stores unfortunately. I would love to see a GOW set in Indian Mythology. So much potential there.

 

[Amir0x]

Religious nuts in India will start attacking Sony stores unfortunately. I would love to see a GOW set in Indian Mythology. So much potential there.

Man but Hindu mythology is amazing!

 

[meta4]

Man but Hindu mythology is amazing!

I agree. Can you imagine Lord Shiva, Vishnu, Durga etc in the game. Would be so freaking amazing!
You know what? I actually would not mind a Dark Souls/ Demon Souls type game set in Hindu mythology as well.

 

[The_Hitcher89]

Man but Hindu mythology is amazing!

They could not possibly cover a religion that's still practised by hundreds of millions of people. I'd feel uncomfortable myself just playing it

 

[I'm an expert]

While I'm not a huge fan of these games (only started them a few years ago), I do enjoy them. I will most likely get this game in the future. But man..wtf..how many games can we have this exact same stuff. There has to be a new char/setting being designed for PS4, there has to be. Has to be.

 

[Vinterbird]

For anyone that has the game and is past the hourglass part (if anyone sees that as a spoiler, I'll delete it), I need help :

Spoiler

I'm totally stuck in the room with the big hourglass and the green must time travel thingy.

I can swing the platform but never make it in the past and I can't seem to get the timing right on lowerong the large plate in the floor.

Any help is welcome

 

[TEH-CJ]

For anyone that has the game and is past the hourglass part (if anyone sees that as a spoiler, I'll delete it), I need help :

Spoiler

I'm totally stuck in the room with the big hourglass and the green must time travel thingy.

I can swing the platform but never make it in the past and I can't seem to get the timing right on lowerong the large plate in the floor.

Any help is welcome

How are you finding the game?

 

[Vinterbird]

How are you finding the game?

It's alright. The pacing feels slower than 3, and it is more of the same, but it's still fun. The story is a jumbled mess that doesn't make sense.

 

[J_incredible]

Makes me wonder what God of War would look like on PS4...?

 

[Drencrom]

Err how can you even tell whether its too hard for your skill level? A lot of these journos are super casual when it comes to anything remotely challenging.

Also ths spike tower and the caged victim parts were awesome in the previous games.

I'm afraid we're the only ones on GAF that liked those parts

Religious nuts in India will start attacking Sony stores unfortunately. I would love to see a GOW set in Indian Mythology. So much potential there.

Norse mythology or bust

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

It's matter of bad quality video? I'm asking, because I'm not that sure. Don't remember those terrible grounds in GOW3 but I could have a bad memory.
Another thing: why the characters have so huge hands? Characters are not realistic in GOW, ok, but I don't remember hand so disproportionate.

I would guess that hands are a little bigger than normal because

1) hands are an expressive part of the body

2) they have clearly put some work into their hand animation tech - just look at the very first scene where Kratos slowly grabs at his chains, or how the whole first boss scenario is about giant hands - and bigger hands make it easier to see the fine animation work they've done.

3) big hands suggest power, which is completely appropriate for Kratos' character at least. His arms are fucking huge/long as well and always have been.

As for a bad ground texture, that's all video games. Don't spend your time staring at the ground and you won't have a problem. Developers need to put their efforts into the things that MOST players look at MOST of the time. Making every ground texture amazing is a waste of resources.

 

[nelsonroyale]

Religious nuts in India will start attacking Sony stores unfortunately. I would love to see a GOW set in Indian Mythology. So much potential there.

Heh, nah they could get around that by making Kratos an avatar of Vishnu or some such, lord knows there has been a multitude of those

 

[Jacob4815]

It's alright. The pacing feels slower than 3, and it is more of the same, but it's still fun. The story is a jumbled mess that doesn't make sense.

You confirm that it's less epic than GOW2-3 and the lack of crazy levels/boss fights?

 

[i-Lo]

Religious nuts in India will start attacking Sony stores unfortunately. I would love to see a GOW set in Indian Mythology. So much potential there.

I agree. Can you imagine Lord Shiva, Vishnu, Durga etc in the game. Would be so freaking amazing!
You know what? I actually would not mind a Dark Souls/ Demon Souls type game set in Hindu mythology as well.

They could not possibly cover a religion that's still practised by hundreds of millions of people. I'd feel uncomfortable myself just playing it

Indeed. To my knowledge it is the last remaining polytheistic religion based upon mythology. Hinduism does have two religious books/texts (Gita and Vedas) but mythology still takes precedence. One reason is that it allows for grand festivities to take place. Plus stories are more relatable.

I am surprised as to how long the mythological side of things have lasted since I would love to see a game upon it (not necessarily in the the hack n slash genre) and I think RPG would be a better fit.

However, people especially the more religious type would act like rabid feral beasts just at the idea. Then again, it is the same reason why we haven't seen a game around Jeus or Allah or the crusades either.

incrediblegifs.gif

Makes me wonder what God of War would look like on PS4...?

I am absolutely stunned at what they have been able to extract from the machine, just stunned. Real time reflections and what seems to subtle SSAO and the ever awe inspiring IQ all add to the fidelity.

 

[JB1981]

Any chance you guys will patch that final section that everyone is complaining about? I've finished all the GoW games on normal with no problems, but I'm worried about that section and that you can't lower the difficulty midgame so if you get stuck there you have to replay the entire game from scratch on an easier difficulty.

Honestly it makes me, as a fan whose bought and played every entry in the series (including the handheld ones), not want to buy the game. Every other complaint in the reviews doesn't turn me off as a fan of the series. Sounds like more of the same goodness I enjoy from the franchise. But I hate difficulty spikes and almost every single review of Ascension mentions that final area as being insanely difficult and frustrating. That doesn't sound fun at all. The spiked blade walls in GoW1 were annoying enough.

Can you at least patch in the ability to lower the difficulty mid-game?

Is it true that you can no longer lower the difficulty mid-game? This is something you could do in every God of War

 

[Dragon1893]

It's alright. The pacing feels slower than 3, and it is more of the same, but it's still fun. The story is a jumbled mess that doesn't make sense.

Not exactly glowing praise... How is the story in a gow game a jumbled mess? They've been so straightforward untill now. Can you elaborate without spoiler? Not easy I know but I'm curious.

 

[nashb81]

For anyone that has the game and is past the hourglass part (if anyone sees that as a spoiler, I'll delete it), I need help :

Spoiler

I'm totally stuck in the room with the big hourglass and the green must time travel thingy.

I can swing the platform but never make it in the past and I can't seem to get the timing right on lowerong the large plate in the floor.

Any help is welcome

Spoiler

Once you activate the decay mist, a pillar should fall apart on your left, indicating a grapple point. From there, you can jump onto the chandelier above you that's supposed to pierce the hourglass. After that, Kratos can latch onto the two statues supporting it, and start rocking the chandelier. Once it starts rocking, jump over to the ledge in front of you.

From there, move to a room on your left. You'll land up in one of the rooms you've already passed, and from there you'll need to get the head of a statue out. Once you get that, throw it down, start the decay gas again, and use it to jump on the chandelier that will gain enough momentum to shatter the hourglass.

Hope that helps.

 

[Vinterbird]

You confirm that it's less epic than GOW2-3 and the lack of crazy levels/boss fights?

No clue. I'm not yet done with the game, currently stuck in the part I figure the rest of the press was stuck in. Terrible leveldesign and articulation from the environment in that part.

I don't know if it is less epic and big, but it feels perhaps a bit more toned down I would say, when the game does the GoW3 trick of zooming far far out and still letting you be in control, that has so far been in the context of a slower moment to show the place you're in and not to show you the big thing you are currently killing.

Not exactly glowing praise... How is the story in a gow game a jumbled mess? They've been so straightforward untill now. Can you elaborate without spoiler? Not easy I know but I'm curious.

The game so far hasn't explained what the hell is going on at any kind of sensible level. I feel extremely lost in what is going on. The game starts with a halfspider lady yelling at you, then a black ghost talks to you, then you return to the yelling lady and then you're killing a big bug.

I really have no clue what is going on other then I am ripping the heads of things.

Spoiler

Once you activate the decay mist, a pillar should fall apart on your left, indicating a grapple point. From there, you can jump onto the chandelier above you that's supposed to pierce the hourglass. After that, Kratos can latch onto the two statues supporting it, and start rocking the chandelier. Once it starts rocking, jump over to the ledge in front of you.

From there, move to a room on your left. You'll land up in one of the rooms you've already passed, and from there you'll need to get the head of a statue out. Once you get that, throw it down, start the decay gas again, and use it to jump on the chandelier that will gain enough momentum to shatter the hourglass.

Hope that helps.

Thanks, will give that a go later.

 

[sflufan]

The game so far hasn't explained what the hell is going on at any kind of sensible level. I feel extremely lost in what is going on.

Oh, it's definitely a God of War game then!

 

[nashb81]

Not exactly glowing praise... How is the story in a gow game a jumbled mess? They've been so straightforward untill now. Can you elaborate without spoiler? Not easy I know but I'm curious.

The story doesn't make a lot of sense, and as much as I love Kratos, him being an angry asshole 24/7 feels kind of stale now. The puzzles in this game are quite redundant too. You'll be forced to solve one puzzle, and then the game moves you in another direction altogether, making you wonder why you had to waste time doing that shitty puzzle in the first place.

Also I don't know why, but even though this game is technically very impressive, it lacks the excitement I felt from playing older God of War games. The opening set-piece while very intricate just didn't grip me the way GOW III's did.

 

[nib95]

The reviews are not as high as I hoped, but I'm EXTREMELY proud of what we accomplished. If you read the reviews they say it plays like a God of War game...good that is what we were aiming for . The way I look at it, it comes down to the fans, if they like it then we did our job. Look COD, got 83 on metacritic but sold 20+ million, or Psychonauts critics loved it but the average gamer not so much.

Each area of the game has its own challenges. Certain SP levels are very complecated to create/design (Example - Hecaton. The opening level). Getting in and reworking Kratos/combat was a big challenge. The way we work everything really comes together late in the project. With MP, building the tech and design"formula" of how the game works/plays took ALONG time. We put people on it that were able to power through those challenges. I understand that some people look at the MP and discount it, but I believe there is a ton of great content there. Most importantly it feels like GOW, and plays different than everything out there

Thank you for the response! Looking at it after your post, I guess the new direction for the series was the multilayer, the re-worked combat and the kinder Kratos. like you rightly mentioned, a lot of people look at the multilayer and discount it, when in reality it seems a rather comprehensive mode that is quite bold for the series.

Perhaps many of the journalists out there treated the multilayer with the same level of deflated regard that perhaps robbed it of some of its just deserves? I'm probably guilty of it somewhat myself, even after a very brief go with the Beta, I still wasn't completely sold.

In any case, I'll buy the game and give it another proper effort. More God of War is obviously a good thing for a God of War game, anything less would probably upset the fan base. Going forward though, I do hope bigger changes are made, including ones that make suitable use of the PS4s hardware. Imo it needs to be a new mythos, new weapons, mechanics and/or new main character, more open world or rpg like etc. I also wouldn't mind if the future IP was more technical and less all out offense based, ie Onimusha and the counter/parry system which is vital to combat progress.

Anyway, wish you luck with the release.

 

[Dragon1893]

The game so far hasn't explained what the hell is going on at any kind of sensible level. I feel extremely lost in what is going on. The game starts with a halfspider lady yelling at you, then a black ghost talks to you, then you return to the yelling lady and then you're killing a big bug.

I really have no clue what is going on other then I am ripping the heads of things.



Thanks, will give that a go later.

At the start of the game the furies are after Kratos for breaking his oath with Ares, that's what the game is about. The intro explains who the furies are and what they do.
Were you missing this context when you started the game?

 

[Auto_aim1]

I'm kind of stuck here, can someone help? Image provided.

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/fiyiL5d.jpg

 

[Vinterbird]

At the start of the game the furries are after Kratos for breaking his oath with Ares, that's what the game is about. The intro explains who the furries are and what they do.
Were you missing this context when you started the game?

Perhaps the game didn't articulate it well enough for me, at least I had no idea why Kratos was in chains at the beginning of the game. And I have no context for what happened afterwards.

I just don't think the story is that well told so far.

 

[Freezard]

I'm kind of stuck here, can someone help? Image provided.

Spoiler

http://i.imgur.com/fiyiL5d.jpg

Spoiler

Push the block into that opening after you have pulled the lever to the right/left (don't remember). Then remove the chain and pull the lever to the other side and a cutscene will play, allowing you to climb up the cog and chain grab the green thing.

 

[Sid]

I'm surprised that no one apart from reviewers has an early copy yet.....I actually expected the street date to be broken here in India as that happened with GoW III.

 

[hey_it's_that_dog]

Perhaps the game didn't articulate it well enough for me, at least I had no idea why Kratos was in chains at the beginning of the game. And I have no context for what happened afterwards.

I just don't think the story is that well told so far.

The intro gives you all the information you need to figure it out. The furies punish oath breakers. Kratos has been captured by the Furies. You might therefore surmise that Kratos has broken an oath.

 

[Auto_aim1]

Spoiler

Push the block into that opening after you have pulled the lever to the right/left (don't remember). Then remove the chain and pull the lever to the other side and a cutscene will play, allowing you to climb up the cog and chain grab the green thing.

Worked, thanks!

 

[Just_Tank]

No clue. I'm not yet done with the game, currently stuck in the part I figure the rest of the press was stuck in. Terrible leveldesign and articulation from the environment in that part.

I don't know if it is less epic and big, but it feels perhaps a bit more toned down I would say, when the game does the GoW3 trick of zooming far far out and still letting you be in control, that has so far been in the context of a slower moment to show the place you're in and not to show you the big thing you are currently killing.



The game so far hasn't explained what the hell is going on at any kind of sensible level. I feel extremely lost in what is going on. The game starts with a halfspider lady yelling at you, then a black ghost talks to you, then you return to the yelling lady and then you're killing a big bug.

I really have no clue what is going on other then I am ripping the heads of things.



Thanks, will give that a go later.

That's half the point, we don't want you to know completely what is going on in the beginning. The further you get, the more the story will unravel. You may want to hold off on the play by play until you get near the end. It will come together. We took a different approach with the story.

-Tank

 

[BruiserBear]

Err how can you even tell whether its too hard for your skill level? A lot of these journos are super casual when it comes to anything remotely challenging.

Also ths spike tower and the caged victim parts were awesome in the previous games.

Because I don't assume every reviewer is a noob baby who just decided to complain about the exact same part of the game, and I'm not about to spend $60 and invest 10 hours of my life to confirm their findings.

 

[njean777]

Honestly the series should be God of War, but they should really consider taking up Jaffe's idea of having the series move onto covering other Godly universes. You could really mix up the mechanics while maintaining the soul of the franchise and mixing up characters, locations and story types.

I'd LOVE an Egyptian or Norse or Hindu version of God of War.

It'd blow people away if the next God of War on PS4 did something like that. Just a tip if they want the next in the series to continue the strong sales and reviews.

Egyptian would be so awesome. Imagine fighting Horus, Osiris, and Anubis. OMG I WANT THAT GAME. Would be like a dream come true.

Because I don't assume every reviewer is a noob baby who just decided to complain about the exact same part of the game, and I'm not about to spend $60 and invest 10 hours of my life to confirm their findings.

A lot of the same reviewers complained about Dark Souls being to hard, I wouldn't take their word for anything that is challenging.

 

[Vinterbird]

The intro gives you all the information you need to figure it out. The furies punish oath breakers. Kratos has been captured by the Furies. You might therefore surmise that Kratos has broken an oath.

I got that part, I just wanted a bigger context then that (what the oath is, why it was broken and yadda yadda). I fully expect all of that to come, I just didn't like the in-medias-res opening for this game.

 

[Sid]

I got that part, I just wanted a bigger context then that (what the oath is, why it was broken and yadda yadda). I fully expect all of that to come, I just didn't like the in-medias-res opening for this game.

Have you not played GoW I before?

 

[Vinterbird]

Have you not played GoW I before?

I've played the main ones, but it's been a long time ago. I just figured to broken oath wasn't in relation to the plot of 1, but something else. But if it "just" that, then I guess some of it makes more sense, although wouldn't that go against what they established in 1?

 

[Dragon1893]

Have you not played GoW I before?

I'm assuming he didn't. Considering this is the first game in the GoW timeline I suppose people assume no prior knowledge of the story is required which does make sense.
I have no idea if the way the story is presented is ideal for newcomers who want to play all games in the correct order starting with this one.

Edit: OK, maybe you should youtube a story video from gow1 to refresh your memory.

 

[nib95]

There's that other thread about game opening's, and many people including myself have mentioned GOW3 as the biggest and best ever. I think it was always going to be a nigh on impossible task for the Ascension team to top it. If it was up to me I'd have gone the completely opposite direction.

I know that Krotos is more human in this game, and in the demo he even seems to care for one of the Spartans that gets mauled by the mini boss. They could have started the game with Kratos as the general just walking through the encampments of his soldiers, think towards the beginning of Gladiator, and then after speaking to or going through the encampment (tents, soldiers everywhere, training, making weapons etc), lead on to him entering the tent of his wife (que the scene they always show of him with his wife).

Could have moved on to some sort of great battle amidst the battlefield, maybe the one where Ares grants Kratos that army and makes him that damning offer.

Not saying the demo opening isn't spectacular, but it would have set a different tone and could have challenged GOW3's opening in a different sort of way.