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[rdrr gnr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFhpQcUgYWs

You get to see the new maps at the end. I hope there are new Team Favor/CTF maps, because I never play FFA.

 

[Mik_Pad]

Yep, if you redeemed your CE code, the DLC that was released for NA yesterday (EU today/Asia May 14) it will appear as Free.

I got the dlc, it appears it was a glitch in the ps store.

 

[TDSpartan]

Really? I've never had a problem running away from someone using chains. If you're stuck in a corner, you're screwed though.

In 4v4, yes you can easily avoid them... but the problem is you surrender huge tactical advantage in the process. Example, someone pops a death streak when the spear/shield/cube whatever spawns. If you don't have a WW or ultimate magic ready, you can either stay and die.. or run and relinquish a truckload of momentum and favour.

The spear/gorgon are genuine game changers, that can win you the match. It is not acceptable that people should be given a free pass with them because they died three times in a row.

Not to mention grabbing altars they wouldn't have been able to prize off you without them.

In 2v2 they are insufferable considering the tiny arena and they have a team mate harassing you while you run.

 

[Kak.efes]

In 4v4, yes you can easily avoid them... but the problem is you surrender huge tactical advantage in the process. Example, someone pops a death streak when the spear/shield/cube whatever spawns. If you don't have a WW or ultimate magic ready, you can either stay and die.. or run and relinquish a truckload of momentum and favour.

The spear/gorgon are genuine game changers, that can win you the match. It is not acceptable that people should be given a free pass with them because they died three times in a row.

Not to mention grabbing altars they wouldn't have been able to prize off you without them.

In 2v2 they are insufferable considering the tiny arena and they have a team mate harassing you while you run.

I play the bigger maps exclusively (4v4, and 8 player FFA). I can't even count on one hand the number of occasions its been an issue with the mid-match events. Maybe your games are different than mine, but I doubt it. I'm inclined to think it's just frustration boiling over at losing to players you'd deem inferior. That I can understand, maybe I'm just better able to stomach it than most.

 

[Gypsy816]

New video on MP tips: http://bit.ly/MP-Pro-Tips

 

[iamvin22]

just ran into a progression stopper. tweeted SSM twitter account. Hope they get back to me on this because i can't move forward at all.

 

[T-0800]

Bought this today and have played just over an hour. Oh my goodness. This must be what PS4 games will look like.

 

[mr stroke]

Got around to finishing this today and feeling satisfied. Everything was pretty average and probably the worst of the main line GOW's. Not a bad game, just nothing mind blowing outside of the final 10 mins(only thing that really wowed me was the final boss, holly shit so amazing!)

Lets hope GOW4 on PS4 brings it back to GOW2 levels of awesomeness

 

[T-0800]

Got around to finishing this today and feeling satisfied. Everything was pretty average and probably the worst of the main line GOW's. Not a bad game, just nothing mind blowing outside of the final 10 mins(only thing that really wowed me was the final boss, holly shit so amazing!)

Lets hope GOW4 on PS4 brings it back to GOW2 levels of awesomeness

I'm 2 hours in and think it's better than 3. Amazing stuff.

 

[omonimo]

I'm 2 hours in and think it's better than 3. Amazing stuff.

Finished & replay at higher difficult, quite inferior to GOW 3 for me, boss battle mostly are a useless QTE fest, absolutly miles away from the spectacular bosses of the third & my God how many bugs I have found....

 

[Gypsy816]

just ran into a progression stopper. tweeted SSM twitter account. Hope they get back to me on this because i can't move forward at all.

Hello! What issue are you having? Did the SSM Twitter reply?

 

[iamvin22]

Hello! What issue are you having? Did the SSM Twitter reply?

i have received no reply from SSM. I have a 7.1 sound system at home so i set my settings to 7.1 in software. Ever since i set those settings i am getting a lot of SFX issues. i finally got past the progression stopper by restarting the game (lame).

now i am at the end of the game and the audio completely cuts out during the last boss SE. the game will pan out of the SE camera and move up and down to a infinite black screen then i die.

i guess i can youtube this for prod if the dev team wants to see this.

 

[Jacob4815]

This game is a real disaster...

http://godofwar.playstation.com/en-us/blog/hunter-106-issue-online-status-update/

To the limited amount of players whose stats were impacted upon installing yesterday's update -- it is with our deepest regret and apology that we will be unable to restore your stats. We understand the severity of this issue, the vast time and passion you put forth to ascend your Warrior, and it is an impossible task for us to truly make up. We made a mistake and wish to do everything in our power to make-good to those impacted. Here is what we are doing for you.

 

[Toppot]

This game is a real disaster...

http://godofwar.playstation.com/en-us/blog/hunter-106-issue-online-status-update/

It is an unfortunate accident. No backups of peoples stats? Come on SSM. It is their first online though, so I think this rookie mistake can be forgiven. They are making up for it in big ways to those that lost stats (five 48 hour 5 times xp boost, season pass, 50 godly shards and a code for an upcoming feature) and to the community at large in small ways.

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

Bought this today and have played just over an hour. Oh my goodness. This must be what PS4 games will look like.

Indeed. It’s been ages, but I played God of War III again today and was shocked at how much better Ascension looks...

 

[Pegasos123]

Indeed. It’s been ages, but I played God of War III again today and was shocked at how much better Ascension looks...

is it just me or is the aliasing more noticeable in ascension?

 

[1.21Gigawatts]

Are there any sales numbers out so far?

 

[Just_Tank]

Hey guys,

Wanted to jump back in this thread for a few reasons, notably because I have been quiet, but for good reason.

First - Gypsy816 is my new key Community Manager partner for all things God of War. She started a couple months ago and I failed to introduce her properly here. So for all intensive purposes, please welcome her with open arms. She's a killer (killer instinct) and will make sure you are always being heard.

Second - I run our @SonySantaMonica Twitter account and do well to respond to everyone. Please do feel free to hit us up at SonySantaMonica@gmail.com or a DM, or just keep pegging on Twitter. One way or another, we'll get to you as fast.

Third (Most Important) - the unfortunate stats issue from last week was a terrible error on our part that the most prudent testing could not account for. We accept that error on our part, apologize with our deepest sympathy for the limited small group of players whose stats were deleted and cannot be recovered. Our "Make Good" for these players is very significant. We wanted to go above and beyond as best we could. We know can't 100% make up for lost stats, but so far player response to this has been very good. If you're jealous as well, we understand, but what's fair to these players affected is this:

https://godofwar.playstation.com/en-us/blog/hunter-106-issue-online-status-update/

Finally - we hear you, we hear you loud and clear and we have some incredible DLC updates coming for Multiplayer in the next few weeks.

We're committed to supporting this game and addressing as many issues as we can.

Back to Gypsy, back to you, thanks
-Tank

 

[nawwafh]

Just beat this yesterday..
Definitely the weakest of the console releases and the story was a let down. It was a missed opportunity tbh.. I would have loved it if they had focused on kratos pre-killing his family.. Leading an army and all that.. Would have made for a great change for the series..

Having said that.. the combat was top notch IMO.. and the 2nd half of the game picked up.. Also loved that this had more of a sense of adventure than GOW3.. kinda reminded me of GOW2 at times..

And the graphics were borderline CGI at some parts.. especially that last boss sequence.. insane to think that its running on a 7-8 yr old hardware..

GoW2>GoW1>GoW3>GowA

 

[macewank]

been stuck on

Spoiler

the trial of archimedes

for two days.. so damn frustrating.

 

[Dibbz]

Just beat it this night and wow it was great. I'd say it's as good as GoW 3 tbh but it falls into Uncharted 3 syndrome where the previous game set the bar so high the next one would always pale in comparison.

Definitely going to replay it since I didn't even use those items and stuff outside of when it told you to use them. Feel a bit dumb missing a massive part of the combat out but it'll give me a chance to just admire everything this time round.

 

[ERC198X]

I have to say that raqequitting in this game is so out of control.

been playing match of champions 4 vs 4 and 6 out of the last 10 matches that i dominate the host decides to quit the match. p2p sucks so much balls. this game needs dedicated servers, or at the least host migration.

The ragequitters so are so damn annoying, it's definitely ruining the experience

 

[Monty Mole]

Still ploughing through this and finding it such a mixed experience.

First off, the good. At times, it's like playing actual concept art. The scenery and scope of the environments can be incredible at times, especially with the backdrop of the sea. I also continue to enjoy the mix of slashing and light-puzzles.

But this game doesn't feel finished and almost feels like a PS2 up-port. It's the art that saves it. There are so many design issues, glitches, invisible walls, stuttering frame-rate, low-res textures. And what's with the seagull sprites that fade out when you're at the sea? The whole game feels extremely rough around the edges and definitely should have gone through another few months of polish.

All that aside, I'm still really enjoying it. I just feel it could be so much more, and that the PS2 games were much more 'complete'.

 

[seattle6418]

Finally got around playing this and finished the game last night.

Overall, i think it´s a great game. The combat offsets the bugs and glitches.

Game was somehow misjudged by the media due to franchise fatigue and the sales kind of reflect that. It´s a shame if this game doesn´t get at least to 3 million. It should be close to the other mainline releases.

I just don´t want Sony to give up on the franchise. They should continue this on PS4, in 2015 or 2016. A proper sequel hopefully with a stronger story, with Kratos more envolved and more talkative.

Now that i spoke about the good, there are some major stuff that´s wrong with the game. Framerate is terrible in some huge battles, some textures are PS2 level and i fucking hate those QTE.

EVERYONE hates QTE and despite being a trademark of God of War it needs to go for next gen. Fix this shit SSM!

I remember reading just a little about this game but i remembered that there was a part in the game were people would get stuck. So i went on playing, passing levels and wondering "where did people got stuck?" "what did the patch changed? doesn´t exist anymore?" and then i got there.

WTF were they thinking?

No saves and possible the worst combination of enemies possible on that first wave. It took me about an hour or maybe a bit more to beat them.

What´s frustrating is that when you die you have to pull a fucking crank all over again and wait for a scene. W-T-F! Why not put the save just before the fight?

80% of what it makes that section rage quitting is the save point.

I can´t even imagine what it was before the patch... no magi orbs? No health orbs in the latter waves? How was it?

The fact that some reviewers got stuck for hours there have probably impacted the score a bit.

Anyway, didn´t had a chance to try the MP, so i don´t know if it´s good.

 

[velociraptor]

I'm playing this game on hard mode and damn it's kicking my ass. I seem to die at every enemy encounter.

They're throwing like twenty satyrs at once.

I can't seem to dodge effectively either. And I hate the fact I cannot counter any more.

Personally I am not a great fan of the combat. I like the idea of the different elements but execution is poor. Also, the rage meter makes me rage.

 

[Satchel]

Ok i think my game has glitched.

I'm at the Forearm of Apollo and I've just encountered the amazon chick and the Cerberus.

I'm supposed to then half heal the chain as I've done before, but its not initiating to let me do it.

So I'm basically stuck looking at the broken chain.

I'm screwed right?

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Bought this the other day and I've played up to Kratos leaving on the ship for wotsitsname. So far it's.. it's a good game and it look absolutely stunning, but it still feels like it's the least interesting of the home console GoW games. So, yeah, not a bad game but still a somewhat disappointing game. And fuck that rage meter. Shite sucks.

So far:
GoW II > GoW III = GoW > GoW: A

 

[velociraptor]

I finished the entire game yesterday. And I was surprised. I liked it a lot!

I felt this game was closer to the original God of War. It felt like an adventure, although the story was lacking. Combat was OK although I'm not a fan of the rage meter. Still, it's classic God of War gameplay so I liked it. I don't like how they nerfed the dodging and parry mechanics however.

Disappointed at the lack of epic boss battles that the series is famed for. I expected more in that regard. Puzzles however were excellent. Level design was incredible. Graphics are also excellent although it never reached the heights of GOW3 IMO. Final level was jawdropping however. Also, GOWA has a good length. My playtime clocked at just over 11 hours on hard mode. I imagine it actually took me longer than this, because the game does not count restarts or deaths.

Nice idea about different elements but what's the point when the rage meter builds up so slow for Hades, Zeus and Posidedon? Would have been nice if different enemies had different elemental weaknesses. I understand hard mode is supposed to be hard, but game felt quite cheap at times. On certain occasions, I got the impression SSM threw everything but the kitchen sink at you to give you a 'challenge'. TBH, I didn't think the Trials of Archimedes was that bad - took me a few tries to finish it. The stone of Orkos and the Amulet of Ouroborous are essentially the key to doing it. The elevator sequence in the Furnace, as well as the convener belt battle, royally pissed me off. Looking back, it feels like I completed those sequences by sheer fluke.

Not the best God Of War, but a damn good experience nonetheless.

+ Adventure
+ Graphics
+ Level Design
+ Puzzles
+ Classic God Of War gameplay
+ Solid length
+ Excellent pacing
+ Platforming sequences

- Lack of boss battles
- Felt cheap at times
- Poor variety in weapons
- Rage meter
- Story

I want a new God Of War game. I cannot get enough of this series. Hopefully SSM can deliver on the PS4, with an entirely new character. While Kratos has been a staple of the franchise, I think it's time for a new era.

Ok i think my game has glitched.

I'm at the Forearm of Apollo and I've just encountered the amazon chick and the Cerberus.

I'm supposed to then half heal the chain as I've done before, but its not initiating to let me do it.

So I'm basically stuck looking at the broken chain.

I'm screwed right?

Restart via chapter select.

 

[Square Triangle]

Thinking of starting my hard run for the platinum, I've never played a GoW game beyond normal.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Trial of Archimedes is fucking shit.

That is all.

 

[velociraptor]

Trial of Archimedes is fucking shit.

That is all.

What difficulty?

Are the blades maxed out? What about ares and hades elements?

Tips:

- Block, block, block. Gorgon Gaze and Siren's Screech are only unblockable attacks.
- Do the L2 + [] and L2 + /_\ combos. Basically, use the amulet to freeze and shadow Kratos to wreck some shit while you attack with the blades
- When your rage meter fills up, quickly switch to Hades element and press L3 + R3. This unleashes souls which do damage to the enemies.

The first wave is basically the hardest wave. You just have to survive that. Don't be afraid to use your magic either (Ares magic).

For the second wave, again, spam the amulet and stone. Whenever it recharges, use it instantly! Press R1 for the harpies. You are immune to damage. Finish the Amazon warriors by pressing R1 for some health gains.

The hardest part of the second wave is when the Lightning Talos comes into motion. My recommendation is to again use the amulet to slow him, unleash shadow Kratos, and pummel the dude with square, square, triangle. When he turns invincible, roll around - and take care of the fire!

Last wave shouldn't be a problem. Those are the weakest enemies. Again, use the amulet and stone. This cannot be understated enough. When I had played the entire game, I barely used them. But they were what got me through the trials.

I honestly thought the furnace battles were harder than the trials... lol

Oh by the way, an excellent move is L1 + /_\ (from the air). But I find that it's better to hold block as much as possible, and get a quick hit or two with [] [] [] or [] [] /_\

 

[Bebpo]

I'm getting around to playing this and I'm a few hours in on normal. What should I upgrade? I really don't want to get stuck at the trials and have to replay the game from start again on easy. I finished all the GoW games on normal, but they were tough at times and I'm finding Ascension pretty annoying since enemies don't get interrupted by your attacks and because the parry is broken and doesn't work half the time.

So far I've upgraded the Blades to lvl.3, Fire blades maxed, and Ice blades to lvl.2. What should I upgrade from this point on. Have Lightning blades as well.

 

[Bebpo]

Alright, finished this. Was pretty fun. It's interesting, since I'd heard so much about the Trials room I read all the strategies I could find before I even started the game and then the whole game was like training for that one room. Getting used to blocking and poking, getting used to using the shadow and freeze sub-weapons. Getting used to attacking with Ares and using the Hades raage attack.

Basically the game was pretty easy because I already knew the best combat strategies haha. But it made the combat really fun since I knew what I was doing the whole game! Was able to get through the trials on my first try and all my deaths were QTE or platforming related on normal.

Overall I actually dug the depth of the combat and the enemy variety. Elemental blades were alright and subweapons were kinda fun. Invincible R1 grapple was kind of overpowered. Good stuff but I have some serious problems with the combat:

-Locking half+ moves away behind rage meter takes away from combat variety since enemies are so aggressive and you lose so much meter if you get hit.

-GAME HAS CONTROL LAG. ARGH. FUCK. SO MUCH INPUT LAG. I think this is why the counter feels broken and nerfed and doesn't work half the time. The biggest frustration with this is I would be blocking and then when there's an opening I'd let go of L1 and poke with [] right after and he'd do L1+[] BIG SWING ATTACK IN LOCKED ANIMATION causing me to get hit and take damage. This happened ALL THE TIME because so much of the combat revolves around blocking and then immediately attacking when there's an opening. But like 30% of the time he'd do the L1+[] attack instead of the [] attack because the release of block had awful awful lag.

-Nerfing the evade is eh. I get that they want you to block things now, but then there's hardly a point to the evade stick since you sit around like an idiot at the end of a roll and are open to damage.



Now the level design was pretty fun. Good balance of combat, puzzles, nice graphics. Really liked the puzzles. Some decent ones that made you think a bit. Gorgeous graphics outside the framerate that could've been better. Unlike some of the opinions here it didn't really feel like an adventure to me because the entire game was only like 3 locations (Prison, Oracle Temple, Fallen Statue). Felt really short even though it was about 7 hours. Wished there were more locations, especially since I found spending half the game fixing a broken statue to be kind of dull. Story was pretty pointless, but whatever, it's god of war. Some nice mythology bits.


Overall was a pretty fun action game. Definitely feels like a B-tier spinoff title that probably would've been a better fit on PSP or Vita (graphics-aside of course), but like the PSP God of Wars it's fun and worth a play for fans of the series. Final boss looked pretty cool though it crashed my ps3 during the fight from all the graphics going on lol.

 

[SolidChamp]

I just picked this up for $30 brand new.

I've played through the entire series save for Ascension. I haven't played a GoW game in a long time. I have the HD Origins Collection (originally finished both games on PSP, Ghost of Sparta is my favorite entry), started Chains of Olympus way back when I first got it, but stopped playing it for a while. I finally got around to finishing it last night to get myself in that mindset for Ascension.

Given all of the negativity that GAF seems to sling at Ascension, I'm not expecting much. Then again, I've never expected a lot from these games save from fun, mindless violence and the brutish antics of Kratos.

So guys, rank Ascension amongst your personal favorites in the series.

My favorite GoW games, in order:

1. Ghost of Sparta

2. God of War II

3. God of War III

 

[SolidChamp]

Well...I've put in roughly four hours of game play so far.

Someone want to tell me what's so bad about this game?

 

[velociraptor]

Well...I've put in roughly four hours of game play so far.

Someone want to tell me what's so bad about this game?

Don't listen to the haters.

It's a fantastic experience.

 

[Toppot]

Well...I've put in roughly four hours of game play so far.

Someone want to tell me what's so bad about this game?

Since you are asking for negatives =P

Story is fairly boring and uneventful, more akin to the PSP games.
The multiplayer has a few fundamental flaws which make it REALLY frustrating.
Sound and soundtrack are very forgettable.
The change in combat, though a better skill based system, rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

I personally think it is a serviceable entry into the series, its just never going to compare to the rest of the series besides 'It looked better' and 'It had multiplayer'

 

[hayguyz]

Finally received this game from Amazon for $20

I was excited about putting in the disc, then I had to wait for a little more than an hour while it downloaded piles of updates.

This game locked up my PS3 on three of the four days I was playing it.

I had a great time with the multiplayer beta, so was excited to play it. I was put into matches where I was severely outranked and was utterly destroyed. Lost all interest.

The single player was great, but why does it zoom out so much when you're trying to fight stuff?

eh and Trial of Archimedes was really tough. It can't imagine beating it before they nerfed it.

 

[Himself]

Does this game seem like it has more interruptions than past GoWs?

I hate the fact that every time I enter a new area the gameplay stops so the camera can swoop to show me exactly where the developer demands I go. And must there be button prompts through every step of a damn puzzle? Just let me figure it out! Why do I have to do a QTE to jump when I'm sliding? I'm perfectly capable of doing that on my own. Future GoW games need to cut this hand holding shit out and let us play the damn game.

I'm also surprised at how buggy this game is.

Overall, I'm surprised more people don't dig it because the GoW it most resembles to me is GoW2. It's a long adventure with lots of varied areas, but nothing compelling as far as purpose or story goes.

OK, the good stuff:
-Combat is fast and wicked and leaves the player plenty of freedom to mess around. I like it a lot although I haven't found much use for elemental switching yet.
-The new "mash attack and occasionally dodge while face to face with a big enemy" is a good step in the right direction away from straight QTEs.
-Pacing is good. I like how much time is spent in certain areas just letting it all unfold.
-The areas of the game that do achieve the polish of the rest of the series are stunning.

I realized maybe I'm not done with the franchise like I thought. The developers just need to release their strangle hold on what the player does. Let us explore. Let us get stuck and figure stuff out. Let us have way, way more control and please stop with the interruptions. I guess I'm basically asking for the game to be more Zelda like.

Oh yeah, and get that multiplayer shit outta here.

 

[NIGHT-]

Whats up with this game? I just started playing it and it looks really muddy and blurry. I remember god of war 3 looking way better. Or is something off with my ps3?

 

[velociraptor]

Whats up with this game? I just started playing it and it looks really muddy and blurry. I remember god of war 3 looking way better. Or is something off with my ps3?

It looks pretty sharp on my PS3 but GOW3 had better IQ and visuals overall.

 

[MikeXXIeaf]

I'm wondering if there's some general consensus on how to beat the trials of archimedes?

 

[Wensih]

I didn't think it could be worse than God of War III, but I think it might be... I'm about 3 hours in and have no clue what's going on half the time, be it in the story or in combat. I feel mixed though because the game looks gorgeous and has much cooler boss fights and environments than GoWIII, but the game also highlights just how boring and repetitive the gameplay.

 

[Wensih]

What was all the fuss about the trial of archimedes? I beat it my second try on an unpatched version of the game.

 

[Wensih]

I'm wondering if there's some general consensus on how to beat the trials of archimedes?

I just unloaded magic on everything until they had the red light over their head. Most of the enemies give you blue orbs on the first round, so it makes that round really quick. The third round also as enemies that give you a lot of blue orbs.

 

[shadow101]

What was all the fuss about the trial of archimedes? I beat it my second try on an unpatched version of the game.

i bet you did.

 

[Wensih]

i bet you did.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if that was the area that everyone was talking about because it didn't take long at all. I don't have my PS3 hooked up to the internet, so I couldn't download the patch. It's cool if you don't believe me though. I was playing on normal.

 

[Andronicus]

ok, just beat this last night. This game was fucking great.

 

[symmetrical]

Got this for $7 through ps+. Holy duck bird this game is really underrated. My mind is blown thinking about what SSM is going to do in the PS4.

 

[Lyonaz]

I bought the game last week and finished it in 2 days, enjoyed it, but definitely one of the lesser GOW games. Also the game seemed to be less polished than the other ones.

I am looking forward toward a PS4 GOW. Although I think Kratos should not be the main character in the next one, make it about the Norse Myths and have a valkyrie wreck some shit. We need new gods to slay.