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March 16, 2007
"War" Games
Taking a vacation day tomorrow, my first of the year. And naturally, since it’s been warm all week here in Boston, it will be below freezing tomorrow with equal amounts of snow, sleet, and rain falling. Brilliant.
Also brilliant on my part was going to the CambridgeSide Galleria in order to use my $50 gift card at Best Buy, the girt card I’ve been sitting on since Christmas, and sitting on for the express purpose of buying “God of War II” which came out this week, only to find out after slogging through the Green Line and a driving rainstorm that, oops, Best Buy don’t live there no mo’. So Ryan no get no “God of War II” for the PS2.
So I did what any mature, respectable 31-year old who happens to like games involving an ancient Spartan warrior who made a deal with Ares and in turn received Blades of Choas that were sewn into the very fabric of his arms in order to fulfill Ares’s bloodlust: I bought $50 of booze and came home to replay the original.
After all, I’ve been in kind of a “mellow game” phase, after “Gun” left me a bit shaken back in February. Played two games that cost me $15 total in the bargain rack at Gamestop, games in which you have to kill mechanical shark beasts while using weapons such as a “Suck Cannon”, which, wouldn’t you know it, sucks up your enemies and then shoots them out as missiles. That’s a game I can get behind. Eff realism, I want to use a suck cannon.
But “God of War II” has been on my radar, since, oh, finishing “God of War” last year. After I played it, I declared it my favorite game of all time. “Resident Evil 4” has since claimed the throne, but “God” is still a close, strong second. Great gameplay, excellent violence, and, I kid you not, a mini-game that involves you and two chicks in a threeway. Somehow, I missed this the first time around. Not tonight. When the naked babes in bed said, “Stay, Kratos,” yours truly gave a different reply than last year. Last year, I think me reply was, “Nay, ladies, I’m off to collect more power orbs.” This year’s answer was more along the lines of “Hell yes, peoples!” There’s something oddly dramatic and tense about having to press the right button combinations in order to please two virtual women. I’d say it was as tense as pleasing two women in real life, but, um, you know what? I’m gonna stop this paragraph right now and keep the remaining 2.4% of mystery still left at the end of this thought.
Luckily, “God” is still fantastic the second time around, enough so that it’s temporarily dulled my depression at not getting the sequel thanks to the mysteriously displaced Best Buy. (The stash of booze isn’t hurting, either.) The first level alone offers one mother of a boss battle, as I had to take down three heads of a Hydra beast off the coast of Greece. The following isn’t my particular iteration of this battle, but it does give you a sense of gameplay, and more importantly, the epic scope of the game as a whole.
And that’s 15 minutes into the freakin’ game.
As for tomorrow’s day off: I have beer, I have “God of War”, I have 12 hours of NCAA March Madness. Bring on the snow, bring on the sleet, hell, bring on the Hydra. I’m ready.
(Oh, and, um, bring on the aspiring…something tells me I’m gonna need it.)
Posted by Ryan McGee at March 16, 2007 12:00 AM
Comments
The Best Buy at Cambridgeside was torn apart by a busted water main. They pumped in some sort of foam to absorb the water and that foam expanded pushing up the floor in sections including places where there were support beams which really screwed things up. It's going to be a while still until they reopen.
Posted by: Mike Travers at March 16, 2007 05:42 AM
i got the sequel and i can tell you right now. dang, it is sweet sweet double sweet. it's more epic with better graphics and little bit easier game play. but medusa's are back dag nabbit.
Posted by: danny at March 17, 2007 10:56 PM
i just want to say that im honored that you used my video.
Posted by: Arikane at March 20, 2007 05:19 PM