God of War I and II - Playstation 3 Version

The God of War franchise has been lucrative for Sony much like the Halo series has been lucrative for the Xbox.

I purchased the bundled version containing the first two installments in the God of War series ahead of the PS3 release of God of War III.

What drew me to it was the promise of high definition gaming in 720p over the 480p PS2 versions.

In case you are not familiar with the story lines of the GOW series, the main character is Kratos, the ghost of Sparta. Kratos is a powerful Spartan general who is victorious in battle and extremely brutal. Eventually Kratos meets defeats at the hands of huge army of
Eastern Barbarians, and at the moment Kratos is about to be killed, he pleads with Aries, the God of War, to grant him victory.

Kratos then becomes a servant of the Gods, and is blessed with superhuman powers and throughout GOWI you play Kratos as he embarks on several quests to fulfill his duties to the Gods. In GOWII Kratos is betrayed by Zeus and the quests are more about Kratos getting revenge against the Gods.

The original games are breathtaking graphically, with lush environments that include an amazing color palette that makes you feel like you are in ancient Greece. The sound is equally amazing with a soundtrack that shifts from soft ambient tracks to pumped up orchestrations for battle sequences and boss levels. The character acting is very impressive overall as well with the voice of Kratos appropriately tough and rugged sounding.

The 720p resolution is fantastic! Where the transfer loses marks though, is when game play gives way to cut scenes that give you back story or additional narrative information. It seems Sony got lazy and left all the cut scenes in standard definition which can be quite noticeable at times. Boo!

The original sound is the same format as the PS2 predecessors, a Dolby Pro Logic II soundtrack that does give you some spatial organization to what is happening onscreen if you have surround sound. I am a little disappointed that Sony did not do a full 5.1 Dolby Digital remix as both GOW titles have sound effects and soundtracks worthy of the full surround sound treatment.

There aren't many extra features except the bonus disc features from the original GOWII special edition which includes deleted levels. You do get trophies for reaching achievements which is kind of neat, and there is a code to download a demo of GOWIII with the game when you buy it brand new.

Overall, for the price of 29.99 plus tax, this GOWI and GOWII PS3 addition is a great price for hardcore fans who desire better resolution picture quality wise and anyone who hasn't tried the franchise and has a PS3.

Graphics: 4 out of 5: 720p during the cut scenes!?

Sound: 4 out of 5: 5.1 Dolby Digital, no excuses!

Play control: 4.5 out of 5. You can't control the camera angle in game which is a little annoying.

Replay value: 5 out of 5. With puzzles mixed in with visceral action and four difficulty settings, this package is well worth the price.

Rating: M for Mature. Blood and dismemberment and some frontal nudity so parents watch out!

Hopefully I will be able to review GOWIII soon! May the Gods be with you!

Attention to Ann Coulter ....

I'm not suggesting you are not intelligent, but the ability to speak does not make you intelligent!

Random Thoughts ....

I don't like it when I by a CD, a dinosaur technology that isn't of good sound quality.

On the plus side, I just purchased a digitially mastered copy of Neil Young's Harvest album. The mastering comes via the HDCD format and it is freakin' amazing!

This sound quality is what all CD's are capable of, but still to this day fall short of.

More HDCD for me please!

Attention Prime Minister Harper .....

Ok, you got your beer from Obama because Canada won gold at the Winter Olympics ......

Now get back to work! All of you! You all had an extended vacation already!

Obliviousness is bliss .....

So, you put your recycling out and think "I'm doin' my part!" In reality, much of what you put in your recycling ends up being thrown into the regular garbage, particularly plastics with a number higher then 2.

I'm not saying recycling is a bad thing as I'm sure millions of metric tonnes of waste have not ended up in landfills. What we need to remember is that recycling requires energy and produces it's own waste as well.

You need electricity to run the lights and conveyor belts the recyclables come in on to be sorted and that piece of paper you wrote on, you need water and I'm sure some other chemicals to break that paper down before it can be made into a new piece of paper.

So, here is my ideal recycling facility. It would be powered by green energy via geothermal, wind, and solar panels, and have a sophisticated water recycling system to minimize it's need for additional water.

Hmmm, now I have to see how many recycling facilities actually meet any of the aforementioned criteria. I'm sure there has to be a least one right?

Atrazine is toxic !!!

I noticed a recent study out of Berkley in California concluded that the commonly used herbicide in Canada and the US on corn crops, Atrazine, disrupts hormones in frogs and causes chemical castration in some male frogs. For the aforementioned reasons, Atrazine is banned in Europe.

There have been extinctions and population decimation's in amphibian populations throughout North America, while the quality and quantity of sperm amongst humans has been on decline.

Are these just coincidences? I hardly think so. We are dependent on the technology of chemicals and chemistry for everything to keeping the insides of our house smelling like a spring meadow, to keeping insects from consuming the crops that become our breads and frozen vegetables.

The federal government of Canada, to the best of my knowledge, wedged open the homo toxicus doors even wider by allowing the chemical industries to get new chemicals approved like herbicides and insecticides on the basis of 'acceptable risk'. In a nutshell, small amounts of chemicals that are deemed not to be all that much harmful to human beings are alright.

I personally find this notion to be ridiculous. If something is not proven to be safe, then it should not be allowed on the market! Does anyone remember the faux pas of DDT, Thalidomide, or Asbestos?

Products that were once thought to be beneficial were discovered to be harmful and were banned, though much to my personal disgust, DDT is still being sold cheaply to third world countries while a little talked about embarrassment is the fact that Canada is still exporting Asbestos to countries like India.

A warning to politicians on Parliment Hill: A maelstrom of public backlash is coming if you continue to peddle policies that cater to the whims of big business profits over public health.

I for one will not vote for any political party in the future that either does nothing to regulate the pollutants that are put in the air, ground, and water. Neither will I vote for any political party that panders to the cash lobbyists of corporations and industry.

The company that is the main purveyor of Atrazine, Syngenta, had their scientist, of course, dismiss the Berkley findings as 'fundamentally flawed.' Pardon my sardonic and cynical yawn!

Of course a company is going to defend their product! If my livelihood or ability to buy a new Porsche is being threatened by an external study or policy implementation I would be up in arms too.

We as citizens need to send a message to the chemical industry about the reckless endangerment they are engaging in. But don't worry if the current crop of politicians both in Canada and the US don't do anything, eventually what goes around comes around, and the reckless endangerment of business and industry today, become the lawsuits and litigation of the future.

Halo ..... the best video game franchise of all time?

I was looking at pictures of Halo Reach on IGN and I will admit the artwork looks impressive.

My only concern is that Bungie is potentially setting themselves up for disaster if the game is nothing short of immaculate.

I remember when Halo 2 came out for the original Xbox, and while I was totally into the game and played it more then a few times from beginning to end, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was a miss .....

In truth, I thought that Half-Life 2, released by Valve in the same year as Halo 2, 2005, was at least a slightly better game overall.

Then along came the much anticipated Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 in 2007 and the story line that started back in 2001 with the original Halo was resolved.

Again, Halo 3 was awesome, but not immaculate awesome for some reason and it seems little details, much like with Halo 2, just robbed both Halo 2 and 3 of some of its fine polish.

I have yet to try the spin off Halo Wars, which is a real time strategy game similar to Warcraft and Starcraft or the prequel Halo ODST, so I want comment on them till I get around to trying both those games out.

Halo Reach is supposed to be the final curtain on the Halo franchise and with all the hype leading up to the release date, it better be epic from beginning to end.

Convergance is coming!

It seems that very little electronics wise can't either be hooked up to the Internet and/or have a USB based plug and play aspect to it.

Right now, I have three major components on my home theater rack; a receiver, regular DVD player, and a Blu-Ray player in the form of a PlayStation 3.

I am thinking it is only a matter of time before the receiver as we know it, becomes a fully integrated hub for everything. With the ability to store HD content on something as small as an Ipod, the time will come when one piece of electronics might do everything and separate components will not be necessary.

Of course, that might be a while away, and the technology in question for such universality will be expensive at first as most new technologies tend to be, but is it a stretch to think that one day in the future home electronics and even computers will be so integrated as to be not to dissimilar from the main computer on the Enterprise from Star Trek?

I digress to say that after reading a review for a 2000 dollar Denon Blu-Ray player that separate components still have their appeal and are not about to disappear quite yet.