Dog of War or Cog of War?

It so happens that for the past week I've mostly been playing two games that end with 'of War'. Firstly, there's God of War, a title that's been languishing on my pile of shame for quite some time now. I actually picked it up about a year ago and got about halfway through the game, but then other shiny things distracted me. This time however, I ploughed all the way through in half a dozen sittings. It's a spectacularly visceral game, in more ways than just visually, although nobody could be disappointed with the amount of dismemberments, decapitations and all round bloodletting involved. The controls are tight and responsive, with excellent use of pad rumble and the combo system walks the line between simple and complex very well, allowing even cack-handed idiots like myself to chain in spectacular sequences extending into the hundreds of hits.
It's not all about the combat though, as the level design extends to some truly brilliant puzzles, especially the fiendish Rings of Pandora, where almost a third of the game is one huge puzzle. There are some decent platforming sections as well, although there's one particular platform bit near the end, involving rotating towers of blades, which deserves to be buried and never brought to light. This aside however, the game is truly a masterpiece of polish, with some of the most epic scenes imaginable. Glorious graphics, and a complex meandering storyline, making outstanding use of its inspired ancient Greek setting, provide some truly special moments, like seeing the Titan Chronos emerge out of the desert with a mountain strapped to his back, or reading the ramblings of the temple's architect as he slowly loses everything, including his sanity, to accomplish his work. One infamously immature moment aside, the game is also a great lesson in how to make a violent and explicit game which nevertheless uses these factors to it's advantage. In short, it's a masterpiece, and the second installment is high on my must buy list.

The second game I've been playing is the beer drinking fratboy's favourite, Gears Of War, and that opening sentence sums up my attitude to the game, more of which later. I'm late on the bandwagon for this one as well, but for good reason, namely that I physically cannot play shooters on consoles, so I've waited for a PC release. First impressions are good. The game runs well, and with a high resolution and plenty of processing, looks absolutely stunning.

This tends to happen a lot

It plays well too, the cover and popout controls adapting well to a keyboard. I'm only on the second chapter of the game at the moment, so I'll reserve judgment until the end as always, but at the moment, the firefights, weapons, terrain and level design are all top notch, while the story is rubbish, the atmosphere lacking and the chracterisation risible. And having said that I'm finding it terrific no brain fun. An open verdict on this one then, and I'll get back to you when it's done and dusted.