Knew GOW3 was gonna be the best one from the moment I grabbed a dude, hit the square button and got to see Kratos use them as a battering ram.

God Of War 3 feels like the logical conclusion to the trilogy's PS2 era titles in all the best ways. Bigger budget, bigger scale, bigger emphasis on combat, and MAN is that last part important. GOW3's still got a good focus on the series' prior puzzles in order to progress, and they're generally fine, but the combat's gone balls out with the advancement to the 7th gen hardware, in a way not too dissimilar to Devil May Cry 4. All your weapons are swappable with the D-Pad; in fact, if I'm not mistaken, the only thing requiring you to visit the menus at all is to switch out the magic summon for the Claws Of Hades. Which, for the record? One of the sickest goddamn things I've seen in an action game; this genre needs more emphasis on summoner type characters and skills, so being able to summon a basic bitch Sentry or Archer, all the way to a Cyclops or Centaur as I upped the level of that thing? That's the good shit right there.

The crunch of 1 and 2's combat is back with a vengeance too, and having a good handful of tools from Kratos' moveset at the end of 2 out of the gate is one of the best QOL features an action game can have. It's overall a ton of fun, feeling like a genuinely huge jump from the prior entries; I was having an absolute blast across pretty much the entire game. Between the usual Blades, the new weapons that all felt great to use, and the items that Kratos has on offer, this has gotta be the best the series gets in terms of pure combat, the thing that matters most in a game like this. Hell, the first time I beat the shit out of a Cerberus and was able to ride its back after popping off the killing grab had me smiling like a real dumbass. A few enemies were a bit too health spongy for my liking, and that's always a bit of a groaner in any action game, but beyond that? This has gotta be the best combat system in any western action game, barring maybe DmC DE. Damn good showing, and the bosses were mostly good, too! Got basically what I wanted from the first 2 games, with the fights being way more focused on being straight up fights! Not all of them were winners, but Hades, Hercules and especially the final battle with Zeus have gotta be some of the absolute highest highs the series has given in terms of its major battles.

While part of me preferred the comparatively more varied locations of the second game, with Mount Olympus feeling a little samey after a few hours, it was really cool to see things like the River Styx actually get shown off throughout the game, and it helps that it's a damn fine looker, especially with the PS4 remaster. No doubt the game always looked gorgeous, but the higher resolution offered made all the particle effects and shit pop even more. What a treat for the eyes. And atop it all sits a story that serves to cap off the entire series with a neat little bow. Sure, Kratos is at his most "I don't give a FUCK, I'm gonna kill you if you're in my way" that he's ever been, but it makes for some of the most brutal moments of the entire series, and the best performance TC Carson gives off as the Ghost Of Sparta. I mean, the dude was already a fantastic voice, but the events of 3 bring out both his over the top, no indoor voice, as well as the occasional somber moments when Kratos is able to take a more fatherly role to Pandora near the tail end of the game.

And that's one of the things that's really stuck out to me throughout my time playing the original 3 titles. The fact that Kratos really is a deep, well-written character. Sure, he's an absolute bastard of a guy, who's killed plenty of innocent people for just sort of being in the way, but not without reason. From the original game's crushing moment of hugging Kratos' family to heal them from a barrage of clones, to here, where Kratos takes up a brief surrogate father role to Pandora here and slightly softening up, the dude always had hidden depths. It's increasingly aggravating in the years since GOW2018's announcement, where journos and people who never gave a fuck about the series started to come out about how it's "FINALLY OKAY FOR THEM TO CARE ABOUT IT" or some shit. An incredibly shallow-minded take from people who never looked into the series beyond "Oh Kratos is the angry man who kills the gods lmao". Fuck that shit, Kratos was always a well-written dude, I'll fight you on that.

All this to say... yeah, GOW3's a fantastic title! What an awesome way to cap off the Greek saga of the series; on gameplay alone it'd still be the top of the pile of the series for me, but it's a damn great game presentation wise, and as a conclusion to the trilogy therein. Boy, I'm so glad the series ended here and didn't get soft-rebooted into a boring, over the shoulder, story-driven mess of a dogass combat system that critics jerked off as "The biggest thing to happen to action games since Devil May Cry 1", that'd suck!

I've always had a harder time writing reviews for the Halo series than I do for most. My Halo 1 review not so much; it was a simple, more jokey review owing to the warthog's presence in the 2nd mission of the game and the finale, and the running gag it's served with my friends after I unceremoniously plunged it off a cliff while blindly driving around. Halo 2 was more an actual review, but still one I had a hard time properly formulating, and I think I know why now.

My blind playthroughs of Halo 1, 2 and 3 have all been in co-op, on Heroic at that. Im kind of dogshit awful at shooters, and I'll openly admit to it. As such, I'm not able to type up a well thought out piece about the world and atmosphere of the franchise that I'm taking in on my lonesome, getting my mind blown as I'm sucked into the lore. Likewise, I'm not one of those guys recounting the long gone days of 25 kill streaks from the comfort of the college dorm in the golden age of Xbox Live.

Not to say I don't find value in Halo's world, cast and gameplay, because I absolutely do! Halo 3, both in story and gameplay, makes for a great time; the gameplay's great as ever and the story felt like a really awesome bow on the series. It's just that, in what has to be a me specific quirk, I associate my playthroughs of the series with the multiplayer sessions therein, first and foremost. The laughs, the screams, the detouring or restarting of levels to find a dumb Easter egg, the annoyance I feel when MCC doesn't give me an achievement I rightfully earned. That's what I think of when I think of my time playing Halo.

Halo 1 and 2 gave me and my buddy Ian some memorable times and some great laughs, but Halo 3 offering a 4-player campaign allowed us to commit to a full-on, roughly 4 and a half hour marathon with the boys. No idea how we were able to shotgun the entire thing front to back, but we did. And it made for one of the best multiplayer experiences I've had, bar none. That's where the 9/10 comes from; the experience with the lads genuinely gives the game that extra boost, on top of the fact it's already a top class title that serves as a natural conclusion to both the plot and gameplay of the prior entries. It's those laughs, arguments, and everything else that I've had, that make my first time running through the Halo series as special as it's been.

Maybe my opinion on the games will only increase as I revisit them on my lonesome, learning to not be total dog ass at shooters. But as of now? The real Halo was the friends I made along the way, and I wouldn't ask for anything else.

I was always of the opinion that God Of War would've probably been really good as a one and done. A great tale of Kratos' tragic revenge that ends on a really strong note, and the game attached to it was pretty good, too! Haven't reviewed it yet, might be due for a replay at some point, but it's a good time with a few annoyances that kinda got under my skin. But, money talks, and God Of War got a sequel, because of course.

It's not quite the Devil May Cry 3 to GOW's DMC1, but I'll be damned if it's not a great sequel all the same! From the jump, you can tell the budget was upped significantly, with an increased focus on the setpieces, more weapons, more magic, the works. Mostly went through the game using the hammer, since the game's still somewhat held back by its on-the-fly weapon swapping being done via the pause menu to choose a dedicated second weapon, but even DMC3 wasn't able to go all out with that, so I get it. Plus, the hammer was a really fun weapon to use, anyway, so hey, swings and roundabouts.

The crunch of the original's combat is still there and accounted for, regardless of your weapon of choice, and I really do love the grab system. Between the i-frames, ground and air options, it's one of my favourite parts of GOW's combat system as a whole. When you're whacking shit around, GOW2's a grand old time. Makes me honestly wish there were a few less puzzles; I'm not against action games that try to give you some stuff to do during the downtime, and the puzzles themselves are pretty fleshed out. But man, I wouldn't have minded a chance to kill a few more mooks.

But a lot of the gripes I had with GOW1 back when I first played it are still kind of around. The platforming sections are kind of annoying, with Kratos' jumps being a bit too loose for my liking. That was where most of my deaths came from; skill issue, sure, but it was kind of a groaner having to go to the "YOU DIED" screen and load from the checkpoint. I also wasn't super into most of the bosses. Not to say they were all bad, the battle with the Fates and the final battle against Zeus were really great! But a lot of them fall into the puzzle boss camp, where you're more focused on figuring out how to damage them at all, or the tried, true and not very fun "giant boss in front of the ledge" archetype. I personally prefer my action game boss fights to be simple, fun punchups in a basic arena, which is why Devil May Cry, No More Heroes, Assault Spy and God Hand's bosses have always struck more of a chord to me than GOW, Bayo and Ninja Gaiden. That's more a personal thing, but more bosses like Zeus would be great! Lemme fight a dude 1V1 without an invisible wall blocking us, that's the shit I'm all for!

Small complaints aside, though? Yeah, GOW2's a damn good sequel! I'm already kinda eager to go back, given there's so much to the combat I kinda had to let sit; weapon and magic upgrades I didn't get, weapons I should've used more, the whole shabang that makes me really wanna revisit an action game. A solid time, and one I'm hoping is succeeded in even better fashion with GOW3!