God of War (PS2) showed up in the mail today. It alone was worth this month's Gamefly subscription. I played the whole thing through, basically in one go. Admittedly, I was playing on Easy, which makes it nearly impossible to die, but it was a lot more fun that way.
There's a bit from the Manowar track "Warrior's Prayer" which goes: "Each of [them] was, unto himself, a whirlwind of doom." That's how this game plays. You start out as a bad-ass and by midgame you are a whirlwind of doom. Hooray for perfectly executed, baroque, creative violence.
Level design and music are both excellent; the game plays like a movie. It's beautiful.
It's also the only game I've ever seen which contains nudity that doesn't feel like the nudity was put there just so there would be nudity (okay, except for the Athenian Oracle -- she's gratuitous). The female models are also far more realistically and (dare I say) lovingly rendered than the typical product of adolescent male fantasy which is usually to be found in video games.
Go play this game.
