God of War II (PS2)

- Finished in a bit under 17hrs on normal (I never had to switch to easy.
- Take the best parts of God of War 1, remove most of the really annoying frustrating parts, and a few new frustrating parts, and crank up the epic action a notch and you have gow2.
- Puzzles were enjoyable for the most part with a few not so obvious ones thrown in.
- There are still a few frustrating sequences where the timing is so tight it leaves no room for error.
- I found the amulet of fates a bit hard to trigger sometimes (L1 + R1). It's particularly frustrating when you have to active it under strict time constraints.
- 480p and wide screen support. Looked a bit better under ps2 vs ps3. PS3 was very sharp, ran and played perfectly smooth, but major jaggies. The gamma also seemed a bit blown out. Component on ps2 helps soften the edges a bit. Also no rumble on ps3 really sucks so I ended up playing the entire game on ps2.
- There is a psuedo hd mode:
As the game boots up, before even the White test "SCEA Presents" legal screen comes up. Hold down L1+L2+L3 (Thumbstick Button)+Square+Circle at the same time.
If you did it right, the Legal screen will appear in a shade of purple.
I tried this on ps3 (you have to hit that ps button really early in the boot process then hold down the above buttons. It really looked no different to me. I got the purple screen but the game still had lots of ugly jaggies.
- Camera overall seems improved, much fewer frustrating balance beam segments, no long confusing under water levels, no horribly frustrating vertical spikey columns.
- I found the boss fights really enjoyable, and that's a good thing since there are like twice as many now.
- Graphics are great again if not even a bit better. Levels and scale are as epic as ever.
- Soundtrack is good but seems to borrow heavily from the first game.
- Save and continue points are very well spaced apart.
- 3 way sex mini game isn't as good as the first one.
- I love the new grapple mechanic and makes for some really dramatic and exciting segments along with a few new puzzles.
- Overall I found combat a bit more enjoyable. It still has the same simplistic yet enjoyable combo system but defense becomes more important due to an item you obtain half way through the game.
- Cliff hanger ending. It's bad but not quite Halo 2 bad.
- 2 disc set. Second disk is a video dvd full of making of material.

Highly recommended. Sony really did save the best for last for the ps2.