Tremble Ye, before John Layman™, the God of War

Once again, big ups to Charlie Chu, who pointed me in the direction of GOD OF WAR for Playstation 2. It's been getting great reviews, 9.5 out of 10s, across the board, so I picked it up. And it really is spectacular, a game that starts out good and continues to get better and better. The visuals are astonishing, like something out of a Terry Gilliam movie by way of Ridley Scott, and it really feels epic, and awesome, in the non-California-slang sense of the word awesome. As in "awe-inspiring." The gameplay is fantastic, as is the combat system, and this game is as bloody and violent a game as I've ever seen. It's also got naked boobs of harem females and various goddesses, and I ain't gonna complain about that. I showed Ed Brubaker the part where you get the first visual of the hundred-foot-tall Ares, and Ed just about went nuts. So did I, the first time I saw it, but there are about 12 dozen other moments where you jaw just drops and you can't say anything other than "holy shit!"

Good stuff. Not quite as good as GTA: San Andreas, but quite possibly the second best game I've ever played for the PS2. Or possibly third, because I have a lot of fondness for 2003's Beyond Good and Evil.