God Of War III - Just finished it (mild spoilers)

Wow. Ultraviolent, very very good. I rate it higher than GOW II, on par with GOW I. You kill gods and Titans with wild abandon, bring chaos to the whole world.

I bought the game Monday night at a midnight sale, and have been pretty much doing nothing else (except for a 4 hour break to finally finish Assassin's Creed II). There was no need for a walkthrough, although I did get stuck a couple of times. Haele, who has never played a video game, somehow has the preternatural ability to figure out any puzzle in a video game, so I use her.

The problem with the harpies in the demo has been fixed, I had no problems with any bugs or glitches. There are trophies for some reason, but the majority of them you get organically through game play. I have yet to figure out how to get a 1,000 hit combo, but I'm sure someone will do it. I missed a few chests with Gorgon's Eyes and things, but I got most of the upgrades. Red orbs are plentiful (at least on Spartan mode, I'll be playing next on a harder difficulty), so I was able to max out all weapons.

The weapons are amazing. You have four of them. Blades of Chaos (what you start with), Hooks of Hades, Cestus, and Claws of something or other. I like the claws best. Each weapon comes with an R2-initiated magic, all of which are neat. Dodging is different with each weapon, as well. You end up needing to use the Cestus a lot in the late game.

I didn't use magic too much, honestly. I'll probably use it more on a higher difficulty.

Most of the monsters we're used to are back. The Boss battles are amazing. There is a fun sex scene (with Aphrodite, no less) for red orbs. Most of the boss battles are Gods and Titans. There are smaller bosses, as well, including an extremely large scorpion.

The story is a basic continuation of the plot we've seen through the last two games. I won't give away any plot points, discovering them is part of the fun of the game. The ending is perfect. Stay through the credits to see a final short scene. The designers have said this is the end of the trilogy, but not the end of the franchise.

Beating the game unlocks a lot of extra content that I'm just starting to explore. A few last comments: It does seem a bit short, but replay value is pretty high. The cut scenes are short and to the point. There's no load time at any point in the game, it happens behind brief cut scenes. Save points are plentiful, and autosaves and checkpoints happen in very logical places. If you die (and you will), you rarely have more than a half minute of gameplay to repeat.

I highly recommend the game, especially if you've played the first two. It wraps everything up nicely, and is a blast to play. If you've never played GoW, the first two are out in a single package for the PS3. I'll be getting that, next.

While I didn't use magic too much, I did use items a lot. You get a bow, Helios' head, Hermes' boots (which let you wall run), and one I forgot, so I guess I didn't use it too much. Items use a yellow bar, which recharges on its own, at a fairly brisk clip.

Also, the Rage of the Titans is back. I only used it a couple of times, but will probably use it more on a harder level.

Using items you find in chests (Eye of Gorgon, Horn of something or other, Phoenix feathers) will upgrade the green, yellow, and blue bars.

that you can do it fighting the big scorpion with the magic from the whip. I haven't tried that yet. I've only got 4-5 trophies yet, but I've never really worried about trophies.