Hurray For Excessive And Gratuitous Violence

Finally got this today, and MAN am I ever impressed. The original God of War was released in 2005, and made my list for best game of the year. Now God of War II is out and while it’s essentially the same game, it addresses all the minor criticisms of the first to make a virtually perfect gaming experience. The visuals are improved, there are more boss fights in greater variety, and the levels are huge, varied and completely breathtaking. What was already perfect in the first game is more or less untouched here, so the combat is still exhilarating, the puzzles still sufficiently complex enough to warrant some thinking to solve them, and the pace and flow are brilliant. Now, the only criticism that you can level at this game is that it’s just more of the first game, but better. You can see that they’re still using an improved version of the previous engine, and you can tell that the mechanical aspects, with the exception of a few new abilities, are largely untouched. So this not as revolutionary a leap as what gamers experienced from Metal Gear II on the Nintendo Entertainment System to Metal Gear Solid on the Playstation, but if you can get past the fact that this isn’t a complete revamp, then the only criticism of the game disappears and what you’re left with is one of the single most perfect games that will ever grace the Playstation 2. While I’m still more emotionally attached to the grandeur of Guitar Hero, I also understand that it’s a much more niche, more limited game in what it can offer. God of War II on the other hand, shows absolute genius in all aspects of “traditional” gaming. You simply will not find a better action game this year on any platform than this. Unfortunately for the island I called home for over a decade, this particular title also has some upper body frontal female nudity, and as a result has been BANNED from Singapore. I still get a pitiful thrill from knowing that I acquired, with perfect, legal right, something that could get you fined or arrested in Singapore.

On the writing front, I actually got some news of progress. Nothing definite, but it’s progress. My agent sent me an e-mail from the editor that’s looking over my third novel, The Pale Summer. The e-mail says that he’s been going over the manuscript and is making his notes about it. When he’s done, he’s going to compile a list of questions about changes, suggestions and revisions and my answers to those questions will largely determine the fate of the book. I suspect that the bulk of the questions will be “can we change these locations from Asia to North America?” as the the last couple of rejections of the novel have come on the grounds that setting it in Asia is too much of a stretch to ask of genre readers, so I’ll have to see what I think of these changes if/when the time comes.

Oh, and I wrote a bit more of Lost In Loveless. Slow going… but getting there…