I was feelin' pretty skeptical about God of War Ascension for a while now...But the beta pleasantly surprised me. I might be on board with this game, or at least with the multiplayer. Still not convinced that we really NEED a GOW prequel at this point (considering Chains of Olympus has already filled that hole...I mean come on, another prequel? Really?). I wanted to bring this up since this beta hasn't been talked about yet on the Bombcast and it seems to be somewhat under the radar (maybe I'm wrong about the latter). Have any of you guys tried it? If so, what do you think? Wanted to get some other opinions.

Haven't tried it yet and i'm not really interested in it. At this point i think i'm done with God of War in general. I still have to play Ghost of Sparta and will play that instead if the need for more Kratos anger returns.

In any case it's cool if the game turns out to be good.

I certainly check out the beta when it goes public tomorrow but I'm not really hyped for Ascension. Unless the multiplayer is amazing to me I'll play for the singleplayer and that just looks like more of the same. Don't care at all about the story either, another prequel when there have already been two made. I'll totally play and beat it eventually but probably not for a while.

I have had the beta on my system for a while now, but I never played much of any GOW game so I'm not to interested.

This reminded me though does anybody know how to get that stupid Singstar thing off of my PS3?

I actually really enjoyed the Beta so far. Wasn't at all sold on it going in but I was pleasantly surprised. Outside of Ninja Gaiden 3 we haven't really had a character action game like this in a MP format and I really enjoy the genre, so I think it is pretty cool. Could definitely use a more in depth tutorial, although I guess the Single Player will help with that. Also could use some descriptions of what say an Item does versus a Relic. Took me a while to grasp it all but it was very fun once I did. I have to say that someone who has never played God of War going into this is going to have a major uphill battle. The series has just gotten so complex that it is getting harder and harder for a newcomer to come in and enjoy it. There are maybe a few too many systems in play to make this a runaway success. I can't imagine the Call of Duty crowd latching onto something this complicated. I really enjoy it, but I don't think it will be the next big MP thing just because of how hard it would be to master a game like this if you had never played one before.

@Raven10: Yeah I agree on the beta needing some sort of a tutorial. Ironically, the "Training" mode at the beginning didn't really fill that purpose. All it really did was teach you a few different combos, heavy vs light attacks, mage vs warrior abilities, but not much beyond that.

I like what you mentioned about the character action genre entering the MP scene. I feel like GOW really works here online and hits plenty of high notes, and I like the variability with different allegiances (although it's too bad we only get Zeus and Ares in the beta). The combat is even more interesting to me online since you're starting with the complexity of a hack n' slash combo system but instead of playing against the AI, you're throwing real--smarter--players into the mix (with their own unique abilities and class style). The character customization opens up more variability that I think really makes the experience more unpredictable. Also, it's super satisfying to get a finisher on your opponent (as opposed to normal AI) since it's brutal and you know the other player has to watch it all and there's nothing they can do about it!

@bolognarock: I think it is interesting in that many of these types of games are played obsessively by people trying to master them so this is a chance for those people to see how they stack up to others in a way other than leaderboards. I would be interested in seeing modes like this introduced into DMC or Bayonetta. See how those games which are even more technical than God of War hold up online.

I think it's terrible, but I also think God of War is terrible, so my opinion probably doesn't count for much.