Felt a little like the ending tarnished Kratos' violence for the sake of violence, didn't like how they felt the need to justify his actions. Realize this may be a bit soon to the release, if you haven't finished, don't read. With him destroying man-kind and allllll the gods, I was really digging his antagonistic vibe, but regardless of his selfish intentions, he was really doing a good thing. This seems to negate his mindless killing, which I am not down with.

Felt a little like the ending tarnished Kratos' violence for the sake of violence, didn't like how they felt the need to justify his actions. Realize this may be a bit soon to the release, if you haven't finished, don't read. With him destroying man-kind and allllll the gods, I was really digging his antagonistic vibe, but regardless of his selfish intentions, he was really doing a good thing. This seems to negate his mindless killing, which I am not down with.

What about the dumb "hope" thing? My entire love of the game died after Athena said the following line, "No! Don't give 'hope' to the people they won't know what to do with it." 
I said out loud, "Are you fucking kidding?!" 

Athena being selfish and Kratos being altruistic seemed entirely out of their character spectrums.

I'm glad other people thought this too. The ending for this game was so meh...I felt like it should have ended with him killing Zeus and taking his place or something. 
Trying to make him look like a good guy didn't make sense, he wasn't a good guy, he was a badass... 
But the plot was definitely not the strongest point of GoW III anyway.

" What about the dumb "hope" thing? My entire love of the game died after Athena said the following line, "No! Don't give 'hope' to the people they won't know what to do with it." I said out loud, "Are you fucking kidding?!"  "

" What about the dumb "hope" thing? My entire love of the game died after Athena said the following line, "No! Don't give 'hope' to the people they won't know what to do with it." I said out loud, "Are you fucking kidding?!"  "

" @Volgin13 said:

" What about the dumb "hope" thing? My entire love of the game died after Athena said the following line, "No! Don't give 'hope' to the people they won't know what to do with it." I said out loud, "Are you fucking kidding?!"  "

I swear, people INSULT the plot for following actual mythology.  In the myth of Pandora's Box, Hope remained in the box after all the other bad things were let out.  I was expected this to happen when he opened the box from the very beginning of the game.    

" @SecondPersonShooter said:

" @Volgin13 said:

" What about the dumb "hope" thing? My entire love of the game died after Athena said the following line, "No! Don't give 'hope' to the people they won't know what to do with it." I said out loud, "Are you fucking kidding?!"  "

I swear, people INSULT the plot for following actual mythology.  In the myth of Pandora's Box, Hope remained in the box after all the other bad things were let out.  I was expected this to happen when he opened the box from the very beginning of the game.    

  
It was still dumb, I expected the story to go much deeper than the reprucussions of opening Pandora's Box, I was hoping due to the Wise Men potrait in GOW 2 Kratos would turn out to be the devil or something deep, instead I got this....  

"

I hope you all noticed that Kratos was laying on top of a phoenix at the end of the game.

Yeah, the ending was pretty lame. The whole "Kratos finds hope" thing seemed completely unjustified by the character. At no point during the game did Kratos care at all about the rest of the world. All he cared about was killing Zeus and for whatever reason, keeping Pandora safe. But then suddenly at the end he wants to help everyone? It makes no sense.
 
This is what the ending should have been: Kratos brutally murders Zeus and then covered in blood, he sits in his throne atop of Mount Olympus, lets out a sigh and then the camera pans out to show Mount Olympus and the ravaged world. Credits.

" Yeah, the ending was pretty lame. The whole "Kratos finds hope" thing seemed completely unjustified by the character. At no point during the game did Kratos care at all about the rest of the world. All he cared about was killing Zeus and for whatever reason, keeping Pandora safe. But then suddenly at the end he wants to help everyone? It makes no sense.  This is what the ending should have been: Kratos brutally murders Zeus and then covered in blood, he sits in his throne atop of Mount Olympus, lets out a sigh and then the camera pans out to show Mount Olympus and the ravaged world. Credits. "

Don't know if people noticed, but after all the credits roll Kratos body was no longer on the floor where he killed himself. Just the sword an a trail of blood leading off the cliff into the ocean. Don't know if that means they're making another one, the developers said this was going to be the last installment in the series but who knows. Although the hope thing was kinda cheesy at the end. I don't think Kratos wanted to rule Olympus, the whole point was him trying to end there reign wouldn't make sense for him to take over. but Athena sure seemed like she wanted to rule the world at the end, would make sense if he had to stop her some way down the line. an with Hades being dead can anyone really die.

In a recent interview Jaffe talked about his vision for the ending of God of War III being that Kratos would take out Zeus and then go on to start whopping ass on the gods of norse mythology. 
 
I prefer that idea myself. I felt like the last third of the game(from meeting with pandora on) went all bioshocky.

First, I love the phrase "went all Bioshocky" because that game totally fell apart in the last third. As far as this ending goes, I don't think Kratos killed himself to save humanity or be altruistic. He seemed to do it because he was...well, done. He had his vengeance, he'd killed all the gods, and Athena was pissing him off. It's indicated a few seconds before he does it when he says, "All I remember is what I have lost." He killed himself because he didn't have anything left to do in life.  
 
The after credit bit definitely points at some sort of sequel. He's definitely on a phoenix when he "dies" and then the trail leads off of the cliff. I seriously doubt they're trying to say he got up after that massive stab wound and jumped off a cliff for no reason. Then there's the other major point which is, Hades's death might mean no one can die. God of War is not Greek mythology but it takes a lot of ideas from it. Maybe none of the people who died post-Hades are actually dead? I hope that's not true because that would make for a shitty sequel.

If God of War 4 comes out I hope the main character is "the other one" Athena was talking about. God of War 1 started with Kratos jumping off a cliff to kill himself and I like the idea that he accomplishes that goal in the end.

" If God of War 4 comes out I hope the main character is "the other one" Athena was talking about. God of War 1 started with Kratos jumping off a cliff to kill himself and I like the idea that he accomplishes that goal in the end. "