My main question that I still have after reading half-a-dozen reviews is how apparent, and central is the dad-ification of the story? I have a hard time getting into the character of "anti-hero who is also a dad." It can be incredibly well done, but it also comes off as extremely self-indulgent some times.

Have been waiting on review scores or hearing general thoughts before I ordered this. Not reading anything though because I want to go in blind. I've only seen the one press conference video for it maybe.

We'll see. Its been ordered. Not a huge GoW fan or anything but I've played a couple of them. I am interested in great/special games though and if that is what most people are saying then they got my money.

The Xbox One grave continues to get deeper and deeper. This generation might just be a write off at this point. I've got one and I never touch it.

Just watched the Easy Allies review, there's some fucking big statements in that video, such as "every human should experience this" and "this is the next step for the gaming industry". So take that for what you will.

christ

lol, makes me not want to play it but i can't let hyperbole kill a probably good game for me.

Okay, I have ten days to finish everything in Borderlands and I'm halfway though two... Ha, not happening, but dang I will definitely get this as soon as I can. I love God of War 1 & 2 and also think the PSP games are good. Three was and is a disappointing sequel, and Ascension while fine was hard to go back to with its unsteady frame rate and a not entirely compelling story overall. I, like many others, have felt the fatigue but I thought everything they've brought to the table with this looked right up my alley. I haven't been overly giddy about it, but I knew I'd probably play it. The reviews are somewhat surprising, but... not really? I mean, the number of tens it's getting is, sure. There's a lot of people calling it a masterpiece, or just short of it.

@seanfoster: You can always pick up a different 1tb bundle. If it's a game you don't want you can turn it in to get GoW at a discount. I think you can get the COD WWII bundle for 299 right now. I'd imagine you can still get somewhat decent trade in value for that game...

I'm so glad I don't react negatively to a new game coming out with glowing reviews.

Sounds great. As someone who has enjoyed God of War 1-3 (and the first psp game), I was pretty much ready to write this off. Sounds like they changed the game up in a good way.

@heltom92: lol, I'm sure the game is good but that's a bit much.

thanks, man it looks almost as good on a base ps4. Too bad about the 30 but if the combat is slow enough it shouldn't make much a difference.

"I'll wait till after the initial reviews come out, these ppl were sent out to Norway to play this game..."
"I don't believe review scores for games that are this hyped"
"Sure it looks pretty, but I haven't seen anyone say anything about the gameplay"
"Father and Son stories, and relationships, that's not what I want from my games... pass"

I feel like a lot of people are coming into these reviews with a lot of baggage, in that case, why even come to see what the reviews are if you're not going to believe them? I mean they can't all be bought and paid for reviews, can they? What if its just a good game?

@oursin_360:

Do you remember the hyperbole around Zelda BOTW... People get excited when they play games, its normal.

Shows some confidence that the embargo is lifted this early. They must know they have a hit here.

Well if its any consolation God of War just became the best-reviewed game in PS4 history.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2018/04/12/ps4s-god-of-war-is-the-best-reviewed-game-since-breath-of-the-wild-and-super-mario-odyssey/#70b598782f7c

@glots game informer have it a 9.75

I do wish the PS4 Pro bundle was a bit better looking but I may go for it anyways as I don't see any other bundles coming up in the near future and I've been thinking of getting the Pro.

@jonny_anonymous: That picture reminds me of this one.

Maybe it's a callback?

...Anyway, glad it's getting good reviews.

@jonny_anonymous: Sorry I couldn't resist

Leave him alone! If he want's to be edgy its his choice!

@miso_jeff: It's not that I don't believe the reviews. It may very well be an awesome game. It's just me saying as a fan that this new direction is not what I come to the series for and thus I am not interested.

I want to completely avoid spoilers at all costs as I feel like this is a game I will probably enjoy and want to experience without knowing anything specific. I completely ruined God of War 3 and wished I would've played it for myself after I did and I have barely played any of the previous GoW games.

Can anyone tell me what the major differences are between the base gameplay of this vs. all the others? Obviously you have a kid, but is it open world? Does it have RPG mechanics?

@nicksmi56: I shouldn't have put in the bit about "Father and Son.... blah blah" cause that is a preference of game. If that's not what you're looking for then, its not, and you can't be blamed for it. I understand that, based on what we've seen so far, it looks like a very different game. But, I feel like the violence/gore/action I looked for in GOW games is still there, it's just not the main selling point for this version of the game.

@wheresderrick: Shhh! You don't want to know those questions yet! Isn't the mystery exciting? The sense of discovery when you first fire it up. Hang in there with me, we can go in blind. I kinda want to avoid any GB coverage of it as well until I at least play it for a session on release day.

I can't wait.

I'm so glad I'm not one of those people who are "tired of the adult with child dynamic" for no reason

Between this, LoU 2, and Red Dead 2 I'm really contemplating picking up a PS4 Pro. Still don't have a 4k TV though so not sure if it's worth it. Extra frame rate is always nice.

I have never had an interest in playing any of the God of War games. That said, I have read several of the reviews now, and am pleased for the developer and people holding jobs. Success is certainly not a bad thing!

Hell, I might even pick this up on a sale. Look forward to the QL.

Ha, bad example for me, I always thought NieR was overrated.

I figured it would review decently, at least it looked potentially decent. But this good I wasn't expecting, will certainly give it a shot. That all being said, here's to hoping they don't completely botch the norse setting and mythology.

Honestly pretty surprised at this reception. None of the footage I've seen has screamed anything close to "PS4 Game of the Generation" at me. I look forward to seeing how the public consensus shakes out in the next few months.

See, that sort of commentary I can never take seriously. I'm probably just a massive wet blanket, but statements like that always make me suspicious and bring out the reactionary contrarian in me. Reminds me of when that one review site gave Mario Odyssey a 6 out of 5 or something like that. To be sure, Odyssey was great and opinions are subjective, but jeez people, calm yourselves. Makes it seem like y'all are compensating for something.

This seems like a must buy. Im just disappointed it will never be on pc. My Playstation 4 is sitting under an old motherboard box and my old 980 ti gathering dust. I only have a 4k pc monitor but a basic ps 4 so am concerned it won't be as good as the pro. Some reviews said the ps4 pro was significantly better to the point they don't even recommend it unless its on the pro. This will be the first game to get me to turn a console on since horizon came out. Sadly I never finished that game but looking back I haven't finished a single ps 4 game yet.

My backlog is astronomical and full of huge games. It's worse than anyone I've ever met because despite buying 30 new games (PC, i thihk injusfice 2 and hzd were my only playstation purchases) last year I only finished Nier Automata. There hasn't been that many must buy games this year so I guess I feel a little better pre-ordering when I doubt I'll ever finish it but the combat looks to be worth the price of admission.

Anyone know how much different the graphics are between the standard ps and the Pro? Obviously I won't get 4k so it's a huge disappointment since I play everything in 4k on pc. 30 fps 1080p is like i'm living in 2010 again.

Also why did GameSpot give this game a 9 but have 0 negatives to say about It? Yet they gave Mario and Zelda a 10 neither of which was deserving of a perfect score.

Seriously? That's pretty disappointing to hear.

Just because someone can't think of something outright negative to say about something doesn't mean it automatically qualifies as a masterpiece in their head. There's plenty of media out there where I have trouble thinking of anything they really do wrong, but that doesn't make them the best of their kind by default. I never understand why people expect review scores to work this way.

@jesus_phish: If by "everyone" you mean "people who didn't play the original Nier" then I agree. Also, inb4 you make the joke "Yeah, like I said: 'everyone'".

Man, I'm glad this knocked it out of the park. Was planning on this being my back burner game while I go through Yakuza, but now I'm almost equally excited for both - Kiryu will always be my favorite violent dad.

From the Destructoid review: "Calling back your axe is very cool ... but it does get old". I don't know, Chris... both Jeff Bakalar and Patrick Klepek differ on that point, and I'm inclined to agree with them. Man, I'm excited!

Personally, I've never really understood the "these reviews are so praising, must mean the game's overhyped" mentality. Yeah, to a certain extent you're going to be tempered for the more exciting and intense moments in the game, but unless you cynically think that a game can only be truly good if it's just low key enough to duck huge amounts of praise, I don't get it. Or maybe people just want reviews to be "it's good. Buy it." Excising the expectation part entirely. I don't know.

Haha, yeah pretty easy to tell that's a Huber review. Love the guy's enthusiasm, but the editor should have insisted on more restraint in a review.

For me, it comes from experience. I've been burned by 10s across the board for hyped franchise sequels before (*cough* MGSV *cough*). Clearly over-the-top statements in reviews (e.g. those pull quotes from Easy Allies) always makes me suspicious of how carefully a reviewer approached a game or how much the hype and zeitgeist might have affected an opinion. Obviously some of that hype is unavoidable due to the nature of reviews written in time for a game's launch and opinions are necessarily subjective, but I've usually found that pure unadulterated gushing for games of this profile almost never stands up to scrutiny outside of that launch day glow.

(I'm also a sadsack cynic, so that probably also plays a role.)

I honestly had no interest in this game as i really disliked kratos and had no interest in playing a game as him again, and after reading some of the reviews the only one that actually convinced me to play this game was patrick klepek's review.

@eidderf said:

@jonny_anonymous: Sorry I couldn't resist

Ok, now you have to make Kratos Dan when he was bald and bearded.

@poobumbutt: I mean, it's not really a joke. Original Nier didn't sell very well. Which is why people who knew about it but didn't play it seemed surprised that Square Enix of all people - who poopooed Deus Ex and Tomb Raider as failures for only selling X millions of copies would ever make another one.

@barrock: I have a 4K tv now but I had a Pro for about 4 months before getting one and I was still happy with the purchase.

Eurogamer tells a different story

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-god-of-war-tech-analysis

Dips in certain sequences, but otherwise close to Pro.

Looks like 2018 might finally give me a good game. I can't wait to pick this up.

Everything I’ve heard sounds great aside from the “it’s still God of War” part.

I enjoyed 1 and especially 2, but 3 was more of the same for the first hour or two and I gave up on it. Never bothered with the fourth one.

Anyhow, been playing Hellblade on an Xbox One X and an OLED screen and it’s magnificent looking. That experience kinda makes me want to keep an eye out for a reasonable price on a PS4 Pro (I already have a launch PS4) and catch-up on Horizon, God of War, and The Last of Us 2...

@jonny_anonymous said:

@eidderf said:

@jonny_anonymous: Sorry I couldn't resist

Ok, now you have to make Kratos Dan when he was bald and bearded.

...and a Muppet.

@jonny_anonymous: As you wish

Yes yes they're all good reviews.

But I don't understand the scoring of this game so can somebody please tell me just how many Nier: Automatas out of MGSVs this game is exactly?

I'm just saying that I'm not at all suprised that people already kinda started the discussion about Nier on here already considering the rather hyperbolic sentimentality of some of the reviews, it had to be expected I would say hehe.

@eidderf: What a masterpiece, good job duder.

@banefirelord: I've watched several reviews and the digital foundry comparison video. The problem is these guys have an option to play it and everyone so far has reviewed it on the ps 4 pro even if it says reviewed on both all they do is talk about how good the pro is compared to the base. It does sound like besides being 1080p the graphics are on par. Thing is as a hard-core graphics enthusiast most of the time reviewers don't have a clue what they are talking about and most don't even care about graphics in the first place (DF is the exception). The digital foundry video did nothing to compare the graphics all he did was talk about techniques and praise the pro for checkerboard rendering. It was a useless video to get an answer unless you just wanted to know where you will get frame loss he never actually compared the base version short of saying it runs your fan loud. It looks fine from most comparison videos where they show side by sides. Horizon zero dawn looked incredible on a non pro so I'm sure it will be fine.

The more I read about this the more excited I'm getting. I love seeing different weapons and armor so seeing that armor is visible and there is build diversity I just can't wait.

Tempted to get a pro for this but it just wouldn't be a smart purchase for one game. The digital foundry video showed a lot of areas I haven't seen making it even more jaw dropping beautiful.

@steveurkel: Good to hear. Considering I only have a 1080p TV and don’t mind frame dips all that much, I bet I’ll be fine..when the person I replied to earlier was talking about sites going so far as to not recommend the game for base model owners, I had a “Hyrule Warriors on normal 3DS” shiver.

Digital Foundry has a youtube video comparing the PS4 and PS4 Pro versions up now. I haven't watched it yet but right at the beginning it does mention minor spoilers but no story spoilers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HlwTz5x_18