Finished God of War 2, thank fucking christ it's over.  I'm not saying that because it's bad but because it was just so relentless and you get the "pleeeeease let there be a checkpoint" knitted brow thing going in your mind fairly often.  I played it in pretty small bursts, as soon as I'd finished something taxing, save: turn it off, cup of tea and a lie down.  This is the first real game I've played on the PS2 and the quick time events fucked me right over because of the 'X' clash with the 360, especially because I'd go back to the 360 in between plays.  That fight at the end... finished the normal bit really easily but then the quick time event finish = bastard.  Unskippable cutscene 9 times in a row, ding ding!  Fuck off.

It's epic, though.  Afterwards you can watch all the cut scenes in a row and it took about 50 minutes and you're going "Oh my god, I'd forgotten about that" for about the first 30.  Do you want to save your progress and see the unlockables?  yes please!  Ok, this is the challenge arena, kill the baddie in under 40 seconds.  Oh, suddenly I'm fucking angry again and have lost all sense of the controls even though it's only been 55 minutes since I played last.  I had a lot of anger in this game, it's probably right up there with COD WAW's "Heart of the Reich" on Veteran but I think that's because I was a button mashing finesse-less bellend.

I never ever felt that I was playing something last-gen during it at all, only the cutscenes had the look of something not today.  I've still got the first God of War to play but I'm leaving a big gap.  Just put in Ratchet and Clank and it's nice to have something that's looking like it'll be a genuine pleasure and won't make me want to punch a milkman.

just started 2 myself

The challenge arenas seemed to get much easier as the series progressed because I doubt that I have gotten that much better at these games. GoW 1's arenas took me better part of a week to beat while GoW 3 only took 45 mins to an hour.

God of War 2 is an amazing game the first time through. Although the last fight is kinda underwhelming.

" The challenge arenas seemed to get much easier as the series progressed because I doubt that I have gotten that much better at these games. GoW 1's arenas took me better part of a week to beat while GoW 3 only took 45 mins to an hour. "

I'm finding the first GOW similarly frustrating, but still enjoyable. I don't know if I'll be able to play three whole God of War games though, I feel like I'd be pretty sick of it by then.