Come on... over the top violence is why people love God of war, Kratos is a badass.
Over the top gore is platinum's style, and I now have confidence in rising now... it may not be a true metal gear, but it looks like a great action game
Watch dogs? Really? I didn't see much gore
Tomb Raider... they are trying to be gritty, therefore they need all that stuff that makes you cringe
Hell all these games need gore, or didn't even have that much of it
As the author said it's a good chance for them to work the character angle again.
There's no reason there can't be gore and character development it just takes good writing. As the first game, the psp games and the new game hopefully do.
Writing in a tiny hook at the end of the game is barely character development. Sorry to tell you this but god of war 3 is a clone of god of war 2. Half of the story is the exact same except it has slightly less depth. At least in god of war 2 krato's was striving for redemption. God of war 3 starts out exactly like god of war 2 with kratos fighting some giant boss/mini boss type guys. Then zeus killing kratos and kratos climbing out of hades AGAIN. And so on and so forth. I could keep out lining the parallels but hopefully you get the picture.
Kratos killed the entire human population. Survived the flood? You get killed get killed by the plague. SOMEHOW survive that? No plantlife or sunlight = starvation. And there's no afterlife. The world is screwed. And it's all because of Kratos. Some blue light that apparently gives hope will not change that. I still liked Kratos in 3, but preferred him in 2 where he seemed like a hero.
And how the heck does hope turn Kratos into a giant to kill Zeus? Seriously, this is 25% as bad of an ending as ME3.... At least you aren't HOPING for it to be a dream so you can buy the real ending.
So a sequel to the game, is a clone of the one that came before it? GOW 3 was really about spectacle, and also they need to depower kratos, so the made him fall to hades. I have played all the games, and you go to hell in all of them. Zues never killed Kratos. Only the two things in the beginning and the final fight with Zues are the only similarities between 2 and 3.. but thats it
@emperordalek
"Kratos killed the entire human population. Survived the flood? You get killed get killed by the plague. SOMEHOW survive that? No plantlife or sunlight = starvation. And there's no afterlife. The world is screwed. And it's all because of Kratos. Some blue light that apparently gives hope will not change that. I still liked Kratos in 3, but preferred him in 2 where he seemed like a hero."
Well... how does a man survive being stabbed by a sword forged by the gods? He's Kratos... one of the most overpowered, if not the most overpowered character in gaming. Kratos was never "heroic" he is an anti-hero. A protagonist, who did evil things. He has never been a hero at all. The most heroic Kratos has ever been was in CoO. But thats because as the games progressed, Kratos became less heroic and a lot more angier... I mean look at GOW 3... he killed everyone that got in his way
"And how the heck does hope turn Kratos into a giant to kill Zeus?"
Umm... that never happened.... i think you are confused with GOW1. Hope gave Kratos the power to overcome Zues.. not make him a giant.
You want Kratos to tone down the gore? Is that a joke? Okay I know people have a hard time understanding this gamers gen but here goes. Kratos is a BARBARIAN. That is the way they behave. That is how he fights. Ancient warriors didn't run around stepping on eggshells or thought about how they kill someone.
Red Indians chopped off the top of your skull.Vikings split your head open with axes.Mongols cut you to pieces. Samurai cut your head off. Ninjas disemboweled you.Kratos was a Spartan. They used to send their own warriors to kill their own people to prove their worth and if you happened got caught they blamed you for the crime and executed you.
Anyone that did anything to any of these group's friends, family or clans they would hunt you down and kill you and anyone who got in their way. What happened to Kratos and his family was tragic and nothing Kratos did afterwards changed that. He behaved the way any ancient warrior would because that was the way they were trained and what they knew.The fact that Kratos showed any sort of sympathy or concern for anyone else except his people, like when he killed Athena or had to destroy Pandora or abandoned his daughter to save the world or killed himself to give hope to the people is a miracle in of itself
You don't have to like him. Just know and understand that is what he is. People judge him by modern standards. But what he did was perfectly natural in his time. And don't even bother feeling sorry for the Gods. They always do things like this to their children and were ten times more wicked and evil then Kratos was. His anger and rage was fueled by them and that is why most of their children turn out to be rage filled killers. Throw me all the disagrees you want. Kratos's character was more realistic then most modern characters are and people cringe at the reality of it.
@ Nimblest-Assassin . I don't know if your joking or something but a barbarian wasn't a race of people. Spartans were considered to be barbarians too. Barbarian was the way you behaved not what race you belonged to as in being barbaric. Vikings were barbarians. Mongols were barbarians
On the last part, as far as the Mediterranean cultures were concerned, barbarians were the people from Germania or the Turks, who typically wore beards (barba means "beard", which is where we get the term "barber").
I think it more "gaming journalists" that are creating something out of nothing. No wonder other media journalist don't take videogame "journalist" seriously.
I honestly don't see the problem with "too" much gore in games. If the gore fit the store, setting, and character then I don't see the problem. In ancient times when you killed someone, they didn't burst into coins. Have any of these guy seen pictures of war causality?
And wasn't it these same "journalists" that were complaining that Ninja Gaiden 3 lacked gore? Wasn't that one of the negative when it came to reviews for Ninja Gaiden 3?
God Of War? Ate you kidding me!? When im ripping some poor bastards head off as Kratos, I expect alot of blood and gore, nothing less! I love the gore..
God of War 3 was for its time the pinnacle of gore in video games, cause instead of a senseless bloodbath we saw blood splatter that painted its surroundings and kratos, limbs that demonstrated the struggle of tissue being torn, along with the detailed spilling of organs, why on earth would god of war now tone down the gore after having perfected it so recently?
Poorly written article. God of War has been know for over the top violence and gore for years. Why should it be tone down now? People are trying to act as if violence is now getting over the top in video games when in reality, it's been this way for years and no one said anything until now. Ridiculous.
There is a huge difference between mindless gore and something like God of War.
Look at the first Saw movie. There was gore, but it was imagery put there to convey the weight of the situation. It was well done and artistic. It redefined horror and turned enough heads that others have been trying to match it sense, with little to no success.
Look at Hostel. Mindless, boring gorefest...with very little going for it, in the way of plot.
Don't even get me started on The Human Centipede. I don't even know why that movie grosses people out. There is very little gore in it...and actually...I find it quite boring. I guess I just expected something better. :/ It's a human centipede, just like the title states. That's it though. Nothing more. Nothing less. Total disappointment.
The Human Centipede II is better, but still a bit of a letdown.
The sequel... is 100 times more messed up with what happens. But I liked the first one better. The focus on the 3 characters worked better, and the doctor was a much better antagonist than the weird guy in the second. Plus he was in Lexx, so bonus points for that. The first one is a better movie.
I've never cringed so much during a movie than when I saw the second movie though. And I've seen a lot of gory movies.
If u don't like gore don't play gory games!! Don't try spoil the enjoyment for those of us (me included) who like gory games!!! I remember reading a GOW3 review in a magazine that got marked down because of the gore!! Why let someone who doesn't like gore review a GOW game? It's like asking someone who doesn't like football to review Fifa!!!
God of War is fine the way it is! Im getting so sick of this. Tone down violence, tone down the nudity tone down gore!! Im glad devs dont read into all this because if they did, we would be stuck playing a bunch of casual games!
Your first mistake was putting the article over five pages.
Your second mistake was saying this crap:
"In the spirit of betterment, CVG has looked back through the E3 archive and picked out games that could grow into something better if they toned down the violence."
Your third mistake was attacking something like God of War, where the gore and brutality have always served to highlight Kratos' rage, and his prowess as a killing machine.
Your fourth mistake is trying to force MGR into the mold made by MGS. The series may be built on stealth, but that didn't stop a card game from being made, did it?
Your fifth mistake was assuming that the current gore level in Tomb Raider and Watch_Dogs was too high; neither of them had much in the way of blood and gore, though they did contain quite a bit of violence. How, then, can you say they should "tone it down," when it's hardly there in the first place?
Your sixth mistake is making the fifth mistake again, but having done so while determining for yourselves that a game with "SWAT teams armed with assault rifles, exploding helicopters, car chases and pronounced profanity" can't also be "emotional, mature and unique."
Overall, there are probably more mistakes than that; actually, I'm certain there are, but I wanted to highlight some crucial issues with the article.
Oh, one last mistake: writing the article in the first place.
Yes, because Watch Dogs would be awesome without any guns in it! #sarcasm #fail
There's a reason these games have ratings, and the real problem is that kids are playing them. Don't blame the developers' for bringing out mature content, put the blame where it rightly belongs, the damn parents! But, that's the way the world rolls now isn't it, blame, blame, blame, but never actually putting the blame where it needs to be!
I don't think any one game needs to tone down its violence and/or gore. However, gaming is getting a bit over-saturated with absurdly violent games all trying to 1-up each other.
BEYOND HAD GORE? REALLY?
Come on... over the top violence is why people love God of war, Kratos is a badass.
Over the top gore is platinum's style, and I now have confidence in rising now... it may not be a true metal gear, but it looks like a great action game
Watch dogs? Really? I didn't see much gore
Tomb Raider... they are trying to be gritty, therefore they need all that stuff that makes you cringe
Hell all these games need gore, or didn't even have that much of it
I agree on all accounts. Very good article. Except beyond.
I no longer like kratos. He used to be more or less of a sympathetic character.
You want Kratos to tone down the gore? Is that a joke? Okay I know people have a hard time understanding this gamers gen but here goes. Kratos is a BARBARIAN. That is the way they behave. That is how he fights. Ancient warriors didn't run around stepping on eggshells or thought about how they kill someone.
Red Indians chopped off the top of your skull.Vikings split your head open with axes.Mongols cut you to pieces. Samurai cut your head off. Ninjas disemboweled you.Kratos was a Spartan. They used to send their own warriors to kill their own people to prove their worth and if you happened got caught they blamed you for the crime and executed you.
Anyone that did anything to any of these group's friends, family or clans they would hunt you down and kill you and anyone who got in their way. What happened to Kratos and his family was tragic and nothing Kratos did afterwards changed that. He behaved the way any ancient warrior would because that was the way they were trained and what they knew.The fact that Kratos showed any sort of sympathy or concern for anyone else except his people, like when he killed Athena or had to destroy Pandora or abandoned his daughter to save the world or killed himself to give hope to the people is a miracle in of itself
You don't have to like him. Just know and understand that is what he is. People judge him by modern standards. But what he did was perfectly natural in his time. And don't even bother feeling sorry for the Gods. They always do things like this to their children and were ten times more wicked and evil then Kratos was. His anger and rage was fueled by them and that is why most of their children turn out to be rage filled killers. Throw me all the disagrees you want. Kratos's character was more realistic then most modern characters are and people cringe at the reality of it.
@ Nimblest-Assassin . I don't know if your joking or something but a barbarian wasn't a race of people. Spartans were considered to be barbarians too. Barbarian was the way you behaved not what race you belonged to as in being barbaric. Vikings were barbarians. Mongols were barbarians
When did the gaming community start whining about to much gore in games?
God Of War? Ate you kidding me!? When im ripping some poor bastards head off as Kratos, I expect alot of blood and gore, nothing less! I love the gore..