The Verdict: God of War 3 posted on Mar 29, 2010

The next frontier of gaming: crafting a game's story that reaches the heights of the other parts of a game.
Then game designers are going to need writers on hand to pull that off.

In my point of view, everything said in this post is kind of true. And, I agree bluer57, games will come to need writers, just like movies; I am a hardcore gamer, grew up with Super Mario Bros., Contra and even Lilttle Jackie Chan Adventures, back then Nintendo was the strong brand, if not only, in my country and back then backgrounds and stories weren't exactly the bomb, you just made the lil' fella live the most of the cases, but then it came Zelda and friggin' Metal Gear, they started the evolution.

Like in novels the point of them are make feel a person what is written on the pages, but, meanwhile the writer improves, that point will be achieved easier and well done. And as readers of such, some will want a cartooney Flintstones like, funny but without sequence, and some others will want the weekly comic book or anime that will just keep plotting and solving plots.

Games, like everything, have to be part of the evolution; and for God Of War... hell, I remember someone said that there are good games... but there also exist those that make you feel chills in the end, like that when you say farewell to an old friend... God Of War may not be of the last... but hell it kicks as's taking names for sure lifting the damn bar of what a game has to be about!!!

I agree that a great story can take a game further when coupled with great gameplay, but for years, the industry has survived on games with great gameplay. Look at some of the GOTY winners in recent years, how many really won because of story? How many won because of gameplay? How many won because of both. TKK, I respect you as a journalist, but you should know that the state of the industry has more to do with sales, than game reviews. This gen, mind blowing graphics and gameplay sells...story takes a backseat. I hate to admit it, because I'm an old school gamer myself, but it's a young gamers industry now, and they prefer graphics and action packed gameplay over story.

ETito wrote:

I agree that a great story can take a game further when coupled with great gameplay, but for years, the industry has survived on games with great gameplay. Look at some of the GOTY winners in recent years, how many really won because of story? How many won because of gameplay? How many won because of both. TKK, I respect you as a journalist, but you should know that the state of the industry has more to do with sales, than game reviews. This gen, mind blowing graphics and gameplay sells...story takes a backseat. I hate to admit it, because I'm an old school gamer myself, but it's a young gamers industry now, and they prefer graphics and action packed gameplay over story.

He is not saying it should be more valuable than the other facets of a game.
He is saying that story is one important area where games can get even more well crafted than they now are.
Clearly games are doing well with fans without expert storytelling.

Exactly, bluer57. My point was that story does take a backseat to things like graphics and gameplay, and my point is that those two aspects have seen so much improvement over the years. What hasn't been nearly as improved is the story writing, and I think that's one of the areas in which we will see much more improvement in the next few years.

TKK

Fantastic video article. I think DragonAge: Origins is a prime example of where the graphics were basically poop (on the consoles)...but in the end, it didn't matter because the story was so damn interesting. The choices I made in that game carried real weight, and as a gamer it kept me playing to the very end, as opposed to say... Demon's Souls. Where the gameplay and the world that was created was technically top notch, but didn't carry me to the bitter end like DA:O did. I never really know why I stop playing a game, but maybe the lack of story in DS is why I did. Once again, great video article.

LOVE this format of the Verdict. Great episode and a very interesting topic -- Tae's voice with the Jazz music is almost soothing. 5 out of 5.

A great story definitely adds a lot to a game, but when I'm paying $60 for a game, I want tight controls, stellar graphics, great audio, replay value, and most of all top notch gameplay first and foremost. I don't really mind if a game has just an average story, as the things I previously mentioned are far more important to me. Now when the rare games like Metal Gear Solid 4 or Uncharted 2 come along that has everything including an engaging story, that's when you know you've got something special.

I played and beat GOW3, and loved it. I don't know what the deal is with all these reviewers bashing the storyline. He faced, and killed, all the remaining Gods that he hadn't killed in the first two games. The titans that he went up against, he killed. And others that crossed his path, he killed. Pandora showed him that "Hope" was what he had inside him all along, and that the Gods were scared of him. Athena wanted the power for herself, and he didn't give it to her. He released it into the heavens. End of Story. Whats so hard to understand? What do these "Critics" want the story to run like? I loved it and am on my second run through it. Hope everyone enjoyed it and keeps on enjoying it.

God of War 3's story was more than good enough to justify it's gameplay. I'm not going to explain why since Manny has already done a good job doing that. But every game doesn't need to have a Mass Effect or Bioshock story. I think the man in this video has forgotten why we play games in the first place, for fun.

I recently got the chance to play New Super Mario Bros Wii and realized that a game doesn't have to have a great story to be fun, it just has to engage you. Story is one way to do that, but there are other, equally as good techiniques. The one that God of War uses is graphics and gameplay, and in my opinion, it's story is engaging as well.

Rant/