Games

Battle lines

By Shaun Conlin

God of War goes portable

Game: God of War: Chains of Olympus
Publisher: Sony
Platform: PlayStation Portable
Rating: Teen
Score: 4.5 out of 5

The third in a series, God of War: Chains of Olympus makes its debut exclusively on PlayStation Portable. Chains of Olympus places you again in the role of Kratos, the extremely angry anti-hero reluctantly used by the gods to do their dirty work in the hope that one day he�ll shed his anger.

Kratos is still armed with the bullwhip-like dual-sword-on-chains and those wickedly effective magical smart-bombs. The action offers a nice balance between the goring of hapless thugs and fights with all sorts of mythological creatures.

FIRST CLASS RIDE

Once again, this God of War game excels with the script writing � its dialogue fit for a blockbuster movie. In a video game, it�s like a bump up to first class for free. But the game is all linear, so even with the sound off or the story sequences ignored, you really have little choice about what to do, where to go and who to slay.

There�s only one way to get through it, but it�s a great ride along the way.

HANG ON TIGHT

All told, the game�s only flaw lies not in its design, but in the somewhat limited PSP hardware. The system�s controls are difficult if you have big hands.

You�re often required to use both shoulder buttons, some face buttons and the thumb stick together to pull off rather exacting moves. That leaves you gripping the unit so that it�s teetering on your ring fingers.

There�s no manual camera control, although the auto-follow function is quite good. An exception is when the view is pulled way back � it�s graphically gorgeous when you take in the view, but it makes for tiny-size fighting.

But that�s not enough to ruin the excitement of the game. � Cox News Service

	reluctantly (adv): in a hesitating way before doing something because you do not want to do it shed (v): to get rid of something that is no longer wanted gore (v): to wound a person or another animal with a horn or tusk hapless (adj): not lucky; unfortunate thug (n): a violent person, especially a criminal excel (v): to be very good at doing something linear (adj): going from one thing to another in a single series of stages slay (v): to kill somebody or something in a war or a fight exacting (adj): needing a lot of effort and care about details teeter (v): to stand or move in an unsteady way so that you look as if you are going to fall gorgeous (adj): very beautiful and attractive; giving pleasure and enjoyment ruin (v): to damage something so that it loses it�s value or pleasure