Game took me more than 10 hours to finish on normal mode, but not much more. I don't think I ever died in combat, but I did die in a few of the moving spike/spike floor/flame puzzles.

I'm at the swamp level. I just I thought the first game was enjoyable but a little overrated. So far I'm enjoying the sequel a lot more. The first level is amazing, and the sense of scale on the Steeds of Time is breathtaking. The fighting seems less frustrating than in the first game, too.

what is the purpose of the urns?....can you use them on repeat playings of the game?

It's amazing to have a game drop you into the heat of such an epic setting right off the bat. My buddy wanted to play a 360 game online but I blew him off a bit saying I was tired so I wouldn't have to swap over and turn off GOW2.

Today's Penny Arcade, a pretty good one for a change -

So is GoW1 a requirement? I never picked it up but don't want to bother with a non-perfect game, spending $20 and hours of my time if I can just jump into the better GoW2.

I'm sure you've played (and enjoyed) worse games than the first God of War. The 2nd one is better, but the first one's still great.
Oh, and there's no such thing as a perfect game - GoW2 has it's fair share of annoyances too.

Even the best game in the world will still have some faults. Really the only people I have seen that did not enjoy GoW1 are people that can't stand hack-n-slash games. If you don't like hack-n-slash, you won't like GoW2 either, even if it is better than the first game. GoW2 is better, but it is still more of the same.

As for whether GoW1 is a requirement before playing GoW2, the GoW games are pretty story intensive, so you will be missing a lot by skipping the first one.

I agree, God of War 1 should be played first for the story. Plus, it'll be real easy to pick up 2 after getting used to the controls in 1. Both are fantastic and worth playing.

That Penny Arcade comic really made me think. I gotta agree with them, the very first level of GoW2 was more bad ass then most final battles in other games.

I'm about 10 hours in now and I still can't put it down. I've been playing every free minute I have. Sadly, I think I'm close to the end. I just...

I'm a casual gamer who rarely finishes the games I buy and I couldn't put down both of the God of War games. I just finished part 2 clocking in at just over 13 hours.

It's been a while since I played the first one, but the sequel seems to be smidge less "hack n' slash" with more emphasis on puzzles. Having said that, there are still lots of enemies to hack away and the boss fights are all pretty cool too.

IMO, besides maybe "Gears of War", this game blows away most of the next-gen offereings. Bring on Part III !!

just finished the game up tonight
like the last game I finished (Okami) this really shows how the PS2 shines

I've put about 3 hours into the game so far and think it is a damn fine game. I can't wait to give it more time and see what else it can offer me.

Finished this one up over the weekend. I enjoyed it a lot more than I remember enjoying the first game. In the first one I remember getting frustrated pretty often, but this time around there were only two or three spots that got annoying. The sense of scale is better than in the first game and the boss fights are great. I'll have to revisit the first game at some point and see if it's better than I remember.

Finished this amazing game today and I loved every minute of it. I enjoyed it as much as the first one, well maybe a bit more since this time there weren't any annoying spike walls around. I'll be getting a PS3 to play the next installment for sure.

So picked this up today as there is really nothing out on the PS3 I want to play and was getting bored with playing Resistance constantly, and I love it. Now I pretty much suck worse than anyone on games but I cant get enough of the game. Having a much more fun time playing this over Gears (not to say I dont love Gears). Man, it will be great to see what the do with GOW3 when they do it for the PS3...

I finally beat this tonight. Magnificent Game. Now to figure out what's next...

I was SLIGHTLY disappointed in the final boss battle... but the end of game and the story was incredible. Probably the best game I've played on the PS2.

Finally got a chance to borrow this from my wife's coworker after a month of release. Started it Friday afternoon and I've put in 11 hours. I'm somewhere between 1/2 and 2/3 the way through the Palace of Fates. I hope to have it done by tonight so she can take it back on Monday just to spite him Plus I have Super Paper Mario starting on Tuesday.

Great friggin' game! I cannot help but think how this would make a kick ass movie. When you start out battling the Colossus of Rhodes and tear him up from the inside out and cap it off with a death-defying leap from its mouth as it explodes behind you... Absolutely cinematic.

http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/isle-of...own-251824.php

HD Mode... cool. Gotta check this out when i get home.

^ Also a 2nd countdown expiring the night of the 23rd / morning of the 24th.

I just tried it and I honestly don't see any difference. Well, the legal text was purple so I guess that was different. But the game looks the same to me.

It looks a little better to me, but not much. It's hard to tell, but switching back and forth seemed to show some less jaggies.

Isn't "HD Mode" really a misnomer for 448 lines of resolution? I don't pretend to understand what they mean by "full size buffers", but I do know that HD isn't reached until 720p at least. I guess it must be a Higher Def mode. I imagine there won't be much difference.

I picked up the first God of War and have been playing it for the last few days... I'm on the 2nd boss battle right now (Challenge of Hades), but had to quit for the night. Fantastic game, I'm sure I'll get GoW 2 eventually. Really looking forward to seeing how GoW 3 looks on the PS3 though!

Gametrailers has a video that supposedly shows the difference between SD and HD.

Video link here

I say supposedly because I see no difference whatsoever.