God of War 3 was undeniably one of the most talked about game of EuroGamer Expo 2009. You seriously could not get away from all of the buzz and chatter about the third and last in the chart-topping, PS3-exclusive God of War series. During the show I know I sounded like an idiot when I let out a little squeal of joy when I started the demo, and I know I definitely cheered Kratos on when he gutted the Centaur. I was not the only one who was cheering at the site of the bloody carnage though -- all of the onlookers were too!

God of War is one of those games that only comes around every so often -- as soon as you started playing it you knew you were in for an amazing ride. God of War 3 is the end for Kratos and the end of such an epic series, so with that comes an amazing amount of excitement and expectations. Can it live up to everything people are expecting it to be? Absolutely.

God of War is already a classic favored by millions. God of War 2 was great but it did not bring the same amount adoration and cult following as the first one. Naturally, I was worried that the third one would follow the same steps of becoming a becoming a great game but not a instant classic like the original. My worries and reservations soon lifted as soon as the controller was passed to me and once again I took control over Kratos.

Playing God of War 3 was like seeing an old friend after many years apart; even after so long andcalifornia state university chico so many games since I played the last God of War title, I picked back up on the controls effortlessly and began my bloody reign in this 30-minute demo.

The game is gorgeous and will allow Kratos to explore areas up to four times larger than anything we saw in the previous titles. Also, the amount of pure brutal gore made me as giddy as a school girl. The first two games were gory, but the third makes those look like a warmup. The quick-time events are much easier to see as the buttons prompts are located on the screen where they are on the controller, and they are more forgiving than then last two games were.

There is still a lot that I still do not know about God of War 3 since its release date of March 2010 is quite a bit away, but I do know that the game picks up right after God of War 2. Kratos is still pissed and he wants revenge more than ever. The game will also allow up to 30 enemies on the screen at once -- that's much more than the previous 15 seen in God of War 2. I also know that only two new weapons have been confirmed so far: Blades of Athena and the Cestus (a pair of heavy gauntlets). Also, both the Golden Fleece and the Icarus' Wings are back from the last God of war title as well. There may still be a lot to be announced, but God of War 3 is already one of my most look-forward-to games.

I do mean just watching, too. Over the past couple of days, this is the game to have drawn in the crowds. Its booth is regularly one of the busiest here at the Eurogamer Expo, along with Assassin's Creed II, with excited hordes gathering gleefully around the eight enormous screens. There's a reason for that, and you don't even have to actually play it to understand that.

You want evidence? Okay. How about the scene where Kratos grabs Helois, wrestles him to the ground, then slowly rips off his head, with agonising screams and tremendous amounts of spraying blood? Just minutes earlier, Kratos had gouged out another character's eyes. And earlier still, antelephone batteryshipoteca comparacion taza creditocoin collecting united states enormous, fiery beast towered over a gargantuan courtyard, thumping and stomping around in the distance, before raising a bloody huge foot and clambering up in chase of the player. One of his toes is roughly the same size as Kratos.

The God of War series has always been spectacular, in the most literal sense of the word. But even with that knowledge, even with the reasonable assumption of a glistening cinematic experience… my goodness, God of War III looks impressive.

Blood soaked
It's one of the most ludicrously vicious games I've ever seen. It's fearlessly gruesome. It's soaked in blood and relishes in the breaking of bones. It's the sort of game that makes the Australian authorities scamper for the big, red censorship button. And it's absolutely brilliant.

To think that this is several months away from release is astonishing - the level of polish is already staggeringly high. Each animation is inch-perfect, the visual detail flawless, the audio brutal and boomy. Every single cinematic sequence flows seamlessly from the gameplay, rarely taking away control from the player and always, always impressive to a ludicrous degree.

Indeed, God of War III is a big fan of keeping you in-game. The gorgeously rendered menu screen for the version we played features Kratos' head, filling the majority of the television. Starting a new game doesn't switch you to a loading screen. The camera simply zooms out, then pans around the scene before settling neatly into a third-person viewpoint. That gorgeously rendered menu screen was in-game.

The camera itself is a highlight. It's bewilderingly dynamic, flying around at all angles, but never once does it frustrate. Far from it - it swings and zooms beautifully to create a perfect filmic quality while never, ever focusing on anything other than the action. It is always in the right place. It's about as good as an in-game camera has ever been.

Quick as a flash
It's probably fairly evident that I'm rather enamoured by what I've seen of God of War III. Do I have any concerns? Well, not huge ones. Some of the action is slightly fiddly, the on-screen tutorial tips occasionally too thin. The odd sequence or combination of buttons feels slightly unintuitive. Butcredito puente then, this is the sort of thing that could prove to be vastly better in the context of the full game.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment, though perhaps inevitible, is the game's reliance on quick-time events. It uses them to contribute to the oh-so-wonderful cinematic experience, and it's difficult to think of a way such sequences could be approached differently, but the frequency with which they appear is slightly annoying. There's something about the inability to actually, properly perform the spectacular action sequences that grates, just ever so slightly - particularly when the more hands-on, chain-swinging action feels so smooth, so joyously horrible, and so breathtakingly chunky.

But when you're flying through a tunnel, dodging huge, flaming balls of molten rock… or when the camera swings around to reveal a vast, open, astonishingly beautiful courtyard, before zooming right in to showcase the frankly silly amount of detail on the surface of a rock… or when that head rips off, agonisingly slowly, gruesomely convincing in its animation… that's God of War III. And if that's still God of War III come March of next year, it could be a very special game indeed.

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