God of War II

Remember having to plod through Greek mythology back in grade school? You knew it was kinda awesome — vengeful gods, gratuitous sex and plenty of the ol’ ultra violence — but those translations were, well, a bit of a bore. The beauty of God of War, and its majestic sequel, is that it takes all that textual blood and guts, petty deities and colossal statues, and brings it to gloriously interactive life. Though now last-gen, the graphics are strikingly beautiful — but even more importantly, GoW II proves that game design is even more crucial than pretty pixels. It’s not a complex RPG, button-mashing brawler or brain-teasing puzzler, but an amalgam of all three genres with classic antihero Kratos at the helm, classical monsters for boss battles and some badass chain blades and diabolical finishing moves thrown in for good measure. This is the kind of game where you get killed early on and then have to claw your way back out of Hades long before you climb your way to the top of Mount Olympus with Titans in tow. People complain about sequel-itis but sometimes, especially in gaming, the second time is the charm. This is one sophomore effort that belongs in the pantheon of all-time great games.