God of War Ascension does not reach any lofty heights, though it is a fun journey. If you like the other God of War games, you'll probably like this but don't expect any sort of elevation or elaboration on the series. This is tried and true GOW gameplay, and it's beginning to feel tired. The story is weak, which is disappointing, especially since it doesn't really seem to go anywhere important. It doesn't add to the character or overarching story, it just sort of exists outside of the series, a sort of excuse to throw Kratos at more Greek mythology. The gameplay is as strong as it has ever been, and the enemies are fun to kill (even though they feel overly familiar at times). The game is just missing that spark the other had, that aggressive sense of fun the other titles in the series used to overflow with.
Strangely, i think i've fallen in love with its multiplayer. You pick an alleigance with a God then go into battle. Your alleigance determines your equipment and special abilities. As you level your alleigance grows, and you gain more abilities, while each piece of armour and weapon you have equipped gains exp and better stats. Combat just works. Evading, blocking and countering are all there, but slowed down a bit. The levels are awesome as well, full of traps and items. Each one also has a special event (for example, in the Bog level you can wake up a giant Medusa and control her, turning oponents to stone. Part of the reason i like it is because i've found i'm pretty good at it. That's always a sign of quality for me 
Dead Space 3: Awakened is not worth waking up for. It lasts an hour, passing you through familiar areas (the bulk takes place in a reskinned version of the Conning Tower sidequest) with mostly familiar enemies (black necros and stalkers although a few new and absent ones show up) and the exact same gameplay as the single player campaign. Insanity has returned to the series, bit it has been implemented in annoying ways (teleporting enemies? blurry vision?). But the main disappointment at the end of the day is the story aspect; Awakened is just sequel bait for Dead Space 4. While DS3 ended pretty firmly, DS3 gives an epilogue that undoes it and expands it into stupid town, basically giving us Mass Effect 2's ending. I'd say don't bother with it unless you really need another DS3 fix.
Metal Gear Rising's Virtual Mission DLC is good, provided you like Virtual Missions and playing as Dwarf Gekkos. It gives you 30 additional missions with a mixture of mission types for Raiden (kill waves of enemies, sneak through an area, use certain side weapons, etc.) and a fair amount where you play as a Dawrf Gekko. There's a mission as Dwarf Gekko which is a top-down recreation of Frogger. So that's pretty awesome. So if you like that sort of thing then go for it.
DmC's Vergil's Downfall DLC is horrible. Why? Because it exists solely for Ninja Theory to grab Vergil by the throat and force him down into the mud and grime. They turn him into a whiny, jealous, pompous tool. Set immediately after DmC's campaign, Verigl heads to his old family home and falls into Limbo. While there he feels sorry for himself, whines about Dante and generally comes across as a prissy wimp. He also spends the entire DLC trying to justify being a douchebag. It all actually makes new Dante more likeable in comparison. Gameplay? It's fine i guess. Vergil feels weak initially, and he's slower and clunkier than Dante. The same few enemy waves are thrown at you, and only two new enemies are added (with one being a rarely-encountered mini-boss type). The levels are short and sort of bleed into eachother, and you replay that first level twice. There's also a boss fight, but it's just a rehash of a boss you face in the main game. So, unless you want to watch Ninja Theory suck at characterisation or have a really creepy Vergil fetish (and a childlike sense of optimism) keep away.
I got the platinum trophy in Darksiders 2, so hooray for that. I liked the game, but i actually prefer the original, the simple Zelda clone. Plat was easy enough to get, collectible trophies took the most effort. I've got all the campaign DLC for it, and i say avoid it. They just add three 1-hour long dungeons that don't add much to the game.
@MrGrakk ???
To answer your question from my last blog about God powers; Ares is strength based and gives you fire-based specials that deal damage over time. Zeus is magic based and has lightning specials that target large areas. Posiedon is defence based and has ice powers (and can summong protective barriers and stuff. Hades, weirdly, is stealth based and can turn invisible. Hades also gets life-stealing attacks.
Congrats on the plat, I have to say god of war has never been a series I've really gotten in to
@Hanzoadam I liked the original God of War when it came out. It was new, violent and fun. GOW2 i wasn't much fond of (though most say it's the best in the serieS). I just like the excess; the copious blood and gore, the angry yelling, the ridiculous set pieces. Ascension is where the series has completely worn itself out. The plat seems like it'll be easy to get though; i' got the vast majority of trophies just by going through the campaign.
I lost interest half through of GoW: Ascension. Story felt forced and weak more than anything, and combat was clunkier than previous installments from what I remember.. Plus not a big fan of not having different weapons, just "elements" for your blades. The MP also didn't draw me in, but I never cared for a button masher to have multiplayer to begin with, let alone a God of War game. To me it was a waste of money, at least I was able to sell it off for almost all my money back.
@Steel_Rain777 The elemental thing felt undercooked. I mean, if enemies at least had elemental strengths and weaknesses then maybe you'd have an interesting system, but they don't really so you just pick whatever colour you like best i suppose. The game gets better further in, but is mostly just underwhelming and samey. The multi i like because, strangely, there's actual straegy involved. blocking and countering lets you abuse other players, and i like the giant events you can trigger.
the MP didn't draw me in, but I never give MP much play...Dead Space Awakening is that bad? I had thought about getting it, but I trust you and I wasn't wowed by the game by any means!
Awakening is weak. It's very similar to DS2's Severance DLC. Very short and samey. There're only three chapters weighing in at about twenty minutes each. The first is standard mid-game DS3 stuff (snow and necros!) whereas chapter 2 and 3 are basically Conning Tower but with gorier decorations. It tries to be creepy and scary but fails because these are all tricks we've seen before in DS2. And the ending is so profoundly stupid i can't even think of what the hell the inevitable DS4 will be. If you're really interested, just watch a playthrough on Youtube.
@Katzenbalger so I should take Severed off of my list too? I figured...hard to find good dlc, huh? debating picking up the Alan Wake dlc!
@Katzenbalger yeah...I did like it though, so I wonder if it might give me a few good scares, you know? sad about Dead Space though!
@pokecharm @Katzenbalger I think that once you come across some good DLC (stuff like Undead Nightmare for RDR) you start to become exceptionally critical about others, especially in relation to price vs length/content.
Severed is a total waste of time, which is a shame because there was potential there (i did a blog specifically about it ages ago).
The first Alan Wake DLC was free, and an ok combat-based hour of epilogue. The second is more puzzle-oriented and ties things together a little more but has a similarly short length. Its worth totally depends on how much you like Alan Wake.
