Taking Greek Mythology to school in God Of War [HDVLP]

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Taking Greek Mythology to school in God Of War [HDVLP]

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Spalec posted:

Hades himself was pretty neutral in loving around with the lives of mortals, certainly compared to Zeus who was a giant rear end in a top hat.

Hades doesn't even do the judging, he deputized a couple of former kings for it. He was probably the most live-and-let-live (irony appreciated) out of that pantheon, maybe with Hephaestus.

Spalec posted:

Speaking of Sparta, will you be talking about the city state of Sparta in your educational segments? It was pretty interesting place.

As far as fascist shitholes go, at least.

A bit more on-topic: I never played this series on account of being a PC snob, but the amount of QTEs looks incredibly tiresome. Fighting games would be better off without them in my opinion.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2014 14:30

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:55

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I keep wondering why is Athena's voice so familiar so I go the the imdb page for this game... Turns out her VA did exactly the same role in Age of Mythology. Wham.
Actually some quite infamous names in this game's voice cast.

# ¿ Aug 27, 2014 18:37

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

rocket_man38 posted:

Pretty much. It was a trend that continued. Geoffrey of Monmouth's "History of the Kings" tied British kings to Roman emperors, imitating the same idea.

This is neither here nor there, but my favorite mythology trasplant was done by Snorri Sturluson who managed to tie the Trojan war to loving Iceland.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2014 07:27

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

IIRC, He basically figured that Hector = Thor and went from there. As far as I can tell, the rest is a medley of random Greek characters with names similar to Nordic deities.

The idea that mortal heroes got turned into gods as the tale was told and turned into myth is kinda neat, but he didn't choose the best examples.

e: Oh, yeah, and let's not forget his Asia -> Asgard line of thought. I think he wanted to give the Vikings a bit of a classical embellishment.
e2: I might actually be wrong here given that we have someone who can work with the original; my points come from an annotated version of the prosaic Edda translated to my language.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Aug 30, 2014

# ¿ Aug 30, 2014 09:09

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Drachir D Nalem posted:

Having just a tiny bit of knowledge about history and mythology from around then makes Sturluson so much more fun to read.

Depends. Probably my favorite part of the Heimskringla translation I have is the ancient literary theory. Bought it for the mythology, kept it for the kennings.
Seriously, why did no one make a Scandinavian God of War clone? It's the perfect setting.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2014 16:13

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

There sure as hell is a lot of gorgon eyes around for ~~there being only three of gals.~~ them being a normal enemy you dismember on regular basis; they really should've named the powerup something else.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2014 10:39

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Nalesh posted:

Gotta admit, I'm not seeing it.

Well, not sure if you're aware, but DotA1 was a Warcraft 3 mod and Medusa there used literally her W3 model, so it's more of a reference than an outright steal. Plus it seems that Vasz is based on a lot of the mythological/popculture depictions of Medusa anyway. I'm hearing going full circle was fashionable in mythology.

Anyhow, in perfectly Greek spirit, Minos actually gets rewarded for being a dick: after his death, he became the chairman of the three-headed committee that judges the dead so Hades doesn't have to. The kicker? They're all kings known for their just reigns.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Sep 4, 2014

# ¿ Sep 4, 2014 07:26

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Drachir D Nalem posted:

You should do Dante's Inferno too, since it's basically War(rior) of God. Then you can talk about both christian myths and fanfic.

It's also pretty goddamn hilarious. They nailed the Comedy part of their source material.

# ¿ Sep 8, 2014 10:43

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

achillesforever6 posted:

Finally best Mythology video game is still Age of Mythology and I won't here a word differently R.I.P. Ensemble Games

I love AoM's take on the Trojan War. From Agamemnon being a pompous incompetent rear end who fights with his fists because he lost his spear, through the most ridiculous origin of the horse possible (completely random monologue by the shoehorned protagonists sparking an OH poo poo moment in Odysseus), to the fact that all the Greeks that matter realize how stupid it is an roll with it just because it shuts Agamemnon up.
It only takes like three missions but there's a lot of great moments and comedy present with those tiny pixelated men.

And yes, AoM is the best Age game.
edit: I think I mentioned it before, but Athena is voiced by the same actress in AoM and GoW. It feels very comforting to hear her here.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2014 10:56

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Samovar posted:

Really? I remember in the Deus Ex thread (another great thread, btw) that water-down wine was done so as to make water drinkable by the ethanol effectively sterilizing it. I wasn't aware there was also a classicsm thing to it.

They don't seem to be mutually exclusive.

# ¿ Sep 10, 2014 13:19

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

And that's not going into the whole Lotophagos mess. Now those guys took their hospitality seriously.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2014 20:13

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Hell, the whole Paris business got started because of a strategic omission from a guest list.

# ¿ Sep 11, 2014 21:30

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Well, there's a missed opportunity for a QTE: Kratos plucking every bird he comes upon in hopes one of them will up his magic.

# ¿ Oct 1, 2014 14:17

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Samovar posted:

OK, here's a query for you dudes boned up on the classics - when did belief in the Greek parthenon cease? Was it around the same time th Roman Empire adopted Christianity?

Pretty much - they got culturally overtaken by Romans and went with whatever happened there.

# ¿ Oct 2, 2014 14:32

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Samovar posted:

So... the Olympians were not all begat from the Titans? Were there any other Olympians who came about into existance like Aphrodite, i.e. not through Kronos or any of the titans?

Zeus made Athena by birthing her from his forehead.

# ¿ Oct 8, 2014 11:01

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Bobbin Threadbare posted:

You joke, but in Hesiod's version when Prometheus steals fire from Zeus and returns it to humanity, Zeus creates women as punishment. The guy had issues.

I always thought of that bit as comic relief. Misogyny is kind of a running gag in ancient Greece - remember Socrates' lovely wife?

# ¿ Oct 8, 2014 18:52

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

The God of War novel sounds absolutely amazing.

# ¿ Oct 15, 2014 16:46

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Waffleman_ posted:

Is it just me, or are there not as many video game novelizations anymore? Or am I just not looking anymore? I've read several of them, including like five Halo novels and I will defend them to the death as an art form because when they're good, they're pretty good and when they're bad, they're AMAZING.

If anything, there's more than ever. Hell, I've seen no less than three different AssCreed novels my last trip to the library (in addition to the standard loadout of Halo, Mass Effect and even Crysis and Battlefield(whatthefuck)) - and that's just that poo poo that gets translated into Czech, I can't imagine how much of it doesn't make it over the ocean.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Oct 16, 2014

# ¿ Oct 16, 2014 21:34

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Suddenly I'm reminded of Metroid Prime and its golem bowling.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2014 09:27

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

resurgam40 posted:

e: What the hell am I talking about? Iphigenia! The friggin' Trojan War! Agamemmnon is told by the gods that he has to sacrifice Ipheginia to the gods to get the winds blowing to sail to Troy and after much handwringing by all those involved, she sacrifices herself. Euripides even made a play about it! Sorry, folks, early morning...

Honestly not sure whether this counts since she kinda doesn't die there.

# ¿ Oct 22, 2014 17:39

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Come to think of it the exploits of Finn Mac Cumwhatwasit could make a pretty cool game.
There's some Egyptian and Aztec stuff in Hexen 2 but it's a shooter, it's old and it falls under the "inspired" cathegory.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2014 16:15

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

Okay, that's Steve Blum at his hammiest and it's loving glorious.

The only explanation for the first form I can come up with is, well, both Ares and Arachne begin with "Ar". That either makes them spiders or pirates. I guess.
To be fair, I don't think Ares as ever referred to as being particularly smart.

anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Dec 17, 2014

# ¿ Dec 17, 2014 17:58

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

So the next games are what, Kratos just getting a list of who's who in Greek mythology and ticking them off one by one? The big spoiler being he's the one who murdered Greek culture and Romans reinvented it from the scratch?

# ¿ Dec 18, 2014 20:44

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# ¿ Apr 29, 2024 02:55

anilEhilated: Feb 17, 2014; But I say fuck the rain.; Grimey Drawer

I... don't think forgiveness as a place in Greek mythology. Pre-christian religions weren't too big on atonement, they preferred exemplary punishments so you don't step out of the line in the first place.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2014 11:52

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Taking Greek Mythology to school in God Of War [HDVLP]