God of War Collection (1 and 2)

"...a great rerelease of two of the best games of all time in high definition.  Matt Leone, 1UP.com
"...the ability to take a long look back at Kratos' journey is the true reward of this amazing collection.  Tae K. Kim, GamePro.com

IGN.com 9 of 10
Perhaps more than any of its franchises, God of War stands out as the most looked-upon series in Sony's library of fantastic titles as even people who don't own a PlayStation system take a look at what Kratos is up to every time new info hits. While we still have some four months to go until we can get our hands on God of War III, the wait is being made a little bit easier with the release of the God of War Collection...This compilation contains both God of War I and II ported over to PlayStation 3 code. This means that you don't need a backwards-compatible PS3 to play them as the collection is actually a native PlayStation 3 title, despite the content being completely untouched. While the games remain identical to their original releases, one big thing here is that they both now run in HD, and simply because of the resolution bump, they've never looked (and even played) better...Now, one element of gameplay that has changed very slightly is that both titles feel smoother to play thanks to the increased framerate. While God of War I and II both ran pretty well on the PS2, their framerates weren't perfect and there was screen tearing aplenty. There's none of that here, and because of it, Kratos feels a tiny bit more responsive. It's a subtle difference, one that you might only be able to notice if you've played the original versions recently, but it is indeed a nice improvement...Fans of the franchise know that God of War I and II both included plenty of behind-the-scenes content and videos, and all of that is wholly intact. The content that shipped with God of War I was viewable inside of the game (it's in the actual code rather than being a standalone video), so that's still the case. The downside is that you don't really have any controls, so you can't rewind, pause or anything like that. The stuff for God of War II, on the other hand, is viewable under the Video tab in the Xross Media Bar, so you have access to the same controls that you do for DVDs, Blu-ray discs or downloaded videos, which is great...The God of War Collection is now the definitive way to play the original two PlayStation 2 titles, and for folks who somehow never owned a PS2 and who don't have a backwards-compatible PlayStation 3, this marks the first time that they've been able to play them. At $40 for two of the best action games ever made, and the perfect precursors to next March's God of War III, this is a collection that you shouldn't pass up. - Chris Roper