God Of War

Last night I watched on Spike TV the Video Game Awards, hosted by Samuel L. Jackson, and featuring such luminaries as Charlize Thereon, who received an award for best female performance in a video game for "Aeon Flux". ALso present, but for just a brief appearrance, was Keifer Sutherland, who introduced the new video game "24" based on the popular Fox Network Series in which he plays Agent Jack Bauer. He seemed strangely out of place in the affair, coming in for just a brief appearrance from offstage, and then leaving. You could almost hear him thinking, "get me out of this house of lunatics".

But for the most part, you could appreciate the bond that united this disparate group, made up of A-List actors and actresses, gangsta rappers, rock musicians, and computer gang geeks of all races and ages. Gamers all.

I felt drawn to watch the two hour special out of curiosity concerning the game "God Of War", an offical site to which I have provided a link in the title. From what I have read on the site, Ares appears to be every bit as maligned on this site as he has been throughout the God's history, including by the ancient Greeks. He is the bloodthirsty, excessively violent, and yet cowardly and craven, God who is the personification of the act and carnage of war. Of course, all of the Gods and Goddesses of ancient Greece had their positve as well as their negative aspects, and unfortunatley Ares more positive aspects have been long lost, forgotten, from history.

So shrouded in mystery has he become, in fact, that his true name-Enyalios-has almost been forgotten, and has survived only due to Homer's inclusion of it in "The Illiad", although the name appears there as the name of a son of Ares. Originally, Ares, or "Areis" was more of a title that was used by all the male Gods, in Mychaenaean times. Homer seems to have adapted it for current use of the God with whom it has become identified, more for poetic reasons than anything. Throughout the work, is repeated the phrase, "Ares, bane of man".

I have never been much of a gamer, though I have played on occassions, and I have no idea how the game "God Of War" goes, although I have been told it is excessively violent, in keeping with Ares' nature. It came under scrutiny, along iwth others, in a recent meeting of people who seem to be overly concerned with the detrimental societal aspects of gaming on the young. All the usual suspects were there, including Democratic Connecticutt Senator and former Vice-Presidential candidate Joseph Lieberrmann. Without getting too far out on a tangeant, for the purposes of this post I will ocnfine myself to one word- PARENTING!

At any rate, I can only assume, for the time being, that you fight a variety of figures, from human to half hiuman, to the animals of the bestiary. One of the characters that is particularly popular in the game is the "Hydra". Naturaly, the farther you go in the game, the higher the level of difficulty is likely to be. If you conquer all your foes, I suppose you come face to face with Ares Himself.

I have had some experience with this God, so I speak with a little bit of authority from here on out. I tried to invoke him once, and he didn't appreciate the gesture. He appearred to me in an explosion of fire and smoke, which I extinquished from my cauldron, luckily before too much damage was done. But the heat and the smoke from the heated essential oil, along with the steam from the extinquishing water, left the imprint on my ceiling that I can only describe as the perfect portrayal of the God, looking down on me with a hateful sneer as he leaned on a long spear, one hand on his hips.

My landlord of the time accussed me of actually trying to paint picutures on my ceiling. I lied, telling him that I had been frying chicken and the smoke filled the house and caused the image. At any rate the image remained up until the time that I moved. Years later, the ceiling collapsed due to the constantly leaking roof from the floor above, I was told, though whether that room was affected I am unsure. If not, he might well still be up there, glaring down with his malicous sneer at whoever now abides there.

At any rate, I have indeed had my experiences with this God, and therefore I can say that, if this game is at all true to the Spirit of this God, and his actual nature, he is not to be defeated by any mortal warrior, no matter how powerful , brave, or how highly favored and by whom.

In conclusion, if you want to go all the way in this game, and achieve the ultimate victory, I have a suggestion that is certainly worth a try. If you ever are able to rise to the level that, having defeated all other foes, you find yourself in the presence of the God Of War-

Bow down.