The original God Of War game that came out in 2005 on the Playstation 2, set the bar high. Most critics hailed the game as classic worthy so you’ll have to excuse God Of War Ascension if it doesn’t quite live up to those lofty standards set by its predecessor. That’s not to say it isn’t a good game, but Ascension has a hard act to follow in the GoW series that wowed us on Playstation 2.

Ascension is actually the prequel to the core trilogy of GoW console games that was completed in 2010, but that won’t stop people from making comparisons to the first game even though in theory Ascension is the story that comes first (see the irony at work here?). The one theme that has stayed the same is, Kratos is one pissed off (and remorseful) God and there will be blood. The game’s stunning visuals and stellar combat system do a lot for the wow factor, but the actual plot line, not so much. The Furies are the main detractors here and having broken a blood oath with the Gods, Kratos becomes the target for the three demonic sisters. The opening fight against one of the Furies is a great introduction and you’ll find yourself reeled in rather quickly.

After this though is where you’ll find the story can get a bit disjointed as it utilizes several flashback moments. One flashback moment goes on for about two hours, but it gives some backstory on the events leading up to his capture. After you complete that campaign the story jets back to the present and then another flashback point occurs. It felt like the story was all over the place and lacked any cohesiveness. If you can look past that, Ascension is not a bad game, as there’s a nice balance of brawling and puzzle solving. The M rating on this game is well deserved as there’s nudes scenes and shots of cleavage. I wasn’t mad at that at all, but if you have small kids at home like I do, you might want to play this after hours when curious eyes aren’t watching.

Kratos is still one of the dopest and most violent characters ever created in video game lore, but unfortunately his story is losing its luster. God of War Ascension boasts solid gameplay and impaling ugly beasts has never been more fun but I look forward to see what Sony can do with this title on the PS4 to take it to the next level.

DJ Rhude BMR Love: 8.2

Fanhood Sports announced today the launch of their Most Social March Madness Brackets. Read the entire press release and see more images after the curb jump. 

San Francisco, March 12, 2013 – Fanhood, the fast growing social sports betting application on Facebook, today announced the launch of its Most Social March Madness Brackets. This is the first March Madness bracket specifically designed to leverage Facebook features and communication channels, and the latest in a series of growth efforts made by the company to bring fun, easy and free sports betting action to the Facebook platform.

The Most Social March Madness Brackets by Fanhood is deeply integrated with Facebook using Open Graph, Comments and Feeds to help friends engage in the tournament action they care about. Fanhood also offers a suite of additional sports game formats such as challenges, pools and trivia games to keep players engaged and busy during any breaks in the tournament.

“Fanhood’s March Madness bracket is providing a fun, easy way to enjoy the Tournament with a broader group of friends,” said Brandon Ramsey, CEO and founder of Fanhood. “This long overdue modernization of ‘bracketology’ will give a serious social boost to the tournament and is a big win for fans.”

Eligible participants in the Most Social March Madness Brackets by Fanhood will have a shot at winning a $4,000 cash prize. Contest entries can be collected by picking winning teams in each round, having friends who have completed brackets on Fanhood, visiting friends’ brackets, or having a winning bracket. For more information, go to apps.facebook.com/fanhood.

Fanhood, which launched in the fall of 2012, has contributed to the rapidly growing Social Casino space with the introduction of a social betting platform that engages sports fans in a lighter-weight, less time consuming, year-round alternative to Fantasy Football. The NCAA tournament is one of the many sporting events that Fanhood is using to draw players in.

With more than half the world’s population made up of sports fans, sports is poised to be the largest category in social casino. Thirty-five million people participated in Fantasy leagues last year; an estimated 75 million completed a March Madness bracket. Globally, the numbers explode as you include activity around sports like cricket and soccer, which draw in two and three billion fans, respectively.

With strong data analysis capabilities, Fanhood has built a valuable set of “fanalytics,” processing structured and unstructured social data with a proprietary affinity engine to surface the most interesting sports content for Fanhood users.

As Sports fans eagerly await selection Sunday on March 17th, Fanhood has some Fun Fan Facts to share from a recent (March 2013) poll:

• A Love Hate Relationship for Duke: 42 percent of fans rated Duke as the “most annoying/arrogant” college team, yet one in four are betting they win the whole thing – even with their early-round loss last year.

• Florida Flack: Only 12 percent of respondents plan to place Florida in the winning position in their bracket, while more than one third (34 percent) think they will be ousted from the tournament early – before the likes of Indiana and Duke
• Better Luck Next Time: 40 percent predict that Villanova will not even make the tournament.

• Fair Weather Fans: Most respondents admitted to little to no college love in the regular season – with nearly 40 percent confessing they had watched 0-10 games so far.

About Fanhood
Fanhood is a leading social application developer that brings the sports content you care about to Facebook in fun formats to share and compete with friends. Place bets, answer trivia questions and compete in pools to test your Fanhood. It’s free to play and always has fresh action so get in the game!

“And I ain’t trying to be a pin up girl/just winning/so you better keep your pen up girls”

Ms Blade’s new visual for “I Go Hard” is just as hardbody as the record.