God of War does not compare to Devil May Cry 3. DMC3 had a gameplay system that was superior to GoW. DMC3 was an actual challenge unlike GoW.

Gameplay>anything. (game related...)

HawksNDoves

Seconded indeed.

I personally thought GoW was a decent game, but tragically, horrendously over-rated. Sure, the graphics were amazing, it had a decent story, etc etc. But I personally found the actual GAMEPLAY mostly.....average. Sure, you can break zombie/skeleton things in two, impale minotaurs through the mouth, kill a few really big beasties (which I found to be rather mundane as far as bosses go) in brutal ways, and engage in a few lewd acts with some ladies of questionable morals.

But really, there are many games on the PS2 that trump GoW in terms of sheer enjoyment derived from gameplay. Maybe I'm just desensitized after years of a culture saturated with violent media, but the violence and whatnot didn't provide the 'deep, awesome experience' for me as it seemed to for so many, and couldn't disguise what I feel to be shallow, mostly repetitive gameplay. I'm more drawn to games like DMC3 and God Hand for their involving, challenging combat, MGS3 for amazing storylines and immersive, intuitive experiences, and Okami for originality and attempting to be great without being 'yet another FPS/WWII/racing/etc game'.

Of course, this is just my opinion, but I don't really plan on changing it. I'll probably still get GoW2 eventually once it goes Platinum here and the price drops (1M shipped in the first week, mightn't have to wait long :P), but I doubt it'll be topping any 'best of' lists I make.

No turn-based? Heh, you're cutting yourself out of a very large portion of the RPG market there, good sir. Also,  is it just FF games you're not after, or does that also expand to Square-Enix in general? (gotta ask, many aren't fans of them). If not, maybe you'd like Star Ocean: Till the End of Time. Has a slow start, but overall a fairly decent action-based system.

If you don't mind the odd Strategy RPG,  I'd recommend Disgaea or its sequel. The customisation extends very deeply in this series, and there's literally an infinite number of sidequests (ie. randomly generated dungeons for each item). Plus it's just funny, in an off-beat kinda way.

Still debating on getting or not.

god hand
alayeesquire

• You can hit people in the balls, and can be 'sacked' yourself. When this happens, a bell tolls, and the 'audience' laughs. (Yes, the 'audience'. Don't ask.)
• There's a group of Power Ranger ripoffs. Who are also midgets. And named after card suits. ("Get your dog neutered.... or SPADE!" "Tonight I'm going to the.....CLUB!")
• Poison Chuiahuas
• You can spank female enemies repeatedly as a valid damage-dealing attack
  
• Psychic baseball bats
• Best credit song ever