A writer at GamesRadar brought up an interesting topic recently. He explored the idea of gaming moments that make you, the gamer, feel morally uncomfortable. I experienced this recently playing God of War III. (Part of the reason I play GoW is to experience something far removed from myself, to play a character whose beliefs and behavior differ so vastly from my own. Another reason is just to play something totally epic.) Early on in the game, Kratos fights Poseidon, and my stomach turned at how brutally Kratos dispatches the God of the Sea. Poseidon isn't portrayed as evil; he is just defending Olympus and Zeus from a berserk Spartan. Yet, he is ruthlessly, horrifically broken by Kratos. It is very unsettling.

I can think of two other times I've felt similarly uncomfortable. The first was during the first God of War when Kratos sacrifices a caged warrior at a flaming altar. (Hey. If I recall correctly, the sacrifice was made to Poseidon. So maybe Poseidon isn't so clean-cut after all if he accepts this behaviour!) The second was pretty much the entire span of Shadow of the Colossus from the death of the first Colossus to the end of the game.

I didn't bring this up to discuss morality or violence in video games necessarily (I know I have a habit of doing that). I guess I brought it up to marvel at how far games have come that they are able to make me experience such a broad range of emotions. Pac-Man or Dig Dug never made me feel this way…

Speaking of God of War: I finished the Challenge of Olympus a couple of nights. It was far easier than the challenges in GoW I & II, if you're thinking of giving it a try.

And, Super Street Fighter IV is awesome. The replay system is awesome. You can save replays of your fights to your hard drive for microscopic analysis of your SF strategy and suckage. And, if you're good enough, you can even upload replays on occasion for all to watch. I was never good enough to do this in SFIV, but I recently uploaded my first SSFIV replay. I don't think it will be of any help or interest to anyone playing SSFIV, but I'm proud to have at least one replay in circulation!