The greatness of the original God of War - whether its storytelling, amazing level architecture, or the execution of its brilliant combat - had blinded me to the single black mark on my memory of the game. Nothing more than a lonely speck of criticism really; buried beneath my fond recollections of that triumph of David Jaffe and his team. But that tiny blemish came roaring back to the forefront of my mind this evening as I played the final act of God of War II... Those cheap freaking environmental action-puzzles! In the original, I was both cursing the frustrating timer puzzles and begrudgingly chuckling along at the fairly clever, tongue-in-cheek designers' joke that was "The Architect's Tomb." But the absurdly frustrating latter portions of "The Palace of the Fates" in God of War II go above and beyond anything that the twisted mind of Pathos Verdes ever dreamed up. And it's not that these "puzzles" are actually demanding - you can't get by on skill or even sheer mindless repetition. Because you aren't merely fighting against the game, but literally fighting against the game. Take for example the awesome "jam on the 'O' button to lift junk" mechanic. Made even more annoying since they've ever-so-slightly increased the amount of time that it takes Kratos to clean & jerk those massive doors into the air... Which brings me to the "Fires of the Phoenix" that employs not only unceasing, overpowered environmental damage but also the Zapp Brannigan strategy of sending wave after wave of enemies at you. You apparently can't just weather the storm of attackers and then complete the puzzle... I guess would eliminate the "challenge." So way to go SCEA! You've completely ruined my enjoyment of an otherwise fantastic game. Thanks! After 20 or 30 minutes of the same nonsense, I threw down the controller in disgust & caught the second episode of The Riches tonight on FX. It's a pretty good show so far. I'm continually impressed by the quality of content that FX produces...