Kratos climbing Apollo is breathtaking. That is a lack of fear.

I can now see the flaws in the battle system. It's not bad in anyway and still a solid GoW but he rolls slower than other games it seems like (Maybe to force you in using block). I was getting a little frustrated when I got the ice element because of the satyrs... i couldn't stop blocking because they attacked too fast and I couldn't roll out of the way from all the attacks. I had to just grapple my way through that part. I'm now on the dragon, I can rip one wing off but he keeps killing me (i'm playing on hard)

The manticore has a pattern so just observe and learn it :).  Try not to use magic with the first phase because the second one is hardest because of the manticore spawns.   The first phase pattern is quite easy so try to make a flawless victory, so that even if you dont fight that well against the second phase you can still win.

The dodge I think is as fast as always, but now the enemies have longer and faster hit combos, and are more agressive.   So when you fight against lots of goat men, you have to be very conservative when attacking if you dont have the reflexes to parry them.   And also because they are more agressive now, in the middle of an attack they can change direction and hit you while you are dodging.

I also began to notice some of this stuff  in a few cases while playing in normal; more in hard and and a lot more in Titan.   The enemies are too berserkers so the "dodge mechanic" can not dodge the attacks when you are swarmed.   In all GOW games I usually attack till I dodge, and almost never blocked (put parried); but in this one it is safer to block, now that the enemies chase you so agressively, and that almost every attack is blockable.

I guess they changed the focus of combat this time?

I think that enemies in the next game, if berserkers, should not have so  many consecutive attacks, because if they swarm you, one will hit you, and when he is about to end, another one will hit you, and another, and another.  But considering the block move in this game can block almost everything, I guess it compensates :)

I do pretty good on him for the first part but that tail hurts like hell in the second. Another thing that I forgot to say is they nerfed jump dodge all to hell... that was always how I played. Combo then just jump around. This time they knock you out of the air right away. The area you had to fight in after getting the ice was way too small in my opinion. Didn't have a problem with the lightening part.  Bold: Is exactly what I was having problems with after getting the ice

When the scenario of being swarmed happens, I try to block and use R1 and then triangle to smack it into the other enemies, so I can have a small openning to attack them properly, then R1 - Triangle again; till they are dead.

This is your first time playing?? If so, when you get the Hades element, and when you fight goats with shields, do square/square/triangle with Hades, and so some hands from below will attack the dudes, and they will loose their shields.

Regarding the Manticore fight, all I can say is keep trying or watch the following video if you want to:

The vid is a bit long, because it is a non-upgrade-run so it takes him a bit to kill the Manticore, but still I think it is a nice demonstration of how to kill it.  Hope it helps :)

Also, when you are fighting the next boss from where you are now (Not story spoiler, but if you want the whole fight to take you by surprise dont watch) in the last part of his last phase, he will throw energy beams at you.  You can either parry them or attack the nearby columns to that you get stones to throw to him, that will make him vulnerable to your attacks.

I just beat Ascension. Trials of Archimedes was such a bitch, but I figured it out. Its pretty much common sense but it takes some gaming nohow of understanding mechanics and computer behavior.

After dying the first time, I thought it was really unfair. I even contemplated tweeting Adam Sessler an apology for calling him a bitch a week ago. Once I figured out what to do against each set of enemies though, it was pretty easy. I beat the trial on my third try (without the patch that nerfed it for all difficulty settings).

I dont even know if I got the patch but I beat it on hard. I parried alot but I dodged and Orkos stoned more than I even did that. Sometimes because of how many buttons this trial demands I forgot about my strong elemental attacks but eventually i used those and got stronger combos off. The Orkos stone and time suspension are a saving grace in this whole thing. I dunno how I would've gotten through it without. SSM must've gotten the memory that some people thought GOW was easy and decided to fuck with those people. Final Boss was one of the most epic ever. 

The patch came out last Saturday, I think. It basically gives you health and magic orbs after each level of the trial. If you didn't get any orbs, you played without the patch (like a boss). I always started off with the Orkos Stone, followed by Time Suspension, and then combos until the suspension wore off. Then I'd do two magic attacks (Hades or Zeus) with combos in between. Rinse and repeat until victory.

Honestly, I thought it was the most epic final battle in the series. The GOW3  final battle dragged on in my opinion, but the Zeus side scrolling 1 on 1 fight was awesome.

Tap sprint as you roll and you can roll non-stop.

SprintrollSprintrollSprintroll L3(bitforward)R3L3(bitforward)R3 basically