For starters let me say that I havent played Ascension yet so I will not rank it but here is my rank:

1.- God of War: Ghost of Sparta (The best magic, the bosses were really good, it has my favorite story and I really liked their try in making Kratos a human instead of wrath personified, I loved the part when you are in Sparta and can see how a city with no battle is like)

2.- God of War 2.- (A excelllent sequel to the first game that was bigger and better with some excellent puzzles, the magic was awesome and it has the best boss battles on the series with the best graphics on the PS2)

3.- God of War.- (A great start to the franchise that made the fundations of the serie and lore and even though it has few bosses all of them are epic, I really liked this game)

4.- God of War: Chains of Olympus.- (The first portable title and it was really evident, it is a really short game but not the less is good and I really apreciate their try in making a great handheld god of war game)

5.- God of War 3.- (I really didnt like this game because the magic system is broken because the only magic is the one each weapon has and they arent good, there are too many different weapons and not enough variety, did we really need three different variants of the chains?, the game is the longest in the series but it has so many parts that I didnt like the ascent/descent of the underworld/terrain world, the labyrinth, the part when you are in the city, etc. is also the hardest game in the series for me and I played it on normal

Anyone can post their own ranking?

Edit: If it matters I played them like this:

GoW>GoW2>GoW3(until the labyrinth)>GoW:CoO>GoW:GoS>GoW3(the end of the game)

GoW3
GoW2
GoW1
GoW:A

Emm to be honest 1 and 2 are my favourite. The rest are forgetable.

GOW3
GOW1
GOW2

Those are the only ones I've played.

Well, the console GoW games got progressively better gameplay and graphic-wise and progressively worse story-wise, to the point it became unbearable to play with Kratos on his roaring rampage of mindless revenge.

On my head canon, GoW it's all about the prequels, ending with GoW itself. The end of GoW was perfect and was retconned out of existence when GoW II came out =/

GoW3 >/= GoW2 > GoW:GoS > GoW > GoW:CoO >/= GoW:A

(also your nonsensical complaints about GoW3 made me cringe, they don't even make sense, like wtf lol)

I'll quote you, too lazy. But yeah you said it all.

Why is Ascension the worst on everyone's list? I haven't played it, but why is it so bad?

The ones I played

GoW 1
GoW 3
GoW 2
GoW: A

And I disagree about the variety of weapons on GoW 3. The weapons on previous installments are pretty much useless and you have to stick to the Blades anyway, except by the Spear of Destiny that is great (Blade of Olympus too, but that one is overpowered and takes the challenge away).

GoW 3 is the only one were you really can play only with the alternate weapons, with the Nemean Cestus being the best alternate weapon in the series. Claws of Hades are equivalent to the blades, except by the different combo mechanics (they feel different). The Nemesis Whip isn't a blade, it plays completely different and focus on aerial combos. Too bad the game give it to you close to the end where you already got used and good with the Blades/Cestus combo and won't give that much attention to that weapon, but it can really take Minotaurs with ease and style!

2>3>1. I have the rest of the games, but I haven't played them yet. I feel like 1 had a few boring parts which is why it's last although it probably had the best story.