Bloodforge for Xbox and PlayStation 3

In Bloodforge, Arawn's heart burns for revenge. The gods have tricked him into slaying his family, so now it's payback time, and his blood lust knows few bounds. Severed heads, disemboweled bodies and more satisfy his cravings, offering gory moments, indeed, though they grow repetitious as the campaign wears on.

If you are thinking that "Man is fooled by the gods and unleashes a blood bath of revenge" sounds a lot like Kratos from God of War, you join the rest of us who feel that way. Bloodforge treads on the same territory (save the loose Greek mythos), and Kratos does it better in every aspect from visual design to soundtrack and execution.

This game takes less than 10 hours to finish, and it would go faster if the battles against common foes and the big bosses were not strung out into laborious affairs. Button-mashers are excellent when presented properly; here, it's just a losing endeavor dressed in a get-up that only horror punker Glenn Danzig would appreciate.-- Scripps Howard News Service