Douglas Adams was fond of saying that gods used to be our best explanations for things, but now we have vastly better ones (explanations, not gods). I’m pretty sure he was referring to why the sun shines and the crops grow; we’ve taken a different approach.

God of War III is coming out next week, which is what sparked the conversation that led to this comic. If you are among the PS3 Legion, then treat yourself to the demo. In it, you perform an act of manual decapitation on a deity, which isn’t a phrase I get to use an awful lot. I mean, if you’re reading a review of “Cooking Mama” and that string of letters makes an appearance, I think it’s time to find a new video game journalist.

I mention this because it brought my cohort and me around to discussing the way we experience video games. Back when Modern Warfare II came out, we talked about the airport massacre, which in and of itself wasn’t all that gory. Yes, it was horrific in its intent, but entrails do not make an appearance. In GoW III, when you pull that head off Helios’ neck, you see the skin stretch and break to reveal snapping sinew and full gallons of blood.

Paul (who refused to participate in the slaughter in MW2) found himself again uneasy at the high-def imagery his television was assaulting him with. I have no problem with it; I experience the games as the characters I’m playing, whereas he experiences them as himself. It’s not that I don’t think it’s horrific and gory; it totally is. It’s that Kratos is not sickened by it, and when the Six-Axis is in my hand I am the Ghost of Sparta.

In this way, we are different. Which is good, because it makes for a much more interesting discussion.

In other news; make way, Pittsburgh! I’ll be descending upon your city in a few days, so gather up any extraneous human refuse so that appropriate sacrifices may be made.