God of War is (finally) coming to PC on Friday but reviews are live now, and in case there was any doubt it's very good: "The best version of a fantastic game," we said in our 90% review, "evidence that the PC is the ultimate videogame unifier, and a great reminder of how the platform can bring out the best in games." In short, if you haven't played God of War and you want to, this is the version to play.
If you're still not convinced, maybe this will help: 15 minutes of God of War gameplay on PC, rendered in glorious 4K at 60 fps. It's not new—God of War originally released on the PS4 in 2018—but holy cow, does it look good: Everything from the armor and weapon textures to Kratos' ratty beard is razor-sharp and incredibly detailed, and it all flows like water, too.
Of course, you'll need some beefy hardware to pull that off: The full system requirements are here, but the recommended spec for 4K/60fps gameplay includes a GTX 3080 (10GB) or RX 6800XT (16GB), an Intel Core i9 9900K (8 core 3.6Ghz) or AMD Ryzen 9 3950X (16 core 3.5Ghz) CPU, and 16GB of RAM. That's not nothing, but if you can put it all together you're going to have one seriously pretty game on your hands.
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is proof, if any was ever needed, that you don't need the latest graphics technology to have a great-looking game that also runs well
- Blades of Fire is a God of War-style action game coming to PC from the creators of Metroid Dread, and it's almost definitely a spiritual successor to Severance
Back to the trailer: I haven't played God of War so I'm not sure what's happening here, but things really get turned up to 11 at the 10-minute mark, when some guy who looks like Kratos' hard-living older brother shows up. At first I expected some vaguely sinister conversation, like when Geralt met Gaunter O'Dimm in The Witcher 3, but no: Tattoo Man (who is actually the Norse Aesir god Baldr) absolutely rocks Kratos with a vicious uppercut, kicking off a brawl that goes on for nearly four minutes and escalates through multiple increasingly alarming stages. When the fight first started I thought it was all a bit silly; by the time Kratos used Baldr's head to pound a big hole through a giant boulder I was on the edge of my seat. It's a lot of fun.
God of War debuts on PC on January 14. It's preloadable now on Steam (it's also available on Epic, but without a preload option) and will unlock at 8 am PT/11 am ET. For global release timings, hit up our full rundown of God of War PC unlock times.
