‘God of War: Ascension’ Super Bowl Ad Looks Good, Needs Better Music

This trailer for God of War: Ascension, running during the Super Bowl, is probably the closest we’re going to get to an actual God of War movie. And, actually, it looks great. It’s just too bad they had to choose such a bland song to go with it.

Here’s the full, live-action trailer:

It’s a bit more artistic and moody than a game which has goat/man hybrid-stabbing and cracking an elephant-man’s skull open to play in his brains probably deserves, but it’s still a well-done trailer.

That said, we have to go on a little rant here, because who the hell picks this music?

Seriously. Whether it’s Assassin Creed III’s bizarre auto-tuned pop song, Dead Space 3′s latest ad being scored to cheesy ’80s pop, or this, apparently video game companies are chronically incapable of selecting a decent song.

It’s not a knock against Ellie Goulding, and actually, this remix of the song is a lot better than the actual single. And again, yes, it fits lyrically. To a point. But musically, it fits in about as well as Kratos at a pacifist rally.

Look, there’s literally millions of songs out there. Granted that God Of War‘s musical themes tend towards the bombastic and this ad is really anything but, but Gerard Marino, the series’ composer across the entire franchise, could probably have put something together.

So, please, marketing executives, hire that annoying hipster who knows every song. We hate that guy too, but he’ll probably make better musical choices for your ads.