Eh, I don't think Sony's problems have anything on the RRoD. I mean did any of Sony's problems ever receive their own acronym? Are people really going to recall buggy PSs over RRoD 360's?

The first round of anything is usually buggy - not that that's an excuse - but the RRoD persisted for quite a while (nearly the console's entire lifespan) and still is technically an issue, with the slim being the only real cure. Comparing the two feels like comparing apples and oranges.

Edit:

And again, the 360 has sold well enough and has a good enough library that it was able to overcome such a malady, that's an accomplishment and was a complement. I wasn’t trying to bash the console, but rather be honest about where it’s been.

It's not nearly as big a problem as the RRoD, but the PS3 has the Yellow Light of Death, lovingly called the YLoD, which has plagued a not insignificant number of users.

Was going to say this.  And as far as I can tell, the PS3 is WAY more reliable than either the PS1 or PS2 were.  I know more more people who've had problems with either of those consoles than any others, including the 360 or the original American NES.

I played and enjoyed the demo on PS3, and I plan to pick this up once the prices comes down to the $30 range (lowest I've seen so far is $40).  I don't mind that it's basically a God of War knockoff so long as it's fun.  I am little concerned about the padded out length of the game, though.  In the mean time, I'm still enjoying the rather fantastic Castlevania Rebirth on Wiiware.

Sooooooo... perhaps an appropriate game for which to practice thread necromancy!  I finally got around to playing this game after picking it up for $20, and came away with mixed feelings.

As far as versions, I played the 360 version.  I was initially irritated because of disc swapping, but after playing through the whole thing I was glad it's the version I got because of how trigger-heavy the controls are (I hate hate HATE the dualshock 3's L2 and R2 buttons and like the 360 controller a lot).  If the controller thing isn't an issue for you and you're looking at this game, I believe the PS3 is likely the way to go, though - I think I've read the frame rate is a little better and that would be helpful.

I'll be honest - at the beginning of the game I basically hated it.  It felt nothing at all like a Castlevania, and the story, characters, and setting all felt like super generic tripe.  I very nearly stopped playing the game during chapter 1.  As the game went on, I slowly started to like it more and more.  The gameplay started to click a little bit more, everything started to feel more Castlevania-y, and the settings became exceptionally cool.  I like that the level progression was kind of like the original games, where you went through the countryside and then eventually made your way through the vampire castle (though not Dracula's...).  The last couple chapters were just a bit strange, though.  I kind of feel like maybe Mercurystream had created the first and last levels of this for their non-Castlevania game.  Then when Konami came along and had them add the franchise, they made the middle chapters trying to be more faithful to the series and largely succeeded.  Those first and last ones, though...

Anyway, the music is serviceable and probably technically quite good, but it's just not what I'm looking for in a game soundtrack.  ESPECIALLY a Castlevania soundtrack.  Too bad they didn't get some Konami vets to do it in the way that Nintendo had Yamamoto do Metroid Prime's ost even though that was developed in the west. 

So did anyone else play this?  I enjoyed my time with it, but didn't exceptionally love it or anything.  Curious what other people thought post-play (since the lion's share of discussion here was pre-release).

I'm still avoiding it. I've basically written it off.

I liked the demo, but I was pretty turned off when the reviews mentioned how long and repetitive the game was.  I might buy it if Konami releases a "complete" edition that comes with all the DLC on the disc.

I finished it a couple of weeks ago, also having picked it up for around 20 euros.

I ended up actually liking it a lot more than I had expected.
It's basically a rip-off of GoW and SotC, which I knew before getting started, but it steals the elements well and I had fun playing it most of the time. There's a couple of incredibly annoying levels, but then, this IS a Castlevania game, so don't fool yourself into thinking that's something unusual for the series.

I also liked the music more than I'd thought. It's generic orchestra, yes, but again, it's well done and I'm feeling it gets too much flack mainly because of the series musical legacy (which is understandable, I guess).

It also looks absolutely gorgeous, which is nice

So, in all, I came away satisfied, and I'd actually recommend it if you can pick it up for around 20 dollars/euros. I HAVE played worse Castlevania games.