[Pai Pai Master]

All this week, Sony spent some time showing off the first ever playable build of GOD OF WAR III, the epic PS3 conclusion to their popular PlayStation 2 franchise. Dozens of websites, small and large, will be posting up their first impressions, screenshots and videos throughout the day.

Originally Posted by Hardcore Gamer Magazine Online

Everything in the game seems like it shouldn’t be running as smooth as it is. Even the smallest character in God of War III seems advanced and alive. All of the landscapes and buildings are beautiful and incredibly realistic. In fact, many of the environments are literally alive.

God of War III will mostly be fought on huge creatures known as Titans. Unfortunately, not much is known about the Titans yet. One of the Titans that we do know about is Gaia. Gaia is a huge rock-type creature that has a living forest on it. While on Gaia, it seems as if you are in a normal forest. However, there is always a little hint of the living creature you’re actually on, which really brings the game alive.

The enemies are already more intelligent than the average game baddie, but their skills can increase when a commander-type enemy comes out. He’ll rally them and they’ll work together with more strategy. Luckily, there are plenty of awesome moves that you can combat them with. For instance, you’ll be able to grab enemies and use them as a battery ram, which looks really cool.

The best new combat feature, though, is the ability to disembowel. It’s not known how often or to which enemies you’ll be able to use this new feature. In one of the sequences shown, Kratos is fighting a large centaur that he finally pins to the ground. He takes out a blade and rips open his stomach, revealing his entrails. If more of God of War III is like this, it could definitely be one of the goriest games yet.

Although God of War III is still awhile off, it’s already looking to be one of the best titles of this generation. The graphics are unmatched and the gameplay looks even more fun and solid than its predecessors. Hopefully the entire game will end up as impressive as this early gameplay.

More to come....

[Ziero]

And this is the reason I got a PS3

well...one of many reasons actually.

[Pai Pai Master]

Trailer is up.

Gametrailers.com - God of War III - Epic Scale Trailer HD

Gametrailers.com - God of War III - Epic Scale Trailer HD

Hopefully there'll be a site that posts it in better quality than atrocious Gametrailers.

And some IGN shots. The Icarus Wings and Golden Fleece make a return in this game, as it picks up right where GoWII left off.









IGN Impressions:

This comment led him directly into speaking about the plot of God of War III and what it encompasses. Picking up directly where God of War II left off, Kratos will ride Gaia as she and her fellow titans scale Mount Olympus to bring the fight to the gods. The Ghost of Sparta's need for revenge will cause him to stop at nothing to seek the death of Zeus and the gods that have wronged him. In the process, Stig mentioned, Kratos' actions will re-ignite the old war between the Gods and the Titans, known in classic mythology as the Titanomachy. "Nothing is going to stand in his way – he's going to bring chaos and destruction, and if that means bringing down all of Olympus, so be it," Asmussen said.

The re-ignition of the war is the backdrop of God of War III, and will constantly surround Kratos as he moves throughout the entire game. Asmussen pointed out that there would be moments when he might be fighting on the arms and shoulders of Gaia with other titans next to him against hordes of soldiers. At other moments, he'd be handling a puzzle or exploring part of Olympus, while battles between gods and titans would rage in the background. The effects from the battles of these divine beings would swirl and cross the land that Kratos would navigate, so the fog of war would be rocked with smoke, ash, fire, explosions and other debris from these conflicts. "The best way that I can describe it is take D-Day, the Battle at Normandy, combine it with the movie Cloverfield, and put Kratos smack dab in the middle of it," Asmussen said.

However, even with these images described to us, Asmussen specifically stated that this wasn't the only elements of the story or the plot that players could expect. While he refused to go into any details on the plot, he did mention that he wanted to point out three elements related to the plot. First, he specifically wanted the story to bridge the entire series instead of being an isolated tale by itself. God of War III will be the final game in the series, and Asmussen pointed out that key moments from the first two games would have a major impact within the third game, turning the story into a title that's incredibly deep and complex. Obviously, this could cause problems for those players than never picked up the first two, but Asmussen stated that he wanted to make sure that the plot would be, "a refresher course for fans of the series, but a history lesson for any newcomers."

Secondly, the team wanted to get into the head of Kratos and fully show and depict what is making him tick at a particular moment. Apparently the team always wanted to show a violent physical struggle for Kratos but a violent emotional struggle as well, and these two elements will play out hand in hand within the fast paced action of God of War III. Finally, the team wanted to have an epic finale to send the series out with a bang. Asmussen said that because the game will start very strong, it's going to end very strong as well, and he feels that there will be a punch to the ending with a truth and relevance that will hit each person that picks up the controller and plays the game from start to finish.

After fighting through more soldiers and scaling a set of walls and ledges, Kratos eventually emerged on the platform where the severely injured Helios lay, crushed under the weight of his chariot. Before Kratos could leap onto him and destroy him, he found himself facing off against a new enemy: skeletal enemies with gigantic shields. Stig mentioned that these soldiers could protect against most attacks that Kratos could use, and could even form phalanxes to defend each other. The lone weakness came with the arrival of a Cyclops, which Todd mounted and used to smash the shields and send the skeletons flying. Of course, the Cyclops could only take so much damage, and after the skeletons were eliminated, Papy hit the button prompt, and Kratos plunged his hands into the Cyclops' eye socket. Palming the beast's eyeball, he promptly ripped it clean out, with the connective tissue and nerve still attached. But the brutality wasn't done there. Kratos quickly walked over to Helios, and grabbed the gods head, squeezing and pulling with all of his strength. As Helios screamed and fought back as best as he could in his weakened condition, in the end, Kratos was too powerful, and the Ghost of Sparta ripped his head clean from his shoulders. Stig dryly mentioned that Kratos had just acquired his latest power up.

Similar to the head of the Medusa from the original game, Helios' head had a couple of uses that Kratos would exploit as he continued to search for the secret entrance to Olympus. The first one was that the head would reveal hidden doors that were cloaked from view, thanks to the wide sunbeams that were projected from his mouth. As he said this, Papy raised the head to a cliff wall and revealed the secret door of Eos that Kratos had been searching for, and the Spartan entered the dark portal searching for the secret passage. The second use for the head was as a lantern, and Kratos palmed Helios' skull to illuminate his way through the darkness. However, the passageway of Eos wasn't unguarded, and as a group of skeletal warriors charged Kratos, he raised the head and used it to blind them with a burst of light. This, Stig mentioned, was a way to set up quick combos, because the enemies would recoil from the power of the head, giving you an opportunity to strike quickly.

Honestly, from a personal standpoint, even describing the elements of the gameplay and trailer doesn't do the gameplay justice, because the sense of scale and action really has to be seen to be fully grasped and understood. The vistas are huge, the characters and monsters that you face off against are significantly larger and more numerous than the previous games, and there's a lot of features that the team specifically has tried to keep secret from everyone, particularly because they want to roll additional details out at a later time. For example, there were no red experience orbs shown during the game demo to indicate how Kratos would level up his weapons, nor were the team willing to explain whether they would strip Kratos of power at the start and let him build up his skills. Nor were they willing to talk about the sex mini-games that many people have thought of with the game, but Stig reassured us, "we don't want to fix what ain't broke." They're also still working on a number of elements to ensure that the scale would work as well as they want it to, so they're still working on ensuring that the camera is clean and unobtrusive, because, as Stig put it, having the camera capture all of the gameplay and scenic elements for the onscreen and background action is extremely complicated.

While the game was one that was striking due to the scale of the adventure and the battle sequences, it obviously begged the question if the team would go the Killzone 2 route and refuse an install, or have some kind of install to help with the title. Talking to the lead programmer, I found out that there would probably be a small install when players initially started the game for the first time, but everything else from there would stream solely from the disc with a significant amount of SPU balancing to make sure that everything moves seamlessly without any load times or visual hitches. Although they weren't willing to talk about release dates or even if this level would be a possible demo that fans would be able to see and play (which they did seem willing to consider, but weren't willing to commit to), the design team did state that there would be plenty of news coming about God of War III soon. Personally, I can't wait, because if it's even close to what we were shown during the screening, in the end, there might be only chaos, but it could also be one of the best games any system will ever have.

[Feba]

Why does this look like PS2 GOW + lighting?

Also, hopefully they do the 'Titan' concept justice. Pretty narrow margin to do something like that justice; you don't want to come off as "Bigger SOTC", nor do you want to come off as "You're inside something's gut, but it's passed out and there's no movement besides some freaky membrane stuff on the wall" (Monstro in KH, the Fish in OOT)

[Raydeus]

Because GoW was already pretty good looking on the PS2 (I remember I said at the time that it looked on par or better than a lot of brick and PS3 games from back then.) So probably the real difference will most likely be in the physics, animation+effects and of course resolution.


Edit > Linda Hunt does make Gaia justice, so at least thats a plus. I just hope they go back to the style of those cool cutscenes from the first game.

[Pai Pai Master]

Shit, it's the same! Not to mention this is a 2010 release we're looking at.

The Titans aren't just moving landscapes; they're programmed AI. At any point, simply walking around can become a climbing battle.

[Raydeus]

I loved the new moves (or maybe they were from CoO but I haven't played that one save for that time I was testing a PSP3000).

Either way it's gonna be awesome.

[Pai Pai Master]

Indeed, pulling yourself towards opponents as well as wall-running and real-time weapon switching are obvious but fantastic additions to the battle system.

In addition, each of the additional weapons will be as fleshed out as the Blades of Chaos this time, and have their own similar benefits which will help you build some intricate, impressive combos.

God of War has never been the most technical game of its kind but it's by far more fun of a cohesive experience than Ninja Gaiden or Devil May Cry in my opinion. Hopefully the new changes will help it better stand toe to toe with those two in terms of the combat system.

It's funny how deliciously Kratos-like the whole Helios thing is. You spend a decent amount of effort in Chains of Olympus trying to save Helios...jump to a few years forward and Kratos shows up and rips his head straight off for his own use.

[Malacite]

I dunno, DMC 3 and 4 let you pull off some intense combos. Especially in DMC 4 since Dante can switch both weapons and styles on the fly. If anything though it's too complex.


GoW 3 looks like so much win I think I'm gonna cry. Also, why the hell does the guy Kratos is holding by the head look Roman? Or is that just my imagination.

[Pai Pai Master]

It's the Greek god Helios, who is also identified as Apollo in Roman mythology. They seem to be sticking with the character design established by the developers of the PSP game, and they seemed to go for a look that sided more with Roman mythology than Greek.

Helios, being the Greek god of the Sun, has special powers which can aid Kratos on his quest. By beheading him, Kratos is able to use his head much like the Medusa head in the first two games. It'll blind enemies, but it'll also reveal hidden paths/treasures as well as light your way through dark caves.

[Raydeus]

Yeah, kinda too complex, like doing a self skill chain to kill a lvl2 Bee outside Basty.

Isn't that Helios in the pic? I think that's what Pai was talking about when he mentioned CoO.

Man this is gonna be awesome, ever since I watched Saint Seiya I feel the urge to kill anyone named Poseidon. Along with Hades, Hermes and Helios.

Plus hopefully there will be a GoW IV too, the murals at the fates' temple show another image after the battle of the gods.


Edit > I forgot PaiPai has FastPost too.

[Pai Pai Master]

This is the last game in the established trilogy (or quadrilogy, if you include Chains of Olympus, which is just as important as the first two), Sony's saying. It's unlikely to be the last in the franchise but it will put an end to the story that began in the first game.

[Raydeus]

Yeah, the last painting was about the three wise men or something.

And since the first game did show some more recent times when talking about Kratos I figured it would be something of the sort. (It would be a lot of fun having a level with Kratos in the middle of WWII just for the sake of tradition )


PS > Kratos vs the Chimera would work too, or Kratos cutting Hale's head off to get his regenerative skills and stuff. Yeah too crazy... forget I said that. XD

[hexx]

If I remember correctly, somewhere in the bonus features of the first game, it mentioned something about Kratos having a brother that was neglected and left to die in the wilderness due to him having been born weak and small, and that because of said neglect embraced the power of the underworld or something? Cant remember for sure since its been a long time since I played the first game.

[Raydeus]

Yep, something like that.

All this talk about Kratos will probably end with me replaying I and II pretty soon.