God of War III

Man oh man, I have not been so overwhelmingly excited for a game in a very long time.

From the masterfully done quick-time sequences to the epic story of Greek mythos to the overall gameplay that makes you feel god-like while still feeling challenging'; what isn’t there to love about this series? Now the final conclusion to the trilogy is on it’s way and fans of the series are steeping in anticipation.

I haven’t kept up with this blog in a long time either and this is the game giving me enough momentum to do it. I’ll be ranting and raving (hopefully in a more eloquent sense than what that phrase conjures) about it until it’s release and then documenting very closely (day by day, possibly even hour by hour) my experiences with the game from day one. Incidentally, and this is about as close to a proof of God I’ve ever seen, I have spring break that same week so I’ll be living God of War III day-in, day-out with the exception two rehearsal nights and possibly some homework if I find the time.

Before I get into the third game too much let’s recap. I’m assuming that if you’re reading this you’ve played I & II and possibly Chains of Olympus on PSP (a totally legitimate prequel in the storyline, in case you didn’t know) but just in case you haven’t (for shame) and even you if you have and need a refresher, here’s a great video summing those three up quite well.

Now that we’re all on the same (awesome) page, let’s get into the fast approaching conclusion to the trilogy. That does a decent job of summarizing some of the main plot points but if you were to map out the series’ in terms of badassness it would go something like:

• Kratos is killed by Aries, God of War, fights is way out of hell
• Kratos gets revenge by killing Aries, God of War
• Kratos becomes God of War
• Back to hell again but he’s been through this before, it’s even easier this time.
• Kratos kills himself a second God, Athena, by accident but whatever; he killed A GOD by accident..that’s so Kratos.
• God of War II ends with a promise to kill ALL GODS and raze Olympus.  So Badass.

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been dying to get your hands on God of War III ever since that beautifully CGI rendered cut scene that GOW:II ends with, which is rubbish compared to how mere gameplay looks in the third iteration.

If you’ve played the demo (and if you haven’t, seriously, what’s your deal. Go download it now!) then you’ve seen what I mean BUT as noted in the first of the three interviews from developers working on the game; the graphics and overall visual appeal has improved massively, even from that seen in the E3 demo.

Ok, ok, I’m losing focus. Let’s start with these three interviews I just mentioned and then I’ll work out what else to add as I find more information from now until it’s release. I also plan on doing my best to steer clear from spoilers—I want to go into the game as fresh as possible so this blog will likely reflect that by remaining spoiler free. If I happen to come across one that I know, I will very clearly mark it as such, but I’ll definitely be trying to avoid them at all costs.

John Hight, Product Director

This interview mentions some interesting details, most eye-catching of which to me were the difference in graphics in the final game—even compared to the E3 demo just released on the PSN. Hight mentions some of the different effects added since the demo such as HDR lighting and things like motion blur and depth of field,

“… for some people it will probably feel like splitting hairs, but, you know, the depth of field that we have, motion blur, high dynamic range lighting. Just, in general, higher texture in fidelity of the models. Kratos himself, we get a lot tighter in close-ups. Overall, it just looks great. If you were to look side by side, you would see the difference. If you play the demo first and are like, "Wow, this is intense. I love it." Then, when you actually get the game, it is going to be, I think, a very positive experience, like, "Man, they made a lot of improvements in six months time."

You can find the full interview here, at joystiq,com

Adam Puhl, Combat Designer

You know all of those outrageously badass moves  you’ve seen in the demo such as using enemies as battering rams or ripping their heads off their shoulders as one would shoo a fly in annoyance? Yeah, this is probably the guy to thank. In this interview he talks about how the combat has evolved in the new game and some of the changes they’ve made (while remaining frustratingly/thankfully mostly vague) and also touches on those graphical changes Hight mentioned in the last interview, and how they affect the combat. He mentions the first boss battle—we all know GOW games start with a boss battle in a unique set piece, epic in scale—is against Poseidon who not surprisingly, you kill. If that was a spoiler sorry, but that one’s hard to miss. The journalist doing this interview, Kevin Kelly, actually links to his article about his first play through of the game’s opening scene that you can find here. Personally, I’ve avoided it and refuse to check it out, but I’m sure it’s interesting if you’re ok with hearing about the game’s opening scene.

Puhl goes on to talk about some of the dynamics of boss fights in the game, the variety in the them throughout and also about Dante’s Inferno and Darksiders. I agree mostly with what he said, “about those two games but my two cents on the GOW look-a-likes are: Dante’s Inferno did almost nothing unique and is merely a pencil tracing of God of War done by someone with Parkinson’s; it’s very similar but not better or anywhere near as good. I personally didn’t get too into Darksiders but I could tell right away from the demo that it combined things like World of Warcraft, Legend of Zelda, God of War and Portal to make a game that although borrowing many concepts pretty clearly, made them it’s own enough for the game to be unique as a whole. It’s a much better game in many ways than Dante’s Inferno

Anyway, here is that interview.

Todd Pappy, Design Director

This final interview is with Design Director, Todd Pappy during the God of War:III event in Hollywood yesterday. It’s comprised of pretty varied questions from the interviewer and some lowly fans like us which makes it a bit more brief but also a nice change of pace from the last two. It hits on everything from the “wow” moments of the game to some specifics of the design and development process. Definitely worth checking out, and spoiler free!

 

We’ll I have a mid-term to work on so I should probably end it here for now, but I think I’ve made a decent start thus far. I haven’t even told many people about this yet but if I have linked you hear it’s almost definitely because I’d like some feedback from you—and of course for you to just plain read it as well. So if there’s anything anywhere in between praise and criticism that jumps to mind, please comment on here or feel free to email me ( valosomnio@gmail.com ).

 

I’ll make another update when I’ve gathered up some news but I’ll try to plan on updating again early next week either way.

Stay strong, it’s only 12 days away,

-Ben