warcrow on 25/2/2010 at 15:30

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Updated 02-25

You will have to excuse me--I'm still coming down from my high from my experience last night. I suppose I should probably let everyone know that I'm a really big fan of the God of War series. I love both 1 and 2 quite a bit (and I'm a bit of a Greek mythology geek too), have played through both of them multiple times and consider them some of the best action games to ever have been released.

First to bring everyone up to date, I got a chance to play God of War 3 from the very beginning of the game all the way up to the first boss fight at a Sony event last night. In addition I got a 30 minute interview with Steve Caterson (Sr Producer) that turned out really well! Unfortunately the details on what I played and saw is embargo'd until 03-01-10. However I can say this--those of you who have played the GoW3 demo haven’t see ANYTHING yet, and I mean that. That demo--which great in its own right--is more tame than what I played. Santa Monica Studios has expanded on the series in just about everything facet of the series that made it great. Seriously, it's stunning what they've done. It's absolutely KILLING me that I cannot talk about what I saw because I want to scream from the rooftops. Oh well. It's only a few days right?

I know that everyone is chomping at the bit to get more information on the visuals so here it is. I can confirm (from my interview) that the game runs at a variable frame rate running between 30-60 FPS @ 720P with V-sync enabled. In my time with the game last night I didn’t notice a single tear, hiccup or stutter the entire time (and I was looking for it too).

Steve (Caterson) was very candid and answered most of my questions. I forgot my voice recorded so I ended up using my iPhone and it--to my surprise--recorded our entire conversation really well. I was just going to use it for notes but because the audio is great and I come from a Podcasting background I'm considering jazzing it up a bit (read: trim the fat) and putting it up on my blog. What do you guys think about this? Would you rather have it transcribed? I think you'll like the audio because Steve was so great.

Here are some of the questions I asked that (mostly) got answered:

- What was your role in the development of GoW3
- What was the greatest challenge in regards to the development of GoW3?
- Have any games released this generation influenced the development GoW3?
- What inspired a moving level? Was it something the team wanted to do with the first two games?
- In your opinion the series has had different directors for each game wondering what kind of positive affect this has had on the series?
- Can we expect to see some DLC? Any of it free?
- Has work began on the next God of War trilogy?
- God of War 2 was released roughly 3 years ago and the genre hasn’t moved forward too much in terms of gameplay. What are you guys doing, gameplay-wise, to move things forward?
- Is the game running at 60 FPS/720P?
- Zippertech: What exactly does it do? Go beyond?
- What’s the majority of the 35GB used for on the BRD?
- Are there any pre-rendered cutscenes in the game or are they real time?
- Will the GoW3 engine be licensed out?
- Will GoW3 be more in line with the first game or the second game in regards to narrative?


I did get word from Sony that I will be receiving my review copy of the game perhaps as soon as next week! As always I will let you guys know my honest opinion on the game and keep you up to date.

God I love this hobby! :)

Ulukai on 25/2/2010 at 16:14

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It's always nice to see genuine enthusiam :)

I've never played a GoW game, or even know much about them. I'm tempted to give the demo a whirl and see what all the fuss is about.

Thirith on 26/2/2010 at 09:18

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Is it identical to the E3/GoW Collection demo, or has it been updated or optimised in any way? (I already found that the E3 demo ran pretty well, but some people complained as if it was running at 5FPS.)

warcrow on 26/2/2010 at 15:29

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It unlike anything you've seen ever. Seriously.

warcrow on 26/2/2010 at 17:13

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Yea the demo is great, but honestly the first hour of the game is 10X--and in every direction--more intense.

I hate this embargo a lot! :P