God Of War 3 Preview

[MiraDBZ]

At Sony's E3 press conference today, we got our first glimpse at God of War 3 via a CG teaser trailer. It's been fun passing the time waiting with Chains of Olympus on PSP, PS3 ads that kind of look like God of War, and fan-created Lego trailers, but I'm ready for a new something new. So I rounded up everything we know about the new game so far.

 

First Things First

 

While rumors had been flying about a third God of War ever since Sony announced God of War 2, the first public comments came at the God of War 2 launch party/press conference held by Sony in March 2007. At the end of a presentation, then-director Cory Barlog joked that "if" God of War would head to PS3, it would feature Sixaxis, rumble, and 1080p features. There has been some debate over how to interpret what he said, but given that his comments weren't in response to a question, it seems clear he wanted to get the word out on the franchise's future.

 

What never seemed to get much publicity at the time was Sony's official press release put out that day, which offered information about the game similar to what Barlog said on stage, suggesting that this was not an off-the-cuff remark but something that had been coordinated by Sony.

 

However, that doesn't necessarily mean that we should assume those features are a confirmed part of the game. Shortly after that event, SCEA Santa Monica director of technology Tim Moss said in an interview, "Cory got a little carried away at the press conference/launch event...I imagine we could make a game that worked at 60fps and 1080p but we might have to make some decisions about the gameplay that we wouldn't really want to live with in order to achieve it."

 

Confirming the Name

 

Though there wasn't much doubt about the game's existence following the above comments, when Cory Barlog resigned from Sony in November, Sony's corporate comment made it official and named God of War PS3 as "God of War 3," squashing any (likely nonexistent) speculation that it would be a side story or something other than a traditional sequel.

 

The Development Team

 

You probably know the names David Jaffe and Cory Barlog, given their highly publicized careers at -- and then departures from -- SCEA Santa Monica, where they directed the first two games in the series. They both had varying degrees of involvement with God of War 3 early in its creation, but have since left the company. So who's left? We don't have a comprehensive list; we know certain staffers such as combat designers Eric Williams and Derek Daniels, level designer Mike Cheng, and artist Charlie Wen, have moved on. However, according to a post on Tim Moss' blog, as of late 2007, the complete programming team and 30-plus members of the overall team (who worked on God of War and God of War 2) remained intact.

 

It's difficult to draw any direct conclusions about what this means for the game itself. If anything, it suggests that the tech side of the game is in good shape, and that we might see a slightly different approach to what we've seen in the past with the story and overall design ideas.

 

The Release Date

 

The first God of War spent about three years in development and shipped in March 2005. God of War 2 took two years and shipped in March 2007. Going by that timeline, it would make sense to see God of War 3 ship any time between March 2009 and March 2010. But of course, things aren't that simple. We know that the programming team was looking into the PS3 hardware as early as March 2006, when Tim Moss mentioned it in a Game Developers Conference speech, and that Cory Barlog was working on the story and overall design of the game before God of War 2 shipped, but as to how all this adds up to deliver a finished game, we don't have a clue.

 

Online Gameplay Speculation

 

In March 2008, Sony posted a series of job listings for the God of War 3 team: one for a graphics programmer, one for a tools programmer, and one for an "online gameplay programmer." Naturally, it was this last one that stood out as unusual, since to date we haven't seen any multiplayer or online features in a God of War game.

 

When you combine this listing with recent comments from Sony executives about the importance of online features in their games, it seems likely that online features will play a role in the game in some form. In a recent Develop magazine interview, Sony's new Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida said, "One focus that has been and will be key is how we use the online technology and PlaySation Network to involve more consumers in participating...that's the major common theme that we are trying to enforce with all our projects."

 

Notably, the idea of a multiplayer God of War game is nothing new. At the God of War 2 launch press event, when still employed by Sony, Cory Barlog told us he was looking at it as a possibility for a future God of War game. "Does co-op have a place in God of War? If we can do something unique with it, yeah, but it is really an early exploration of that in my head...I'm thinking 'how can we incorporate this without damaging what happens in the game -- without having it feel silly -- where it's just like we threw two Kratoses in there and now you can run around through the world.' It's gotta be something more than that."

 

Chains of Olympus director Ru Weerasuriya also mentioned looking into multiplayer features in a past interview with 1UP, but ultimately came to the conclusion that adding something along those lines would take away from what would make the game feel like a God of War title.

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KvIb3A1zjg&feature=related

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KvIb3A1zjg&feature=related

[GrisoM]

The Vidoe looks great , i hope game look half like the video and i will buy it =P

 

In the end There will be Chaos!!

[Szymon]

i played god of war on psp and it was very nice

and i am sure this one will very good too

[WaRc]

On video look's great but we will se

[HeLL_GoD]

Ohhhhhhhhhh MY F*CKING GOD!!!!

Kratos my best game hero on a new God Of War????I cant believe it dude,you just make my day!Cant wait to play it.One of the best games ever(I am talking about GOW 1&2)

[hokai]

Ohhhhhhhhhh MY F*CKING GOD!!!!

Kratos my best game hero on a new God Of War????I cant believe it dude,you just make my day!Cant wait to play it.One of the best games ever(I am talking about GOW 1&2)

 

The game is very cool  I can't w8 for play this game

[joogis]

i played God Of War 2 and it was QOWOOWOWOWWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWWOWO i cant say in words, i want God Of War 3 !!!!!!!!!1

[Daztrur]

Wow!!!! nice man!!! I want to play this fucking game! the  GOW2 simply was :o! great i can't w8 for this shit!

[scorpius]

ZOMG GOW3 ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG ZOMG XDXDXD GOW RULEZ (After FFXII ofc ;P)

[scovron]

heh god of war 3 after that gow4 gow 5 gow 6... gow 23 will be always the same as first god of war :]

blood/action/few jumps againg some action with nice bloody ending maybe some half naked rendered chicks :]

and i can say that it will be always the same :P

but it have good side :] coz if you liked gow 1 you will like all of them untill you get bored by "nothing new"

in series anyway who cares about "new" things :P it is fun to play :D

blood-action-blood-action-naked chicks-blood-action

i love it ;)

[scorpius]

heh god of war 3 after that gow4 gow 5 gow 6... gow 23 will be always the same as first god of war :]

blood/action/few jumps againg some action with nice bloody ending maybe some half naked rendered chicks :]

and i can say that it will be always the same :P

but it have good side :] coz if you liked gow 1 you will like all of them untill you get bored by "nothing new"

in series anyway who cares about "new" things :P it is fun to play :D

blood-action-blood-action-naked chicks-blood-action

i love it ;)

 

Same Game -> Yes !

Same Console -> No !!!

 

GOW 23 -> Maybe PS9 lol XD

[roger4]

I just can't w8 to buy it ..

[Korrigan]

Nice vid, but little short ;p We will see about how good will GoW3 be ;)

[TearsOfHolly]

seens good but in ps is not good :P i mean videos make the game something more like its in real play

nice dude!

[thorynpt]

now u'r opinions? which one u think will be the best?

 

GOW 3

Heveanly Sword

 

??