Sony Sets The Bar High With Jaw-Dropping God Of War 3

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LE Newsletter - March 18, 2010

Sony Sets The Bar High With Jaw-Dropping God Of War 3

Source: www.thestar.com - Raju Mudhar

(March 13, 2010) The magnificent opening of God of War 3 has the perpetually angry Kratos making his

way up Mount Olympus as he continues his quest to finally slay Zeus and get revenge for all that the gods have put him through. Actually, there's a gigantic twist – that we won't give away here – as the visually stunning opening sequence and subsequent battle will likely cause most gamers' jaws to literally hit the floor.

Out on Tuesday, this is a console-defining franchise for Sony's PlayStation, and this latest – and purportedly final – chapter in Kratos's story pulls out all the stops in an incredibly violent and cinematic manner. Moving from one giant set piece to another, solving puzzles and basically hacking and slashing your way with countless weapons through the remaining pantheon of the gods of Olympus, while it potentially signals the end of the Ghost of Sparta's journey, this game also signals the way forward for this generation of Sony's console.

The PS3 enjoyed a very good holiday season last year, and is looking to continue that momentum, and big-name releases such as GoW3 – there are more than 225,000 preorders in Canada, the largest numbers ever for a PS3-exclusive game – will likely push sales.

GoW3's release date also signals one of the ongoing changes in the video game industry. Traditionally, the beginning of the new year is usually a fallow period for game releases. Not so in 2010. This year has already seen a number of high-profile releases – Mass Effect 2, Heavy Rain, Bioshock 2 – and now GoW3. Many release dates for the rest of the year have also been set – Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake and Super Mario Galaxy 2 are set for May – so it seems publishers are moving toward a spread-out release schedule rather than a jam-packed holiday season.

That is probably good for the industry, and definitely good for gamers, if the results are as polished as GoW3. It took three years of work in Sony's Santa Monica, Calif., studio to get it just right, said John Palamarchuk, the game's lead cinematic artist who originally hails from Edmonton. The game's engine was completely redesigned and rebuilt to take advantage of the PS3's power and capabilities.

"The development was three years, that's how we planned it from the very beginning and we hit that. The other two games in the series took two years, but we decided we needed that extra year so we could get used to working on the PS3 – this is our first game for the console – and get that under our belt. This is also the final chapter of the trilogy, so we wanted to go out with a bang and not cut any corners," he says.

The game looks so amazing that it causes one to lament the fact the GoW games don't allow camera control. Many shooter games feature control of the character with the left analog stick and camera control with the right, but the developers chose not to give that option.

"As far as the camera, that's a conscious decision we made. There's limited buttons on the controller, and as developers, we want the game to be accessible for everybody," he says. "When you're controlling the camera, and the hero, and you're fighting guys, you're trying to learn so much, and with no camera control I think it makes our game flow a little bit better. It also makes it more cinematic. And, actually, in GoW3, there are certain parts where we give you camera control for the first time. And it's a little bit limited, but it does let you look around."

What's also interesting about GoW3 is that it is a linear, single-player game. Several games pride themselves on length, too, but as Palamarchuk says, the approach to this game is a little different.

"We prefer to make a shorter game," Palamarchuk says. "Some games tend to pad their gameplay, but we want the story to be really tight, and it's all really condensed down to as long as it needs to be to tell the story.

"The first two games were around eight hours to 10 hours, and this game is a little bit longer, but having people play our game from start to finish, we want the whole experience to be something they can enjoy."