God of War III Message Board older than one year ago

#roundup Kratos is tough enough to take on the gods, but is he man enough to face the assembled video game critics in the God of War III Frankenreview? More »

#podcast Kotaku Talk Radio is coming to you live from the Game Developers Conferce today, where God of War III director Stig Asmussen will be taking your calls. Join us! More »

#podcast This Wednesday, God of War III director Stig Asmussen joins us live from the Game Developers Conference on our weekly podcast to take your calls. More »

#godofwar In 2008, Jonathan Bissoon-Dath and Jennifer Barrette-Herzog sued Sony and God of War creator David Jaffe for copyright infringement over the original PS2 game. That case has now been dismissed. More »

#gallery The God of War III game demo was first revealed at the E3 2009 gaming expo in Los Angeles. The game will be released this March. And my, how the game has changed. More »

Not like we thought it slipped your mind, but if you’re in the San Francisco Bay area tomorrow, you’re invited to come celebrate the launch of God of War III!

And if you have the means to get here, do it – we have a history of treating our fans to extremely good times. And tomorrow is no exception as you’ll have many chances to win great PlayStation games and prizes, get autographs from members of the development team, create your own God of War III box, and much more. So whatever the means – train, plane, car, bike, rollerblades, horse, camel – get here tomorrow! There’s only one God of War III event and we don’t want you to miss it (In all seriousness, if you arrive on a camel, you’re getting something incredibly cool).

Check out our initial post for all the fine details, but here’s a quick recap. We’ve got a couple HUNDRED tickets for our very special community (that’s you!) to get you in to the amazing and mega-exclusive God of War III event, where you’ll get to go hands-on with the final version of God of War III, enjoy some epic food and hospitality, and watch a still-secret-but-guaranteed-to-be-super-awesome band perform.

And all you need to do is show up. But we HIGHLY recommend arriving early. The hands-on event doesn’t start until 7pm – so we’re setting up a community-only pre-event party that goes on all day. What does that entail? Free food from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m, awesome schwag giveaways and raffles, free wi-fi (In the words of Triumph, “For you to Tweet on!”), the chance to put yourself on the God of War III box, autographs and more! So if you haven’t already signed up, RSVP on our Facebook Page!

Important Details:

• The hands-on event goes from 7-10pm on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center. The pre-party meet-up begins at noon (you’ll see our tent in venue’s parking lot). Directions here. Don’t even think of strolling up at 6.30pm – you ain’t getting in!
• Keep in mind that you must be 21 or older to get into evening hands-on event, but anyone 18+ (or with their parent/guardian) can come to the all-day meetup. ID *will* be checked!
• Parking is rough in the area, so try to take BART or Caltrain – both very close to venue.
• Once you’re in, you’re in — no ins and outs (don’t worry, we will have bathrooms). Unless of course you don’t want to stick around for the amazingly awesome hands-on event at 7pm. Then you’re free to leave at will…but you’re making a HUGE mistake!
• You must RSVP via this Facebook event invite
• Be sure to leave your replica Blades of Chaos at home
• You might wanna think about bringing your PSP ;-)

The End Begins at GDC…

Hi everyone,

It’s been fun to watch all the speculation on whether or not God of War III would get its own spot with Kevin Butler. The answer? Of course, how could it not? We’ve been looking forward to the launch of God of War III for some time now (as you all have) as it’s one of the best examples of “It Only Does Everything” that you’ll find. Where else can you get epic storylines, groundbreaking depth of scale, dynamic 3D realism, and our signature gameplay that is God of War. Yes, God of War III will be one of our biggest sales drivers this year, selling multiple millions of copies and becoming a system seller for PS3. It’s that good and everything you’ve heard is true. With more than 35GB of Blu-ray gaming goodness, it’s truly a shining example of “Only on PlayStation.”

The early reviews are echoing what we already know, that the wait for God of War III will not have been in vain. PlayStation: The Official Magazine has given God of War III a score of 5 out of 5 while Game Informer has followed suit with a 10 out of 10, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg as we expect an onslaught of positive reviews to hit newsstands next week.

Some of you already know what to expect from the final installment of this Olympic-size trilogy. For those of you who don’t, comparing God of War III’s scale and scope to previous chapters is like comparing Kratos’ Blades of Chaos to a letter opener. We are confident that if you haven’t jumped on board yet, this game will certainly be the incentive you’ve been waiting for to get a PS3. Our hats are off once again to our studio organization for creating another amazing experience. I’ve been saying it for awhile, but the depth and breadth of content on PS3 is unrivaled and will continue to be a catalyst to our sales all year long.

While the game itself won’t be in stores until March 16, many of you dedicated God of War fans have already been feeling the Fury of Kratos at your local 7-Eleven. Already, thousands of vouchers from the cups have been redeemed for exclusive downloadable content. Kratos will also be invading the world of NASCAR. On Saturday, March 20, the No. 20 car will be sporting a brand new God of War III and GameStop themed paint scheme driven by Joey Logano during the Scotts Turf Builder 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. For our die-hard fans, we’ve produced our first collector’s item with the “Ultimate God of War III Edition” which comes packed with exclusive collectibles and downloadable content (priced at $99.99). Several retail partners are seeing huge demand on pre-orders for this edition, so make sure to grab yours on launch day.

Which brings us back to our good friend Kevin Butler, who will also play his part to promote God of War III with a new TV commercial that begins airing the end of this week. Suffice it to say that Kevin can’t possibly ignore the game’s star power. We will also have a 15 second commercial highlighting all the glowing accolades this game is already garnering. We hope you all enjoy your exclusive access to both commercials here before they hit the airwaves:

I look forward to hearing your feedback on the commercials and this amazing game.

Anger management simulator God of War III cost $44 million to create, according to director of production development John Hight, which is "right within budget." Speaking with Giant Bomb, Hight revealed that the team of 132 staff required to finish the third installment was more than double the crew (of about 60) on hand to wrap up God of War II, with the biggest growth occurring in the graphics and art departments.

Considering the ultimate Kratos adventure will likely go on to become a phenomenal sales hit, the $44 million budget isn't as ridiculous as it might seem. Consider that Gran Turismo 5's budget, at last count, had reportedly ballooned to around the $60 million mark. On the other hand, Ken Levine previously put the first BioShock's budget at about $15 million. With such variation in current-gen development costs, in the end, the pirce is just a number -- and in the case of God of War III, it was certainly worth the dough.

[Via Edge]

#ps3 It's not often we're told how much a company spends making a video game. So when Sony discloses how much coin was spent developing God Of War III, we'll note it down. More »

#godofwar Spanning three excellent, bloody titles, Sony's God of War trilogy has finally come to an end with the release of God of War III. But did you know there was originally an end after the end? More »

Hey God of War fans. We are excited to unveil Path to Olympus today, a new exclusive feature on GodofWar.com.

So what is it?
In short, it’s a primer to get you prepared for March 16 when Kratos will storm retailers. Kratos has come a long way since his days as Captain of the Spartan Army, and the Path to Olympus episodes will take you through some of his most prolific and darkest moments, while providing the back story leading up the beginning of God of War III.

Who is it for?
This feature is for you if:

• You are a new player and want to learn what all this Kratos mania is about.
• You’re a gamer who has played the God of War games but are scratching your head trying to remember who Kratos killed, who has killed Kratos and everything in between.
• And lastly, if you’re a hardcore fan that wants to experience, once again, some of Kratos’ most exciting and brutal moments before plunging into God of War III.

What to expect
We will be releasing new content leading up to launch that will quickly get you up to speed on the story, preparing you to take control of Kratos as he catapults towards his destiny in God of War III.

Take a look at some of the video content from the first chapter:

Click to begin!

One last thing to share. Many of the God of War developers are now on the GodofWar.com forums answering questions. Head on over to the community section of God of War and hear what they have been saying.

#review Bombastic, titanic, brutally imaginative and even occasionally subtle, God of War III is the latest, best reason for a gamer to save money and skip action movies. The better thrills are on a disc on my PlayStation 3. More »

Big fat Greek shredding.

You know how Kratos' battle against the gods of Olympus is known for its massive, insane action sequences spread throughout? Well, some genius (or likely several geniuses) at Sony's Santa Monica Studio had the brilliant idea of making a whole game just out of those incredible moments. It was rare that I went 15 minutes without my jaw dropping at the immense size, stunning beauty or sheer creativity of the set piece I was now scaling or destroying.

I'm willing to agree that God of War III is just "God of War HD," provided that "HD" stands for "Holy Shit."

At long last, Kratos will finally get his revenge.

Santa Monica Studio holds nothing back in Kratos' final chapter.

How many lopped off heads does it take to get to Zeus?

Like good, sane people, our friends at AOL Radio are huge fans of God of War. They've not only managed to add the entire God of War III original soundtrack to the Video Games Score station, but they're also giving away a free downloadable MP3 from the upcoming PS3 game. "Brothers of Blood," composed by Cris Velasco, has everything you'd expect from a God of War instrumental track: a brass-heavy orchestral score with dramatic choral singing.

Should you want your morning commute to get a little more vengeance-y, head over to the AOL Radio blog to download the MP3 onto your favorite MP3 player.

#screengrab All the screenshots and box art in the world can't match the sizzle of having the actual game resting in your hand. Look for our review on Monday at 10 a.m. More »

Another God of War fan contest has quickly come and gone, and our Ultimate Fans have definitely went above and beyond to prove they are worthy of having their name and video be forever immortalized within God of War III Ultimate Edition .

With less than two weeks before God of War Unearthing the Legend is released, we thought it would be only fair that our PlayStation bloggers be given a first glimpse of the great lengths the God of War fans went through to be part of this epic documentary and receive a copy of God of War III Ultimate Edition signed by the development team.

Congrats to our Ultimate God of War Fan winners:

• Christopher Adams
• Riley Anderson
• Rey Barrera
• JW Cornelius
• Juan Cruz
• Aaron Crow
• Seth Isaac Everett
• Angelica Gatchell
• David Girard
• William Jones
• Adrej Miling
• Samer Mohamad
• Antonio Padilla
• Ben Ponce
• Steven Rickman
• Jeff Rogers
• Turk Stancavage
• Jacob Williams

Another God of War fan contest has quickly come and gone, and our Ultimate Fans have definitely went above and beyond to prove they are worthy of having their name and video be forever immortalized within God of War III Ultimate Edition .

With less than two weeks before God of War Unearthing the Legend is released, we thought it would be only fair that our PlayStation bloggers be given a first glimpse of the great lengths the God of War fans went through to be part of this epic documentary and receive a copy of God of War III Ultimate Edition signed by the development team.

Congrats to our Ultimate God of War Fan winners:

• Christopher Adams
• Riley Anderson
• Rey Barrera
• JW Cornelius
• Juan Cruz
• Aaron Crow
• Seth Isaac Everett
• Angelica Gatchell
• David Girard
• William Jones
• Adrej Miling
• Samer Mohamad
• Antonio Padilla
• Ben Ponce
• Steven Rickman
• Jeff Rogers
• Turk Stancavage
• Jacob Williams

Come celebrate the release of the most anticipated game of 2010 – by playing it early!

Earlier today, we sent this God of War III invite out to media, industry luminaries, heads of state, space marines, surviving Greek and Roman gods, and select reality TV show stars (nobody from celebrity rehab shows, thankyouverymuch).

Assuming you don’t fit into one of those categories, we did what we always do here at PlayStation.Blog: score extra tickets for you community members. We’ve got a couple HUNDRED tickets to get some of our close, personal friends (this means *you*) into this super-exclusive event, where you’ll get to go hands-on with the final, polished version of God of War III, enjoy our legendary hospitality, and watch a Really-Awesome-Band-That-I-Can’t-Name-Yet perform.

What do you need to do? Well – just show up.

Based on previous meet-ups we’ve held, we know some of you will get there early. For this event – we’re expecting it. Heck, we’re practically demanding it!

While the hands-on event doesn’t start until 7pm – we’re setting up a Community-Only pre-event party that goes on all day. We’ll have free food from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. (Tacos of the Gods, anyone?), limited edition schwag giveaways, free wi-fi (we expect you to Tweet!), the chance to put yourself on the God of War III box, autographs with the developers and CHAOS…in the form of games, of course. We’ve got some really good stuff planned, so take the day off, make the drive from LA/Vegas/St. Louis, and get there early!

This event will be limited, so if you want to go, be sure to RSVP on our Facebook event page.

Here are some important details:

• The hands-on event goes from 7-10pm on Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at the SF Concourse Exhibition Center. The pre-party meet-up begins at noon (you’ll see our tent in venue’s parking lot). Directions here. Don’t even think of strolling up at 6.30pm – you ain’t getting in!
• Keep in mind that you must be 21 or older to get into evening hands-on event, but anyone 18+ (or with their parent/guardian) can come to the all-day meetup. ID *will* be checked!
• Parking is rough in the area, so try to take BART or Caltrain – both very close to venue.
• Once you’re in, you’re in — no ins and outs (don’t worry, we will have bathrooms). Unless of course you don’t want to stick around for the amazingly awesome hands-on event at 7pm. Then you’re free to leave at will…but you’re making a HUGE mistake!
• You must RSVP via this Facebook event invite
• Be sure to leave your replica Blades of Chaos at home
• You might wanna think about bringing your PSP ;-)

The End Begins at GDC. Will you be there?

#godofwariii What is considered out of bounds for the God of War series? It's not violence, as players will decapitate and eviscerate enemies with gory, glorious detail. It's not sex, either, as God of War III continues the series' naughty mini-game tradition. It's the laughs. More »

You've got to hand it to those PlayStation and GameStop marketing people: They know how to speak our language. Take note, wannabees: If you've got an exclusive God of War III outfit to show off, you could show Kratos flipping out and killing people in it. But why do that when you could show him having a polite conversation with a mythological beast about his ensemble choice? Why indeed.

Fun fact: Kratos has more dialog in this trailer than in God of War I and II combined. It's true!

Last week, I was lucky enough to attend our God of War III event in Hollywood, where we revealed the opening portion of the game to press. Yes, as you could imagine, jaws dropped.

I’m not going to spoil anything here, and frankly, I made sure to keep my head turned for the majority of hands-on time because I’m all about going in fresh when I finally have retail copy in hand. But, in addition to hosting the event, key members of the Santa Monica Studios development team were on hand to chat. Last week you sent me questions for Stig, but unfortunately, he was sick and very limited during the event. So we’re saving most of those up for when we talk to Stig during GDC next week. But Design Director Todd Papy was nice enough to fill in (and he’s an insanely cool guy), so we sat down to talk God of War III, and I couldn’t help but throw a few of your questions his way. Hope you like it.

And make sure that if you do have more questions for Stig, drop them in this post via comments, as we’re definitely getting some time with him next week during GDC.

Was there a lot of stress when it came to living up to the previous God of War games, not only in the fans eyes, but with the developers too?” – Vaughn Johnson via Twitter

Well I think we put more pressure on ourselves. There’s always that stress, and you don’t wanna be knows as the guys who F up God of War [laughs]. You really don’t want to be known as that! You know, it’s one of those things where I think we were able to pull it off and hopefully exceed expectations even though the bar is set so high.

And you’re setting your own bar.

Yeah, and that’s the thing that’s always scary…how are we going to outdo ourselves. So when we started talking about God of War III, it was like, “What are we going to do with the Titans and how are we going to change the weapons to make things new and interesting?”

At what point do you reach a level that you’re happy with in development? When do you know when to stop?

Obviously time. I think all of us are artisan in a way and being able to noodle the game to death…there’s got to be a point in time where we say, “This is enough, let’s get it out the door.” But with that, we want to push the envelope, so we do a lot of play tests to see if we’re getting the reaction we want out of players. Are they getting it, and are are they enjoying the experience. But also, we have cameras on their faces when they are playing so when they get to that kill — what’s the reaction? Some people are stone cold and we can’t read them, but when they’re filling out the paper, they’d say they loved it. Others are like, “Ohhh! Oh my god, I can’t believe I just saw that!” Then we know, alright, we’ve got something special

What has been most challenging about the game, handling the tech or the story/gameplay?

I think the Titans, just because the way that we design the levels is under designer control. So we can do iterations really quick, say adjust the jump if it doesn’t feel right, change it and get it into the game quickly. Versus the Titans, when we’re designing in T-pose. We have to figure out what the arms is going to look like, or how the shoulder is going to look when its climbing. And basically, it’s the designer working with the animator to say, “Hey bring that down a bit.” There’s a lot of working back and forth, and it’s just very time consuming.

Well, it’s payed off because you’ve really done some amazing work. Are you happy to be done with the game?

I love it. I am very happy to be done, but at the same time I’m like, “Oh sh*t, what are we going to do next!”

It’s something that you’ve lived with for song long, just the process of creating a game, right?

Yeah, we’ve been doing it for 3-plus years and 10-plus months of crunch. We actually had a couple of designers come in today and we said, “No, no, you’re supposed to be on vacation, go home!” Really, we all love it, and even when we finished this one somebody was noodling around creating new ideas and new designs. It’s something that we live for.

What is the most difficult thing about adapting mythology to a video game? – Brandon Gedrich via Twitter

Well, it’s our take. We don’t follow mythology to a T. It’s us taking what we want and what we think is interesting, and basically weaving a story around Kratos. And with Greek mythology there’s a lot of inspiration to draw from, but it’s, “What do we think is cool? What wrapper can we put around that?” And if it happens to be something in Greek mythology, we’ll say, “OK, that’s cool. Let’s use that.”

Was there anything you were influenced by with UNCHARTED 2 during your development process?

Well, we didn’t really see the game [during development]. But we did have design meetings with them like Richard and Neil, and we’d basically talk and say, “Hey, how do you guys do things?” Their system versus our system is completely different, even in the way they handle their big wow moment which was probably the train sequence. And now this [the opening] is one of our big wow moments. They saw one of the titans early on and saw what we were doing, and hopefully our communications with them and they way we talk about our enemies…hopefully that will influence them. And the way they tell stories, I would hope that we would do some of that stuff in the next game.

Knowing God of War, though, God of War III will probably bring a lot of those “wow” moments, right?

Right, and that’s the thing. In the beginning of the game, Stig and I went through and listed our all our wow moments once we knew the locations and set pieces. And we listed out how many of those moments were wanted to hit, and said, “We’ve got to be in this range.” And I think we hit it.

Well, congrats on being done! Without revealing any spoilers, is there anything you want to say to the PlayStation fans? These are some of your biggest fans who will be reading this.

I hope you love it. If there are things that you like about it, or anything that you dislike about it, trust me – all of us read the boards and we watch out for that stuff. So if there’s something that irks you, write about it. And we’ll find it, look at it and review it.

$2 isn't much to ask for when delivering something one can really bang his (or her!) head to -- and you can nab God of War: Blood and Metal for that price right now. Featuring six different previously detailed artists, this particular mixture of metal madness celebrates God of War III and will be included in the Ultimate Edition box set.

Of course, you probably already knew that, considering you already built a shrine around your pre-order receipt. We really like the crimson candles, by the way. Nice touch.

[Via VG247]

We know that there are a few cutlery enthusiasts out there who read that headline and immediately clicked the source link to purchase Kratos' Blade of Chaos from retailer BUDK. Before you do so, you should take into account a few facts:

Kratos' weapons are being sold piecemeal on the site, so that $123.99 price tag only represents the cost of a single Blade. What's the point of having a single Blade of Chaos? Unless you're ironically cosplaying as Amputee Kratos, you're going to need two, so you should mentally jack that price up to $247.98. Replica swords are dangerous. Replica swords that you attach to your wrists with chains and then swing around like a madman are extremely dangerous.

We are pleased to announce today the release of the God of War III Blood & Metal EP! To kick things off, head over to the Roadrunner Records’ music section and check out the music video for Trivium’s “Shattering The Skies Above!”

The video, filmed during the recording sessions for the God Of War III-inspired track, gives an intimate look in to the creation of the song. Trivium’s singer Matt Heafy says about the song and how it relates to the game, “Metal is that imagery, metal is that grandiose thing, that violent energy that the game creates. Our song is inspired by the excitement of being involved with God Of War III and it’s inspired by the energy of the game.”

God of War: Blood & Metal is available for sale on today (March 2) and of course God Of War III is out on March 16. You can get the album for just $1.99 on March 2 through Shockhound here.

And hey, while we’re at, check out the entire streaming Killswitch Engage track, “My Obsession,” along with 30-second samples from the rest of the bands on our site.

Rock on!

#ps3 God of War III director Stig Asmussen initially wanted to cut the topless ladies from the game. They need to have a purpose, Asmussen though, that was other than eye candy. More »

Although it commanded a large presence at E3, Sony has been otherwise quiet about God of War III. With the game's release only weeks away, Sony has opened the floodgates, revealing new footage, highlighting new levels, and most importantly, advertising the game on TV. The European markets are treated to an ad which simply states "Revenge Starts Here." The ad doesn't need a gimmick: it simply relies on real-time footage of the game.

Check it out after the break.

[Via TheSixthAxis]