Re-mastering both of the God of War PSP games in full HD for the PS3 God of War: Collection Volume II definitely had its share of challenges for us. The first goal we had was simply the daunting task of up-rezing the engine and content authored on a PSP running at 480 x 272 resolution and 30 frames per second to 1920 x 1080p at a steady 60 fps on the PS3. This required a custom PS3 version of our engine, coded in-house exclusively for Collection II, as well as a painstaking process by art team. We ended up going through every single character in the game and doubling or tripling polygon count by hand, as well as up-rezing and re-painting every texture across both games at 4x resolution on both characters and environments.
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Hi all,

I’ve got some really exciting news to share with you around a certain Spartan warrior which we all know and love…

Fresh from his incredible exploits in the recent God of War III, I can reveal that the mighty Kratos is heading to the PSP and PSPgo  in God of War: Ghost of Sparta!

It’s been a while since we last saw him on the PSP, where the original God of War: Chains of Olympus conquered all before with stunning visuals, gameplay and of course a game which you all loved playing. So what can you expect this time?

First of all it’s developed by the studio which brought the original PSP game, so the guys at Ready At Dawn Studios are well aware of what it takes to deliver another amazing title to the franchise. (lucky enough to play early code  and all I can say  it’s looking and playing incredibly well even at this very early stage:)

Graphically the guys are pushing the PSP to the limits with state-of-the-art visual technologies, higher quality environments and greater depth of scale which really help deliver on those huge crazy boss fights. Alongside this expect an improved weapon system, new magical powers, the list goes on…just think bigger and better!

Check out the screenshots below

Storyline

So serving as a prequel, this new journey picks up after God of War concludes, telling the story of Kratos’ ascension to power as the God of War. In his quest to rid the nightmares that haunt him, Kratos must face his dark past to prove his worthiness to the Gods — a journey that will reveal the origins of lost worlds, and finally answer long-awaited questions about Kratos’ tattoo, scar, and family. Armed with the deadly chained Blades of Chaos, he will once again have to overcome armies of mythological monsters, legions of undead soldiers, and amazingly dangerous and brutal landscapes throughout his merciless quest.

Roll on God of War: Ghost of Sparta, make sure you keep posted for further updates on this must have PSP title which by the way is out LATER THIS YEAR!

Any questions or feedback for the studio then please let me know.

Cheers

Richard

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God of War III has been one of the most popular titles on show here at E3, with players queuing up to swing the Chains of Olympus through the game’s opening level. I took a break from wanton decapitation to sit down with Adam Puhl, staff designer on the game.

Adam Puhl, staff designer of God of War III

“We’re finally getting the chance to show a playable version of God of War III at E3,” he told me, “which includes new weapons and abilities in a war between the Gods, the Titans and Kratos. We’re proud to be showcasing the new level of visceral combat in the game as well as the fantastic visuals.”

“We’re now able to show details such as Kratos’ muscles flexing in battle, his veins popping out and blood spraying across the battlefield and landing on his body, which really helps you feel more immersed in this world.”

When a lot of people saw the very first gameplay footage from the game, some claimed that it looked merely like ‘God of War II but with more pixels’; I asked Puhl how he would counter this argument.

“Well, there are a hell of a lot more pixels, that’s for sure,” he said, “but there’s a lot more than that. We’re revaluating the series and putting in a lot of the things that we have wanted since the first game. The Titan gameplay, for example, is incredible this time. In previous games you had glimpses of these enormous creatures that you were on top of, but this time it’s for real. You’re running on a living, moving creature and you have to react to that dynamic, and while people might say the gameplay feels the same, we wouldn’t want to reinvent the series and alienate people – you have to keep the essence of Kratos.”

God of War III isn’t the only game Kratos is appearing in at E3; he is also a playable character in Soulcalibur PSP, so I asked Puhl how involved he has been in this cameo.

“Myself and the guys from Santa Monica Studios worked with the Soul Calibur team and we found them to be fantastic – they had looked at Kratos’ character closely and he feels just right on Soulcalibur PSP. They even introduced some moves that even we hadn’t thought of, but suit him perfectly.”

God of War III is a single-player game, but I wondered if the team had ever considered experimenting with multiplayer.

“Personally, sure,” said Puhl. “I love multiplayer games and that stuff really excites me, but God of War is all about Kratos and if we threw another character in there it could become a distraction.”

It will also be the first time the series has featured Trophies, so I asked what Puhl thinks makes a good Trophy list.

“I like Trophies a lot, but they should feel right,” he replied. “It shouldn’t be like ‘you finished level one, here you go’. The play experience should be rewarding in itself, and Trophies should be another layer of reward for a particularly tricky task, such as ripping 20 civilians apart in a row. They should be a reason to go back and experiment with the game.”

So there you have it, I hope this gives you some indication of how the game is coming along and gets you excited about its March 2010 release. I know you guys love Trophies and I thought Puhl’s views on them were really interesting. Which Trophies would you like to see in God of War III? The development team may even be reading this…

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Wow, what a day! Everyone has been talking about the Sony press conference hosted by Jack Tretton, President and CEO of SCEA, and with so many announcements, I’ll stop using up space with this introductory paragraph and dive straight in.

The PSPgo was officially unveiled on-stage by Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. CEO, Kaz Hirai. It’s 50% smaller and 40% lighter than the PSP-1000 and with 16 GB internal flash memory, it’s designed for those who like their digital media “to go”, as they say over here. It will be released on October 1, 2009.

Complementing this new evolution of PSP is a host of fantastic games coming to both UMD and PlayStation Store. Kazanouri Yamauchi, the mastermind behind Gran Turismo, arrived to show GT PSP, which will feature 800 cars, 35 tracks and will run at 60 FPS. He was followed by another legendary Japanese developer, Hideo Kojima, for the reveal of Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, a brand new mission for Solid Snake, only on PSP, which takes place during the 1970s.

Completing the portable line-up were a brand new Resident Evil title; Buzz! Quiz World, which will also be on PLAYSTATION 3; and the news that Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines features interoperability with Assassin’s Creed 2 on PS3. And to make sure we see plenty more stellar titles for PSP in the future, Jack Tretton announced that the price of PSP development tools will be cut by 80%, expanding the opportunity for developers to create content for PSP.

Moving onto the PS3, Richard Marks of SCE research and development showed us a new motion sensing controller that works with PlayStation Eye to enable 1:1 movement response. The crowd was impressed by tech demos that allowed him to play sports, wield a giant sword and shield, aim guns and even write with astonishing precision. He spoke of “sub-millimetre accuracy,” which I like to think of as a metric shout-out to us Europeans.

There were absolutely loads of PS3 games on show, including a live demo of the opening scenes to God of War III; a gorgeous video of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves gameplay that climaxed with Drake taking on a helicopter; the trailer for Team ICO’s latest creation, The Last Guardian; a look at ModNation, which applies LittleBigPlanet’s mantra of play, create, share to the kart racing genre, allowing players to build playable tracks in a matter of seconds; Agent, a new exclusive title from Rockstar North; the surprise announcement that Final Fantasy XIV is coming next year, exclusively to PS3; and the first trailer for Gran Turismo 5.

The strength of this E3 line-up was best summed up when Tretton proudly announced that 364 games are coming out on PlayStation platforms in the next year. That and the number of semi-colons in the above paragraph.

So there you have it, which bit was best for you? I’m off to see what the rest of the SCEE guys are up to, although the words lying and down were being used quite a bit earlier.

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