God of War III is “D-Day + Cloverfield with Kratos smack dab in the middle of it” – Stig Asmussen, Game Director.
Earlier this week, over 50 media outlets from North America and Europe saw God of War III, the “epic finale” to Kratos’ tale of revenge, played before their very eyes for the first time. The game’s director, Stig Asmussen, led off the session by sharing some key features of the game: Titan gameplay, Ride-able enemy characters, a new weapon system, large-scale battle. All of these were demonstrated in this extended trailer, which was shown next:
To further drive home that this trailer was produced in the game’s engine, the audience was treated to nearly 20 minutes of gameplay (which you’ll be reading about all over the internet today, no doubt). After the gameplay demonstration, Stig took questions from the press. Here they are (paraphrased – I can only type so fast!):
Gamespot: How will you catch people up to the story?
- Stig: One of the criteria of the game is to “bridge the series.” Some recent games were confusing if you missed certain chapters in the story. I don’t want that to happen with God of War III.
Game Revolution: Has the ESRB gone too far?
- Stig: People have to stop looking at games like they’re a toy. There are a lot of mature games and a lot of mature gamers. We look at these like movies. I’m a husband with 2 baby twins, and we’re not making this game for them, we’re making it for people like you. Everything we do is in the character of Kratos. We’re not doing gore just to do gore.
Gamepro: I didn’t see red experience orbs coming off enemies, is it just too early to show?
- Stig: It’s just too early to show, expect all that to come back.
UGO: You mentioned this will be the “epic finale.” Is this the final God of War?
- Stig: I don’t know about the future of God of War, I’m just focused on God of War III.
Playboy: Gamers don’t want long load times or storylines, do you plan to recap everything?
- Stig: For the most part in God of War games, we’ve never made people watch very long movies. Don’t expect God of War III to change that. As far as loading, it’s something we take pride in. We’re a streaming game, we don’t have load times.
G4: Are you going to strip down Kratos’ abilities in the beginning of the game again?
- Stig: As a gamer, I’d like to start with everything Kratos has. But as a game designer, it’s not good for gamers who have never played before. We’re still deciding.
IGN: Large-scale puzzle sequences could get people lost because of the scale of the game. How do you keep people focused?
- Stig: I’ve never seen anyone else work on this kind of scale. Because of that, we don’t have anything to refer to. We don’t plan on something where you go to a marker and get a hint. We want to design it so that it has a flow, and we won’t have to drop hints. We also do extensive playtesting. Working on these Titans is tough. When we first started we realized we’re doing something we’ve never done before. When you’re on these titans, it doesn’t change how Kratos handles –he can still pull cranks and ride Cyclopes and fight bosses.
G4: When you’re on the titan, how does his movement affect gameplay. Will that affect gameplay?
- Stig: Perhaps. [laughter]
Now I know you readers had plenty of questions for the God of War team. I spoke with a number of the dev team, and am currently editing those together for you to see on the Blog next week!
@89
Head over to PS3 Joystiq
Totally 100% EPIC!
Everyone at Santa Monica Studios and Sony Studios around the globe are GODS!
I just soiled my pants.
Can someone pass me the TP? Anyone?
It looks sooooo….WOW! Just epic!! One question, Will their be a demo? Not that it matters, because I’m still buying it day one. Once again….WOW WOW!!!
Wow. For a second there I forgot all about Killzone 2 coming out.
Now this is what I’ve been waiting for….
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes…
Awesome just awesome
the thing that really put me in the
aw… mouth droped position……. is when they said that the trailer was made with the in game engine whoop!
Pretty sweet.
GODLY…..
now that is what should have been shown originally! it screams god of war, i love it! can’t wait for this game. i really hope it drops this year but i won’t be surprised at all if it follows the god of war tradition and is released next March. still the wait is killing me but guys take your time and make it AAA+
peace,
Lh
After the MS rep talked about how good their hard is it seems to me that Sony is calling their Bluff. MS is only talking about 1 or two games they have and then a bunch of multiplat games.
Amazing…
Should be great even just based on the excellence of the previous games. PS3 clearly has the best range of exclusives in my opinion even if I’m not a fan of all of them.
is this trailer comming to the PSN?? i want it on 720/1080p
To be honest, the trailer from Spike TV just didn’t do it for me. I have loved each installment of this series on both the PS2 and PSP.
This extended trailer though, wow. God of War has done it again by getting me way too excited way too soon. Now I have to wait a whole year. :(
the greatest spartan is almost home. I can barely wait :)
First off GOW3 Looks Awesome.
Now I have a few questions. I see it says it will bring the past GOW games will this include Chains of Olympus. Because there was some cool weapons that were only in that version of the GOW series.
Also will Kratos Brother play a part in the game. Because He was said to have been thrown down to Hades.
Also any chance of a fight with Kratos vs Hercules. That would be the best fight ever.
Now was it just me or did I see wall running. Because in an interview that was to be a feature that was to be in GOW2 but was not added because other stuff needed to me put in the game instead. So is it in the game now or not.
Will there be any chance Kratos can bring his Wife and daughter back to life or not.
Also will there be lot of cut-scenes or movies. Because I love seeing great GCI movies and games. That is why I loved games like Metal Gear Solid 4. Nice long movies and I would love to see a lot of killing scenes with Kratos.
Again great job and I look forward to playing this game in March of 2010. Because all the other Kratos games came out then so I see GOW3 coming out then too.
Holy >>>>>> *-*
I’m speechless right now. When will this game come out ?
Hopefully is this year.
I never been so excited in my life!!! Thank you… I could cry….
Soo Awesome!! I can’t wait to play this game. I would seriously play this game right now. I don’t care what form it’s in. lol
i was looking at some screens and noticed that the chains on Kratos’ arms seemed flat on them will that be changed to make it look like the chains are not glued to his arms?
The trailer is incredible. AWESOME.
Este juego esta BRUTAL!!!!!!!
AWESOME Trailer
wow, this game is looking awesome. hopefully it comes out soon.
Playboy: “People don’t want storylines”
Whoever works for Playboy is an idiot.
And where are those people that say PS3 has no games? Fool’s LOL…….. Nedd to hurry up with geting out I hate waiting and geting teased!!!! :0
OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think I just came…
19th March? 2010?
:D
And about multiplayer? have anything or don’t?
The scale and graphics in relation to them is freakin unbelievable! GOWIII is insane.
BRAVO SONY!!!!!!!!!!! Another stellar addition!!!
Well…it’s official. I’m impressed. Demo want!
wow trailer looks AMAZING, i cant wait for this!!! lol
ive loved GoW ever since the first one was released, honestly one of the greatest games of all time!
When I think of media outlets PlayBoy does NOT come to mind.
That trailer was awesome!
Amazing at the end
Let’s see that trailer in the store in 1080p!!
According to Playboy, gamers don’t want storylines? Uh No! I want storylines I am playing a game not watching a [DELETED].
omgwtf holy $#!!….damn, that trailer is going to make some MS reps drop a load in their shorts..
woooooooooooooooooooooooooow
amazing…..
Very Impressive. Can’t wait!
Looks a bit too shiny for me.
WOW…
goosebumps all over watching that trailer…most EPIC trailer I’ve ever seen for any video game, I still don’t know if this is a dream… can’t wait !!!
reason i got a ps3
That was freaking amazing looking you guys at Sony know how to make a video game for sure.
directors, producers, and the whole god of war team past and present…
‘applause’
I’ve never played through all of the GOW games, but this is truely EPIC.