Matt Leone of 1up.com was at last nights God of War 2 launch event at the Metreon in San Fransisco , Ca. and got some juicy info on God of War 3(PS3) and God of War PSP. Here are the details:
On if God of War could ever go episodic or use downloadable content as a major component:
“You know, I used to have an interest in that. I was a big proponent of that and started pitching ideas around to people. And I wrote a couple episodic scripts that I put in everybody’s hands to try to get the ball rolling. But you know — the game’s too big. I think the game’s way too big. There are too many art assets. We’re talking like a gig and a half, two gig download for one episode. It’s too much. And this isn’t a dig on people that are doing episodic content… but I question people’s willingness to wait. I think in order for it to work, you gotta have four episodes in the can, and then release them two months apart or a month apart… I don’t know if it’s viable for this game…”
“I can see creating the game and leaving hooks. When I was writing, I was jotting down little ideas like that… but I don’t want to end up doing shit like the horse armor. It needs to be worthwhile. It needs to be substantial, as opposed to some tiny little thing that takes 20 minutes.”
On support for PS3 online:
“We do want to have support for the network platform — I think it’s huge. And I’m looking at a lot of stuff right now that if I do end up doing anything with 3, I want to utilize that. [I'm thinking] ‘what else is there? How can you explore creating more of a community with players?’”
On user created levels ala LittleBigPlanet in God of War:
“I think conceptually user created levels is awesome. User created levels for God of War — I don’t think it’s a realistic proposition. We don’t design levels with a level editor the way that like Unreal and Doom [do it] — they have their own editors… there isn’t much possibility of user created stuff for God of War.”
On possibly putting co-op in God of War 3:
“I’ve been looking into it. I really dug playing Gears, and I really like the concept of the co-op. 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 really. It’s not even a discussion with the team. We’re not even moving on to do the game yet. 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. It’s gotta have a true purpose, kinda like Four Swords. I don’t want to necessarily make a game like Four Swords, but how it really had a meaning to how people play it.”
On if we’ll see hints of God of War PSP in the special features disc for God of War 2:
“No, I’m smart. We took out any references to stuff we don’t want out yet… But there are some things in there that may relate to a future game if we do it, but you’ll have to keep your eye open for that.”
9:40: Did Barlog just confirm that God of War 3 will be in 1080p with Sixaxis and VIBRATION functions on PS3? He sure did! Whoa! Well, technically he didn’t confirm GOW3, but he confirmed Sixaxis and vibration for the future of God of War. Here’s hoping he wasn’t joking, but it didn’t sound that way.
9:35: Okay, first official group of details on the PSP game:
-It’s not a port. In the words of director Cory Barlog (who is involved with the PSP game along with developer Ready at Dawn), “It is its own story that connects to the overall story. God of War, God of War 2, and then if all the stars align God of War 3 will be the telling of a trilogy. This PSP story will be a further fleshing out.”
-The developers are not sure what’s going to happen to the roll that was previously on the right analog stick yet — various ideas like a toggle are being thrown around, but we don’t know any more than that. “There are plusses and minuses to all of it,” says Barlog.
-There’s no word on where this sits in the overall story yet.
-There’s no word on PSP/PS2/PS3 connectivity features. Ready at Dawn was one of the few developers to do PSP/PS2 connectivity with Daxter and Jak X, but Barlog says: “As far as the connectivity and stuff, it sounds awesome, but really kind of just found out about Home ourselves… Home was in development [during GOW2], but nobody really on our development team was knowledgeable about it, so there wasn’t much we could do about it.”
-The goal is for this version to be just as epic as the others, despite being on PSP. Barlog: “It is epic. It is big. There are hooks in the PSP story that I actually wrote from one of my first stories for God of War 2, so there are a lot of elements — we’re going to keep connecting all this stuff. To me, it’s a persistent world… I want the PSP version to not feel like the PSP version… it’s just as big. It’s just as epic. It’s God of War.”
-You may revisit some general areas, but none of the same levels from previous games. Barlog: “We’re not reusing any levels. We’re not doing any of that stuff. It’s all original content. And the game will ship with a second analog nub — totally kidding! Not true at all!”
To read the rest of the live blog event complete with pictures click here.
