PS3 Fanboy

It seems the director of God of War II, Cory Barlog, wants to pay attention to other projects before the much-anticipated God of War III makes any sort of debut. On his blog, he talks about a lot of things, but he mentions how he's not paying attention to the trilogy and instead is working on his very own RPG opus -- A Family Ties game. Or something.

So for those of you who were expecting some kind of surprise at E3 or Tokyo Game Show, we hate to be the bearers of bad news, but you'll be waiting a while to see Kratos and the Titans crushing the crap out of Olympus. Unless Sony pulls a Kojima and replaces Kratos with a different, less gruff and manly character. Possibly a Roman who likes to comb his hair and do cartwheels. That would be most unfortunate! We don't need another Raiden. Or ... do we?

[via CVG]

While we've all assumed that God of War III will hit the PS3 at some point in the future, it hasn't actually been set in stone by Sony, David Jaffe, or otherwise. It's wishful thinking, but Sony's Santa Monica studio says that "there's definitely the enthusiasm of us wanting to do that, to make the God of War III, but there's obviously no commitment to that right now." Like we said -- wishful thinking, but everyone wants it!

Let's talk hypothetical. If GoW3 were in production, what would it feature? The answer: "Put it this way. If we ever do get to make God of War III, it'll have connections to all the games, just like [God of War PSP] has direct links to [God of War] II. So if you go and you play this game, if you remember in II or you go back and play II, you'll see situations that are directly explained because of the PSP [version] and [this game] helps flesh out [the mythology] even more. All these games have a connection to each other." Obviously. If the game told a different story, unattached to Kratos or Greek mythology in general, we'd be disappointed. Maybe at E3? Maybe once we get a rumbling Sixaxis?

We have three new shots of Conan from the Sony Gamer's Day event, and it's looking pretty good. While clearly influenced by the God of War series, the cel-shading and alternate mythology could make the game a solid alternative while we wait for God of War III.

Gallery: Conan

As many of you have heard, Dailymail.co.uk posted an article last Sunday about a Greek press event for God of War II that was held two months ago. While press events for major games is not unusual, the nature of this one was a little ... controversial.

The controversy came from a photo of the party in this month's Official PlayStation Magazine, in which you can see what appears to be a freshly slaughtered goat and a half-naked girl sitting next to it (and some kind of barbarian guy standing behind it).

The article also made a number of other claims, significantly increasing the gross-out factor of the story. I won't bother rehashing them now, because everybody already knows them. The reason we didn't run an article about this when it was first released is that we strongly suspected that there were some major pieces of the puzzle missing that we weren't hearing. Not that Sony hasn't made a number of PR stumbles in the past, but Dailymail's synopsis of the party made it sound like an orgy of blood and gore more suitable to the Marques De Sade than a videogame launch party.

Turns out, it wasn't quite as it was portrayed. Go ahead and click the continued link to see the cold, hard facts.

Holy crap. Having just finished reading this interview (it's about noon, not that it matters), I've got to keep myself from laughing out loud (LOLing, if we may) because I'm in a study... area. Anyway, David Jaffe was interviewed way back during GDC about a number of things, but we're going to concentrate on his talk about God of War and where that franchise will go. But we're also going to make a quick list of our favorite quotes from the interview. Because it's hilarious.

• Jaffe on Nintendo and the Wii: "I love Nintendo. I can't get my hands on a f***ing Wii."
• Jaffe on asking Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime for a Wii: "I don't know, it's not like he's carrying them around like Santa Claus..."
• Jaffe on Microsoft responding to HOME: "I think it's a good attempt at spin. Good for them for trying to spin their way out of a pretty bad situation."
• Jaffe about missing the rumble feature: "No one would say, "Yeah rumble sucks, nobody cares about it." It's a nice feature... but let's put it this way: when I heard we weren't going to have rumble I wasn't like, "Oh my god we're f***ed."

All right, whatever. The meat of the God of War stuff is on the third page of the interview. To summarize, Jaffe explains that he knows exactly where the story of Kratos is going and where it will end, but he thinks it may take two or three more games to tell the tale completely (sales dependent, sure). Also, Sony will probably release some mini-stories to tie up other loose ends. The third title is rumored to be coming to the PS3 (duh), will support 1080p and some nifty SIXAXIS ideas. Good stuff, funny guy. Curses like a sailor. We at PS3Fanboy always respect men of the sea, because they're like pirates and pirates are pleasant and cordial.

Someone decided to interrupt David Jaffe, man behind classics like Twisted Metal and a little game called God of War, at the Playboy Mansion. They had the balls (pun definitely intended) to ask him about God of War 3, which is funny since the second game isn't even out yet. Expectedly, Jaffe said that he started scribbling down design notes four days ago -- no development, no decision to even create the game. All focus is still on number 2.

Jaffe also takes a moment to call out EGM, who named Jaffe the "God of Bulls...tuff" because they thought his PSP game was a giant publicity rumor. Jaffe says he just fudged it up and cancelled it -- there was no rumor, it just ended up sucking. That's cool.

A few more highlights before we tell you to watch the video yourself: narrative will be laced between all three games (if they decide to make it). Also, Jaffe would love to make this game on the PS3 -- he just needs the go-ahead from Sony and some cash money money. As for the SIXAXIS, he has some ideas for implementation but he doesn't go into too much detail. It's a very cool, informative, honest interview. Check it out.

God of War director David Jaffe recently posted on his blog and 1up.com covered the important points for us. An interesting pair of quotes are where Jaffe says "I find myself enjoying single player action adventure games more than I have since I was a kid," but also says that after designing an action/adventure game with an epic story he has "lost interest in the genre of single player action/adventure games." He likes playin' 'em, but doesn't like makin' 'em. He doesn't want to tell stories with his games anymore?

Jaffe believes, apparently, that most games today don't really feed on the raw emotions that a game could, and should, evoke from the player. What, then, will Project HL be? If he doesn't want to make a story, what could it be? A very hard, annoying puzzle game that makes us cry because it's so ridiculous? What about God of War 2, or God of War 3? Will the story taper off and the third try to evoke raw emotions from us with nothing other than blood and mayhem? This may worry some, but as 1up.com concluded, it does appear he is suffering from burnout due to rough development schedules. Buck up, Jaffe! We believe in you.

Check out what David Jaffe, creative force behind God of War said in an article over at Next Generation: "I am very confident of our chances to be able to complete the GOD OF WAR trilogy." Trilogy, eh? No statement about production or console was confirmed, but it wouldn't be too out of line to assume that if a third incarnation of Kratos' badassery stabbed its way to us, it would be on the PS3. With the second game coming out in 2007 on the PS2, after the launch of the PS3, it only seems logical to conclude the trilogy on the next-gen console.

Another sequel for the Playstation 3? Sure, but it's God of War. It's fantastic. Sequels may be name or brand-recognition as selling points for consoles, but they're also sequels because people bought into the originals. They're good. Usually. In the movie business, though, sequels are usually shoddy and put out simply to drop a few coins in the creator's purses. For a few games, sure, making money is important, but we just like to see familiar faces doing familiar badass kills. Who wouldn't want to see a PS3 rendition of Kratos twisting the head off of a Medusa? Let's cross our fingers and hope this comes true!