*God Of War 3 Thread v2.0 + Interview Stig Asmussen

Updated 03-01 - Inteview is now live!

I took some of your questions along with mine and posed them to Steve last Wednesday, like: How many endings does the game have? Does it run at 720P or 1080P? What comprises most of the 35GB on the Blu-Ray disk? Will the God of Wat 3 engine be licensed out? When will we see DLC? Has work begun on the next God of War trilogy? And a ton more questions, so I hope you Enjoy! It was a lot of fun.

Here is a snipet:

"Each GoW game has had a different director and each one has brought a different vision. What kind of affects has this had on the game?

Oh it’s awesome! I think it’s one of the best ways we could have done it. I don’t want to draw direct comparisons to this, but one of my favorite series of all times was Band of Brothers. I love that series! Each episode is set in the same period with the same characters in the same events, but there were different directors for each episode. When you watch the whole thing and reflect back its like ‘wow, ok so it is a little different’. It’s the same with the GoW series—each guy provided a different perspective."

The interview is really long, too big to post here in my opinion. Not sure what to do here but direct you to my blog where it's posted. Hope that doesnt offend some people: http://eat-games.blogspot.com/2010/03/interview-steve-caterson-sr-producer-of.html



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Updated 02-25

You will have to excuse me--I'm still coming down from my high from my experience last night. I suppose I should probably let everyone know that I'm a really big fan of the God of War series. I love both 1 and 2 quite a bit (and I'm a bit of a Greek mythology geek too), have played through both of them multiple times and consider them some of the best action games to ever have been released.

First to bring everyone up to date, I got a chance to play God of War 3 from the very beginning of the game all the way up to the first boss fight at a Sony event last night. In addition I got a 30 minute interview with Steve Caterson (Sr Producer) that turned out really well! Unfortunately the details on what I played and saw is embargo'd until 03-01-10. However I can say this--those of you who have played the GoW3 demo haven’t see ANYTHING yet, and I mean that. That demo--which great in its own right--is more tame than what I played. Santa Monica Studios has expanded on the series in just about everything facet of the series that made it great. Seriously, it's stunning what they've done. It's absolutely KILLING me that I cannot talk about what I saw because I want to scream from the rooftops. Oh well. It's only a few days right?

I know that everyone is chomping at the bit to get more information on the visuals so here it is. I can confirm (from my interview) that the game runs at a variable frame rate running between 30-60 FPS @ 720P with V-sync enabled. In my time with the game last night I didn’t notice a single tear, hiccup or stutter the entire time (and I was looking for it too).

Steve (Caterson) was very candid and answered most of my questions. I forgot my voice recorded so I ended up using my iPhone and it--to my surprise--recorded our entire conversation really well. I was just going to use it for notes but because the audio is great and I come from a Podcasting background I'm considering jazzing it up a bit (read: trim the fat) and putting it up on my blog. What do you guys think about this? Would you rather have it transcribed? I think you'll like the audio because Steve was so great.

Here are some of the questions I asked that (mostly) got answered:

- What was your role in the development of GoW3
- What was the greatest challenge in regards to the development of GoW3?
- Have any games released this generation influenced the development GoW3?
- What inspired a moving level? Was it something the team wanted to do with the first two games?
- In your opinion the series has had different directors for each game wondering what kind of positive affect this has had on the series?
- Can we expect to see some DLC? Any of it free?
- Has work began on the next God of War trilogy?
- God of War 2 was released roughly 3 years ago and the genre hasn’t moved forward too much in terms of gameplay. What are you guys doing, gameplay-wise, to move things forward?
- Is the game running at 60 FPS/720P?
- Zippertech: What exactly does it do? Go beyond?
- What’s the majority of the 35GB used for on the BRD?
- Are there any pre-rendered cutscenes in the game or are they real time?
- Will the GoW3 engine be licensed out?
- Will GoW3 be more in line with the first game or the second game in regards to narrative?


I did get word from Sony that I will be receiving my review copy of the game perhaps as soon as next week! As always I will let you guys know my honest opinion on the game and keep you up to date.

God I love this hobby!

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Heres the deal, tomorrow I will be attending a press event down in LA where we will take a peek into the making of GoW3, interview the team, get hands-on time with the game. I'm coming to you guys for good questions to pose to him and the team. What would you like for me to ask of the project lead/team? It can be in regards to mostly anything like tech, gameplay, production & design process, DLC, Etc. Also, keep in mind that there is a chance that the interviews might not happen since I'm very low on the totem pole.

I dont know if it's true but rumor has it that the content is new and Stig might have a "special announcement"? Grain of salt and all, but you never know.

Also, I will be Twittering from the event with my impressions and photos: http://www.twitter.com/heymarkd

 

I cannot tell you how many people have asked me to pose this question.

 

Today is the day and I'm really looking forward to the event. I'm do hope they show some new areas of the game and not the demo. I got my confirmation for the interview and it's actually not with Stig but Sr. Producer Steve Caterson.

Thanks everyone for your input. I think the embargo lifts on the 3rd--but that doesnt mean I can't Tweet from the show--so look for the content on my blog shortly.

 

Updated 02-25

You will have to excuse me--I'm still coming down from my high from my experience last night. I suppose I should probably let everyone know that I'm a really big fan of the God of War series. I love both 1 and 2 quite a bit (and I'm a bit of a Greek mythology geek too), have played through both of them multiple times and consider them some of the best action games to ever have been released.

First to bring everyone up to date, I got a chance to play God of War 3 from the very beginning of the game all the way up to the first boss fight at a Sony event last night. In addition I got a 30 minute interview with Steve Caterson (Sr Producer) that turned out really well! Unfortunately the details on what I played and saw is embargo'd until 03-01-10. However I can say this--those of you who have played the GoW3 demo haven’t see ANYTHING yet, and I mean that. That demo--which great in its own right--is more tame than what I played. Santa Monica Studios has expanded on the series in just about everything facet of the series that made it great. Seriously, it's stunning what they've done. It's absolutely KILLING me that I cannot talk about what I saw because I want to scream from the rooftops. Oh well. It's only a few days right?

I know that everyone is chomping at the bit to get more information on the visuals so here it is. I can confirm (from my interview) that the game runs at a variable frame rate running between 30-60 FPS @ 720P with V-sync enabled. In my time with the game last night I didn’t notice a single tear, hiccup or stutter the entire time (and I was looking for it too).

Steve (Caterson) was very candid and answered most of my questions. I forgot my voice recorded so I ended up using my iPhone and it--to my surprise--recorded our entire conversation really well. I was just going to use it for notes but because the audio is great and I come from a Podcasting background I'm considering jazzing it up a bit (read: trim the fat) and putting it up on my blog. What do you guys think about this? Would you rather have it transcribed? I think you'll like the audio because Steve was so great.

Here are some of the questions I asked that (mostly) got answered:

- What was your role in the development of GoW3
- What was the greatest challenge in regards to the development of GoW3?
- Have any games released this generation influenced the development GoW3?
- What inspired a moving level? Was it something the team wanted to do with the first two games?
- In your opinion the series has had different directors for each game wondering what kind of positive affect this has had on the series?
- Can we expect to see some DLC? Any of it free?
- Has work began on the next God of War trilogy?
- God of War 2 was released roughly 3 years ago and the genre hasn’t moved forward too much in terms of gameplay. What are you guys doing, gameplay-wise, to move things forward?
- Is the game running at 60 FPS/720P?
- Zippertech: What exactly does it do? Go beyond?
- What’s the majority of the 35GB used for on the BRD?
- Are there any pre-rendered cutscenes in the game or are they real time?
- Will the GoW3 engine be licensed out?
- Will GoW3 be more in line with the first game or the second game in regards to narrative?


I did get word from Sony that I will be receiving my review copy of the game perhaps as soon as next week! As always I will let you guys know my honest opinion on the game and keep you up to date.

God I love this hobby!