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Why Robin Makes Batman Better It was swell of Sony to bring a little parity to Guitar Hero’s DLC, let PlayStation owners get their own console-specific, mascot-endorsed anthem to play with. While they made the initial announcement a few weeks ago, they neglected to tell us just which GoW song it would be. They have now: it’ll be called “The End Begins (To Rock)”, a guitar-heavy reworking of God of War II’s title theme. There’s a preview clip above (and it looks surprisingly excellent!), and if you dig it so much you just want to listen without playing, it’ll be made available in “downloadable form” (an mp3, then) on the PlayStation Store as well. Both the DLC and song will be free, and they’ll be part of the US PSN update tomorrow.
Cory Barlog, formerly of Sony Computer Entertainment America’s Santa Monica studios and God of War II-producing fame, has ended an extended period of blogging silence following his departure from the developer. In today’s update to his personal blog, Barlog reveals that his “whole departure from Sony was not exactly the ideal route that I wanted to go, but in the end I think it is the absolute best thing I could have ever done” and gives a status update on the third proper Kratos adventure.
The producer writes that fans can “rest assured that [God of War III]is all in good hands,” heaping praise on the Santa Monica team who will undertake the inevitable sequel. As far as known progress on GoW III, Barlog reveals that “immediately after I finished God of War 2 I was already working on the story and design for the third game.”
The folks at Sony have the dubious distinction of making Fortune’s end of year wrap up on the boneheaded business decisions of 2007 not once, but twice. While Microsoft also made the list for reasons related to its PR firm Waggener Edstrom Worldwide mistakenly sending an internal profile of a Wired writer to the Wired writer himself, its blunder wasn’t directly game related, as Fortune’s picks for Sony were.
The mag points to Sony’s use of an eviscerated, beheaded goat as a centerpiece for a God of War II promotion as 61st dumbest business move of the year. Close by, at number 63, was the decision to use a bombed out Manchester Cathedral as a backdrop for the PlayStation 3 game Resistance: Fall of Man. Hey, they may have lost a few fans in the church, but this one seems a bit harsh, Fortune editors. It’s not like they actually bombed the cathedral for reference shots.
101 Dumbest Moments in Business [Fortune - thanks, Kenneth!]
Comparisons between Heavenly Sword and God of War are inevitable considering the similar control scheme, but apparently the creators of HS haven’t shied away from giving props (literally) to their obvious inspiration. PlayStation Underground forum poster KiNGoFClubs discovered this little homage to Kratos buried with in the game. During one of Kai’s missions, Kratos’ GOW2 armour and Blades of Chaos can be spotted hanging on a gate in a castle courtyard. You got to hand it to the designers, if you’re going to take inspiration from another game, at least be cool enough to own up to it. You can check out more screen caps here on the PlayStation forums.
[Thanks, Ray]
Providing some very enjoyable tit-for-tat, God of War II director Cory Barlog provides his own mirrored responses to the questions asked of Shadow of the Colossus director Fumito Ueda in a recent Famitsu interview. He tackles Ueda’s more successful game, only briefly touching on ICO.
It’s just as enjoyable as the translated Ueda piece , but might have less of an immediate impact, partially because we get to hear from Barlog and his peers fairly often, while it’s a rare treat to have the opportunity to hear from the creator of two of the best PlayStation 2 games of all time. Regardless, it’s a good read, only because Barlog’s entry about his personal discovery of the beautiful intricacies of SotC’s gameplay is so easy to relate to.
God of the Colossus [Don't Play Games With Me!]
Shadow of the Colossus and ICO creator Fumito Ueda was recently interviewed by Famitsu on the topic of, oddly enough, God of War II. The game director discusses in great detail his impressions on the PlayStation 2 game from SCEA and the differences between Western and Japanese game development. There are some fascinating insights into the different philosophies on development from cost and design perspectives.
Unfortunately, some of Ueda’s comments are rather vague—his comments about the recycling of game assets and code, for example—possibly with some of the finer details lost in translation, but it’s still a good read.
This—video game developers discussing their own work in the terms of their peers—is something I’d definitely like to see more of. You can read the translated interview with Ueda at God of War II director Cory Barlog’s blog.
Ico of War! [Don't Play Games With Me!]
