God of War: Ghost of Sparta – OUT NOW!

[AranhaHunter]

www.godofwar.com/spartansstandtall

Developer: Ready At Dawn® Studios
Platform: PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) and PSPgo handheld entertainment systems
Genre: Action-Adventure
Players: Single-player
Launch Date: November 2 2010

OVERVIEW

The God of War® franchise has set the bar for the action-adventure genre, selling over 11 million units worldwide and receiving various awards, while enjoying critical acclaim from the videogame industry’s top media. This began in 2005 when Sony Computer Entertainment America’s (SCEA) Santa Monica Studio introduced God of War, a game that won over a dozen ‘Game of the Year Awards.’ Then in 2007, the award-winning development team introduced God of War II, the second chapter of this sprawling odyssey, followed by God of War III in 2010, the franchise’s first title designed for the PlayStation®3 (PS3™) system and one that sold over 1 million copies in its first week of release last March.

In 2008, the adventure moved to the PSP® system with God of War®: Chains of Olympus, a game that is currently the highest rated PSP title of all-time on MetaCritic.com with a score of 91. Developed by Ready At Dawn Studios, in collaboration with SCEA’s Santa Monica team, Chains of Olympus has been praised by fans and critics alike as one of the best portable gaming experiences to date.

Now, that same creative team brings you God of War®: Ghost of Sparta for the PSP and PSPgo systems. This new journey picks up after the conclusion of God of War, telling the story of Spartan warrior Kratos ascension to power as the new God of War. Ghost of Sparta will combine intense action, a fresh storyline, stunning graphics, and depths of scale never-before-seen on the portable platform.

STORYLINE

At the end of God of War, the brutal warrior Kratos had defeated Ares and ascended to Olympus as the new God of War. In Ghost of Sparta, Kratos finds that his new powers are not enough to stop the nightmares that continue to plague him. To free himself of the ghosts that haunt his memories, Kratos must embark on a journey that will reveal the origins of lost worlds and answer long-awaited questions about his dark past. Armed with the deadly Blades of Athena, he will have to overcome armies of mythological monsters, legions of undead soldiers, and amazingly dangerous and brutal landscapes throughout his merciless quest.

KEY FEATURES

New Combat & Weapon System: Enhanced melee combat features more in your face action with ‘Combat Rush’, which enables Kratos to pummel enemies to the ground as well as throw them, an augmented death system featuring unique weapon and magic specific deaths, as well as a larger variety of combination, finishing and air-to-air combat moves. Players will also have new weapons to wield such as the Spear and Shield with its fully fleshed out combat tree along with new magical powers for more lethal attacks.

Bigger Bosses, More Enemies: Ghost of Sparta boasts bigger and more diverse gameplay than Chains of Olympus. This results in exponentially larger bosses, double the enemies on-screen with more diverse behaviors, and new navigation types all of which add to a more engaging and immersive gameplay experience.

Stunning Visuals: Engine enhancements provide stunning graphics and dramatic camera angles that are coupled with weather effects, depth of field, and higher quality environments to offer visuals that have never been seen before on the PSP system.

Epic Story: Keeping true to the God of War franchise, Ghost of Sparta provides compelling new adventure for Kratos, one that will go deeper into his past that ever before and answer long-awaited questions about the Spartan warrior.

Puzzle Solving: As players explore the ancient world, prepare to navigate through a labyrinth of challenging puzzles inter-woven into the story.

Critically-Acclaimed Franchise: Brought to you by two award-winning development teams, Sony Computer Entertainment America, Santa Monica Studio and Ready At Dawn Studios.

Enjoy Anytime, Anywhere: Available for the PSP and PSPgo systems, Ghost of Sparta is a blockbuster adventure in the palm of your hand that can be enjoyed on the go, anytime, anywhere!

[DonRSD]

fantastic news!!!

i love the god of war series.

any word on a release date or time frame of a release date?

[Toxa]

Day one

1up's Matt Leone seems to have some form of exclusive preview/interview.

[Dave_6]

Awesome! Glad I've held on to my PSP!

[cajmoyper]

CoO is pretty easily my favorite PSP game and I think since in each GOW, the camera is fixed, these games were made for the PSP. Ready at Dawn did an amazing job before and I think they'll continue. I can't wait for this one...but will have to.

[Shin-Ra]

23 months ago:

The end of an era…
June 9, 2008

With Chains of Olympus going Gold in Japan (やったー！！ビッチズ！), we’re now officially done with PSP development.

So today we sent all our devkits back and seeing all these boxes ready to be picked up definitely marks the end of an era here at Ready At Dawn.

Can’t wait to show you guys what we have in store....

Today:

[AranhaHunter]

Am I the only one that wishes this was a PSP2 launch title instead of a PSP one?

[Shin-Ra]

If the game and PSP2 releases were close, a PSP2 version with easy graphical upgrades like no dithering, AA, better texture filtering, added depth of field etc would be cool.

[Blu Ian]

Yes!!!! :d

[RatedRstar]

This is exciting news. I'm glad it's set for release this year. The graphics look amazing.

[THE_JUDGE]

This is awesome news!!! I need a reason to keep my PSP after Peace Walker and this is it! I have no doubt that RAD will do a good job. The screen shots already look awesome. I wonder if he will kill any Gods in this one. Any guesses? Im going to throw it out there that he has to do more biddings with other greek characters. I wonder who left to use or maybe this game will tie into the next GOW with a slight change of story or introduce who would have

[Show spoiler]"stolen" his body at the end of the 3rd game.

[AranhaHunter]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

If the game and PSP2 releases were close, a PSP2 version with easy graphical upgrades like no dithering, AA, better texture filtering, added depth of field etc would be cool.

And most importantly dual analog control support.

[Shin-Ra]

Goes without saying.

[aygie]

I'm on a bit of a GOW frenzy at the mo, just platinum'ed GOW1 and started GOW2, also stuck on the final Zeus fight (Titan mode) in GOW3 and bought GOW:Chains of Olympus the other day for my PSPGO.

So looking forward to this for sure

[Monkey]

Looks good!

WIll the PSP2 be backwards compatibable? I never picked up a PSP but really want Ultimate Ghouls n Ghost and perhaps some others.

[Septimus Prime]

Awesome!

[serpheus]

Defo getting this for my PSP Go, the first one is arguably the best handheld game ever.

[Lucy Diamond]

Chains was such a fun game and was my first God of War experience.

I love that angry little dude!!!

[Trogdor2010]

When I was thinking of selling my PSP, this comes up. Well, I guess keep on keeping it for now.

[DonRSD]

this game cant come out soon enough.

they could turn GoW/Kratos into a zelda type game with multiple prequels/sequels of games.

think of the original zelda for nes and how many have come out based on that storyline and years before/after it.

GoW can do the same exact thing and keep the series running forever.

the only thing i want to see in GoW is the people who made the original GoW start working on every other GoW from here on out