“I am the God of War!” Kratos exclaims as he rises from the ground, bathed in a massive lighting bolt that fries nearby enemies (a power known as Poseidon’s Rage). That utterance of Kratos solidified my love of the God of War franchise, though in truth this love began way before that.
The God of War (GoW) series on the PlayStation 2 earned critical and universal acclaim from pretty much every outlet known to Mankind. Metacritic scores God of War at 94 and God of War II at 93, which is a combined average score from all of the separate critic reviews. In short, they are the in the top echelon of PS2 games ever made, and that says a lot considering the PS2 library is estimated by Sony to have over 1,700 titles.
I happen to own a first generation PlayStation 3, so I was able to play my PS2 copies of GoW just fine and still can. However, PS2 upscaling aside, the Collection is now coming to the PS3 and will be released this coming Tuesday, November 17, 2009 (alongside Assassin’s Creed II, FYI). The GoWC is being shipped as a two-game bundle on a single Blu-Ray disc, complete with all the bonus content found on the original games’ discs. What that means is a full 720p high definition output and a solid 60 frames-per-second (fps) treatment. The code has been completely optimized for the PS3, so this collection will play on ALL PS3s no matter which generation. So if you have the new PS3 (a.k.a. “Slim,” though Sony doesn’t actually call it by that monicker), no worries for you! You can keep your PS2 alive for other titles, but no longer for God of War.
I’ve already seen some pre-release video and reviews for this collection, but again I stress to you that I do reviews based on realistic time spent with a title without any industry bias. That’s not to say I’m not partial to the series as a gamer, but as a reviewer I come to you with this preview with a clean bias slate. I’m previewing this because I’m just as excited as you are out there, and to drum up sweet war cries prior to the games’ launch, I’m posting up. From all reports, the entire experience will be a hefty improvement over the originals, though that’s no surprise. It seems that SCEA Santa Monica left out the conversion of the in-game cut scenes, but I will comment on that in the final review.
The features of this collection are as follows:
- High Definition output set at 720p
- Both games, including all bonus content, will be shipped on a single Blu-Ray disc
- Framerate locked at 60fps in both titles
- Full PS3 Trophy support, including Platinum, for both games
- A price tag of only $39.99
If you’ve missed out of the God of War series thus far and you are a PS3 owner, you owe it to yourself to get this collection. It will whet your appetite until God of War III lands in April 2010 (I’ve already reserved my Universal Collector’s Edition of GoWIII – have you?), and you will experience all the mature-rated, Greek god pummeling, wing-ripping, arm-pulling, leg-breaking, wench-wooing, bloody-mess action that drove this series to the halls of both fame and infamy.
This is one of the smarter marketing moves I’ve ever seen with an old game or a game series. I wonder if it’ll lead to other game series being treated in the same manner.
I have to admit that Gods of War was one of the few post-Mk fighting games I remember playing somewhat regularly (don’t play fighting games so much now).
May have to get old school (well, third generation old school) sometime this week.
Pablo, I agree. This is a great marketing move, and one that we will likely see repeated again and again with great PS2 classics. It seems Sony could deliver then in digital format over PSN, but disc-based seems a good option, too.
Perhaps we’ll see a revamp of titles such as Shadow of the Colossus or Final Fantasy (X, XI, or XII)? Time will tell.