"I don't know anything about it," said of God of War III producer Stig Asmussen of a God of War I/II Blu-ray collection, "so I don't think it's likely it's gonna happen."
That was at E3 earlier this year. Months later, Sony announced the God of War Collection, a single Blu-ray disc containing both titles along with visual upgrades for the PlayStation 3. So Stig is really good at bluffing, or Sony didn't invite him to some meetings.
Either way, I'm certainly glad he was wrong.
God of War Collection (PlayStation 3)
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Sony Santa Monica, Bluepoint Games
Released: November 17, 2009
MSRP: $39.99
The first God of War and its sequel are arguably some of the best third-person action titles to grace any platform, and easily the high point of Sony's strong first-party PlayStation 2 line-up. While the basic concepts and gameplay mechanics found in both titles weren't particularly revolutionary, they were executed near-flawlessly, with epic style and satisfying combat that's still being mimicked by developers today.
For fans of intense and brutal third-person action, both titles are musts for the collection. So when Sony pulled backwards compatibility off its PlayStation 3 features list, keeping the PlayStation 2 in your living room would be essential -- leaving these classics (among others) behind would be foolish.
With God of War Collection, Sony makes its first case for being able to ditch your last-gen PlayStation by putting both God of War I and God of War II on one Blu-ray disc. Of course, Sony could have stopped there and the appeal of the package would have been undeniable. But it didn't, instead "remastering" both games to take advantage of the PlayStation 3 hardware.
Both titles have had a resolution bump, supporting 720p, fancy anti-aliasing, with a frame-rate locked at a smooth 60 frames per second. Both games look about as good as you can expect, considering both are ports of PlayStation 2 titles which were designed with a lower resolution in mind. Both titles look great running in high definition, but it's unlikely you'll be knocked back in your chair by the upgrades at first glance.
In fact, for those who played both titles on the PS2, you won't see much of a difference at all. You probably remember them looking beautiful running on the PS2, and this is a testament to the work the original teams did on both titles. Carefully made artistic choices, breathtaking sets, and epic design truly pushed the PS2 to its limits.
It's not until you compare the games side-by-side that you truly see the remastering work done for the God of War Collection. You may almost forget you're playing PS2 ports, especially while playing the sequel, which still stands as one of the most technically marvelous games on the PS2.
As icing on the cake, full sets of trophies have been added for both games, which may provide that extra incentive for God of War veterans to give the games another go on the PlayStation 3. (As if they games being incredibly fun and completely engaging isn't enough.) They range from run of the mill (collect this thing, kill that thing, complete this other thing) to speed runs or other challenges off the game's beaten path. Depending on how much you've bought into the whole Trophy thing, this may or may not be a selling point for you, but it certainly doesn't hurt that they've been added to this great package.
All of the extras from both titles are also included on the disc, which is likely the real reason you'll want to complete all of the game's challenges -- the extras offer both a revealing peek at behind-the-scenes production, as well as backstory and narrative clues that tie things together. A huge handful of (somewhat spoilerific) God of War II production videos (and "deleted scenes") are even viewable from the PlayStation 3 XMB, as long as the disc is in your drive.
With both games being direct ports, you'd imagine they'd play the same, and you'd be mostly right. I did run into a few problems using the PlayStation 3's SIXAXIS/DualShock 3 controller, which has slight differences in design from the DualShock 2 the games were designed around.
Some of the game's quicktime event prompts require quick pressing of the R2, which -- unlike the flat button found on the DualShock 3 -- is now a trigger that takes a bit longer to pull down all of the way. For whatever reason, I also found my fingers slipping off the DualShock 3 analog sticks, which seem to have less grip than the DualShock 2. This was particularly frustrating during some of the game's "box moving" puzzles, and made it a bit more difficult than I believe they were intended. Neither of these things truly ruin the game experience, and admittedly may seem like a bit whining on my part, but I feel they at least warrant a mention.
You might note that I haven't talked about either of the games specifically in this review. For more details, check out our God of War II review. It should be noted that God of War II recently made our "Top 50 Videogames of the Decade," and it wouldn't have been a stretch to also include the original somewhere on that list.
The point is, while neither game is perfect (weird camera angles plague the first game, particularly; some could argue that combat is "repetitive"), they're easily some of the most entertaining games in the genre. Each title is packed with action and some of the most epic boss battles in any game to date, tied together with a compelling story that you'll definitely want to catch up with before God of War III hits shelves in March 2010.
At $39.99, you'd be foolish to pass this collection up. If you haven't played them, know you're getting an amazing value for you money -- two shining examples of excellence in a genre for less than the cost of a single next-gen title. If you already have God of War I and God of War II in your PlayStation 2 collection (and own a PS2 or backwards compatible PS3), this is a bit of a harder sell, and your hesitance is understandable.
But truly, there really is no other way to experience these games on your HD television than with God of War Collection. Anything else is really doing yourself a disservice as a gamer.
Score: 9.5 -- Superb (9s are a hallmark of excellence. There may be flaws, but they are negligible and won't cause massive damage to what is a supreme title.)
Contest:
6:00 PM on 12.07.2009
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Also MGS and SotC/ICO collections
Not in this review, just in general. This review is actually sobering in its lack of enthusiasm for the minor resolution bump.
Anyways I never played God of War, not my style of game really, though I might play it eventually. On a PS2 emulator in "1200p" and 16xMSAA :P
As a PS3 owner, I really don't see a reason to skip over this collection, unless you really, really hate good games.
You have to sometimes set the cage that the guy is in in little grooves that come up out of the ground that keep the cage from sliding back down.
@Nick:
why'd it take so long to review this?
Got our copy about a week late due to a shipping error, then the holidays, then tons of other stuff I personally had to handle work wise around here. No real reason other than time constraints.
I see what you're saying and can only argue that it is likely because we have these 289749873423" televisions these days and the bump from 480 to 720 is absolutely huge. I would of argued the opposite a couple of generations ago but crisp graphics are a must now days (sadly) to get a high score from reviewers.
As the shepherds (critics/reviewers) go so goes the sheep (consumers) which is why it's such a marketable point.
Either way, the delicious HD part is my excuse to enjoy it again.
I see no elitism in my post. Sensitive much?
The point is reviews write-off massively higher resolutions in PC versions as unimportant yet praise "HD" as if it is anything other than a marketing term.
I don't like silly misconceptions on ANY platform.
There is no such thing as 1200p. Stop falling for marketing ploys for 16:10 monitors.
Great review, although I don't think a better resolution/trophies are worth my money when I already own the games.
That's very true considering that ANY PC resolution over 648x480 is technically HD, and any resolution including and greater than 1620 x 1280 is beyond HD.
However, I don't see where anyone has dismissed that anything HD-resolution or beyond on PCs is irrelevant or unimportant. Textures and framerate might be bad, but those aren't necessarily inclusive with respect to resolution. So, I'm not quite sure that I follow you.
And this coming from someone whose PC will blow away anything the PS3 or XB360 can do.
Wrong. 1600 x 1200 resolution on a PC is 1200P since all PCs display progressively.
I better rephrase that. There is no true HD format of 1200p, its just a bigger 1080p signal.
There is no industry definition of anything beyond 1080p at this point. That's true. However, to say that it's a bigger 1080p signal is a misnomer. It's not like 1080 is upconverted to 1200. The video card is sending out a native 1600 x 1200 signal.
As long as the textures and frame rate from the game can account for that, the visuals are by definition beyond anything that any console can do. But if the visuals are designed with a lower resolution in mind, the extra resolution is somewhat moot since "upconverting" does not technically add additional resolution.
I will buy it at a high price.
even 1 console people should get this sweetsauce
or get em to buy a ps3 already and enjoy both worlds
@ SASUGA RIVAL: Agreed, but they should take it a step further and put Ico and Shadow of the Colossus together like with the two GoW games.Would be a perfect time to do it too especially since they have The Last Guardian coming sometime soon.
Then again, the gameplay looks 5x better, so who cares? Not me.
You have no idea what you are talking about. Stop.
@ John B
I was just trying to make an observation really, nothing too sinister or serious. I have often heard that the massively high resolutions on PC are of no importance and console games look "about the same," so I find it funny when a minor bump in resolution is considered a big deal for a console game. It's nothing too dire, I just find it amusing.
I find the term "HD" amusing to behin with. I was playing Doom in "HD" when the SNES was out for heaven't sake.
...no. Seriously. GoW is a first-party property, made by a Sony studio (Sony Santa Monica). A 360 port will never happen.
Maybe (and it's a big maybe)... I'll think about not passing it up if I see them in the bargain bin, once everyone comes to their senses, and the price drops like a rock.
And YES, I love the games.
The game is made by Sony, so a 360 port is as unlikely as Mario appearing on PS3.
Enlighten me. You are clearly a master of the video arts.
"I can't justify buying two games I already own, even if they are somewhat prettier. Seems like a "sucker" move to me, and I'd hate to reward such behavior. We'd only get a shit ton more of the same with other PS2 titles."
There are new features and the game is now in HD at a budget price. I can only hope they do the same with other PS2 titles, mainly MGS and the Team Ico games.
Games are fantastic, and are the reason I still own a PS2. When I finally make the jump over to the PS3 this will most certainly be in the shopping cart along with the console. They seriously are some of the finest games ever constructed.
A Wiki read-through on resolutions might do the job, but suffice it to say everything is a two-part resolution, vertical pixel count by horizontal. Old TV res was 640x480 and in progressive scan called "480p." Current "HD" consoles display in 1280x720, though often not natively and are just scaled to that res. 1280x720 is not really a high res and it being called "high definition" is just a silly marketing term, PC games reach resolutions far, far beyond that more than a decade ago... forever ago.
Anyway, what you know as "1080p" is 1920x1080, just another resolution and not a fixed standard. PCs can display tons of different resolutions, they are not limited to the three console resolutions. I play my games in 1920x1200, which you might understand as "1200p"... there is no scaling, it is a native res. Some PC monitors go all the way up to something like 2500x1600. and then there is the somewhat recent multi-monitor movement which means playing games in something like 5040x1200. These resolutions are like 50 times the pixels of "720p".
So again, my only point was that PC games have been played at these very high resolutions forever now and 720p is quite low compared, even 1080 being average. So when we PC gamers hear about the AWESOME HD GRAFFIX of 720p, and indeed see a game "remastered in HD!!!" at 720p, it kind of makes us chuckle. The "AND 2xMSAA!!!" thing is also funny, but that's a whole other post I guess.
@ Shadowii
Your comment reminds me of the jocks in high school who make fun of science nerds for knowing more than them. I never said these games suck and I never said playing on a console is bad, all I said was 720p with 2xMSAA isn't something to brag about or get excited about and yet everyone does, while at the same time they tell me PC games look no better than console versions and that higher res does not matter. WHICH IS IT?
Same thing happens with something like Call of Duty Classic, they market it as NOW IN HD when I was playing the damn thing at a much higher resolution when it came out 6 years ago.
I am fighting ignorance over what resolution and HD mean and the silly marketing term "HD" is, not consoles. Stop calling me a fanboy for no reason and read the posts.