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Sony unveils God of War Collection News
PlayStation 3 News by Tom Bramwell
Sony has announced God of War Collection for PlayStation 3 - a single Blu-ray disc home to 720p versions of God of War.
Due out "this holiday season" (Christmas in old money), the revamped PS2 games also benefit from unlockable Trophies.
According to the US PlayStation blog, God of War Collection will cost $39.99 over there.
We're waiting to hear back from Sony Europe about a European release date and local pricing.
"The fans spoke and we listened," Sony's Anthony Caiazzo blogged, begging the question whether anyone was listening when we all howled with dismay at the removal of actual backwards compatibility from PS3. Oh I went there.
"For those that recall the God of War survey conducted earlier this year, an overwhelming amount of the community suggested the PlayStation 2 experiences of Kratos be brought forth to the PlayStation 3," Caiazzo added, further condemning us to write about loads more bloody surveys and petitions in the future.
Still, it's not his fault we're grumpy. God of War III, incidentally, is due out in March 2010. Like its predecessors, it involves dropping fools with steel.
Check out our most recent God of War III preview to discover how.
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 07:49
+3
There's a generalized hype all over teh internetz about this, and people now seem to think that Sony is gonna port all the PS2 classics to the PS3.
I think this was just a lucky one-off, because the (pretty much unevolving) GoW game engine was ported to the PS3 for GoW3 anyway. All the team had to do (not withstanding the amount of work envolved) probably was recompiling the assets to be rendered at a higher resolution. It's a good thing, and I'm glad that they're being re-released at the same price as the Platinum PS2 versions together (although I would of course prefer this cheaper still), but let's not fool ourselves into thinking that BC is coming back or that this will become a habit...
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most recently on 01/09/09 @ 14:34
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+5
Some people have been arguing that this could easily have been done had they added backwards compatibilty, and that's fair (we'd at least be able to play all the other gems like SOTC), but it wouldn't be able to upscale it to a true 720p resolution with anti aliasing going on. That alone makes a nice incentive to purchase the updated collection IMO, who wouldn't want to see GOWI&II in HD anyway?
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+2
I really want these because I loved GoW 1 & 2. However I am annoyed that I will have to pay for them again though (when I say 'have to' I know I don't actually *have* to, but I also know that I won't be able to not buy them either. Damn you!).
Having said that, if they would please do the same for SoTC and ICO.... |
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+7
Actually, I have to ask.. why only? Surely as the home of the true *cough* High-Definition experience the PS3 should be able to handle running these games in 1080p? :s
And, whilst I'm in cynic mode, you have to wonder if the reason Sony removed backwards compatibility is because they plan on rehashing more popular PS2 titles in a similar way to get people to buy the games all over again...
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most recently on 01/09/09 @ 09:12
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StooMonster
01/09/09 @ 08:14
+4
Played GoW on my PSP, and friends raved about games on PS2 (never owned one) so this is intriguing to me.
Although this phenomena does explain why Sony aren't arsed by 'backwards compatibility' in the PS3, they can earn direct revenue off of old PS2 games if they do it this way whereas building BC into the console they could only earn indirect revenue (increased sales of PS3) which in unquantifiable. |
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Doctor_What
01/09/09 @ 08:15
+3
I hope they've changed the 'hammer this to open the box' button away from the trigger button - I've got a BC PS3 and the open-box button is R2, which means that's it's hard to tap the trigger fast enough to open the doors and boxes.
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Beige_Alert
01/09/09 @ 08:16
-1
I've never missed the backwards compatibility in my PS3 after having tried out Timesplitters 3 on a friends with it. It just looked awfull and I just couldn't continue playing. But this is smart, I bought the first GoW for the PS2 but never got around to bying the second and now I just might do it.
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VandelayIndustries
01/09/09 @ 08:35
+3
Missed these two games first time around so this is a must for me, and It would be lovely if ICO & SotC got the same treatment.
@Donnie They appear to be ports in much the same way as Tekken DR on PSN is, (These two are being handled by a separate studio).
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most recently on 01/09/09 @ 09:39
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darkmorgado
01/09/09 @ 08:41
-3
Conversation at Sony:
Junior: Sir, people keep complaining that they can't play PS2 games on the PS3. They won't go away! Senior Exec: WHAT? Tell them to go out and buy a PS2 separately! We need to recoup the PS3 development cost somehow! Junior: I don't think that will work sir. They want to play the games on the PS3. Apparently they don't have the room for 2 consoles hooked up underneath their television. It might be because we made the PS3 so big. Senior Exec: (contemplates for a moment). I've got it! Junior: Sir? Senior Exec: They want to play PS2 games on their PS3? Let's re-release them on blu-ray! That way they have to buy them all over again and we get even more money! Junior: Erm, will that work sir? Won't people complain about having to buy the same game twice to play it on a console that originally had backwards-compatibility as standard? Senior Exec: Ah, you have much to learn young padawan... If we put trophy support in, everyone will buy it just to increase their Trophy Scores! The stupid idiots. Junior: Sir, you're a genius! Senior Exec: You don't get where I am today by actually giving people what they want, boy. Now on your knees and give me a footrub! And get me Hideo Kojima! He needs to pay for costing us yet another console-exclusive franchise...
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most recently on 01/09/09 @ 09:43
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+5
The first two God of War games run on my launch PS3 with smoothing and upscaling plus the added bonus of absolutely no screen tearing, unlike the same game on the PS2. The only glitch I've noticed is the lack of shadows in the sequel.
720p and proper AA are nice in the remastered versions but I hope that doesn't come at the cost of screen tearing. If it doesn't then I'd certainly buy the new versions too as both are among my very favourite last generation games. |
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 09:03
+4
I might be wrong but I'm sure that the original U.S. verson of God of War II on the PS2 had a hidden 720p mode that worked with component video but it wasn't included in the European versions.
Not really. It was 480p with full size buffers. Couldn't work with PAL, it seems.
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-4
"ZOMG - Sony are starting to get things right"
Sorry I laughed at that. Paying over the odds for old games, devs having to port their PS2 games purely so people can experience them is not doing things right my friend. Anyway The God Of Wars are on my want list so I guess I'll hold off and buy this, but don't think you can resell me every game Sony, you are still complete idiots behind the game compared to your competetion on looking after consumers of your old tech.....
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Mentalist(air)
01/09/09 @ 09:21
-2
Some people have been arguing that this could easily have been done had they added backwards compatibilty... ...but it wouldn't be able to upscale it to a true 720p resolution with anti aliasing going on
But that's exactly what Xbox 360's software emulation does for games. |
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 09:21
+5
Sorry I laughed at that. Paying over the odds for old games, devs having to port their PS2 games purely so people can experience them is not doing things right my friend.
I also dislike the departure of BC, but on the other hand devs aren't exactly porting their old PS2 games for free, are they? 3rd party might like the idea (i.e., they could see that it sells) and start porting PS2 classics to the PS3. Heck, some might even make the port multi-platform while they're at it! If this experiment works, everybody wins in the end.
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most recently on 01/09/09 @ 10:22
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 09:23
+4
But that's exactly what Xbox 360's software emulation does for games.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but that emulator requires the user to download specific patches for each title in order to achieve this, doesn't it? |
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+1
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but that emulator requires the user to download specific patches for each title in order to achieve this, doesn't it?"
Not sure but hey a patch is nothing and at least it scrubs up and PLAYS....well most do :) MS and their own B/C lies caused this experiment already SeesThroughAll. EFBB was remade due to the devs dissappointment at the original not working on 360 apparently and AODA grew from that. It's a good work around but you will only get a few of the most successful games if you're lucky I reckon. I can see Konami doing a MGS/Silent Hill one or maybe a Getway one (dreams). But most won't bother.
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 09:38
+3
@ bad09:
I guessed those patches wouldn't be too large anyway. I can see Konami doing a MGS/Silent Hill one or maybe a Getway one (dreams). But most won't bother. Absolutely. I still secretly hope for a MGS1 remake using the MGS4 engine. Then again, maybe Konami plan on doing that with the MGS:R engine ;) |
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+6
People keeping referring to the 720p resolution as being "upscaled' yet nowhere in the blog does it use this word. I suspect the game will be rendered internally at 720p and AA added on top of that to give a crisp, sharp look to the game whilst reusing the same textures and modelling. The original games run in 3D so it's very easy to reuse the assets and render them at a higher resolution. LIVE SoulCalibur and the two Banjo games did this as did Tekken 5 on PSN.
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Bigglesworth
01/09/09 @ 09:44
0
Does it really beg the question, Tom? DOES IT?
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+2
I just bought MGS3: Snake Eater [€14.99], Ico [€29.99] and SotC [€29.99] and got MGS3 free. (Only place I could find them new and don't like second hand)
I'm not sure if I will like God of War but I have been thinking of somehow getting the two games. I'm going to get a PS3 next summer so maybe I'll be getting this.
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most recently on 01/09/09 @ 10:50
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Bigglesworth
01/09/09 @ 09:51
+2
It's worth a punt. GoW plays so well you'll probably like it even if you're not a big fan of the genre.
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 09:52
+3
I'm not sure if I will like God of War but I have been thinking of somehow getting the two games. I'm going to get a PS3 next summer so maybe I'll be getting this.
Next summer? By then you'll probably find a bundle with all three games together! |
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designerheadache
01/09/09 @ 09:53
0
nice one, i never got around to GOW2 and really enjoyed the first, so ill pick this up instead :P
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SeesThroughAll
01/09/09 @ 10:03
+1
Thanks! :)
But come on, I wasn't even trolling anyone this time! :D |
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Bigglesworth
01/09/09 @ 10:58
0
@penhalion
Actually, thinking about this a bit more, you're quite correct, this is a bit unusual. My first thought was that they're actually gonna release the collection purely for BC-capable PS3's, but of course when running as a PS2 the machine isn't going to be able to read the BluRay... I think. Looking at the press release (so it does seem pretty official), it seems that Bluepoint (them of "Blast Factor") are doing conversion work. Lets hope Santa Monica didn't take any shortcuts to getting their performance =) |
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0
Doing title-specific emulation is much simpler than supplying a generic "out-of-the-box" solution in all kinds of ways.
What most non-technical people don't appreciate is that the hardest part of writing a piece of software of this type isn't getting it to do what the original did, its making sure it works consistently and without doing unexpected things due to the original software straying outside "standardized" coding practices. If you pick a specific game to emulate all your program needs to do is cater for what that program does internally, not 1000 programs with their own little foibles and issues to work around. Creating a flawless universal emulation is an iterative process, as especially dealing with a platform like PS2 with thousands of published titles you simply can't test for everything working correctly within a reasonable timeframe. Never mind fixing it so it always works right! Doing title-specific emulations is a far more realistically attainable task, especially if you're running to a tightly-managed publishing schedule. Not to mention far more profitable from a commercial standpoint. |
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0
@Greybeard
The chips in the PS2 were virtually impossible to emulate at a usable speed, that's why Sony still had to use some of them even on the cut down backward compatibility version of the PS3. So this isn't a simply matter of writing some software shell for GOW 1 and 2. I would be very curious as to when/if this will actually see the light of day as opposed to what the official blog is saying. |
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