Six Reasons GoW III Will be Bloody Brilliant

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Kratos is angry. Scratch that - Kratos is the most furious, hate-filled man in the world of games. That's why you see him here, tearing the head off sun god, Helios.

What with Ares tricking him into killing his own family, Zeus destroying his home town of Sparta and other gods attempting to murder him on numerous occasions, it's easy to see why God Of War's balding lead has a bee in his bonnet.

In GOW3, Kratos carries on from where the second game left off. Having fought Zeus and lost his heavenly guardian, Athena, Kratos is determined to bring down the Pantheon of gods that have made his life a misery from the heights of Mount Olympus.

But first he has to get there. That's why he's enlisted the help of the Titans - skyscraper-sized beings enslaved by the gods after a brutal war between the two for control of earth.

It flies in the face of established Greek myth, but authentic license aside, the beauty of the God Of War games is that they never do things needlessly. Everything has a place or a function. However brutal.

Why is Kratos tearing off Helios' head? So he can use it as a fleshy lantern later in the game, to pick his way through the darker parts of Mount Olympus. Obviously. What you can't see here is how brutal this looks in-game, thanks to GOW3's 'velcro-tear' injury system. You can see Helios' neck strain, flesh rip and sinews stretch before his head pops off. Lovely.

1. The blades are back
The Blades of Chaos (Athena's Blades in GOW2) return with a host of new applications. The most interesting new move is the ability to yank enemies towards you for further pummelling, or swing around larger foes to attack from the side or rear as seen in the centaur battle in the trailer.

The huge, lion-head gauntlets revealed in the trailer are called Cestus, and they're inspired by the Gauntlet of Zeus that Kratos picks up in his PSP outing, Chains of Olympus. A meatier weapon than the Blades, their primary purpose is to knock back and stun waves of enemies, who can then be finished off with a stylish flurry from one of the game's other armaments.

In the trailer, they're used to smash chains binding the titan to Mount Olympus, causing the 'level' to flip 90˚. Sony have confirmed there are four main weapons, and that you can change between them in real-time by pressing the appropriate button on the D-pad.

Finally, Kratos has picked up a bow with flaming arrows to finish grunts off at a distance, and with any luck, light up any wooded scenery.

2. You get to ride a Titan
The majority of the game takes place on the back of Empire State Building-sized Titan, Gaia. As she climbs Olympus, Kratos will help out by removing various obstacles in her way and killing the creatures that land on her back.

To give you an idea of how huge Gaia is, the development team have told us that the Medusa stage from God Of War 2 would just about fit into the palm of her hand... The fact that you're riding on something's back means your environment can change quickly.

Say you're butchering centaurs on her arm - if she twists 90, you're suddenly struggling to keep your feet, plus fighting not to lose your lunch...

3. Disembowelling enemies is in
Eye-gouging? Pah. Strategic dismemberment? Done in Dead Space. Disembowelling? Now you're talking. Thanks to PS3's added grunt, G0W3 is uncompromisingly brutal. It features newly-developed 'velcro-tear' tech that means Kratos will be able to realistically remove his enemies' internal organs (you can see them slop out) and even slice creatures completely in half.

When you're not tearing foes to pieces or disembowelling them, you'll be able to use them to your advantage. The trailer showed off Kratos' ability to ride a Cyclops, then use it to crush swathes of foot soldiers, and also his new way of jumping huge gaps by clinging onto Harpies and leaping between them.

In combat, he can grab enemies and carry them around on his shoulder for later mischief. Once snatched, standard baddos can be swung around as a weapon, employed as a meat-shield, or simply dashed against the nearest hard-surface.

4. The bad guys are smarter...
...and there's more of them this time around. Although we're not talking the same numbers as in the later stages of Heavenly Sword, the enemy count way exceeds God Of War 2 (50+ is the estimate). Sony don't want to swarm the screen in AI drones, because that would unbalance the slick combat system.

Their aim is to increase the intensity of each encounter, without turning it into a button basher. The new weapons will balance out the increase in enemies to slaughter. Except it won't be an out-and-out massacre this time around.

Although foot soldiers will be classical cannon fodder, their AI will be bolstered whenever a commander unit such as a Centaur is with them. They'll be bolder and more aggressive while their leader is alive, so you have to choose whether to go straight for the boss unit or thin out the numbers first.

5. Kratos can fly
In a new level from GoW3's recent live-action unveiling in Los Angeles, Kratos uses the wings of Icarus that he 'picked up' in the last game to ascend through a long tunnel section.

Although the level isn't particularly groundbreaking (very much an on-rails experience, it involves flitting around the screen dodging debris) it shows potential for more detailed flying sections later in the game.

After all, Kratos is riding on the back of a Titan, which is in turn climbing a vast mountain. He's going to be constantly falling and climbing throughout the game. In addition to flying, Kratos has also harnessed the ability to wall run, in a Prince of Persia style.

Sony have hinted that, if it works, the devs will combine the wall-running platforming sections with combat, making later puzzles in the game massively fiendish.

6. It looks incredible
Sure, the screenshots and new trailer (using the in-game engine, not hokum CGI) look great, but they don't do justice to the fine details - like the seeing-is-disbelieving disembowelling tech we mentioned earlier.

Kratos not only looks shinier and more realistic, but has more authentic muscle striations (so you can see biceps tense and veins bulge) and authentic facial expressions. You'll be able to tell how furious he is just by looking at his neck muscles. Prediction: very.

Then there are the new battle animations, the volume of foes, the terrifying bosses, the enhanced colour palettes, the constant scenery shifting and camera pans, the particles of blood and guts Kratos extracts from his enemies... God Of War 3 is already looking seriously handsome.

And with over a year of development left, you can be sure the really good stuff is still being kept secret. If you thought the scrap with Zeus looked good in GoW2, the mind boggles at how the series will reach its conclusion on PS3.

PSM3 Staff