God of War: Ascension GAME Exclusive Special Edition PlayStation-3

Released on 15-Mar-2013

BEFORE HE WAS A GOD, HE WAS A MAN.

God of War Ascension Special Edition Contains:

• Premium Steelbook Case
• Official Game Soundtrack
• Multiplayer Double XP Unlock
• PlayStation 3 Dynamic Theme
• PlayStation Network Avatar Pack

Discover the Origins of Kratos and his never ending fight against the Gods of Olympus in God of War Ascension on PlayStation 3

• Epic New Story – See how Kratos started his Journey of vengeance in this prequel to God of War!
• Introducing Multiplayer - God of War Ascension sees you fighting with or against your friends as you go online to prove your dominance.
• Choose your Allegiance – Choose your alias carefully from Zeus, Ares, Poseidon or Hades, as each has much to offer…

In this prequel to God of War, we see why Kratos becomes the one man army and God of War. It’s been six months since Kratos stood over the blood soaked bodies of his family, tricked by the God Ares into killing them.

Fuelled by anger and swearing revenge on Ares, Kratos breaks his blood oath that binds him to the God he now loathes. But as Kratos finds out, breaking such as an oath is no easy task. Cast into a prison of the living damned Kratos must battle insanity at the hands of the Furies.

As Kratos you’ll battle all manner of mythological beasts and foul creatures using new combat mechanics, whilst tackling new puzzles that you’ll need to solve in order to progress.

For the first time in God of War take the fight online as you battle your friends in coop and competitive modes to prove your superiority on the battlefield! Wield immense swords and hammers fighting in the style of the God of War himself.

Perform devastating combos, launch your opponents into the air or deliver brutal moves that seem to come from the Gods themselves such as flaming arrows from above ad awesome shockwaves to knock opponents back.

Before joining the heat of battle you must align yourself with a God, choose from Zeus, Ares, Poseidon and Hades. Earn their favour in battle and they will grant you access to new weapons and armour.

Customise your warrior with their gifts that will not strike fear into your opponent but also offer you increased strength and stamina as well as making you the mightiest warrior on the field of battle.

Play The Last of Us Demo included with God of War Ascension

Included with God of War Ascension is a demo for the highly anticipated The Last of Us by Naughty Dog. In the demo, you'll get to play through a chapter before it's 14th June release.

To access The Last of Us demo all you need do is put God of War Ascension into your PS3 and highlight The Last of Us option on the main menu and follow the instructions to gain access to the demo when it becomes available.

• God of War: Ascension's mystery code

  The God of War games are well known for their bloodthirsty combat and gruesome boss battles, but now the series has been linked to something more cerebral. Eagle-eyed American players of God of War: Ascension, the just-released-over-there-but-we've-got-to-wait-till-Friday prequel, have stumbled across a cryptic code buried in the game.

  The code is hidden inside a painting of Mount Olympus in a side room during The Cistern level. Examine the painting and you're presented with a curious caption:

  Of all the prophecies I have seen, this one haunts my dreams.
  QUJIKPHIUEEEKMJQUJ
  The full truth of this nightmare yet remains hidden. - Aletheia

  The jumble of letters in the middle changes depending on the language you're playing in, and internet detectives are already hard at work trying to crack the cypher. The most popular theory right now translates the text as "SUN BIRD BULL LION SUN"

  Previous God of War games also had similar easter eggs - the first game famously contained a phone number that connected to players to a voice message from Kratos himself - but this one is the most mysterious yet. What does it mean?

  I guess we can find out when God of War: Ascension is released this Friday for PlayStation 3
  

  Published: 13/03/2013

• God of War: Ascension - Review

  
  

  

  Brash, brutal, spectacular and anything but subtle, SONY's God of War series mimics the style and ambiance of the Greek myths from which it draws influence. Placing players in the leather-strapped sandals of Kratos, a bare-chested warrior sick with revenge, the five previous titles in the series have allowed us to face up to Homeric gods and monsters millennia old - before tearing them limb from limb in a narrative arc that's rarely anything but crimson-soaked. God of War: Ascension, the sixth game in a series that spans across two PlayStations and a handheld, is a prequel that offers, for the first time, an expansive suite of online multiplayer modes to supplement the thrill-ride single player campaign.

  That single player story opens with Kratos chained atop a stone column being tortured by one of the Furies - the three sisters who hunt any who break a blood oath with a god. A grotesque monster that sweats attack bugs through her pores, you must dodge her flailing attacks while attempting to break free of the chains. Do so and the hunter becomes the hunted as you propel Kratos forward through a diverse set of Greek environments - ancient marbled temples, majestic aqueducts that power giant mechanical cogs, mountains and rivers - destroying any creature that tries to impede progress.

  

  The Odyssey

  It turns out, unsurprisingly for anyone who's played the previous titles, that there is a huge number of creatures eager to do that impeding. In the war on mythology, Kratos has an increasingly wide range of attacks at his disposal. You begin the game with just the trusty Blades of Chaos, used to rip and slice enemies into puffs of crimson mist. Light and heavy attacks can be interspersed with one another, while launchers will propel enemies into the air before a chain attack can latch onto them and draw them into you again.

  When they're sufficiently weakened, a red or white halo will appear above an enemy inviting a flamboyant finishing move. Larger enemies can even be mounted and used to attack smaller foes, while the biggest monsters must be felled by following on-screen button prompts to trigger gruesome eviscerations. The violence is stylised and cartoonish, but still manages to shock at times.

  

  Ancient Tools

  As the game progresses you gain access to new abilities and tools - four elemental properties that can be added to all attacks (fire, ice, electric, soul), each selected by a swift (sometimes mid-combo) tap of the d-pad. You can also pick up man-made equipment such as swords and shields that can be threaded into your usual slick combos. Later in the game, SONY Santa Monica introduces the Amulet of Urobotus, a non-violent tool that allows players to highlight pieces of scenery and either restore them to their former usefulness, or smash them into rubble. This item is cleverly used in a range of different environmental puzzles, adding welcome variety to the otherwise relentless bloodshed. This item can even be used in battle thereafter, aimed at foes to inflict slow motion on their action, allowing you to manage mobs of enemies with increasing ease.

  Collect hidden artefacts in the game and, upon completion, you can replay with, infinite rage for example, or triple the length of time on your combo meter. But the main source of replay value when the storyline is over is the multiplayer section of the game, which allows players to compete against one another using the battle techniques learned in the campaign. Here the game reveals the true depth and intricacy of its battle system, the full range of offensive and defensive moves offering the kind of taut, reactive competition in this context that are more usually found in a fighting game - refuting accusations that God of War is a 'button-mashing' series.

  Slick, well-oiled and expertly constructed, God of War Ascension may at times fall a little short of the wonder and spectacle of its predecessor God of War III, but it's nevertheless an enthralling retelling of the Kratos myth for those who are yet to have their appetite for revenge sated.

  GAME's Verdict

  The Good:

  • Spectacular
  • Environmental puzzles
  • Multiplayer

  The Bad

  • The campaign is over-familiar
  • The storyline
  • Weak puzzles in first half of game

  Published: 13/03/2013

• Review Roundup: God of War Ascension

  It's been three years since Kratos last carved his way across the PlayStation 3, but now he's back in the blood-soaked prequel, God of War: Ascension. But is it worth taking another trip back to Ancient Greece? The specialist gaming press has weighed in, and the answer seems to be yes.

  Official PlayStation Magazine awards it 8/10, praising "dizzyingly directed setpieces" and "moments that can rank with the finest in the franchise". The review also highlights the game's puzzles - an aspect previously overshadowed by the brutal combat - as some of the best gameplay in the series so far.

  Destructoid is even more effusive in its praise for what it calls "the fastest, craziest, most thrilling rollercoaster ever". There's plenty of attention given to the multiplayer modes - a first for the God of War series - with the 9/10 review calling its inclusion "a daring move that pays off big".

  Gamespot is also bowled over by the prequel's energy, declaring it "a gloriously bloody adventure filled with exhilarating combat". The game's stunning visuals are picked out and praised for the level of grisly detail "thrown into each and every stab of a knife, and each drop of blood that flows from a downed enemy's recently spilled guts". "It's all very juvenile", they conclude with an 8/10, "But boy is it fun."

  God of War: Ascension is out now for PlayStation 3.

  Published: 12/03/2013

• God of War developer can't wait to work on PlayStation 4

  SONY Santa Monica, the studio responsible for the God of War series, is very excited about the launch of PlayStation 4. The new console boasts a whopping 8Gb of RAM, far more than existing hardware. "We're going to be able to show a lot more, right?" lead game designer Mark Simon told Eurogamer. "If you give us enough time and you give us those specs, we will blow you away."

  For now, the team is still concentrating on prequel title God of War: Ascension which launches this week, with plans to support the game's new multiplayer mode for months after release. "To me [the PS4] is imagination land," Simon explains. "We haven't touched it. We're not even concentrating on it. All we're concentrating on is we know we release in a week. We're going to continue to tune and balance and create new content. We still get to think about and imagine how cool it would be, but we're still working on this game on the PS3."

  And he doesn't feel we've seen the limits of what the PS3 can do yet. "It's funny. In my head right now I'm like, oh yeah, we totally had to have tapped it out. But I bet you, if you gave us the same hardware, and you gave us another two or three years we would find more stuff to try to extract out of the PS3."

  "It's cool for fans," he continued. "I'd be excited if I was a PS3 owner because, I'd know SONY is not just leaving me hanging or waiting until the next-gen comes out, that they're still kicking out really awesome games for me. There's the future, and you're like, oh cool! But there's a whole spring, summer and fall to get through."

  God of War: Ascension is out on March 12th, exclusively for PlayStation 3.

  Published: 11/03/2013

• Special God of War: Ascension console bundle announced

  If you've been eyeing SONY's upcoming mythical brawler God of War: Ascension but haven't got a PlayStation 3 to play it on, a handy all-in-one solution just presented itself. From March 15th you'll be able to pick up a special bundle containing both the special edition of the game and a new super slim PS3 to play it on.

  The bundle includes a 500Gb Super Slim PlayStation 3 in "classic white" - all the better to show off those blood stains - and a limited edition golden God of War DualShock controller. The special edition of the game comes in a steelbook case and offers a copy of the game's soundtrack, a PS3 dynamic themes, avatar and a code that will grant you double XP in the game's new multiplayer mode for a limited time.

  Ascension is a prequel to the earlier God of War titles and joins Kratos shortly after he was tricked into murdering his family by the god Ares. The game details his struggle to break free of this cruel deity by finding and defeating the three Furies. As Daniel Day Lewis would say, there will be blood.

  Both game and bundle will be available from March 15th.

  Published: 06/02/2013

• God of War: Ascension offers early access to The Last of Us demo

  There's an additional treat in store for anyone who picks up SONY's upcoming mythical slay-a-thon, God of War: Ascension: early exclusive access to the playable demo for SONY's upcoming apocalyptic survive-a-thon, The Last of Us.

  You won't need to do anything else - just buy God of War. When the Last of Us demo is available, you'll be able to launch it from the main menu. So simple, even a meerkat can do it. SONY has yet to decide whether this demo will be offered for download to everyone, so there's a chance this will be your only shot at playing Naughty Dog's tantalising adventure before it comes out.

  God of War: Ascension is a prequel to the incredibly popular and insanely gory series of legendary brawlers, following man-shaped frown-muscle Kratos as he carves his way through more gods, monsters and hapless humans thrust into his path with only a sword and shield to protect them from his whirling blades.

  The Last of Us is an epic post-apocalyptic adventure set in the aftermath of a mysterious fungal virus that brings civilisation to its knees. You'll follow Joel, a gruff drifter, and Ellie, the young girl he protects, as they journey through the ruins of America. Don't forget - the special Ellie Edition is exclusive to GAME and comes with loads of extras.

  Both games are exclusive to PlayStation 3. God of War: Ascension carves its way onto shelves on 15th March. The Last of Us follows on 7th May.
  

  Published: 28/01/2013

• The Best of 2012: PlayStation 3

  
  

  Although it may have wobbled in the early running, the PlayStation 3 approaches the end of the current hardware generation as one of the strongest and most eclectic gaming systems in history. Whether reviving and refreshing its big franchises for new fans, or supporting the more artistically inclined indie end of the development spectrum, a large debt of thanks for 2012's sterling games line-up is owed to SONY. Uniquely among the big platform holders, you could easily fill a list of the PS3's top titles with SONY's own first party exclusives.

  

  Also uniquely among its peers, SONY has done a superb job of dipping into its past without exploiting fans. High definition compilations of classic PlayStation 2 series such as Ratchet & Clank worked both as loving tributes to classic gameplay of yesteryear, and as highly polished introductions for generations of new fans. At the same time, new games featuring the same characters ensured they'll endure into the next generation, with Ratchet & Clank: QForce combining the crisp and humorous platform jumping of old with a frantic tower defence strategy twist.

  Also making a comeback was the mighty Twisted Metal. SONY's ferocious vehicle combat game is a representative of a genre that has faded from popularity, but the combination of fantastic multiplayer mayhem, addictive arcade driving physics and the sheer visual punch that the PS3 delivers makes this bratty, splattery action game one of 2012's unsung gems.

  

  Twisted Metal succeeded because it brought back classic gameplay that had been forgotten, but other SONY hits this year worked because they took popular characters and concepts off into new directions. LittleBigPlanet Karting, for example, found Sackboy reinvented as a cuddly textile version of Jenson Button. The introduction of kart racing into the LittleBigPlanet world was exciting enough, but when you factor in the boundless creativity that the game offers - allowing players to use the developer's own design tools to create their own tracks and mini-games - then you've got a game that is a more than worthy addition to the LBP lineage. Even if you never create anything of your own, the fact that the community is constantly producing new, free content is enough to keep you playing for months.

  

  SONY's roster of characters got an even more unlikely make over in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. This multiplayer fighting game pitted such unlikely stablemates as Parappa the Rapper, Sackboy and Sly Cooper against the likes of Nathan Drake, God of War's Kratos and Bioshock's Big Daddy. It's an insane mash-up of the whimsical and the fearsome, yet it works beautifully. The larger arena-based battles are frantic and hilarious - perfect party game fodder - yet the systems underneath are much closer to the classic fighting game standards you'd expect to find in hardcore genre titles. With former Street Fighter spokesman Seth Killian as the lead designer, it's perhaps no surprise that All-Stars is actually a seriously good fighting game that just happens to have some silly modes for everyone to enjoy. If you haven't picked it up yet because you thought it was just for kids, correct that mistake as soon as possible!

  

  SONY continued to innovate in other areas as well. The PlayStation Move controller found its perfect realisation in Book of Spells, the first in a planned series of Wonderbook augmented reality experiences. Produced in conjunction with JK Rowling, it sees players using an actual book which is transformed on-screen into a dusty old tome from the Hogwarts library. Casting spells and interacting with this magical world is genuinely spellbinding.

  

  Just as magical, in a more abstract way, was the critically acclaimed Journey. Created by esoteric designer Jenova Chen, this thought-provoking experience sets you down in a strange desert with only a distant mountain peak to guide you. As you wander, solving puzzles and navigating the ruins of a lost civilisation, you'll gain the power to float and fly, as well as meeting other players who can collaborate with you to find more secrets. Absolutely gorgeous to look at, and inviting all kinds of gentle emotional responses, it's a true work of art.

  Even far away from the arty indie scene, the PS3 had a cracking year. Fans of Assassin's Creed III, for example, were treated to exclusive bonus missions on SONY's console that wove legendary traitor Benedict Arnold into the game's Revolutionary War narrative.

  

  And, remarkably, 2013 looks like it will be even better. Intelligent blockbusters such as The Last of Us and Beyond: Two Souls will be available exclusively on the PS3, along with a new God of War and a new Sly Cooper adventure, and that's all before the summer arrives. The news may be full of rumours and guesswork about the next hardware generation, but there's plenty to be excited about on the consoles we do have!
  

  Published: 20/12/2012

• How God of War: Ascension adapts single player combat into multiplayer gaming

  God of War: Ascension, the next entry in SONY's blood-soaked mythological saga, introduces multiplayer to the series for the first time, and this has presented quite a challenge for the Santa Monica studio developing the game.

  Balancing the need to keep multiple players on screen at once, while ensuring all players can see what they're doing, has required some pretty big changes to the level design. "The main drive of it is the thrill of the competition over the glory of the kill," explains Senior Combat Designer Alex Sulman in the developer's latest video diary. "It's a custom arena designed to really accentuate the combat," he says while showing off a level in which players battle each other while Polyphemus, a giant cyclops, rages in the background. "We've been working really hard on what spaces work well for combat. Wide open spaces don't work. Small compact spaces work, but only if you have a limited number of people. All of that has taken a lot of work."

  Balancing the spectacle that God of War fans will expect with the needs of multiple players has also required a rethink where cameras are concerned. "Evolving the camera systems so they could handle multiplayer gameplay was a very large challenge," says Stephen Peterson, Senior Camera Designer. "It was a fun challenge too. We knew right off the bat what we needed the camera system to do. We need to make the cameras more unified, more procedural, so everyone has the same fair view." He shows a wireframe build of just one corner of the Polyphemus stage, with dozens of camera points that the game automatically chooses between based on what's happening on-screen.

  God of War: Ascension will be released exclusively for PlayStation 3 next March.
  

  Published: 05/12/2012

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