Two months ago, Kratos made his first appearance on the PSP in God of War: Chains of Olympus. Unfortunately, it might also be his last. In a recent interview, Ready at Dawn's creative director remarked that the studio probably won't be developing games for the PSP in the near future. The PS3 and Xbox 360 platforms were mentioned though, and they might shift their attention towards the consoles. More in the full article.

Some of the most enlightening news you can get can come straight from the a game developer. In the case of God of War: Chains of Olympus, it's Ready At Dawn director Ru Weerasuriya. The director had a lot to say about the development of the PSP God of War title, particularly in response to a certain comment made about the game being only five hours long. Catch Mr. Weerasuriya's comments after the jump.

 At the moment, Ready at Dawn studios is working on maxing out the capabilities of God of War: Chains of Olympus for the Sony PSP. But while Kratos readies for his next journey of blood, guts, and glory on the handheld, it appears that the developers are gearing up for bigger fish. More details are available in the full article.

Here's another video clip for upcoming title God of War: Chains of Olympus from Ready At Dawn. What we have here this time is a developer walkthrough that should prove to be important for those who are planning to get their hands on the game the first time it hits retail stores in March 2008.

The video features Read At Dawn Creative and Game Director Ru Weerasuriya and his thoughts on Chains of Olympus and how the studio really pushed the Playstation Portable platform to its limits. We get to see familiar environment and enemies as well as the classic moves of Spartan anti-hero Kratos.

Anyway, enough spoilers from us and just enjoy watching the video!

It's nice to see game developers with a little flexibility for their intended target market. Aside from catering to a wider audience of gamers, it's just good business sense. This was probably what was going through Ready at Dawn's mind when they followed up their very wholesome platformer, Daxter, with the upcoming mythological hack-and-slash game, God of War: Chains of Olympus.

With the God of War series already infamous for its bloody appeal to gamers everywhere, you have to wonder, especially with the growing attention people have been giving to violence in media, if there's any hope for violent games left in the video game market. Ru Weerasuriya, founder and vice president of Ready at Dawn, wrote an article on the subject, giving his opinion on the effect of violence in media.

He focuses on the inevitably bloody theme of God of War: Chains of Olympus and how it compares to the many violent games being criticized in the market (and of course the name of Mr. Jack Thompson just had to come up in his article). He says that because the game is based on Greek mythology, it is inevitable that the theme of violence and sordid tales will be inserted into God of War. In introspect, the violence the game depicts is tame compared to the actual mythology and even the history of Greece.

Of course, you can't help but insert the advocacy of freedom of expression when defending a medium which you find yourself prolific in and a majority of Weerasuriya's arguments focus mainly on such. Saying that the advent of the interactive entertainment industry cannot be blamed just because some feel threatened of the way such medium is presented that offends them and threatens their comfortable way of living.

The full article along with Mr. Ru Weerasuriya's stirring comments on violence on video games after the jump!

 

We've got some juicy info on one of the most anticipated video games on the PlayStation Portable, God of War: Chains of Olympus. The devs at Ready At Dawn graced a live forum and answered questions from fans for an hour and a half.

Of course, in that span of time, they were bound to reveal juicy stuff about God of War: Chains of Olympus. By "they" we mean Dana Jan (Lead Level Designer), Garret Foster (Programming Director), Marc Turndorf (Producer), and Ru Weerasuriya (Creative & Game Director). Here's a bit of the important stuff that were discussed:

• Chains of Olympus is set during the events ten years before the first God of War where Kratos renounces his service to Ares after his family dies.
• Dodge will be performed by a combination of the shoulder buttons plus the analog stick
• Unlockable content and a number of difficulty modes will be included in the game]
• Development started when Daxter hit the shelves, approximately March or April last year
• Multiple weapons plus the use of magic will make getting rid of enemies interesting
• The story is centered on Kratos' "human side", the devs didn't elaborate so use your imagination for now
• The game will be running on 30fps, with Ready At Dawn's upgraded game engine, version 2.0
• The said engine allows for porting to PS2 or PlayStation Network on PlayStation 3
• The same guys who did the music and voice acting will be back in Chains of Olympus
• Game will sport only single player
• Game will also feature CG and in-game cutscenes

Along with that, the Ready At Dawn devs gave two very interesting answers. Somebody asked whether there were any humorous parts in the game, to which came the reply: "Kratos if nothing else is a comic genius. When he gets in a pie fight with Athena well, lets just say comedy ensues." And in addition to the story question, here's what the devs had to say: "There is much more to this story. You will play and experience an event that will change the course of the GoW mythology, that will take you far beyond where Kratos has ever gone before..."

Interesting stuff, eh? We'll be keeping our internet hamsters on the lookout for more news on God of War: Chains of Olympus so keep checking back. If you want to check out the full transcript of the forum chat, click on the via link below.

 

Dan Arey, a 17-year game industry veteran and former creative lead for Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, will take his rightful place at the helm of Creative Director for Ready At Dawn Studios. The official announcement made today also coincided with the studios' creation of a new intellectual property, already in development.

"Getting someone of Dan's caliber is obviously a huge deal for us," said president and co-founder Didier Malenfant. In any case, the developer who shifted from Electronic Arts, Accolade, Sega of America, Crystal Dynamics, Sony, to Pandemic, and many other studios, was happy to accompany Ru Weerasuriya, VP of Creative Development, in the studio's first attempt at an original IP.

The developers of God of War: Chains of Olympus may also be hinting the near release of the PSP title, since they are already shifting focus to their new IP. In fact, the release via press wire explicitly stated, "Ready At Dawn Studios is currently putting the finishing touches to the most anticipated PSP game of 2007, God of War: Chains of Olympus," and it's got us particularly confused.

 

Chains of Olympus is coming. That being said, we now have a specific window for the game demo's release, and it entails waiting three more months. That's right, the demo is coming in September.

Now, we got the above picture from the Sony PlayStation boards, and some digging proves its veracity. Additional reports have also mentioned an e-mail from Ru Weerasuriya, the game director for God of War: Chains of Olympus, thanking gamers for signing up for the demo and inviting them to stay tuned to get more info on the game as it happens.

In any case, if you're wondering what the full picture is for the announcement picture we have above, just click on "Full Article". The complete picture features Kratos and makes for a great wallpaper.

God of War: Chains of Olympus from Ready At Dawn is set around ten years prior to the original God of War. The Chains of Olympus subtitle is probably a most apt description because Kratos served the gods directly and didn't fight them during these times. It's really interesting to know why he eventually abandoned them.

Anyway, the video below is an interview with RAD Co-founder and GoW: Chains of Olympus director Ru Weerasuriya and creative director Cory Barlog. It was conducted during Sony Gamers' Day 07 and it is evident that the two are really excited about the project. They even said that they took some time off Daxter just to play God of War.

Plug in your headsets now and watch the full interview below. We are sure that you will get a lot of interesting stuff from the duo. God of War: Chains of Olympus is scheduled to be released sometime around the end of 2007.