Since E3 2009, God Of War 3 information has been on hiatus. Having been suitably wowed by the playable demo our anticipation for the game was already at fever pitch - especially with the imminent release of EA's multi-platform Dante's Inferno, a blatant 'homage' to the series, reminding us of the PS3 source material. But now we've got something else to get excited about....
We've just been given access to a brand new segment of gameplay showing of a boss battle of preposterous scale. The following is a scene by scene synopsis of the action viewed by our very own eyes.
(Only text and images at this stage, but these impressions come from an HD video - hopefully at some point before release we'll be able to share this with you too!)
00:01 The action starts with Kratos standing on a rocky mountain. Long shadows are cast over the rugged and wild-looking scenery as a harsh wind blows. Kratos has golden armour over one shoulder and proceeds to launch into a familiar combination attack against no enemy, just to show that this is in fact in-game.
00:10 Kratos moves away from the clearing towards a fallen tree and you can tell the player is rapidly hammering a button to move it out of the way, as you would done in GoW or GoW2. With a final push, Kratos throws the entire trunk off the side of the mountain. He looks angry.
00:19 Kratos begins to dash uphill along a wide dirt track. There are three skeletal enemies visible at the end. The wind picks up, blowing dust across the screen. The post-processing motion blur effects are superb and give the whole thing a pre-rendered appearance, even though this 100% certain it's gameplay footage.
00:23 As fireballs burst into frame from the top-right, Kratos leaps up and spreads his Icarus wings, flying over the head of the first enemy. Flight only lasts a brief moment, before he lands a few feet behind the other two foes.
00:26 A fight begins, but we're hardly paying attention to it – in the background, what can only be described as an electric, blue colossus is scaling Mount Olympus. It's not paying any attention to Kratos, who is busy tearing his foes in half, with plenty of gore as his reward.
00:42 Kratos continues uphill towards another group of minor enemies. But before anyone can even swing a weapon, the ground erupts underneath them and a huge beast emerges. The shifting terrain folds up realistically, with jagged rocks breaking through the earth.
00:47 It's an elemental water spider with a horse's head! Of course it is. And it looks phenomenal. It thrashes around, with cascades of water splashing everywhere and rivers of water running over the surface of its body.
00:53 Kratos doesn't seem impressed at all and sets about attacking it. The spider horse delivers a Pokemon-style water attack, a torrent of water erupting from its mouth. The player seems wise to this and stays to the left, attacking its chin with basic combo attacks.
01:03 Kratos summons a whirlwind attack that looks powerful. It's several storeys high and appears to move right through the beast's long, horsey face. Have that! The ground seems to be moving slightly and rounded rocks behind our foe are moving too. Something's odd about this scene.
