God of War

War. War never changes. But gaming does. Space marines, modern warfare... it's a far cry from the animals and plumbers of yesteryear. So we thought it would be fun to reimagine five modern games as title screens on classic gaming consoles. But this isn't a quick Photoshop job. No, this is a fully animated title sequence video, complete with audio. We're doing a new one every day this week, each on a different retro platform. Today's is God of War, reimagined as a Commodore 64 title screen.

Ten years ago today, Sony released what would go on to become the world’s best selling game console. With 140 million units in people’s homes and games released to this very day, it’s lived the longest and healthiest life of any games machine we can think of. But what made it such an unparalleled success? How did Sony leave all its competitors in the dust when so many of that generation’s biggest hits were multiplatform releases?

We can answer that, of course. But in doing so we also trumpet how truly amazing the system was, which makes this the perfect article to celebrate the most well-rounded console of all time...

By the time 2005 had rolled around, it looked like the beginning of the end for PS2. Critics started to refer to its once-impressive hardware as “aging,” and the Xbox 360 was gearing up to snatch away its crown and claim dominance over the next console generation. And because previous hardware cycles had lasted about five years, most assumed that the PS2’s days were numbered, and that the machine would be largely discarded once the PS3 finally hit.

Only now do we realize just how wrong we were to count the PS2 out so early. 10 years after its North American launch, it’s still getting games and moving units, if not exactly going strong. With the anniversary of that launch just around the corner, let’s take a look at the best of what we thought, at the time, would be the PS2’s final great year...

Kratos and Max Payne aren’t names frequently uttered in the same sentence. One’s the bald, rage-fueled protagonist of one of gaming’s greatest hack-and-slash franchises, and the other’s an insomniac gunfighter who’s addicted to painkillers and is soon to make a comeback as a paunchy, bearded version of himself. Above: Let’s stick with Thin Max for now, though

However, there’s one key scene

News has been popping up around the net about a secret message in God of War 3, unlocked when you earn a Platinum trophy. The trophy description features a URL, which points gamers towards what appears to be a teaser website. It's really exciting - look:

OK, so it's actually rather dull. At present, it simply depicts an ocean scene with rocks to the bottom-left, while a thunderstorm beats down. We're used to this

By now, we all know the story: Kratos, the bald, badass protagonist of God of War III, spends all his time in an inhuman rage because years ago, Greek god of war Ares tricked him into murdering his own wife and child. And now, to complete his revenge, he's hell-bent on murdering his way through the entire Greek pantheon.

The thing is, Kratos is a son of Zeus, who also happens to be the main target of his revenge. And Zeus is at the epicenter of ancient Greece's convoluted, incestuous

What’s in a name? Only EVERYTHING! That band you and your friends started probably could’ve been the next Three Doors Down, if only you hadn’t creatively imploded during the early stages of the naming process. Games are no different.

The PlayStation Blog has posted a load of photos from its God of War community meet up, which took place at GDC yesterday. And from the looks of it, there were plenty of Kratos masks to go round.

That's a pretty gangster looking bunch of mid-80s hip hop album cover bad-asses right there. Let's hope they didn't get drunk and rip off any heads.

Check out the whole lot on the PlayStation Blog's flickr

God of War III is almost here. Bigger, better and more brutal than ever before. But just how brutal is that? We've revisited the first two games to see how gory Kratos' adventures have been so far. And you know what? They're nasty

Obscenely complicated, punctuated by flashbacks and packing more cameos than an episode of Extras, God of War is a soap opera saga worthy of any Greek legend. With God of War III’s 19th March release date almost upon us, we reckoned you lot might need a bit of a catch-up when it came to the ins and outs (and we’re not just talking about the QTE shagging here) of Kratos’ eventful past...

A couple of caveats, though.