Sunday, March 09, 2008

Ready?.....FIGHT!


You may have seen this already on the net, but I just found it today. Amazing!

After God of War, I was just SO sick of Greek Mythology/Greek History/Sword & Sandal stuff that I avoided 300 when it first hit theaters. And then I avoided it when it came out of DVD. And I even avoided it for a long time after that cause I was just so SICK of the whole vibe.

But I finally watched it last month and LOVED it. I had read the comic before and dug it, but the movie was just stunning and so cool and so amazing. And that scene with those cool dudes in the masks tossing those bombs? Classic!

So...as you can imagine, to see these two going head to head? So cool! And before you ask, my money is on Kratos. Come on man, he's the fucking God of War!

But to be fair, my Kratos love has been strong today. Why? Cause I've been playing the masterpiece that is Chains of Olympus! Been playing it non-stop today. I've been sick in bed and had some time...so I fired it up to see what the fuss was about. I worked on the story with Ru and the Ready at Dawn guys but besides helping to nail down that core story, I had nothing to do with the game...so it's fresh to me. And MAN is it good!

It's so amazing to play a game that you had nothing to do with from a series you had a huge hand in creating. The GOD OF WAR formula is repped well on the PSP and it's pretty cool that- for me- I'm digging it so much. Because a) it's just a fun ass game that makes me so glad people are making handheld games as MORE than little morsels to be played in bite-sized nuggets, but also because b) I had a huge amount to do with the GOD OF WAR formula and it's a great sense of pride for me that the formula- for me anyway- holds up so well. Granted, much/most/all of this is because the game itself was made by the amazing geniuses at RAD. But still...pretty darn cool!

Is it perfect? Nah. The biggest weakness of the game is puzzle design- as has been noted. But some of the puzzles are pretty cool. But overall, they are kind of bland. But they still serve their function as pace breakers and make the game feel more like an adventure than a pure combat game. And that is the most important point. But everything else? Fucking gold,dude!

So if you have yet to play it, please give it a try!

Oh and if I may risk more folks calling me a Sony fanboy: I have to say, the PSP is rocking so hard these days. Not just amazing games like Chains and Wipeout and MLB 2008 (and hell, I still gotta get to Syphon Filter II and try out Patapon)- but it's also so cool to see the PSP store up and running. I love the fact that you can now buy small games like flOw, as well as FULL FLEDGE GAMES UMD sized games for your PSP right off the net. How amazing is that? It's seems like games may finally be starting to enjoy the whole multiple distribution model that movies have enjoyed since VHS and cable (and hell, before that, there was the whole ABC MOVIE OF THE WEEK thing to bring in some extra cash as well).

I just think it's so neat to know that if people want to play TWISTED METAL: HEAD ON- for example- they can buy the UMD for PSP, buy the game on PS2 (with all that extra goody content) or simply download the game from the PSP store for 15 bucks! So many ways to get that content out there...as a game maker, that is crazy exciting!

Thinking about it, I wish Sony would have chopped CHAINS OF OLYMPUS into three parts and sold each for 10 bucks at the PSP store....so if you liked one chapter, you buy the next,etc......and then a few months later you could buy the WHOLE THING with some extra content on UMD. Again, to me it's about finding cool ways to get this content out there and repackage it in ways that are fun and exciting for fans but also make sense on the biz front.

Speaking of downloadable content: Heck, I even played the demo for ROCKETMEN: AXIS OF EVIL last nite and while it was- for the most part- average with some potential, I was like: you know, I may get this when they drop the price to something closer to 4.99. To me, it ain't worth 10 bucks for a number of issues the game has (many of these issues have been pointed out in alot of the poor reviews I've seen on the net, so I will save you the trouble) but issues aside, there is a charm to the game, and there seem to be some neat ideas there. I like alot of the upgrade options and if they actually affect play on a significant level, I could see it having a bit of an addicting quality. Or maybe not. Who knos. And I doubt I'd play thru it all, but for 5 bucks, I'd totally pick it up. Come on Capcom, drop the price! :)

Ok ya'll, I am sick in bed. So is the wife. So glad the Grandparents came over to help with the girls. They are Godsends!

Ok, gonna go read some Marvel digital comics and then finish up Chains of Olympus!

Later!

David

ps. Ok, so this would totally be cool...

...except for that little image of classic armor iron man coming out of the explosion in the background. Looks like a straight to video release from Cannon films back in the 80's. Or the poster for like, IRON EAGLE 6: CHAPPY'S GHOST!

The rest of the poster is fantastic, tho!

pps. you know, I'm wrong. The rest of the poster is NOT fantastic. It's shit actually. Iron Man looks great! But the photos of the actors, with Jeff Bridges looking all forced and Paltrow all out of place. It's like, in my best 1930's movie producer voice:

'come see our picture! it's got Stars! Stars I tell ya!'

....ugh, note to Marvel: not one of those people on that poster can open a movie. Not even close. So why waste valuable mind-share telling people 'hey, a new Robert Downey movie is out!' versus showing off what- on the surface- is cool about this concept? You know...IRON MAN?

ppps. YES, I get it that Marvel comics and ergo Marvel movies are about PEOPLE too and that these are flawed characters and all that. I get it, it's why I've loved Marvel comics since I was a wee lad. But that is something for folks to discover once they buy the ticket and start watching the movie. And hell, if you MUST sell that point in order to get audiences in that are more than just sci-fi/comic con attending fanboys, then do it in a compelling, creative way. Slapping some b-level actor heads on a poster only tells me that you've made a movie with b-level actors.

pppps. Huge fan of most of the cast...I know the performances will NOT be B level and this movie could very well propel them to AAA status...but that ain't happened yet.

43 comments:

Anonymous said...

David Jaffe, you are the best. Your God of War video game series is the best video game series ever!Thanks for all the good times.

I wish Sony would port God of War: Chains of Olympus to PS2 like they did with other PSP titles. Such as Silent Hill Origins, Twisted Metal: Head On, and Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters. Everybody that has a PS2 but not a PSP wants to play God of War: Chains of Olympus on their PS2. After getting such great PSP ports to PS2, they are all hoping God of War: Chains of Olympus will come to the PS2. Hopefully Sony will do this in the near future. The PS2 is dying out and porting this game along with other ports from PSP like Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles to the PS2 would keep the PS2 strong, active and pumping. In addition, it would make tons of money for Sony.

tommy_boy said...

hello Mr. Jaffe, my name is Thomas T. I also live in san diego, california and your work inspires even more to get into the gaming industry. do you think i can one day find out how you got into the industry and also assist me when i get out of high school. please email me at ttoddiii@hightechhigh.org
i'm so excited to hear from you.

Anonymous said...

Get well soon Jaffe. Nothing like chicken soup and a PSP when you're dying.

pn18 said...

Hey David,
what do think of Valve's current episode strategy?

Do you think it would be better to finish all episodes first and then releasing them periodically (like every six month) or do you think their actual strategy is fine?

From a gamer's point of view I would love to see an episode coming out every six or so month, but as a game designer I don't think it's possible to predict what's cool in 6/12/18 months (+development time). Neither in terms of content or features nor technical.

Best regards,
Marc

-rallyRAYS- said...

It's great to see the PSP FINALLY getting some momentum. For some reason SONY products allways has a weak launch, but they usually finish strong.

I hope SONY has a strong 2008... and I can see them being ontop by the end of the year. The PS3 has SO many killer appz coming out this year, and im not just saying that because I'm a sony employee.

Have you used the Remote Play feature with the PSP & PS3? I use my PSP to log into my PS3 remotely at work and watch the movie, listen to my music on my PS3 harddrive... it's awesome!

-rallyRAYS-

Anonymous said...

maybe ill pick up God of War: Chains of Olympus since Twisted Metal: Head On is like the only game i have beside Blade Dancers.

what other games do you recomnend for the PSP?

also you and your wife get well soon.

grasshopper said...

I think I am one of the few people that didn't care for 300. It looked amazing and had some great action scenes but it just felt like two hours of "Hey look bad guys LET KILL THEM!! look more bad guys LETS KILL THEM TOO!"

I'm really dying to play Chains of Olympus though, I thought the demo was amazing. Its unbelievable how well GoW feels on the PSP. You get your hands on that red PSP yet, or is that not out yet?

Anonymous said...

Chains of olympus is amazing, the game looks just incredible, i loved the game and it would be great to get GOW 1 & 2 ported to the PSP.

xTHExJUICEx said...

Man where should I start, I guess Ill just keep it short and simple...

Ive been on the fence for awhile on whether or not to jump in and buy a PSP but God of War:COO has really pushed me over the edge, to be honest I didnt it hear about GOW til it was already priced at 19.99....best investment Ive ever made :P. Ive loved the series ever since and cant wait to get my hands on the Chains of Olympus.

Oh one more thing, imagine the 300 director making the GOW movie?!

David Jaffe said...

Cool but I imagine the the director of 300 is like the director of a game or a writer of a book,etc...once you've done something, there's not alot of point in going back and doing something JUST like what you've already done....

David Jaffe said...

Cool but I imagine the the director of 300 is like the director of a game or a writer of a book,etc...once you've done something, there's not alot of point in going back and doing something JUST like what you've already done....

Nokage said...
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Nokage said...

I've been wondering what your thoughts on Chains of Olympus were, glad to hear you liked it!And i had no idea you helped out with the story that's very cool, now why can't they involve you with God of War 3 as well?(Actually i kinda wish you had total control of the series,i have a bad feeling Sony will eventually fuck it up, but hopefully not!!)

Irondog666 said...

Just letting you know that I am a longtime fan and I just picked up Twisted Metal: Head On-ETE for the PS2 and its the most fun I have had with a Twisted Metal game since 2 and Black came out. Best $20 I spent in awhile. The only thing I could say that would've made it better is if it had online multi-player but the PS2 is dying out and its totally understandable why its not there.

God of War I have played through once and it was awesome. I need to get the God of War II game since everyone has said its even better. Chains of Olympus I am very jealous about because I don't have a PSP yet and it looks amazing. Game Informer gave it like a 9/10 and they usually dick a game for very minor issues and that game didn't. Twisted Metal kicks ass, God of War kicks ass and you David Jaffe, kick major ass.

PM said...

Yeah, Iron Man is probably gonna be shit.

But who really cares when we get Indy4, X-files2 and Dark Knight all in the same year!

Anonymous said...

"...once you've done something, there's not alot of point in going back and doing something JUST like what you've already done...."

Famous last words.

Then what's the point of Indy 4?

You'll be back just like you are now with Twisted Metal.

BTW - I read on some forums your gonna put your name on your next game? Why not just rename Eat Sleep Play to David Jaffe Studios why your at it?

/Jaffe for President

felman said...

I'm not really a fan of Iron Man, more of a Spiderman/Xmen kinda guy.

I seriously think the PSP2 is going to deal with just downloading games onto the internal HDD (Yeah, it'll have one) and completely skip the whole retail package deal. Think I'm crazy? Apple doesnt.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

I don't agree with you. It's kinda sad, but PSP is dying... After the Chains of Olympus there won't be any top titles...

David Jaffe said...
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Anonymous said...

Well, I hope you're happy! I just bought Chains of Olympus, based on what you said.
I would have bought it anyway, of course. Just...not as soon.

I'm just looking forward to the 3rd installment.

Question for you, someone, inspired by God of War and the like, uses the Sisters of Fate and Pandora's Box in another medium. Sony Santa Monica can't sue, can they?

Jack

Anonymous said...
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David Jaffe said...
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Anonymous said...

Well, Im a full on PSP fan boy. Tere are games that I can and have playe over and over. But now I get to have a chapter of GOW that I can play anywhere and that's just awesome.

I have to admit that te PSP is my handheld media system too. With a 4GB memory card (to hell with UMD video, I rip and crush my own content), huge widescreen and great battery life (all much better than an Ipod video) and WLAN access its all I carry.

I'm just wondering how much GOW 3 for PS3 is gonna be a bust with both you and Cory gone. You can haide alot of stuff on a hanheld game but when you have to build a next gen game and experience that'll last 30 or 4 hours.....that's a whole other story.

Dutch
www.thedigitalblast.com

Nathan Herzog said...

Anyone played Patapon? Thats a fun game, waiting for my PSP GOW from the Sony store.

Torgo said...

LMAO at all of the pppppppps

I'll say, I've never read an Iron Man comic, but that movie looks incredible. Favreau is a true fan of the comic, and he's a great director. What a great year for movies this is going to be. Iron Man, Dark Knight, Hellboy 2, Indy 4, Speed Racer (maybe), and Get Smart, this year is shaping-up to be an awesome one.

Feel better David and Wife! :-)

Anonymous said...

rally:

The main reason Sony always has a weak launch and a strong finish is because they back their systems with state of the art tech and all sorts of other uses for their systems that makes it more expensive to buy and more expensive to create games for.

So when the other systems begin showing their age, Sony stands out with the impressive hardware.

It's so long and calculated-- but incredibly brilliant.

Basically, Sony wants you to buy only one system every 10 years, while Nintendo will release another system in 5.

The same thing happens to games: epic games tend to have a longer lasting appeal because the creators pack the game with stuff that will keep people playing for years until the next installment (Smash Bros for example).

I think the next TM should have that epic feel (AND I KNOW, JAFFE WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT THE OVERPRODUCED GAMES EARLIER, but this isn't overproduction I'm talking about!)

Keep the game open-ended-- downloadable content helps, something customizable is even better.

Anonymous said...

TBH, I'm on the fence for GoW CoO. I want it now, but I also have a geek on for the Red GoW PSP. I want to upgrade to the slim anyway and my kid won't cry with getting a hand-me-down PSP (it's been well taken care of considering all the places it's been).

I've seen a couple of trailers for Iron Man. It looks pretty bad ass, the poster you linked reminds me more of Star Wars than anything. GP does look out of place though. It looks more like photoshop fan art.

Anonymous said...

Hey David i'm a G.A.P member over at playstation.com and I don't know if you know but they have a promotion going with twisted metal extra twisted edition. And one of the answer's to the question is wrong. Isn't Sweet Tooth's name Needles Kane? With a K? they have it with a C. The contest is based on if you got all questions right and if they had the K and not C i would have had all right. Might wanna check it out. thanks, ross

Anonymous said...

The problem is so many people hack there psp already, so they can just get the games for free and that pretty much like hurt the developers. Thats y u don't see many great games for the psp though.

Anonymous said...

David, sometimes you make comments that I don't get, but you have made some titles that show me you have a clue about what you are doing. The thing I don't understand is why you are doing your self promotion here. Why use blogger? I wish you move to your own setup or at least use a wordpress blog and have someone make a custom skin for your site. The layout is not organized and all your videos should have comment sections. I really think that this old website layout is not the way to go and I really like that you are forward thinking with the video spots you are posting, but an new site could really help promote your ideas/games. Just my 2 cents.

Anonymous said...

Fine Dave.....I'll buy Chains of Olympus.

P.S. Blades of Chaos > Spear and Shield

David Jaffe said...

james b-hey thanks for reading!

Man, I would love a more polished blog/website but two things:

a- I worry that would take away some of the charm...
b- I don't have the time to really worry about it.

But yeah, a nice looking site with a cool logo and stuff? That would rock!

David

Sadeq said...

I just finished Chains of Olympus. It ROCKS (looking forward to a possible PS2 port).

That picture of Kratos vs. 300 is cool. And yes, Kratos WINS!

Get well.

Anonymous said...

kratos would kick all 300 of thier asses in about 10 minutes. 5 if he is usin rage of gods/titans.lol.

but i didnt like the movie. the fighting was cool but thats all i remember from the movie besides the guy tryin to blackmail the main guys wife.

gary Z said...

i cant believe it too long and an hiatus to watch the movie 300 glad tta u din forget it .... well the pic indeed was interestin but its gonna give rise to sum greek combat chronicles of the mighty king loenardes vs the bad ass kratos ...? wat an amazing idea ...NOT .... gee tat will be a real pain in the ass i guess let them do what they do best in their own domains ...

Anonymous said...

JACKRED666 IS A FUCKING NOOB!

Da Dark Knight said...

Hey Jaffe, Me and my friends was having a discussion the other day about the race of Kratos, to us he looks like a black guy which is cool since their are not that many cool black characters in video games. We know all Spartan warriors were white but since this is a game based on a fictional character could it be that he is black. In all the cut scenes before he was covered with ashes he looked like a black dude, even the ashes on him along with the outfit he wears look more like an african warrior than a spartan. He is voiced by a black guy and even you said in an interview that in the movie you would like for Djimon Hounsou to play him. I was just wondering lol.

David Jaffe said...

He is designed to be a man from Sparta, which means he is whatever color peeps from that region were back in the day. He is not really a white man or a black man to me. More olive skinned, perhaps?

But yes, I would love to see Djimon Hounsou play him in the movie. And hell- and I am not joking- if they can make Downey look black (and man, he sure does!) they sure as hell can make Djimon look like an ancient Spartan!

David

Anonymous said...

David I thought I would put up an example of a quick banner you could add to the page. I posted a link to the pic in the url, hopefully it works

David Jaffe said...

Hey man! Thanks! As you can see, I am using it right now! Thank you so much! It;'s so much nicer than my shit! I may take it into photoshop and brighten it up but I dig it. Thank you!!!

David

Anonymous said...

Way to go Dave.

Anonymous said...

I tested COO, and I think the game is severly overrated. This should be seen as a God of War game, not a PSP game and handicaped for it! Controls are actually better then on PS2, and graphics just as good. Read the 1up review, everything they said I agree with, but it gets a 9.5? why?? cause its a PSP game.

Why does part of me hate this game? It has only one real puzzle in the entire game(light beam puzzle on the balcony), and the story blows.

The last 3 areas of the game dont have one single puzzle in them, just fight after fight(looking at you Tartrus, Palace, and fields.) The area before Tartrus has one puzzle where you push a block so you can jump up on a ledge, so I cant technically say the last 4 areas of the game have no puzzles, but generally the puzzles stop half way through the game after you get out of Helios Temple.

the story seems decent at first, but by the end its pretty lacking. and I hate seeing Kratos WHINE to Atlas. Yeah thats right Kratos, the God of fucking war WHINES like a baby. "It's all I have Atlas!!!" give me a fucking break.

The story is just pretty boring, but my biggest complaint, is it totally doesn't acknowledge, the first God of War, that right, your game Jaffe. It doesnt mention Ares one fucking time. Where is Ares, does he even fucking exsist? This is supposed to be when Kratos is working for Ares. But they just make it more general, and say hes working for the Gods. The game ties in nicely whit what happens in the GOW2, but doesnt make any refrence to anything that happens in GOW1. This doesn't make any sense, cause it a direct sequel to GOW1. They dont go into Kratos killing his family either, even though a large portion of the story has to his daughter, canalope lol. Anyways none of this makes any sense since GoW1 is a direct sequel to COO.

The bosses werent nearly as great as the other one either. but whatever this is my smallest complaint.

As a tester and seeing a little bit of the development on this game, it was sad seeing this game limited so much by time. Anyone will relize this after they watch the lost levels and see what this game could of been. One puzzle sticks out in piticular, which reminds me of my favorite puzzle from GoW1, where Kratos sacrifices a guy in a cage. Which is funny cause I remember Jaffe saying something in the extras about them trying to cut it, but you wouldnt let them.

As a God of War game it falls short, and doesnt deserve anything higher then a 8 out of 10 imo.