Ready at Dawn, the developer behind the original God of War PlayStation Portable title, have announced the sequel, God of War: Ghost of Sparta. Following right after the events of the original God of War — not to be mistaken with Chains of Olympus — the sequel follows “Kratos’ ascension to power as the God of War.”

Developed in a collaborative effort between Ready at Dawn and Santa Monica Studio, Ghost of Sparta follows Kratos’ quest to rid the nightmares that have haunted him. In order to do this, “Kratos must embark on a journey that will reveal the origins of lost worlds, and finally answer long-awaited questions about his tattoo, scar and family.”

“Excitement for the God of War franchise is at an all-time high and we’re thrilled to continue that momentum with God of War: Ghost of Sparta,” said Scott A. Steinberg, vice president of SCEA. “This new adventure will showcase Kratos on PSP like never before in an experience that fans and newcomers can enjoy on the go, anytime, anywhere.”

The game is said to have more than 25 percent more gameplay than its PSP counterpart. It will, also, have a new weapon system, new magical powers, weapons and navigational abilities and many more enemies on screen with a greater number of boss encounters.

When it comes to video game stories, nothing can even come close to that of the God of War franchise; with its well written and intelligent story. However, many may argue that, story-wise, the franchise has explored everything within the world of Greek mythology leaving nothing for God of War III.

When being interview by GamePro, God of War III’s Director Stig Asmussen reassured fans that they’ve still have plenty to explore within the world of Greek mythology. “When we first started, we didn’t really set out to limit ourselves to Greek mythology or simply the story of Greek mythology. That’s why we created Kratos to build our own story around that. We didn’t want to just hold true to everything and to be too really realistic,” he told the magazine.

“We wanted to be able to visually and conceptually do anything we wanted. If we wanted to make a prison level, we made a prison level. If we wanted hostages in a ship, we can do that. We just have to put the Greek column on and some Greek trim in there so it kind of looks Greek, but beyond that, we can go anywhere we want.” God of War III releases in March 2010.

If you can’t remember, some time during this year Sony released a survey asking the fans what they would like to see in a God of War III collectors edition, and, in the survey, an overwhelming amount of the community members wished for the previous God of War titles to be available on the PlayStation 3.

With that said, Sony has announced that the critically acclaimed God of War franchise will be headed to the PlayStation 3 in a collaboration of all the previous God of War titles. The collaboration is entitled God of War Collection.

Scheduled for release this holiday season, God of War Collection will feature reworked versions of both God of War and God of War II on a single Blu-ray Disc at full 1280 x 720 resolution. Both critically acclaimed games, which were originally developed for the PlayStation 2 computer entertainment system, have been remastered with anti-aliased graphics running at 60 frames per second for a smooth gameplay experience on the PS3 system. Additionally, the Blu-ray Disc compilation will bring PlayStation Network (PSN) trophy support to the franchise for the first time (included for both games).

“We are excited today to announce God of War Collection,” said Scott Rohde, vice president, Worldwide Studios America. “Our fans spoke and we listened; thanks to our partnership with Bluepoint Games, fans and newcomers to the series can experience the epic God of War and God of War II saga in stunning 720p on PS3. This Blu-ray Disc compilation brings Kratos to PS3 even earlier than expected.”

The game will go on sale this holiday for $39.99.

During the demoing of Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny, the first Soul Calibur title coming exclusive to the PSP, at E3 players were left in amazement at the reveal that Kratos, from Sony’s God of War series, will be playable in the final version of Broken Destiny.

However, we have received news that Kratos wasn’t playable at the demoing of the game. But, 1UP did manage to gain a pic of Kratos within the character select screen.

As we have seen in games like Resident Evil 5, recently theres been a high demand for co-op play within normal single player games. But, it seems that Sony will be keeping the games roots with God of War III.

In an interview with CVG, God of War III director, Stig Asmussen, confirmed that Kratos will walk alone in his upcoming adventure. Toping it off with these words, “God of War III is a one-player game.”

In addition, Asmussen revealed that Kratos will have a vast array of new weaponry this time around, including:

• Hermes Boots – Allow Kratos to maneuver up walls and perform aerial attacks
• Helios Head – Reveals secret locations and functions in dark areas
• Cestus – Powerful lion gauntlets
• Fire Bow (temporary name) – Well, this one should be obvious

For all those fans out their that aren’t sure what they meant by ‘God of War 3 [being] the best looking game on the PS3 to date’, here’s a little insight for you. We all know that the game isn’t as graphically detailed, I mean this in the lightest way, as Killzone 2, but what God of War 3 does right, apparently, is large scale parts.

If you take note of the ending to the recently released God of War 3 trailer, you tasted just a little part of the ‘large scale’ environments in the game, which was basically the Titans attacking Mount. Olympus. As you can see, they are moving and in the recent interviews for the game it was stated that Kratos would be able to interact with these environments – the moving Titans.

Anyway, to interact with these environments you are going to need something powerful, something that can handle the ‘large scale’ needed for this. So… that is why God of War 3 is a visual ‘masterpiece’ it’s because it can handle these ‘large scale’ interactions.

Just something you should know: We’re holding a contest in were you can win a Nintendo Wii just click here to enter.

The God of War, Kratos, is back for an extended view of the trailer that we got viewed at back at last years VGAs. The trailer looks absolutely amazing, but be warned you may be blown away, if not, let us know!

A Sony rep has confirmed that the trailer is live action, meaning that it was taken from actual gameplay. But, franchise fans will notice the absence of some signature elements; enemies here aren’t dropping light orbs, the person playing the game isn’t being given on-screen button prompt when he – or she - goes in for the gory mini-boss kills. Lucky, Sony has confirmed to us that those elements were removed from the trailer for presentation purposes.

In the pages of Game Informer it revealed yet another strongly awaited title that’s sure to keep you wanting more. The new details are from the cover article of the magazine, which is about God of War III, but the only way you can find them out is if you read them below.

Kratos will be battling plenty more foes, with as many as 50 enemies on screen at a time, as opposed to the max of 15 found in previous games; He also has a new ability that allows him to “control” certain monsters; There will be much more differentiation between the weapons, allowing for more variety in combat; Enemies will have improved AI, and will also feature much more visual variety; There will be more boss fights as compared to the first game, but fewer than the second; As per usual, there will be no multiplayer component.

This movie has been rumored since last year and at E3 Sony reveal the third installment into the serie is well on it’s way. Well, we all knew that this was going to happen, it was just a matter of when. When confronted by UGO’s Movie Blog, Brett Ratner, who just happens to be a Movie Directer said that he was working on some new movie. No, it’s not the Mass Effect: The Movie. It’s God of War: The Movie, this game does have a kinda deep story and if i where to pick on game to be turned into a movie this will be it. Here also revealed some other movies that he will be working on and you can watch the video on the site.

God of War follows the story of Kratos a servant to the God of War, Ares, during a battle against an immense Barbarian horde from the east. Kratos and his men were greatly outnumbered and the merciless Barbarians couldn’t be stopped by the disciplined Spartans, resulting in a massacre. Realizing that he could not win, Kratos offered his life and servitude to Ares in exchange for salvation.

The Playstation Blog revealed that the all powerful god of war, Kratos, will pack his bags to play some golf on the 21th of this month in the form of a downloadable character for Hot Shots Golf: Out of Bounds. As you may already know this is a much needed break for Kratos because battling the gods really does take a toll on such a character  to take a break he will head to the grounds to sink putts while using is clubs of chaos for massive chaos on the grounds.

The DLC will going for a not so bad price of $2.00 which comes with some new voice overs, we don’t really expect him to go wild with this download seeing that he is on a break and we should respect his vacation time as he focus on a little “E” for all time.

According to the people at Kotaku, God of War III is to feature online play.

Eagle-eyed reader Byron has pointed us towards a job listing on SCEA’s website, for an "Online Gameplay Programmer", who will "join the team behind the critically acclaimed AAA titles "God of War" and "God of War II." Interesting, interesting. That doesn’t say online programmer, it says online gameplay programmer. Anyone for a Kratos v Kratos battle for loin-cloth supremacy?

[God Of War III To Feature Online Play? via Kotaku]