Sat, Mar 06, 2010 | 22:01 GMT
GoW III producer says “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
God of War III’s senior producer, Steve Caterson, has weighed in on comments and suggestions that Dante’s Inferno screams of Kratos, and honestly, he didn’t have much to say about it.
Speaking with Industry Gamers, Caterson pretty much just shrugs it off and instead talked about how much work went into making God of War III.
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but from our standpoint, we’re running our own race,” said Caterson. “We’re trying to outdo ourselves and we’re our own worst critics and we often beat ourselves up.
“We take a lot of pride in what we do and we want to do the best we can on the games we make and we don’t want to leave anything on the table. We want everyone to have the same experience, one that we all agree on, and when you put the game down we want to be able to look you in the eye and say, ‘We gave it our all.’
“For us, it’s always been about previous games we’ve worked on. Nobody came into the office one day with a game someone else made and said, ‘Look at this, we need to have this in our game.’ It’s always been about outdoing ourselves; with God of War II, we had to outdo the Hydra and I think we did it with the Colossus battle, and this time, we had to be even bigger than that with God of War III.
“I’d like to think we succeeded.”
The world will find out if Sony Santa Monica did indeed succeed come March 16 in the US and March 19 in the UK.
After which, the team will deservedly be taking a break and playing videogames.
Related posts
Resident Evil 5: Alt Edition coming to PSN and XBL in DLC form
Real Time Worlds staff form Ruffian
GOW2 “Valentine Event” hands out chocolate in the form of XP
12 
Posted in: Action, Hot, PS3, Sony
Tags: god of war III, Steve Caterson
12 comments
#1
Alakratt
06/03/10, 10:22 pm
The man’s totally right. ANYONE who’s seen the first battle of the game will agree that it beats the Colossus battle to the ground! (1st 10mins already on utube) And yes, Dante’s Inferno was a GoW copy/paste job…which is sorta bad but at least it held me off ’till I got the plat for it. lol
I think EA just wanted a GoW type game and just got one their best studios to do it. Nice first try at it, loved the story. For me, if it includes Demons or Greek mithos, sign me up!
#2
alimokrane
06/03/10, 10:38 pm
May be he should write a legal letter too and accuse them of copyright infringement Oh Hang on, this one actually has a brain… He’s no mr Jaffe.
#3
AlexIW
07/03/10, 7:47 pm
alimokrane, I highly suggest you to actually read the guy’s blog. He never claimed that Sony should sue anyone because of similar gameplay mechanics – in fact, he specifically denied that. Obviously it’s much easier to ignore what he actually said.
#4
Michael O’Connor
07/03/10, 8:35 pm
“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,”
And unfortunately, the imitators end up creating better games in the process.
#5
dirigiblebill
07/03/10, 10:30 pm
Dante’s Inferno isn’t a patch on God of War 3. Good game though. The Trials of St Lucia content pack (two player co-op and a customisable arena, basically) could do wonders for its shelf life.
#6
Michael O’Connor
07/03/10, 11:24 pm
“Dante’s Inferno isn’t a patch on God of War 3.”
God of War 3′s gameplay mechanics are archaic and vastly out-dated, however flashy many of its scenes may be. Kratos moves like its walking on ice, and there’s absolutely no sense of impact in the attacks attacks. In a sublime level, there is absolutely no skill involved, or connection between your moves and the mobs on screen.
#7
The Hindle
08/03/10, 12:00 am
We will see with the critical reception which game is better my friend.
#8
onlineatron
08/03/10, 12:22 am
Seriously MoC
I’ll defend you’re right to say what you want… but things you are saying aren’t even an opinion… you’re forcing incorrect information onto people and trying to pass it off as gospel.
‘Walking on ice’, ‘No impact’, ‘No skill’
God of War has one of the best control schemes, most visceral combat and strikes a fine balance of being mashy for those who want it to be and controlled and skillful for others.
#9
Mike Honcho
08/03/10, 12:33 am
Michael O’Connor = Aaron Greenberg
#10
Michael O’Connor
08/03/10, 12:54 am
@ onlineatron
My experience tells me otherwise. There is absolutely *nothing* visceral about it in the slightest. Your blades fly through enemies like it is string, with absolutely no reaction or sense of contact when you do so. The moves are largely inconsequential, because they is no real depth to the combat.
A decent game designer knows how to make a system accessible without being basic and devoid of depth.
Dante’s Inferno is visceral. Bayonetta is visceral. Devil May Cry is visceral. God of War is not.
And yes, it is opinion. I never claimed it was fact.
“Michael O’Connor = Aaron Greenberg”
Mike Honcho = Ignorant fanboy. Nearly all of my favourite games of the last few months have been PS3 exclusives.
#11
Mike Honcho
08/03/10, 6:42 am
vis·cer·al …… profound and/or dealing with crude or elemental emotions
Nothing visceral about GOW3 ??
How’s about decapitating someone in front using your bare hands ….. and this was just in the demo shown months ago.
To each his own my man ….. just dont go checking out the reviews for GOW3.
#12
Michael O’Connor
08/03/10, 6:51 am
I find it tacky. The violence is saturated so much in cartoonish primary colours and pretentious machismo that the design and art direction loses all sense of relevance or seriousness.
The problem, once again, comes down to the combat mechanics. You never feel like your weapons are the things responsible for the carnage on screen. Kratos feels like little more than an observer to the pre-determined violence on screen, instead of the active participator and creator of it that he *should* be.
Dante’s Inferno did it far better, rip-off as it may be.