God of War III

During the gameplay demo, Kratos finds himself in the heat of an escalating battle between the gods and the Titans. While Kratos is on his own quest for vengeance, he sides with the Titans - hulking beasts that can be used to his advantage. A lava-spewing behemoth tears through enemies in the distance, and Kratos remains extremely resourceful when it comes to taking advantage of the world around him. He can tear into a Cyclops and ride the beast through battle (and then rip its eyeball out and gut it when it's served its purpose). Kratos can fly through the air by hopping from one winged Harpy to another. He can also glide up tunnels and from precipices using the Wings of Icarus.

These manoeuvres enable Kratos to rush head-on into armies of skeleton warriors and fight against mythical monsters like the Chimera, a three-headed mini-boss that's part snake, part lion and part goat. Players use the traditional quick-time event mini-game when slicing off the three heads.

"We can now zoom in a lot tighter on the action, so when you are in the middle of a battle sequence you can practically smell what's going on right up close," adds John Hight, director at Sony Santa Monica Studios and executive producer of God of War III. "Next to that, we're pulling out all the stops. The Titans themselves, which were alluded to and actually took part in parts of the game of God of War II, are now an integral part of the game. So there are entire sequences - levels from beginning to end, that will be played on the backs of the Titans.

Asmussen said that seeing massive battlefields with 50 to 100 enemies on them has become common with the current generation of systems. But while these spectacles look awesome within gameplay, the actual experience hasn't lived up to the promise.

"When you play these games it's very much doing the same thing against 50 guys that you used to do against five," explains Asmussen. "The combat really didn't evolve. So what we're doing is implementing a bunch of new grab moves and actions and attacks that you're able to do that actually do evolve when more creatures get on screen."

The one-on-one battles are also epic, as Kratos can now change weapons on the fly, allowing for more robust combo chains. In the demo, Kratos takes on a 15-foot tall Centaur captain. It's interesting to note that when on screen, the Centaur actually improves the fighting of his undead minions through new artificial intelligence, according to Chase. But that doesn't stop Kratos disemboweling him in the end. The god Helios, who looks so powerful riding his fiery chariot, doesn't fare much better. Kratos rips his head clear off after an epic battle and then uses it to find the door into the base of Mount Olympus.

But the adventure is just beginning, not just for God of War III, but - Santa Monica Studio would have us believe - for the gameplay landscape on PS3.

"One of boss levels from God of War II is now able to fit in the hand of one of our Titan characters," concludes Cash. "From a technology standpoint, that is huge. I imagine that as we start heading into the later years of PlayStation 3, the stuff you are seeing with God of War III just pales in comparison with the kinds of things we will be able to do."