While Miller's been working on the film, Barlog's been responsible for coming up with a "script" for the game, using the same resources and material as the film crew have had access to. Once he's done, Miller says they'll be doing something not that common in the games industry: they'll workshop the story. The film guys, the game guys, they'll chew through the title's outline and collaboratively brainstorm. Miller says of this breaking down of traditional borers on a movie project:

My expertise is in cinema, but it's about seeing where those disciplines overlap and bringing people together—by workshopping or whatever you want to call it—bringing together all these disciplines and basically telling the story of the same characters and the same world, but putting them out in all these different platforms. Does that make sense?

I see myself not so much as a filmmaker but as a storyteller. If I'm a storyteller first and a filmmaker second, then all of this other stuff is a legitimate part of telling the story. So that's how I'm seeing it. And my job—my specific job is to tell the story through film; at the same time it's someone like Corey's job to tell the story through the game. But there's a cohesion between the two.

The producer writes that fans can "rest assured that [God of War III] is all in good hands," heaping praise on the Santa Monica team who will undertake the inevitable sequel. As far as known progress on GoW III, Barlog reveals that "immediately after I finished God of War 2 I was already working on the story and design for the third game."

He indicates that the third game in the series proper will wrap up the series' main story arc, ending with "very big, very epic bang." Is anyone else thinking Kratos foursome?

Here's to hoping that the series will finally make the jump to the PlayStation 3 and that we'll get our hands on God of War III in some form before year's end. And that free copies will rain down upon the staff. Plus, I want a pony.

Welcome Back! [Barlog's Blog]

It's just as enjoyable as the translated Ueda piece , but might have less of an immediate impact, partially because we get to hear from Barlog and his peers fairly often, while it's a rare treat to have the opportunity to hear from the creator of two of the best PlayStation 2 games of all time. Regardless, it's a good read, only because Barlog's entry about his personal discovery of the beautiful intricacies of SotC's gameplay is so easy to relate to.

God of the Colossus [Don't Play Games With Me!]

Barlog's first entry on the official PlayStation.Blog hints that we'll be seeing more of the game at E3. Michael McWhertor

Inside the Developers Studio: Follow-up; Cory Barlog [PlayStation.Blog]

UPDATE: Didier Malenfant just contacted us with additional clarification on God of War: Chains of Olympus. Details after the jump.

Didier writes:

Just read your update regarding "GoW: Chains of Olympus" and Cory's comments.

Unfortunately this is completely incorrect and I want to make sure the rumors don't start getting out of control.

EVERYTHING that was shown of "GoW: Chains of Olympus" so far was runing at 222Mhz like everyone else. We are planning on having the final game run at 333Mhz but this likely won't be just to improve the graphics which we think are already pretty awesome.

Cory also makes a joke in his post about 1080p on PSP. This, ironically, is not a joke at all. We ARE able to render the game at 1080p if we want to thanks to a feature of the 2.0 version our engine. It doesn't run in real-time but the results look awesome, even with the assets we built for the regular screen size.

Look for a post shortly on our web site to address out the confusion on the CPU speed issue.

So, while God of War: Chains of Olympus will ultimately take advantage of the improved clock speed, it appears that Ready At Dawn's previously shown work is that much more impressive now.

Thanks for the Barlog-to-Kotaku translation, Didier! I guess what they say about when one assumes is true after all.

If we do get started on a GOW for PS3 you can be sure I will be screaming about it from the mountain tops the first chance I am allowed. Until then...I am plugging away on my RPG opus 'A Family Ties game'.

Wait, "Family Ties" RPG?! I thought this project was a "Facts Of Life" spin-off. I was really looking forward to recreating Tootie's first near-sexual experience as seen in that one very special episode.

Obviously, with God Of War II sales still going strong, a third chapter in the main series is coming sometime. It just maybe arriving a little later than we all want. Michael McWhertor

This one is in Drop 'D' [Barlog's Blog]

It is, I would think, no big secret that MTV's Stephen Totilo and Newsweek's N'Gai Croal are two of my favorite gaming writers. (Clive Thompson would be the third, in my trinity of game writers)

So N'Gai's latest feature over on his Newsweek blog is for me, quite a thing to behold. In Vs. Mode Totilo and N'Gai take one another to task over their feelings on God of War 2.

I'll summarize, poorly, their takes on the game here, but you really, really owe it to yourself to go over there and read the whole thing because it's the sort of game critiquing that you will almost never find.

Totilo comes down on the side of liking God of War 2 but not really being blown away with it. It is a marvel of game creation, he argues, but it's also very much more of the same. And not just because it's a sequel that uses some of the same sorts of setting and themes, but because the game, like its predecessor, uses "level design to define a character's personality", the personalilty of Kratos. And the sequel relies heavily on this same sort of trick.

While he doesn't come out and say it, I think Totilo might also be trying to say that this not only fails to move the development of the game forward, but the development of the character of Kratos forward. He remains fairly unchanged from the first game. And I have to agree, that is a disappointment, though one I didn't totally grasp until just now.

N'Gai comes back swinging, pitting Totilo's encyclopedic knowledge of games against his skills at comparative media analysis and using it to try and pick apart his gaming sensei's arguments.

N'Gai argues that referencing your previous game, either in story or in design, is an acceptable form of homage often used by music producers and rappers. Intratextuality in games is a good thing, he says. He goes on to point out that David Jaffe freely borrowed from the cannon of video games to create his magnum opus, so why shouldn't Cory Barlog do the same.

He conclusion places me squarely on N'Gai's side of this argument. Sometimes a good game is just good, it doesn't have to shake the bounds of its genre or reinvent something. Or as N'Gai put it, misquoting screenwriter and journalist Cheo Hodari Coker talking about P. Diddy's music: God of War II may not be perfect... but it is unquestionably a game that will make you shake your ass.

Damn straight. Brian Crecente

Read this, or you can't call yourself a gamer [Newsweek]

Cory Barlog had a little dinner with his God of War II design team last week and they gave him a surprise gift: A Wii.

While Barlog said it was "pretty damn sweet" and that he was very moved by the sentiment, the fun factor on the Wii wore off quickly.

Here are some pics of the sweet wii...though I must be honest it was not everything I had hoped it would be. It was fun...but the wow factor wore off fairly quick. The one game I wanted to play, Trauma Center, was definitely a bit of a let down. The wiimote was woefully inaccurate and sapped the fun of the game. The Wii sports golf and bowling was cool...the boxing is freaking terrible though. In the end I hope to see some cool games come out of it, though it has me worried that the whole "what new thing can you do with the controller" fad will wear off after awhile and I will have left is a much slimmer wireless gamecube. Though the gamecuvbe gave me some great gaming moments so I am not all that bummed. I am still happier playing Zelda on my Gamecube...maybe I am just a luddite like that. Who knows?

He did like how well designed the actual console was and "petite".

Demo Time [Cory Barlog]

Thanks for the heads up, Patrick! Michael McWhertor

Mark Newman's deviantART Gallery [Some potentially NSFW sculpts there, FYI]

Hot cha cha. Cory Barlog writes on his blog that he has been meeting with unnamed folks about the possibility of getting some God of War 2 "figures" made. Please, oh please mean action figures and not metal non-posable figurines. I need a Kratos with tiny spinning Blades of Chaos and and action crotch thrusting (For bonus points, don't ya know.). That would so rock.

Oh, and they're doing a playtest at the end of the month and other non-action figure related stuff. Brian Crecente

"You mean Coitus?"
[Don't play games with me]