An epic game needs a truly epic collector's edition, and Sony is delivering just that. The God of War III Ultimate Edition is a work of art. Specifically a work of sculpture, as the whole thing comes packed inside a high-end sculpted replica of Pandora's Box. To those of you behind on your Greek mythology, Pandora's Box is the container in which was stored all of the evils of man - hatred, jealous, internet flame wars, MySpace, etc. It was actually a jar, but the case for God of War III wouldn't have fit inside a jar, and neither would the limited-edition God of War art book, featuring interviews, art, and additional content to please fans of the series.

Along with the box, game, and book comes a slew of exclusive digital content available on day one of the game's launch. There's a God of War combat arena with seven challenges to overcome; a premium Dominus Kratos skin; a full-length movie documentary called God of War: Unearthing the Legend; the God of War trilogy soundtrack; and the God of War: Blood and Metal EP, which is a heavy metal homage to the series.

Now how much would you pay? But wait, there's more! Preordering the game at Amazon, GameCrazy, or GameStop will net you a code to download the E3 2009 God of War III demo as soon as today, along with one of three exclusive Kratos skins, seen below.

I believe the first is Amazon, followed by GameCrazy and then GameStop.

No word as to how much that massive sculpted box full of stuff will cost you, but is money really an object when it comes to large, wholly unnecessary stone boxes?

UPDATE: GameStop is saying $100.

God of War III Ultimate Edition and Pre-Order Items Announced [PlayStation Blog]

Games I Didn't Touch: I saw the fall line-ups for a trio of publishers in New York this past week. Majesco, Sony and Ubisoft were showing more than 30 games between them. Maybe even 50. I didn't count. There were a lot. I'm still in the process of getting at least 10 posts out of them. When you go to these events, you size them up and decide what you think you can afford to skip. At Sony, for example, I skipped the new Buzz games in the interest of time. And I skipped Brutal Legend on PlayStation 3, because the demo covered the same content from the Xbox 360 presentation I received of the game a couple of weeks ago. At Ubi I skipped their DS games, including Cop: The Recruit. Just didn't have the time or the expectation that it'd be worth it. I always worry that I guess wrong, but I have to guess nonetheless.

Games I Can't Preview: There were even games that I did play at the aforementioned events that I won't be previewing. Sometimes, I just don't think I get enough info on them or have sufficient expertise in them to write an informative post. All I could say about the new Ubisoft Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game, for example, is that it can be mistaken for a Smash Bros. clone (some of its creators worked on that last Nintendo brawler), that the Ubi rep showing me the game said its combat is more complex than Smash and that both the Ubi rep and ex-Newsweek reporter N'Gai Croal beat me in the game. At the Sony event I had a good time fighting as God of War's Kratos against a computer-controlled Kratos on the new PSP version of Soul Calibur, but, again, I don't have much more to write about it. The game, which is called Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny, had the best graphics I've seen on the PSP, but it also only had to render two characters on the machine's screen. These observations do not a post make. There are other games I tried that I won't be covering, but some of them don't even make this Notebook Dump. (There are also games I played that I'm saving my coverage of until next week. I'll let you be surprised as to which those are.)

Late To The iPhone: The other thing I didn't address in my posts this week — because I didn't know how to write something fresh about it — was the beginning of my experimentation with iPhone gaming. Last Saturday, on a train from New York to Philadelphia to go see this (yes, that), I decided I'd try a bunch of iPhone games. I loaded my phone with a selection of games that I based primarily on the suggestions of reporter-friend's Patrick Klepek and John Davison as well as from Davison's superb list of top iPhone games. (Looks like he just did another!) I feel like it'd be old hat to ask for suggestions or to run through everything I tried in a standalone post. But if you're interested, I sampled: Drop 7 (fun), Fieldrunners (too easy), Flight Control (fun but blocked by my fingers), Galcon (fun, but I prefer similar PC game Dyson — try it!), geoDefense Lite (didn't grab me), Trixel (good, but not my thing), Crystal Defenders Vanguard Storm (surprisingly cool), and Zenonia (ruined by its need for a virtual d-pad). Still need to try a bunch of others. I was excited to try what I understood to be the best games of an existing platform. I haven't had the opportunity to be late to a platform since I got a PS2 in early 2002. How this will affect what I cover, I cannot say.

And that's enough notebook-dumping for the week. Next week should be fun. But right now the weekend beckons. As does the Final Fantasy WiiWare tower defense game, My Life As A Darklord, that I was supposed to review for today. I'm late. Don't tell anyone!

(I snapped the photo for this post in the elevator of the building where Sony was having their NYC event.)

Seriously, this is a sculpture made by a single man. Not a $300, commissioned piece of adult collectible finery. It's just...something some guy made. As a hobby. For his art. Amazing.

The adowable girl is reader Landon's niece. Landon and his brother are life long gamers, and his brother made some flash cards of famous game characters. He showed them to his daughter over the course of about three days, and the darling child was able to memorize them all and dazzle us all. Bravo!

*applause*

Folks who pre-order from GameStop get the exclusive Kratos in-game model, which is actually a costume in four parts - skin, goatee, blades, and clothing. Meanwhile, Amazon.com pre-orders come with the exclusive "LittleBigPlanet Creator" digital miniguide from Brady Games, possibly indicating that someone at Amazon lost a bet. So it looks like GameStop is on top so far, but they've still got the Nariko SackGirl pre-order location to reveal, and that could be a deal-breaker for me.

Pre-Order Details: Amazon & GameStop [LittleBigPlanet News]

[Thanks, Cadaverine]

[Thanks, Ray]

Oh yeah, Did I mention I was at comic Con?

An unforgettable entrance. To promote the launch of God of War 2 for the PS2, Sony hired a Kratos to drive a chariot to San Francisco's PlayStation Store earlier tonight. According to site PlayStation Universe, things didn't quite go as planned and the cosplaying Kratos crashed the chariot into the sidewalk. How embarrassing! There's a clip of this, which we haven't been able to see yet, because it is loading very, very SLOW. Brian Ashcraft

Kratos Krash [PSU, Thanks Kieran!]

I was nosing around my copy of the God of War II Colossus Battle Demo disc after beating the shortish demo and noticed that they had Treasures listed under options on the main menu.

X-ing through I found it was a list of what I believe are the unlockables for the full version of the game, at least that's the only thing that makes sense since you need to beat the game or do other things that would be impossible on the demo to unlock them.

Hit the jump for the full list, including the description of the seven unlockable costumes.

Treasures
Hall of Titans: Seven rooms, seven challenges. Beat the game to unlock.
Arena of Fates: Control your own destiny and wage combat on your own terms. Achieve Titan rank in challenge mode.
Titan Mode: Beat the game to unlock.
Urns of Power: Collect precious urns and wield ultimate power. Beat the game to unlock.

Costumes
One: Kratos' life has always been an upstream battle.
Two: I always wondered what they did with the body.
Three: The path to revenge is a dark one.
Four: Why be a god when you can be a goddess.
Five: Classics never go out of style.
Six: The only thing that haunts a ghost is his past.
Seven: You worked so hard the first time, it would be a shame to let it go to waste.

Movies
High Res: Watch all of the cut-scenes in high resolution.
Story: Watch the cut-scenes chronologically.

Bonus DVD Content
Tech Art Pipeline
Orchestra
Voices of God of War II
Level Art Concepts
Creature Concept Art
First Play Test
First Halloween Party
Press Event
Tutorial
Boss Character Concept Art
Combat System
Animation
Cinematics
Kratos Concept to Completion
Concept Art
Cut Levels
Level Art Design

Alright, get to guessing what exactly those costumes are. Here's hoping the first one is Kratos as a carp... or salmon. Brian Crecente

Thanks for the heads up, Patrick! Michael McWhertor

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

David Jaffe is quite quickly becoming, for me, the game developer's Everyman. He's neurotic, gets drunks and spouts off and seemingly spends a disproportionate amount of time worrying over what other people think of him. And by other people I don't mean his bosses or his equals, no I mean you, the gamer.

As I mentioned in the duplicate post about Jaffe's drunken interview at the Playboy Mansion: Anyone who, while roaring drunk at the Playboy Mansion, tells his Sony handler to "go fuck yourself. Go to the Grotto and fuck yourself, because no one else there is going to" is deserving of plenty of admiration.

The morning after Jaffe had some major reservations about the interview. But it turns out things went OK for him, at least judging by his Sunday blog entry:

The other bit of press is from last month's Playboy Mansion Party. This is the video I thought would kill my career as I did it while shit-faced. I also did it at the URGING of Jeff Reese, the marketing guy I share the scene with in this clip. But gametrailers did a nice editing job and made me look- I think- not like an ass! Thanks GameTrailers! :)

Come to think of it, maybe he's more the Woody Allen of developers than the Everyman. Brian Crecente

SICK NO MORE! [Jaffe's Game Design]

The front row is still empty.

It wasn't a few minutes ago, I was sitting right in the middle of it: Front row seats to Gamers' Day.

But then came the tap on the shoulder and a polite "You can't sit here."

So now I'm about five rows back and pushed to the side. I'm pulling out my tiny laptop, settling in when Stephen Totillo, MTV's ace gaming writer, leans across the aisle and politely introduces me to the guy I'm sitting next to.

"David do you know Brian from Kotaku? Brian this is David Jaffe."

Jaffe... Jaffe... Jaffe? Oh, that's the guy I've been cyber-stalking for more than a year.

I smile, say hi. He goes to shake my right, broken paw, but I slip him my left.

"Sorry, right's broken."

I can't tell you how many people I've slipped that girly half handshake to today.

He says he knows Kotaku, reads it.

I let a few seconds pass before deftly sticking my foot in my mouth and freaking him out with equal alarcity.

"You know, you're really not that pretentious."

I notice the look on his face and quickly follow up.

"Do you know about Google News searches?"

Now he also looks confused. I have that effect on people.

"Well, more than a year ago I created a search for your name and I've been tracking you... I figured that you and CliffyB were sorta... out there. Not that there's anything wrong with that. I like CliffyB, he's a nice guy."

Someone from behind us temporarily rescues Jaffe from my ravings. He looks relieved until a sheet of paper is thrust into his hands. There's a stick figure drawing on it. Underneath is scrawled the name Kratos.

Jaffe smiles, politely. The voice behind me says "You can throw that away."

"No, now I have to keep it." I think he means it. Jaffe, I'm starting to realize, is painfully polite.

He folds the sheet up and tucks it away and then turns back to me, looking, I kid you not, as if he actually wants to carry on the conversation and not run screaming from the room.

"So," I continue, blithely, "I figured that maybe I could sorta cyber stalk you and use what you say to other people as part of our Kotaku Stalku stuff."

He's still smiling.

"But what I realized is that you really aren't that bad. You're really not pompous....I just say that because I know you've worried about it before. About how you come across on your blog. Don't. I've been watching for more than a year and you're really not that out there."

Jaffe, still smiling, says he's gotten over that.

"I just needed to develop a thicker skin."

I ask what he's up to now. "Are you speaking here?"

"Yeah, about my game. Criminal Crackdown."

"I'm going to have to blog that you know," I say as I pop open the laptop.

"Now? Are you writing right now?"

"Yeah, do you want to say something?" I thrust the laptop into his hands. He types up a short message and then the presentation starts and he hands me back the computer.

"Can I cuss on your site?"

I smile.

Brian Crecente

Think you've got what it's take to have a threeway with two Sapphic floozies? Sony is looking for the ultimate God of War cosplayer:

Ever been busted wielding your "Blades of Chaos" when you thought you were alone? Do you pretend your lunch is a health-restoring Green Orb? Have you ever muttered, "The Gods of Olympus have abandoned me" after a bad day? Don't be ashamed—just enter the God of War Ultimate Fan Contest.

Submit an "ultimate fan" video that proves beyond a doubt that you are the biggest God of War fanatic out there. We'll choose two winners and treat them to the definitive God of War vacation: An all-expenses-paid, three-day trip to Los Angeles in October 2006, where they'll visit the God of War development team, play the God of War II pre-release, and meet that god among men, game creator David Jaffe. In addition, the two winning videos will be featured on the PlayStation Underground site and in the "game extras" section of the God Of War II Special Collector's Edition. We'll even extend an invitation to become Gamer Advisory Panel members to the two winners.

Of course, don't bother entering, there's already a winner by default: Yo Soy Kratos. Florian Eckhardt

Ultimate God of War Fan Contest Rules

A Kratos dolly hand-sculpted is up on eBay for you to waste lunch money on. The seller explains that the figurine was "resculpted" from a Marvel Legends line of toys to match the PS2 game God of War. Likewise, things like the beard, toes, costume and paint detail are all impressive. At the time of writing, the bidding was hovering over US $90, with "was" being the keyword. Brian Ashcraft

Bid Here Children [eBay] Thanks, Eric!

We certainly hope that you, like us, can't get enough of Mexican Kratos, because we love him so much we're posting him again... this time remixed, slow-moed and with an underlying techno beat! Yo Soy Kratos forever! - Florian Eckhardt

Crecente?!?!?!?!

We've posted about this before, but we just came across Kratos' video on Google Video, which we haven't posted before, as well as a translation of his amazing speech.

Spanish Kratos is angry, angry, angry. Angry that his life story has been co-opted by those bastards at Sony. Hit the jump for a translation of his Spanish ravings, courtesy of 1UP.

Hello mortals, I'm kratos, the real kratos, that warrior that fought—that mystical warrior that fought in the spartan war and beat Aries (ares?), the god of war, with the mystical pandora's box. I want you to know one thing: this, what i'm using right now, is my new pandora's box. I'm recording this video to denounce—because this is intolerable, it's not normal that I had sold my life to aries, that son of a bitch of aries and along come you, yes sony playstation and steal my life without asking for my permission. You are a bunch of lamefaces; you are illicitly getting rich on my account and that's why that, after living in the shadows for years and years and years, guardian of the chaos swords, eternally chained to them, I tell you if you don't retire the game from the market and issue a public apology in a press conference, heads will roll just like when I shit my wife, fuck.

Now you know, i'm going after you and if any of you attempts to go against me—that I'm not kratos—I will beat you all with aries' reverse." (I dunno what the hell he meant with that, but rest asured he will kick your asses with aries' whatever)

Heyaaa, ughh!! And if any of you still have something to say I will cut your head off with (something crap I didn't understand, stupid spain spanish), hades' cyclone, the chaos swords and poseidon's fury!!!!!!!!!!1

Heya! Heya!" *stabs air and licks swords*

So Kratos' new Pandora's Box is his kitchen?

For some reason, God of War always lead me to believe that Kratos was more than five feet tall.

Yo Soy Kratos
Yo Soy Kratos Video Translation
Previously: He Is (Insane) Kratos

The guys over at 1UP have posted up their impressions of the God of War 2 demo. Although ignoring the question that's on every gamer's minds, "How many nubile Greek prostitutes will Kratos be able to have sex with at once?" it does go into the details of Kratos' new moves, Hades' revised bestiary and the fluidity of the control scheme.

[God of War 2] introduces everything from grappling points to expanded combat options to new bosses and even a scene where you can ride a Pegasus in the sky, all without transforming into an entirely different kind of game than the original...

It's playable on the show floor in a 30 minute or so demo over the course of which Kratos goes head to head with a grunt riding a Cyclops, earns a new parry maneuver that lets him reflect long-range attacks, and accomplishes superhuman tasks like lifting an entire room made of stone

Grappling points? Perhaps we missed this news and we're not entirely sure what 1UP means by that, but could they be talking about Shadow of the Colossus style grappling points to climb up the bodies of giant monsters? Perhaps we're feverishly extrapolating more than was meant, but that sounds like a pretty rad idea.

(Edit: "Heya, I just read your blurb about the grapple points. Now, I could be wrong, but in a video posted on IGN, they had one scene where Kratos swung his weapon into a hook thing, and then swung partially across a chasm, near the end of the swing he lashed out again and snared another hook to continue swining.So, based on that, I would think that the "Grapple Points" are pretty much like the grapple beam points in Super Metroid. Objects placed here or there that allow you to swing across or climb." Thanks, Gpallen!)

Preview: God of War 2 [1UP]

Check out this minifig of Kratos from God of War. The little tan guy was handpainted and comes with two custome Blades of Chaos. The blades on the tiny little bad boys are made of styrene sheet. And it's only at $5 right now. The guy who sent it to us actually wrote back to say, don't post it, I'm going to bid on it. Too late Eric, besides, mini Kratos is all mine. MINE!

Custom Lego Minifig Kratos God of War [eBay]