At a PlayStation event in New York this week, I played the PSP's God of War: Ghost of Sparta and learned some details.
1) A Sony producer said the game will be 25-30% longer than the first PSP God of War, based on the playtests and focus groups now trying the game. (The earlier portable Kratos adventure, God of War Chains of Olympus, took my boss five hours to play through.)
2) Ghost of Sparta will push the PSP's processor hard and may be able render up to nine enemies on the screen at once. The earlier PSP game did three or four.
(Bonus non-stat fact: Ghost of Sparta, which takes place prior to God of War II, will use God of War III's system for button-prompt "quick-timer events." This means that, during combat, the prompts for pulling off killer finishing moves will appear at the periphery of your PSP screen rather than on top of the enemies. The prompts will appear at whichever edge of the screen matches the corresponding action button on the PSP, the Sony producer told me. For example, a prompt at the top means you need to push triangle. As was the case with God of War III, this will let you focus on the central graphics of the game, since you can tell from where the prompt appears in your peripheral vision which button you need to press.)
Development studio Ready At Dawn produced a visually impressive and surprisingly epic-feeling God of War on the PSP last time around. The new one appears to be a similarly strong effort.
God of War: Ghost of Sparta will be out on the PSP this holiday season.