My fondness for God of War is well-known. I played and evangelised the US version on release. I can’t recall the last time I was so unexpectedly delighted by a gaming experience. Perhaps when I played Contra 3 on the Super Famicom or One on PlayStation.

For those of you that have played (and no doubt enjoyed) the game and watched some of the unlockable extras you’ll be delighted to know that there are two sequels rumoured to have been green-lighted by SCEA. Electronic Gaming Monthly magazine suggest that a 2006 release of God of War 2 on PlayStation 2 and then God of War 3 for PlayStation 3 are likely future hack-fests.

Will Kratos’ brother feature? Will the games have more interesting titles? Will Sony bother to market them properly this time? Who can say.

One thing that seems certain for next-gen gaming is the “cast of thousands” style game. Hundreds of characters on screen at once – that sort of thing. Personally, I’m not to interested in that. It seems like more of a programmer’s wet-dream than a gamer’s delight.. ..but if I could hack through all those entities with some satisfying chain-blade action? NOW you’re talking!

Oh, in other news: http://www.segarally.com

Hell yeah!

Isn’t it funny how things go? I mean, I’ve been playing a lot of Sega stuff recently (ok, Outrun 2) and been talking about Virtua Fighter with J over the weekend. Now, with the JAMMA 2005 show underway Sega are hogging my mental spotlight with their bizarrely named arcade hardware and that “oh wow” picture of Virtua Fighter 5. And yes, I know the world and his dog are showing this image but you *know* I’ll make it up to you.

In my travels for more JAMMA news and a definitive yay or nay on the topic of the rumoured Streetfighter 4 (the nays have it) I stumbled upon this pic and promptly decided to steal it. Now, I’m not the type that goes wild for any picture of an Asian girl, but this one’s impossibly endearing and will probably have the sort of guy that does get a hardon for J-pop girls grabbing for the kleenex:

For the few people that read this blog and are of dubious moral fibre – yes, I know you’re going to nick the image. Just keep coming back – you never know when more good stuff’ll turn up.

I have a rant lined up for later. Watch out.