IslandofRhodes.org hides God of War 2' 'HD Mode' and countdown

by Christopher Grant { Apr 12th 2007 at 5:55PM }

We admit it. We were disappointed to learn there wasn't an announcement attached to the super-secret God of War-themed IslandofRhodes.org viral site we first spotted last month. Turns out, first impressions can be deceiving. Through beating the site's puzzles, dedicated gamers (like the ones at GameFAQs) can find out how to enable the ditched-at-the-last-minute "HD mode" on God of War 2. Note: "this is NOT 720p. Its actually 480p with FULL SIZE buffers, in other words 640*448 resolution." We're not really sure what "full size buffers" are either, but a brief test using a PS3 and an HD monitor didn't provide a very noticeable increase (except in page tearing). If you want to test for yourself, follow the instructions pasted after the break.

Also hidden at the site was yet another countdown! This one is set to go off in just over eleven days time. What's going to happen then? We imagine it'll be something besides a developer commentary site and the little sliver above seems to hint at a phrase beginning with "G." Gout of War, anybody?

[Thanks, Wreckhart & ranova; via Kotaku]

"As the game boots up, before even the white text 'SCEA Presents' Legal screen comes up. Hold down L1 + L2 + L3 (thumbstick button) + Square + Circle simultaneously. If you did it right the legal screen will show up in a nice shade of purple. If you want to run in 480p you are still going to need to set that up through the menus as you do normally. This cheat will work on the PS2 and also the PS3. If you are doing this on the PS3 you may need to plug the controller in using the USB cable, as the controller is a little slow to come to life when the game boots."

Tags: godofwar2, islandofrhodes, upsample

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Elliot @ Apr 12th 2007 6:02PM

Im gessing eleven days to an update of some sort... or maybe a very well kept secret expansion?

TheGuy @ Apr 12th 2007 6:11PM

Interesting...I hope it's a countdown for an announcement on the PSP or PS3 game. I wonder if this website will be a news release site for GOW, with each countdown marking the day of the update on progress for the GOW games in development. I guess only time will tell (although I wish the site had a more concrete countdown clock, instead of the site's clock now that's dependent on your computers clock).

Joshua @ Apr 12th 2007 6:18PM

So the PS2 can only run games in a maximum of 640 x 448? Weak...

And God of War II runs in a resolution LOWER than that? Weak++...

Vegan @ Apr 12th 2007 6:22PM

#3

It can technically do 1080i (case in point: Gran Turismo). It just happens that God of War 2 was not made to support it. This is just a little bonus that improves the image SLIGHTLY.

jay @ Apr 12th 2007 7:45PM

i tried this on my PS3 and to me it is very noticably cleaner. The site says there is some gameplay slow down, but I didn't notice that.

AirIntake @ Apr 12th 2007 6:35PM

Um, isn't 640x448 less than 480p? I don't get how this is an upgrade. Or did it run less than 640x448 before (ouch)?

James @ Apr 12th 2007 6:45PM

The resolution of particular games on a system usually varies slightly. Even on the "big boys". You don't think all those Xbox 360 games are natively running at 1080 or even 720 did you? (upscaling doesn't count). Wasn't there a big hubbub over the latest Tony Hawk game on the 360 running at a fairly low native resolution?

AirIntake @ Apr 12th 2007 6:51PM

PGR3 ran at a resolution lower than 720p, but as far as I know, most games are rendered in at least 720p.

Wes @ Apr 12th 2007 7:06PM

Xbox 360 natively resolution for games is 1280x720 or 720p. Xbox 360 then has a built in hardware scaler that upscales(if necessary) to 1080i and 1080p with the right xbox live dashboard. This feature wasn't enabled at first though, only god knows why?

Some other systems, whom shall remain nameless to prevent flaming/off-topicness, don't include a hardware scaler so they use software scaling to upscale the 1280x720 to 1920x1080 which can in some cases if aa/af is applied after software scaling could produce better graphics, however, it requires additional gpu usage or cpu usage depending on what does the upscaling.

Wes @ Apr 12th 2007 7:07PM

P.S. If you don't believe me, you can google up information on the hardware and hardware scaler in the 360.

Ian Von Porter @ Apr 12th 2007 7:18PM

The hardware scaler in the 360 is a worthless pos. Its there because 360 can only output analog video, which only requires an analog upscaler... which is found on every single HDTV sold today because its a cheapo way of scaling video.

So, if a 360 game is running 720p native and you hook it up to a 1080p native panel. they will look the same whether you output it in 720p or 1080p.. the inly difference is where the scaling is happening.

I want to see if the elite can upscale via HDMI.

Gavon @ Apr 12th 2007 9:59PM

I believe they're going to reveal "Goddess of War" for the PS3. I saw it on the cover of the new Gamepro that just hit stands today. Just throwin' that out there...

Tom @ Apr 12th 2007 10:12PM

@Ian Von Porter

Good point about the upscaler, but remember that not all TV upscalers are the same. A lot of older HDTVs can have a half second lag in their upscaling (which is fine for movies, but that's a good way of getting your ass handed to you in multiplayer Gears of War). As far as I can tell the upscaler inside the Xbox 360 doesn't have this issue, thus removing the TV's need to upscale the image and making everyone's experience the same.

mccomber @ Apr 12th 2007 10:28PM

Ok, Gavon, please tell me that was sarcasm. Because otherwise I think you just posted the dumbest thing I've read all week, and I've read a lot of stupid comments both here and on ps3fanboy.

James @ Apr 12th 2007 10:41PM

Wes, the point was that the *supposed* native resolution is 720p, but that's not always the case. Because of the scaler, it will seem like all games are running 720p/1080i/1080p when in fact their original resoultion was much lower.

This apparently was proven for PGR3, Tony Hawk 8, and COD3 on Xbox 360:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/13/cod3-thp8-not-720p/

They lowered the resolution to help improve framerate. I wonder if any newer games have pulled this trick...