God of War team recruits online programmer

by James Ransom-Wiley { Apr 30th 2008 at 1:00PM }

A job posting for an Online Gameplay Programmer to join "the team behind the critically acclaimed AAA titles God of War and God of War II" (oh, just say it: the team developing God of War III) suggests that Kratos' next romp in Neverland may require some expertise in networking protocols and architectures. You know, give the ol' Ghost of Sparta a playable sidekick, some comic relief. Recall that at the God of War II launch, Cory Balrog (this was before he bounced from SCEA) said co-op was being considered for the third console game, at least, in theory: "If we can do something unique with [co-op], yeah, but it is really an early exploration of that in my head really. It's not even a discussion with the team." Obviously, Barlog got around to planting that seed before he departed.

The listing does include a rather ambiguous disclaimer though, which potentially disavows the job altogether: "Please be advised that the following job description may not reflect a position that is currently available. This job description may exist to simply gather interest, and may or may not ever become an approved open position." Whatever, we all know that next-gen AAA ain't "next-gen AAA" without online co-op, right?

Tags: god-of-war, god-of-war-iii, jobs, santa-monica, scea

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

GRANTED @ Apr 30th 2008 1:05PM

can anyone cite an example of a decent co-op experience in a non-fps? can it be done?

baby sea tuna @ Apr 30th 2008 1:20PM

Contra.

FOXHOUND @ Apr 30th 2008 1:22PM

As of recent and outside of any MMO/sports/racing games? Hn... nothing readily coming to mind.

However, stuff like:
GUNSTAR HEROES
METAL SLUG series
RIVER CITY RANSOM, STREETS OF RAGE, DOUBLE DRAGON, FINAL FIGHT, etc.
CONTRA series

...were pretty fun back in the day.

tjlenz @ Apr 30th 2008 1:26PM

Pixel Junk Monsters

FOXHOUND @ Apr 30th 2008 1:31PM

I keep hearing good things about PIXEL JUNK MONSTERS... I'll have to give it a look next weekend when I've got free time.

Phranctoast @ Apr 30th 2008 1:31PM

Gauntlet.
Golden Axe
Double Dragon (all double dragon wannabe games)

Return of the King (also online co-op)

samfish @ Apr 30th 2008 1:55PM

The only non-classic co-op game I've really had fun in recently was probably Smash Bros SSE mode.
...and even then, it wasn't THAT great.

I'm sure it could be done, though, especially in a game like GoW which is more or less an evolution of old beat-'em-ups.
...although because god of War is so established, I don't know that they could really pull it off at this point. I think it might feel like they threw in a second character to bolt on a co-op mode.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!) @ Apr 30th 2008 1:59PM

why dont you try the demo then Foxhound? it was a decent game, i didnt buy it but it was pretty fun. i may buy it sometime when i have extra cash, extra time, and a lack of anything else to play.

merf1350 @ Apr 30th 2008 2:01PM

Crackdown

GRANTED @ Apr 30th 2008 2:08PM

yeah gauntlet and return of the king are the most like GoW. Ok, I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.

Doctor Jemima @ Apr 30th 2008 1:21PM

Contra

baby sea tuna @ Apr 30th 2008 1:48PM

Haha, I beat you by a minute. I assume that that was the first one to pop into a lot of people's minds.

kbomb1upc @ Apr 30th 2008 1:29PM

Turtles in Time...none of the new stuff

FOXHOUND @ Apr 30th 2008 1:29PM

Again, this article reminds me of how wasteful it was for me to buy extra controllers for my systems. Sports games aren't as "pick up and play" as they used to be, barely any games feature offline multiplayer, and frankly - 1st party controllers these days are nearly the price of a friggin' game.

For instance, I bought 3 of the Logitech wireless PS3 controllers over the regular SIXAXIS(this was before DualShock3 was released); simply because they were only $20/new at the local Game$top. I kick myself for doing it now, 'cause the only stuff out there are overly complicated sports games(however, NHL08 had a dual analog control scheme, but damn if anything was accurate in shooting)or FPS games which usually don't last long in the whole 'party fun' department.

Honestly, I'd pay full price for a re-release of old team beat'em up games like X-MEN, TMNT: TURTLES IN TIME/IV, or even THE SIMPSONS ARCADE GAME. :\