God of War II countdown reveals HD Mode and...another countdown

After weeks of speculation, Sony's new viral marketing campaign for God of War II has left fans of the series with more questions than answers.

By Eugene Huang

It all began shortly after the release of God of War II -- a particularly astute gamer noticed that scoring a 999,000 hit combo flashed the message "www.islandofrhodes.org". Of course, at the time of the website's discovery, the only information that occupied it was a simple countdown timer. The timer finally reached zero late last night, and much to the disappointment of its numerous visitors, the site seemed to only contain video commentary from the game's developers, and not a big announcement regarding the God of War franchise as fans had originally hoped.

However, another astute gamer on GameFAQs.com pointed out that hitting the "Proceed" button on the website led to another page containing information regarding the history of Rhodes. But in reality, hidden within the site are a series of puzzles that eventually leads to a message from Tim Moss, director of technology at SCE Studios Santa Monica:

    "The crazy idea occurred to us in the programming group that we could probaly manage to run the game in a slightly higher, more HDTV friendly resolution. There was a bit more VRAM left, a few more cycles we could spare. So hacks were added, and something we call HD-Mode was born. Now this is NOT 720p. It's actually 480p with FULL SIZE buffers, in other words, 640x448 resolution. It was tough to get it working, in fact we didn't fix the bug until the very very last day of the project. It almost didn't make it in and that is why we hid it rather than make it standard. The extra resolution makes the game run a little bit slower, but it's also prettier."

However, the last page on the site leads to another countdown -- this one ending in over eleven days. Could this be the announcement God of War III for the PS3? We'll know for certain on midnight, April 24th.

[warning: spoilers ahead. --ed.]

Some gamers in need of a challenge might want to try the puzzles out for themselves, and if you happen to be one of them, STOP READING! But for those lacking in the patience department, GamePro has decided to walk you through them, step-by-step. The first puzzle is found on the screen containing the outline on the history of the Isle of Rhodes. Within the painting, there are several Greek letters, but the trick is to find the appropriate letters to spell out "KRATOS". The letters must be clicked on in order, and can be found in the following locations:

Kappa (looks like a K) - under the I (Iota), at the center of the column on the right side of the screen
Rho (looks like a P) - in the upper left corner of the screen
Alpha (looks like an A) - bottom right corner of the screen, at the base of the column, next to the soldier
Theta (looks like an arrow pointing up) - middle left side of the screen, under the large Upsilon, the letter resembling a trident
Omega (the symbol for ohms) - upper right corner of the screen, left of the top of the arch
Sigma (looks like a jagged E) - bottom right corner, next to the soldier's foot

You can choose to watch the video, or click Proceed again, which leads to a puzzle with sliding tiles. Hitting the "Reset" button not only restarts the timer, but also changes the puzzle. Feel free to continue hitting reset until you reach a puzzle that you feel comfortable with.

After that comes yet another video, followed by a page containing an explanation of the creation of the universe, as told by Greek myth. On the bottom of the screen, you'll see a set of Roman numerals and an input box below that, but unfortunately, nobody has figured out how to solve this puzzle... yet. Adding to the frustration is the fact that different users have reported seeing different sets of numbers.

However, there is a way around it. Simply click the "Previous" button to go back to the video, and then double-click the "Proceed" button. That should take you directly to Moss's explanation of HD-Mode. The message states that, to access this mode, you'll need to press and hold L1+L2+L3 (the left analog stick button)+Square+Circle before God of War II starts up. (PS3 users are encouraged to plug their controllers in via USB port.) If done correctly, the "SCEA Presents" legal screen will appear in a shade of purple as opposed to its normal white background. When you're done reading, click the button marked "You Seek an Audience with the Fates", and that will take you straight to the countdown.

Simple, no?

[spoilers end. --ed.]

Comments [0]

post a comment

Post a Comment