Few video game franchises have seen the critical and retail success that God of War has seen since the first game was released in 2005. Each title in the series has raised the bar for graphics and crazy set pieces that the previous entry in the series set. Even the portable entries in the franchise have been well received and considered a benchmark to compare other PSP games to. Keeping the series at the top of its game doesn't come easy though. The latest title in the series, God of War: Ghost of Sparta, required Ready at Dawn to squeeze out the full capabilities of Sony's PSP.

CVG recently got a chance to speak with Ru Weerasuriya, one of the co-founders of Ready at Dawn, and asked about what was required to make Ghost of Sparta another successful entry in the popular series:

"Pretty much by bringing the PSP to a breaking point. It was about trying to push things on the PSP that it wasn't necessarily designed for, trying to exploit every single possible avenue the PSP provided for us. I think we have, we've looked in every single nook and cranny inside the PSP and tried to figure out what we can take out of it and at this point I think we've leveraged 100% of the power of the PSP."

Weerasuriya also mentioned that for Ghost of Sparta the PS2 model of Kratos was used. Full screen effects, weather, and depth of field visuals were also implemented, which is not something normally seen on a handheld system. According to Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn was able to accomplish this by designing the game as if it was not for the PSP:

"A lot of things we've done you'd expect on PS2 or PS3. In fact, when we developed this game we did it as a God of War game, not a PSP game, it put us in a mind frame to make it look good."

With Game Rant's review of God of War: Ghost of Sparta receiving a 5 out of 5, this appears to be another great entry in the series. With the rumors of a PSP2 or a PSP Phone coming in the near future, this could possibly be the last great game for the original PSP. So it looks like we have a reason to dig out, dust off, update, and play or PSP a few more times before we all move of to the 3DS or PSP2.

How many of you are planning on picking up God of War: Ghost of Sparta when it releases? Do you wish this was on a home console or is this game a good fit for the PSP?

God of War: Ghost of Sparta releases on November 2 for the Sony PSP with some pre-order goodies available.

Source: CVG