[Updated] No High-Res God of War II for Europe

Sony clarifies what happened to Kratos's bonus mode and teases PS3 owners with better things to come.

[Note: This article was updated after Sony contacted us to clear up what happened to the high-resolution mode found in the US version of God of War II. You can read the original version here.]

Americans who bought God of War II, Sony's bloody, new PlayStation 2 action game, got an unexpected surprise last week. As a treat for fans, the developers added in a high-resolution mode, which players can get at through a set of button presses revealed recently on a special God of War II site.

But Sony has dashed hopes of similar treatment for Europe, saying today that the high-resolution mode did not make it into the European version of the game.

According to Sony's Hugo Bustillos, the mode had to be left out of the European version because there wasn't enough space left on the game disc after support for all the extra European languages was added in.

"It's a shame but sadly couldn't be avoided," Bustillos told Kikizo.

In a statement at the Island of Rhodes site, Tim Moss, director of technology at the God of War II development team, wrote that the final decision to include the mode was made late in development.

"It almost didn't make it in and that is why we hid it rather than make it standard," Moss wrote.

Part of the reason Sony didn't include the high resolution mode in the European version was because the team was optimizing all in-game content, including movies, for 576i.

"Development of the PAL version ran extremely closely alongside the NTSC version, and to have asked the team to develop a similar bonus mode for the PAL version would have distracted from their efforts to get it into the best shape possible," a spokesperson for the developer said.

"In addition, it would have required additional QA testing that would have a resulted in substantial delays to the game's release," our source said.

Sony also said that if owners of PAL PS3s run the game through HDMI or component cables, the game will play in full 576p.

"What this basically means," said the spokesperson, "is that the PAL PS3 is giving the best PS2 visuals you will be able to get anywhere!"

Alex Wollenschlaeger
Editor, Kikizo