Yesterday Pro-G reported that the secret HD-Mode for God of War 2 was not included in the PAL release of the game. The official reason for its absence was the simple fact that there isn't enough space on the DVD for it to be included.
However, although being true, the God of War II developers have today issued a more detailed response outlining just why PAL gamers have missed out.
"As has already been correctly reported, the truth is that the US version of the game already pushed the dual-layer disc to near-capacity, and the addition of audio for French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian meant that the development team had to make a Herculean effort to ensure that everything would fit," reads the statement.
It goes on to say, "However, even if the game only featured English it would still not have been possible. This is because everything in the game has been optimised for PAL (576i), including the movies. The God of War games are famed for the seamless transition between gameplay and cutscenes, and if we had kept the movies in NTSC resolution, there would have been a very noticeable, very jarring transition between the two display formats. The only compromise would have been to have featured the movies in both PAL and NTSC resolutions, but as evidenced by the struggles the development team had to even fit localised audio onto the disc, this was clearly not an option. It should also be explained that the excellent PAL optimisation meant that a 60Hz option was also not necessary."
Further more, "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. In addition, it would have required additional QA testing that would have a resulted in substantial delays to the game's release."
However, all is not lost for PAL gamers seeking improved visual quality with God of War 2.
"It should also be noted that when playing the game on a PS3 via a component or HDMI lead, it runs in true 576p and not just an upscaled version of 576i. The Enhanced Definition (ED) output is forced from the PS2 graphics chip which is why a lot of PS2 games - not just GoWII - will look a lot better. By contrast, if you boot up the US GoWII on an NTSC PS3 and switch Progressive Scan mode on, there will be no difference as the emulator is pushing the 480p mode regardless," the statement explains.
The God of War 2 devs also note that us PAL gamers get the best deal when it comes to playing PS2 games on our PS3s.
"What this basically means is that the PAL PS3 is giving the best PS2 visuals you will be able to get anywhere!" concludes the statement.
God of War 2 is scheduled for release across Europe on April 27 and look out for a review at around the same time.
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