Sony has issued a statement regarding the use of a beheaded goat in a God of War II promotion in Athens, Greece.
Full Statement
"The media event for the PS2 title God of War ll took place in Athens, Greece on 1st March. Approximately 20 journalists from European countries attended the event from a variety of gaming and lifestyle media - although none were from the UK.
The event was a theatrical dramatisation with a Greek mythological theme and, as part of the set dressing, a dead goat was provided by the production company from a qualified local butcher. Following the mainstream popularity of shows such as 'I'm a Celebrity, Get me out of here' a series of challenges were set for the journalists. The 'warm entrails' referred to in the invitation and in the Mail on Sunday article was actually a meat soup, made to a traditional Greek recipe and served to attendees in china bowls direct from the caterers. There was never any question of journalists being able to touch the goat, or indeed eat the soup direct from the body of the goat, as one report has alleged. The goat was returned to the butcher at the end of the event.
The article in UK Official PlayStation Magazine (OPSM), from which the Mail on Sunday article was sourced, was written by a journalist who did not attend and done on the basis of the invitation for the event, which employed a degree of hyperbole in order to encourage attendance - the journalist chose to take it as fact!
The photograph was one of many supplied to the magazine to provide a balanced view of the event. Unfortunately, the article was sensationalised and focused on a picture that was unrepresentative of the wider event. When we saw the article for the first time on Thursday of last week we contacted the Publisher of OPSM who accepted that the article was not appropriate for their broad audience. On Friday, before we had received any contact from the media, they agreed to remove the centre page article before the magazine goes on general sale.
We recognise that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves. We are conducting an enquiry to establish the circumstances behind the event in order to ensure this does not happen again. We also apologise to anyone offended by the article in the OPSM (subscription copies were sent out ahead of street date)."
Dave Karraker
Sr. Director, Corporate Communications
Sony Computer Entertainment America
Alanah Pearce, who was a writer at Sony Santa Monica for several years and worked on God of War Ragnarök, has shed more light on the sex minigames which cropped up in the series' earlier entries.
Other than looking like that, why does anyone care about what she has to say about anything?
Cultured Vultures: Let’s delve into Kratos’ long and rampageous history and find out which games are worth the hype and which are better left buried under the weight of Kratos’s might.
Both requels over 2 and 3? Clowns. Those are two of the most boring games I've ever played.
GoW 3 was amazing, but I personally hated just one thing. (This is on me alone, because I was dumb, lol.) I hated that you couldn't skip cutscenes on repeat playthroughs. I had to go back through the game a third time because I missed one trophy accidentally on my way to the platinum... The cutscenes were great the first go round, even the second... But the third was pretty agonizing.
Haven't played Ragnarok, but I still think GoW 4 is a wonderful game in its own right. Not sure how I would stack them up against each other honestly.
I don't consider the reboot part of the original series. The original series were high-skill games with combos and rewards for mixing things up.
lol square, square and triangle is the only combo you needed. I have played all of them on the hardest difficulties...
Maybe I’m just old school but I just couldn’t get into the last two. Maybe it’s the slower action and more story telling but the original trilogy was by far my favorite.
Me either, at all. It's just yap yap yap. They try to be a RPG's instead of being action games like they used to be.
My favorite was part 2 and I think Ragnarok is better that 2018.
There is no worst. Except for Ascension, only cause I didn't play it lol. They are all masterpieces. 1,2,3, 2018 and Ragnarok. 1 of, if not the greatest video game franchise...besides MetalGear.
Oh wow, I actually forgot that Ascension even existed... I never played it either.
If you didnt play it, how could you call it the worst? Its not as bad as the media portrayed it. Honestly the worst are those flash games. they arent even considered true GoW games but in name only. At least Ascension is a real GoW game.
Not saying it's a terrible game. Just mean it's at the bottom of my list. I played a little bit of it. Jus to me, compared to the other main games, it's last.
Can't agree, older games do so much more than the last two. More weapons, magic abilities, enemies are more varied, level design is also more aesthetically pleasing, and agree with those who say that they shouldn't have removed jumping. Was a time I'd agree, but those old games are so so much better, that they really should've looked into bringing into the reboot/sequels.
If a game is good then a game is good. Doesn't matter what came before or what comes after.
Of course it matters. If not for what what came before there wouldn't be an after. And if something is great before then you strive to make it just as good if not better, after. I personally don't think there's a fair way to judge the new with the old because the newer games are still essentially a reboot, and went a way different direction. But I still believe the old games did it better. I'm probably bias though since I've been going back to old games and have been finding that they lack all the annoying aspects that devs have shoehorned into new games to fluff out game time.
@Inverno
Im not talking about the passage of time here. Im talking about individual pieces of software. If a game is good then it is good. Thats not a controversial statement. You can compare good with good...sure. But you still end up with good. Now if there is a bad game in the mix and you compare you do end up with some differentials between them...makes sense to compare and see where it went wrong.
But theyre different genres and styles which were individually executed very well.
And no. The new games are not a reboot. Theyre a new direction but simply a continuation.
Tomb raider was a reboot.
The new games are definitely a reboot, and a continuation, it can be both which it is. And a good game might be good, but my point is that if there are things done better before it then there's plenty of room for critiquing and trying to make whatever comes after better rather than just good.
Take it down the memory lane with this ultimate list of the best PlayStation 2 games of all time. Just the best of the best right here.
It's so disappointing that to this day, I have not seen a game match what BLACK offers in an FPS.
Shame isn't it. I thought we'd be at a point of destructible backgrounds, objects, pyrotechnics etc in shooters. I sold many a copy in the demo unit when I managed a franchise Game Crazy back then. But I stopped playing shooters because they didn't evolve. Heavy weapon. Shoot a wall or glass. Nothing happens. Lol. Except for Killzone 2. I enjoyed that.
But then I woke and remembered it's EA. EA didn't care really. They just wanted to kill competition from Criterion and Burnout. And own Renderware to profit from as many developers used that engine. Only thing was that developers ran as fast as they could away from EA to Unreal Engine and its pop in and Vaseline graphics. Shame on EA. And then they bought Dice for Frostbite. Evil busters.
Anyway, too many PS2 games to count. Some of my personal faves being DMC, Genji, Bujingai, Blood Will Tell, Onimusha, Way of the Samurai, Japanese Berserk, Japanese Macross game that blew away the US Robotech game, RAD, Castlevania Lament of Innocence.... there's just too many. Let me stop. Lol
Code Veronica
Dead or Alive 2 Hardcore
The Getaway
Time Crisis 3
Killzone
Mark of Kri
SSX
are some of my all times favorites missing on that list
I've always Saud I'm not a fan of fps much , there's been some I really like and thought were really dope. Black falls into that category.
The greatest console of all time !!!!
The last console from when gaming was pure, games didn't take 5 years to release, no online only, no half finished games, no mtx.
Ps2 was just banger after banger after banger.
It will always be my favourite.
the fact remains, using an animal corpse in the promotion of a game is distasteful.Also, while Sony themselves may be innocent of this particular incident,remember Japan is one of only a couple of nations still killing whales for food under the pretence of scientific research!
Yes, Sony we like it when you beg for forgiveness. Maybe you should try controlling your brainless PR agents.
"We recognise that the use of a dead goat was in poor taste and fell below the high standards of conduct we set ourselves."
(@_@)
wtf?
I think this is the nail in the coffin- Sony deserves to go bankrupt on the idiocy of their PR division alone. Screw their hardware, screw their software, this crap is just unacceptable.
EDIT: And I love how there's no similar justification for the virtually nude breasts at the event (bodypaint only, as seen in the pic). Or the fact that this event placed nearly-bare breasts BESIDE a dead goat, as in the picture.
There's so much wrong here that it hurts to even make fun of it.
f*ck goats
I like the ad, they need more like these. I would have had blood spraying all over the place. Its strange people are getting worked up over this. There are alot worse things out there. Kudos to who ever did the ad. People tend to remember shocking things.