[Editor's note: Since Sony let us play the same demo it showed this past February, we amended the previous article with details regarding the controls.]

If you ever needed to justify the 400 bucks you spent for Sony's PlayStation 3, God of War III looks like it'll be the game to do just that. High praise, we know, but after playing the demo, we can't stop thinking about it.

God of War star Kratos' first adventure on the PS3 pulls out all the stops -- it features gorgeous mythological-inspired visuals, gruesome over-the-top violence and a sense of scale previously unseen in video games. The game takes place in a world consumed by war, where your only option is to slice, crush and break everything that wanders across your path.

First off, the game has an amazing sense of scale. Sony took the concept behind Shadow of the Colossus (where you walk along these gigantic monsters) and multiplied it tenfold. In order to exact revenge against his father Zeus, Kratos must fight his way to the towering Mount Olympus. To do this, he climbs atop Titans, ridiculously huge creatures that serve as the game's levels. Some are your standard issue giants, humongous behemoths that stomp on bad guys and pound stone into dust. Others, however, feature forests and mountains, places where you'll battle enemies several hours before making a dramatic exit, only to land on a Titan of equal size and repeat the process. Bottom line, you've never seen something this enormous in a video game.

As expected, God of War III has a satisfying (and at times shocking) amount of brutality to go along with its mythological theme. Kratos continues to chop enemies to bits with his mighty Blades of Athena (Square for light attacks, Triangle for heavy attacks), but now he also has the Cestus, powerful gauntlets that allow him to pummel his adversaries into a gooey paste. What's great about these two weapons is the ability to seamlessly switch between them by pressing directions on the d-pad; you can chop baddies with the blades and then finish them with the gauntlets in one smooth motion. In addition, he can torch monsters with a fire bow (L2 plus Square), and when his arrows find their targets, the flames spread to other enemies. Finally, Kratos has an assortment of grabs (press Circle to put Kratos' mitts on someone) that let him rip the wings off harpies, tear limbs from soldiers and even use one unlucky soul as a battering ram (this works great with crowd control); when you're done, smash the poor fool's head against the nearest wall.

Sony's God of War games feature lots of blood, but this time, the developers outdid themselves. Within the span of a few minutes, we unzipped a Centaur's belly and tore out its intestines before squaring off against a Chimera (a creature with the head of a lion, a goat's horns and a snake for a tail). After chopping off the reptile portion, we yanked out the horns and drove one into the monster's face. Then we hitched a ride on several harpies and used one of the carcasses to dive bomb soldiers. From there, we climbed atop a Cyclops and tore its eyeball from the socket, as in wrapped his meaty hand around the eye and slowly pulled it from the creature's head. To conclude our reign of terror, we confronted Helios and after a little resistance from his adversary, ripped his head clean off. Watching Helios squirm, grit his teeth and seeing the tendons snap from his neck made us both disgusted and intensely fascinated.

In addition to causing mayhem on foot, Kratos also has the ability to ride larger monsters like the aforementioned Cyclops. First you weaken the creature and then you hit one of the DualShock 3's face buttons. Doing this correctly orders Kratos to swing onto its back and dig the blades into its neck. From there, you can steer the animal and watch as it frantically swings its club, taking out enemies. This proves useful for taking down tougher bad guys that join together in a phalanx, though the Cestus works just fine.

In the demo's final sequence, Sony floored us with the Icarus Ascension. After acquiring Helios' head and using its special light (that spills from the former sun god's eyes and gaping mouth, of course) to reveal the Door of Eos, Kratos slips inside and finds himself at the bottom of a towering pillar. To escape, he sprouts wings and flies upwards. The game transitions to a behind the character perspective and we guided him in between gaps and dodged falling debris. First, we dodged several beams and then had to avoid giant balls of lava. From there, the challenge level increased as we needed to fit the game's hero through small cracks.

Everything about this game bursts with detail. Kratos has never looked better, with realistic muscles, plenty of well-animated maneuvers and facial expressions. Just watching him plow through upwards of 30 soldiers was a phenomenal sight; Kratos leaves the fight covered in blood. We also love the never-ending war that takes place throughout the entire game. As Kratos slaughtered soldiers, a smoldering lava-based Titan annihilated a fortified city and then stepped across the playfield without affecting the game's performance.

At this point, the most disappointing thing about God of War III is its March 2010 release; that's too long to wait. For now, we'll continue to drool over whatever screens and video Sony gives us. In the meanwhile, now's an excellent time to revisit God of War II.

Related Links

God of War III Game Guide