By now, you should know that God of War III will be coming out on PS3 some time within the next year or so. If not, there’s a lot of reading you can do on the subject, anywhere from IGN to even smaller gaming sites like GamingAngels.com. Of course, you really only need to read one or two articles since they all pretty much say the same thing. It’s amazing how that always works out that way.

If there are so many different gaming outlets receiving interviews, why do all of them report essentially the same responses and information? Maybe these writers aren’t pushing as much as they should when coming up with questions, and they definitely should be pushing. After all, if you’re just going to write what the developer / publisher wants you to write, then why don’t we just let the developer / publishers do the writing?

Anyways, I thought that the below video interview is probably the most extra information you’re going to get outside of reading some of the coverage out there. Also be sure to check out the newly released God of War III trailer on the Playstation Store.

Flower’s been described as interactive poetry, art, and other such non-gaming terms, and while those descriptions are accurate in a variety of ways, don’t shy away just yet as there are plenty of elements in Flower that are meant to appeal to the traditional gamer’s needs as well.

Often times, games like these get recommended to non-gamers, yet the lack of a clear objective is more likely to frustrate and turn that audience off. In contrast to their other game, ~flOw~, ThatGameCompany has provided players of Flower with a bit more of a sense of purpose. The objectives, once identified, are clear. From a pure gameplay standpoint, Flower is like PilotWings mixed with Okami or DeBlob: restore color to the world by flying through checkpoints. It’s a tried and true mechanic that, along with some of the twists and new spins added by Flower, is still enjoyable.

Gamers will also be pleased to hear that Flower, helped by its PSN Trophies support, actually has a moderate level of replayability. Unlockables, hidden objectives, and level completion ratings are in and add quite a bit of value to the package for that traditional gaming audience.

Controls are SIXAXIS tilt, are intuitive and, most importantly, they work. For the casual audience, every button on the controller does the same thing, gives you a speed boost. For the more hardcore, TGC has even gone as far as to make the analog sticks and analog R2 (L2) triggers pressure sensitive, to give you that extra level of control over your forward moving momentum.

Even with all of these traditional gameplay elements, Flower is still a very different experience from other games. Emphasis in the design was placed on creating a piece that explored other emotions beyond the usual fear and aggression, and it succeeds in this regard. The message that one gets in the end will probably vary from person to person, a true testament to how Flower is bound to be remembered as one of those games that pioneered interactive entertainment as a cultured past time.

So if you’ve been with games a long time and all the games you play have started to feel the same, Flower is not to be missed. It satisfies the need for virtual accomplishment while simultaneously offering a truly fresh and new experience.

For all those who preordered in the US and Canada from the Gamestop family, the Killzone 2 demo is out. It’s pretty cool, though if you really don’t like supporting Gamestop, I’d put my preorder in at Amazon.com because their preorder bonus (Home costumes) will last longer. The demo offered is only around 5 – 15 minutes long, depending on your aim and how much you like to run, which brings me to the topic of controls.

COD and Resistance have been my shooters of late, and often I’ll find myself blowing myself up with grenades or crouching or something when I just wanted to run. It’s a minor thing that I have to get used to each time I play one of them. In the Killzone 2 demo, running is COD style, clicking on the LS, and aiming is Resistance 1 style, clicking on the RS. Having moved on to Resistance 2 since though, I am glad that Killzone 2 offers up the option to change aim to the L1 button, which should make the transitions between playing R2, COD, and KZ2 that much easier.

I am disappointed though that of the six preset controller layouts available, none of them give you the option of reassigning the Crouch / Get into Cover button to something other than L2. Now, this isn’t the full game, and I don’t know what kind of balance there’s going to be there, but it seems like cover will be a big deal throughout the campaign, and L2 is just not a good button for actions that require you to hold it down for extend periods of time. So, here’s hoping for a patch for more controller options down the line.

Of course, there is no Cover button in multiplayer, so this may not be a big deal in the long run.

All in all, it’s a decent demo if you want to get a feel for the game. Other than that, it’s quite short, and we’ve seen all of this in trailers released long ago. If you absolutely must have the demo, Euro account or just waiting till the public release on the 26th are the way to go. Then you can get the Helghan Home costume! (Home will be cool. I promise.)

Oh, the SIXAXIS thing in the title? If you move the controller around during the load screen, it moves the screen. (see video) The effect is pretty cool. Like the first time you rotated around Issac’s holographic iventory display in Dead Space. Don’t get the demo for this of course. It’s just something to look for when the full game comes out.