First, we’ll talk about the insane levels of gore that we mentioned earlier. Now, “gore” is a word that gets tossed around a lot in videogames, and it usually refers to bloody dismemberment or maybe a loop of intestine poking out here and there. God of War III takes that shit so far, it made a theater full of jaded games journalists go “eww!” in shocked unison. It’s not hyperbole to say that its gruesomeness is unprecedented in gaming. To be honest, there’s such a level of uncomfortable realism to it that it makes Gears of War’s chainsaw deaths look cartoonish.

Slightly later in the level, a Cyclopes showed up, giving Kratos an opportunity to show off his ability to ride and control the stupid beast by stabbing it repeatedly in the neck. More importantly, he finished it off in his usual way – by tugging out its eyeball – but this time, the camera panned around to a close-up side view. As Kratos dug into the creature’s eye socket and began to pull the massive orb free, it slowly bulged outward and the eyelid slid back until suddenly, the eyeball was torn free and left hanging by an angry red nerve stalk

Immediately after that, we were treated to a scene in which Kratos works his magic on Helios, the sun god whom he rescued in Chains of Olympus. And note that when we say “works his magic,” we mean he straddled the god from behind, grabbed his head with both hands and – in a brutal, multi-stage button-mashing sequence that focused closely on Helios’ agonized face – tore Helios’ head right the hell off. [b]It wasn’t just a clean rip, either, as the skin stretched and tore, revealing muscles and tendons underneath that snapped loose individually as the god screamed out his final breath.

First, there was a demonstration of the game’s “zipper technology,” which was trotted out during the gameplay demo when Kratos faced down a centaur. Being a large enemy, it can be finished off with one of Kratos’ quicktime-event finishers – which ends, shockingly, with Kratos slitting open its belly and letting its clearly identifiable guts spill out onto the marble floor.