God of War: Ascension single player demo hits PSN on February 20

Sony has announced the release date of the single player demo of one of the most anticipated games of the year – God of War: Ascension. According to a post on the God of War blog, the demo will be available on February 26, with the winning team in the Rise of the Warrior social challenge getting access to the demo one week before the rest of the world on February 20.

You can still join the Rise of the Warrior challenge, where there are two teams – Trojans and Spartans. While the demo is one of the rewards of the challenge, the other rewards have much more bearing when the game finally hits store shelves. The winning team will get access to exclusive multiplayer DLC, such as the Champion’s Hammer and the Armor of Typhon.

As Leonidas would say, "This. Is. SPARTA!"

If you want a taste of the multiplayer, you can check out the multiplayer demo that’s available on PlayStation Network for PlayStation Plus subscribers.

When you start playing the beta, your first stop is the Rotunda of Olympus, where you learn the nitty-gritty of gruesome gladiator combat. Here you'll pick up vital techniques on special attacks, blocking, parrying and combos.

These early battles are essential to master, as the computer-controlled opponents are a lot more forgiving than other fellow gamers you'll face in the multiplayer modes. Don't be afraid to replay these training stages to brush up on your skills until you're confident of your battle prowess.

Before you leave the Rotunda of Olympus, choose which god you'll pledge your allegiance to. In this Beta, you can pick between Zeus or the Greek god of war, Ares.

Back in December, Sony had released the Evil Ways multiplayer trailer for God of War: Ascension. It shows some gameplay for the multiplayer part of the game. If the trailer is anything to go by, it looks like the God of War: Ascension multiplayer is going to have players fighting each other, as well as giant monsters from the Greek mythos, all with the same hack-and-slash blood and gore gameplay that made the previous games so well loved.

The God of War series is the story of Kratos, who was a soldier from Sparta. Kratos was the servant of the gods and worked primarily to defeat the enemies of Olympus and run away from his past. The first game begins with Kratos declaring that "The gods of Olympus have abandoned me" and flinging himself over the tallest cliff in Greece; the rest of the game details how and why this happens. The game mostly takes place in the temple of Pandora where Kratos must find the power to stop Ares from destroying Athens.

God of War: Ascension is set to be released on the PlayStation 3 in March 2013.