Based on the numbers alone, it may sound like a recipe for disaster. The PSP itself only renders at 480x272 - a mere 16 per cent of the full 1920x1080 resolution the PlayStation 3 is capable of. Ready at Dawn's original artwork, in terms of geometry, textures and cinematics would have been optimised specifically for the handheld's miniscule res - so how can the games possibly work at "full HD" without looking rather ridiculous in the way that the original Splinter Cell HD remake demonstrates quite spectacularly?
The answer is rather straightforward. Ready at Dawn has performed some proper remastering, porting across its engine to the PlayStation 3 specifically for the purposes of this project and then setting about improving art from both a geometry and texture perspective. The result is an excellent product that we'd recommend without any hesitation to any PS3 owner because the God of War Collection: Volume II has that important final ingredient: the original game still stand up well in 2011, and can only benefit from the transition to an HD console.
"We ended up going through every single character in the game and doubling or tripling polygon count by hand, as well as up-rezing and re-painting every texture across both games at 4x resolution on both characters and environments," Ready at Dawn art director Nathan Phail-Liff posted on the PlayStation Blog.