WebProNews

Tag: Beyond: Two Souls

  • ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Mobile Controller App Released

    Sony today announced that the “Beyond Touch” app for the recently released Beyond: Two Souls is now officially out for both iOS and Android.

    Though recent attempts at the much-touted second screen experience for video games have featured game tie-in mini games or completely separate experiences, the Beyond Touch app simply offers another way to play Beyond: Two Souls. Players can forego the PlayStation 3’s DualShock controller and play through the entire game using a smartphone or a tablet.

    The app also includes support for the game’s “Duo Mode,” which allows two players to play Beyond at once. Players can choose to play either protagonist Jodie or her ephemeral sidekick Aiden with either a DualShock controller or a mobile device. Two mobile devices or two DualShock controllers will also be options for the “Duo Mode.”

    Developer Quantic Dream’s games have consistently been some of the easiest for non-gamers to play. Director David Cage’s obvious cinematic inspiration has created games full of quick time events and choices. The studio’s previous game, Heavy Rain, had few ways that players could truly fail. Sony is promising that the Beyond Touch app will make the gameplay in Beyond: Two Souls even easier, going so far as to say the app has been designed to be “accessible to non-console gamers who don’t feel comfortable using a DualShock controller.” This means that Sony is hoping the story-heavy Beyond and a simplified touch interface could pull in casual gamers not used to playing big-budget console exclusives.

    (Image courtesy Google Play)

  • ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Bonus Content Previewed

    The latest Quantic Dream experiment in interactive storytelling, Beyond: Two Souls was released this week. Gamers who pre-ordered the game from some retailers were promised 30 minutes of “additional content,” and now that content has been previewed online.

    The add-on is titled “Advance Experiments” and sees protagonist Jodie wading through a variety of test chambers. The 30 minutes promised to gamers seems to be the high-end estimate for how long it will take players to get through the content, since the test is on a 30-minute timer. Also, though it is certainly “additional content” for Beyond, it doesn’t appear to advance the story of the game in any significant way – which could turn off fans who came to the game looking for a David Cage story above all else.

    The video previews the entire add-on, so those looking to play it spoiler-free will want to give it a pass. The tests appear to be fairly simple puzzles in which Jodie and the metaphysical entity named Aiden must work together to solve.

  • Beyond: Two Souls Wants You To Know It’s Not Like Heavy Rain

    Quantic Dream’s first game for the PS3 – Heavy Rain – wasn’t exactly a game. It was more of an interactive film where the player made decisions and watched those decisions play out over the course of the story. It was definitely interesting and sold well enough to warrant a second game just like it.

    Ah, but that’s where Quantic Dream says I’m wrong. CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere recently gave an interview where he says that Beyond: Two Souls is dissimilar to Heavy Rain in a number ways. Sure, it’s an interactive drama, but there’s more gameplay this time around. Another difference is that Beyond: Two Souls focuses on a single character whereas Heavy Rain focused on four separate, but interweaving, character plots.

    Those may sound like minor differences, but Quantic Dream assures players that it’s latest title is radically different. If you were put off by Heavy Rain and its QTE-heavy gameplay, you might just find Beyond: Two Souls to be more palatable.

    Despite the above differences, Beyond: Two Souls is still going to primarily be an interactive story. It’s not your traditional game where players are given a clear objective and the gameplay is designed around reaching that objective. Instead, players will be asked to take a backseat to the story while only being offered minimal gameplay options to affect the outcome of said story.

    Beyond: Two Souls is definitely something different compared to most games available today, but it’s not going to be everybody’s cup of tea. If it does sound like something you’d like, you can pick up Beyond: Two Souls on October 8 when it launches exclusively for the PS3.

    [Image: PlayStation/YouTube]

  • Beyond: Two Souls’ TV Spot Will Make You Forget It’s A Game

    Beyond: Two Souls is what director David Cage likes to call “interactive drama.” It’s like a movie where the audience gets to choose what the protagonist does next. It’s also why it gets a TV spot that feels like it’s advertising a movie instead of a game.

    Sony today shared the extended TV spot it will begin to air in the coming weeks for Beyond: Two Souls. It’s their last big PS3 release before the launch of the PS4, and Sony obviously wants to make sure it makes an impact.

    Beyond: Two Souls is the followup to 2010’s Heavy Rain – a game that went on to become a critical and commercial success. If Beyond can follow in its footsteps, Sony will be able to boast that two of its first-party studios’ games – the other being The Last Of Us – did well in 2013. It’s rare for that to happen so you can probably understand why Sony is pushing this latest title so aggressively.

    Beyond: Two Souls launches on October 8 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

    [Image: PlayStation/YouTube]

  • Learn More About The Art Of Beyond: Two Souls

    Learn More About The Art Of Beyond: Two Souls

    There is one last big PS3 title left in 2013 before the launch of the PS4 – Beyond: Two Souls. Over the last few months, Sony has been hyping the game with a series of making of videos that went into the gameplay, acting and music of the title. Now the latest making of video addresses one of the most crucial elements of any game – the art direction.

    In the below trailer, you’ll see how the art team that worked on Beyond: Two Souls took a script and created all the concept art that helped inspire the in-game visuals. The process is a lot like how a film goes through a concept art phase, but the art in games is tied much closer to the finished product than in traditional film.

    You’ll also get to hear from the visual FX artists on how they help bring emotion to the faces of the in-game characters with tears and other small additions that make the in-game characters that much more believable.

    Beyond: Two Souls will be available exclusively for the PS3 on October 8.

    [Image: PlayStation/YouTube]

  • ‘Beyond: Two Souls’ Previewed by Ellen Page, Willem Dafoe

    Early game reveals for Beyond: Two Souls focused mainly on Jodie and her supernatural life partner that she has named Aiden. Later videos showed how actress Ellen Page (who plays Jodie) and Willem Defoe were suited up for the game’s great-looking motion capture. The games developer Quantic Dream, even screened footage of the game at the Tribeca Film Festival, confirming game director David Cage’s ambition to create movie-like gaming experiences.

    Throughout all of these videos, the story of Jodie and her father figure/handler Nathan (played by Dafoe) seemed to be coming into focus. Then a new gameplay video came along, showcasing a violent, militaristic portion of the game.

    Today, a new video for Beyond: Two Souls was released. Through one-sided interviews with Page and Dafoe, the video attempts to join the seemingly disparate glimpses of the game into a coherent story of Jodie and her magic friend:

  • Here’s A Look At The Music In Beyond: Two Souls

    I can’t say I really remember the music in Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain all that well. That’s not to knock David Cage and his team at Quantic Dream, but I guess I was too focused on the onscreen action to notice. That might all change in his latest title.

    In the newest dev diary for Beyond: Two Souls, Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe, two composers who need no introduction, talk about their contributions to the game’s score. The two say that composing for games is very similar to film in that they create music based solely on production art at first, and then work on refining the music as the game’s development progresses.

    We don’t get to hear a lot of game’s music in the below trailer, but what we do get is already sounding pretty good. Here’s hoping the music complements the game well enough to the point that I can actually remember it a few months later.

    Beyond: Two Souls will launch October 8 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

    [Image: PlayStation/YouTube]

  • This Is How You’ll Play Beyond: Two Souls

    Beyond: Two Souls, like David Cage’s other games, are more movies than games. Sure, there are some interactive elements, but they take a backseat to the story that Cage is trying to tell. That’s not going to necessarily change in Beyond, but Cage will be doing some things differently.

    In its latest making of feature, the team at Quantic Dream discuss how they developed the gameplay in Beyond: Two Souls. With Beyond, the team went in with the idea of not letting the game get in the way of what’s happening on screen. To that effect, the game’s UI has been reduced to nothing more than little white dots that indicate the player can interact with something on screen. That won’t be true for the entire game, however, as there will still be button prompts and quick time events in certain scenarios.

    The above video also gives another look at the ghost gameplay that will be present in Beyond. Players control a spirit that can interact with the environment to help the player character solve puzzles or investigate areas that are closed off to them.

    Beyond: Two Souls launches on October 8 exclusively for the PlayStation 3.

  • Beyond: Two Souls Gets A Making Of Feature

    Beyond: Two Souls Gets A Making Of Feature

    Are you interested in the creative process behind David Cage’s new movie/game Beyond: Two Souls? If so, you’re in luck as the team at Quantic Dream has created a four part Making Of series that goes into the creative process behind the new title.

    In the first episode, writer/director David Cage explains that the death of a close family member pushed him to approach the concept of death in a way that’s rarely been done before. He wants to take it out of the metaphysical realm of philosophy and conjecture, and make it into a physical presence.

    The first episode also features the games two leading stars – Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe – talk about their roles in the game. In particular, Page says that she’s happy to be playing one of the few female protagonists in a video game that’s not an unintentional parody.

    Oh, and before you forget Beyond: Two Souls is a game, Sony would like to remind you that there’s an exclusive DLC scene available to those who preorder from GameStop. It’s almost like being told that there’s an exclusive scene in Man of Steel only at Cinemark Theater locations. It seems a little unfair if you ask me.

    Even so, you can pick up Beyond: Two Souls, retailer exclusives and all, on October 8.

  • E3 2013: The Dark Sorcerer Is The Funniest Thing You’ll See This Week

    Comedy is hard. Comedy in games is even harder. That’s why it’s such a delight to see Sony diving headfirst into comedy with the a fantastic tech demo from Quantic Dream.

    David Cage, director and writer on titles like Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain, wrote and directed the above tech demo/short film. He wrote about his experience in writing comedy and working with the PS4 in a guest post on the PlayStation blog this week. His candid words on writing comedy and the cliches that games fall into are worth repeating:

    In a few months, we experienced something between Monty Python and Terry Pratchett (obviously without claiming to match their talent), and we laughed at each projection of the Goblin’s antics and the growing annoyance of the Sorcerer. We learned how attempting to produce beautiful images with such computing power is painstaking, how each second has to be worked out in minute detail, how light and shade became essential, how difficult it is to raise a smile.

    And there was also, somewhere in all this, a desire to distance ourselves from the clichés of video games with their stereotyped themes where the bad guys are really evil, where sorcerers summon up demons, where heroes have big muscles and girls have big boobs. We wanted to gain a little distance from our tendency to take ourselves seriously and believe that we are saying something original or important, whereas the stories and universes of many video games are no more than the echoes of things that have been done better a thousand times before us. Howard created Conan the Barbarian in 1932, and Tolkein wrote The Lord of the Rings in 1954, and nothing our industry has created so far can even hold a candle to the genius of Frazetta or the visionary talent of someone like Peter Jackson.

    Dark Sorcerer is also about what video games are like today, an extraordinary and fantastic world where anything is possible, but also a world where everything remains to be invented.

    The Dark Sorcerer is just a tech demo, and won’t be turned into a full game. I do hope, however, that Cage continues with this. Heavy Rain was good and Beyond: Two Souls looks better, but it seems that his talent really lies in writing comedy. It would be great if he could do something like this, but somehow turn it into an interactive comedy.

  • Beyond: Two Souls Tribeca Trailer, Footage Released

    Over the weekend, footage from Beyond: Two Souls was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival. As promised, the a brand new trailer for the video game was debuted at the event, as well as over 30 minutes of gameplay footage.

    The new trailer shows off the heavily cinematic feel of the game, which stars Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page. The game is being developed by Quantic Dream and director David Cage, who have tried for years to bring a cinematic experience to video games through games such as Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain.

    The extensive footage from the screening has also hit the web. It doesn’t seem to contain any major spoilers for the game’s story, though some of the game’s early events are depicted:

  • Beyond: Two Souls to be Screened at Tribeca

    The Tribeca Film Festival is wrapping up this week, and Sony has a bit of a surprise for gamers who also love movies.

    The publisher has announced that it will be screening footage from the video game Beyond: Two Souls at Tribeca. The screening will take place on Saturday, April 27 at 6:45 pm EST. Those who aren’t in New York City can catch the screening live on Sony’s PlayStation Blog.

    Though Beyond is a video game, developer Quantic Dream has taken great pains to make it cinematic, something the studio has been striving toward with its previous games, such as Heavy Rain and Indigo Prophecy. The game stars Willem Dafoe and Ellen Page as characters embroiled in a supernatural tale. Dafoe, Page, and other actors went through extensive motion capture processes to place their likenesses into the game.

    Page will be at the screening to answer questions with the game’s director, David Cage. The screening will debut the “official” trailer for Beyond and show off a 35-minute scene from the game.

  • Beyond: Two Souls Stars Willem Dafoe, Releases October 8

    It’s been known for almost a year that Juno star Ellen Page did extensive motion capture work for Beyond: Two Souls, and that her likeness would star in the new Quantic Dream/David Cage video game.

    A release date of October 8 has also been announced for the game.

    Today, Sony has revealed that Willem Dafoe himself will co-star with Page. Dafoe is well-known for his acting in movies such as Platoon, Antichrist, Spider-Man, in which he played the Green Goblin. In Beyond: Two Souls, Dafoe will play Nathan Dawkins, a “government scientist” who grows close to Page’s Jodie Holmes while studying her metaphysical powers.

    The teaser trailer released today showcases a scene in which Dawkins meets Holmes as a child. The graphics don’t seem quite as amazing as those seen in the trailer shown last year, but it does seem more in-line with what gamers can expect to see when playing it on a PlayStation 3.

    In addition to the game footage teaser, a behind-the-scenes footage trailer has also been released. It features a short interview with Dafoe and footage of him acting with Page in the motion capture studio:

  • New Beyond: Two Souls Footage Shown at Gamescom

    Beyond: Two Souls was one of the big hits from Sony’s big E3 press conference. The game is the latest title from Quantic Dream, the developer behind Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain.

    Quantic Dream and its founder, David Cage, have always eschewed the norms of console gaming to try and bring players a more cinematic, story-driven experience. Beyond: Two Souls is no exception. The game features Ellen Page as the main character, Jodie Holmes, who shares some type of link with a ghostly entity named Aidan. Players will be able to take control of Aidan at times during the game, providing them with paranormal abilities.

    A recent behind-the-scenes look at the making of Beyond: Two Souls shows Ellen Page acting in a motion-capture studio. Quantic Dream motion-captured the entire game, as they have with titles in the past, so the character animation seen in the Beyond: Two Souls should look very smooth.

    Around 20 minutes of gameplay footage was leaked from E3, but it was almost completely without context, showing a string of quicktime events that gave the player a bit of choice but mostly just propelled the story along. This week at Gamescom even more footage was unveiled, and this time it is accompanied by narration from Cage. Watch as Cage shows off how Beyond: Two Souls will utilize the PlayStation Move controller and, as is customary for a Quantic Dream title, the dual analog sticks:

  • Behind The Scenes: Making A Video Game With Ellen Page

    The making of a video game is often a painstaking, tedious process, especially now that technology has progressed enough for artists to make a game so lifelike it puts early Nintendo to shame.

    A new video which shows the making of Beyond: Two Souls gives us a glimpse inside the studio where such a game is made, including a side-by-side shot of the game and the actors doing their thing. Ellen Page plays the main character, and does a pretty fine job when you consider she’s got a hundred tiny sensors stuck to her face.

    Those sensors are extremely sensitive, so the actors don’t have to overact to make sure their expressions will translate onscreen; each subtle shift of the eyes or movement of the mouth will show up perfectly. The video gives us a look at the game, the acting, and a couple of bloopers as the actors try to stay in character on an almost non-existent set. Very cool.

  • Beyond: Two Souls Gameplay Footage Leaked From E3

    At Sony’s big E3 press conference this year, the game Sony chose to show off first was the next game from Heavy Rain developers Quantic Dream. Beyond: Two Souls looks to be a cinematic experience in interactive video game form. It stars Ellen Page as Jodie Holmes, a young psychic who shares a link with a powerful invisible entity named Aidan. The game successfully set a dark and mature tone for the Sony presentation that carried through for most of the games previewed that night, except the Wonderbook demonstration, of course.

    Now, some leaked footage of the Beyond demo at E3 has surfaced. The video was quite obviously recorded on a cell phone, so the game’s impressive graphics are not on full display. The audio is similarly bad, as the room was obviously crowded. Still, the footage shows a 20-minute sequence from the game featuring an exciting train sequence and lots of explosive action near the end. It demonstrates how the game will play and what fans of interactive drama genre can expect:

    It appears that Beyond will use plenty of quicktime events to propel the narrative forward. Quantic Dream has announced that the game will utilize Sony’s Move controller, and this footage seems to show Aidan being controlled in that manner. Though the developers have stated that player decisions and actions will determine Jodie’s fate, it is not clear whether any of the decisions the player made in the demo actually affected the direction of the story.

    (via Gamekyo)