[PS3] Beyond: Two Souls

[Handleit_44]

Quantic Dream's new game. Stars Ellen Page.

Captures from a trailer leak




Heavy Rain dev's next game 'is called Beyond'

That's according to industry site MCV, which also says the title will be narrative driven and use motion-captured actors.

Earlier today we reported that the Paris games studio has hired a "well-known actor and actress" to provide voice work on its next project.

[Buzzman]

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO snap.

[Twigg4075]

Nice. I fucking loved Heavy Rain. Some of the voice actors really should've been rethought though because their accents were terrible. "Jason! Jaaaaaason!" will forever haunt me. Ha.

But yeah, I was thoroughly impressed with HR. So much so that I played through multiple times to see all the endings and also got my platinum. I guess I should download that DLC that I never played. The Taxidermist? Is it still only $5 and is it even available on PSN anymore?

[IamMedellin]

SO juno is in "The Last of Us" AND "Beyond"!?!

:oh:

[Handleit_44]

Wow!

[Handleit_44]

[Guest]

Quantic Dream has proven themselves to be able to put out a great story-driven game, so I can't wait for this. I never put down Heavy Rain until I beat it, and I expect more of the same.

[padman59]

SO juno is in "The Last of Us" AND "Beyond"!?!

:oh:

No. That's probably why they redesigned the character model in The Last of Us to look less like her.

[riley420]

Was that DB Sweeney? I love that guy.

[Rylo]

Love love love love love loveeeeeeeeddddddd Heavy Rain. This will be a must buy.

"This one gets shitty grades, but this one doesn't clean up his room. Uhhhh, I love you more" I love this dudes commentary for this game.

[Handleit_44]

Behind Closed Doors with Beyond: Two Souls

Cage is coy about exactly how the game will play, but suggests it will be in the same idiom as Heavy Rain, with cinematic camera angles and varied control prompts that correspond closely with Jodie's actions, putting the player in the scene. "People will be surprised to see how we treat action sequences," he tells me. "I don't think we do it the same way than other studios. We have our own take on this, we keep the cinematography, we keep our specific approach to controls, to make them part of the mimicry, to make you feel like you are the character... Every single moment has almost different gameplay," he tells me.

Cage swells with genuine, starstruck pride about working with Page. "She came in a very simple way... very easy to deal with, very professional, just wanting to give her best. She really respected the medium, which was something incredibly important to me, to have someone saying, 'I'm going to treat that as seriously as if it was a movie, I don't care it was a game.'

"When you direct someone like Ellen it's really like driving a Ferrari... It's really sensitive. You need to be very careful about what you say because she's going to give it to you." He's full of praise for her work ethic too - and it was work, as different as you can get from an easy voiceover gig. Shooting without sets, props or costumes on Quantic's motion capture stage in Paris "requires a lot of concentration and focus" from an actor, Cage reckons. "She kept saying that this is like an acting boot camp." Has she seen the results yet? "No... not yet," he says a little sheepishly. "But I think she will be surprised!"

Another challenge of the role was that Beyond follows Jodie through 15 years of her life; her link with the "invisible entity" has been there as long as she can remember, although Cage hints that she isn't the only one who feels its presence. "It's really not a power, it's a character, it's about living with someone," he says.

He also suggests that the dilemmas and story-altering choices from Heavy Rain will return, this time with the potential to change Jodie's path across the game's long narrative span: "It's very interesting to see how you can play with the same character at different ages, how what you're going to leave with her when she's a certain age will have consequences on her life later on."

Cage's work divides opinion, but his passion, ambition and commitment are beyond reproach. And you have to extend that respect to his publisher, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe, too. By backing Quantic as far as it needs to realise its story and acquire its star, it's brought a strikingly different tone to this E3 - and the hope that not every publishing house is content to see out this hardware generation with sound and fury, signifying nothing. In a conservative world, that's going above and beyond.

[Twigg4075]

I had no idea some of you guys loved HR as much as I did. So cool.

I'm guessing it sold pretty well if QD was given the support they were by Sony. That's awesome because HR was a truly innovative game and David Cage seems to be quite the visionary.

And people here wonder why I prefer Sony over MS. Sony consistently seems to take bigger risks trying to push the gaming envelope and they also seem to have some of the most passionate and talented developers in the industry. QD, Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog are just a few shining examples.

[Handleit_44]

I had no idea some of you guys loved HR as much as I did. So cool.

I'm guessing it sold pretty well if QD was given the support they were by Sony. That's awesome because HR was a truly innovative game and David Cage seems to be quite the visionary.

And people here wonder why I prefer Sony over MS. Sony consistently seems to take bigger risks trying to push the gaming envelope and they also seem to have some of the most passionate and talented developers in the industry. QD and Naughty Dog are just two shining examples.

Certainly one of the scenes I'll never forget...

[Twigg4075]

Yup. There were so many memorable scenes in that game. Even though it was basically a point and click adventure game with tons of contextual button presses, it was one of the most intense games I've ever played.

[Handleit_44]