Anyone here interested at all in 'Beyond: Two Souls'?

[King Billi]

Well I certainly am.

Everything I've seen so far regarding this title has looked very impressive and the vague description of what the actual story and experience will consist of has me intrigued.

I will admit to being a fan of both Heavy Rain and Fahrenheit in spite of their flaws and occasional detours into pure insanity(Fahrenheit in particular), I like them for their uniqueness and their ability to create very detailed and "real" locations and settings.

I understand these titles aren't for everyone and that their creator David Cage isn't very popular due to his remarks about the industry and his admittedly pretentious attitude towards his own work but I don't care about any of that. If nothing else he certainly has a creative passion and the means to make only the kinds of titles he cares about and thats something to admire I think...

So anyway, Beyond: Two Souls... what are your opinions or expectations for this? Be they good or bad?

 

[hazabaza1]

Eh.
Fahrenheit had potential but after the first quarter or so the pacing got all fucked and it was either slow as balls and boring or SUPER CRAZY SUPER SAIYAN MAYANS YYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH.

Heavy Rain was paced better but still had a bunch of massive plot holes and terrible voice acting. (Especially those kids. Fuck, man.)

 

[Andy Shandy]

Oh definitely.

Loved both Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain, although they both definitely had their problems, and the fact that both Podtoid mascot Willem Dafoe, and Ellen Page are both in it is just gravy.

 

[Tom_green_day]

TO me, it just looks pretty... dull. They've focused on creating an experience than a game, and I can't think of a single example when that's created a game I've actually enjoyed.

 

[krazykidd]

It looks cool . Definately a day one buy for me . Looks different than what we usually get and i support anything different . What the release date for this game?

 

[StriderShinryu]

Pretty much nothing about it appeals to me. So, yeah, not interested at all.

I'm not one to necessarily put developer beliefs above the content of the games they actually make but, in the case of Cage, his philosophy on games directly leads him towards making games that are almost targeted to be unenjoyable to me.

 

[Iwata]

I'm one of those rare birds who didn't like neither Fahrenheit nor Heavy Rain, so I think I'll pass on Beyond.

 

[TheJesus89]

I had so much fun with Heavy Rain.

A part of me feels like this will have a better story and all that, which I kind of hope it doesn't.

My favorite part of Heavy Rain was all the fun I had at its expense.

But I'm sure it will be okay.

 

[BrotherRool]

I absolutely love Heavy Rain, that type of game/storytelling is so powerful. But oh boy does Heavy Rain's story suck. It shows that The Walking Dead was so powerful, yet it barely has a tenth of the QTE cleverness and choice flexibility that Heavy Rain did.

I'm excited for Beyond: Two Souls, because I want more Heavy Rain and I think it's a good move to go for something more supernatural, because that's clearly what David Cage is interested in.


But on the otherhand it looks more 'gamey' which ruins the point. And the with David Cage at the helm, the chances are the story will be equally bad

TO me, it just looks pretty... dull. They've focused on creating an experience than a game, and I can't think of a single example when that's created a game I've actually enjoyed.

Not a fan of the Walking Dead I take it?

 

[Tazzman]

I'll pass. For all the effort they've put into the main character she doesn't seem that interesting nor does the story. I applaud its uniqueness but I also think it's sacrificing proper gameplay for a "Unique experience".

 

[Garyn Dakari]

I haven't played Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain yet(Though I do plan on playing Heavy Rain soon), but yes, I'm interested in Beyond. I'll probably play it in a year or so, I'm never really in a rush to play new releases due to my backlog of older games.

 

[AgentLampshade]

I haven't been following the game at all, so no, I can't say I'm very excited about it. Having said that, I enjoyed my first (and only my first play-through, I can't go back to it now thanks to the glaring plotholes) of Heavy Rain so as long as the story is competent, I'll probably pick it up. Maybe after the reviews are in.

 

[Smertnik]

Is that Cage's next work? Then I'm certainly interested. Definitely wouldn't want to miss out on an AAA release which doesn't revolve around killing tons of dudes, even if there's bad writing involved.

 

[AKDread]

i will be very glad when i get my hands on this game,

Ellen Page is a good actress , im interested to see what she and cage have done

 

[TheCommanders]

I went into heavy rain pretty cautiously because of all the warnings of, "Oh my god it's so slow to start off with," and, "It's nothing but pretentious quick time event sequences." Possibly because of how prepared I was for a horrendous abomination of a game, I found myself really enjoying it, despite a few... wonky voice actors and a couple of iffy plot points. I respected that the game was doing something different than the vast majority of titles, and I found a few of the action sequences genuinely tense (I was playing on the hardest difficulty), more so than most conventional games I've played. What befuddles me is how many people apparently think that an hour of build time (which personally I just thought was good pacing) in the beginning is "an unbearably slow build up." Christ, now I'm starting to understand what people are talking about referring to our generation's short attention spans. I loved the fact that the game takes its time, so by the time you get to the exiting bits, you're much more immersed in the experience.

Anyway, to get on topic, I'm looking forward to Beyond: Two Souls, hoping it will be more of what I liked in Heavy Rain, something refreshingly different than my normal gaming experience.

 

[IndomitableSam]

I'll watch a Let's Play, but I'm not buying a PS3. Still haven't played or watched any of Heavy Rain, and don't think I ever will. Chances are this will fall right off my radar and I'll not have cared about it at all. Unless it's reviewed really well with a great story, then I might reconsider.

 

[BrotherRool]

I'll pass. For all the effort they've put into the main character she doesn't seem that interesting nor does the story. I applaud its uniqueness but I also think it's sacrificing proper gameplay for a "Unique experience".

This attitude I think is a result of the unfortunate way our medium evolved. Because the scope and range of projects possible using computer programming in creative ways is huge, but it only became huge relatively recently when art and sound design allowed for a lot of creative input. As a result the industry grew up on Pong and Space Invaders and came to expect that experience to be replicated in everything.

When you look at a videogame like Bastion, where the gameplay is by far the least interesting part of the experience, or Minecraft where Notch felt so compelled to 'be a game' that he didn't feel his project was complete until he'd added a somewhat arbitrary ending. Or the emotional brilliance the Walking Dead created, it's clear those thoughts are going astray.


But the problem is, liking games is perfectly valid and it's clear there are always going to be lots of people who want the game part to be good, just as other people look for something artistic or storyish.


What I'm trying to say is that Heavy Rain wasn't sacrificing 'proper' gameplay, because it created something amazing that many people enjoyed. What it did do is create something very unusual from the norm that seeks to fill an itch very different from an itch that some people don't have and other people do.


Heavy Rain wasn't bad, it just wasn't for you in the same way that games bore me to tears and isn't something I'm interested as the primary drive of my videogames for the most part.


EDIT: I'd like to add as a corollary here, that David Cage is a bit of a dick in the way he speaks. Demanding that videogames be this and this is even worse than the people who insist that all videogames have to be games because of what amounts to a technological and linguistic accident. He makes the debate hostile and his arrogance refuses to let him see that videogames are a much broader medium than anyone ever imagined. Instead he invalidates the area we've already discovered and he replaces it with his own equally small discovery. We should be embracing everything videogames can do, from games to stories to whatever it is that PixelJunk Eden created.

 

[Mikejames]

Interested enough to keep an eye on it.

Heavy Rain had mixed opinions, but I think it'll at least be worth looking into.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Let's hope Cage learned his lesson with Heavy Rain and not have French actors cast as Americans this time. Oy vey!

Ironically, for all the effort he supposedly puts into it, his games have the worst motion capture/voice acting performances of any game. Vaas from Far Cry 3 gave a better performance then all the characters in Heavy Rain combined.

Cage just doesn't seem to know enough about writing a decent story or directing actors, and neither Ellen Page nor Willem Dafoe rendered in the spankiest CGI avaible will change that. Plus, I kinda hate Ellen Page anyway.

But who knows, maybe Cage will suddenly reveal himself to possess talent.

 

[Khanht Cope]

I'm interested to give it a go. I played I think about a 3rd of the way into Heavy Rain at a friend's house a few years back. While there were imperfections, I found it compelling; and appreciated several of the clever scenarios it used. (and its efforts to diversify the medium)

I didn't notice any story problems up to that point. Ready to give this one the benefit of the doubt and judge it in its entirety for myself.