Beyond: Two Souls Message Board

Quantic Dream's Beyond: Two Souls has exceeded one million in sales in 2013, the developer has revealed. Feel free to press X to guitar, Jodie - you've earned that shredathon!

Beyond: Two Souls centers around Jodie Holmes, a girl who has a unique connection with a spiritual entity known as Aiden. After being abandoned by her foster parents, Holmes is raised by a pair of researchers working in a fictional supernatural studies group within the US government.

Over 70,000 copies of Beyond: Two Souls sold in the studio's native country of France, Quantic Dream co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumière revealed on Twitter. That's better than Quantic Dream's previous game, Heavy Rain, did in its first 12 weeks of availability there, Fondaumière added.

Beyond: Two Souls, perhaps best known for its A-list talent in Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, launched in October of last year. In our review, we said the game "lies somewhere between vicariousness and voyeurism," and that ultimately "you're just the ghost in a ghost story, only appearing when the scene calls for a cheap scare."

At 6:10pm ET, Amazon will knock the prices of game of the year contender The Last of Us and Quantic Dream's latest game, Beyond Two Souls, down to $25 each. This matches the best doorbuster prices we've gotten wind of, and if the speed at which Amazon's other lightning deals have disappeared thus far is any indication, these won't last long. [Amazon]Read more...

Sony gives a quick look at the recently released "Advanced Experiments" DLC pack for Beyond: Two Souls in the new trailer above, showcasing protagonist Jodie's half-hour trek through a series of Portal-inspired physical challenges. The Advanced Experiments DLC is priced at $4.99, and is available as a free download for players who purchased Beyond's GameStop-exclusive Special Edition.

While YouTube comments are infamous for being crappy, and while Beyond: Two Souls is kind of an unconventional game, watching these absurd reactions to a Beyond trailer is still rather cringe-worthy. The things people say, man. Read more...

Beyond Touch is a free app available now for iOS and Android devices that allows you to play Beyond: Two Souls using either a smartphone or tablet, instead of a DualShock controller.

You can play the entire game, in Solo mode or in Duo Mode, and control both characters using a simplified gameplay interface, specially designed for touch screen devices.

In Duo Mode, each player can independently select his controller. All combinations are possible; two DualShock controllers, one DualShock and one touch screen device, or even two touch screen devices.

Developer Quantic Dream designed the app to make Beyond: Two Souls accessible to non-console gamers who don’t feel comfortable using a DualShock controller. So for those of you who played Heavy Rain while your non-console gaming friends shouted out directions, now they can take part for themselves.

Quantic Dream, the studio behind Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, are about as polarising as a developer gets. Some people hate their games. Some people love them! I'd like to think there's one aspect of their output we can all get behind, though: the way they include some of the world's best animation shorts in their games.Read more...

It was only a matter of time before the lovable punks at Mega 64 took on Beyond: Two Souls for some real-world mockery. And lo, they have done so, and it's pretty funny. Guess what: people don't appreciate it when a dude with a camera goes around knocking crap over.Read more...

The Ellen Page-starring movie/game hybrid Beyond: Two Souls was often as much fun to watch as it was to play. And now, thanks to Gamebillstudio, you can go ahead and watch the whole thing, even if you don't own a PS3.Read more...

Vinny and an entity known only as Brad work out their ghost problems with the help of Willem Dafoe.

If there's one thing we can count on, it's that some people are interested in seeing naked character models—this is true regardless of the game. In a sense, you could say there was a metaphorical timer starting the second that David Cage's latest game, Beyond: Two Souls, which stars popular actress Ellen Page, was released. Read more...

With today’s release in the UK and Ireland, Beyond: Two Souls is available now all across Europe.

To celebrate the launch globally, today we’ve got the European TV ad to show you.

If you’ve already bought the game, we hope that you’re enjoying it — be sure to tell us what you think in the comments! Beyond: Two Souls is an undeniably unique experience, as was Heavy Rain before it, and we’ve seen that the game resonates differently with each person that plays it. So far, more than 16 critics have awarded Beyond: Two Souls a 90 or higher, including an Editor’s Choice award from GameSpot. Most reviewers lauded the game’s immersive story, performances, and presentation, but of course, not everyone agrees. The polarizing reviews highlight game’s ambitious goals, courtesy of the team at Quantic Dream.

If you’re still on the fence, download the demo from PlayStation Store now and decide for yourself!

Hopefully you could tell from my decidedly mixed review of Beyond: Two Souls whether or not the game is for you. And if it is for you, a piece of advice: Consider bringing a friend.Read more...

Sure, video games these days can simulate hyper-realistic alien murder, but what about the life of a young actress? Ellen Page Simulator 2014 hopes to do exactly that, letting you shape the Canadian starlet's personality, from what dolls she chooses to play with to working up the courage for her first kiss.Read more...

A game made by David Cage is not like most games. First of all, they might star folks like Ellen Page. And second of all, they usually require you to do some surprising stuff—some of which hit the right notes, and some of which really miss the mark.Read more...

Reviews for Quantic Dream's Beyond: Two Souls appear to have been delicately placed on a lazy susan and then spun by the force of a truck slamming into the table. We haven't seen scattershot like this since the last time we fed caviar to a baby. Our review used the term "face full of ghost farts" in it, so let's see what delicate words were used by others.

• Gamespot (90/100): "Top-notch acting makes the characters you interact with sound believable ... Beyond: Two Souls so easily melds story and mechanics that you become enamored with this young woman and her extraordinary life."
• Polygon (80/100): "While it's exhilarating to see a team that has worked so hard to perfect a new way of telling stories, I couldn't help wishing they had a perfect one to tell."
• Giant Bomb (3/5): "Maybe there is no simple yes/no recommendation to give this game. For every part of it that comes together almost perfectly, there's another that's stricken by needless cliche or undercooked gameplay."
• Edge (50/100): "... this is a game almost entirely bereft of tension, one in which failure goes largely unpunished and is almost always inconsequential. There is emotion here, but it's felt passively, as spectator instead of player."
• VideoGamer (40/100): "There are bright moments, but when a game sells itself on a story, said story better be good. This one isn't, and anyone expecting Heavy Rain 2 is going to be sorely disappointed."

[Image: 5432action via Shutterstock]

In Beyond: Two Souls, you‘ll do some things you rarely get to do in video games. You’ll control a young, frightened girl as she hugs a stuffed animal and tries to fend off nightmares. You’ll decide whether to accept beer at an awkward high-school party, and you'll try to pick music that’ll impress a group of older, cooler kids. You’ll clean up your apartment before a date and decide whether to go in for a kiss when the moment seems right. Read more...

Hey Everyone,

Beyond: Two Souls is officially in stores today! Before you run out to pick up your copy, we have one final trailer to get you excited about Quantic Dream’s tour de force, starring Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe.

It’s been an incredible journey bringing this game to your doorsteps, and we’re so excited to finally get what promises to be a true evolution in storytelling mediums into your hands. Earlier in the year, we were honored with an official selection by Tribeca Film Festival where we blew audiences away with Beyond’s cinematic presentation and performances.

Media and fans alike walked away from E3 impressed with the fluid control scheme, and the way David Cage and team have advanced the gameplay from Heavy Rain to deliver a more immersive experience (and later, they were further excited by the level of choice they witnessed in the PSN Demo). Then, last week, our friends in Europe hosted an incredible red-carpet premiere for the game at the famed Grand Rex theater in Paris.

Beyond represents a step forward in terms of how stories are told and how developers can blur the line between games and cinema. It’s a truly unique experience – with gripping performances delivered in full performance capture by Ellen and Willem, unparalleled cinematic presentation, and a powerfully emotional and thrilling story which branches based on your successes and failures. If you’re a fan of great storytelling, Beyond is an experience which is not to be missed.

Every person is going to have a different experience with this game, in part because of how many variations the story can take, and in part because different moments of Jodie’s life will resonate differently with each person. By living Jodie’s story, you’ll help create your own. Now go grab your copy so you don’t get hit by spoilers!

P.S. If you received your Special Edition for pre-ordering at GameStop, please note that all the extras included on the voucher code will be live after today’s PlayStation Store update this afternoon.

Seeing dead people must be a traumatizing gift, but it can't be as bad as smelling them. While Jodie Holmes kneels next to a lifeless lump, steeling herself for a violent flash of this poor man's final moments, it becomes my job to funnel his ethereal post-existence energy - represented as a spooky mist rising from the body - right into her meticulously rendered face. Beyond: Two Souls is a game about life and death, except when it's about getting a face full of ghost farts.

It's hard to ignore Beyond's insane fluctuations between bravery and bungling as you play the dual roles of Jodie, a delicate but determined woman with psychic abilities (and the likeness of Ellen Page), and Aiden, the spectral entity tethered to her and the true source of her astonishing spoon-bending powers. When scientists try to discern the nature of their relationship, they don't know it's really you flying through the room and the walls, possessing people and riling objects as if you were firing at them with a slingshot.

The freedom you display as Aiden has a chilling effect on the people in the room, almost as if the game itself is frightened by an entity with so much agency. Like Heavy Rain before it, Beyond: Two Souls is a restrictive game that sacrifices repeatable mechanisms and emergent scenarios for a cinematic structure, with objectives propelled by the needs of the scene more than the needs of the medium itself.

Prepare to unravel supernatural mysteries, or relive two award-winning experiences of 2012. All this and more join the PlayStation lineup this week. Please charge your DualShocks in preparation.

Jodie Holmes has not lived her life alone. Since childhood, she has been followed by an unseen entity of incredible power. It’s bound to her, and the mystery of this connection only deepens throughout her years. Experience Jodie’s story on Tuesday when Beyond: Two Souls launches for PS3. This story-driven thriller comes from the same team that brought you Heavy Rain in 2010, so you can expect the same quality character drama and visual spectacle.

And if you missed out on Borderlands 2 or Dishonored — two critically-acclaimed games that launched last year — you can finally see why gamers have been raving. Both games are getting Game of the Year Editions this week, which gives you the opportunity to catch up on your gun-crazy loot hunting, or stealth-infused steampunk, respectively.

Looking for something a little quirkier? Consider Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness, and plunge into the RPG insanity that can satisfy even the most hardcore strategy lovers.

For a full list of games coming this week, keep scrolling. And enjoy the Drop!

New PlayStation Releases This Week Atomic Ninjas PS3, PS Vita, PSN Frantic, funny multiplayer with an added ninja twist. Control super-powered ninjas and compete with your friends in dangerous arenas. Win not with direct attacks, but by forcing other plays into environmental hazards, like lava pits and laser beams. Battle of Tiles EX PS3, PSN A tile-based, strategy RPG. Control your army, composed of several decorated tiles, by sliding them across the board towards opposing forces. Defeat monsters and build your army in order to vanquish the final threat waiting for you at the end of your journey. Beyond: Two Souls PS3, Retail Live the life of Jodie Holmes, a young woman with an extraordinary companion. Experience a story-driven adventure as you unravel the questions surrounding the powerful entity known as Aiden, and survive the dangers Jodie faces, both uncommon and everyday. Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition PS3, Retail Rejoice, for there is loot. Return to Pandora and enjoy all the gun-wielding, treasure-dropping psychos that occupy its unforgiving surface. The critically-acclaimed shooter comes packed with tons of DLC for newcomers and veterans. Capcom Essentials PS3, Retail It’s a Capcom collection! Contains Resident Evil 6, Super Street Fighter IV, Devil May Cry 4, Dead Rising 2, and Mega Man 10. More than enough gaming goodness for any interested parties. Disgaea D2: A Brighter Darkness PS3, PSN, Retail It’s about time JRPG fans return to the Netherworld, and the unlikely trio that started it all. This strategy game combines a quirky sense of humor with a massive battle system, enabling you to invest a tremendous amount of time into playing. Just watch out for Prinnys. Dishonored: Game of the Year Edition PS3, PSN, Retail A stealth adventure with ample player flexibility, Dishonored returns and brings a ton of downloadable content along for the ride. Travel back to the plague-ridden city of Dunwall as Corvo Attano, and wield weapons both mechanical and mystical in an effort to purge the corruption from within the city. F1 2013 PS3, PSN Experience all the cars and circuits from the FIA Formula One World Championship, along with classic content. Take the Young Driver Test to learn the techniques needed for elite-level drivers, race with 80′s and 90′s era cars, and chase fame in Grand Prix Mode. Heavenly Guardian PS2 Classic, PSN A top-down shooter with old-school, 2D visuals. Travel through snowy forests and battle enemies as Sayuki, in an effort to save a young boy from a terrible curse. Just Dance 2014 PS3, PSN, Retail The long-running dance series is back, with more than 40 tracks to dance to. Step into Party Master mode to customize your group jam sessions, or take the dancing online in Just Dance’s first ever online multiplayer mode. Malicious Rebirth PS Vita, PSN An enhanced, portable version of the PS3 game, Malicious, the PS Vita version boasts more stages, more bosses, and more powers. Choose your battle and fight for the good of the kingdom. Orc Attack PS3, PSN This third-person, cooperative beat ‘em up puts you in the orc’s shoes for once. Command an orc warrior and wield the terrifying power of flatulence against your human enemies. Worms Revolution Extreme PS Vita, PSN Take your worms on the go! Plot your attacks across more than 70 levels of strategic mayhem. Tackle the campaign alone, or play with friends and share in the destructive goodness together.

Note: the above information is subject to change without notice.

At first glance, Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain seem to have more in common than not. Both games focus on intricate narratives and deep character development, highlighted by cutting-edge performance capture and dazzling digital sets.

But on closer examination, Beyond: Two Souls, which launches exclusively for PS3 on October 8th, is a wholly unique creation with no obvious analogue. For one, its sweeping story focuses on one character instead of four. Beyond: Two Souls spans an entire lifetime as it follows the trials of protagonist Jodie Holmes (Ellen Page) and her constant companion, Aiden — an invisible entity with incredible powers. For another, it features a radically different, more direct play style compared to Heavy Rain.

In our new interview, Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere discusses the differences between the team’s two latest projects, and the daunting scope of the story. Listen in for his insight on the game design process, and how Quantic Dream infused player-driven choices into a story-driven experience.

In Beyond: Two Souls, players jump between different periods of Jodie’s life, piecing together the story while controlling both her and Aiden’s actions. But Jodie’s life hasn’t been easy. Exposed to psychological experiments at a young age, and hurled through adulthood by desperation and heartache, this woman has seen more danger than most. Though she hasn’t seen it alone. Aiden has been connected to her since birth, and will share in her 15-year journey through Beyond: Two Souls.

Beyond: Two Souls promises to push the limits of interactive storytelling as Jodie hunts for answers. Help her unravel the mystery surrounding her connection with Aiden, and what lies beyond life itself.

It began with an idea. David Cage sits at his desk, but he can’t write. He looks for an image. He can’t remember the words he types into the search engine but, before he knows it, on his screen, a photograph of the actress Ellen Page. A funeral, a single idea and pictures of Ellen Page. “This,” says David Cage, “is how everything started with Beyond: Two Souls”. Read more...

The European version of upcoming PS3 exclusive Beyond: Two Souls is going to be a little bit different from the American edition, after slight cuts had to be made to get it under an adults-only rating.Read more...

Placing a pre-order for Beyond: Two Souls at GameStop before its October 8 launch date will upgrade your order to the game's Special Edition for free, the PlayStation Blog says.

The Special Edition includes a 30-minute scene focused on guiding protagonist Jodie and her ghostly friend Aiden through a series of test-room puzzles. A soundtrack consisting of the game's four themes will also be paired with "making-of" videos featuring Ellen Page, Willem Dafoe and Beyond's writer, David Cage. A dynamic theme for the PS3 and PSN avatars round out the offering, all of which will be packaged in the Special Edition's metal case.

We recently discussed the game's cinematic direction and found it to be an interesting approach to storytelling.

There’s little more than a week left to pre-order Beyond: Two Souls at GameStop for your bonus upgrade to the Special Edition.

The steelbook Special Edition will feature the additional “Advanced Experiments” playable scene. In this scene, you’ll test your rapid problem-solving skills as you guide Jodie and the mysterious entity Aiden through a series of tough training missions. Over the course of 30 minutes of additional play, you’ll determine your ability to use your brain while keeping an ice-cool head in high-pressure situations — all while helping Jodie and Aiden collaborate to solve puzzles.

Furthermore, the Special Edition will include the soundtrack comprising the four main themes from Beyond, and four exclusive making-of videos featuring Writer/Director David Cage, along with actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe.

And lastly, you’ll also receive a Beyond: Two Souls PS3 dynamic theme and PSN avatar bundle featuring the below avatars.

If you want to get your hands on the Special Edition, make sure you pre-order before it’s too late. Also, make sure to download the demo on PlayStation Store Tuesday, October 1st if you want to get one last look at Beyond before it launches!

The animators at David Cage's Quantic Dream had quite the challenge ahead of them with Beyond: Two Souls. Not only was the group in charge of rendering and bringing more than 300 characters to life, but they sought to make each as believable and lifelike as Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe.

Hey, PlayStation Fans! Today we’re pleased to share the 60-second, extended version of our “Guilt” TV spot.

In this spot, we set out with a couple of different goals. We wanted to give viewers a snapshot of Jodie’s story through a series of flashbacks, by highlighting some of the stunning situations she’s going to be thrust into by her mysterious connection with the entity, Aiden. Ultimately, we want you to get a sense for the incredible scope and diversity of Jodie’s journey, while understanding the touching and emotional experience that Beyond: Two Souls is going to provide.

Even more so than most games, it’s difficult to truly convey what Beyond: Two Souls’ story really is in a 60-second video, because of the fact that it spans such a huge section of Jodie’s life. The story itself is also told non-chronologically, so really, to fully understand the Beyond’s story, you’re going to have to play it for yourself.

We still have a couple more trailers to share with you between now and launch. October 8th is right around the corner! The demo will be available on October 1st, and remember that a pre-order at GameStop will get you a bonus upgrade to the Special Edition.

Which shouldn't surprise you. It's not like Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain were a laugh-a-minute. But there's something all this concept art from the game that just bums me out.Read more...

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Stuff We Talked About

Beyond: Two Souls
Killzone Shadow Fall
inFAMOUS Second Son
Spelunky
Diablo III

Three directors, one show! Beyond: Two Souls director David Cage joins us to talk Beyond: Two Souls, director Nate Fox details inFAMOUS Second Son, and director Steven Ter Heide primes up Killzone: Shadow Fall in three never-before-revealed interviews. Plus: new releases for September 10th, 2013, first-time PAX attendees sound off on their favorite games, new listener letters and more!

Send us questions and tips: blogcast@playstation.sony.com

The Cast

• Sid Shuman – PlayStation Social Media Manager
• Nick Suttner – PlayStation Account Support Manager

[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]

• Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music. Special thanks to Astro Gaming headsets for providing audio gear.

Ellen Page simulator Beyond: Two Souls gets a demo on October 1 in North America, and the day after in Europe. We jest when we call it that, because Quantic Dream's next PS3 game will clearly be its own complicated beast, much like Heavy Rain before it, and hopefully much more than Hollywood-tinted mo-cap. For the curious, the demo should provide some inkling as to how Beyond plays, but it may be far from the full picture.

The PSN demo includes two sections: The first stars a mini-Jodie (Page's character) as she takes part in an experiment scrutinizing her supernatural abilities, while the second sees an older Jodie on the run from government agents.

If you'd rather hold out for the full game, you won't have long to wait: Beyond: Two Souls hits North American retail shelves on October 8, and Europe on October 11.

Oh, and if you happen to have pre-ordered Beyond from GAME in the UK, you'll get the demo a week early on September 25. In the US PlayStation Blog's announcement, there's mention of "opportunities for a few of you" to get the demo on September 24, so maybe, just maybeeeee there'll be something similar in North America.

Today we can confirm that the Beyond: Two Souls demo will be available on Tuesday, October 1st on PlayStation Store. There will be opportunities for a few of you to get in on September 24th — we’ll be announcing those soon.

This demo will include two scenes from the game, giving insight into the extraordinary story that awaits you next month. This will be the first chance for most to go hands-on and experience the improvements Quantic Dream has made to Heavy Rain’s control scheme.

The Beyond: Two Souls demo will feature the following two scenes from the final game:

• Jodie & Aiden: Join a very young Jodie as she takes part in an experiment at the Department of Paranormal Activities. As officials put her abilities to the test, you take charge of a mysterious, invisible entity.
• Hunted: Skip forward a number of years and help Jodie escape the clutches of government agents as the mysterious entity unleashes its truly astonishing powers.

We’ve also got the third of our four part ‘Making Of’ series, which details the huge undertaking that was the year-long performance capture shoot for Beyond: Two Souls. Hear from writer/director David Cage and lead actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe on the intricacies of the set design, and how performance capture for a video game is so different than a traditional movie shoot.

Chime in below with your questions, and I’ll reply to them as soon as I can!