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We've played bits of Beyond: Two Souls, had some mixed views views on it, talked with Quantic Dream's David Cage about multiplayer and how Jodi can die, but it's arguably two Hollywood actors that get closest to selling me on the PS3 game. Actors are good at that.

Willem Dafoe, who plays scientist Nathan Dawkins, and Ellen Page, starring as Jodi, do an excellent job of talking up Beyond here. As do the game clips, to be fair, switching from Jodi's childhood to her teen and adult years, giving glimpses of how the young hero copes with the presence of supernatural companion Aiden. Beyond spans Jodi's life between the ages of 8 and 23, and like Heavy Rain player choices will guide how that life progresses.

Beyond: Two Souls will be one of the last major PS3 games out before the PS4's launch in November, arriving for the current-gen console on October 8 in North America.

Today we have a new video featuring actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe talking about their roles in the upcoming PS3 title Beyond: Two Souls.

Ellen plays the game’s lead, Jodie Holmes. In this video, she reveals how she related to her character, and the emotional journey that Jodie goes through in the game.

Willem takes the role of Nathan Dawkins, a government scientist who helps Jodie to understand her supernatural powers. In the video, Willem explains how this intense relationship forms a key part of the game story.

Just a little over a month until launch, so keep checking back on the Blog for more news and trailers.

It’s tough to be the father of a gamer when you aren’t a gamer yourself. Sometimes it’s best to just ask people in the know — especially on live TV.Read more...

There is no "game over" in Beyond: Two Souls - the screen never fades to black, there's no inspirational quote in sight, and, most importantly to creator David Cage, the story doesn't come to a complete stop.

"I've always felt that 'game over' is a state of failure more for the game designer than from the player," Cage told me at Gamescom. "It's like creating an artificial loop saying, 'You didn't play the game the way I wanted you to play, so now you're punished and you're going to come back and play it again until you do what I want you to do.' In an action game, I can get that - why not? It's all about skills. But in a story-driven experience it doesn't make any sense."

Instead, Cage said he focused on giving consequences to failures without hindering the narrative. In one scene, two police officers hunt down Jodi, the protagonist, on a moving passenger train. Jodi is able to circumvent the officers and run away, leading to an intense standoff on the roof of the speeding train. "Failing" this scene means the cops capture Jodi before she has a chance to bolt, and in the standard video game design scheme, this would mean cut, fade to black and try again. In Beyond, players are given an alternate story path, this time where Jodi is locked in a train car with the officers standing guard, and she has to escape.

Players who "fail" the train scene won't see the rooftop battle, but those who "beat" it won't experience the escape narrative. In at least one of these scenarios, a path can lead to Jodi's death. This raises a question that humankind has asked itself for eons: What happens when we die?

"It's a game about death, so you can imagine that death plays a role in all of this," Cage said. "Actually, it's one of the big discoveries - one of the big mysteries in the game is to discover what's on the other side. And it's definitely not a black screen."

We’re very pleased to announce the addition to two more Hollywood greats to the Beyond: Two Souls production team, with Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe confirmed as the composers of the game’s soundtrack.

Hans Zimmer needs no introduction, having composed some of the finest Hollywood soundtracks of all time in Gladiator, The Lion King, the Pirates of the Caribbean series and (not forgetting) The Rock. And working alongside Lorne Balfe, the two of them have been responsible for some of the most memorable soundtracks of late with Inception, Sherlock Holmes and all of the recent Dark Knight movies. Lorne himself is also no stranger to composing for video games, having scored Assassin’s Creed III, Crysis 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

It’s a great honor to have such talented individuals with such storied backgrounds in composing film scores tied to Beyond: Two Souls. We feel this really does help add another layer to the incredible way Beyond: Two Souls blurs the lines between cinema and gaming. The tension their music brings to the game is palatable.

Keep your eyes peeled for a lot more news coming in the next couple weeks.

Hans Zimmer is producer on the soundtrack for Beyond: Two Souls, with Assassin's Creed 3 composer Lorne Balfe at the helm. Balfe and Zimmer collaborate frequently, including on films such as Inception and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. Beyond creator David Cage confirmed the music news at Gamescom, adding that the soundtrack is two hours of full orchestral music.

"We believe that with the addition of Ellen Page, Willem Dafoe, and now Hans Zimmer with the soundtrack - we were really looking for the best, most talented people out there to create the emotion in Beyond, and we have a beautiful soundtrack in the game," Cage said.

During that panel, Cage revealed multiplayer for Beyond, including a free app that turns touchscreen devices into controllers, intended to make the AAA game less intimidating to casual players.

Beyond: Two Souls features two-player, co-op multiplayer, with one person controlling Jodi Holmes, the main protagonist, and the other controlling of Aiden, the entity tethered to her entire existence, Quantic Dream founder David Cage revealed at Gamescom. Players pass control between Jodi and Aiden, on a single screen, by pressing triangle. Yes, press triangle to Jodi.

In multiplayer or solo, Beyond is playable with iOS and Android touchscreen devices, with the "Beyond Touch" app. It's a free app that allows players to control a character - it's a blank slate, with no buttons or on-screen sticks, that players use like a touchpad. Slide one finger around the screen and the character moves. The game automatically switches to easy mode when a touchscreen controller is in use.

Cage said the touchscreen feature is an attempt to reel in casual players or those who don't play games often. Most people are comfortable with a smartphone, however, avid players will want to use the DualShock controller, Cage said.

Beyond: Two Souls features two-player, co-op multiplayer, with one person controlling Jodi Holmes, the main protagonist, and the other controlling of Aiden, the ghost entity tethered to her entire existence. Players pass control of the single screen back and forth by pressing triangle. Yes, press triangle to Jodi.

In multiplayer or solo, Beyond is playable with iOS and Android touchscreen devices, with the "Beyond Touch" app. It's a free app that allows players to control a character - it's a blank slate, with no buttons or on-screen sticks, that players use like a touchpad. Slide one finger around the screen and the character moves. The game automatically switches to easy mode when a touchscreen controller is in use.

Creator David Cage said the touchscreen feature is an attempt to reel in casual gamers or those who don't play games often. Most people are comfortable with a smartphone, he argued. However, avid players will want to use the DualShock controller, Cage said.

This latest look into the Quantic Dream's development process for Beyond: Two Souls gives insight into how different departments plan, communicate and coordinate their efforts to produce the World's Most-Psychic Ellen Page and a gameplay system befitting her purposes.

Hi everyone, today we’re unveiling the second of our four-part Making Of series for BEYOND: Two Souls.

Hear from writer/director David Cage and the team at Quantic Dream on what BEYOND will be like to play, and how the team redesigned the user interface to provide a more intuitive and immersive gameplay experience than the studio’s previous title, Heavy Rain.

We’ll have the third part of the series next week, which will dive into more detail on the year-long motion capture shoot that was undertaken for BEYOND: Two Souls, and you’ll hear from lead actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe on what it was like to be involved in such an ambitious project.

Ignore the circle button prompt, Eric Winter's Ryan Clayton is completely irresistible, no matter how shy you might be. Nestled lovingly within the first installment of a four-part 'making of' documentary for Quantic Dreams' PlayStation 3 exclusive Beyond: Two Souls was a not-at-all-awkward scene of Ellen Page's Jodie Holmes deciding whether or not to suck face with virtual Eric Winter. Depending on the decision made, this scene could result in the end product of two actors making out with dots all over their faces... ... or thousands of Photoshops. I'm going to go with the Photoshops. Mind you, this is not a contest — that's Owen's purview. This is just a girl (or guy, or animated pony, or transforming robot, or blender) standing in front of a guy, asking him to love her (him, it). I'll just leave this here.

Behind-the-scenes footage, production notes, and mocapped kisses await in this brief developer diary video for Quantic Dream's upcoming PlayStation 3 adventure game Beyond: Two Souls. As a bonus, you'll also get to see Willem Dafoe perched on a stately throne. An extended version of this video will be featured in the GameStop-exclusive Beyond: Two Souls Special Edition.

Hi everyone, today we’re excited to unveil the first of our four part Making Of series for upcoming PS3 title BEYOND: Two Souls.

Hear from writer/director David Cage and the team at Quantic Dream, as well as lead actors Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, about how the project came about and what it was like to be involved.

We’ll have the second part of the series next week that’ll allow you an insight into what to expect when playing the game. Also, in case you missed the reveal of our Special Edition steelbook artwork when it was revealed in Europe a few weeks ago, below is the final steelbook which will encase the Special Edition you get when you pre-order at GameStop.

Only a few months now, October 8th can’t come soon enough!

A few weeks back, Sony's own online store was offering insanely cheap preorders for upcoming PS3 exlcusive Beyond Two Souls. It seemed like a deal too good to be true! It was. Sony has today begun cancelling those preorders, offering $5 coupons as a means of apologising for the mix-up. Which is a little disappointing; most retailers will honour mistakes like this, especially when it's not a catastrophic price cut. Still...$5 is better than nothing...I guess?

There's no getting around it. Even after a slight redesign, anyone who plays The Last Of Us will know that the character of Ellie has a lot in common with the actor Ellen Page, from her appearance to her voice. You'd think that would be cause for flattery, but weirdly, during an "Ask Me Anything" on Reddit, Page seems the opposite of flattered when the likeness is pointed out by a user. "I guess I should be flattered that they ripped off my likeness", she says, "but I am actually acting in a video game called Beyond Two Souls, so it was not appreciated." Page is of course the face and star of Quantic Dream's Beyond Two Souls, and yeah, it is a little weird there are two PS3 games coming in the same year that both star a girl who many will think is the same person. Not sure whether that's grounds to get so huffy about it though! UPDATE: Here's Naughty Dog's creative director Neil Druckman Ellie from The Last of Us was perfectly played by @TheVulcanSalute. No one could've done a better job. Please go follow her and retweet. — Neil Druckmann (@Neil_Druckmann) June 23, 2013 AMA [Reddit]

It's just been brought to my attention by @HOTD2Dreamcast on Twitter that BEYOND: Two Souls is available for pre-order for $35 at the Sony online store. We've seen the game once or twice for 52 bucks, but this is a huge, almost 50% discount on the game's $60 price. No idea how long the sale will last, so get it while you can. [Sony] Here's today's Moneysaver. Keep up with Shane Roberts on Kinja and Twitter. Check out Dealzmodo for more great tech deals, and Deals.Kinja.com for even more discounts. This is a Moneysaver One-Shot, a post focusing on a single deal, sale, or category. Join us every weekday at 2:15pm ET for the full Moneysaver roundup, brought to you by the Commerce Team. We're here to bring Kotaku readers the best gaming deals available, and to be clear, we also make money if you buy. We want your feedback.

The Beyond: Two Souls demo I played at E3 featured protagonist Jodie Holmes as a CIA operative, undergoing a perilous mission in the war-torn streets of Somalia. Quite how Jodie and her accompanying supernatural entity 'Aiden' came to this point is unclear, and that's fine; Quantic Dream has a curious life story in mind for its unusual heroine, and this was a mere portion of the game's ten or so hours.

Still, it was jarring. Heavy Rain often placed itself in the more normal, human situations that games tend to avoid. While it had its share of action, those sequences were smaller parts of bigger scenes, and not necessarily what defined them. In contrast, Beyond's Somalia demo offered 20 minutes of war-based intensity, and at times it outwardly resembled the medium's bevy of military shooters. It was weird.

Yu Suzuki and David Cage walk into a room. This isn't the setup of a joke, but what ends up being a thoughtful session of comparing notes over the methods of storytelling in Shenmue, Indigo Prophecy and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls. Take a look. [via CVG]

Check out this montage of all the hottest demos from IGN's booth on day three at E3!

The video above was shown yesterday during Sony's E3 conference. It is of a game that, until now, we'd thought was about a young woman growing up with weird powers, working her way through a story featuring lots of rain, and emotions. Then this turns up. And I was half-expecting Hideo Kojima to pop up at the end with a wink. I almost wish it hadn't been shown, because it's one of the most arresting about-faces I've ever seen for a game's marketing campaign. Just when you thought you'd be controlling a girl growing up with supernatural powers - Sabrina meets Heavy Rain - you suddenly find it's Sabrina meets Heavy Rain meets Jason Bourne. How amazing would it have been to go into the game, with Indigo Prophecy and Heavy Rain informing your expectations of a Quantic Dream game, to suddenly hit a point with this? It would have been one hell of a sucker punch. I hope the impact it made yesterday was worth the "spoiler".

Hi PlayStation gamers,

So far this year, we’ve put a lot of focus on BEYOND: Two Souls’ cinematic presentation and powerfully emotional storytelling – we’ve revealed Willem Dafoe as Ellen Page’s co-star, debuted a beautifully cinematic story trailer, and even revealed a full scene from the game at Tribeca Film Festival to show you just how groundbreaking BEYOND: Two Souls aims to be. The “Interactive Drama” genre is a bit of a unique concept though, and one of the consistent questions we’ve received from those of you who missed out on experiencing Heavy Rain is: “BEYOND looks like it has a fantastic story, but how does it play?!”

During yesterday’s press conference, we debuted our E3 trailer.

Today, I stepped up on the stage in our E3 booth to give a guided walkthrough of a portion of the Somalia scene to carefully illustrate these gameplay mechanics in action. We’ve created a short video to more clearly explain these mechanics, and provided written descriptions below as well.

Increased Direct Control of Jodie

BEYOND: Two Souls features much larger and more open environments than those found in Heavy Rain, and to coincide with this, the gamer will have much more freedom to explore their surroundings and find small side bits of information. The “R2 to walk” control scheme from Heavy Rain is gone as well – now, navigation with Jodie is controlled entirely using the left analog stick.

As you navigate these environments, the camera will dynamically change to more cinematic angles, and Jodie’s animations will tailor themselves to her age and situation, leading to a uniquely immersive and filmic experience. All of the videos you’ve seen us release thus far are in fact entirely user-controlled; it’s just difficult to distinguish without the controller in your hand.

Contextual, Prompt-less Interactivity and Choice

One of the most exciting new developments in BEYOND: Two Souls is the much smoother interaction UI. In Heavy Rain, every time you wanted to interact with an object or perform an action, a button prompt would appear on-screen. In BEYOND: Two Souls we decided to implement a more “invisible” interface:

Jodie’s actions will be now prompted with a small white dot that appears over each object you can interact with. Then, through a simple gesture of the right analog stick, you will enable Jodie to perform a contextual interaction such as opening a door or inspecting a piece of writing on the wall. The new interface is extremely intuitive for both new and existing fans alike, and the contextual actions allow for an array of movements and actions that make Jodie feel more like a living, breathing character.

By granting players control over Jodie’s conversations and actions, it also empowers the player to change the evolution of the story in a number of exciting and different ways.

Revamped Prompt-Less Action Sequences

In keeping with the theme of eliminating jarring button prompts and creating a more immersive and cinematic experience, prompts have also been removed from action sequences involving Jodie. Rather than button prompts on-screen, the entire combat system has been replaced with a slow-motion (also called “bullet-time” since The Matrix) gesture mechanic based on the right analog stick.

At various action points during each fight, the action on-screen will change to slow-motion and greyscale for a split second, and during that time you will need to quickly analyze the action and input a gesture with the right analog stick. This gesture will need to be the continuation of Jodie’s on-screen movement (e.g. if Jodie initiates a punch to the left on-screen, you will need to hit left on the right analog, thus completing her action). The tension runs high as Jodie’s success or failure in each action sequence depends on quick and accurate reflexes.

Entity Gameplay and Collaboration

Last, but not least, of the new gameplay you’ll experience in BEYOND: Two Souls is taking control of Aiden, the entity connected to Jodie. At any point in the game, you can switch between Jodie and Aiden at a simple touch of the Triangle button. Using both Jodie and Aiden together will be critical for both protecting Jodie and solving puzzles Jodie comes across during her journey, as well as gaining additional insight into the characters’ stories.

When controlling Aiden, navigation is controlled using the left analog stick to move forward/backward/side-to-side, the right analog to rotate, and the shoulder buttons to control altitude. Aiden is only restricted in its movement by the tether that keeps it connected to Jodie, and can fly through or around any matter in the environment. Aiden has the ability to interact with people and objects by locking on with L1 and then either pulling the glowing orbs in or away from the target, allowing it to choke people (red aura), possess and control them (yellow aura), and blast objects with invisible force.

BEYOND: Two Souls truly does feature a unique brand of gameplay, which creates a fun and engaging way to experience one of gaming’s most powerful stories.

What the game is of course NOT though, is just a series of cinematics with minimal gameplay in between. If you’re at E3, be sure to come by our booth and try it for yourself!

Pre-order here, and remember that pre-ordering at GameStop will get you a nice package of exclusive goodies too.

Beyond: Two Souls hits UK shelves on October 11, three days after the US launch on October 8, SCEE confirmed to Video Gamer.

Sony announced the US release date in March, and a television ad in the UK this month featured the launch date across the pond. Beyond is the next game from Heavy Rain creator David Cage, and it stars Ellen Page and 160 other actors in a serious motion-capture setting. Yes, one of those actors is Willem Dafoe, and yes, Cage looked deep into our eyes and lied about that fact at San Diego Comic-Con last year. Nice try, Cage. Nice try.

Hi Everyone,

As I’m sure many of you know, on April 27th, BEYOND: Two Souls was featured in a historic screening at Tribeca Film Festival, which was live-streamed right here on the PlayStation Blog. So far, over 3.2 Million of you have tuned in to watch the presentation! The full video is still live on YouTube, but we know not everyone has time to watch a 1.5 hour presentation; and even more of you are concerned about accidentally stumbling upon spoilers. Our solution? We made a “Tribeca Film Festival Highlights” video for you, so you can re-live the show in just a couple minutes!

BEYOND: Two Souls was also featured yesterday on Tribeca Film Festival’s “Future Of Film” blog, and will be making ongoing appearances on their site as they continue the discussion around how BEYOND: Two Souls is further blending the worlds of film and gaming.

Everything you’re seeing in the gameplay shown at Tribeca Film Festival is under the control of the player in some way shape or form, and the story evolves based on decisions and actions the player takes. In the coming months, we’ll definitely be highlighting much more clearly just what that means, so stay tuned!

We hope you enjoy the show, and remember to get out and pre-order your copy today! Pre-ordering at GameStop will get you a nice package of exclusive goodies too.

David Cage was nervous last Saturday night. And with good reason. There he was, about to unveil a sizable chunk of Beyond: Two Souls in front of a packed house at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival. This was only the second time that a video game was shown at the annual celebration of cinema founded by Robert DeNiro. (Rockstar showed L.A. Noire at the festival a few years ago.) So, yes, it was a big deal. Over the next half-hour, gameplay footage—it wasn’t clear whether this was being played live or was pre-recorded—showed a segment of the game where Beyond heroine Jodie Holmes was living on the street. After a grim sequence where she stumbles around in a blizzard and passes out, Jodie wakes up in an abandoned warehouse after being rescued by a homeless man. You can see what happens in the entire 35-minute preview from Tribeca above. I'll list some highlights if you don’t watch the whole thing. Early on, an emotionally spent Jodie tries to kill herself. Aiden—the disembodied essence that players can control and that Jodie communicates with—stops her. Later on, Jodie begs for change and gets harassed by a jerk on the street who offers to give her $10 “to go ‘round back.” After her first day on the street comes to an end, she meets Tuesday, a pregnant woman squatting with the other homeless people in the warehouse. Tuesday hadn't felt baby kick in days but Jodie assured her—with some help from Aiden, it seemed—that the baby was still alive. And, just before the climax of the demo that was shown, Jodie helps deliver that baby. Begging for spare change. Delivering babies. These are not the kinds of things that you do in most big-budget video games. On one hand, it seems like Beyond is telling a somewhat conventional genre fiction story about a young girl with special talents who winds up working for the military. Those are tropes we’ve seen before. The chunk of Beyond shown at the screening did have combat sequences, dialogue decisions, environmental puzzle-solving and other elements that feel typical to, say, a Halo or Uncharted title. But that just makes the more realistic elements stand out more. “I was interested in putting you in the shoes of someone living in the streets,” Cage told me. “This is something that some films have done before but very few games try that. I think it’s important to do it in games because you actually can experience much more of what it means, because it’s you, you’re in control and you lead that. We just saw one walk-thru, one possibility, but there are many ways you can play this scene and see different aspects of living in the street." I asked Cage if he had any concerns about portraying people who are achingly poor and on the fringes of society. Did he worry about any kind of backlash? “These are not the kind of questions that I ask myself when I write,” he answered. “I write things that move me. You don’t even have the choice of what you’re writing. You write what you need to write.” So why did he need to write that scene? “I don’t know,” he began. “Because I’ve been moved many times by the people living in the street and the indifference around them, and how difficult it is to live outside. One of the strong memories that I have about that was actually in New York. I was here 20 or 25 years ago, and I saw that it was really cold. Incredibly cold. It was minus 40 degrees Celsius.” “I had a big coat and I was still really cold. I saw a woman with a kid and she was in the street and she didn’t have my big coat,” he continued. “It was freezing cold. These are the kinds of images that haunt you for the rest of your life. You really wonder what happened to her and her kid, if they even survived. This is why you need to write these kind of things.” "I was interested in putting you in the shoes of someone living in the streets." And the childbirth scene? “When you write, your first audience is yourself. I’m not the first one to say this,” he told me. “You try to create a very unique moment, something that will be strong and emotional and moving. If it works for you as the first audience, you always hope that it’s going to work for others, too. We had a very strong response from the people who saw this part of the game, and they said how emotional and moving it is. This is really what I’m looking for.” "You try to create a very unique moment, something that will be strong and emotional and moving." If you’ve been following the promotion around Beyond, then you might have noticed that it’s not going to be as sprawling as Heavy Rain. In that game, you would pass the story along to another character depending on various choices and events. But, Cage told me that players will control Jodie and Aiden all the way through. “I was fascinated by telling the story of someone through 15 years in their life—as a kid, as a teenager, as an adult— and seeing how the different events in her life would make her who she becomes. At the same time, there’s Aiden, who’s this continuing presence. You play Jodi at different ages. so she looks different. She moves differently and talks differently. She has access to different things in different situations.” “My goal with Beyond was to create a strong sense of empathy between the player and the character of Jodi Holmes because she will become someone you will know by heart,” Cage continued. “You were there when she was a kid. You know what she went through. You’ve been there with her in the happy and difficult moments of her life. My hope is by the time you turn off your console and you’re done with the game, you really feel like you’re saying goodbye to someone close that you really like.” When Cage made his comments about turning off the console, I wondered about the next game machine coming from Sony. Beyond: Two Souls is the kind of game where, at some point. you’re going to have plot twists that players may want to share with each other. Like, here’s what I did, “I actually jumped off the bridge and Jodi’s dead.” Or, “Or I didn’t save Jimmy, he burnt to death.” I asked Cage he was worried about what a share button could do, in terms of how it could affect the uniqueness of the experiences for the player. Would he want to turn that function off or have it not to be shareable? Would something like the PS4’s share button change how he and his Quantic Dream peers design their games? “No, it doesn’t scare me at all,” he laughed. “We want that ‘water cooler effect’. We had it on Heavy Rain. People talked about it, and they said, “I did this. What did you do?” The only difference is that now they will be able to capture and share it with their friends. That’s fine. People bought the game. They are free to enjoy it the way they want. But my recommendation would be to really play the game on your own, hopefully without going back and talking too much to other people as you play. Just keep the experience unique.” Speaking of PS4, Cage’s Quantic Dream colleague Guillaume de Fondaumière let me know that they’ve been working with a version of Sony’s next-gen hardware for a while now. “We started to work on Playstation 4 more than two years ago. It did influence our developments on Playstation 3 actually on Beyond. We are now at the point where you can see the possibilities of that console after two years of programming on it. We were really surprised to which levels we can push things from a graphical standpoint,” Fondaumière told me. “There will be quite an important gap between what we are showing here on Beyond and what is really possible sometime soon on Playstation 4, which is a really, really powerful machine.” "There will be quite an important gap between what we are showing here on Beyond and what is really possible sometime soon on Playstation 4..." Aside from graphics, one of the other big takeaways from Sony’s PlayStation event in February was the importance of connectivity. Does the emphasis on social experiences mean that Quantic Dream might make a multiplayer game or a game where there’s a collaboration between players? How will PS4 make them evolve the game design? “It’s too early to talk really about what this next project is. But what’s certain is, yes, everything is open today. Everything is connected. There’s a new controller. We need to look at this new controller’s functionality and adapt gameplay to it. But we also need to see these new connectivities. We need to find a way to embrace, not only the available technologies, but also the new habits of players. Yeah, we’re thinking a lot about it right now.” “One of the features of the Playstation 4 controller is the touchpad, for instance. These new features are very interesting to us because we think that we would like to bring casual gamers or occasional gamers or even people who don’t play at all to the medium,” he said. “I think we can only do that through what I would say are non-conventional gaming paradigms. The controller has always been to a certain extent a barrier to those non-gamers to jump into the gaming space. We’ve seen more and more people embracing gaming through those mobile devices. That’s something else that we’re watching very, very carefully. We’ll see in the future what this means.” At the PS4 reveal a few months ago, Cage showed a glimpse of the new engine that Quantic Dream is developing. But, he wants to make sure that people understand something: “The technology is a tool. That’s what I tried to explain.” “It’s not because you have better tech that suddenly you will create something much more meaningful and interesting” he continued. “No. It’s a tool. If you have something to sell, to say, to explain, to express, and you have a better tool to do it, you will create something better. But if you have nothing to say, you can have the best tech in the world, you still won’t say anything.”

The past few years produced a huge amount of great games and a surprisingly decent amount of them have well-developed characters that are hard to forget. And, of course, some of them look really attractive. We're going to wrap up our series on the hottest, most attractive video game characters with the 10s, starting with 2010. We're not too far into this current decade, but we are approaching the end of a console generation. These games and their characters mark that nearing end. You can catch up on the visual histories of the 80s, 90s and the 2000s to draw conclusions on how video game character representations changed through the decades. Bayonetta in Bayonetta (2010) Sarah Kerrigan, Nova and Jim Raynor in StarCraft II (2010) Vanille and Serah in Final Fantasy XIII (2010) John Marston in Red Dead Redemption (2010) Trip in Enslaved: Odyssey to the West (2010) Akiyama, Saejima, Kazuma and Tanimura in Yakuza 4 (2011) Catherine in Catherine (2011) Enoch in El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (2011) Neptune / Purple Heart in Hyperdimension Neptunia (2011) Lily Satou in Katawa Shoujo (2012) Olga in Asura's Wrath (2012) Juliet Starling in Lollipop Chainsaw (2012) Geralt in The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings (2012) Vaas Montenegro in Far Cry 3 (2012) Leah in Diablo 3 (2012) Cortana in Halo 4 (2012) Mad Moxxi in Borderlands 2 (2012) Dead or Alive 5 characters (2012) Parasoul in Skullgirls (2012) Samuel Rodrigues in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013) Lara Croft in Tomb Raider (2013) We still have a couple of months left from the year and it wouldn't be fair to forget all the upcoming titles featuring beautiful characters. Nilin in Remember Me (2013) Jodie Holmes in Beyond: Two Souls (2013) Mondo Zappa in Killer is Dead (2013) Link in Nintendo's Wii U Tech Demo The Sorceress Character In The Square Enix Agni's Philosophy Tech Demo Is something missing from here, or do you have a favorite hot character from the past few years? Better go ahead and show them in the comments! sources: Rockstar, Atlus, NIS, Katawa Shoujo Wiki, The Witcher, Ubisoft, Skullgirls, Metal Gear Wiki, Heavy Rain, Tomb Raider, Sony, Square Enix To contact the author of this post, write to: gergovas@kotaku.com.

Beyond: Two Souls, the PS3 exclusive game coming from Quantic Dream (Heavy Rain) was an official selection at the Tribeca Film Festival this weekend, and presented this, its official trailer. It's a big deal for a video game to get that kind of serious treatment, so the trailer goes all out in presenting itself as a serious film. And then you get the pre-order come-on and the Gamestop-exclusive DLC notice. I don't know if festival goers actually saw that part (this was uploaded by the PlayStation YouTube channel) but still, after 2:30 of doing its damndest to make you think Beyond: Two Souls is a film-festival movie, it only needs 10 to remind you it's still very much a video game.

Quantic Dream showed off its upcoming mysterious action-adventure game Beyond: Two Souls in a two-hour screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York on Saturday. The latest trailer for the game shows a young Jodie Holmes and her encounters with an unseen being she calls Aiden, which sets the tone for her struggles into adulthood.

The game stars Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, the latter having been officially revealed as part of the game's cast in March. Beyond: Two Souls will launch on October 8 for PS3.

“Presenting Beyond at TFF is a groundbreaking example of the potential in the marriage of gaming and cinema.”

– Tribeca Film Festival

Ladies and gentlemen of the PlayStation family, this Saturday at 6:45pm EST (3:45pm PST) we’re overwhelmingly pleased to bring you BEYOND, live from our screening at Tribeca Film Festival, right here on the PlayStation.Blog.

At the two-hour screening, we will be debuting the official trailer for BEYOND and a 35-minute scene from the game (we’re taking care to avoid many of the major, major spoilers for you), followed by a live panel Q&A with game writer/director David Cage, star Ellen Page, and supporting cast members Kadeem Hardison and Eric Winter – moderated by video game journalist Harold Goldberg.

The Official Selection by Tribeca Film Festival really is an exciting accomplishment for BEYOND and the industry as a whole. Geoff Gilmore, one of the founding fathers of film festivals like Sundance and Tribeca, has described it as “a watershed moment in storytelling and media”, and it’s an honor that BEYOND is getting recognized for its powerful story and presentation at such a high level.

For those in NYC, you can join us in person at the screening to take in the Festival for yourself. Tickets can be purchased here.

We hope you enjoy the show, and remember to get out and pre-order your copy today!

CNET editor Dan Ackerman shared this picture of the Beyond: Two Souls script today. The conglomeration of all the spoken dialogue for Quantic Dream’s upcoming playable drama looks bigger than a stack of PS3s. And not the new Super Slim PS3s. I’m talking the original husky models. Sony probably sent out the script because its upcoming game will be featured at the Tribeca Film Festival. I’ve often heard game scripts as being described as more like spreadsheets, since they have branching dialogue and different spoken prompts. That may be the case but, still and all, that is one huge ream of paper.

In a world where we're constantly bombarded with gross, tacky box art, a well designed cover can be a breath of fresh air. To that end, how does the newly revealed, gunless box art for Beyond: Two Souls fit in? It's time to weigh in, Kotaku readers. Using our image annotation system, show us what you love and hate about the newly unveiled box art for Quantic Dream's upcoming game Beyond: Two Souls. It can be praise ('Tasteful use of Gotham there, guys') or criticism ('Ellen Page is Chell in Portal 3') but either way, we want to hear it. Just click on any part of the image above to leave a comment.