E3 2012 David Cage Wins!!! As Beyond Two Souls offers a Quantic Dream of solace for the discerning gamer ...

Johny Cage wins !!!! Remember the feeling when you first heard that smoothest of deliveries usher forth from your Sega Genesis / Megadrive's  YM2612..... that feeling is what this article is about ... that feeling is what is missing from so much of E3.. So ...E3 2012 presented no shocking developments or changes for gaming kind but there were still signs of what makes video gaming magic ...and I do not mean that Sony wonder book ( whatever)  wand game... no I refer to the feeling of awe you feel at the experience  of something truly new and innovative .. You know the kind that would have you hunting for your last quarter to CONTINUE...

In video gaming evolution and culture  , something new and innovative, something awe inspiring always trumps the mundane and familiar . Whether it is the 1970s and you come across your first Space Invaders  , Galaga , Pacman arcade cabinet , the 80s and you shoot ducks on TV, and bounce on mushrooms rescuing a kidnapped princess or wear green tights and rescue a Princess, or the 90s and you bounce on mushrooms and rescue a kidnapped princess, wear green tights and ride a pony whilst rescuing a Princess, or are at Her Majesty's Secret Service in your best tux.. but in N64 3D! ,  or freaking out to Afro Left - Leftism whilst coming to the realisation as you launch your missiles in your Designer Republic liveried Auricom Antigrav racer , that someone just made your favourite waste of time video gaming cool as Hell...Or the noughties and Angry birds are being catapulted across you phone or tablet screen  or you tap that GAIKAI or onlive link and you realise gaming does not need a sofa ,living room tv or even console ...  All these milestones , evolutionary milestones involve one essential first contact ingredient : AWE

Looking at E3 2012 how many times did you feel that sense of awe?

In video gaming the awe of something new is what moves the gaming masses and creates new generations of  gamers, but this being the biggest entertainment business in the world , eventually suits jump in and order banal generic shelf fillers  .

E3 2012 was thus full of sequels with 4s , 3s , and even 6s for pities sake ... all rehashing , retelling , re spinning and re skinning every game and stale Unreal engined game genre you thought you had finished paying DLC tithe for the last decade or so... 


But there was a spark , a sense that someone is moving games forward as beyond the simple FPS , RPG , RTS , App acronym classification . And no hallowed Molyneux it was not you sir , although we love you for trying .. one day ... maybe if you become a Sadhu and  get Demis back on designing duty?

The coders that strive for this sense of awe are few and far between , and even rarer are those that still survive to maintain that creative direction. Nintendo have legends like Miyamoto san , creatively caged constantly churning out sequels  held back by year on year of obtuse hardware design decisions. Remember what the collective corporate might of Nintendo and Microsoft did to RARE ? And if you don't this just proves my point.
E3 2012 was won for me by the great Gallic coders Quantic Dream with Beyond : Two Souls  , why because here we have a visionary software house , that went out of its way to create unique gaming experiences with The Nomad Soul , Fahrenheit , Heavy Rain and now is doing so with Ellen Page in what was the shows only jaw dropping achievement ....

So you really have to admire the likes of Quantic Dream's David cage , perhaps there is something to be said for an artist remaining an artist and delegating not getting swept up  in the corporate and managerial end of the games business remember what happened to our heroes Molyneux and the once great Lord British Richard Garriot .... you don't ? Just proves my point .....

check out the E3 trailer for Quantic Dreams latest below , and if you call yourself a gamer get hold of Omikron The Nomad Soul , Fahrenheit , and for gaming's sake Heavy Rain ...

Oh of course there were many fist pumping chest bumping moments for your Halo , Gears , COD  casual gamers .... it is amazing what you can do to a crowd with free food and a lake full of double diet Mountain dew ...   


but it was a small softco that pwned E3 2012 ... 


More E3 2012 analaysis to follow from thegameveda ...oh and once again DAVID CAGE WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS ! and in bringing along the talented Ellen Page I would also have to award Quantic Dream a Babality! (apologies to Miss Page ) ..and remember if you have to ask .. you'll never know .....

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Augmenting David Cage's Beyond Two Souls with Cinemizer OLED head tracking and head mounted display

Video games like every form of entertainment  ...entertain ..thrill ...some though strive to  illicit emotion ....

a few ...even leave you thinking ...about the consequences of your actions ...

For when a great game is played, it both brings the best of literature,music and cinema  and lets  you direct YOUR experience of it all .. transcending legacy media altogether ...

You can BE in a game, whereas you GO to a movie or imagine getting lost in a book... only in the video game medium can you combine all this ..at your own pace ..experience it over and over again go back and experience it differently..

And that's the groove David Cage and Quantic Dreams ride so well..

In 2013 we can go further, even further than a great developer like Quantic Dreams envisaged ..through playing using HMDs and head tracking .. so here I am playing this swan song for the PS3 .. probably the most unique video game to come out this last generation of consoles ..using the Zeiss head tracker and Cinemizer OLED HMD ..  I am Aiden .. I move him, not through a joystick but I look through his "souls"eyes, all through head tracking  .. as Jodie I look to where I want her to look, or use a  head movement to initiate in game actions, looking down at an object is far more impressive than simply moving a thumbstick down or swiping a touch screen ... and when you actually pull off moves like ducking through head tracking .. that's where you start to feel the game.. like you are there .. head tracking is here now in PS3 games even those that have 0 lines of code dedicated to it ... that's the magic of the Zeiss head tracker ... 

The Cinemizer OLED HMD weighs just 180g, what this means is I can play in nausea free OLED colours, feel the dark and move the fov/play the game with my head ..without fatigue .. stream this game to PSVITA TV and we don't even need a console ... 

 I am playing through the entire game with head tracking and the Cinemizer OLED HMD .. as you can see from the videos here  ..  this is a learning experience of course ... and  I am going to go back and play Nomad Soul this way... and Messiah too .. possess em ups rule! 

Beyond Two Souls refines the quick time control scheme of Heavy Rain, with far less finger knot tying required, what this means is I can use my head to control the game, from being Aiden to initiating actions or combat, all with the flick or movement of my head ... as I am wearing a HMD the view follows me.

Quantic Dreams are unique in that every game they create manages to transcend being classified as a mere "game" . Reviewers go out of their way to try to classify their games , but they defy classification .. Quantic Dream games somehow always manage to be more than the sum of their parts ...

I would venture to say the last thing approaching a traditional video game they were responsible for was the Nomad Soul, a game so ambitious it gave you multiple cities, realms, politics, music ...not just a sound track by the the Thin White Duke but his in game avatar and that of his missus as part of the game itself. The scope of the The Nomad Soul with cities you walk, ride, fly around and walk into the buildings of, has not been matched to date.. Even today the GTAs ,Crackdowns, or anything by Bethesda ..just do not come close to the ambition of Quantic Dreams Nomad Soul .. go pick it up on GOG or STEAM ... 

Following this game, Quantic Dreams started moving games beyond what we traditionally thought of them achieving .. none of the games they design could ever be considered in the same vein as the run of the mill cookie cutter corridor based FPS or MMORPGs that the rest of the "Engine" obsessed gaming developer community bores us with E3 after E3... one of which I will be playing later tonight...

Beyond Two Souls is as much Ellen Page's baby as it is David Cage's or Quantic Dreams .. you can finally see an actor act in a game .. not just in the cut scenes or quick time events .. but throughout .. she is there with you .. she is you...

Games like this should terrify Hollywood, currently having actors falling through space in falling space stations and out the other end falling to Earth in cross talk ridden 3D CGI to thrill an audience for just over an hour ... it's not a long story ... In 2013 cinema that is headed down the CGI thrill route does not take you anywhere near the fear, thrill , emotion and level of thought that a great video game like Beyond Two Souls .. 

Omikron The Nomad Soul showed ambition, Fahrenheit and then the seminal Heavy Rain carried on  Quantic Dreams unique style ...Beyond Two Souls just crowns it .. what a wonderful way to say good bye to your PS3 .. 

Right now the most unique form of video gaming entertainment is on an old gen console, not your monster PC Rig... in a few years time when we are bidding adieu to the PS4 we will be lucky to have a title that moves you the way  Beyond Two Souls can ..and does .. 

I played the game with the Cinemizer OLED HMD and head tracker to find out how .. check out how simple it is here  more to follow when I have time...

Oh and Quantic Dreams .. keep up the good work.. 

this content is © and originated from thegameveda http://the-games-veda.blogspot.com/  if you are reading it from any other site that has not provided a link back it has been leached