Monday 28 May 2012

I Tube | Kara: A Quantic Dream


Just so you know, this news is not news. It's months and months old - from way back when in March 2012 - but until very recently, I'd managed to completely miss it. Maybe you had too.

I suppose the reason I overlooked it initially was a case of crossed wires. After all, Kara purports to be a tech demo from the team at Quantic Dream — who developed Heavy Rain, one of my favourite games in recent memory. But be that as it may, I've been burned by tech demos often enough that I've taught myself to turn the other cheek when they appear... even when they come from top-notch developers, as in this case.

Kara, however, is as much a movie as it is a tech demo. A short movie, admittedly. That the whole thing's running in real-time on a PS3 is impressive, certainly, but come to Kara for the title character and the heartbreaking narrative rather than some aspirational demonstration of the quality of tomorrow's graphics or performance capture.

Kara put me in mind of nothing so much as The Lifecycle of Software Objects by Ted Chiang, which I reviewed here on The Speculative Scotsman a year or so ago. Set seven minutes of your grind aside and you'll surely see why:


To my mind, this so-called tech demo attests to the storytelling prowess of the creative leads at Quantic Dream at least as much as it does the engine they're building their next game with... whatever it is.

Tell you what, though... after Heavy Rain, and this minor magnificence, I have my fingers firmly crossed we'll hear more about the team's next project in a few short weeks at E3.

Which reminds me: what are you hoping to see revealed at this year's expo?

Give me Bioshock: Infinite, Half-Life 3, GTA5 and a bit of Bungie's next project, and I'll come home a happy camper.

Remember, I tube so you don't have to!

3 comments:

  1. Yeah, it's a great video, some of the facial expressions they captured are damn awesome and I hope we see more of her in their next game :)
    And speaking of short films, you should check out the Metro-Last Light live action trailer(?). Really well done.

    As for E3, I'm not really excited about it. Valve said they won't announce anything, CDPR will announce their new project tommorow (either TW3 or a sci-fi RPG) and it's a bit soon for a new Souls game from From Software.
    Sony first-party studios may have some cool games coming (Quantic, Guerilla, Sucker Punch are also teasing something...)

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  2. I'm suddenly awfully interested in Dishonored, also. Neat trailer just appeared, at least, and with Bioshock Infinite delayed till 2013, this could be the ticket...

    Anyway, watched the live action Last Light trailer on your advice, Severian, and I'm impressed. I can get right behind this kind of advertising. Plus, Metro 2033 was pretty great. Very underrated.

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  3. Just going to post here, Quantic Dream announce "Beyond - Two Souls" at E3 (with Ellen Page, apparently Sony really loves her).

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