Quantic Dream clip "Kara" billed as running in real time on Sony's current-gen console, hints at sex robot Pinocchio tale.
Quantic Dream has been largely quiet about its future projects since the release of 2010's Heavy Rain, but the studio today released a tech demo that could contain hints about the direction for founder David Cage's next project.
Released to Eurogamer, the tech demo is called "Kara," and notes that its visuals are running in real time on a PlayStation 3.
The tech demo is set within a futuristic manufacturing facility assembling an android designed to look and behave like a subordinate woman. After some initialization tests, the android explains that it "can look after your house, do the cooking, mind the kids," and is "entirely at your disposal as a sexual partner." The android is fully assembled and given the name Kara, but once she realizes she "is a sort of merchandise" and thinks herself to be alive, an unseen operator begins to disassemble her as a defective model.
The demo specifies that the clip "is a concept only and is not taken from any software currently in development." Last year, Cage dropped a hint about the studio's next game, saying, "We're going to be exploring a different direction, which will still be very dark and still for adults, but completely different to Heavy Rain. Our challenge is to satisfy our fans and also surprise them."
Quantic Dream first showed off Heavy Rain with a tech demo at E3 2006. That demo was called "Heavy Rain: The Casting," and it showed a virtual actress auditioning for a role as a jilted lover confronting her cheating partner.
Brendan Sinclair has been a games journalist since 1999. His tastes are eclectic, though he has a definite affinity for games with arcade roots. He's Canadian, but has also been at home in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, and San Francisco.
I recognized the actress as Emma in The Following the second she started talking. I don't know much about how computer animation is done on a technical level but this short is simple, eloquent, and beautiful. Conveys emotions and ideas in just a few minuets that others have taken whole movies to get across. From a traditional artists who focuses mainly on the figures perspective, it's fantastic!
Isaac Asimov condensed into seven minutes of sheer genius.
If they can effectively reflect the themes, topics and issues addressed in this tech demo in a game using the same facial expression tech used here and in Heavy Rain, I'll be happy. It's unlikely that a game will look this good - it is, after all, a tech demo and designed as a PR stunt - but Heavy Rain was itself very impressive from a technical standpoint.
Hell, I'd even pay real money to see a film based on this.
@ PlatinumPaladin That sounds like a difference in opinion than an actual rebuttal of facts. From my own personal experience, I have never felt a emotional impact from a Quantic Dream game (and many others mind you) that couldn't have been made by simply watching a movie with the same things occurring. While I agree horror games add a much deeper level of immersion and thus a deeper level of horror, the right horror film can scare you if you just immerse yourself in the experience the same as you should do in a drama or a romance. Film is a medium that requires a certain something from the audience to truly make the experience seamless, the same way literature asks the reader to imagine what they are reading in their head. Films create characters in the beginning that build relationships and live life as if they were real characters, and when something happens to them you feel for them even though they aren't real. If you feel scarred from Dead Space and not 28 Days Later, why? You can always restart after you die, it does not end when you get ripped to shreds, but the character that dies in the movie is dead in that story. If you can't feel that then you obviously aren't trying. Not to start an argument or call you heartless, just saying you sort of called out an entire artistic medium with that comment and I thought I should respond... lol
I think Quantic Dream are in the wrong line of work. This will probably make a great movie, not a video game.
WOW I hope this is not just a PR stunt, although it looks like one ... @Morphine_OD If they could design something like this for the ps3 console it would be awesome!
got me interested, but like the kitchen sceen tech demo for heavy rain, doubt this will have anything much to do with the game. still very impressive and moving as was the kitchen sceen from before.
Quantic Dream: Makers of fascinating tech demos. Definitely getting a strong AI: Artificial Intelligence vibe off this one. The kitchen scene of Heavy Rain was a bit different.
1 Like The theme of this short demo will transcend itself. This b*tch is as alive as any woman and she will convince, coerce or command QD to make a fully developed game. I am sure of it.
@lowkey254 I'm a real life graphics programmer, not a fanboy. I know a worthless PR-stunt when I see one, because I did a plenty of mine myself. Your accusations of me being 360 fanboy is wrong, if you browse my profile you'll see that I don't even have one and I prefer Sony. I'm just being objective here - this is a tech demo and a PR-stunt. I don't see anything impressive here because the demo utilizes very confined and undetailed environment and only a single character. It's not impressive.
Awesome video. You fanboys never cease to amaze me. Here we are, 6 years later, and it never stops. Both systems have their advantages. I started with an Xbox and now own both. Love em both for different reasons. GTF OVER IT. You might as well tattoo SONY/MS on your foreheads as you are all clearly manipulated, cliche, walking advertisements for companies that don't give two $#%$#'s about anything but your wallets. What is so hard about sitting back and just simply enjoying gaming?
Ooooh an I Robot, blade runner w/e kind of game...i would play a heavy rain version of that.
@Morphine_OD, you do realize that video would have needed to be CG on the 360, right? Drop your fanboy rank and just enjoy life.
Simple backgrounds + no effects + simple animations + 1 actual character on screen = not impressive. Basically all PS3 processing power was spent on 1 character, so the demo is as worthless as it gets.
This might be a reality we may have to confront with in our lifetimes. We can't deny technological progress.
If this was a movie it would be rated for 14 yo, because it's a game they'll have to struggle not to get a 18+ Just like Heavy Rain with that topless scene like it was the end of the world.
I think I've heard this kind of story before, a semi interesting tech demo, but nothing that really peaks my interest... thanks for the news guys, was wondering when quantic dream would give news on their next game... hopefully it will be more interesting than this little clip...
2 Like I was blown away by this. Not so much from a technical standpoint, but it made me care about an animated robot in under 7 minutes. Kudos, Quantic Dream.
Funny how few people understand what a tech demo is. Anyway, I'm not sure what's supposed to be so impressive about this, you know, as a tech demo. I already knew these kinds of assets and animations were possible on a PS3 (just so happens no one wants to do the work for an actual game). From a technical standpoint, this is completely negligible compared to what we've seen from [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-pvjX2lfqE]Epic[/URL] and [URL=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-TtgW20IEm0]Crytek[/URL] recently (particularly that Samaritan thing). Anyway, were this to actually be a game (though I stress it is ), it does seem to do a decent job in only 7 minutes, despite working with a subject already so thoroughly explored as to be rote at this point.
1 Like D': That made me feel more than I've ever felt in a seven minute video. I felt so much for Kara, a character, just barely introduced, an android, no less. Just wow...I'm stunned and impressed and speechless. I'm confident Quantic Dream will create a game just as riveting, emotional, and heartrending as Heavy Rain.
1 Like Oh My God, this made me tear up... i actually forgot this was a gamespot feature... hyper realistic expressions, flawless voice acting on both parts, and excelent music. I am not exagerating when i say that i fell in love with Kara's humanity. This video gives me mixed feelings, i want to buy the game already. But at the sametime if i buy the game i am treating Kara as a product, and she would not want that. With this i conclude that in these 7 minutes, Kara has proved to be much more human than many men and women in this world. I am after seven minutes, desperately feeling the need to protect Kara.
Oh My God, this made me tear up... i actually forgot this was a gamespot feature... hyper realistic expressions, flawless voice acting on both parts, and excelent music. I am not exagerating when i say that i fell in love with Kara's humanity. This video gives me mixed feelings, i want to buy the game already. But at the sametime if i buy the game i am treating Kara as a product, and she would not want that. With this i conclude that in these 7 minutes, Kara has proved to be much more human than many men and women in this world. I am after seven minutes, desperately feeling the need to protect Kara.
If it's anything like Heavy Rain, I'm sold. The Tech Demo is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. The disassembling part was deeply moving.
Amazing. And they're (Sony and Microsoft) pushing to create the next console already why..?
1 Like Why waste the time for a tech demo this late in the game? If I were Quantic Dreams, I would be asking for new hardware to start tinkering with rather than showing us what looks nearly identical to Heavy Rain.
A Tech Demo for PS3 when this gen is coming to an end, this looks alright now, but when E3 comes and blow us away with Unreal Engine 4 running on Next Box its going to look pretty bad The 360 can do that, when all the consoles resources are dedicated to a single small high quality area, look at Forza's Auto Vista cars compared to the one's on the race tracks, they look far superior and have amazing detail
@mike on mic Aye, I own a PS3 for the few Tiltles, such as Heavy Rain, that are unique and/or actually use the PS3 hardware. The biggest problem with PS2/3 was programming. That is why most the PS3 exclusive titles are very good in the graphics department.
it looks good. im especially impressed by the hand animations. the lip sync is still a little bit off at times but its getting better..
If this is real-time and it if difficult to really tell since so many times that a company will come out and state it is running something in real time we learn it is a CG stunt. Killzone 2. Though the final product was VERY close. Quantic Dream certainly are able to push the PS3 in terms of realism. Heavy Rain was very good in that regard. But I am impressed, will be more so when I see it for my own eyes running in real time. The PS3 seems to have a very bright future ahead if they are able to pull this kind of quality from it now.
Now that is a Studio I admire, going in different directions to please the fans, and keeping it for adults!, Not milking our money with the same tech every year *cough* Activision *cough* Ubisoft, and making it all ages just for marketing. Still keeping this industry about pushing the limits, creativitiy and art!
The future is looking bright! Good job guys, graphics, sound, story, very inspiring.... did I say STORY.. woo!
Heavy Rain developer says tech demo doesn't depict the world, story, or characters of its next project, was intended to showcase performance capture technology.
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