Kicking off the third day of Eurogamer action, CD Projekt Red took to the stage first to unveil some design facts about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, the third game in its Witcher series of Role-playing video games loosely based on Polish books of the same name, which is planned to hit the PC, PS4 and XBox One next year.

In a break from the usual style of Eurogamer, CD Projekt Red decided to not to send any of their design or programming team to conduct the presentation. Instead, Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz – Lead Quest Designer – came all the way from Poland to discuss it; and during the Q&A made obvious his unusual position by stating that many questions being asked would have been better answered had a member of the Design Team accompanied him or he had more details on the technical side of things.

Still, the show must go on. Witcher 3, he explains, builds upon the high level of storytelling and detail kept up on previous titles in the series: “We always put a lot of effort into our storylines in our games to make them mature, to make them interesting and to make the characters interesting. And we focus on properly introducing characters to make good connections and to make them convincing. But we felt something was missing.”

That missing thing is described best in one word: “Immersion”. With Witcher 3, the aim of the game is to get the players more hooked into the game world and the events going on around them. “We really felt the need to allow players explore more and immerse themselves in the game world. We feel open-world game play does this best”, explained Mateusz.

What this means is Witcher 3 is the first title in the series to use a large-scale, open-world which players will be able to explore at their will, giving them total freedom to explore the land. “[However,] we’ve tried to avoid sending you a different side of the map or different landscape just for a single dialogue or task.” Instead, Witcher 3 utilises the concept of Quest Clusters: Quest chains will be kept in a small area. So while in a town or village, for example, you will find a chain of events to do there; when you move further out to another part of the game world like another town, forest or whatever, they will have their own cluster of quests. As you travel between clusters however, you will find side-games and wider-area quests to allow you to continue to perform tasks and keep you interested as you travel from cluster to cluster.

Another focus of Witcher 3 is accessibility. “We are working hard to introduce the story to new players as well, so if you haven’t played Witcher 1 and Witcher 2, you will still understand Witcher 3. It was actually an issue reported of Witcher 2 that people who hadn’t played Witcher 1 weren’t catching up with previous events; which we realised was a problem and we’re working to fix in Witcher 3.” Mateusz went on to explain that the team recognises that those who’ve played previous games – and/or read the books Witcher is based on – will always have a heads-up; the aim with Witcher 3 is to ensure the new players don’t feel disadvantaged by not knowing what veterans will and keep the game fun for both camps.

Not that Veterans will find the game easy, since enemies will become smarter just like they have. “We aim to have more opponent types and have the opponents interacting with each other, so [they will work together] in battle – fighting will feel more natural than our previous games.” Also, while many enemies will stay within their own quest clusters or defined territory, this is not guaranteed. “Some enemies, if you try to run, will chase you even going outside of their own area. It’s very divided.”

Opening the floor to a Q&A session, Mateusz finished with a final note to those worried that a game hitting three platforms at the same time will play differently on each. “We are working hard right now to work on keeping the game even on all three platforms and our developers are working hard to create a like experience for all of them.” They added that while the team were looking into achievement structures and taking advantage of specific console-exclusive features, it was important for them that the game plays and feels as similar as possible regardless of your choice of platform – which is good news for everyone.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt will launch in 2014.

Sony today put on a presentation talking about why the PS4 and the company’s other consoles are becoming fond of supporting indie developers and their games.

Playstation’s Indie Showcase, given by Shahid Ahmad of Sony Computer Entertainment, was put on to replace the cancelled DriveClub session and was a talk on what indie gaming is, what it means to be an indie game developer and contained many little stories that are a good representation of how the indie gaming market is changing how the gaming scene is being shaped right now.

It began with an acknowledgement that thinking outside the box and going it alone is a risky and sometimes seemingly unpopular choice and on why people would want to go into Indie Game development if this was the case. Explanation of how self-publishing had paid off for people in other formats (Amazon’s Kindle and Youtube were mentioned) were then brought up and a question on whether publishing was dead. Ahmad gave his opinion that while publishing and AAA gaming titles were not dead, there was increasing competition for the best recruits to big game studios and a restriction on what they could do in the name of improvisation within the big franchises. He said that a passion and drive to make something that is truly what you want it to be is at the core of most indie developer’s ideas and that was why it was a growing market. People have ideas and drive and now some of the tools and know-how to make the games a reality.

There was talk about marketing and how important word-of-mouth and face-to-face meetings were in getting games known out there, how good relationships with other people leads to good business. Out of the many stories told to us, about games such as Starbound, Samurai Gunn and Rogue Legacy, what was noticeable was the mostly informal ways we were told meetings went from contracts being signed on the top deck of a bus to meetings held entirely over Skype. Again, it’s example of how different indie game developing can be to those of the big name studios.

It’s this that gives rise to the indie game ideas that come out, and because so much time is spent on developing an idea that is exactly what the developer wanted to make, Playstation is beginning to look upon the smaller studios and begin to work with them to bring these smaller games to the console market and even wider audiences.

The next instalment of the long-running FIFA football simulator series was shown off today in a developers session at Eurogamer Expo.

EA talked about the new game, FIFA 14: Next-Gen, which is being released at the end of November for both the Xbox One and the Playstation 4, as well as a touchscreen controlled f2p version for mobile phones. The big thing EA seem to be aiming for with FIFA 14 is for their next gen game to be even more realistic in as many different ways as possible, with the tagline for the game shown in the trailer even being ‘it just got real’. Built upon the EA Sports Ignite engine and with ‘three pillars’ of how the game should feel in mind (human intelligence, true player motion and living worlds), the presentation talked a lot about the ‘massive gameplay changes’ to make the new FIFA game feel as ‘alive’ as possible, including smarter AI for more human-like reactions to situations, different playstyles (so faster players have more trouble keeping the ball close while dribbling compared to the slower players now for example) and what was described as ‘real biomechanics’. There have also been changes made to the ‘broadcast’ system of the game which replays shots and incidents from the virtual match from many different camera angles to give the illusion of a television-broadcast match. Even the crowd is now 3D and animated.

FIFA 14 is to contain 13 different play modes including skill games, co-op seasons, match day play, EA sports football club, career mode and ultimate team as well as containing many new leagues and teams. Each stadium within the game now also has an exterior rendered in 3D to resemble the real-life counterparts they are based on as well, again to add to the game’s real feel.

FIFA 14 is also able to take data from the previous FIFA game and transfer it over, allowing the player to bring over their teams, trophies and more from FIFA 13 and keep them (although it is a one-time transfer and possibly one-way too). Also discussed was the Xbox One exclusive content for the ultimate team part of the game: Legends. This additional part of gameplay allows players to put together a team of players from around 40 legendary players and play matches with them, choosing from players from many of the recent decades as well as modern champions.

FIFA 14 is out for the Xbox One on November 21st and for the Playstation 4 on November 29th.

When a Eurogamer Developer’s Conference starts with a member of Eurogamer staff addressing the floor prior to the presentation starting, and says we’re about to see a “sizeable chunk” of a game, you take an interest. When the speaker tells you the preview constitutes “the first ever live public presentation of the live gameplay”, even more so.

That’s just the opening of the presentation for Dying Light, an Action Survival Zombie Game by Polish game developer Techland – famous for the two Dead Island games. But this description isn’t enough to fully explain the game, says host Tymon Smektała. Asked to describe the game, Tymon starts with a high-impact 30-second trailer as the “short answer”. The long answer? “Dying Light is a First Person, Open World, Action Survival Horror Game. It’s a long description, but all of these words are important.”

What this means is Dying Light is not your everyday zombie survival game. Here, you’ll be interacting with a large game world in order to complete missions and escape being turned into a zombie yourself. Utilising a natural movement system, players will be jumping on crates and ledges, zip-lining down angled wires; and pulling themselves over gates to reach different areas, in a form of zombie apocalypse parkour; and there’s no need to look for doors if the wall is low enough to pull yourself over. When you have to come face to face with zombies, you can always kill them of course, but unlike many other zombie survival games, Tymon is quick to point out that isn’t the only option available here. You can run, you can escape, you can lay traps, you can use what you just built to defend yourself, or you can make use of the environment – it’s all about your approach to the situation. This is crucial, because not even higher ground makes you automatically safe. “Zombies can climb just as well as you can”, says Tymon.

To help you out, many missions will see you laying traps to kill zombies or provide distractions that will let you pass them safely. Some of these include car bombs and electrical boxes with exposed live wires. All traps will be triggered remotely, so until you make them live, you can run through at any time and wait for the zombies to follow – and sometimes you’ll come across traps set by other survivors, which you can trigger too. Another example of a trap is powerful lighting – useful at night, overhead lights can flood an area when triggered to not only make them more visible, but also disorient zombies by essentially blinding them with light.

Dying Light’s whole gameplay rests on a continuous day/night cycle mechanic. In the daytime, zombies are less active, giving you a chance to build up defences and prepare for the night ahead. Once night falls, the real challenge begins, as zombies spawn more frequently and become aggressive. For 95% of Story Missions and 100% of Side Missions, so claims Tymon, you can start a mission at any time of the day, giving you as much or as little time as you desire to complete tasks before the zombies get serious. Hints were dropped that night-time action will lead to greater rewards, leading to a serious risk/reward mechanic – do you start a mission in the day to stay safer for longer; or wait to later in the evening and potentially get more value out of difficult situations? Between one and four players can play at any time, dropping in or out at will. But even though co-op players will share a game world, there’s no requirement for them to perform the same missions – the choice is up to them.

Dying Light also makes use of a dynamic encounter system, making every playthrough different. You may never know when a survivor needing help; or a super-tough zombie that’s harder to defeat will appear. Helping others can lead to rewards as well, but at night-time saving others might be risking your own life. Additional help comes in the form of air drops sent from outside to provide survivors with extra resources, but do you take the time and risk to go pick them up? Your actions in the game will develop your character differently, letting you build yourself up the way you want to play and customise your character the way you like.

Dying Light hits PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows next year.

Fresh off the release of Heavy Rain, Paris-based studio Quantic Dream took to their own developers session at Eurogamer Expo today to show off their next big PS3 title.

Beyond: Two Souls tells the story of the life of a young girl/woman called Jodie, who from birth has been linked with a mysterious entity and doesn’t know why. She doesn’t know if it’s a ghost, an alien or any other entity, but they cannot be separated. This annoys Jodie, who wants to lead a normal life; however, she ends up living a life less normal, while the entity provides her with powers as well as causing her troubles from its own annoyance at being bound to her. The game sees you play as Jodie and her Entity, experiencing various moments of her life while also influencing events within them. Actors Ellen Page and Willem DaFoe star.

The story takes place over fifteen years, but in a chronological disorder, with scenes jumping between her older and younger life in a non-linear method. Players may interact with characters before the scenes where they first meet them, leading to a potentially confusing but ultimately deeply informative storytelling exercise, where the players will fill in the gaps as well as make the decisions for what happens, influencing events in your own way and making your own gameplay experience different from another player’s. Quantic Dream’s view for Beyond is to not just tell a story, but to get the player involved with it. “Some people say if you’re not involving your readers in the story, they won’t remember it. But Stephen Spielberg and [other major directors] say the second you give control to the players, the story is gone. It’s interesting how your perspective changes the better the storyteller you are. … This is what is unique about the Interactive Storytelling medium. It’s the only one that can put the player in the shoes of someone. … But when you separate the story from the gameplay, it doesn’t work. When you do [lots of killing] and then the story is cutscenes, it’s not working. So we try to find a different way to do things.”

To make this possible, Beyond: Two Souls eskews game over sequences except in the most unsalvageable situations, giving players as many opportunities as possible to change the outcome of any occurrence and leading to a non-linearised story. When asleep on a train as the police come to find you, for example, you can make the entity wake Jodie up so she can defend herself; but if you keep her asleep, it’s not game over – you’ll interact with the policemen and new options become available to escape or defend yourself. End up in a police car and it’s still not game over – there’ll be ways to get out. It’s all up to you. All action scenes are different every time.

Players will also have the ability to take control of the Entity instead of Jodie. The Entity is invisible and can fly through matter, going through walls or ceilings and into areas Jodie herself can’t easily reach. It can see people’s auras; and interact with matter like throwing cars and breaking stuff. As the Entity you can also choke people or possess and control characters. Meanwhile Jodie can interact with the real world. A new interaction system also exists in Beyond, to make knowing what you can do things with as least distracting as possible, but still show you your options. A white circle tells you when you can interact with something; if you want to try something, you move the right and left sticks towards what you interact with. With context-sensitive controls, every object has a different action – sometimes multiple actions – opening infinite possibilities.

An innovative part of Beyond is while either one or two players can play at the same time, neither need to have gaming experience and may never even have to touch a DualShock controller. As David Cage explains: “We discovered when talking with fans of Heavy Rain, that many people were playing with a second person. We found that interesting – someone who wasn’t playing was giving their opinions on what should happen. … So we asked ourselves, how can we allow the second person to interact with the game rather than just watch? We implemented a two-player mode where a second player could play the entity while the main stays as Jodie. But what about people who aren’t gamers? … So we developed an App called Beyond Touch, which connects to the console via Wi-Fi; and you can play the entire game via a touchscreen device – the app right now is on iPhone and Android – and you can play the entire game without ever touching a Dualshock controller.”

The other innovation in Beyond: Two Souls comes in the way every scene is animated. For the first time in videogame history, every animation in Beyond has been recorded using “performance capture” technology, with actors acting out each scene and computers digitally rendering the movements of their body AND their faces, leading to completely natural-looking scenes. “We just wanted the actors to act; nothing should be intuitive. … This is a real revolution as most games are done in two takes, with audio recorded in a sound booth; then another take where the audio is played and the actor acts out the motions. That worked for Heavy Rain; but when we tried Performance Capture for Beyond, we found it made a complete difference; we were getting emotions and subtle nuances you just don’t get otherwise.”

“Ellen Page really gave her heart and soul into a character, in a way I’ve never seen in a videogame before.”

When games try to be innovative and do never-before-seen things, there are only ever two likelihoods. Either they succeed and set new ground, taking videogame development to completely new territory; or they flop and it all goes to waste. Time will tell which way Beyond will go, but we at WPS Interactive cross our fingers. Beyond: Two Souls is set for release on 8 October 2013 in North America, 9 October 2013 in Australia, 11 October 2013 in Europe and 17 October 2013 in Japan.