It’s really not as stupid as it sounds – but you still probably won’t want to buy one.

When I heard word Nintendo were due to release a version of their popular 3DS console that didn’t have 3D, I thought I was just hearing crazy rumours and it couldn’t possibly be real. Yet that’s exactly what Nintendo chose to reveal this 29th of September. “Why release a version of a console whose whole gimmick is a glasses-less 3D experience; and remove the 3D? Are they MAD?!?” But then when I thought about it, I realised actually, it makes sense after all – for a certain market, that is.

The Nintendo 2DS is, like the name implies, a new alternative to the 3DS which forgoes the 3D effect. It’s functionally equivalent to the 3DS and plays both 3DS and DS games, so it’s wrong to call it a “new” handheld console – like the Wii had the Wii Mini, this is effectively a trimmed-down redesign of the original concept. For the first time since the original DS in 2006, the new Nintendo 3DS foregoes a clamshell design and goes back to being a single, solid surface not unlike a tablet computer. Rumours suggest that to save costs, the dual screens that define the “DS” part of the entire line are in this console a single touchscreen, with the output of both screens carefully positioned onto separate segments. The plastic bevel hides the unused screen areas giving the illusion of two screens; while also disabling touch for the upper section as only the bottom screen of a DS/3DS has ever supported touch. Other changes include: L and R buttons with a more rounded profile so they can be easily reached (given your hands will have further to stretch); a Sleep switch on the bottom right replacing “closing the lid” on the previous handhelds; and the controls repositioned to the centre of both sides where the screens separate – a change that, unfortunately, has led to the removal of the right speaker from the console, though Stereo output is still possible via headphones.

So, it’s a bulky, flat device with less speakers and reduced portability. Why would you ever want that?

I’ll give you the one reason the 2DS makes sense: Kids playing 3D games. Until now, Nintendo has had real difficulty touting 3DS games and consoles to younger children, a market it has always excelled with before. This is because of the 3D effect itself. Due to the potential of eye strain from watching two images merged together (which is, in basic terms, how stereoscopic 3D works), children under 7 are not advised to use the 3DS with the 3D effect on, for their own health. The problem is, while parents can avoid buying games that use the 3D effect; or can switch it off with the slider on the console’s side, the console’s own built-in software uses the 3D effect and turning it back on is just a case of sliding the switch back up – so a younger child, who probably won’t understand the health risk, can easily be exposed to the unsuitable 3D effect. Therefore, Nintendo can’t target the console or its games to young children, closing it off from one of its best markets – parents buying games for kids. With a new handheld console, with the same features of the 3DS but without the 3D effect as a rule, Nintendo finally make this market their own once again.

Additionally, the lack of hinges on the 2DS, by making it a flat, single surface device, make it less fragile – and we all know how children are with electronics, always dropping them. (On the downside, as the device is permanently open, the screens are always exposed to damage – which Nintendo is resolving by proposing owners also purchase a carry case for the device or screen protectors.) The October 12, 2013 release date of the 2DS – the same day as Pokémon X and Y launches globally – cements the fact that this is a console for the younger children.

The clincher? You can get the new console for just £110 from many UK retailers – significantly less than any 3DS version currently available.

However, those older players like myself – who can take advantage of the 3D effect and which don’t find it causing headaches for them – yet don’t have a 3DS already, might just find the 2DS a bit of a hard sell. While it may support the same games; have the same two internal cameras; the same features; wireless capability and so on, the chunky, non-portable build and the stretch it will cause to press the L and R buttons may be a turn-off, as well as the single speaker; and 3D DOES help to improve the graphics and playability of a fair few titles.

Unless you’re money-conscious, a young child, or concerned about the 3D effect, the Nintendo 2DS is probably best avoided. But if you ARE any of those, you now have an option. And THAT is where the logical insanity of Nintendo makes sense. You’re always welcome at the Sanitarium, Nintendo 😉

Ubisoft Montreal’s trailer for Watch_Dogs, which has been viewed countless times in the last many months – indeed, even at the Eurogamer Developers Presentation today they admitted they’d “seen it way too many times now” (not seen it yourself? YouTube to the rescue!) – makes a big deal of how technology has evolved in ten years, talking about how in 2003, a computer virus blacked out a whole district for a day and led to four people dying; and now ten years later, everything is computerised and a whole town could be hacked by just one individual. Indeed, technology HAS moved fast, even in just half that time. Watch_Dogs is a game that’s been in development for over five years, originally under the codename “Nexus”. Even part of the game’s original logo appears on protagonist Aiden Pearce’s face covering.

However, speaking at Eurogamer, Ubisoft explain that despite the futuristic undertones, Watch_Dogs isn’t as made up as it seems, explaining that in five years technology has evolved from traditional computers to smartphones. “What was the next step up from Smartphones? Smart Cities. It sounds futuristic, but it’s already happening”, citing examples of certain Asian cities investing in city-wide computer networks ahead of the Olympics and other major events. But Watch_Dogs doesn’t take place in Asia – rather, it’s based in modern-day Chicago. Ubisoft cite the reason for this as because Chicago is a large town that’s always evolving; indeed, the Chicago that rose after the Great Fire of Chicago hardly resembles its predecessor. “Every time Chicago has rebuilt, they bring in something new that evolves the town. That was one part of choosing Chicago as the setting. … Another aspect is the density. You need to build chaos. Chicago has complete second layers on the ground, for example intersections where roads go under worlds. No flat world.”

Watch_Dogs tells the story of Aiden Pearce, a vigilante who fears the evolution of a city-wide computer network threatens him and his family. He finds ways to hack the computer network; and using his phone or computer terminals to control it, makes it work for him; uses it to get out of trouble; or gets information about criminals and bad activity around him. Described in Concept Art as “a hero by any means necessary”, Ubisoft explain they take “vigilante” to have a different meaning to the standard assumptions, explaining that when people think of vigilantes, there’s extremes: Many people think of characters like Batman, caped crusaders who deal justice alone; but it’s also true of less “good” characters like Dexter from the TV drama – a serial killer who targets the guilty, thus helping the law but not being part of the law and breaking the law himself with murder. “Aiden is in the middle between Dexter and Batman – Aiden is neither a good guy, nor a bad guy; he’s just taking justice into his own hands to protect him and his family.”

Essentially, Watch_Dogs makes a game of dynamic events and always thinking on your toes. Aiden is constantly aware of his surroundings. For example he always tries to keep his gun concealed; and walks in a relaxed manner, so he doesn’t draw attention. “There’s a lot of different ways to handle a situation. For example, say you have a reputation; and you walk into a shop and while you’re there, a police notice flashes up on screen with your face. One NPC who sees you might try to call the cops. You could shoot him, but then you might attract attention and suddenly there’s two other people calling the cops – then it’s four other people. You can ignore it, but then the cops know where you are and others might call in too as they notice. But if you jam the communications, no-one can make a call. And if you just flash your gun, you might intimidate the first person into thinking twice about making the call himself.”

“Everything is about dynamism. If you’re in an open world and you plan to give people control, everything has to be connected. … A living city has to be heavily pushed. You need to see people interacting, living. … You’re going to escalate matters based on the choices you make; and there’s nothing more satisfying than barely surviving a situation you create because of good, or sometimes bad, choices. So an emphasis is always on choices and consequences … meanings to things.” Later, Ubisoft added: “Nothing is separate elements. Everything is connected.”

This connected focus extends to the game’s multiplayer. Even when playing solo, you are never really alone. Others can potentially join your own games; and just like anyone on the street, you can hack them to get information on and connections from them; but they can do the same to you. As the crowd brought up concerns of griefing, however, Ubisoft explained this has been thought about and will be solved by a Firewall mechanic. All your technology will be protected by a firewall; but if you hack another player, you let down your own defences. When YOU get hacked, however, the firewall goes back on and you can’t be ganged up on by others. Ubisoft plan to adjust the Firewall mechanic based on player feedback. The people who enjoy the challenge may find themselves hacked more often, those who can’t cope will get stronger protection. You can turn it off completely too; but then you’re missing out on what they describe as “a cool additional gameplay experience.”

We’ll leave it to Ubisoft Montreal to have the final words (though these may be somewhat paraphrased):

“It’s absolutely possible to act all the time as you play; so you can think every two seconds. As you play more you’ll think more, and the game will feel fresher. You’ll start thinking more about escape routes as you’re just moving around; avoiding cops if you draw attention etc. – and the game will always feel like something new. That’s what makes our game something truly new.”

Watch_Dogs will hit Windows PCs, PlayStation 3 & 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Wii U, with release dates ranging from November 15 to November 29, 2013 depending on platform and region. Here in the UK, all releases except PS4 will be on November 22, 2013; with the PS4 a week later.

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.

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.