HaydenPanettiere
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Playdate: We're screaming through the teen-horror of 'Until Dawn'
By now you've (hopefully!) read our review of Sony's latest PlayStation 4 exclusive, Until Dawn. I'd also like to think that you've gazed upon its faces and gorgeous cinematography too. If you're still on the fence about buying it though, well, maybe our Twitch stream starting at 6 pm ET / 3 pm PT will change that. We'll be broadcasting two hours of the teen fright-fest today and I'd like to you join Sean Buckley and myself because the decisions we make in the game will be entirely up to you. That's right: You'll choose who lives and who dies, the paths we take through a Canadian mountainside and a whole lot more this afternoon. Are you ready for that kind of responsibility? Perhaps the better question is if you're ready to hear my shrill screams. Let's find out. Together.
The gorgeous faces and stunning cinematography of 'Until Dawn'
The PlayStation 4's latest exclusive Until Dawn is absolutely stunning visually. In particular? Its faces. By using 3D performance capture techniques that include strapping an HD camera rig to actor's heads (including Hayden Panettiere and Peter Stormare) to grab practically every minute detail and expression, the characters come to life in a pretty realistic fashion. What's really cool is that oftentimes once you let the DualShock 4 sit idle for a moment, the camera will zoom in on the face of whichever of the randy teens you're controlling. If motion controls are enabled, you can tilt the gamepad this way and that and the possibly doomed cabeza will follow suit accordingly. It's pretty neat!
The real horror of 'Until Dawn' is that Sony sent it to die
"Are we, like, in a movie right now?" It's an apt question one of the handsome teens starring in PlayStation 4's latest exclusive, Until Dawn, asked about an hour after I picked up the controller. Yes. No. Maybe. It's kind of hard to explain, and it appears Sony would rather not. At its core, Until Dawn is an interactive teen-horror movie (think '90s genre staples Scream or I Know What You Did Last Summer) set at a remote ski lodge where a murderous psychopath is on the loose. But after critics almost universally chastised Sony's other AAA tentpole, The Order: 1886, earlier this year for its gorgeous but bland cinematic leanings, "interactive movie" is a label the gaming juggernaut would rather not bandy about here. In fact, Sony would prefer you not pay attention to this game at all. It's getting no love from the company's marketing department and was weirdly absent from this June's E3 media briefing. And that's a damned shame because Until Dawn is one of the best horror experiences -- interactive or not -- I've ever had.
