[HTML1]
When Beyond Good & Evil creator Michel Ancel signaled that Beyond Good & Evil 2 would be skipping this generation entirely, and that developer Ubisoft was pinning their hopes on the power of the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4, the news did nothing to surprise fans - who by now are well-attuned to waiting for the follow-up to 2003's highly acclaimed action-adventure thriller.
As it turns out, though, the announcement may have been a calculated effort on the behalf of Ancel to begin stirring the Beyond Good & Evil 2 pot (E3 is less than a month away, after all). In the past few days since, a rapid-fire spat of tech demo screenshots leaked onto the web - but with more dodgy conjecture than actual clarification to accompany them, they didn't make for much insight on the game itself.
Fortunately, the rather conspicuous leaks haven't been plugged yet. The full video, encompassing the aforementioned tech screens, has been uploaded to YouTube by user UnseenResurf and walks us through a clustered (presumably Indian) market street packed with carts and cattle, battered shops, dusty rooms, and (if you look closely enough at the 0:43 mark) the backside of protagonist Jade in her familiar attire. The environment is strikingly reminiscent to the purported BG&E 2 demo footage that hit the web a few years back.
According to the video's uploader, the footage was generated from a 2009 demo built for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. That's important to consider because it means the Beyond Good & Evil 2 build you're seeing is beyond rudimentary in terms of graphical and processing power for a game poised as a next-generation holdout. The main attraction - lack of fancy particle effects or photorealistic toilets and all - is the absorbingly rich design focus and careful construction of every square inch of real estate that mesmerized players of the first game; depicting a ramshackle Indian fish market with more rust than fish and eliciting the desire to book a trip is an art very few can master.
As the adulation of our Beyond Good & Evil HD review suggested last year, the series is still very much a relevant force in the gaming industry, and we can't wait to see where BG&E is headed under the direction of Ancel (Rayman) and the potential prowess of next-gen tech.
Ranters, what do think about the potential new environments and design of Beyond Good & Evil 2? Do you think the recent news on the game is setting the stage for an E3 reveal?
Beyond Good & Evil 2 is currently in development for next-gen consoles.
-
Follow me on Twitter @Brian_Sipple