Heavy Rain - Now with QTE SPOILERS

Downloading the demo now.
Excited? Maybe? Will discuss.

isn't this basically a really expensive choose your own adventure?

figured i might as well skip the demo as i am going to definitely pick it up when it comes out. it is reviewing nicely. pretty optimistic about it.

comes out on same day as sonic and sega all stars racing. if heavy rain delivers and i come out of that day with a serviceable next gen cart racer, it will go down as a storied day in the annals.

I also didn't try out the demo, but am definitely planning on picking it up (if I scrape up enough cash). Very interested in a game that seems to try to do things so differently.

what is the deal with it?

it uses a revolutionary new "first person perspective" so that when you are killing enemy combatants you get the visceral thrill of having no peripheral vision.

Quick Time Event: The Movie

actually, thinking about this in relation to the conversation about uncharted 2 being the new dragon's lair, i guess heavy rain could actually be considered the real inheritor of that tradition. as in understand it, you are very limited in how much you can move your character. the game unfolds scene by scene like a movie and you react to specific events with indicated button presses. early on people were assuming that this would result in a horrible qte-burdened mess, but the review consensus seems to be that it suits the game perfectly. it's a dark murder mystery with some stark moral choices that dramatically alter how the game unfolds. there are no reloads or do-overs, and if you get someone killed there is a limit of four playable characters before game over.

have any of the reviews said how long it is? how long can an interactive movie game last?

10 hours i think. the choices make it very repayable but the game's creator has pleaded with people to only play it once, to preserve the effect or something.

Since everything is in the 3D engine, they can make the game pretty long, especially reusing the same character models and sets for many scenes. Indigo Prophecy was a lot longer than I expected it to be.

see the only thing is this sounds like a game that relies heavily on writing/story and i just dont trust a video game to deliver that for me

yeah, it sounds like they've dispensed with gameplay entirely. reminds me of those '90s "interactive movie" cd games (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherlock_Holmes:_Consulting_Detective)

$60 for that... ehh

$60 on day one, trade in a week later for $40, net outlay $20, good time had by all.

deal

aarrissi-a-roni re: sonic and sega all stars racing - just tried out the demo for that and it didn't click with me. It felt servicable, but not fun? In particular the music & the announcer was annoying & the game just felt lacking in charm - I'd much rather just play Mario Kart Wii (which I already own) as this offers nothing more & kinda less. The drifting also felt kinda shit. As did the different power ups. I'd say wait for Mod Nation Racers - maybe that will turn out okay(?. At the least it will offer something different - we know that.

well, on the one hand, awww nuts. on the other hand, if i am honest i am not looking for much. i do not wii so i really have nothing to fall back on. if it plays okay i will probably go for it. we got a llllot of mileage out of star wars super bombad racing, and i assume 'bombad' is gungan for 'somewhat below average'.

i don't know why - i must have read something - but i have essentially written mod nation racers off. i hope i am proved wrong.

$60 on day one, sell on amazon a week later for $54, net outlay $6, good time had by me.

i'm fired

this was interesting but it feels like it defines "rental"

it does feel unique; fights are deeply engaging QTE and not fun! You want to avoid them! Even if you win, you get beat up badly.
then there's THIS:
http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-mall-heavy-rain/61347
GAH

This game got so many sloppy kisses 100% reviews

That video actually looks really interesting to me! Sure, the drama is a little overblown, but just the idea of having a gameplay section that's not just punching people in the face (not that there's anything wrong with that) is worth a look... and it seems like the whole game's going to be full of that sort of thing. I love that the tension is based on losing track of your kid in a shopping mall.

the slathering fanboy press coverage is REALLY turning me off to this game. "This isn't really one of those games that you play" *twelve paragraphs of intro-to-community-college-level textual analysis* "9/10".

it does seem a bit odd that there is so much hype for what seems to be a very niche game. how well did Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit sell? and does this mean that on rails games are ok now?

see the only thing is this sounds like a game that relies heavily on writing/story and i just dont trust a video game to deliver that for me

exactly my fears, slocki otm

According to Wikipedia, Fahrenheit/Indigo sold 800k worldwide, much better than I would've guessed.

Also that was a multiplatform Xbox/PS2/PC release.

I played through the demo. Really neat, but if you didn't like Indigo Prophecy you won't like this either.

Sony have been very clever about building hype for this game.

Also all platform specific games get way more hype as they are all just fan-boy fodder.

plus most of the VG bloggers have been talking about narrative as the new frontier in videogames as neither graphics or sound are likely to improve considerably.

and the wii has shown that new control systems can be gimmicky

so this fits in with the half bakes musings of most VG journalists.

I think the game will rule btw.

I wish devs wd focus on AI over narrative and gfx; is it only valve and bungie tht gets this?

valve has an awesome focus on narrative!

yeah, they have tight gfx and sound too... but they also nail the illusion of AI in a way you don't get with other FPS (except perhaps halo)

like, enemy AI? what games? i guess it's good in the half-life games. but it doesn't really exist in portal. nor team fortress.

sir, what are you talking about?!~

F.E.A.R. has excellent A.I., at least on PC

yo, this game is awful. just a head's up!

thanks

no problem! TGI Friday's is also kinda shitty.

sometimes I'm in the mood for TGI Friday's, though; will I ever been in the mood for this game?

I guess I could play the demo I downloaded and find out for myself

what else is shitty GM

just got this... but now im going to throw it away. thanks GM

i've figured out what GM stands for..

http://www.nomadradio.fm/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Oigamesmaster.jpg
"yo, this game is awful. just a head's up!"

baaaaaaahahahahahahahaha

Just a heads up for anyone currently playing Heavy Rain (or intending to play it any time soon). There's some jackass on Twitter who's given himself a username that's a huge fucking spoiler for Heavy Rain and is spam-following anyone who mentions the game or other gaming-related keywords in their tweets.

people are awesome

You know I'm always looking out for ILG.

The writing in Heavy Rain is incompetent. That's pretty significant, since story's about the only thing the game is concerned with. It's like playing through a late night Cinemax movie but with most of the fake sex cut out. Actually that's not fair to Cinemax movies; they're often amusing, intentionally or not, whereas Heavy Rain is completely humorless.

That's a C&P 2010 quote for when Heavy Rain gets an 11-way tie for 21st place.

you can get this game on xbox btw
http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/761567/marvelous-interactive-project/videos/deadlypremon_gmp_driving_22210.html;jsessionid=365e5mbn26sbh

link

lol my gf just mocked me for playing this

gotta say i'm curious about this

that ten minute gameplay video of a woman sexying herself up in a bathroom was kinda o_O

it's the most fun i've had trying to climb up a muddy hill

$54 on day one, sell on amazon a day later for $51, net outlay $3, boring time had by me.

maybe i'm not gonna buy a PS3 after all

I'm not even sure this is worth $3.

RIP

i have never been so angry. i hadn't even taken my copy out of the plastic, but i put it in the microwave anyway. fuck these assholes and their shitty game.

and as for all those reviewers who gave it high marks...first against the wall, you hear?

heavy pain in jeff's butt

high marks from amazon customers

more like high marks from high customers

Metacritic Score: 87
User Score: 6.1

Generally favorable reviews

Based on 71 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Game has 7 100s and 1 99. Who the fuck are these people.

tracer, surely the show is another reason to buy a PS3?
http://www.vertigogaming.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/show10.jpg
*droooooooool*

main reason to buy a PS3 is WipeoutHD, IMO

god stop rubbing it in ;_;

still haven't BOUGHT wipeout, maybe i should take a blizzard plunge

guys i want to hear more about heavy rain

well, the thing about Heavy Rain is PRESS △ TO READ THE REST OF THIS POST OOPS TOO LATE

is heavy rain just like a whole game of those mini moments in RE4, where you had to QUICK, PRESS TRIANGLE & CIRCLE TO DODGE THIS BOULDER !! oh you failed.
?

(they were crap)

Apparently it is, and I'm guessing the reviewers who loved it don't read because they keep talking about how awesome the story is, whereas everyone who has panned it says the story is a useless pile of shit

I don't think you can fail the though, right - the game just kinda keeps going whatever you do (even if your character dies as a result of your actions or non-actions)? I should really try out the demo....

if it's better than fahrenheit (same developer guy) then it is v. good. Fahrenheit's story turned pretty woeful but it had a new (ish/kinda) and interesting mechanic for those stories so is v. exciting. This seems to be pretty much the same but with better mechanics and apparently a better story (tho prob. still awful). If i had a ps3 i'd buy this in a second.

i am gonna put some time in on this over the weekend, so i will be in a position to tell everyone what to think on monday

I mean Fahrenheit is one of my favorite games of all time despite the shitty ending so if this is even close to as good (and supposedly HR has no supernatural chosen-child radioactive Purple Guild bullshit) then sheeeeeeit - FWIW I loved all the minigames in Fahrenheit (especially the basketball one) so I may be an outlier here

Yeah cozen I'm just not sure about The Show.. I know wrong thread but honestly what I want out of a sports game is something that I can pick up and play - just do.. not.. have.. the patience for spending weeks getting good at hitting an animated baseball so that I can begin to have fun

this is true; lots of things outside of the show to recommend the now £215 (at asda) ps3 tho (says the guy lined up to buy one this week)

rented this & played the first two hours earlier. once you get past admiring the graphics & lighting effects it quickly became very tedious. virtually no gameplay, with as much meaningless waggle as a cheap wii minigame collection. mediocre voice acting & dialog. wtf reviewers have you gone insane?

Hmm that's a bad sign - the first two hours of Fahrenheit were A+ top notch would QTE again

oh, if its QTEs every 10 minutes or so that you want, then you might be ok with it. sound design is top notch btw.

they should have made this a video game of the movie-within-the-movie "Chubby Rain" from Bowfinger

okay, here's what i learned before my PS3 got the plague and booted me off the game. so far, it's a mixture of genuinely compelling and well-meaning but tedious. the start was about 100% tedious and as the game progressed it has moved at a reasonable rate towards being compelling, so that 4 hours in it's about 60-40 in favor of the good stuff, i.e. the detective work/action set pieces. these parts of the game are superbly done, i think, but clearly they are not going to be everyone's thing. the boring parts are usually the character-building, story-depth stuff, but the whole package is less like a michael bay film than this makes it sound. the dull parts are dull because the games makes you use the control system for all manner of pointless tasks, instead of letting you just absorb the information, in case you forget you are supposed to be playing a game, i guess. criticisms about the story and characters, voice-acting, dialog etc are kinda overblown though. they are all good by video game standards, even if the movie adaptation isn't going to win any oscars. if i ever get to play it again, i am excited about the prospect.

which part(s) do you find genuinely compelling? the story? good by video game standards is very faint praise. there have been parts that have made me laugh out loud they were so bad, particularly the FBI agent. what gets me is its all so tedious, long cutscenes with a pointless button press or waggle every now & then.

the actual detective stuff has been a lot of fun, not too much hand-holding so far, but we will see. the dramatic sequences are genuinely tense, in particular the fight in the hooker's room and the grocery store.

it's going to be such a divisive game that my advice to most people would be you have to suck it and see. but, for example,if you are finding anything so bad you have laughed out loud, you are a few levels more cynical than me.

Does this one have Angelo Badalamenti maknig the tunes? Because seriously that added so much more to Indigo Prophecy than it deserved to. I seriously think it might be AB's best music. :O

just felt that the dialogue & delivery was very cliched & hammy. if that makes me cynical then i guess so.

i guess i could express myself better by asking, what is the high watermark of video game dialog and voice acting that makes this laughable? good by video game standards is very faint praise for this kind of thing, but what other standards are you fairly going to judge it by?

i guess i'm judging it against the standards of films, which is the level that Heavy Rain is aspiring to. i mean, its not much of a game, there is very little gameplay, its more of an interactive film. so the dialog & voice acting has to be filmic in its quality to make watching all those lengthy cutscenes worthwhile. and for me obviously they fall very short.

its getting hard to talk about this without spoilers! there was one scene that i thought was very well done.

Go for it; we can always start a new thread if necessary.

officially ducking out of this thread

haha thread title change. there's a bit where you confront a mentally ill religious guy & have to make a split decision. it was very well co-ordinated & i felt my actions actually made some sort of difference, which made a change from "shake the controller up and down before you drink the orange juice" bullshit.

split second decision obv

"shake the controller up and down before you drink the orange juice" bullshit.

haha this is in the game?

has anyone who actually liked fahrenheit played this yet?

?

so, in the end, this was the A for intention C for execution game that a lot of people expected. the characters were promising but ultimately shallow, the story started well but fell apart. those were the pieces they really had to get right and they didn't at all. the gameplay was slight by design but it's like the developers lost the courage of their convictions and tried to pad it out with useless crap like the oj shaking and making goddamn scrambled eggs just as the denouement starts to kick in. i should remember the game for the handful of really great, high drama set pieces, but i can already tell that it's the scrambled eggs that will stay with me.

but it wasn't so far away from the game it was reviewed as. they should do it again, and heed these lessons:
1. don't patronize your audience. make a genuine detective game that you actually have to think about. the fps drones are not going to buy your game anyway.
2. if you construct a great story and populate it with rounded characters, and create a real detective game within that framework, the gameplay will take care of itself. we don't need to make scrambled eggs to have a good time.
3. it's okay to move with the left stick and look around with the right stick. you don't have to screw up your controls just to do something different.

Scrambling those eggs was one of the best parts of Heavy Rain.

i admit i sometimes play a game irl i like to call "making scrambled eggs". however, with that game, if i win, i get some scrambled eggs as a prize.

what happens if you don't scramble the eggs

the kid dies

making fake breakfast is better than playing a second draft from David Cage's sophomore year screenwriting class

of hunger? i really hope this is true.

xp

they should make heavy rains for novels. heavy rain: the magus, i'd play that. heavy rain: gatsby.

cmon it'd be fun.

if you successfully scramble the eggs the hooker with a heart of gold cries a little less

http://www.heavy.com/post/press-x-to-jason-the-game-4539

big lols

haha!

working hard to get all the achievements right now.

Peter Molyneaux has seen the future. And aside from incorporating twitter and a bunch of other bullshit into fable, its heavy rain

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/03/16/molyneux-says-heavy-rain-offers-first-glimpses-of-the-future/

I liked this game! But I loved 90's adventure PC games. I mostly was pushed to keep playing because I knew that Ethan and Madison would someday bone. By the time that happened, I was pretty hooked in the story.

Watched a friend play this game with 3 or 4 other spectator friends over the course of a week or two and we all really enjoyed it. I haven't been interested in the story of a game I haven't been playing myself since twilight princess.

i'm gonna get this :)

this is fuckin intense

Interactive detective movie? How does it compare to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_a_Killing_Moon

Interactive detective movie? How does it compare to

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ripper_%28video_game%29

so far the quick-time events have been awesome, probably my favourite part (besides the ARI spectacles - seriously, so fuckin cool)

also the graphics are AMAZING.. light years beyond Red Dead Redemption for example

I've given in and purchased this, got a taste for getting stuck into this type of adventure game. just over twenty quid so not bad.

Yeah, reckon I'll wait until it hits a tenner myself.

£18 in blockies this week /hotukcozen

so much to say about this game... it's fatally flawed in at least two ways but what an experience anyway.. a couple of times I actually felt like I was in the world of the game after I turned it off. that's only happened with me after playing marathon sessions of gran turismo an then seeing cars corner on the street

I just finished this last night. Managed to save the kid but kill off all three other characters and somehow, I still enjoyed the hell out of it. After I finished it, I went to bed, got up this morning and started a new game.

where did you play from, the second time around?

i finished this last night. the origami killer went free, but i saved the kid and kept ethan alive. everybody else: dead.

i was pretty disappointed by the story, ultimately. and i think the delicate little movements you have to make with the controller should have been limited to just things that are IMPORTANT. i still thought it was fantastic fun.

really interesting article here - http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4412/persuasive_games_the_picnic_.php

this is another great article, i love this stuff about how narrative works -

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27972/Analysis_Heavy_Rains_Storytelling_Gaps.php

only played the intro so far, and the bit up until you turn up to a crime scene. but can't say i'm that impressed with the visuals, which I thought were going to be jaw dropping but imo look pretty basic. maybe they get better.

well i dunno, i was impressed. i only have a 26" TV though.

i'm super impressed with the crowd scenes, how individual everyone is

actually yeah the shopping mall crowd was pretty amazing

Hated the sound of this game. Played it because it was there, my bro has it, and really enjoyed it. Denouement a bit crap but I was with the story up to then.
I have a crush on madison /shamefulshit

hahahahaha

you mean you have a crush on YOURSELF

if they'd made the gestures only necessary for very specific shit and just let you get on with it otherwise it would have been loads better.

the news that this will be Move compatible is v v interesting though; i can imagine it working EXTREMELY well

Think they've done that already. I have no interest in any of that though.

come on you'd be controlling a naked woman with a glowing dildo

gonna start playing this shortly (no reference to prior comment is intended)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FSiZHPuq5Y

^the best game review ive ever seen

I have a crush on madison /shamefulshit

― Efraqueen Juárez (jim in glasgow)

still ashamed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t0uCWjQ6Og

great find canks

on both those videos really

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2JUpCsUOFY

his vids usually annoy me but that one is killing me

the song @ 5:03 lol

SHAUN

this piece of shit is coming to ps4. a whole new generation will be able to press X to JASON

i admit i sometimes play a game irl i like to call "making scrambled eggs". however, with that game, if i win, i get some scrambled eggs as a prize.

― aarrissi-a-roni, Tuesday, March 16, 2010 4:58 PM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

great post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cgOti7gLus

sometimes i wonder how many takes it took to get the right jason
and why did they decide four jasons was enough jasons even knowing that the player was gonna hear it at least twenty times

I think I ended up hearing it nearer 100 times.

I did find it incredibly hilarious though.