Heavy Rain?

[Typewriter]

This game comes out in two weeks and one day.

I'm going to pop.

Anyone else?

[Comet]

Man, I need a PS3.

[Typewriter]

One of my friends is incredibly anti-sony and he picked up a PS3 for this game. When he told me he got it it took a lot of work for me to not check to see if the world had started the final descent.

[Sholos]

If I had the money, I would be buying a PS3 to play this game (well, other games, too, but this game is foremost in my mind right now).

[ObadiahtheSlim]

http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/halolz-dot-com-heavyrain-teamfortress2.jpg

Like this?

[AgentPaper]

An actual description of what the game is and why you're so over-hyped about it might be nice for those of us who've never even heard of this.

[Lord of Rapture]

http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/halolz-dot-com-heavyrain-teamfortress2.jpg

Like this?

+1 Internets.

[Myatar_Panwar]

Played the first few hours of Indigo Prophesy. I really liked some aspects of that game, and it looks like they are bringing them to heavy rain. But please.... nothing like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2pnkmYIhI)

I mean.... what

[warty goblin]

Played the first few hours of Indigo Prophesy. I really liked some aspects of that game, and it looks like they are bringing them to heavy rain. But please.... nothing like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2pnkmYIhI)

I mean.... what

You know, it's rare I see a video of gameplay so obviously foul I actually cannot bear to finish watching it. Thank you for successfully quashing any interest I may ever have had in picking up Indigo Prophesy. My blood pressure sincerely thanks you.

[ZeroNumerous]

Played the first few hours of Indigo Prophesy. I really liked some aspects of that game, and it looks like they are bringing them to heavy rain. But please.... nothing like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2pnkmYIhI)

I mean.... what

QTEs. The entire game is QTEs? Why...!?

EDIT:


An actual description of what the game is and why you're so over-hyped about it might be nice for those of us who've never even heard of this.

Wikipedia says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heavy_Rain)...

[Lord of Rapture]

Played the first few hours of Indigo Prophesy. I really liked some aspects of that game, and it looks like they are bringing them to heavy rain. But please.... nothing like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2pnkmYIhI)

I mean.... what

What. The. Heck.

This... this can't be real. Tell me it isn't real.

WHY THE HECK ARE THERE ONLY QUICKTIME EVENTS?

[Comet]

Be fairly warned, folks: Heavy Rain is also about quicktime events.

On the plus side, the team realised that they should've just kept the fighting away from Indigo Prophecy. Heavy Rain will be all about the cinematic, awesomely pretty adventure gaming/ interactive movie.

Heavy Rain seems to be very much an interactive movie with a fair helping of adventure game elements. If that's not your thing, wear this dunce cap you probably won't enjoy this game.
Even Indigo Prophecy was one of the most awesome things ever until the last third or so, when the silly Matrix ripoff started to happen. Until then it was a cleverly crafted supernatural thriller where you could decide the fate of the protagonist to a certain degree.

In summary:
Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit, as it is properly called)= Good idea, flawed execution
Heavy Rain= Like Fahrenheit, but it seems to actually work this time.

[Typewriter]

Sorry I didn't give a decent description. I kind of figured that it would be impossible to accurately explain the game myself, and I also knew that only people who are already interested in the game are going to be interested(QTE).

Interactive movie is completely true, and I am going insane waiting for it :0

[Jahkaivah]

Played the first few hours of Indigo Prophesy. I really liked some aspects of that game, and it looks like they are bringing them to heavy rain. But please.... nothing like this. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kw2pnkmYIhI)

I mean.... what

I didn't know the Matrix was owned by Disney.


http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/halolz-dot-com-heavyrain-teamfortress2.jpg

You want to hear a prediction? There's not gonna be any gas, watch.

[Archpaladin Zousha]

Wait, Heavy Rain? Isn't that the name of a stage in Left 4 Dead 2 or something? :smallconfused:

[warty goblin]

Be fairly warned, folks: Heavy Rain is also about quicktime events.

On the plus side, the team realised that they should've just kept the fighting away from Indigo Prophecy. Heavy Rain will be all about the cinematic, awesomely pretty adventure gaming/ interactive movie.



I won't be getting Heavy Rain, since its PS3 exclusive, so I haven't been following it very closely so I could be missing something. But doesn't this stand to run into the age-old QTE problem wherein the player is so focused on the little button prompts they don't actually pay attention to what's going on on the screen?

[Comet]

I won't be getting Heavy Rain, since its PS3 exclusive, so I haven't been following it very closely so I could be missing something. But doesn't this stand to run into the age-old QTE problem wherein the player is so focused on the little button prompts they don't actually pay attention to what's going on on the screen?

From what I've heard they will be focusing on fairly intuitive joystic movements as far as quicktime events are concerned. There won't be much 'press X+ Triangle to survive', which is, again, a clear improvement from Fahrenheit.

Most of the game will be talking heads and investigation at a relatively slow pace anyway, so there won't be that much action to miss. This is all according to the previews and such, though, so I can't say how well the game stays true to that concept.

[Yora]

I got distracted from the background just by watching the video posted earlier.

[valadil]

I may pick it up. Gotta finish Demon's Souls and Dragon Age first. And even then, White Knight Chronicles looks more appealing to me than Heavy Rain. By then I might just get HR used.

Also, what is with the QTE trend? I didn't mind it in God of War and the new Star Wars game. It felt like you won the fight on your own and then played the QTE instead of watching a victory movie. But that video linked above was way beyond a victory movie. If I wanted to press a button at a certain time I'd go back to playing Rock Band.

[AgentPaper]

http://www.halolz.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/halolz-dot-com-heavyrain-teamfortress2.jpg

Like this?

:smalltongue:

I think I would much prefer a game like this than "Oh hey it's a movie where you have to press buttons for it to keep going." :smallyuk:

[Raroy]

An interactive movie for the ps3? I already have metal gear soild 4.

That is my contribution to the thread.

[Comet]

:smalltongue:

I think I would much prefer a game like this than "Oh hey it's a movie where you have to press buttons for it to keep going." :smallyuk:

It's more of a case of "Hey here's a movie where you can press buttons to determine how the story plays out", to be fair. It's all about immersing yourself into various roles in a murder mystery.

I'm pretty sure it's got some good reviews already and that it's going to be a huge improvement over Fahrenheit. Definetly on my must-have list if I ever get a PS3.
Hah, that's a good one. Me. Able to afford a PS3 someday. Hah :smallfrown:

[Myatar_Panwar]

At least the QTE look more interesting and varying than the ones IP did, which were silly easy on the PC. I occasionally failed just to watch the overwhelming cliches of characters get bonked on the head or something.


An interactive movie for the ps3? I already have metal gear soild 4.

That is my contribution to the thread.

Yes I too only buy one of each genre of game.

When purchasing books I make sure that they are not of the fantasy genre, as I once read a book like that and still own it.

[Raroy]

I never said it was a good contribution. If it makes you feel any better, I am getting the game.

Man, sarcasam really fails over the tubes, eh?

[AgentPaper]

It's more of a case of "Hey here's a movie where you can press buttons to determine how the story plays out", to be fair. It's all about immersing yourself into various roles in a murder mystery.

I'm pretty sure it's got some good reviews already and that it's going to be a huge improvement over Fahrenheit. Definetly on my must-have list if I ever get a PS3.
Hah, that's a good one. Me. Able to afford a PS3 someday. Hah :smallfrown:

Well, if you're talking about something like there being a big branching tree of possible story routes depending on whether you decide to try and save the girl or you sit on the couch munching potato chips or try to start a band, then yes, that might be interesting, as a kind of "You're the main character of this movie" type of deal.

However, it looks more like "If you don't press this button within half a second you can't watch the rest of the movie!", which frankly is just annoying, even if the story is good.

I mean, how much would change if you just got a bot to do all the quick-time events for you?

[Comet]

Well, if you're talking about something like there being a big branching tree of possible story routes depending on whether you decide to try and save the girl or you sit on the couch munching potato chips or try to start a band, then yes, that might be interesting, as a kind of "You're the main character of this movie" type of deal.

However, it looks more like "If you don't press this button within half a second you can't watch the rest of the movie!", which frankly is just annoying, even if the story is good.

I mean, how much would change if you just got a bot to do all the quick-time events for you?
Heavy Rain is definetly going for the first option. Failing a quicktime event or any other task is promised to lead into new, sometimes dangerous situations and very rarely into a game over screen.

They've even got multiple main characters, so character death doesn't have to stop the story. Or so I've heard, anyway. I'm defending a game I haven't even played yet here. But I'm pretty sure the developers have managed to deliver on most of their promises this time.

[Myatar_Panwar]

However, it looks more like "If you don't press this button within half a second you can't watch the rest of the movie!", which frankly is just annoying, even if the story is good.

I'm pretty sure I've heard somewhere that failing a quicktime event usually won't result in an end of game.

Here is the source (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJxrpZtUVU) (spoilers in it)

[Sholos]

Specifically, if a main character dies, it just jumps to a different main character, with the first's (or second's, or third's) death having a major impact on the story. And it's not just the QTE's that affect the story, but little things that you do, like spending time with the dad's son in the beginning versus ignoring him.

[readsaboutd&d]

It doesnt sound that appealing. I mean, every time you play, you get a different story? So Im going to have to play this thing at least 4 times? And probably more? This is the sort of thing that's always the problem with karma meters.

[Sholos]

It doesnt sound that appealing. I mean, every time you play, you get a different story? So Im going to have to play this thing at least 4 times? And probably more? This is the sort of thing that's always the problem with karma meters.

In what way is having several different stories to experience a bad thing? Normally I see complaints that a game doesn't offer replayability. This is the first I've ever seen someone complain about the fact that it does.

However, there is no need to play through the game more than once if you have no desire to (though if you don't, I wouldn't hesitate in saying that this is not the game for you). You can play through once, get a story, and never look back. Just like with Mass Effect, or any game where you make story changing decisions. No one's forcing you to get the other stories.

If you feel you have to experience everything a game has to offer, and you feel that more than one story is a bad thing, I suggest you stick to safer fare, like Halo and Modern Warfare. Nice, linear, non-branching gameplay and story right there that you only have to play through once to see it all. Sure, that story might be ultimately shallow and only good for a moment's entertainment, but such fare usually is. Have fun with whatever you play.

[psilontech]

WARNING: Trollin' a bit.

Not on PC, don't care.

[warty goblin]

In what way is having several different stories to experience a bad thing? Normally I see complaints that a game doesn't offer replayability. This is the first I've ever seen someone complain about the fact that it does.

There are really three reasons I can think of to complain about a game needing to be replayed a lot:
1) Time. With all the good games that come out I at least have a hard enough time finishing them once, let alone multiple times. Having a game with a linear story means you can know you saw all the good parts.

2) The 'seventy percent' syndrome, wherein the second (and third and fourth) times you play a game, they are 70% the same game, and only 30% new stuff. This can lead to frustration- namely wishing the morons on the screen would shut up and get the part you've seen five times over with, so you could get to some new stuff.

3) Focus. There is something to be said for a game that tells a single story very, very well. Most of my favorite game stories fall into this catagory.



If you feel you have to experience everything a game has to offer, and you feel that more than one story is a bad thing, I suggest you stick to safer fare, like Halo and Modern Warfare. Nice, linear, non-branching gameplay and story right there that you only have to play through once to see it all. Sure, that story might be ultimately shallow and only good for a moment's entertainment, but such fare usually is. Have fun with whatever you play.
While you will never hear me argue that Modern Warfare or Halo offer deep stories, I think it is a mistake to equate linear stories with shallow ones in all cases. Many linear game stories are pretty trite yes, but then I'd argue that so are a lot of game stories with all sorts of choices.

[Yora]

1) Time. With all the good games that come out I at least have a hard enough time finishing them once, let alone multiple times. Having a game with a linear story means you can know you saw all the good parts.

Now this sounds a lot like some kind of falacity. I don't know which one, but there's surely someones name that this is attributed to.

Just because you use something only up to 70-80% of what it has to offer, it does not mean that this partial use is overall less gain than you would get from making full use of something else with a smaller amount of content.
Even if I use only 12 hours out of 16, that would still be more than using all 10 hours out of 10.

But I completly agree on number 3. I no longer really care for open world games. It was fun in Baldur's Gate 2 and Gothic. But maybe it's because I'm getting older, I much more enjoy one story being told very well, instead of loosing myself in hours of side plot before remembering that there was something of a main storyline, to which I could go back. Games like Baldur's Gate, Gothic, or Planescape wouldn't be the same if they were more linear, and I guess there are still many very good open world games these days, which are good, because they were made to be open world. But right now, I very much enjoy just sitting back and enjoy the ride of Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, and Shadow of the Colossus. :smallbiggrin:

[warty goblin]

Now this sounds a lot like some kind of falacity. I don't know which one, but there's surely someones name that this is attributed to.

Just because you use something only up to 70-80% of what it has to offer, it does not mean that this partial use is overall less gain than you would get from making full use of something else with a smaller amount of content.
Even if I use only 12 hours out of 16, that would still be more than using all 10 hours out of 10.

Arithmatically it is a fallicy, I quite agree. But that doesn't mean that a long game in which I won't see everything because of choices I make doesn't feel less satisfying than the adrenaline soaked fifteen hours of Called to Shoot Terrorists 5: Return to Notiraqistan, where choice boils down to 'do I use this shotgun, or that shotgun?'

If I make a choice in vast, branching game Nocturnal Times Without Winter: Beginning of Dragon Era, and it turns out to be unfun, there is always the possibility that Option B was fun. I'm haunted by the ghost of fun I did not have. Even if the choice I made was fun, there's still the spectral chance that the other path was better*.

Or consider the case of the sidequest. In many games like NTWW:BDA, the side quests can be really fun, or they can be running across fifteen loading screens to fetch somebody's diapers. Often going into the quest, I have no way of telling which it will be. Thus if I get a sidequest, I'm faced with the choice between refusing it, and potentially sacrificing some really excellent gameplay and story, or accepting it and slogging through absolute drival. Or I could go play Called to Shoot Terrorists, where the only decision I have to make is whether to kill the robotic clone of Hitler with the flamethrower or the rocket launcher, both of which are very likely to be quite fun.

This isn't to say that choices can't make a game more fun, but it needs to be carefully, and well integrated into the story to work.


*I'm not actually this insecure about games. This is for illustration purposes only.


But I completly agree on number 3. I no longer really care for open world games. It was fun in Baldur's Gate 2 and Gothic. But maybe it's because I'm getting older, I much more enjoy one story being told very well, instead of loosing myself in hours of side plot before remembering that there was something of a main storyline, to which I could go back. Games like Baldur's Gate, Gothic, or Planescape wouldn't be the same if they were more linear, and I guess there are still many very good open world games these days, which are good, because they were made to be open world. But right now, I very much enjoy just sitting back and enjoy the ride of Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, and Shadow of the Colossus. :smallbiggrin:

I'm reaching about the same point myself. Open world action games can be pretty fun, but linear stories tend to work better for me than the other sort. The Witcher is an exception to this because it doesn't neuter the actual character of the player character the same way a lot of choice driven games do, but for the most part I prefer my yarns to be reasonably linear.

The thing that I don't like about linear games is that all too often the linearity of story results in very limited, linear gameplay. Far Cry 2 got this perfectly right, the story was almost entirely linear, but the actual battlespace of the gameplay was wide open.

[littlebottom]

i just finished the demo of said game, all i can say is, yes, very much a interactive movie. the movement systems a bit bleh though... you have to hold down R2 to walk at a slow pace. and it does have moments where you have to "SPAM X NOW!" or "SQUARE, NOW X, NOW L2!" bits.

Before the demo, i wasnt sure what to think, after the demo, i think it could of been so much better if it wasnt for just a few minor changes. i doubt ill be getting it now. but thats me, and im not the kind of guy who thinks this is bad just because of the whole thing isnt going round shooting people and taking their cars. i think that it would be intresting to kill some time on, so if i can pick it up cheap, second hand after a month or 2, then i might grab it. otherwise. im afraid no.

no amount of hookers/intrigue/story will allow me to bypass the annoyance of "ive got asthma quick, take your inhaler before you die! via the use of button presses and odd analogue stick movements" moments :smallsigh:

[Worira]

If you feel you have to experience everything a game has to offer, and you feel that more than one story is a bad thing, I suggest you stick to safer fare, like Halo and Modern Warfare. Nice, linear, non-branching gameplay and story right there that you only have to play through once to see it all. Sure, that story might be ultimately shallow and only good for a moment's entertainment, but such fare usually is. Have fun with whatever you play.


Or Bioshock, Shadow of the Colossus, Half Life 2, the Silent Hill series, Beyond Good and Evil...

Oh, sorry, I got reality in your snobbery.

[Typewriter]

i just finished the demo of said game, all i can say is, yes, very much a interactive movie. the movement systems a bit bleh though... you have to hold down R2 to walk at a slow pace. and it does have moments where you have to "SPAM X NOW!" or "SQUARE, NOW X, NOW L2!" bits.

Before the demo, i wasnt sure what to think, after the demo, i think it could of been so much better if it wasnt for just a few minor changes. i doubt ill be getting it now. but thats me, and im not the kind of guy who thinks this is bad just because of the whole thing isnt going round shooting people and taking their cars. i think that it would be intresting to kill some time on, so if i can pick it up cheap, second hand after a month or 2, then i might grab it. otherwise. im afraid no.

no amount of hookers/intrigue/story will allow me to bypass the annoyance of "ive got asthma quick, take your inhaler before you die! via the use of button presses and odd analogue stick movements" moments :smallsigh:

In the tutorial section when it made you go through a half dozen steps to use your inhaler I was about to pop. I'm really hoping that was a tutorial only type situation, and that normally, for things like the inhaler it's a simple one or two step process.

I'm a giant whore for things like this, so it really appeals to me. I've never had the problem that a lot of people have where they can't focus on the gameplay due to all QTE. It's kind of automatic for me in most games, so I usually don't even notice that I'm pressing those buttons.

Hope that if you do pick up the game, you enjoy it :)

[Myatar_Panwar]

Guys over at GiantBomb did a quick look of the demo, for those interested (and without a PS3 :smallfrown:). Linky (http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-heavy-rain-demo/17-2021/)