Gaming Heavy Rain Review

smc8788, in my opinion it's better than Fahrenheit, but it really is a natural progression. The story is better, but as pointed out in the review, not totally there yet. What may affect your opinion of it over Fahrenheit is how much you liked the more fantastic elements of that story as Heavy Rain is a bit more down to earth (FBI toys excepted!).
In my view it is better becaue it creates a stronger sense of involvement and tension. As suggested by a few people above, rent it at least. Replayability really comes down to how much you like to watch films you;ve seen before. I tend to only watch films once so i rented this. Was great though
Any differing opinions from others who have PLAYED THE GAME at all?

 

God of War 3 is the best lookign console game ever, and HR is not as nice looking as Uncharted 2.

 

Probably this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrSwaA-FAj4

 

LOL someone had to do it, right?!

A friend of mine played the game and said wonders of it, although not replaying it he said he got the best ending and went to see the other at youtube. He said even if the game isn't worthy of a GOTY award, it comes close to it just because of the innovation and the thrills the game provide to the gamer. He's a trustworthy person and an experienced player since he has one of the biggest game collections.

 

+1
Hey Joe, give us a report about that!

 

For Joe to say that there's no replayability is glossing over the fact that there are multiple endings to the game, based on your decisions throughout the game. I don't know whether those decisions reflect on later scenes or whether they just change the endings, but it's wrong to just dismiss it out of hand. You could equally say that ME2 has no replayability.

The toothbrush/shaving/drawing scenes form a control tutorial - and although I agree that there are more exciting ways to introduce a character, it also serves to set up the scene: Ethan is a man with a totally normal life, a good job, loving wife and two snotty-nosed kids. The slow and idyllic nature of the first section serves to highlight how far Ethan falls: from nice house to crappy tenement; from happy marriage to pending divorce; from two happy kids to one sulky kid.

The problem is that we don't have any of these introductions for the other three characters - and because all four characters tell their own first-person narrative, there's no third-person exposition explaining how they come to be involved and what their motivations are or even why they're doing whatever they happen to be doing at the moment.

There a couple of glaring plot holes that never get adequately explained - such as the reason behind Madison's apartment scene, or

Spoiler

how Ethan ends up with origami figures in his hand every time he wakes up from a blackout

.

It's a brave move in a world dominated by FPS games, and one that does provide some level of entertainment (plot holes aside, it's a good and gripping story, and Hollywood has had options on the story since 2006) - it's just not as revolutionary as we'd hoped it would be.

It's not for everyone - for FPS junkies, there is a dearth of things that go boom and there's no BFG available for any of the characters - but it's a step closer towards the very 1990's goal of "interactive entertainment".

 

Quicktimes in ME2? Hardly. There was only the heroic choice thing, which doesn't really count. It stays there for ages and nothing happens if you press any other button. 'sides, the sequel had loads more above the first game.

But I digress. Point is, there are exceptions to every rule - QTEs are done poorly far more than they are done right. Also, I didn't review (or like) Bayonetta. Emily did.

 

Hm, I actually like QTE, at least sometimes. As it was done e.g. in Shenmue. Even the cool 1 on 1 scene in Headhunter it worked well. But I'm not sure whether I would like to have that all the time.
But I find this game interesting, because of its new way to 'tell a game'. If I had a PS3, I guess I would buy this game. But as I'm only a PC gamer...

 

All kind of true, especially on the endings I suppose. I meant more that the game doesn't really inspire different playthroughs, unlike ME2. ME2 had two direct paths through the game, so as soon as you'd done one way you wanted to try the other. This is more like, yes, there are different endings, but they aren't really enough to drag yourself through the game for.

As for the characters, yes I agree that Ethan's opening is good. Slow, deserving, and with room to explore and learn. But he's the exception. Shelby, Jayden and Paige all have crap intros that don't fit flush with the game. Learning to brush your teeth and dry off after a show serves a purpose in Ethan's opening segment. Doing such activities again for the other characters throughout the game just gets in the way.

 

HUH? I am playing Me 2 right now, I have encounterd close to a dozen QTE events already, and I might be half way through.

QTE in god of War 3 is great, its not always a bad thing, if done properly.

 

Oh, damnit!

In matters reltaing to the game, it sounds like it's essentially a very expensive CYOA with pretty pictures. Am I wrong? After all, I see no mention of combat in the review outside of QTEs. At least Shenmue had arena fights!

 

The one thing that really strikes me as strange about Heavy Rain from watching videos of it is the jerky, unrealistic animation of the characters, reminiscent of Quantic Dream's first game, Omikron : The Nomad Soul.

Something about the animation just looks and feels wrong, especially in contrast to the detailed character visuals.
I think having such high-res, realistic characters so jerkily animated really kills the 'movie-like' effect for me that a game like this needs to thrive on, though I haven't actually sat down and played the game first-hand yet, admittedly.

What makes it especially strange is that Quantic Dream pride themselves on their motion-capture technology and used to harp on back in the days of Omikron about how they had their own MoCap studio and how good it was, etc.

It suggests to me that either their animation techniques are flawed or that they haven't hit the nail on the head when it comes to applying MoCap animation to IK-animated characters in a game.


On the other hand, it could've just been slow QTE responses from whoever was playing in the videos I saw, it's difficult to judge it fairly without playing it for myself.

 

Ok, where are these QTEs in Mass Effect 2?

 

Click mouse to do Paragon/Renegade action during conversations.

 

Like I said then, just the heroic choices. To me those hardly count. It's just one button press, not a sequence of buttons that require quick pressing or hammering. It's just a left or right mouse click and, if you don't press it, you'll see that they nearly always hang around for at least a whole minute so that you have time to think it through. Even then, if you ignore it then it never kills or hurts you or changes the plot hardly. It's little more than a dialog or action choice IMHO.

 

Its a great game, and im pretty sure you can skip brushing your teeth. And im pretty sure quite a few people will remember this amazing game, just like everyone remembers Myst and Sam & Max.

 

Sounds a lot like Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

 

Fair enough. To be honest, I quite like Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain... I really can't see the fuss about shaving or showering or whatever... although I admit that the "shake controller now" thing annoys me as I hate having to shake the controller about. Lair did the Sixaxis best so far, I think... slight movements are more than enough to steer etc...

I can't stand QTE's that are "press x, y, z, a, b, c, y, z, b, a, c to not die" but when it's just one button it's hardly a chore. Still, a QTE is a QTE in the end.

Right now I can't decide whether this game will become "a classic" or not - Fahrenheit didn't, but then it was a bit of a niche game that never really seemed to be well publicised. Time will tell.

 

A QTE is definitely not a QRE in the end. Get a more open mind.

 

An 'interactive' video game with gratuitous nudity? Wasn't this released as 'Voyeur' on the Philips CDI system in 1993?

Ah the memories...