Thursday, February 18, 2010

´Heavy Rain´ to turn the tide for PS3



The PlayStation3 exclusive ´Heavy Rain´ is likely to turn the tide for the console, which has been trailing its competitors up until now. The installed hardware base is now within close range of the Xbox360 and – if buyers perceive a better line-up of games – could be set to overtake it this year. The current tally is as follows:

Wii: 67.45 million
Xbox360: 39 million
PlayStation3: 33.71 million

I believe that, given the recent surge in sales, Sony CEO Howard Stringer is confident that the PlayStation branch can soon turn a profit. I no longer believe that Sony is considering leaving the home console business, although that possibility was certainly discussed by Sony executives over the last years. For a final judgement, of course, we will have to wait for the introduction of ´Project Natal´ and ´Sphere´. How the public perceives these new motion control technologies will determine the fate of both the PS3 and Xbox360.

´Heavy Rain´ – a videogaming milestone

As far as ´Heavy Rain´ is concerned, I can assure you that it is a milestone of videogaming and, if marketed effectively, can certainly help to turn the tide for the PlayStation3. It is a thriller with an extremely dense and dark atmosphere, developed by Quantic Dream (´Fahrenheit´, aka ´Indigo Prophecy´). It draws from movies like ´Blade Runner´, but also ´Saw´. As a game, it is highly reminiscent of ´Shenmue´, since it involves players in cut-scenes via quick time events and does not follow the usual pacing of action titles. Instead, the player is invited to take his time and has to engage in mundane tasks, such as cooking lunch, taking a shower or minding kids and infants. As in ´Shenmue´, the game offers an unusually slow but rewarding pacing. The mundane tasks serve to identify with the characters and to only heighten the action which invariably follows.

What greatly sets it apart from ´Shenmue´ is that the game always continues, even if you miss all the quick time events. Your current character (out of a total of four playable ones) may die or another character may die as a result of your failure. But the game will continue, missing out chapters that would have contained those characters, and bringing the story to a conclusion, albeit a grim one. The story, it is claimed, will always make sense, no matter how it plays out individually. And, of course, the choices are sometimes drastic and not easy. Would you go as far as to harm yourself in order to save your child’s life?

As such, ´Heavy Rain´ is taking a number of big risks. If you only play through it once, you will only see a fraction of the entire game. Also, the player is bound to feel frustration and regret, since you cannot easily restart the game when you failed in a specific task. Ideally, the game should be played through without any cheating. For some, frustration may simply put them off. But the majority, I believe, will simply itch to play the game again, right after finishing it for the first time. ´Heavy Rain´ certainly has the highest replay value of any such game I have ever seen.

Emotionally engaging, astounding graphics

And, I can assure you, it is a very emotional game. The plight of a father who wants to save his remaining son from a serial killer is extremely well communicated and the mundane tasks aid this greatly. Playing with a withdrawn and depressed child and eventually making him laugh is utterly rewarding and emotionally engaging. This effectively raises the stakes for you performing well. Failure will result in some feelings of guilt.

The graphics are nothing short of astounding. I attended the game’s premiere in Paris and meeting the actors was an eerie experience, because some of them looked exactly like their digital counterparts. In fact, I would argue, the game is so much closer to photorealism than any other game that you inevitably realize just how far we still have to go to achieve full photorealism. Real facial expressions are extremely subtle, based on dozens and dozens of intricate muscles. In ´Heavy Rain´, the range of emotional expressions is still limited and so the acting comes across as a little woody. But this is by far the best effort in this regard ever. It is leaps and bounds ahead of any other game and probably will remain so for some years to come.

Forgivable flaws

The game is not without its flaws, of course. Since the camera will change automatically, to give you that cinematic experience, the controls are compromised. You start off in one direction, but if the game cuts to an opposing camera angle, you will end up pointing the analogue stick straight back while continuing to walk forward. There is a small latency built in, so you don’t mess up when correcting your path. But it is a little awkward nonetheless.

Also, the frame rate ranges from excellent to abysmal, especially when surrounded by around one hundred people. But these slight technical issues appear irrelevant, given the most rewarding experience that ´Heavy Rain´ offers. An admissible criticism is the fact that the player’s freedom is an illusion, to some extent. Not all quick time events have wide-ranging consequences. You cannot, for example, save the main character’s first son from being killed in a car accident in the very beginning, no matter how well you keep up with him. So ´Heavy Rain´ also shows the limits of a non-linear videogame. But with more than two dozen different endings, this is as good as it gets.

There are some minor features worth noting. Innovatively, it allows the player to show the current character’s thoughts via what looks like a tag cloud. The same system is used for conversations. If the character is irate, the tag cloud will shake and make your choice more difficult.

Launch Event

At the Paris launch event, legendary director Terry Gilliam headed a group of movie professionals which discussed the game. Speaking to Gilliam, he found much praise for ´Heavy Rain´ and, after a screening of the first hour, noted many scenes that played out differently when he had played it. I wondered whether the rich artistic visions he brought to the silver screen, such as ´Brazil´, could ever be realized in a videogame and acknowledged the intrinsic contradiction between a linear story and an interactive medium. But Gilliam was genuinely convinced that videogames had great potential as a storytelling tool and that ´Heavy Rain´ illustrated that potential well. Speaking to David Cage, he was flattered by me calling the game a milestone. He downplayed the comparison with ´Shenmue´, though, telling me that he never played it, which is striking, given the parallels. The event on the whole was impressive, if only for the presence of such a talented movie director as Terry Gilliam.

Experience it yourself

Finally, I urge every one of you to play this game and experience it for yourself. It could easily become a system-seller for the console. Needless to say, it will be bundled with the hardware. Let us see whether ´Heavy Rain´ can truly turn the tide for the PlayStation3. On Friday, I get a close look at ´Alan Wake´. Stay tuned to find out how these games compare and measure up.

EDIT I have to slightly reevaluate the game after playing it a second time. My assertion that "if you only play through it once, you will only see a fraction of the entire game" was wrong. It turns out that only very few key scenes can have potential consequences at all. Very often, missing QTEs causes the game to wait for you until you get it right, like ´Shenmue´.

Here are some examples (from earlier chapters to minimize the spoiler effect). When the detective needs to reach for his inhaler, you have no time limit at all. You can safely leave the game for an hour and come back and he will still be waiting for you. Him collapsing without the medicine and the story taking a different turn has not been implemented.

In Ethan's dream-like sequence in the station, you have an unlimited number of attempts to focus on the task of getting through the crowd. Again, you cannot fail. Worse still, later in the game you need to steer the detective's car while an upset passenger is trying to steer it in the opposite direction. Getting everything right yields the same result as missing every single one. You will be able to see this in my review when it goes on air and online at the same time, next Sunday.

In another instance, there appears to be no consequence of the first fight scene, regardless of whether you lose or win. Only walking away from it altogether slightly changes an upcoming scene. Finally, even the dialogue choices lead to the same answers, regardless of whether you act compassionate or cold. This was the case in all dialogue scenes I tested.

Of course, many of the above instances may contribute to an aggregate which will determine which end scene you will get. However, a great many moments where you feel you have to perform well ´or else´ have no immediate effect. This, of course, mitigates the game's ambitious goals, as well as its replay value.

In the few key scenes I mentioned, two out of the four playable characters can die, in which case subsequent chapters featuring them will be dropped. And not knowing which scenes are key will give the players the illusion of a story constantly branching off. It is, however, an illusion to a large extent. And I would estimate that playing through the game once will get you to experience around seventy percent of content or more. It is still a remarkable game and a welcome break from the norm, as well as the new standard in interactive storytelling. ´Heavy Rain´ simply leaves it up to successors in the genre to offer a broad range of choices and consequences.

46 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you serious? It's a QTE fest.

I urge everyone to save some money and play heavy rain here:

http://www.youtube.c...h?v=qjNsqPxO2Ws

Anonymous said...

IM a little weirded out by the new direction the blog seems to be taking

jan said...

Thanks for the mouth-watering preview!°
Can't wait to play it myself!

Falafelkid said...

Hi Anonymous.

It's a QTE fest.

Sure, but it's a great QTE fest. Would you call ´Shenmue´ a bad game for using QTEs? Most people wouldn't.

IM a little weirded out by the new direction the blog seems to be taking

Huh? New direction? Nope, I comment on all current-gen consoles and what the future might hold in store for them, economically, technologigally, software-wise and otherwise. That's what I did in may 2005 and that's what I'm doing now.

Andrew_Ryan said...

Since your talking about Psychological thrillers (And I agree heavy rain is making a mark in many directions...but I don't know if it is worth my time yet but we'll see.)
How about a Sadness update?

1stAnonymous said...

Sure, but it's a great QTE fest. Would you call ´Shenmue´ a bad game for using QTEs? Most people wouldn't.

well in that case resident evil 5 is also getting close to a QTE fest.

Heavy Rain has some amazing graphics and animations but 80% of the game is pure QTEs, the only gameplay you get is when you are looking for some clues. the games plays itself.

Resident Evil 5 15% QTEs.
Shenmue 25% - 35% QTEs

Heavy Rain is 80% - 90% QTEs.

It is basicly an interactive movie. It isn't a videogame anymore.

Sebatians World said...

hmm...

isnt it a nintendo blog??
you wrote about ps3-game,
better to write an article about the last things nintendo prepare for 24.2. or GDC.
there are "big things" coming and better "then the last 2 E3"
and the rumors forabout new hardware...
for example the developer who talked about new dev. kits for a new handheld, which have motion-sensing but better then iphone or the japan magazine claimed to know about a new virtual-boy (i dont believe it, cause nintendo is against glasses, but perhaps it is a screen with 3d without to wear any glasses)
whats all about these, falafelkid??

Falafelkid said...

Hi 1stAnonymous.

Heavy Rain has some amazing graphics and animations but 80% of the game is pure QTEs, the only gameplay you get is when you are looking for some clues. the games plays itself. (...)

It is basicly an interactive movie. It isn't a videogame anymore.


I think we should keep a more open mind as to what constitutes a videogame. ´Dragon's Lair´ was a videogame, as much as ´Heavy Rain´. It may be different, but you cannot really argue about the medium.

Hi Andrew Ryan.

How about a Sadness update?

I am dependent on a number of things here. I need the time to finish the article (about a third is written by now) and I need feedback from my sources. At the moment, the latter is lacking is more than the former. So I cannot say for sure when I will be able to publish it. Sorry if I cannot be more precise.

Some German Guy said...

Yeah Falafelkid... I'm with Sebatian on this one. Maybe you should rethink the title of your blog to avoid confusion. I know this is just a blog and you have no obligation to do anything. I just think the way you're going you are loosing a lot of your long time readers and supporters...

'We' enjoy articles like the last one about Iwata's comments. We like you for stuff like that. Nintendo speculation and cool ideas!

jerry said...

Falefelkid,

Please don't listen to the kids complaining. These articles are interesting and some people cannot understand the concept of being interested in more than one console.

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

I love the rumors and writing style Falafel.
The big picture of wii on your blog
followed by lavish praise of a PS3 game....??????
I think long time readers will be confused and feel alienated by your claim that nothing is strange here..

"wii:definitive SPECULATION"

With all the amazing rumors abound regarding Iwata's comments of late....
I will have to look elsewhere for juicy nintendo rumours today.

Anonymous said...

"...lavish praise of a ps3 game..."

What else would you have him talk about? He already did a story on Iwata's comments. There's not much to be said about the Wii that hasn't already been said.

I find it funny that there's all these comments with people complaining. Falafelkid has done tons of posts regarding the PS3 being the end of gaming for sony and stories concerning the XBOX 360. No complaints there though...

He makes one story about a game he considers groundbreaking and says gamers should play. What follows? A bunch of butt hurt fanboys that are upset that Falafelkid is interested in things outside of the Wii.

Get over yourselves.

Another thing I find funny is that the game isn't even out yet, so none of you tools have played the full game.

So pathetic.

IALS said...

offtopic.
Hi this is the IALS and I just wanted to comment on both AC 1 and AC2 as I have finished them in the last couple of weeks!!

and all I can say is:
dont believe the hype!

Ac1-2 is 6-7 out of 10 material gameplay wise!period!

The gameplay has some serious flaws! The stealth mechanics are a joke you can't crouch or sneak!you can't take cover behind walls! even gta4 did that! how is that possible? in a game that revolves around being a silent assassin!!
its a joke joke joke!! thats all I can say!it doesn't make sense! silly and stupid !pure slap stick!

furthermore the mission design is extremely unimaginative, repetitive and lame!

the enemy ai is a joke!

combat is very primitive ! you only fight with one button!

Truely great moments ar too few and too far in between!

the jump and run sections in ac 2 are so so.

The story is boring imo.

Assassins Creed 1 and 2 are nowhere near the perfect masterpieces the mainstream media would have you believe!!

and btw I have been playin games 4 over 20 year I know what I talking abou and its just not fun! Ac feels like work most of the time!
it just lacks so much.....and the gfx can't make up for it!

Oh and btw what noone seems to have noticed :

The environments in Ac1 actually look better than the ones in ac2 despite a vastly improved and more powerful ac2 engine!

you ask why!?!

well, because in ac 2 the environments are simply much much bigger in scale! everything is modelled 3-4 times bigger! and that takes a lot of the processing power!

The buildings in ac2 seem quite flat they lack a lot of the layers and extra detail of the first one!

sure the characters sport much more detail than in the first one but overall the first one simply looks better in 3rd person from behind view despite an inferior engine!

funny how noone except IALS seems to have noticed this!

anyway...
To conclude the Ac completely squashed my fun and love 4 videogames!! but thankfully Heavenly sword a linear, 8 hour action game with mildly flawed combat mechanics revived it!!

Heavenly sword is just so much better a game than Ac 1 and 2 on so many basic levels despite its obvious shortcomings!

trust me there's just so much wrong with Assassins creed! It's "weder fisch noch fleisch" "neither fish nore meat" lol lil joke;)

If there is one thing that Ac proves to me is that sandbox type games are still not the AWNSER!!!

Anonymous said...

qte aint the awnser either imo.....

damn i want alan wake so badly but only 4 360 damn!

remedy is very talented! the makers of max payne.

Anonymous said...

PART 1........Hi Sean,
I just started reading your posts about a month or so ago and I just wanted to say I really enjoy reading your thoughts on the world of gaming.

I follow Metacritic not because I want to see what the reviews are for a game I’m looking at purchasing, but because I’m fascinated by how games are received by critics.

I’ve been noticing that there are more and more games these days that receive extremely high Metacritic scores (well into the 90s), as if everything is awesome. The latest game to enter the mid-90s club is Heavy Rain, which you featured on your site some time ago. As of now, it has a Metacritic rating of 93. What’s more striking to me is not the score, but the review themselves.

Here are some quotes:

“It’s barely a game in the popular sense of the word, but Quantic Dream’s masterpiece makes groundbreaking strides in storytelling and character development, demonstrating that interactive entertainment still has a deep well of untapped potential.”

“For many people Heavy Rain won’t be more than a progression of quick-time-events, but for me this game has everything a great game needs. The thrilling story, the beautiful graphics and the innovative controls will let you play on and on, till you just can’t look any longer into your TV.”

“It’s essentially a nine-hour film that you nudge along by following on-screen button prompts…”

All of these quotes game from reviews of 88 or higher.

So in summary, Heavy Rain is:
- a series of quick time events
- a 9-hour movie
- not a game
- a groundbreaking game

Anonymous said...

I think this says something about the way outlets review games these days. Here we have a number of outlets basically admitting that there is no gameplay whatsoever, but that the graphics and story are fantastic, and that this merits a high score for what basically amounts to an expensive Choose Your Own Adventure book. I can’t help but think that if this game were on the Wii, and you brushed your teeth by shaking the Wiimote, the critics would be tripping over themselves to pan this game as gimmicky Wii garbage. Is it the fanboy in me or is there a double standard here?

My main concern, however, is that reviewers aren’t really reviewing gameplay anymore, and are instead aggregating a series of scores from graphics, story, music, and then finally gameplay. Occasionally, replay value makes it in. This seems to reward developers who play it safe from a gameplay perspective while upping the graphics and music while punishing those who take risks with the quirky and untested.

I think reviews should simply focus on answering the question: “Is it fun to play?” and also, especially in the era of the Wii/DS expanded audience, “Who might like this game?”
I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on this.

When Wii was launched, Miyamoto made the suggestion that as games are rated for their ‘graphics’, ’sound’, and so on, that ‘ease to new players’ should be one of the criteria. And I agree with him. Why shouldn’t a game be graded on how easy it is for new players to play?

If Miyamoto’s suggestion was taken, all the reviews would flip. Wii games would be scored higher because they are easier for new players to get into. And the HD console games would be scored lower due to how many barriers there are to the new player.

I realize now that this criteria is not applied to books. It would make sense if a book review mentioned how easy the book would be to new readers. Instead, the ‘finest reviewed books’ are those whose writings are wordy with complicated styles that experienced book readers like but new book readers cannot penetrate.

Ironically, the books that age well are the ones that use a simple writing style. Books that use convoluted styles age extremely poorly. Uncle Tom’s Cabin sold very well during its time. Today, the book is unreadable.

It must be so with games. Ultima IV is considered unplayable today and the only people who still play it are those who did so when it was new. Meanwhile, Super Mario Brothers, which came out at the same time, is still played. Hell, Pac-Man is still played. While some people may say I am comparing apples to oranges, can you think of any old game that is still played today that is complicated? They are all simple.

With the Heavy Rain reviews, what is there for me to say? We all know the reviews are Industry influenced. With how many millions games cost, they cannot allow the risk of honest reviews. No, the game must declared ‘perfect’ and ‘amazing’.

I hope this practice continues because the Industry is sticking out more and more. Before, the Industry used to hide itself. The Industry used to pretend that it was gaming itself. But in this generation, especially, more and more gamers can see that the Game Industry is more about the ‘industry’ and not about the ‘game’. And you are not gamers. You are walking wallets.

Anonymous said...

Wii Play is a more sophisticated game experience than what I just saw. And that is excluding the Tanks.”

It’s a damn bold and 100% right statement! I was just picturing an IGN editorial with your phrase as the sub-header, lololol. (another parody idea, maybe?)

I personally am a fan of the tech side of games and I appreciate titles like Batman, Mass Effect, and some other high-value productions.

BUT, and it’s a enormous BUT, this games should be the exception for the SMALLER part of the audience who likes them. I don’t know if you agree, but I see room for every type of game as long as it finds its fans instead of being marketed as THE FUTURE OF VIDEOGAMES.

With Mario selling like water in the desert, I hope that game companies will realize that gaming should return to be about fun and not about numbers.

Have a great week, Sean!
-
The “Industry” is not interested in making games. The “Industry” is interested in making a sausage factory that cranks out soul-less and mediocre games to make big bucks. The “Industry” sees innovation entirely in new ways of marketing or cheaper and faster ways to make a game.
-
This is why when they see the Wii success, they only think ‘marketing success’. When they see NSMB Wii, they only think ‘Mario brand’ or ‘lazy’ due to not many ‘art assets’. This is why when they see people buy the Wii who do not buy their stuff, they see only ‘retarded customers’.
-
The “Game Industry” is about servicing the industry. It is not about servicing gaming

Anonymous said...

This is the first 9 minutes of the upcoming PS3 game Heavy Rain and it’s so hilariously bad I thought it was some kind of joke. In case you don’t have the patience to sit through it (I couldn’t watch the whole thing) here’s the gist:

You seem to “play” through the typical morning routine of the character. Teeth brushing, shower, getting dressed. Whoever thought this was a good idea needs to be fired. I use the term “play” loosely. Most actions are simply a pause in a long cutscene that doesn’t continue until the player presses the button they’re prompted to, not that you’re allowed to do anything else anyway.

No surprise that the focus for the creators and hypers is the awesome storytelling and how it will change video games forever. Oh wait, it’s “not a videogame anymore” and “we will probably have to find a different name for this type of experience.”(http://www.industrygamers.com/news/heavy-rain-not-a-video-game-anymore-in-my-mind-says-creator/)

I don’t know if you’ve kept up with the noise(it sure isn’t news) about this game, but it’s really some horrible amalgam of everything that’s wrong with “The Industry”®. All the creator talks about is the storyline, and how games need to grow up and have adult content and how actors don’t take videogames seriously. The game isn’t even out and they’re already talking about DLC and preemptively saying that anyone who doesn’t like it just doesn’t get their deep storyline.

I thought this would fit well with your new parody theme.

This is a classic case of game developers being ‘overwhelmed’ by the medium and, thus, making mediocrity. They are literally enchanted with their digital creation.

Have you seen a bad poet or a bad movie maker? They become overwhelmed by the medium. They, themselves, are entertained. But the audience is not.

In order to entertain an audience, you must be the master of the medium. The medium cannot be the master of the developer.

The mass market is not going to go for this game. Why? It is because the mass market is not entertained by computer animation. And that is all we have here is computer animation. BORING.

But I think you are right that the “Industry” is going to write editorials how this is The Greatest Game Ever and that it has made gaming as Art. Everyone else who disagrees will just be “not getting it”.

Wii Play is a more sophisticated game experience than what I just saw. And that is excluding the Tanks.


goto you tube to see video


wii definitive speculation has lost all respect WHY ARE YOU PROMOTING THIS CRAP

Anonymous said...

HEAVY RAIN IS A BORE FEST EGO TRIP OF PROGRAMMERS AND IS IN NO WAY A GAME OR IN ANY WAY FUCKING ENTERTAINING


PS3 BACK IN 3RD PLACE JANUARY 2010 I THOUGHT 2010 WAS YEAR OF THE PS3

THIS BLOG LIKE SO MANY OTHERS IS FULL OF SHIT

PS3 LEAD IN 2010 HOW IS 3RD PLACE THE LEAD SERIOUSLY YOUR ALL INSANE

FALK TAKE YOUR ANTI DEPRESSANTS YOUR FALLING OF THE EDGE

YOU DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT A GAME IS

Anonymous said...

wii week in week out 2010 to date has out sold ps3 ps2 and x360 combined in japan

and leads globally like 2006 2007 2008 2009

but ps3 is all that and then some THIS BLOG IS RAN BY A MORON

Anonymous said...

I don’t know if you’ve seen this but….
http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_lobby/b8270/189099953/p1

Somebody from IGN’s staff made that thread on IGN’s Wii boards.

The next day Matt Cassamina writes an article about The Grinder becoming a multi-platform title.
http://boards.ign.com/nintendo_wii_lobby/b8270/189117120/p1/

He can be seen on the comment section saying:

“Sorry guys. Fact is, Wii is a really tough market for a game like this. Can’t really blame High Voltage for not wanting to sink everything into a Wii-exclusive just so nobody will buy it because it doesn’t star Mario and doesn’t come packed with a Balance Board.”

Some poster answered:

“sorry Matt but I have to disagree with you, when a stellar game like Bayonetta bombs on the 360 that game got high scores over 90 avg on metacritic, heavy marketing with TV ads and people still didn’t buy it, some games just don’t sell well.

There are plenty of mediocre FPS on the 360 and PS3 that don’t sell as much as 350,000 but nobody says anything.”

Cassamina replied:

“You’re right, to some degree. But 350,000 copies for The Conduit is worldwide. In america, it sold about 180,000. Let’s compare that to another new IP launched in the same month for Xbox 360. Prototype has done nearly triple the sales of Conduit on 360 alone.

It’s just a hard sell. We all want these games to do well on Wii, but with a few exceptions — major name brands like Call of Duty — they haven’t really performed.

A lot of us who consider ourselves ‘core’ players will buy this stuff. But more and more, we’re becoming the minority in the spectrum of the Wii audience. And publishers are, as a result, less likely to gamble on mature-rated titles made just for Wii. I have no doubt that’s the reason why The Grinder is going multiplatform.”

IGN is so amusing(like a train wreck) these days.
-
Matt is like the waterboy for the Industry.

Are there any real journalists among the ‘game journalists’ who have the spine to stand up to the Industry? Are any of them willing to stand up for gamers? What is so enticing about carrying the Industry’s water?


why are you sonys waterboy falk why is wii devinitive speculation carrying sonys water

your there blind waterboy you have no creditability just like ign's matt

Unknown said...

wii boy go and play with the kids from your neighbourhood! this blog isn't suited for lilttle fanboys like yourself!

Unknown said...

Great gameplay and great storytelling can go hand in hand and guess which game is going to prove it once again without being cheesy and too short like uncharted 2 or downright boring, dull and unimaginative like assassins creed 2???

Alan Wake and The Last Guardian.


Quality will prevail.

Good graphics, good gameplay, good music and a good story.

That's what we all want in one package!

Zelda. Ico. Shenmue. Max Payne. Shadow Man. Resident Evil. Metroid Prime. Lucas Arts Adventures.

Vanquish?

Quality.

Falafelkid said...

Hello all.

Thanks for the comments - most of them, anyway. The wide range of comments - from positive to negative and from well argued to barely legible - is indicative of how unusual a game ´Heavy Rain´ is.

As to some idiots seemingly accusing me of writing that PS3 may come out on top this generation, I never said that. In fact, I have made it quite clear a number of times that I believe Wii is unbeatable this generation. Sony and Microsoft can only fight it out for second place, no more.

The 360 has been available significantly cheaper than the Wii, without the balance shifting drastically. There is no way Nintendo will lose the crown. After all, they may have an ace or two up their sleeves, still.

As to all the commentators hating ´Heavy Rain´ for its QTEs, please comment on ´Shenmue´, which is almost universally accepted as one of the best videogames ever. So QTEs can't be that bad, per se.

As far as this blog is concerned, I have always posted stories about all three consoles, as well as PC and portables, since the market is a balance between all platforms. Whoever complains about this blog's focus has not been reading this blog.

I am an impartial observer of the games industry - necessarily so by trade - as well as an insider. Obviously, each console has its merits and its outstanding games. I distance myself from fanboys on all fronts and anyone expecting a clear ideological bias has many other options. But long-time readers of this blog will know this already. I just want to clear up the confusion for all the newcomers, unfamiliar with this site.

Anonymous said...

As to all the commentators hating ´Heavy Rain´ for its QTEs, please comment on ´Shenmue´, which is almost universally accepted as one of the best videogames ever. So QTEs can't be that bad, per se.

Nobody is hating on the game, people are hating on the gameplay.

Look at all the hype this game is getting when is only for the most hardcore of the genre, Your comparisons are really null and childish.

Shenmue had a lot of everything, from RPG elements, to mini games, arcade beat'em ups, driving if i remember correctly and a little of a fighting games.

Look at what happen at the other similar games that came out recently that share similar gameplay.

QTEs are just interactive cutscenes, thats what people are arguing about.

the genre is not popular and this game is not gonna make it popular either, is a niche game.

and an interactive movie, I see you mention Dragon's lair, well it's genre in itself was popular for being new.

speaking of Shenmue again, even though the game had so many different play mechanics still didn't sold well enough to be finished as Yu Susuki planned with so many chapters.

I will not doubt heavy rain will sell decent, but expect this game to be available used very quickly and if it sells more tha 1 million I will be surprised, I expect most of the people who will play this game will rent it.

six months from now all the hype will be forgotten aswell as the game.

Anonymous said...

@ Falafelkid

Your title says "turn the tide for ps3" I think everyone including ur longtime readers (including myself, ive been here since 2005, i even remember ur revealing of redsteel), will look at that funny. It has been the mantra of "the industry" since the ps3 was released.

As for your comparison of heavy rain and shenume, based on another commenter (never actually played the game), which said shenume was %35 qte, its like saying mario galaxy is just like nsmbw because it has 2d stages.

Anonymous said...

lieber falafelkid,

Ich fürchte dein Shenmue - Heavy Rain vergleich war etwas unglücklich da shenmue sich gameplay technisch nicht nur auf qick time events beschränkt.

Falafelkid said...

Hi again. I am afraid some of you people don't follow my words too closely. As far as the ´Shenmue´ / ´Heavy Rain´ comparison is concerned, that is a very valid comparison in my book. Both games featured QTEs to engage the player in longer cutscenes. The extent may be greater in ´Heavy Rain´, but that is irrelevant, since I was concerned with the use QTEs per se.

There is also a second reason why those two games must be compared and this is the fact that both try to engage the player emotionally and to contribute to the overall realism of the setting by forcing the player to do mundane tasks. In ´Shenmue´, you needed to drive a forklift truck for some length to earn money. In ´Heavy Rain´, you need to shower, cook food and mind kids and infants.

Both games used those elements consistently and the exact extent of them is pretty much irrelevant here, since the question was regarding their use per se.

Anonymous said...

I completed Heavy Rain this week, and it was without question one of the most immersive, gripping, moving, original and visually spectacular games (and it IS a game) I've played in a long time.

It's all to easy to just dismiss it as 'another Dragon's Lair' and that you could experience it by watching videos on youtube - but both claims are way off the mark.

Some of the comments here are, frankly, ridiculous, blinkered and depressing - whatever happened to a bit of open-mindedness? The games industry would never be where it is today if developers such as Quantic Dream weren't prepared (or able!) to take risks.

Heavy Rain offers an experience that simply couldn't not be delivered by any other medium, and deserves to be celebrated for that reason.

Anonymous said...

The game sold 27,000 units in first week (Japan), I guess the game... I mean interactive movie sucks!!!

Anonymous said...

Damage control much you paid viral messenger?

Everything you say smells of horse shit!!!

Some of the comments here are, frankly, ridiculous, blinkered and depressing - whatever happened to a bit of open-mindedness? The games industry would never be where it is today if developers such as Quantic Dream weren't prepared (or able!) to take risks.

I am open minded but don't try to sell me on this BS, these are the reasons why the industry is like it is, they come up with some shitty game that you can't hardly play, leave animations for the intro and the finale of the game instead, give me gameplay in my videogames.
_______________________________________
Heavy Rain offers an experience that simply couldn't not be delivered by any other medium, and deserves to be celebrated for that reason.

You can buy interactive movies did you not know that?

Instead of some generalised BS say how the game is any good, that Youtube video is way close so don't deny it with your BS.

no other game can be replicated with Youtube as Heavy Rain can be, I am not saying is exactly the same thing but it is pretty damn close.

Anonymous said...

American Heavy Rain players have been reporting issues with game freezes.

Worse than that, the official PlayStation forums thread where the problems are being reported has also seen some players reporting corrupted save data.

It's hard to know how widespread the problem is, as almost every high profile release seems to have some players reporting similar issues, but the problem is big enough to warrant the appearance of a Sony rep to calm everyone down.

"Hi folks, this is just to let you know that the issues reported in this thread and elsewhere are being looked into," he says.

"One word of advice we've had already is to avoid switching off your PlayStation while the game is in black screen as this may be affecting your save game. There have been a few reports of incidents where game saves have taken longer than would normally be expected - and with a black screen present it may leave the assumption that the game has crashed. In these circumstances we recommend you wait at least 5 minutes before rebooting."

So if you have read our Heavy Rain review and decided to pick up a copy when the game hits stores this Friday, heed those words of advice.

typical sony shitfest falk you have damned your self lol

Anonymous said...

falk you shall look dumb wen heavy rain does not move ps3s

Anonymous said...

I HIGHLY DOUT METROID OTHER M AND MARIO GALAXY AND MONSTER HUNTER 3 SHALL HAVE THESE KIND OF BUG ISSUES IM SICK AND TIRED OF PS3 FAN BITCHES

DEFENDING LONG LOADTIMES

OBSOLETE CONTROLLERS

POOR BUILD QUALITY

AND BUG FEST GAMES THAT FREEZE AND NEED PATCHING



YOUR DESTROYING GAMING

Anonymous said...

graphics 10 dddeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the non interactive graphics like CUTSEENS/FMVS there bound to be impressive jesus h christ i see nothing better there than the knife fight in resident evil 4 on the gamecube

WITCH WAS ALSO QTE

DO YOU NOT GET IT KOMBO SERIOUSKLY THERES NO REASON THIS GAME COULDNT HAVE BEEN DONE ON THE GAMECUBE NEVER MIND THE WII

IF A CNSOLE CANNOT HANDLE QTE SEENS IN REAL TIME THEN THE DEVELOPERS JUST VIDEO IT AND CHANGE SAID VIDEO DEPENDING ON YOUR QTE BUTTON PRESS

DO YOU NOT SEE THE OBVIOUS STARRING AT YOU


MY RESPONSE TO A HEAVY RAIN REVIEW

Anonymous said...

CONFIRMED HEAVY RAIN FAILS TO SHIFT PS3S

MORONIC PREDICTIONS PROVEN INSANE

Anonymous said...

OH HOLY SHIT HEAVY RAIN SOLD A WHOPPING 213K ITS DEBUT MONTH! :D

CLEARLY IT IS TURNING THE TIDE FOR THE PS3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Heavy Water Diablo III Goldhas several amazing graphics and animations although 80% on the game will be pure QTEs, really the only gameplay you get is the place you are interested in a number of Billig WoW Goldclues. your video games plays itself.