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"There is no uncanny valley any more," declares French developer

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The Heavy Rain trailer showed a game without an art style featuring one giant quicktime event. Anyone up for that?

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It's worth pointing out they've said the stuff shown wasn't actually Heavy Rain (per se) but something else unrelated to the main plot. My guess would be a sort of tutorial mode in the full game, I seem to remember Indigo Prophecy had something similar.

I personally could have done without all the uncompelling walking to and fro around big empty corridors in Mass Effect, jeez what a bore that was! The combat too could have been cut down, I mean it wasn't exactly a visceral experience; point, shoot, energy depletes, take cover... it was so pedestrian and lacking in any sort of skill based gameplay, serving as a time-filling diversion breaking up the real purpose for playing.

What made Mass Effect for me was the dialogue and plot expansion. That's what I played it for anyway. Same thing with Grim Fandango. I'm not one of those people who likes the meandering around or solving of puzzles (particularly ape-shit-crazy ones), what I liked about Grim Fandango and what I played it for was the dialogue, pure and simple.

I like to think I'm not alone in this respect, that interactive story telling (particularly with choices and consequences) is a viable genre of its own that doesn't necessarily have to follow normal gaming conventions.

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Crikey. Ok, so yes, the uncanny valley is definitely still around. I mean it's going to be some time before games truly give pre-rendered CGI a run for its money... and THAT still looks uncanny... but! We're getting a lot closer, and of course they're going to hype it.

It's all relative, but they're doing a damned good job -- even if the game itself looks like Silent Hill crossed with Dragon's Lair :shifty:

Sure, the non human visuals look STUNNING, but if that's the gameplay, then... Heavy Rain? More like Chubby Rain.

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PLAYSTATION MENZ

In the quick time mode, or action mode, or whatever the fuck. The playstation button symbols that appear -- does their on-screen position match the button position, or are they totally random?

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The buttons seem to appear where the action is. Look out, bitch, it's on the knife! Now it's on the leg!

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It's also 70% hand-animated since they need to create 'key' state for the artificial face.

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The buttons seem to appear where the action is. Look out, bitch, it's on the knife! Now it's on the leg!

That's too bad. I always fail at that sort of thing because I associate the various buttons with their position, not just the symbols or letters on them.

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According to a Joystiq preview, the QTEs are much more interactive than you'd expect from that video.

Everything happens in real-time, so you can still look around you, even while wrestling on a bed. Objects of interest will cause a face-button symbol to appear, allowing you to interact. This can result in anything from dodging the taxidermist's knife lunges, or picking up a nearby lamp and smashing it over his head.

Sounds a bit more interesting than Dragon's Lair, IMO.

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According to a Joystiq preview, the QTEs are much more interactive than you'd expect from that video.

Sounds a bit more interesting than Dragon's Lair, IMO.

Sounding better and better with every preview I read. I can't wait personally.

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That does sound a lot better BigJKO. Still, I prefer a game where I can learn to control it instinctively, without thinking "now press triangle".

Please remember that I was one of the people that stood up for Fahrenheit. . But here's hoping that the devs have taken some lessons from the story writing as well (no genre-skipping AI please).

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I think it's easy to be worried after Fahrenheit. I enjoyed that game too despite its shortcomings, but I couldn't possibly sit here and say the Dance Dance Revolution action sequences were good or fun. In all honesty I'd rather have just sat there and watched the cutscene.

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Ability to look around is certainly an improvement if it will really be used to look for blunt objects to hit the yellow AI things or whatever with. Hopefully they won't add looking at different directions to their list of dance moves and will actually let players do something themselves this time.

I sound overly pessimistic as always, but I still really hope this game will end up being good.

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I honestly don't mind a game with nothing but quick-time-events! What matters is that the writing is good, and with a master story-teller like David Cage...

Oh, right.

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I'm not sure whether this thread was more about uncanny valley or heavy rain, but the new trailer only features the latter.

Nevermind that.

The action is handled in a disappointingly unsurprising manner though.

Wow... it's like all those shitty 90's FMV games never existed...

I might be jumping the gun, but Heavy Rain just looks like indulgent, pretentious (and extremely repetitive) guff to me. The environment and atmosphere in that demo reel reminds me a lot of the original Condemned, but that was a 'proper' game and it worked brilliantly.

If they'd combined the two then it could've been something special. As it is, however, I'm really not interested in thumbing my way through one huge cut scene after another. :getmecoat

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Ahh the age of Multimedia Interactive Movies! I remember it well. We always knew the Mega-CD was ahead of it's time, eh?

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Is it okay for me to hate this game already without playing simply because I despise David Cage? I remember on AdventureGamers when he has a whole forum devoted to his Q&A sessions. The guy was a self proclaimed genius.

I really don't think this game is really being sold on it's actual design or storytelling, but is garnering all of it's hype through it's challenge of the uncanny valley. Yeah, it's doing okay with that stuff, but a lot of games are looking just as awkwardly realistic without really even showing it off.

I also don't believe anyone thinks video games will "break the uncanny valley" (if you can or if it truly exists) before the movie industry. Not just because of budget and available talent, but simply because it would be much easier to fake realism on a 2d screen where the camera is set and controlled, undetermined by the player (viewer), instead of within a realtime 3d game engine.

"You may have seen this interactivity showcased in the game's Games Convention trailer, with the character opening a refrigerator with a sweeping arc of the right analog stick."

But anyways, I can't wait for this sort of interactive real-life refrigerator opening that is nigh upon us.

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I think it probably pays to read more on it. For starters it's a PS3 exclusive so unless you plan on buying one you won't actually be subjected to it. Secondly, the game isn't a first person shooter, it's not a real time strategy game, it's not a 2D platformer, it's not a flight simulator, it's not a sports game, it's not a text adventure, and it's not a dishwasher. It's a different sort of game that can happily co-exist with all the others and be fairly judged on its own merits (assuming you allow for this and put aside any petty, and ultimately meaningless, differences you might have with David Cage).

I get the impression some of you believe interactive entertainment has already been absolutely defined and there's no getting away from the boundaries 'set' by the Halo's of this world. I'm fully convergent with how games are increasingly subjective experiences, but some of the attitudes here are a little perplexing, and 'jumping the gun' is an understatement to say the least.

Call of Duty 4 features heavily scripted sequences, the enemies constantly respawn ad infinitum and the shooting & gameplay mechanics are as old as sin. What elevates Call of Duty 4 from being a linear on-the-rails shooter I wonder? How do other games with similar trappings differentiate from the chaff and transform into something more than the underlying mechanics might otherwise suggest? What enraptured people about Portal, was it the innovative puzzle dynamics or something else perhaps...etc, etc... point being; why are people so fixated on the so called lesser aspects of Heavy Rain whilst simultaneously ignoring its potential for compelling interactive storytelling.

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I think the underlying fear is that Heavy Rain will allow for very little freedom for the player (or even the illusion of freedom, since as you pointed out most games have less freedom than they seem to). As long as the gameplay feels like gameplay, then I'm fine with whatever form it takes.

Compare it to the Metal Gear Solid 3 cutscenes maybe: during these you can move the camera around and zoom it in, and even sometimes go into first-person view for an in-joke or secret. At certain points there are even alternative scenes. They are definately interactive, but they don't feel like 'game'.

There's an interesting question here that just occurred to me. Heavy Rain purports to have an interactive plot. That is certainly a kind of freedom that gamers rarely get given. But what if it turns out that this much-sought-after freedom turns out to be less satisfying than the smaller scale freedoms - being able to walk anywhere in the room or house for instance, at any time. Tactical freedom versus strategical freedom. I'm not saying this is the case, I'm just interested in finding out.

I'm looking forward to Heavy Rain and will play it as soon as I get the chance; but like I said already, I'm a little apprehensive as well.

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...petty, and ultimately meaningless, differences...

See, I know this, but I tend to get really stuck on them with anyone really, but even moreso with people in the public eye.

David Cage to me is another Ragnar Tornquist, like they have both have great ideas, but somehow their egos get in the way and turn their projects into some unrefined mess. (I didn't want to put the 'ø' in Ragnar's name because that would give the impression I'm smart enough to do that on my own with out copying and pasting the 'ø' from his name in google.)

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(I didn't want to put the 'ø' in Ragnar's name because that would give the impression I'm smart enough to do that on my own with out copying and pasting the 'ø' from his name in google.)

Busted!

let me try;

ó ó Óó óóóÓóÓÓóóóóÓÓ ú úíóÚúúúúúÁ

nope I can't figure out a shorcut. Must be ASCII code.

BTW I can't spell 'sausage'. :fart:

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I also don't believe anyone thinks video games will "break the uncanny valley" (if you can or if it truly exists) before the movie industry. Not just because of budget and available talent, but simply because it would be much easier to fake realism on a 2d screen where the camera is set and controlled, undetermined by the player (viewer), instead of within a realtime 3d game engine.

I think you're right. Realism and interactivity together are like a Sierpinski triangle. The player can almost always hang around long enough, or go close enough, to break the illusion.

As for Heavy Rain, I have no opinions on it. I can't be arsed with hype for any games any more :tdown:. It's always a disappointment to play after an ideal image has been put out there, whereas a few (like Fable) have been pleasant surprises as a result of avoiding most stuff put out in advance.

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