Heavy Rain

[toblix]

I was sure we had a thread for this.

Some hot child rearing action in this new trailer: http://www.shackvideo.com/?id=15004

I think it's quite possible this will be one awesome looking game indeed. Just the portrayal of stuff that's not enchanted forests, old townes, high-tech bases or evil dungeons is pretty great.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

Just wait until the secret last hour of the game where everyone's flying through the air and doing kung fu.

I think the success or failure of this game really depends on how much it allows the player to push the story into directions that is off the A to B path. If you truly are able to make decisions that can change the story in significant ways like David Cage says you are, then count me in. But if it's more Indigo Prophecy stuff where you're only changing window-dressing and tangential B-stories...

Eh, I'd rather stay optimistic for now. I just wish they'd reveal more about how it's all going to work.

[elmuerte]

The first 1/3 will be quite awesome.

The second 1/3 will be ok, repetitive and possibly boring.

The last 1/3 might make you want to stop playing.

Or at least, that's my observation from all past Cage games.

[toblix]

Yeah, everyone knows he disappointed a lot of people with Indigo Fahrenheit, but I still think the game was awesome. I still remember how the whole diner sequence felt like I was playing a game from the fucking future. I CAN DO ANYTHING and the game reacts accordingly!

If he's able to make another that awesome third of a game, I'll be happy paying for it. If the remaining two thirds is just an awesome looking quick time event of sending your kids off to school and picking them up from the playground, I won't mind.

[elmuerte]

The diner part was incredible. But as soon as the game..

GET READY!

.. went down the ..

RED RED BLUE RED

.. quick time event road, it ..

UP LEFT RIGHT

YOU FAILED!

[toblix]

Yeah, those parts weren't as good, but as I remember it, there were some interesting parts pretty much all the way through.

[brkl]

QTEs weren't even the worst parts of that game. If the story wasn't so atrocious, those would've been bearable.

[elmuerte]

no... the QTEs were terrible, without those the story would have been bearable. Of course would have been better it didn't contain aliens and that stuff.

[spindrift]

I enjoyed the QTEs in the previous game. I know i'm a minority, but I didn't feel like i was watching a cutscene, or was in the middle of a different type of action and then suddenly the game throws a QTE at me out of nowhere, like how they are used in most other games.

The interaction mechanics were primarily based on a series of challenging QTEs, which is fine. It didn't pretend otherwise, or throw them at you out of nowhere. They were properly integrated, and for the most part I enjoyed them.

I hope that in Heavy Rain they tone down the instant death on fail, and instead opt for some more branching paths for the QTEs.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

Yes, exactly. It's the failure-and-restart of the QTEs that is most frustrating in Indigo Prophecy, but based on what we've seen in the previews (the junkyard specifically), if you mess something up in Hard Rain the game keeps on going. I think this could strangely add a lot of replay value to a game like this, where you're trying to do better at a QTE because you want to see a different branch of the story.

But like I said before, if the differences between the various story branches are negligible, then the whole thing becomes more than a little bit pointless.

[Erkki]

Yes, exactly. It's the failure-and-restart of the QTEs that is most frustrating in Indigo Prophecy, but based on what we've seen in the previews (the junkyard specifically), if you mess something up in Hard Rain the game keeps on going. I think this could strangely add a lot of replay value to a game like this, where you're trying to do better at a QTE because you want to see a different branch of the story.

Yeah, this could be interesting. If I ever happen to buy a PS3 (thinking of getting the slim when it comes out) then I think I'll try to not play it during the first playthrough. I.e. whenever QTE-s come up, I'll just ignore them. I wonder if the game can still be enjoyable that way (although I think we don't even know if it's quite possible to play through it like that).

[SignorSuperdouche]

I think David Cage said something like if your character dies you pick up the story with another character and there are four or five playable characters in total. If all of your characters die then the story ends.

I'll definitely be picking this up at some point, even if it gets slated, just out of curiosity.

[Erkki]

This is not Dragon's Lair says Cage

[Horticulture Tycoon]

I just realized I called it "Hard Rain". As far as I know, Christian Slater and/or Bob Dylan are not involved in this game.

Also:

...we really started from a blank page again to try to take the best out of this type of interface and find the thrill and excitement and make you feel at the heart of the action.

...

In the scene, Mars picks up his other son, Shaun, from his ex-wife, and then looks after him for the evening. This involves getting him something to eat, helping him with his homework and then putting him to bed.

[syntheticgerbil]

This is not Dragon's Lair says Cage

Hahaha, but they put Dragon's Lair on Blu-ray!

[Doorselfin]

I like imagining David Cage as this manic, agitated, unappreciated genius.

"I'M NOT MAKING DRAGON'S LAIR!!! YOU THINK I'M CRAZY!? I'M NOT STUPID!!"

[Ben X]

I prefer to imagine him like this:

NO9ke7ohkv4

[vimes]

Every time I see this video, I think about this ... though it might make more sense for French people.

[Horticulture Tycoon]

There's a walkthrough on Gametrailers (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) that's pretty interesting, although it makes me wonder just how much influence the player is going to have over the story, since all the different scenarios the producer highlights in this video more or less end with the same outcome.

[Thrik]

Yeah, it's the nuggets of extreme awesomeness in Fahrenheit that keep me optimistic about Heavy Rain. I mean, if they'd literally just released the demo as the final game it'd have gotten rave reviews and been a classic.

Probably a bit harsh, actually. I did enjoy a lot of Fahrenheit, with the Dance Dance Revolution sequences being the only things that really pissed me off. The 24-style scenes were superb — I can't think of another game that had me feeling as tense as when the cop was walking to the door in the diner — and I enjoyed the general adventure game-ish stuff too.

[toblix]

There's a walkthrough on Gametrailers (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3) that's pretty interesting, although it makes me wonder just how much influence the player is going to have over the story, since all the different scenarios the producer highlights in this video more or less end with the same outcome.

I just saw these, and I'm betting the whole thing is way more "rubber stringy" than they're making it out to be. When he's at gunpoint he says "Sacre bleu! I was luckee! I could hef died!", but at the end he says the shop owner can die and the player can get hurt. I'm thinking you end up with the shoe box no matter what.

With the level of production quality in this game, it's obvious that they can't just make a ton of different paths, and they'll have to focus on a couple of alternatives for each scene (do nothing, fight, talk, basically the classic gameplay variants).

God, I feel like such a dick for trying to "figure it all out" before I actually play the game (which, by the way, I totally will). During the first playthrough the illusion of "free will" will likely be very good, since you're never exposed to the alternative paths and outcomes, and they're doing the whole "no game over" thing. So it seems they're aiming for the player to do at least a couple of replays, which I think is where their main challenge lies. For each playthrough the player does the illusion will have to be pretty damn strong for it to not become silly in a hurry. The shop scene can't just be a string of various events that all end up with him leaving with the shoebox.

[Erkki]

Eurogamer has a new hands on story, but I can't read any more about this game. Every piece about this game seems to spoil a different aspect of the story. It feels like any more and I'll know half of the game already.

[Garple]

Should I buy Indigo Prophecy on Xbox Live?

[Horticulture Tycoon]

The first 1/3 will be quite awesome.

The second 1/3 will be ok, repetitive and possibly boring.

The last 1/3 might make you want to stop playing.

Elmuerte pretty much sums it up. It's hard to recommend a game that goes out of its way to leave a bad taste in your mouth, but for 1200 points... eh, it's probably worth that.

[toblix]

I'd say it's worth it if only for the good parts.