Anyone excited for Heavy Rain?

[Weasel Overlord]

I am. XD I'm sort of surprised there's been no mention of it on here yet, considering all the hype.

I've just got me the demo and I'm playing it right now (at the cost of not playing Resident Evil 5, this better be good). Have some opinions! XD

- R2 to walk? How odd.
- I like the camera switching actions - very movie-like.
- Games like this are made for larger tvs than my tiny portable. Cannot... see.. controls menu... Get it on a giant tv, it'll be gorgeous.
- It's got super duper impressively realistic gestures, and the facial expressions are really good! You can tell how much work they've put into those aspects.
- The atmosphere is delicious. All that rain, lovely.
- Those fight scenes are awesome! I love the variety of button presses - sort of like QTEs, only without the sense of urgency and impending death. Also love the way the analogue sticks are using for actions like opening doors, asthma inhaler, etc.
- It really feels like a film. All in all, I'm pretty psyched for the game.

What's everyone else's opinions?

[Blademaster]

Seen it on /v/. Months ago in GI, it looked cool. Now, it... doesn't. It is NOT helping the PS3's bullshit "no games, just movies" stereotype. Everywhere I look about the game, it's PRESS X TO JASON. Bah...

[Weasel Overlord]

I don't understand where that stereotype comes from. There's hardly any games like that. Sure, MGS4 and the like have quite lengthy cutscenes, but I thought they were awesome, and they weren't exactly unnecessary, were they? I dunno, it seems to me like people are just complaining cos graphics get better. But what do I know, I've always been a fan of cutscenes in all capacities.

But with regards to Heavy Rain, hm well, I see what you mean, but it makes for a completely different kind of game. I was a bit sceptical before I played the demo, but it blew me away. It's all choice-based, like Dragon Age is - you really get a feel for the consequences. Like, there's this part where you only have ten minutes to ask questions of this woman (a prostitute, heh), and if you're playing on a tiny tv and can't see the button options, wasting time looking at them means you miss a slot to find out some information that could be useful.

Plus I dunno, but it seems like there's not that many thriller-type games out there. It feels sort of film noir-ish, with all the rain and the muted colours (you start the demo as a private investigator in a trenchcoat, heh, how awesome is that?).

I think I'm most excited cos it's just something different. You've never had to perform mundane tasks like opening car doors or using your asthma inhaler before, but for some reason, they don't feel stupid or unnecessary, they feel like an integral part of the game. I think it makes you closer to the characters, brings you into the game further. Surely that can't be a bad thing?

I will have to wait to play it until the bf is finished, but considering that I'm wrapped up in Resident Evil 5 and then it should be time for FFXIII, I'm not so bothered about that.

[PNT510]

This will probably be the first game I buy for my PS3 in a year and a half. I feel like I should support it even if it's not the best game just because of all the ways they are trying to move the medium forward.

[Outlaw JT]

I am skeptically excited about Heavy Rain. This developers previous outing, Indigo Prophecy was 2/3rds awesome and 1/3 WTF was that god awful. It started out as this awesome occult murder mystery. It was really detailed and awesomely trippy but the story went downhill super fast the last third of the game. It went from an awesome occult murder mystery to an alien conspiracy end of the world plot which made no sense and came across completely ridiculously. The first 2/3rds, though were truly awesome. Heck, just the opening scene where you're in a diner and black out only to wake up in the restroom minutes later covered in blood, murder weapon in hand, dead body on the floor. You have minutes to figure out what to do as you peek out the bathroom door into the diner to see a cop enter. How you handle that opening sequence effects a lot of stuff for the first 2/3rds of the game like what kind of evidence the police have, how many things link the killing back to you, what leads you have to figure out what happened and how/why you might have killed someone with no memory of it. Like I said, until it takes that alien conspiracy/end of the world twist the game is awesome. It was like playing a choose your own adventure novel on a game console.

So, if Heavy Rain is anything like the first half of Indigo Prophecy I think it'll be awesome! I just hope they didn't let their writers trip out on acid and cocaine again because it ruined what was otherwise an awesome game with their last outing.

[PNT510]

The developers of Indigo Prophecy know the ending to that game sucked. I think it was said somewhere the ending was done to please the publisher of the game and wasn't really how they wanted to end the game.

[Roy Karrde]

Just finished the demo, couple of great things, couple of things I hated.

First by the end of 2011 we are apparently going to have some freaking awesome sunglasses. I do love the detail on the faces, and I can only imagine how long it took to model and rig each one, and as Weasel said, the game is very movie like, the story looks to be freaking awesome, and some of the fight scenes being brutal, in which I think the button pop ups could actually help instead of hinder the game.

First problem though is the camera, yeah its movie like, but in the second half of the demo, at the crime scene it was more of a problem than anything else. Second being the outside lighting, with out the glasses on the place is near pitch black and makes it nearly impossible to see anything, who ever was the lighting director needs to redo the outdoor levels. Third the pop ups seriously need to go away after a second or two, I would like to watch what seems to be a important event about the child's death with out being told I can press up to stand up.

Outside of that, I am a sucker for good stories in a game, and from a technical standpoint I love the detail they placed in it even if its lacking in some places ( Cars ). So I think this moved up from a "Dont care" to a "Want to rent" in my book.

[Roy Karrde]

Just wanted to note that the game will be available in N.A. on Tuesday, I do not know if the date is the same for the E.U. but by Tuesday the game will atleast be out in one of the three areas.