Heavy (Purple) Rain
 

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../HeavyRain.jpg

Found out about this game recently through Digg and, at first sight, I thought it was a lot like a Silent-Hill-style game but it's apparently a crime story action/thriller with supposed "context-sensitive actions" and "quick time events", possibly along the lines of Shenmue's gameplay. It's apparently been in development since 2006 and has shown considerable graphic improvements since then.

About the only semblance of a story that I found is on its Wikipedia entry and who knows how accurate that fucking thing is.

Official site seems to be on the developer's own website but I can't see it on my Mac. Perhaps you Windows-using folks will have better luck.

Gameplay looks like shit (endless quick-timer events? What), but the branching-story premise sounds absolutely fascinating, and good god it's pretty. Apparently if the person you're playing as dies the perspective shifts to someone else until all the main characters are dead. I'm interested to see how such changes will be handled.

Also, people still use Digg? Christ. My condolences, Paco :(

Heavy Rain's.. quite some time ago. Anyway.

The premise looks interesting. I guess I need to read more into that. The only PS3 game I anticipate right now is Uncharted 2.

Well, it's Quantic Dreams, and I loved Indigo Prophecy (flaws and all), so if I had the money for a backwards compatible PS3 (seriously, when I get one I want it to replace my PS2, not augment it), this game would be one of the reasons I would want the system.


Looks fantastic.

Pretty much my exact thoughts as well. I want to like this game, but I know I'm gonna end up being massively disappointed just like I was with Indigo Prophecy (again, awesome story, shitty gameplay). I like how David Cage tries to get angry when people insinuate it'll be nothing but QTEs, but based on their track record and everything we've seen of this game so far how can we expect otherwise?

RABicle gave me Fahranheit (Indigo Prophecy) for PS2, and it's shit. Not looking forward to this at all.

I'm not sure what to make of the gameplay yet, but I think there's some interesting concepts there at the very least (like the whole need to hold the controller in some awkward way when the character is awkwardly trying to hide in a cupboard, etc). This definitely registers highly on the 'keep an eye on' list as I have a feeling it could end up being rather good. Guess we'll see.

I hope I'll be pleasantly surprised by just how much the story can branch out. I read the PSM2 diagram on how the Jack fight can go and so far it looks like the "branching" only means there's one (or two) "good" outcome and then just multiple ways for your character to die. Get ambushed. Failed the QTE? Character gets shot. Find yourself in the car. Fail the QTE? Character gets crushed. Get ambushed again. Fail the QTE? Character gets shot again. Succeed in the QTE? Jack dies. No other outcomes.

Sure, the story will probably continue without that character, but it's a bit worrying when they made such a big fuss about multiple outcomes and the only outcome where your character lives is where Jack dies in that single spot. He doesn't get subdued, not arrested, you don't escape, no nothing. So I'm hesitant. I was really disappointed with Fahrenheit because of the last third and the serial killer plot of this sounds so done, it's not even funny. But we'll see. Maybe I'll love it.

Heavy (Purple) Rain
 

It might be because this game is considered a huge shenmue quicktime event but it deserves to be noticed.
Heavy Rain turned out to be a huge surprise to me. At first I thought it was going to be a dull mashing game and I think that because I expected so little I ended up loving it so much more.
Don't get me wrong, this game has big flaws like the voice acting can be hit and miss, the walking controls are kinda shit but I easily overlooked it because the game itself was a fucking trip.
Knowing that you can fuck up and have a character die really puts the pressure on and the intense scenes midway through the game really sucked me into the game.

It might have been because I'm locked in the snow and I had nothing else to do but to play, but the game felt very short. There are more possibilities in the game which is more reason for more playthroughs but it's not until my second play that I realized that the game is pretty much set on a determined path and the big choices aren't really made until later in the game.

Anyways, I already beat it, during my second playthrough I already encountered a few scenes I didn't see before. It's not as exciting as the first time playing obviously (and it gets very exciting!) but it's definitely a game worth checking out just as long as you don't mind some plot holes which I hope the DLC episodes will cover.

Just thought I'd share since it seems that this game is being ignored somewhat.

YouTube Video

About the end.

I don't plan to start it just yet, but I pre-ordered the special edition, which arrived today. In fact I got two because my girlfriend wants it for her birthday. That is also why I'm not starting to play it just yet. Not until I can give it to her so we're playing at the same time.

Hmm wow surprising that there hasn't been a thread yet.

Well, I will definitely get this one. I played the demo and thought it was pretty cool. I also liked David Cage's previous work, Fahrenheit, so I'm pretty sure I gonna like this one as well.

The only thing which is kind of weird are the controls...

Playing it right now, I'm doing the third "challenge" next.

The beginning is very slow, which in itself isn't a bad thing, but the voice actors aren't really good enough to display the range of emotions in the scenes, nor is the writing particularly sharp.

But stick with it, because once the story gets going, it's all pretty engaging and you just keep playing and playing because there is nothing there to interrupt the flow like in most games (game overs, realoading, item management, puzzle screens etc).

I watched my roomate play the demo and I was pretty engrossed, I really like how it uses the Shenmue style of button hitting that isn't very distracting and keeps you in the atmosphere of the game longer. I don't have a PS3 but I considered chipping in on the game with him just to see more of it.

[21:52:28] <Q-chan> and the award for most awkward, out of nowhere videogame sex scene goes to


Just finished it. Pretty entertaining, all in all. Like Fahrenheit, it trips up in its own ambition. Neither the voice actors or the facial animation are anywhere near good enough to convey the range of emotions meant to be on display, nor is the writing good enough to carry the amount of drama or dialogue for that matter.

What follows is that you probably want to know what happens next, but it's very difficult to actually care for practically any of the characters. They're basically shaped by their motivations and display very little personality, partly because they're not given much room to do so, as things need to keep moving along at a relatively fast pace.

So yeah, an intriguingly ambitious title and the atmosphere is quite different from what you generally come across in games these days (as in, genuinely depressing and morose), but they need a good writer if they want to make a sequel.

There was. I just merged them.

I played this yesterday after I got off work at my friend's house. Only got through Ethan doing mundane tasks and I'm already liking this quite a bit. We had to leave to a show last night though so I didn't really get to be as immersed as I wanted to be in the game but, goddamn, I'm hella intrigued!

Need to get me DAT PSTRIPLE, SON.

Out of curiosity, who did you guys have die? Who was the killer?

Heavy Rain spoiler!

The taxidermist dlc came out for those who pre-ordered. It was a really good short story that fits the game and it's pretty intense playing through the first time.
Two noticeable things about it tho, the walking is even more horrible than the full game and Madison seems to have started smoking from the sound of her voice <_>.

Also there were rumors that there were 20 to 22 endings, and by endings I mean epilogues. I've already gotten all of them and turns out there are 18. It was tedious work playing the guessing game to get them all.
As it turns out the final ending I got was the most depressing.

Just finished the main game myself and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Sure it does trip up on its ambition somewhat (no doubt better voice actors and a improved animation would pay dividends), but I got entirely wrapped up in this story and was blown away by how intense and involved it all felt.

I can very much see that this isn't the sort of game (if you can call it that) that will appeal with everyone, but I really hope people give it a go because it's something special if you ask me. Definitely something I hope they take and push further with different story ideas.