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Heavy Rain: Mashing X To Call Out My Son's Name
Professor Snugglesworth
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Old thread got locked, and no one made a new one. Since I finally received my copy today, I decided to take charge of the new thread.
This is Heavy Rain, an [strike]interactive movie[/strike] immersing mystery game on the PS3.
It lets you engage in everyday life events such as brushing your teeth, using the toilet, and cooking frozen food in the microwave. Only you're using a controller to do these things, therefore they become fun.
The game starts off like a tech demo for what Playstation Home should have been. Then it quickly descends into a sad factory that pumps out constant sad. It's kind of like the opening to Up, only much meaner and without anything uplifting afterward.
I'll be putting out a review next week, even though most of you have already played through it. Kindly mark your spoilers (ALL OF THEM).
And ask yourself: How far will you go to save someone you love?
And now check out my review of the game, found here.
This is Heavy Rain, an [strike]interactive movie[/strike] immersing mystery game on the PS3.
It lets you engage in everyday life events such as brushing your teeth, using the toilet, and cooking frozen food in the microwave. Only you're using a controller to do these things, therefore they become fun.
The game starts off like a tech demo for what Playstation Home should have been. Then it quickly descends into a sad factory that pumps out constant sad. It's kind of like the opening to Up, only much meaner and without anything uplifting afterward.
I'll be putting out a review next week, even though most of you have already played through it. Kindly mark your spoilers (ALL OF THEM).
And ask yourself: How far will you go to save someone you love?
And now check out my review of the game, found here.
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This game makes me feel like I'm IN it. I don't want to lend this to my brother, cause I'm not sure a father can play this and enjoy the game. It's so intense.
I love it. And I'm now glad it's only 8-10hrs cause after the first 2, I've had to shut it off twice already to decompress and take in what just happened.
Holy. Shit.
I played for a good 2 hours so far, but I don't imagine that I'll be done in 8 or 10. I believe much of the length of this game depends on how much you fool around with the interactive environment (and there's LOTS of things to interact with). I've been messing around with stuff like crazy so far, and it's really enjoyable. This game is gorgeous, screen tearing aside.
Also, be honest: did the first thing most of you decide to try in the Prologue is
Because I almost did that, but I can't compel myself to be an asshole to them.
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It looks pretty sweet, actually. Just shows the kind of detail they put out for this game.
Also, if you decide to resume the game by picking the current chapter you're on by picking Chapters rather than Continue, will the next chapter open up?
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I completed all of the trials except the Shark. Hurting, or even killing yourself to save someone is perfectly acceptable, but killing someone else... I'm not gonna say it's out-and-out wrong, but it certainly wasn't something I was prepared to do. I pretty much knew going in that I wasn't gonna shoot him, even before we got to his kid's room.
The sex scene seemed really forced and in retrospect I wish I hadn't triggered it. A kiss or maybe the hints of a budding romance would have been one thing, but the idea that these people, who have known each other for a net total of maybe 5 hours, would have fallen in love with each other is kind of ridiculous to me. I mean, I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's certainly implausible.
Speaking of implausible! I agree that it barely makes sense that Shelby had time to kill Manfred, but it just seems to me like some slightly different scripting could have made it a lot more believable. Why not, for instance, have him kill/discover the body when he goes to "check on him?" The way he carried out the murder, his success was completely dependent on the hope that Lauren didn't catch him in the corner of her eye, or didn't look at the music box for as long as she did. He banked his whole plan there on her having an unnatural affinity for tiny porcelain ballerinas.
That said, I really liked the twist. It's up there with the Bioshock twist for me. I was absolutely convinced that Blake was the killer. He was the right age, he had the power to keep the Blue Lagoon guy out of prison, and it would explain why he he was handling the investigation with complete incompetence and tried to dump the guilt on the first person that was even slightly suspicious. So when it actually turned out to be Shelby I was completely blown away. I didn't even register what the cutscene was trying to say at first. "Whoa, what the fuck? HE killed Manfred? Why would he do that? Did he think he was the OK or something? Whoa, what the fuck? HE was the thug at the Blue Lagoon? I guess he was trying to steal some evidence on the OK, which means that Jayden is going off of false information!... wait. Wait. Oh shit. Oh shit." I'll be the first to admit I was being dense but in the end it led to a greater enjoyment of the twist so I'm okay with that!
The game definitely has some plotholes, and the bugs and subpar voice-acting was problematic, but the ambience and emotion that it manages to create in spite of those things really makes them ignorable, which they wouldn't normally be. It manages to be greater than the sum of its parts.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I think the voice acting is generally strong so far, the only exception being
Sounded like when Hank Hill calls for Ladybird
the kids sound quite believable too.
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We now have incontrovertible proof that you have never heard a child speak before.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
The thing is, they do sound quite believable.
As French child actors who aren't very good, and don't know how to do voiceover work properly, unfortunately.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I say, this game coerces you into getting the blunder trophy. Amadou Diallo'd.
3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
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3DS Friend Code: 2165-6448-8348 www.Twitch.TV/cooljammer00
Battle.Net: JohnDarc#1203 Origin/UPlay: CoolJammer00
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I'm pretty sure picking the Chapter will let you progress like normally instead of Continue.
And, since we're speaking on it, I blundered right into the Blunder trophy just like they planned!
I didn't play Jayden very well that game anyway, so it felt appropriate.
Also can someone explain
This seems more like "the author did not explain this, and that annoys me."
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
....
Possibly :P
There are many others like it, but this one is mine.
Strictly speaking, yeah, a plot hole is a point at which the plot contradicts itself. Leaving an extremely important detail totally unexamined is just as big of an issue though, and really there's no need to argue semantics.
Stuff like that, and the fact that (near end, twist spoilers)
are definitely problems, and things that make the plot feel a bit ramshackle, but I can ignore it because, for me at least, the game was more about ambiance than plot. QD was more concerned about making the player feel a very specific emotion at each given time, and to that end they succeeded, even if it doesn't make perfect sense when you try and pull all the pieces together. The only thing I'd knock them for is, this is a murder mystery, and that's a genre that particularly asks the audience to think critically about the story to try and determine the solution to the puzzle. If this was less thriller and more action, I seriously doubt people would complain about the plot holes as much.
Then again, as someone who can let the mostly small plot holes slide and who didn't see the twist coming from a mile away, I'm glad they went with thriller.
And before someone contests whether or not that thing I spoilered up there is a plot-hole,
http://www.audioentropy.com/
Here's hoping! Really I think the plot would've been fine with just one or two more rounds of editing. All of the inconsistencies/unexplained plot elements other than
are pretty minor.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I've seen this come up a lot and the way I always thought about it was more
At that point in the game, she's interacted with Ethan enough (Whether or not they do it or he doesn't show interest in her) that she probably hopes he didn't kidnap his own kid to put in for a trial like this. So when she hears the name, it's less of a "Oh, I know that guy, oh god wait what?" and more of a "Oh god, it's not Ethan! I have to figure out what to do now!" sort of deal.
I might just be excusing for the game since I liked it so much, but I don't see how the way I thought of it is much of a leap.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
I wonder what factors into the glitches. Using standard stereo (had headphones this time) vs dolby digital (used the receiver the first time)? Or is it just random?
Any word on a possible patch?
Oh, and conceptually speaking, a sequel/followup using Playstation Move would be amazing.
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Like I said, I might be excusing it and/or overthinking it, but I liked the game a lot and the spoiled bit made sense to me even after the fact.
(Very Very mild late-game related things, just naming a couple characters towards the end, but spoilering anyway):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMS_kaS8Kmg
Why the hell did the birds stop mid-flight at 1:33?
Any major spoilers in there? Only looked at a few.
What would be fantastic is a site that has those wallpaper sized (1920x1080). Can anyone find a site like that?
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Now that you mention it, I guess so. But it's the kind of thing you might see spoiled in a film trailer or something.
You would have to blow those up, I think, if you want desktop sizes. They're posted by the artist (it's a forum for concept artists).
Another heavy rain concept art thread, heavy spoilers, fantastic art. NSFW.
I really dislike this game but, man, it had some great artwork and story boards behind it.
http://www.audioentropy.com/
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
Major spoilers in those (very awesome) images.
Yes, it is pretty awesome.
I think a lot of people might very well be. ;-) It's a very shaky game. Very good game, too, though. I can pick any number of fair-sized holes in it, but I'm still very glad I got to play it.
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)
After playing it something came to my mind though. I was thinking, they always try to meld hollywood and videogames by making games based on movies, which are almost always bad. What I think the actual evolution of Hollywood and Videogames will be is developers trying to hire writers who work on movies and television.
It'll probably be more evident in about 5 or 10 more years, since older screenwriters are still some of the people who didn't grow up with video games, but if a dev with good ideas like Quantic Dream could get writers who create shows like The Wire, or even Dexter, we could have some legitimately amazing stories in games. I for one hope that's the way things go.
Although weirdly even if his character was unintentional comedy (don't tell me no-one else kept expecting him to come out with I WANT YOUR GUN AND YOUR BADGE ON MY DESK BEFORE YOU LEAVE THE BUILDING at some point...?) Blake did actually have one of the better voice actors in the game. :?
Read my book. (It has a robot in it.)