Heavy Rain - Light info appears and two vague screenshots.

[MILPERSMAN]

i hated using the sixaxis in heavenly sword it was hard!!!

pshhht!

 

[Superhero 101]

Rain Falls in 7 Days!!!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Rain fell yesterday for me.

I didn't get the game, it just rained here.

 

[The Guardian]

^ LOL, Me and my cousin played the demo last night and played out the Shelby scene in like six different ways!!! It was awesome and hilarious because in one of them we just stood outside the chick's door as she screamed for like 5 minutes waiting to see if the thug would come out of her apartment, but when he didn't we went in and let him beat the crap out of Shelby lol, so she had bruises all over her face and so did Shelby lol, it was hilarious, good times, yes I'm evil!!!Dup:

 

[Electro UK]

Done, finished, finito. Spoiler free thoughts...

Great game, an incredible improvement over Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheight for sure. It ranks as one of my favorite games on the system just for the best moments alone.

The story is really involving this time, leaving only a few times where I didn't care for characters enough to make a thoughtful plan. In fact there were a good few times I actually set the controller down and thought "What would I do?" and ended up regretting 2 decisions I'd made right after making them.

There are some bits that kill it a little. Some things happen and my first reaction is to not care and walk away, but I have to react to it. I mean, it was clear from that the game doesn't 100% realise what it promises. There are also a handful of moments a character doesn't act believeably or you think "Why isn't this an option?" but these result to nitpicking.

Overall it's a great, great game. The problem is I fear it really is just like a movie, like Cage has said. Once you've done the first playthrough, that's it. Sure you can see how else it would pan out, but it doesn't hold the same kind of excitement to it. I'll always love my first playthrough of Heavy Rain, it remains to be seen what I feel about it the next time.

 

[terry78]

Next week, make it Rain on a *****.

I can't believe none of you used that line.

 

[Electro UK]

Oh and you all have to be nice to me for a week or I'll tell you whodunnit!

 

[The Guardian]

Oh and you all have to be nice to me for a week or I'll tell you whodunnit!

up:

 

[The Squirrel]

Done, finished, finito. Spoiler free thoughts...

Great game, an incredible improvement over Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheight for sure. It ranks as one of my favorite games on the system just for the best moments alone.

The story is really involving this time, leaving only a few times where I didn't care for characters enough to make a thoughtful plan. In fact there were a good few times I actually set the controller down and thought "What would I do?" and ended up regretting 2 decisions I'd made right after making them.

There are some bits that kill it a little. Some things happen and my first reaction is to not care and walk away, but I have to react to it. I mean, it was clear from that the game doesn't 100% realise what it promises. There are also a handful of moments a character doesn't act believeably or you think "Why isn't this an option?" but these result to nitpicking.

Overall it's a great, great game. The problem is I fear it really is just like a movie, like Cage has said. Once you've done the first playthrough, that's it. Sure you can see how else it would pan out, but it doesn't hold the same kind of excitement to it. I'll always love my first playthrough of Heavy Rain, it remains to be seen what I feel about it the next time.

When did you get it? And about how long was the play through?

You can put it in spoilers if you want, but did any of the characters die by your decisions? (Like 1 or 2? Not names.)

 

[Crook]

Overall it's a great, great game. The problem is I fear it really is just like a movie, like Cage has said. Once you've done the first playthrough, that's it. Sure you can see how else it would pan out, but it doesn't hold the same kind of excitement to it. I'll always love my first playthrough of Heavy Rain, it remains to be seen what I feel about it the next time.

How long did it take the first time through? This may be a dealbreaker for me as I don't like buying games for full-price if there's no re-playability.

I thought it was assured that every major decision leads to practically a new storyline? I'm not interested in plotlines that deviate only slightly. That's a cheap way of making another playthrough essential.

 

[Solidus]

http://www.n4g.com/ps3/NewsCom-477279.aspx

Sessler says despite the other person's review I think it was 4/5, and he admits it has some flaws. But he said if your a gamer....play it. He has his whole Soapbox segment on it. Pretty good. I like seeing the Old Sessler coming back. I watched him all the time back in the day of Gamespot TV. When Greg K and many other greats use to be there.

 

[Tron Bonne]

'If you give a rat's ass about gaming, you should check this out.' That blurb-worthy right there

Though, I agree, I enjoy Sessler. When he's not play the X-Play idiot (which can be fun sometimes), he's pretty insightful and knows his stuff well

 

[Solidus]

'If you give a rat's ass about gaming, you should check this out.' That blurb-worthy right there

Though, I agree, I enjoy Sessler. When he's not play the X-Play idiot (which can be fun sometimes), he's pretty insightful and knows his stuff well

He's always been a very good reviewer/knowledgeable gamer. But during Extended Play, and X-Play for a while he became more of a "wannabe comic" then a gamer. But for some reason the past few years it seems Sessler has re-emerged as his old self for the most part, still goofy but he clearly knows his stuff. I do respect him, I met him once when I went to E3 in 2003. He was a nice guy, very friendly.

 

[Electro UK]

How long did it take the first time through? This may be a dealbreaker for me as I don't like buying games for full-price if there's no re-playability.

I thought it was assured that every major decision leads to practically a new storyline? I'm not interested in plotlines that deviate only slightly. That's a cheap way of making another playthrough essential.

First time through took me about 10 hours I'd say, it's a real decent length.

Sadly, I don't think there really is a way to the get plot to deviate much. I'm gonna give it another run through today to see what happens when I make drastically different choices, but a few scenes I replayed last night would crush people's hopes of what Cage promised I think.

And and Squirrel, everyone lived in my tale! At least the 4 main characters did anyways...

 

[Crook]

Hrm, just read this on another forum. But guy has a point:

I know from the demo that sometimes the gameplay is more or less a buggy play button. For example, if you are in a car you have the "leave car" command prompt. You don't get to choose what you do, you HAVE to do that or you just sit there. It's exactly a buggy play button.

Beyond that the tense fight scene more or less plays out the same if you just put your control down and do nothing. There was one line of dialogue that is changed and the NPC you talked to says the exact same thing.

Many of the reviews I have read have more-or-less stated that this is the case for the game. There are some major choices to make, but many times you are just hitting the play button or getting dialogue changes. But overall the game takes you on a very linear path, and the changes only effect the ending (which I've heard very mixed things about).

For me, it's not so much knowing what the answer is or isn't. It's knowing how much my actual playing of the game impacted the game itself. When I first played the game, it felt great, tense and exciting. However, when I experimented with it on a replay, it felt very shallow.

I feel like it's more of a movie that uses gameplay elements to create suspense.

Think about it this way, if you are watching a slasher movie and there was a prompt that shot up on the screen to push a button to escape Jason, you are going to be that much MORE drawn into the scene then you would if there wasn't that prompt. Now, what happens when you realize that those prompts don't make as much of a difference as you thought I would? That all these gameplay challenges and choices, weren't *really* challenges or choices? There is tension lost there that cannot be recovered.

It's very interesting in that regard from a movie-perspective because it does that extremely well and that is an admittedly very novel approach. But it doesn't bode well for what happens once that immersion breaks. The gameplay doesn't hold up well once it's tricks are revealed, but on top of that since the gameplay is a means of building suspense, the story is wounded as well.

Combined with the estimated 10 hours of play, looks like this'll be a rental. As much as I enjoyed the demo, the ability to choose how the story is told, was my main hook. With that gone, these are all glorified quicktime cutscenes.

 

[Electro UK]

Very true. There are 2 really disappointing parts in the game where I chose to do nothing but had to do something in the end.

Rental IS the best choice, as much as this is an own-worthy game, a repeated playthrough just hurts it more because you're 1st playthrough feels less special, and you find some horrifically obvious cracks in the story.

 

[Electro UK]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/heavy-rains-david-cage-interview

No more thrillers for David Cage. It's a shame because even with how much I love HR I feel he's yet to make his 'masterpiece' as it were.

Still, maybe his next game will be a straight up detective story? Completely noir, very little action, focus on you finding clues. That I'd love.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

'If you give a rat's ass about gaming, you should check this out.' That blurb-worthy right there

Though, I agree, I enjoy Sessler. When he's not play the X-Play idiot (which can be fun sometimes), he's pretty insightful and knows his stuff well

I've always liked him. But I generally watch him on Sessler's Soapbox and Feedback more than X-Play, so I guess that's why. He seems to share a lot of views on gaming with me--lamenting the decline of PC gaming to second-rate status, preferring single-player experiences, being interested in pushing the boundaries of what constitutes a video game, etc.

Encouraging stuff. No game is perfect, so the talk of flaws in the game or plot twists that are perhaps too unbelievable don't really faze me.

 

[Electro UK]

And they shouldn't. It's a game that isn't black and white and rises above the flaws is shares with conventional video games. It is greatness.

 

[Electro UK]

Ladies and gents, the thatvideogameblog.com review of Heavy Rain:

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2010/02/17/review-heavy-rain-ps3/#more-66341

I didn't quite get everything I'd like to say in there due to word limit, but I feel it's a decent summary of why you should play the game, despite its flaws.

 

[Midnite]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/review-heavy-rain/61846

Gametrailers review been out for the past few days.

 

[KALEL114]

Ladies and gents, the thatvideogameblog.com review of Heavy Rain:

http://www.thatvideogameblog.com/2010/02/17/review-heavy-rain-ps3/#more-66341

I didn't quite get everything I'd like to say in there due to word limit, but I feel it's a decent summary of why you should play the game, despite its flaws.

Great review Jamie.
I was already loving the demo, but hearing your thoughts on the full game has given me even more confidence that I will love it even despite it's flaws..

 

[Electro UK]

Thanks dude, that means a lot to me, seriously.

 

[THE LIZARD#1]

'If you give a rat's ass about gaming, you should check this out.' That blurb-worthy right there

Though, I agree, I enjoy Sessler. When he's not play the X-Play idiot (which can be fun sometimes), he's pretty insightful and knows his stuff well

Adam Sessler is awesome! I got to meet him in person at Insomniac Game’s Community Day. The man is very intelligent and truly passionate about the game industry. He is very articulate and just blew me away by how he was able to completely understand others points of view that was drastically different from his own.

Most people in the industry have a stance and stick with it. People label them as “fan boys”. For someone who reviews games and takes pride in them, it was crazy to see how he was able to have an open thought for each game talked about. There was no trace of biased opinions.

 

[uchiha_itachi]

Awesome review man.