Heavy Rain to delay Trophy alerts

By Robert Purchese Published 15 December, 2009

Acquired awards shown during breaks.

Quantic Dream co-boss Guillaume de Fondaumiere has revealed a small but interesting Heavy Rain feature that delays Trophy alerts until there are appropriate breaks in gameplay in which to display them.

This, de Fondaumiere explained to Kotaku, should better preserve the dramatic tension of a scene.

Trophies are usually accompanied by a quiet chime sound and a boxed message, which tells you what you've earned and why.

The news fits perfectly alongside our freshly-minted hands-on impressions of Heavy Rain, where we explore each of the four main characters' introductory passages.

Heavy Rain is due out exclusively on PS3 early next year.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (38) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • cianchristopher #1 2 years ago

    Makes sense, it'd ruin certain dramaitc scenes by popping up with its chime.

  • Syrok #2 2 years ago

    Good, the trophy notifications, like people sending you random messages, just distract me from the game.

  • feistycheese #3 2 years ago

    Yup, good idea. It can be annoying when a trophy notice pops up right in the middle of a game, the same goes for when 'a friend' comes online, which is why I have no one on my friend list . . . .honestly!!.

  • mr_goop #4 2 years ago

    You can't just disable alerts on PS3?

  • kangarootoo #5 2 years ago

    I think you can switch off the pop-ups for friends going online/offline. You might be able to do the same for trophies too, but I'm not sure on that one.

  • Kikizosan #6 2 years ago

    It's a nice idea for a first run-through, but what if you want instant notification? Surely it would be better to give players the option.

  • TheApologist #7 2 years ago

    This is really good news - I like Trophies well enough but they do lift you out of the experience sometimes

  • Cappy #8 2 years ago

    I hope they do this for The Last Guardian too, I don't think it would help the atmosphere having notifications pop up.

  • Linkified #9 2 years ago

    I like to see the trophies pop up at the time I get them - eapecially when playing point and click games because then I tend to know or I've ether explored everything here and can move on. But from the videos I've seen of heavy rain it seems like I would need to have other music on an ipod to even enable myself to try and play a game which looks boring. God help him when he creates game using Sony waggle disco stick. Its going to be move this up here and down there.

  • Beige_Alert #10 2 years ago

    This should be an option for every game.

  • NotSoSlim #11 2 years ago

    Always one moron who ruins a good discussion :o)

  • Cpt.Hindsight #12 2 years ago

    I think this is a very good idea and I can't wait to play this game!

  • Verminox #13 2 years ago

    @Linkified - Why do you persist in shitting through your fingers and on to the comments page of every Heavy Rain article, we know you're not interested in this game so stop wasting your time posting crap.

  • davisorle #14 2 years ago

    I dont see this how its news.. What i mean is that I dont see it as anything. You simply earn the trophy when the scene is done and achieved th coresponding trophy. Or they are also doing something newthat I didnt get in this article? If so anyone correcting me is more than welcome cause I honestly didnt get this.

    @mr_goop
    Apparenttly not!? I dont know whats the deal here im lost :S

    So if im not missing something and this works that way you still have the same issue from friend alerts then? o.O Confused..

  • monkeywithnoeyes #15 2 years ago

    hmmm.. it will ofcourse help keep you in the moment and not get distracted by notification of trophys..but on the other hand i can see it being an annoyance having to wait and play through it "blindly" till the breaks if you're going achiev..sorry, trophy hunting and need to know if you've earned that trophy...rather than play through the game for another hour and find out you missed it and have to do it again.

    Maybe they could of arranged it so that trophy notification is texted to your characters phone..then the player can check it at will

  • makeamazing #16 2 years ago

    I dont care when the trophies arrive, as long as i get them :) ... cant believe ive become such a trophy loser :|

  • Linkified #17 2 years ago

    @Verminox: I'm entitled to post on whetver news story I like as a member just like you. You know theres a wonderful thing called the ignore button if you care this much.

    In all honesty everyone says it changes so much but it'll turn into the onyl bareable thing in fanrenheit which was the matrix type bits.

  • Dizzy #18 2 years ago

    Slow news day????

  • RandomTerrain #19 2 years ago

    I think it's a damn good idea, even if it's a very simple one. :o)

  • mr_bez #20 2 years ago

    Excellent. I'm a big trophy fan but really hope they go one further and hide all the trophies too. Seems like this is a game to really immerse yourself in and the temptation to check what you have left to get will at best take you out of the moment, and at worst spoil the plot.

  • freakzilla #21 2 years ago

    but but... I is a trophy whore. No really.

  • menschenfracht #22 2 years ago

    flower had this

  • Alkeno #23 2 years ago

    Just add Mr Linkified to the ignore list, or just avoid the usual suspects with huge negative karma... But don't answer, that is feeding the troll. He already destroyed yesterday's thread, don't give him the pleasure of repeating the feat...
    Edited by 1 at 15/12/09 @ 20:21

  • Slipstream #24 2 years ago

    Seeing this further promotes how proud Qauntic truly are of this game's atmosphere, I'm senseing a genuine experience here.

    On topic, smooth move, not so much an issue on the PS3 really, the Trophy chime is not as loud or as intrusive as the 'Xbox's 'Achievement unlocked' display, but if the drama of certain scenes are as appealing as written, then I'm all for one less distraction.

    lol I expect the next feature to disable, possibly terminate certain real-life distractions too xD

  • mkreku #25 2 years ago

    Anyone remember exiting the vault in Fallout 3? "Oohh, awesome, a wastel*PLINK*[ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED]and..wtf?".

    I applaud this decision!

  • sneetch #26 2 years ago

    Good idea, I can see how this can ruin the atmosphere of a game like this. Be nice if other games had the option to delay or hide achievements/trophies too. Starting to get a real good feeling about this game after initially being really sceptical.

  • Doctor_What #27 2 years ago

    Nice. It's good to see some real care and attention being paid to this kind of detail. I'm getting very optimistic about this game.

  • BabyJesus #28 2 years ago

    Thats a pretty good idea actually, especially for a game that relies on immersion as much as Heavy Rain seems to.

  • icematt12 #29 2 years ago

    Didn't a previous article say this or was it only a possibility then?

  • TheJuriel #30 2 years ago

    A good idea. I dislike achievement notices popping on the middle of the screen during a cutscene, when I'm trying to, you know, watch the cutscene.

  • MORZTAN #31 2 years ago

    Everyone should do this! Trophies sucks and drags you out of the experience!

  • siro #32 2 years ago

    I see lots of people reloading and retrying even though they did everything they were supposed to because the trophy thing didn't blip.

  • Zebula77 #33 2 years ago

    This happens on PES 2010 as well. Trophy alerts come after the game, which is kinda nice.

    I think this is a nice little feature. It kinda sucks in atmospheric tension-built games like Dead Space when you're in the middle of it and a trophy pops up. Breaks the concentration.

  • M_of_the_sys #34 2 years ago

    I am soooo easily distracted with everything! Always have been. However, I've never had a trophy pop up drag me out of the experience. Perhaps on a few occasions I've gone to my trophy collection to see what I got the trophy for but once I started the game again I didn't feel like I'd lost anything from the experience. I think people may be making a mountain out of a molehill.

  • kangarootoo #35 2 years ago

    "You know theres a wonderful thing called the ignore button if you care this much."

    He is right people.

    Arguing with an idiot is like trying to teach a cat to drive. Who is more idiotic, the cat for not being able to comprehend the lesson BECAUSE IT IS A CAT, or the teacher for persisting despite the obvious?

    Clickety click.
    Edited by 1 at 16/12/09 @ 09:33

  • Zebula77 #36 2 years ago

    Yeah, you can disable those. I did that long ago. Fallout 3 became almost unplayable early on, cos those adverts made the whole game freeze for about five seconds.

  • Stegofreak #37 2 years ago

    Definately a good idea. I remeber playing Forza 2 once, 5 minutes into the last of the arcade time-trials and on a blistering lap. Then coming up to a tight corner my 360 decided to tell me a friend had come online resulting in me missing the breaking point and spinning off.

    Actually, with that in mind I hope Polyphonic Digital bring this idea into Gran Turismo 5.

  • VMerken #38 2 years ago

    @kangoorootoo
    The flaw in your argument is that on the internet, we are not dealing with cats, and I personally like to believe conversation is possible and/or can be established until one of the conversationalists abruptly pulls the plug for stupid reasons (likely to be caused by virtual ubermensch syndrome) or sensible ones (afk).

    As for the topic at hand, delaying Achievement messages (or any type of popups) is great, especially in games relying heavily on cinematics and wishing to achieve suspension of disbelief. I don't know about you, but I get very annoyed while watching a thrilling show/movie on tv and BAM! the tv network expresses their wish to tell you about the reality show coming up next and needing about 15% of the screen to do so. Thanks for ruining the flow, tv network. How about letting me find out what's next because that means that oh, I actually want to?