Heavy Rain to receive Chronicles DLC

By Tom Bramwell Published 21 December, 2009

First episode due with Collector's Edition.

Sony has announced a European special edition of Heavy Rain and has also said it plans to release downloadable episodes following the game's release.

The Heavy Rain Collector's Edition comes in a special rain-effect slipcase, which "gives the impression of being streaked with 3D raindrops" and folds out with exclusive artwork on the packaging and manual.

The Collector's Edition also includes a download voucher entitling you to a Heavy Rain dynamic XMB theme, orchestral soundtrack and downloadable add-on episode from PlayStation Network.

That episode will be an expanded version of the Taxidermist demo shown at E3 and gamescom last year, in which one of the main game's playable characters, Madison Paige, investigates a reclusive taxidermist and gets in a spot of bother.

The episode is one of two "Chronicles" due out after the game's release next year as downloadable content. The Chronicles will cost money on PSN, but the first one will be free to people who buy the Collector's Edition, and made available to them before anyone else as well.

'Heavy Rain to receive Chronicles DLC' Screenshot 1

Sony has said to expect the Chronicles to form a "series of additional, fully-playable scenes" where you get to find out a bit more about the origins of some of Heavy Rain's characters.

Speaking of which, there's no word on Heavy Rain's release date yet, but retailers are pointing to 26th February 2010 ahead of official confirmation.

Check out our hefty Heavy Rain hands-on preview from earlier this month to find out a lot more about the first few hours of the game.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 2 years ago

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

  • matrim83 #1 2 years ago

    I really fucking hate this zero day DLC bullshit, esp when its not bundled for free with the normal edition of the game. And I hate that its becoming a norm.
    Edited by 1 at 21/12/09 @ 08:24

  • Beano #2 2 years ago

    Agree completely.

  • duckncover #3 2 years ago

    @matrim83 - I really fucking hate people complaining about developers doing things to try to stay afloat during a recession. Unless you are Act'ard or Nintendo, then things are hard for these guys at the moment. If this product fails to recoup its costs then it will that much harder to do it again.

    For a group of people that like playing games, it amazes me how much animosity is shown to the companies that make them.

  • JonFE #4 2 years ago

    matrim83, what exactly gives you the impression that this will be zero day DLC?

  • davisorle #5 2 years ago

    Yeah thats so much bullshit. I love Biooware for example but I did, up till now, find it unexcusable to do that kind of bullshit to the consumer. Cheap shot. Now, when it comes to Heavy Rain since its no RPG with essensial things in it I dont even see the value either. Scenes..?

    @duckncover
    I think as a consumer he has every right to react instead of accept at will and let the developers think that this is their chance to increase prices or make this kind of DLC crap a standar anymore. Plus, when did they care if you are gonna be rich and make it big or not and you do? As much as I dont care for IW increasing the PC version price of MW2 goes in the cases of Bioware and with this one. See no difference neither a reason why should be excuses in some cases and not the rest.

    As long as the game will be as good as the hype they have built expects , then they will do more than great. The DLC in the genre from day one is still kinda weird though. As long as its worthy though nothing is bad ;)

  • andywilkie35 #6 2 years ago

    Christ I want this game so much that I will actually splash out on the collectors edish. I'll be avoiding all further info from this point on just to make sure everything in the game is as unexpected as possible.

  • schnide #7 2 years ago

    Whatever happens when this comes out, with so much hype some shades of shit are really going to hit the fan - whether the review is bad, average or outstanding.

  • VibratingDonkey #8 2 years ago

    "folds out with exclusive artwork on the packaging and manual. "
    So it's a digipak then? Won't the 3D raindrops make it all soggy?

  • Invisible_Cow #9 2 years ago

    Couldn't care less about some overpriced plastic. Depending on the price point, it could still be worth it to get the DLC. I want to wait and see whether the game's good enough to warrant buying DLC though, so it's probably a pass either way.

  • Murton #10 2 years ago

    Game of the Year 2010?

    The game is a must have buy and this collectors edition is looking mighty tasty, I don't normally get suckered into these special edition boxes except for when they actually look good and offer something worthwhile, which in this case I believe it does.

    Now the wait for an official date begins.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #11 2 years ago

    Collectors edition looks nice. (PFA)

  • vegard #12 2 years ago

    @duckncover

    i think most people complaining about DLC, specially DLC like this, are afraid of a future where you have to download DLC to get the full game experience. if your opinion is that of the majority, then you can bet that it will happen some day.

  • bmxbandit #13 2 years ago

    DLC? Blame Microsoft. They made it standard for consoles.