Heavy Rain - Announcement trailer

Actual gameplay FOOTAGE!!!!11one

Yay! More quicktime events!

I missed the "gameplay" part? WTF do you have to do? Just click buttons when they appear on screen?

Pretty meh. Shen Mue with better graphics much?

Yeah because Shenmue is suddenly awful!

joy - another 'interactive moovee'

"Pretty meh. Shen Mue with better graphic much? "

Agree with Widge. Why is that a bad thing??

I'm actually disappointed too. I mean its the same mistake as that Broken Sword series, all that walking about and just pressing a button. What a FAIL.

Looks like another flop.

big_merk, you have to realise that any game that doesn't have much background processes can afford to invest more in graphical flourish.

This isn't done because they can only do it on PS3. Far from it.

quite nice graphics but no way as stunning as the original test.
Shame it might as well be Dragon's Lair gameplay with pre rendered prettyness.

Go read a preview of the game before you judge it. It seems to be more then just a series of quick-time events, although this movie does a poor job of showing it.

What this has to do with 360 is beyond me, but I like this take on QTE. I do hope it's not overused. Will put this on my wanted-list.

Well, there was nothing interesting in this one...

God, what is that thing?

are we meant to actually "play" that or just go OOh and AAh at those winzor grafics...

Oh dear... very, very oh dear. QTE boredom.

I didn't even think it looked very good (might just be compressed movie but nevertheless..)

/agrees with Jocho

At first I was as concerned as every other poster on here, but after reading 1up's preview it suddenly sounds a lot more interesting.

As it's probably an adventure as opposed to an action game, QTE for fighting isn't that bad IMO. But as I don't like the typical gameplay of adventure games either I think I won't bother.

Heavy rain is an adventure game and not an action game. Yes it has great graphics but, anyone expecting free control of the game is in for a major shock. Anyone who played quantics other adventure Fahrenheit will understand what I mean.

Even Quantic themselves are trying to let people know that this game contains no run and gun action whatsoever! It's an adventure. A work of interactive fiction i.e. you get to watch it a lot and actually participate very little (bar QTEs and searching locations by the look of it). The story seems to unfold via the heroines dictaphone entries and flashbacks.

where are the marines and sideboobs!?

I liked the idea of Fahrenheit, where the main interaction was influencing how the story played out, if to a limited degree.
If they can expand on that idea, which according to the developers is one of their goals, I'm interested. It's a different kind of interaction and maybe less "direct" than shooting stuff or jumping on things, but you can do these things elsewhere.

My main problem with QTE is when you get one wrong that you have to replay the whole scene again and this can happen so often. If there was a way to continue the scene but punish you someway else for missing a button press i'd be all for that. That's not a judgment on this game as of course its too early, just QTEs in general.

@HolyJebus

Read the 1up preview. From what I understand, that's exactly what this game does. Just because you mess up and get caught, doesn't mean it is the end of the game. You just get a different outcome.

Looks nowhere near as impressive as the test. Lip-syncing and eye movement looks noticeably worse - which for me was the most impressive aspects in the first place.

I like QTE's. This looks good.

/wonders why blig dude have nightmares of electronic 360's/

The 1up link for the LAZY

http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?cId=31...

and that sounds pretty good. Unique storytelling, unique controls... all sounds good!

Agreed the test was better, I haven't got anything against Shenmue but it's nearly 10 years old and I thought this game was going to push things forward. Maybe it's just a bad video, we'll see I guess!

Anyone that can surmise a better way, to prompt on-the-spot reactions from players, to close-proximity events in quick succession, OTHER than QTE, please raise your hand.

I'm as annoyed with QTEs where the action slows to a crawl, and you have unrealistic amount of time to react to enable the "good" outcome movie as anyone else; but that looks to be a world away from what's being shown here. It looks fast-paced and action packed, retaining the tension that the scene in the building conveys.

Shenmue was waaaaay ahead of it's time.

Not impressed with this trailer. Graphics look fine but no better than RE:5 for example. Other than that all this has shown is a QTE event. QTE's by design are supposed to look very filmic but they are the lowest form of gameplay. They're not impressing anyone with this footage.

"Actual Gameplay" = A cut scene with some buttons to press!

P.S. Shenmue is one of my favourite games ever and Farenheit was a very good effort but this game will have needed to progress far from that game in 2009 to be the AAA title everyone is hoping it will be.

they might want to tone down the disclaimer font size, it looks like the title.

"It was a cut scene with some QTE. NOT actual proper gameplay footage. "

I don't know if this was aimed at me, but I was well aware that it was a cut scene and QTE. Isn't that what I said above?

I liked the first trailer better.

The main issue I have with this is that when I press a button in a game, I want to have at least SOME idea of what that button press is going to do.

If someone tells me I can steer a story or course of events with my decisions, then surely actually MAKING decisions is an important part of that.

From what I saw in the movie, there was plenty of button pressing going on, but no clue as to what each button press was going to result in.

So where is the decision making in the sections of gameplay we have been shown? No doubt the actual dialogue sections of the adventure will be clearer, but that is really no different from Fahrenheit, i.e. section of interesting adventure progress (aside from when the plot went mental) spliced between amateurish action scenes over which I felt I had no proper control.

I played all the way through Fahrenheit, and I enjoyed it, and I've been tempted to buy it again on XBLM. But nobody can tell me it was the second coming of story driven gaming it was hyped to be, and I suspect Heavy Rain is going to me much the same. Pretty, and fun, but nothing that resets the bar.


So now I'm reading the preview link. "discussion of controls that feed the story" it says here. /raises eyebrow after previous comments about context-less controls.

Ok, so the "review your thoughts at any time" stuff sounds cool. The driving yourself through the environment is an interesting angle to take, which is I guess just putting a posh graphical hat on the normal adventure format, so that is cool too.


Judgement is reserved as always. Fahrenheit walked the line as far as I was concerned; sometimes very clever and sometimes childishly stupid. If Heavy Rain is better than Fahrenheit was, I shall be pleased and will no doubt play it and enjoy it.

One final word to DC, shorten the quicktime sequences compared to those in Fahrenheit. Some of them were about 6 times too long, and were simply not fun.

"It was a cut scene with some QTE. NOT actual proper gameplay footage."

What exactly is the difference? If a section of the game is interactive, in other words playable, it is gameplay. The clue is in the title you see.

I agree completely kangarootoo.

As an aside, the other thing that was annoying with Fahrenheit's QTE's wasn't just the length, but the amount of button presses chained together in quick succession. I find it ironic that a gameplay element was designed to do some extravagant footage only to have the player not appreciate it because they're too busy focussing on the buttons appearing on screen! At least Shemnue's were spaced apart so you could enjoy the action.

Too right. I'm sure there was some pretty groovy stuff going on in the background at one point or anotyher, but I didn't get a chance to watch it because I was locked in an unblinking hell of concentration on the central four square inches of the screen.

Hey EG. Why don't your spoiler tags work in video comment threads? I had to edit my last post for fear of linching.

cooo, she has a nice rosy glow for a virtual gal.

precisely - the beauty of shenmue was that the idea of QTE made you sit up and concentrate on a cut-scene or story section.
(kojima kind of tried it with his amusing but pointless camera and codec interaction, but was too in love with his story)
To make it more liberal through-out gameplay may become a bit of a strain.
Let them try it, at least SOMEONE is trying to write game stories for grown ups. is this ps3 exclusive?

people trying to stab you in a house haha - best game ever

"The main issue I have with this is that when I press a button in a game, I want to have at least SOME idea of what that button press is going to do.

If someone tells me I can steer a story or course of events with my decisions, then surely actually MAKING decisions is an important part of that.

From what I saw in the movie, there was plenty of button pressing going on, but no clue as to what each button press was going to result in. "

QFT - So true and should be part of some 'Game Design Bible' or something. I hate QTE's so much now that I avoid anything I know has 'em. Soggy corn flakes etc. to whoever invented them.

"The main issue I have with this is that when I press a button in a game, I want to have at least SOME idea of what that button press is going to do."

If you watch carefully, the clue is in the positioning of the icons. Really not difficult to work out what each buttons press will do.

This game will probably be interesting.

Up untill it goes bat shit crazy and the personification of Tyranny pops up and fights Cable TV.

I really fucking hated the QTE button mashing of Fahrenheit.

Don't they have any other ideas? Don't they want to make something that actually plays well?

looks great!

but man not one of the those now press button x games... :/

Ahh, so QTEs are the best way to establish "emotional involvement", looks like Quantic have cracked it!

hmmm QTE rape scene?

Shenmue was ass

Shenmue was a friggin masterpiece and this doesn't seem anywhere near there...