Heavy Rain (PS3)

[Flawless]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

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[Altimus]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Very impressive.

I like how the prompt controls pop up on the screen.

[DickDalewood]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Damn, that was pretty intense! And the graphics are stunning!

Good stuff.

[Burns11]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Very impressive.

I like how the prompt controls pop up on the screen.

Yes, HUGE improvement over the way they did Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy. The simon looking thing they used for that game took you (or at least me) completely out of the action on the screen.

[Hawaii_Stars]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

I am looking forward to this game. It looks fantastic!

[mgoblue]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Very impressive.

I like how the prompt controls pop up on the screen.

Yeah, that keeps you more immersed than just a normal display. Looks like a great adventure game that feels like a movie. I know some won't get into the gameplay (more just making choices rather than shooting and running), but I know it'll be pretty awesome to play.

[DickDalewood]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

This seems to have the same level of control/interaction as Shenmue, a series that I absolutely LOVED.

I'm excited for this one for sure.

[NBA2k8 CHAMP]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

1st glance I thought that was real life.

[Pared]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Holy... this is now on my radar. WOW.

[jmood88]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Yeah those videos made me a lot more interested in this game.

[DickDalewood]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Yeah those videos made me a lot more interested in this game.

lol, you can finally dust off that PS3 mood...

[bucksfan07]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

Really looking forward to this game, it really shows off what the PS3 is capable of..

[Brandwin]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

This game looks amazing. It's probably not anything I would buy, because once I beat it, I doubt I would play much . It is worth a rental though.

[jmood88]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

lol, you can finally dust off that PS3 mood...

lol I definitely need some games for it.

[Flawless]

Re: Heavy Rain (PS3)

GC 2009: Heavy Rain: Living as Ethan Mars

One of the most brilliant things about Heavy Rain is the game's insistence that you live out the lives of its characters. This is not an intense, dramatic game at every passing moment -- Quantic Dream's breath-taking project is much more than that. Heavy Rain puts you in the shoes of its cast and let's you live every moment of it... even the moments in-between.

You see, Ethan Mars was a successful architect. With a beautiful wife and two healthy children, you could say that Ethan had a perfect life -- or as close to perfect as our lives can get. But one day, while out at the mall with his wife and kids, Ethan's older son Jason gets away from the group and runs onto a nearby road. Before Ethan can dive forward and push Jason out of the way, a car strikes the boy and he's killed. This horrifying scenario was born out of Cage's own frightening experience with his wife and son (where his son was lost in a mall), though fortunately Cage's family didn't have to suffer through the same fate.

The next scene in Heavy Rain takes place two years after Jason's death. Ethan is now a single parent, wearily supporting his surviving son Shaun in a broken-down house. This scene is a perfect example of something that would never normally be playable in a traditional videogame. It starts with Ethan standing outside a dreary school, rain pelting his shoulders as the now scruffy, dark-eyed father waits for Shaun to finish his classes. This scene struck me with its heart-wrenching cinematography and painstaking attention to detail. Seeing Ethan's face in the rain is one of the more powerful images I can remember from my experiences with videogames and for good reason -- Quantic Dream knows how it's done.

After Ethan drives Shaun home, the player is given complete control of the father and is free to do whatever he or she wants. You can move Ethan around the house, interact with a good number of the objects in the extremely realistic home, and choose to either take care of your son or ignore him. There is no set path to take and players can decide (to an extent) how to develop Ethan and Shaun's relationship. During the demonstration, Ethan asked Shaun about school, did the laundry, tossed a ball around in the backyard (in the rain) and then prepared his son's after-school snack and dinner. Yet another fantastic touch is that, when heating up Shaun's pizza in the microwave, Ethan must wait in real-time for the microwave to finish heating the food. All the while, time is steadily passing and the house sinks into a depressing darkness.

The entire scene is filled with an almost agonizing amount of tension and depression; players are immediately plunged into the aftermath of Ethan's life-changing experience and it's really quite profound. My absolute favorite moment of the demonstration was when Ethan makes his way upstairs into his bedroom and away from the nostalgic sound of Shaun's cartoons. While in his bedroom, players can choose to sit down at the edge of the bed, alone, and watch as Ethan folds his hands and remains motionless. You can almost see the sorrow hidden behind his face. The scene is complemented by melancholic music that plays gently in the background, which really drives home the emotional nail.

Yes, interactions in Heavy Rain are mainly simply directional queues and button presses, but players are given control of how they want to approach the scene and everything in the game is done to propel the narrative forward while delivering a nearly unprecedented amount of emotion. For a few moments, I felt like Ethan Mars.

And it hurt.