Intrepid, looking back at my quote I see that I worded it poorly. Or maybe I have forgotten what I meant back then and have a different opinion now..
But I think Heavy Rain video is a pretty unrealistic expectation of what a game could be. A scene like that requires tremendous amount of work and most of that work would go unseen in a game, given that the player can wander around freely (although that doesn't have to be the case, aka cutscenes.)
I'm mostly afraid that they'll have to make a compromise in interactivity for this kind of cinematic quality. Altough I could be totally wrong.
As for Half-Life 2, by no means should every game be like that. Especially not if they're trying to aim higher, like Heavy Rain. But in reality, I think the HL2 way (subtle, yet effective) is more cost efficient, as boring as that word may sound when trying to be immersive in gaming.
