[Sughly]

That's pretty funny, Luther10, hearing about all the adventure fans who dismissed it. If it's gonna be likened to anything, it is most definately adventures in my opinion. Though with a quite distinctively different take on it.

[MoP]

Originally Posted by Luther10

I started a HR thread over there right around release time because of its non-existance in that forum, and I immediately got yelled at. People were saying something like they do not care about the game, its not an adventure game so it does not belong there in the forum, and its not on pc so they have no interest, and it went on and on... And I always thought gamers who play adventure games are the nicest and the warmest people around.....

Uhm, I read that thread, and don't recall anyone 'yelling at you', only expressing those opinions, which are hardly 'rude' or anything like that... you have to love Heavy Rain to be a nice and warm person now?
And some people did express liking the game over there, just for the record.

[Luther10]

That was actually my first post over there and I got a cold welcome. I was a bit annoyed and I did not go back to that forum till tonight. And now that I reread the whole thread, I did overexaggerate a bit, haha... You're right, I did not get yelled at, the early posters just politely told me not to talk about games not on pc and ones not belong to the genre...

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Luther10

... the early posters just politely told me not to talk about games not on pc and ones not belong to the genre...

So if you brought up Phoenix Wright: Ace Detective (Nintendo DS) they'll deride you?

And on games like Heavy Rain that do "not belong to the genre", whose standard are those posters using? What definition of adventure game are they using to determine whether certain games don't belong?

[Lucien21]

Well the demographics of that site do tend to sway more towards the "Myst is the best adventure game" end of the spectrum and most don't own consoles and can't cope with action sequences. (The biggest thread over there at the moment is about the URU online thing -i.e a glorified chat room)

It's a different audience with different opinions.

Vive la Difference.

[colpet]

Originally Posted by Lucien21

Well the demographics of that site do tend to sway more towards the "Myst is the best adventure game" end of the spectrum and most don't own consoles and can't cope with action sequences. (The biggest thread over there at the moment is about the URU online thing -i.e a glorified chat room)

It's a different audience with different opinions.

Vive la Difference.

I totally agree.
Each of the Adventure forums I belong to have taken a different stance on this game, which exemplifies the varience in the fans of the genre. At Gameboomers, it's not included with Adventure discussions. At JA, the console issue makes it unpopular. Here it is embraced as the best thing since sliced bread. So it's a matter of just choosing the forum that best represents your interests. Case in point: I've learned that saying Myst is the best adventure ever (actually Riven is) or the I'm having a great time with Uru (which I really am) doesn't really garner much interest here.
The important thing is that whatever adventure you enjoy, you can usually find a group of people who agree, and then it's fun to talk about it.

[Wolfrider]

As an aside, I just had the best time watching the For Love Heavy Rain trailer with Youtube's auto-transcribing service.

For a preview of the comedy gold you'll get check this out:

"Everything I did, I did for love."

Translates to....

"The first thing I did, I did for a lot."

[Curt]

I bought and played the game with Megs a couple of weeks ago. My opinion of the game is mixed, but this didn't become apparent until Megs and I started a second playthrough. It's an interesting, intriguing game and it does really give the player, on first playthrough at least, the impression of a lot of control. Unfortunately a replay tends to highlight its weaknesses more than its strengths.

So I'll deal with the positive first playthrough before I come to the negatives. There is no doubt that the game is actually more film than game. This becomes apparent with the fact that more than one player can sit and enjoy the game on first playthrough even though one or more of them does not physically have the controls. In this sense it is filmlike, but the effect of controlling the direction and outcome that the game gives you makes you believe it is a game. It's as interactive a movie as a movie can get without the player actually appearing in it. Character depth, story twists and multiple endings have all been mentioned so I won't go into them except to say that they all make the game worth playing. There are some truly tense moments and making the player react quickly in certain situations adds to that tension and helps the player feel the characters plight. First playthrough was a genuinely enjoyable experience and the games length did not seem too short, in fact the length is comparable to many modern adventure games on the market. On both playthroughs we experienced none of the crashes or other faults that seem to have plagued some.

Now for the negatives as I see them (and they became more apparent as we restarted the game with Megs in control). The game itself is not really much game. It's basically a story with the player having to follow on screen decisions or actions at certain points. The speakable decisions don't appear to have much effect on the important branches of the story, while the action elements, or failure of, have too much effect on the story branches, making the game more action than adventure in my book. Basically if you're not very good/quick with the playstation controller (which Megs and I aren't) then the story branch will be predominently determined by this. We would have preferred it (and felt it was more adventure than action based game) had the moral decisions had a larger effect. As these weaknesses in the gameplay become apparent the game will lose some of its admiration from many players I feel.

However, despite the games negatives I would definitely recommend it, and would say there is enough adventure feeling to it to class it as such despite its action sequences. I'm not sure it's quite the evolution in games that some are claiming, but certain elements are genuinely a step forward and will hopefully lead to even better attempts in the future. The experience does deceive the player for a time into believing they have full control over the story path, but that control ultimately isn't as deep as it first appears.

Maybe, just like many films, it is more enjoyable on second viewing (playthorugh) after a long break, unless you have a short memory of course.

[MoP]

Heavy Rain Makes You Cry

[Beacon]

I've been trying to find anything on what Adventure Game designers/developers think of Heavy Rain. Anybody find and quotes or interviews on the subject?

[D.C.]

According to GameSpy, the first episode of Heavy Rain DLC will be released on April 1st. A second patch is already available too, which apparently fixes lots of the game's bugs. Good times!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

You know what's ironic? That tomorrow my copy of Heavy Rain arrives and I finally saved enough money to get the console, yet no retailer I know has any PS3 Slim in stock, at least not til summer.

[Ugignadl]

Surely there are places other than GameStop to buy PS3s? Like department stores? I'm in Aus here and there are always discounted PS3s being advertised.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I've looked most everywhere online - Amazon, NewEgg, Pricegrabber, Radioshack, BestBuy, Target, Buy.com....

There's definitely a shortage of stock, but on Sony's part.

[D.C.]

Oh, man. I hope you can track one down. Like Ugignadl says, it doesn't seem to be a problem in Australia. We've even got a Heavy Rain PS3 bundle available here. Either way, it's worth the wait. (Atleast in my opinion.)

There's a very interesting Heavy Rain post mortem interview with David Cage over at GameSpy. Definitely only read if you've played (and finished) the game, there are major spoilers here. Be warned. He does talk about one of the loose ends in the game and how he intentionally left it open too.

[Burns11]

Originally Posted by D.C.

Oh, man. I hope you can track one down. Like Ugignadl says, it doesn't seem to be a problem in Australia. We've even got a Heavy Rain PS3 bundle available here. Either way, it's worth the wait. (Atleast in my opinion.)

There's a very interesting Heavy Rain post mortem interview with David Cage over at GameSpy. Definitely only read if you've played (and finished) the game, there are major spoilers here. Be warned. He does talk about one of the loose ends in the game and how he intentionally left it open too.

Since you brought that up, I thought that explanation was bogus and David Cage needs to learn the real definition of McGuffin. It really lessened my opinion of the game, and it probably shouldn't, but it did. I guess I was giving him the benefit if the doubt, that there was a real explanation (and I do think you could easily conjure one) but to claim it's a McGuffin is ludicrous.

[D.C.]

Are we talking about the same thing? Don't mind me, I just woke up. Still half asleep.

I was referring to this quote: (Once again, spoilers. Only read if you've played and completed the game.)

Spoiler:

GameSpy: Why did Ethan sometimes wake up with origami in his hands? That was one thing I've definitely debated with friends.

David Cage: That's something we left open on purpose. Initially, there were two scenes explaining exactly what happens. They were produced and so forth, they were playable, but we decided to delete them from the final game, because we thought it was probably stronger and more powerful if we left that explanation to the player. Everybody has their own theory!.

I got the distinct feeling it's not there without purpose at all. I still think we'll be seeing it sometime in the DLC, but time will tell I guess. I never doubted there was an explanation, but I agree it was left needlessly open.

[Fantasysci5]

Life, of course, is unfair, which is why my fiance got to play "Heavy Rain", and he had never even heard of it before he decided to play it at a friend's house. I'm the one falling off my seat to play it, and he gets to! I'm so jealous.

He, who is not an adventure game lover (*shock gasp horror*), said it was really awesome, very tense.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Fantasysci5

He, who is not an adventure game lover (*shock gasp horror*), said it was really awesome, very tense.

Gamedom is raving over this game, you know. Hardcore gamers who otherwise never even think of glancing at your typical adventure game are loving it. Some have even confessed to shedding a few tears from the emotionality of it all.

But I understand your plight. My copy is slated to arrive tomorrow.......but I cannot find a new PS3 Slim for sale anywhere. They've run out of stock.

[Linque]

Completed Heavy Rain today. It didn't quite reach my expectations as I had set them pretty damn high, but it's an excellent game in my opinion. Mostly I would've wished a bit more from the story and just as someone above said, more ways to alter the storyline without action sequences and instead with dialogue choices and such.

Hopefully there'll be other, better written stories (in terms of the storyline itself and the branches) with the same engine. This was an excellent start for a new kind of gaming, I just hope it won't end up being a one-off, as there is room for improvement left.

I strongly recommend Heavy Rain just to understand what this whole buzz is about. Also, I don't really get some of the overly negative comments about this game around here. The production values are great and there's an interesting story, and you can actually affect the outcome and you do have to think a bit about what to do next. It's not like the game insults your intelligence. And if you really don't care about this game at all, feel free to move on. Just like I have done with Telltale episodes. Live and let live and so forth.