GC08: Heavy Rain demo’ed at Sony conference, looks amazing

“The spiritual sequel to Night Trap, out soon!”

Vid is here … http://www.gamersyde.com/news_6991_en.html

Very pretty… but very concerned that in such a short bit of film they showed so much QTE.

QTE ???

Quick Time Events.

Press the right button at the right place or die / have something go wrong / lose health etc. Only a couple of games have ever done these well, and none have ever done them well as the main gameplay element.

Quick Time Event – where you have to press certain buttons at a particular time as indicated on the screen. Used as a way to make you think you are interacting or controlling what is essentially a cut scene. I share Psychotext concerns here – QTE’s are the work of the devil and have no place in a game.

Thanks!

QTEs: I hated them in God of War, and it was kinda ok in RE4. … and I thought they were really stupid in the Bourne-Demo.
So yes, I do also agree on your concerns.

All that said… I did enjoy Fahrenheit, but it was inspite of the QTE, not because of it.

Graphically that’s gorgeous, aside from her eyes… she seems kind of…. blank? Hard to describe. Still plenty of time ’til release.

I kinda take issue with the ‘actual gameplay footage’, though… it’s basically a semi-interactive cut-scene.

I quite like QTEs, they keep me on my toes, instead of just a cutscene of Nariko jumping to that ledge I’ve got to actually do something to get there.

So far, so meh.

looks great and all that guff but QTEs? christ it better not go overboard on them. they’re too much of an easy option when developers cant be bothered to make a player play the game. obviously there’s only so much you can do with a controller so it cant be overly complex but no way are QTEs the answer.

At least the QTE prompts don’t take up half the screen this time, like in Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit.

@Blerk
“I kinda take issue with the ‘actual gameplay footage’, though… it’s basically a semi-interactive cut-scene.”

I’m not so sure – I’m worried that it is essentially the game. That’s what worried me about some of the other statements. “No guns, cars, interfaces, puzzles or enemies” … that doesn’t leave much does it?

No interfaces, puzzles or enemies? What?

Oh man. It really is going to be Dragon’s Lair.

How can he say there are no enemies in the game and then you’re under attack by some bloke?

I know English isn’t Cage’s first language but that’s just bizarre.

I thought that was a bit weird when I was typing it up, but that’s what the man said.

He probably meant enemy bosses or something.

Well, it is supposed to be about a single serial killer. Maybe he just means it’s just you versus him, and nobody else is actually out to get you.

Yeah, maybe the emphasis should be on “enemies” plural.

All the same… no puzzles? What does that leave you to actually do?

Do what Cage wants you to do.

I am so angry right now… This had such potential (purely becuase of the graphics), but Cage is such a pretentious idiot, he couldn’t let the game be a bit more freedom based.

I want to run around in circles damnit!

And I agree anyway, the eyes are dead, and the lip synchign is awful. The eyes hsoudl really dart more, and stay focused on objects when she moves her head.

What a bit load of crap.

Again, puzzles could mean many things. He could mean puzzles, like when you go up to a door and then the interface changes and you go into a mini-game.

I’m sure you’ll “have to work stuff out” along the way, otherwise, well, it might be a bit pants.

It could be a huge step in gaming narrative, and go on to forge a new genre, or it could fall flat on it’s arse for having such restricted gameplay.

It really could go either way looking at that demo. I don’t mind QTE’s, and was probably the only person on Earth (aside from Cage) who thoroughly enjoyed the QTE chases in Fahrenheit, but there’s no question they’re a compromised form of control.

I like the idea of a set story that you can influence, but whether that idea will translate into a fun way to spend my time, I’m really not sure.

Whatever else, it’s brave and different, and I’d love to see it succeed.

I would just like it if the QTEs weren’t so final. i.e. in that knife attack, if you miss a couple he cuts you, meaning you’re injured, meaning you’re slower and need to find medicine etc.

Not just miss one: you’re dead. game over. restart.

Well… apparently there is no “game over”, though I have f’all idea how they’re going to do that.

So you could theoretically just *watch* the entire game?

The QTE has more than oen option apparently, so you can decide to do multiple things. And not only that, but you can let the charcter die.

I just don’t think it’s a game really. It’s an interactive movie.

@ Robo1, if it was going to be the next big thing, it would have happened last generation.

@morriss

I agree with that. Instadeath from failing a QTE can be quite galling, as often they do come out of the blue, and catch you off guard. I much prefer a small penalty (like God of War) than a death screen.

@No_PUDing

To be honest, we simply haven’t seen enough of the game to know how far Cage has taken it this time. I get the impression that for Heavy Rain, the gameplay is incidental to the story, and the idea of no game over screen etc. is intriguing. It’s sounding more and more like an interactive film than a game to be honest.