Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, in the first city in Omikron the economy was entirely dildo stores, bookshops and supermarkets. The only work to be found in this area was to go and fight in the illegal fight club tournament run by the mayor (really). And it had ridiculous car sharing, you just stood in the road until one came along and got in. Nobody else ever used them, it seemed. A pretty shitty life, I suppose. You have to go and get the crap beaten out of you under the cheerful grin of the mayor (who seemed to be wearing a box on his head) and a crowd of baying spectators just to earn some money. And then pick up some food, a vibrating butt plug and a book written in that horrible font on your way home. Except there's a gunfight in the supermarket and while in the bookstore some cunt comes in and possesses your body.

Well, I suppose it's a futuristic dystopia.

You can borrow it from me if you want.

Ignore the fact that the disc is a bit crispy.

Aparently solve some puzzles here, and get the demo early:
http://www.precinct52.com/case1117_briefing

Did I read that this was a PS3 exclusive?

Yes, it is.

And published by Sony, so basically never coming to the 360.

good, I need at least 1 more reason to keep the monolith.

my plans for a bluray catalog are stumbled by the fact they cost £15 each :@

Didn't realise this is out so soon -- it's released on the 26th of Feb. Demo out tomorrow, too.


Currently scoring 93% on Metacritic, but all from skank ho sources like Official Playstation Magazine.

I have heard that it is QTEtastic.

I maintain that it's gonna be utter bollocks.

I reckon it will be divisive and I probably won't like it.

"Sleaze Hotel". I hope that's on a giant, buzzing, flickering neon sign outside.

9/10 on EuroGAYmer.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/heavy-rain-review

Still not interested even a little bit.

Really? I think that sounds ace.

I haven't read the review. I just know that I won't like it.

I reckon it'll be really ambitious, show stacks and stacks of promise, be chock full of really interesting ideas and yet still not quite all come together properly, just like their previous games. Which means I'll love it, but also feel vaguely disappointed that it didn't live up to expectations.

Cage has said there won't be a sequel.

Good on him for not 'growing' the 'brand' through 'exploting' his 'IPs'. Yes.

After reading the Eurogamer review I'll probably give it a go. It was a video I saw that put me off initially, the voice acting seemed incredibly stilted and it appeared to be a tedious look-at-every-object-in-the-room 'em up.

Destructoid's review is a lot less glowing.

LOLs.

I just played the demo. Utter wank. A series of qte nonsense followed by cliched dialogue and some really out of place character animation.

Having just started uc2 again there's a bit where you have to squeeze through a tight gap at the beginning and you just point and go and you're away to the next bit of engaging action or witty dialogue. In heavy rain you press three buttons to squeeze past a dumpster only to walk down some more alley then have an asthma attack.

Fuck the fuck off.

getting demo now
the reviews havent put me off yet fwiw

The more I think about this the more I hate it.

It's a massive backwards step in gaming - do the equivalent of a dragon punch with the right stick to get your wallet out. It's adding an unnecessary layer of complexity to carrying out the most mundane of tasks when Bayonetta recently showed us that you can press a relatively simple number of buttons to make unfeasibly awesome pyrotechnics spulrge directly into your brain. I want games to present me with some escapism from my normal humdrum life thank you very much - I want to act out my juvenile soldier fantasies, drive a Ferrari sideways, save the galaxy from an ancient threat or shoot lasers and missiles from a spaceship. I don't want to wander around in dingy locations having to perform actions to open car doors or put my fucking handbrake on.

I've been playing games for 30+ years now and this represents everything I don't want them to be about. I don't mind the ambition of transcending the medium to becoming something that stretches the boundaries but this falls so badly between two stools that someone has dug a hole between the stools then filled it full of horse shit and Heavy Rain is sat at the bottom of that hole expecting the player to wade through an enormous pile of steaming shit. (Press Triangle to pick up shit, Quarter Circle Back to fling shit)

There's a fight scene in the demo which is a series of QTE button presses or joystick waggles and not only did I feel completely disconnected from the action I didn't follow it properly because I was too busy monitoring the screen for when the next "mash this button quick" prompt would appear in the screen. It would have worked either as a cut scene where I could see how it panned out and how my fat lumbering asthmatic avatar managed to overpower this seemingly younger fitter adversary or as a straightforward fight similar to the action from Escape from Butcher Bay.

This is all from the demo mind but as a sample of the game it leaves me as cold as anything I've ever played.

...like rescuing your son from a serial killer?

Seems to me the point of Heavy Rain is going to be the plot journey it takes you on, which a demo is always going to struggle to convey. Almost all games are like Michael Bay films; all explosions, all the time. Perhaps there is room for narratives with greater dynamic range, which will flow from quiet moments to loud moments. Maybe Heavy Rain, flawed though it is, is a step towards that.

While in great part I agree, I would love it if, when playing a GTA game or the like, I ran out of the bank with bullets whistling around my ears only to find that my getaway car is 300 yards down the hill in a hedge because I forgot to put the handbrake on.

Cars roll down hills unless you put the handbrake on by holding Y while you get out, don't they?

See, I played the demo and I had a very different experience from Trousers, although I perfectly understand his criticisms. 90% of the games I own are set on alien worlds with plenty of pew pew, so I'm quite up for something different and I found the controls on this made for a very different experience. I liked the QTE fight scene, because you are a lumbering asthmatic in this game, you're not realistically going to be able to pull off super-karate special move blazing fireballs etc, you're going to be wildly swinging your arms and hoping to fuck something connects with something that hurts the other guy. For me, the QTE bit worked very well in that sense.

Likewise, I quite liked the bit where you're trying to get your FBI chappy up a muddy embankment in the pissing rain to look for more clues. Each step involves you having to hold down a different combination of buttons which goes some way into replicating the difficulty your man is having in making the climb.

I will say that I thought the voice acting and dialogue was a bit shit. You can tell that a lot of the actors are French-speaking Canadians having to deliver their lines in English, if that makes any sense.

In summary: well, I liked it.

Hunting for a serial killer I can get along with. Performing that hunt through the use of a wallet/id/asthma inhaler getting out simulator I can't.

Mass Effect and Uncharted 2 are plot heavy games, the former allowing you a small corridor of movement to define your character and the occasional outcome and the latter has moments of truly remarkable chemistry and dialogue that shit all over the last Indiana Jones film or either of the National Treasures sometimes during and sometimes sandwiching moments of superb gameplay. Games can already take you on a journey without making you micro-manage every step of the way.

I'm going to play the demo again and see if my actions have any effect on the outcome.

Really? I thought it was sub-Romancing the Stone tosh, just couldn't get along with it. Mass Effect I love, though.

*slams fist on table* Don't you dare be dissin Romancing The Stone. You can go hog wild on Jewel of the Nile, though.

Soz dimdims, but it really wasn't meant as a slight against Romancing the Stone, or any other Michael Douglas film.

Having never played this demo I totally agree with Trousers and I don't think he should change his mind.

Well I just played the P.I. bit again and the only thing I could change was the fact that he lost the fight. No matter what you do he recovers from his Asthma attack as he just waits there until you check his pockets and I did nothing during the fight - got beat up and then the end bit was pretty much the same with a few minor dialogue changes. I was able to not give her any cash and she didn't seem to notice - thick bitch.

The difference was though that the woman got stuck in a bizarre animation loop where she would just keep standing up then sitting down all the while delivering her hands. After the fight she kept gliding across the floor then back again. Strange.

I then did the second scene and it won't let you leave until you perform x or y anyway so the illusion of choice is just that so far - an illusion. Maybe the demo isn't representative but so far I have no desire whatsoever to play the full game.

Hoho! Surely the best thing since the imaginary Gayness Ex realism mod, where you spent two weeks in hospital after being hit in the head with a crowbar, pressing F5 to eat grapes.

In any event, it all sounds very Dragon's Lair.

Just tried the demo and I like it a lot. Looks awesome and the controls arent a deal breaker.

I just had a go and quite enjoyed it too. Although it's a bit disappointing to read that the plot descends into utter drivel. I'll definitely pick it up when it's cheap.

Well, I really enjoyed the demo; I wanted it to go on. I like the controls. Calling them QTEs isn't quite fair; they're a good deal more interesting than rote button presses. The Twister-style presses as you follow the footprints are a good idea.

Also: my, that's some game engine. The facial animations are as far out the uncanny valley as any other game I've played.

This game is making me want to get a PS3.

The rest of the metacritic reviews are very positive. This is probably a launchday buy for me.

You're all wrong. Me and Zardoz are going to have to pummel you all at Manchester until you see sense.

You got the duck tape and lump hammer Z?

You should get a ps3, although perhaps not based on this game.

I'm imagining a tqlking ancient giant dog called Woofy Harold the Dog that only you can see will appear halfway through and start helping you, given the rather daft plot to fahrenheit.

I've bought a NAS instead. Just because of what Trousers said about this game.

You know it makes sense. Now buy Bayonetta.

No.

I concur with the above. im away during launch but ive pre'd the special edition from ...HMV I think with the DLC included

I was unable to kill Scott Shelby with asthma, or from the fight in the apartment (he's actually still half-way decent if you don't press any buttons. WHAT!). I was unable to kill Drugs McFed and his magic detectacles by remaining on the train tracks and waiting. The train only comes when you're not standing there, and you can't go on the tracks while a train exists.

Humbug!

Answer the question!