New Heavy Rain screens, interview from 1up, and preview from Eurogamer

that first pic is definitely not a screenshot jaywd

It most definitely is a screenshot... here is the screen at full size:

The good:

We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real.

Finally, somebody gets it. While epic stories can deliver great epic stuff, you cannot expect to emotionally impact people with them. For that you need something intimate, personal, real. While fantasy and/or sci-fi stories can and should implement elements that make their conflicts matter (The Longest Journey, Half-Life), I'm still waiting for a completely down-to-earth type of game.

The bad:

I know there's always a strong reluctance from some hardcore gamers for this type of sequence, but we hope to convince them by the way we're going to implement them and by how we'll make these sequences really enjoyable and spectacular.

No. I hate when developers think that their version of something that is generally despised will make everyone change their minds. It won't. You will fail. Do not assume that people don't know what they do and don't like. QTE's suck. Even at its best, this mechanic will never be described as awesome or great. The mechanic and the whole idea behind it sucks. Stop doing it.

The good:

We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real.

Finally, somebody gets it. While epic stories can deliver great epic stuff, you cannot expect to emotionally impact people with them. For that you need something intimate, personal, real. While fantasy and/or sci-fi stories can and should implement elements that make their conflicts matter (The Longest Journey, Half-Life), I'm still waiting for a completely down-to-earth type of game.

The bad:

I know there's always a strong reluctance from some hardcore gamers for this type of sequence, but we hope to convince them by the way we're going to implement them and by how we'll make these sequences really enjoyable and spectacular.

No. I hate when developers think that their version of something that is generally despised will make everyone change their minds. It won't. You will fail. Do not assume that people don't know what they do and don't like. QTE's suck. Even at its best, this mechanic will never be described as awesome or great. The mechanic and the whole idea behind it sucks. Stop doing it.

UpInFlames

Agreed on all points. The whole QTE thing is basically a way to say "our control scheme isn't good enough to handle the on screen action, but we don't want this part of the game to be a cutscene either." QTEs are endlessly frustrating. I never beat RE4 because of the QTE knife fight with that commando duder. I screwed up two or three times in a row and went on to a game that wasn't trying to halt my progress with random button pushes that are nothing more than luck and a test of a person's hand eye coordination.

The first pic is just wow.

I found this to be very interesting:

" DC: Definitely. We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real."

I like that unlike some developers (The Getaway guys, Dennis Dyack) he is able admit that he screwed up earlier.

Here's the full presentation of the tech demo shown at lepzig:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlGcE0ROE7w

[QUOTE="UpInFlames"]

The good:

We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real.

Finally, somebody gets it. While epic stories can deliver great epic stuff, you cannot expect to emotionally impact people with them. For that you need something intimate, personal, real. While fantasy and/or sci-fi stories can and should implement elements that make their conflicts matter (The Longest Journey, Half-Life), I'm still waiting for a completely down-to-earth type of game.

The bad:

I know there's always a strong reluctance from some hardcore gamers for this type of sequence, but we hope to convince them by the way we're going to implement them and by how we'll make these sequences really enjoyable and spectacular.

No. I hate when developers think that their version of something that is generally despised will make everyone change their minds. It won't. You will fail. Do not assume that people don't know what they do and don't like. QTE's suck. Even at its best, this mechanic will never be described as awesome or great. The mechanic and the whole idea behind it sucks. Stop doing it.

rragnaar

Agreed on all points. The whole QTE thing is basically a way to say "our control scheme isn't good enough to handle the on screen action, but we don't want this part of the game to be a cutscene either." QTEs are endlessly frustrating. I never beat RE4 because of the QTE knife fight with that commando duder. I screwed up two or three times in a row and went on to a game that wasn't trying to halt my progress with random button pushes that are nothing more than luck and a test of a person's hand eye coordination.

I hated the QTEs in Dragon's Lair and Shenmue, but I enjoyed the QTEs of the God of Wars and some of the QTEs in RE4 and Heavenly Sword. Hitting the odd button when Nariko was charging across the giant ropes in the Heavenly Sword and moving the left stick in a circle to trigger Kratos's ripping off the head of a medusa were all actions I thoroughly enjoyed and which could not be reasonably accomodated within their normal control schemes.

QTEs that control normal actions (the case with some of the QTEs in Shenmue), that have too narrow windows (the case with some of HS's QTEs) or that last too long (the knife fight in RE4 ran a little long) are what I have a problem with.

Great stuff, game looks amazing, premise looks amazing. Agreed on the use of QTEs, regardless I enjoyed IP even with its moronic ending, so I am sure I will enjoy this.dvader654

Yeah, the ending really blew it, but the rest of the game was fantastic. I'm really looking forward to Heavy Rain. I don't have a problem with the QTEs. I may have died a couple of times in RE4 because of them, but I never really got hung up on them.

Looks nice, but I always felt games like this was a huge financial gamble. It doesn't have a mainstream appeal like a Gears of War 2 or Left 4 Dead.

It seems more like a personal project, you know. Like writing a novel for pleasure and artistic merit rather than trying to make the next Hollywood blockbuster.

Looks nice, but I always felt games like this was a huge financial gamble. It doesn't have a mainstream appeal like a Gears of War 2 or Left 4 Dead.

It seems more like a personal project, you know. Like writing a novel for pleasure and artistic merit rather than trying to make the next Hollywood blockbuster.

ASK_Story

Eurogamer has some interesting stuff on Heavy Rain including a new preview, and some crazy stats from the game:

One of the fascinating things about Heavy Rain -previewed on Eurogamer today- is its reliance on development studio head David Cage, who wrote the massive script single-handedly, and motion capture. On a recent excursion to see the game in development, we noted down a few of the more interesting stats in its creator's presentation. We thought you might enjoy them, so here they are:

The script-

2,000 pages long

60 scenes, each about 15-20 minutes long, most, but not all of which you see on any play-through

40,000 words of non-linear dialogue

Based on 6,000 pages of notes and references

15 months in development

The art design-

Two weeks scouting for locations on the East Coast of the USA

15 months of design by ten people

Photos, topographical gameplay maps, sketches of every item, paintings of every scene

The outsourcing to Asia-

Over 100 people involved outside Quantic Dream

480 man-months of work

Based on an "outsourcing bible" and "level architect blueprints"

The motion capture-

All done on-site at Quantic Dream in Paris

170 days of shooting across nine months

Over 70 actors and stuntmen involved

Casting sessions in Paris and London

30,000 unique animations recorded

Eurogamer

This game is sounding pretty damned ambitious.

[QUOTE="rragnaar"][QUOTE="UpInFlames"]

The good:

We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real.

Finally, somebody gets it. While epic stories can deliver great epic stuff, you cannot expect to emotionally impact people with them. For that you need something intimate, personal, real. While fantasy and/or sci-fi stories can and should implement elements that make their conflicts matter (The Longest Journey, Half-Life), I'm still waiting for a completely down-to-earth type of game.

The bad:

I know there's always a strong reluctance from some hardcore gamers for this type of sequence, but we hope to convince them by the way we're going to implement them and by how we'll make these sequences really enjoyable and spectacular.

No. I hate when developers think that their version of something that is generally despised will make everyone change their minds. It won't. You will fail. Do not assume that people don't know what they do and don't like. QTE's suck. Even at its best, this mechanic will never be described as awesome or great. The mechanic and the whole idea behind it sucks. Stop doing it.

CarnageHeart

Agreed on all points. The whole QTE thing is basically a way to say "our control scheme isn't good enough to handle the on screen action, but we don't want this part of the game to be a cutscene either." QTEs are endlessly frustrating. I never beat RE4 because of the QTE knife fight with that commando duder. I screwed up two or three times in a row and went on to a game that wasn't trying to halt my progress with random button pushes that are nothing more than luck and a test of a person's hand eye coordination.

I hated the QTEs in Dragon's Lair and Shenmue, but I enjoyed the QTEs of the God of Wars and some of the QTEs in RE4 and Heavenly Sword. Hitting the odd button when Nariko was charging across the giant ropes in the Heavenly Sword and moving the left stick in a circle to trigger Kratos's ripping off the head of a medusa were all actions I thoroughly enjoyed and which could not be reasonably accomodated within their normal control schemes.

QTEs that control normal actions (the case with some of the QTEs in Shenmue), that have too narrow windows (the case with some of HS's QTEs) or that last too long (the knife fight in RE4 ran a little long) are what I have a problem with.

I actually like Prince of Persia, but I think these are some of the worst QTEs i've had to deal with. The upside is they're not hard and you get lots of time to make the right press, but they're frequent and terribly boring. Also, there are specific animations that take place to begin a QTE that will start while you are still in normal control of the Prince and there's no way to break these animations with combos. So you might find yourself in the middle of a combo while a QTE is starting (and it's not always obvious that it is starting) and the game might mistake a button that you queued up for that combo before the QTE prompt appeared as your response to the QTE...meaning you failed before you had a chance. Easily recoverable, but highly irritating. And then deeper in the game, bosses will chain QTEs to the point where you will often be dealing with QTEs more than actual fighting. QTEs also seriously deflate the first stage of an otherwise entertaining final boss fight.

I've never met a QTE I liked, but I think one big issue I have is that I tend to miss what's going on because so much of my attention is focused on where the button prompt will appear rather than scene taking place. And it's horrible to have this gigantic interface popping up in the middle of the action..I mean, there's nothing quite like it insofar as pure ability to pull you out of the moment. At least devs could be more subtle about these things. Maybe a color flash at the point of action corresponding to the color of the button press.

But i think the worst part of these QTE's is that while they seem to be intended to keep the gamer in control of the action, they never really do that. You're not actually controlling your character so much as ushering in the next sequence of cinematics. If I can't actually control the outcome, then I don't need a little button mini-game to keep me occupied...I'm not five, my attention span will last through the cutscene. Devs could script these things a little better to include multiple paths, including paths that allow you to compensate for missed presses (which Heavenly Sword does to a small degree). But when you miss your press, maybe that puts you in a hole, so the sequence might get a little more frantic to indicate that. Better than a reset, anyway. Better to not include them at all, actually, but if you feel you must, there are certainly better ways.

Still, for a chance at the kind of quality storyline that's being promised here in Heavy Rain, I'll probably just eat my words and deal with it. And maybe they've found something that can change my mind about this whole thing.

The good:

We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real.

Finally, somebody gets it. While epic stories can deliver great epic stuff, you cannot expect to emotionally impact people with them. For that you need something intimate, personal, real. While fantasy and/or sci-fi stories can and should implement elements that make their conflicts matter (The Longest Journey, Half-Life), I'm still waiting for a completely down-to-earth type of game.

The bad:

I know there's always a strong reluctance from some hardcore gamers for this type of sequence, but we hope to convince them by the way we're going to implement them and by how we'll make these sequences really enjoyable and spectacular.

No. I hate when developers think that their version of something that is generally despised will make everyone change their minds. It won't. You will fail. Do not assume that people don't know what they do and don't like. QTE's suck. Even at its best, this mechanic will never be described as awesome or great. The mechanic and the whole idea behind it sucks. Stop doing it.

The good:

We tend to believe in our industry that we need to tell simplistic or spectacular stories, where the hero saves the world, destroys evil, or has supernatural powers. This is because the videogame, as a medium, has been too immature to tell complex and subtle stories. I made this mistake myself at the end of [Indigo Prophecy], where I felt my story needed something spectacular because all I had so far was normal people leading a normal life. I realized that the "normal" part was the one that worked the best, and that it wasn't necessary to save the world to tell something exciting anymore. Heavy Rain will be about normal people in real life, and I believe it'll be much more emotionally involving, as gamers will easily relate to the situations and characters. This is a new approach. In Heavy Rain, you won't be a superhero or a gangster. You'll just be someone real.

Finally, somebody gets it. While epic stories can deliver great epic stuff, you cannot expect to emotionally impact people with them. For that you need something intimate, personal, real. While fantasy and/or sci-fi stories can and should implement elements that make their conflicts matter (The Longest Journey, Half-Life), I'm still waiting for a completely down-to-earth type of game.

The bad:

I know there's always a strong reluctance from some hardcore gamers for this type of sequence, but we hope to convince them by the way we're going to implement them and by how we'll make these sequences really enjoyable and spectacular.

No. I hate when developers think that their version of something that is generally despised will make everyone change their minds. It won't. You will fail. Do not assume that people don't know what they do and don't like. QTE's suck. Even at its best, this mechanic will never be described as awesome or great. The mechanic and the whole idea behind it sucks. Stop doing it.

Agreed on all points. The whole QTE thing is basically a way to say "our control scheme isn't good enough to handle the on screen action, but we don't want this part of the game to be a cutscene either." QTEs are endlessly frustrating. I never beat RE4 because of the QTE knife fight with that commando duder. I screwed up two or three times in a row and went on to a game that wasn't trying to halt my progress with random button pushes that are nothing more than luck and a test of a person's hand eye coordination.

Eurogamer has some interesting stuff on Heavy Rain including a new preview, and some crazy stats from the game:

[QUOTE="Eurogamer"]One of the fascinating things about Heavy Rain -previewed on Eurogamer today- is its reliance on development studio head David Cage, who wrote the massive script single-handedly, and motion capture. On a recent excursion to see the game in development, we noted down a few of the more interesting stats in its creator's presentation. We thought you might enjoy them, so here they are:

2,000 pages long

60 scenes, each about 15-20 minutes long, most, but not all of which you see on any play-through

40,000 words of non-linear dialogue

Based on 6,000 pages of notes and references

15 months in development

Two weeks scouting for locations on the East Coast of the USA

15 months of design by ten people

Photos, topographical gameplay maps, sketches of every item, paintings of every scene

Over 100 people involved outside Quantic Dream

480 man-months of work

Based on an "outsourcing bible" and "level architect blueprints"

All done on-site at Quantic Dream in Paris

170 days of shooting across nine months

Over 70 actors and stuntmen involved

Casting sessions in Paris and London

30,000 unique animations recorded

This game is sounding pretty damned ambitious.