30,000 + 220+ 170+ 70= Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain Aims to Redefine Video Game Storytelling.

"Cage is keeping mum on the plot, in part because it changes depending on how one plays the game. A professional musician who gravitated to gaming 11 years ago after designing music for games, Cage spent 15 months writing 6,000 pages of notes and references and the 2,000-page script that powers Heavy Rain. The porous script is packed with 30,000 words of non-lineardialogue, which has been brought to life by a cast of 70 actors and stuntmen. Currently, a development team of over 220 peoplewill bring the extensive motion-captured action - the largest ever for a videogame - into a narrative that gamers can explore.

"The key was to find a structure that had a solid backbone and a potential for non-linearity and then I introduce a fractal structure, since we don't tell a story that's 90 minutes long like a typical Hollywood film," said Cage. " Each scene becomes a short movie in itself. Sometimes parts of a scene have that same structure. It's interesting to have consistency between this."

Despite the gargantuan script and the unprecedented 170-day mo-cap shoot, players won't find many cut scenes in Heavy Rain. Cage uses cut scenes only when there is no other way to relay part of the story. The core of the gameplay is for the story to unfold around the player. Like many game developers, Cage believes cut scenes are bad."

Link.

1. 30,000 words of non linear dialogue.
2. Development team of over 220 people.
3. 170 days of motion capture.
4. 70 actors and stuntmen.

So what do you get with that amount of dedication towards a game?

Interactive movie? No thank you.deathtoallgods

I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storyToriko42

Interactive movie? No thank you.deathtoallgods

2- you are too young to accept and understand something like this to play, it's for adults you know, the developer is aiming for a particular audience.

[QUOTE="Toriko42"]I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storySpruceCaboose

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.HoldThePhone

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"][QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.nintendofreak_2

I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storyToriko42

oh so it all depends on the label, and not if you're having an enjoyable experience -- gotcha.HoldThePhone

The point is video games are meant to be played.They're meant to be interactive. They're not meant to be watched.

[QUOTE="Toriko42"]I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storySpruceCaboose

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.HoldThePhone

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"]oh so it all depends on the label, and not if you're having an enjoyable experience -- gotcha.nintendofreak_2

The point is video games are meant to be played.They're meant to be interactive. They're not meant to be watched.

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"]oh so it all depends on the label, and not if you're having an enjoyable experience -- gotcha.nintendofreak_2

The point is video games are meant to be played.They're meant to be interactive. They're not meant to be watched.

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"][QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.nintendofreak_2

Gameplay is just a plus.

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"][QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.nintendofreak_2

didnt he say that he doesnt like cut scenes and that thier wont be many?....you fail

[QUOTE="Toriko42"]I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storyHAZE-Unit

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.HAZE-Unit

2- you are too young to accept and understand something like this to play, it's for adults you know, the developer is aiming for a particular audience.

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"]

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.deathtoallgods

2- you are too young to accept and understand something like this to play, it's for adults you know, the developer is aiming for a particular audience.

what about $50 for an interactive movie that 6x as long as a regular $15-20 DVD? your sounding ignorant here, of course it is a video game. just because it is cinematic doesn't mean it isn't fun -- look at the success of MGS.HoldThePhone

I buy video games to play them. I don't mind cinematics so long as they aren't a large portion of the games. You can buy a video game to watch it if you want to, but I'd rather use them for what they're inended to be. Video games don't need to try to replace or imitate movies.

[QUOTE="SpruceCaboose"][QUOTE="Toriko42"]I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storyHAZE-Unit

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"][QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"] Calling it a movie as negative means two things. 1- either you dislike watching movies because you consider it being movie like as a bad thing.

2- you are too young to accept and understand something like this to play, it's for adults you know, the developer is aiming for a particular audience.

HoldThePhone

With that much dedication toward a game...... Heavy Rain could easily be GAME OF THE GENERATION! :shock:Bauer_24

Too bad it doesn't work like that. Dedication is not as important as talent. I'm not saying anything about the folks developing Heavy Rain, but the dedication=great game is not a good argument.

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="Toriko42"]I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storyToriko42

Lol. MGS' story and cinematics are actually very light compared to what heavy Rain will be. MGS also had many game mechanics. Heavy Rain is just an interactive movie. Many will argue that if they wanted a movie, they'd buy one.cuddlesofwar

[QUOTE="HoldThePhone"][QUOTE="deathtoallgods"] Yes, I am much too young to understand that mixing movies and games has been a terrible concept for a loooong time. Go look up Night Trap young one.cuddlesofwar

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"][QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"] Calling it a movie as negative means two things. 1- either you dislike watching movies because you consider it being movie like as a bad thing.

2- you are too young to accept and understand something like this to play, it's for adults you know, the developer is aiming for a particular audience.

HoldThePhone

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="SpruceCaboose"] I expect the opposite. I expect an amazing game-movie that most people here will ultimately hate because its slow and story driven and they went in expecting fast paced, Max Payne type of game.SpruceCaboose

I don't have anything against cutscene heavy games per se, since they are not that common (and in MGS's case, it makes for something different one in a while), but I fail to see the fascination with cutscenes. They seem outdated and less effective than in-game storytelling techniques and gameplay scenarios which communicate the story. If games that emply heavy amounts of cutscenes could find ways to reduce this number and incorporate the awesome things that happen in the cutscenes into the gameplay, those games would be alot better off IMO. These kind of games would stop having such a clunky pace and would start to seem truly immersive. Tragic_Kingdom7

What the hell is non linear dialogue? Like Mass Effect?Juggernaut140

[QUOTE="SpruceCaboose"][QUOTE="Toriko42"]I think all this hype will lead to complaints of weak storyToriko42

[QUOTE="Juggernaut140"]What the hell is non linear dialogue? Like Mass Effect?HAZE-Unit

[QUOTE="deathtoallgods"]Interactive movie? No thank you.HoldThePhone

It's famous because it had a great story backed up with revolutionary gameplay back then. it simply took a very rare genre (stealth) and made a semi-perfect series out of it with fresh and good gameplay. many games had great stories and were like movies, fulled with cut scenes and such things... but a lot of these games failed simply because they weren't fun at all. I actually hate the direction that Heavy Rain is heading to. If you want to create a movie, just create movie. Leave the video game industry for its people.kingfire11

I don't agree.

MGS was famous, because it is incorporated story into a game like no other game had before. That was its draw. The gameplay was always kind of an afterthought. People tended to overlook the clunky controls and other gameplay issues because of the way it fused story into a good gameplay experience with tons of great and creative "moments".

I take issue with the semi-perfect/revolutionary claim. It wasn't the gameplay that was revolutionary, it was how the story was fused with the gameplay. As for the actual gameplay, I fail to see how it was semi-perfect. There are tons of games with far better gameplay mechanics with than MGS series: better shooting, better controls, etc. MGS is a whole is greater than the sum of the parts kind of deal. Other games may have better mechanics (shooting, etc.) but MGS offers more when looking at the bigger picture.

In MGS, I believe the storyelling is what distinguishes it, not the gameplay.

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="Juggernaut140"]What the hell is non linear dialogue? Like Mass Effect?DeadMan1290

[QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"][QUOTE="Juggernaut140"]What the hell is non linear dialogue? Like Mass Effect?DeadMan1290

[QUOTE="DeadMan1290"][QUOTE="HAZE-Unit"] Yup :D HAZE-Unit