Cage has discribed the game as a ‘rubber-band’ - the story still has a beginning, middle and end (and lasts approx 10-12 hours) but how you get there and the outcome can be stretched and distorted in numorous ways. If the gameplay is engaging and the story is strong it will be very interesting to play it in subtly different ways.

Just look at how many people replayed scenarios in GTAIV to see what happened if you killed Dwayne instead of PlayboyX, or Derrick instead of Francis etc - these are relatively minor decisions in the context of the game - but a game based entirely on these type of decisions could be very interesting.

If it is a crime-thriller based on the Origami Killer, let’s speculate that the game always ends with his trial - it would be relatively easy to create various scenarios in the game that would mean your actions arrest different people - did you pick the right person, did you find enough evidence for a conviction, etc. A basic example would be to have 5 possible killers x 6 possible outcomes (killed,jailed,freed based on whether that person was the killer or not) that gives you 30 main endings already, added subtle changes could easily double that number. I just hope these choices are subtle and a accumulation of actions and it won’t be the type of game that has several meaningless decisions and one key decision near the end in which you could just replay the last 5 minutes to unlock all the endings!

Cage admitted he bottled it in Fahrenheit and resorted to the usual super-hero, save the world, type traditional game story - he has said this time there is none of that and it is about ordinary people living ‘real’ lives with real value for ‘life’, where traditionally in games there is a disconnect between ‘real life’ and the game and ‘life’ is nothing more than a body count. Other more established forms of entertainment have been telling ‘real life’ ordinary stories for years, but games have stuck mainly to the - alien hunter, one man war machine, superhero, ganster, type concepts - this game is certainly an interesting experiment if nothing else…

Hopefully more info will be released soon as currently a lot of opinions of the game are based on speculation…

And as much as you can hope for a title that can present many different routes to the final outcome (or set of outcomes), there has to be a limited number of alternate paths given the current technology on offer otherwise each actor would not be needed for any longer than one shoot to capture their body shape & movement in x, y, and z-axis planes. If the gameplay was indeed limitless then there may well never be an ending to the game at all (by definition). It would be like watching a reality TV show like “Big Brother”. Only eviction day would be much more interesting. The person dying to leave would get what they wanted. A bit like that “Doctor Who” episode with “The Weakest Link” question mistress “Anne-droid Robinson”.

The testing team for (the first) “Heavy Rain” will need to produce a set of scripted tasks to prove the various permutations of direction the in-game story can take may be reached, and/or progressed from (and to) from all the other routes throughout the game.

The fact a character can do one thing, or another, or possibly something else, gives you a branch of three routes to take, that each may branch again, and again, making a large tree-structure of possibilities of direction of the storyline. These branches are limited, and with a limited story (and actor movements) filmed & captured digitally (rather than rendered in real-time), then there may well be twenty ways a scene can be interacted with but each has a scripted outcome, no matter how extreme. All outcomes need to be catered for. This cannot be indefinite or else this game would never come to market & would never fit on any media to release it.

I know us mere mortals have had very little to see (and certainly nothing to touch) so far on this title, most likely to not spoil the plot. Everyone who has had hands-on contact will be so wrapped-up in non-disclosure terms and conditions that the first gameplay we will actually experience personally will be on the day of release.

I know I (in)famously U-turned on my judgement on “LittleBIGPlanet” (or is it “LittleBigPlanet” without the capitalisation in the middle? Well, whatever…) after having access for just the first few minutes of a Beta version, but “Heavy Rain” will have to be something exceptionally special to retain my interest if I make it to the end without some other gaming-related activity coming along & taking my attention away. Maybe I’m a fault. I have too much choice, and too little time. Maybe with the tightening of collective belts due to dwindling disposable income across the world, “Heavy Rain” will be the one title that attracts gamers (and non-gamers alike) due to the prospect of a re-playable cinematic experience. It would certainly be preferable to keep hiring “videos” & taking them back every 3 days, or a £40+ subscription to Sky TV to just watch the same two movies for seven days.

The story does sound engaging enough, but once the identity of the in-game character in “The Origami Killer” is revealed does a replay of the story, albeit from one or more different angles, seem irrelevant? As good as any ‘classic’ crime thriller movie is, once you know the ending, does a different method of how to reach it seem any more attractive? Possibly not.

If Quantic Dream are being very generous with us & paving the way for future releases, maybe how you play this title & the resultant outcome of who lives & who dies may influence how a follow-up title (“Heavy Rain: The yet to sub-titled crime project”) starts & how you then progress with the plethora (yet finite) routes to conclusion of that title, and so on until ad boredom.

It could be a very interesting journey that is either the most engaging experience on a video games console to date, or the biggest anti-climax spoiled by the first person to reveal the “whodunit”. Mind you, the “FAQ” writers must be really worried about how to approach this game. Imagine the official strategy guide? How confusing will that be?

If there is any TV/Cinema/Billboard advertising for this title, I hope it is approached like the press coverage for an upcoming movie. Use of digital representations of the actors providing interviews (much like the sample video of “Emily” in Three Speech’s blog entry titled “Image Metrics and Codemasters team up for Operation Flashpoint 2”) to recognised movie journalists/critics will be very entertaining!

But one thing I do know… the use of a controller to push, hit, or kick, is not a new concept. Perhaps, however, Mary Smith will be the “next” Lara Croft.

BFN,

fp.

You see a couple of clues in the video released PSN of icons near objects (like when she’s looking in the fridge), but the demo was much more involved.

You walk using the R2 button and the left analogue stick controls her head and she walks where she is looking. The right analogue stick controls her hands for when she interacts with something (interactions are chosen by the SIXAXIS which is a brave choice!) for example at the door she could ring the bell, knock or shout through the letterbox. You judge the emotion on the character’s face to see which option they are most comfortable with.

If you use the window for example, as seen in the PSN movie, you can push a barrel under the window by pushing the controller forwards, and force the window up by shaking the SIXAXIS up and down.

In the house you have to be careful not to disturb anything or the guy will get suspicious - you can interact with everything: sit on the rocking chair, open the cupboards, turn on the television. It’s all context-sensitive and you will get onscreen icons to show you what button to press to perform the relevant action. Upstairs you squeak a floorboard, and if you forget it’s there and step on it again that will trigger the action scene, otherwise you can creep past slowly and escape through the garage (assuming you went into the garage and opened the garage door slightly beforehand - also the chainsaw on the floor is never a good sign!)

None of this is scripted or pre-rendered though - in one version she may squeak a floorboard but in another play she may knock over a vase - in one version the motorbike may start, in another she may struggle to get it started - in one playthrough the guy may go to the kitchen or sit watching tv, but in another he may need the toilet and go straight upstairs to the bathroom - it’s all AI controlled.

If he does decide to go upstairs you have to hide, to do this you pick a place (under the bed or in the wardrobe etc) and you will be given some buttons to press and you have to keep them pressed and keep still until it’s safe to move - they are designed to be uncomfortable to hold as this represents how uncomfortable it is for the character to hold her pose.

As Cage said at the end of the preview:

“That was another way of playing the same scene. We could play it five, ten or 20 times and show you different versions. We could have stayed hidden in the house, found a phone and called the police, who would have turned up and arrested the man. We could have killed him, perhaps using the screwdriver or the chainsaw. Or we could have been killed by him, which would be taken onboard by the script, and the story would continue with this information… There are many different options.”

And to finish off, here are a few more numbers for those not impressed by the length of the script: The 70 actors did a 170 day mocap shoot to capture 30,000 unique animations for the characters and there are 220 members in the development team.

Also, the QTE sequence of the girl defending herself from the guy only happens if you get caught. There’s a preview video around somewhere showing someone escaping the house without being seen at all.

Through the various preview videos around, I think I have seen that escape section done 3 completely different ways.

I’de be more than happy to do a writeup!

*gets scribbling*

^_^

My fingers are crossed for a smooth Killzone 2 launch!

That’s the beauty of the PlayStation consoles, they have enough variety to appeal to everyone, it’s why the PS2 was/is so successful. Hopefully they will release the GDC demo or similar as a playable demo on PSN nearer the time to give people a chance to try it themselves. But I’m guessing if you didn’t like the mechanics of Fahrenheit you won’t like Heavy Rain…