Heavy Rain

[Tukiluka]

I played it some, Rocker. It froze up on me during the demo. I dunno what that was all about. Anyway, the parts I played...I dunno. I know it's not worth a 60 dollar plunge. The voice acting is quite lethargic. It is a game that is pretty much about just hitting button sequences. It's a linear game, which we could have guessed. But the part about being able to make choices...well, to a point you can. But they seem like kinda superficial choices, at least in the demo.

Having said all that, it's intriguing. I did find myself getting sucked into the narrative a little bit. This seems like a great rental, and for a good enough price (25-30 bucks?) worth a buy...maybe.

Graphics are pretty great.

[maxwell's demon]

i dont play many games but ive watched people play many games. ive never seen voice acting that wasn't kind of lethargic.

[Tukiluka]

It tends to be the standard, you're right. But stuff like Uncharted is definitely very, very well done.

[maxwell's demon]

i have never seen anyone play thaat game

[JayTee]

Originally Posted by maxwell's demon

i dont play many games but ive watched people play many games. ive never seen voice acting that wasn't kind of lethargic.

Originally Posted by Tukiluka

It tends to be the standard, you're right. But stuff like Uncharted is definitely very, very well done.

First thing I thought of.

[maxwell's demon]

is this a good example?

YouTube Video:

Click to view on YouTube.com

[JayTee]

Elena is always a bit dull. Nate, Sully, Harry Flynn and Chloe are far better.

[JayTee]

Also Uncharted 2 is better in every way than 1.

[maxwell's demon]

hmmn.

i think i just disassociate from attempts at photorealistic animation.

[JayTee]

Uncanny Valley

[maxwell's demon]

yeah its that, and what i feel lately is it's not so much the look (the number of polygons, etc), it's the little in between moments. when they emote. the big arc of a motion might be generally ok, but the return to baseline is where the illusion breaks.

does that make sense?

i think the problem is in the baseline that animators have for character models- its a false notion. hands that 'rest' in a stiff semi-open position. eyes that look dead, etc.
in reality eyes are constantly moving and adjusting. so it presents two problems.
1)when a hand or leg or face isn't being called to emote, its a mannequin part glued onto a body.
2)the thing i mentioned earlier. you can do motion capture or you can be as skilled an animator as you want, but its how the one motion joins the 'resting' motion that i think we can start recognizing something as artificially alive.


and then there's the matter of voice acting and how it meshes with character models, which adds another level of disassociation

[Tukiluka]

That's the first scene in the first Uncharted, BabeEater. It get's better! Really! Totally!

I get what you mean about emoting, but...Uncharted comes the closest yet to nailing it.

[maxwell's demon]

well, i think like, in game play its fine. when characters are instinctively reacting to stuff i buy it, no problem. and a big part of that is that the character itself becomes more peripheral to your field of focus.

but the voice acting, its hard to mesh it with character models. i noticeit in comics sometimes too. the most perfect comics for me are the R.Crumb sketchbooky guys "keep on trucking" et al.
because the characters are only carrying as much dialogue weight as they're cartoonishness can support. if those same charactrers start saying too much, in a different voicing, then i just read the words and they don't feel as connected to the little drawn guy who's speaking them. (or when a horrible artist is paired with a great writer. its hte reason i could never read Sandman comics, and didnt like Morrisons Doom Patrol as much as i wanted to). that said, i think its more acceptable in comics to have stuff running in parallel tracks. in motion video (games or movies), it jumps out at you a lot more. the tone of the aural has to match the tone of the visual

[ben]

This demo was boring and bland. Voice acting made me laugh a few times. I gave up halfway through part 2.

But I didn't like Indigo Prophecy, so take that Quantum!

[Mr Sparkle]

this game could've been great.
there's just so many things that are worth it, so many opportunities and great visuals to exploit.
however, for my part, there's to many instructions flashing on screen at a time, you need to keep it simpler and not just have people control a cut scene, I love a good mystery and the crime scene demo had it's moments but the one with the private saving/interrogating a distraught trent reznor transsexual was very underwhelming.

gee...let's press L2 so we can hear his thoughts

"damn asthma!"

let's devise a quasi minigame around inhaler use shall we?
THRILLS!!!
NON STOP ACTION!!!
OCCASIONAL BUTTON/CONTROL USAGE!!!

60 dlls? that's way too much, the whole glove that looks for forensic evidence was cool, though.

voice acting was Silent Hill caliber...horrible, Uncharted definitely spoiled me on that area.

[Tukiluka]

Someone needs to take the plunge on this one. Won't be me, but...someone needs to.

[Lackey]

Originally Posted by maxwell's demon

hmmn.

i think i just disassociate from attempts at photorealistic animation.

Originally Posted by maxwell's demon

yeah its that, and what i feel lately is it's not so much the look (the number of polygons, etc), it's the little in between moments. when they emote. the big arc of a motion might be generally ok, but the return to baseline is where the illusion breaks.

does that make sense?

i think the problem is in the baseline that animators have for character models- its a false notion. hands that 'rest' in a stiff semi-open position. eyes that look dead, etc.
in reality eyes are constantly moving and adjusting. so it presents two problems.
1)when a hand or leg or face isn't being called to emote, its a mannequin part glued onto a body.
2)the thing i mentioned earlier. you can do motion capture or you can be as skilled an animator as you want, but its how the one motion joins the 'resting' motion that i think we can start recognizing something as artificially alive.


and then there's the matter of voice acting and how it meshes with character models, which adds another level of disassociation

Originally Posted by maxwell's demon

well, i think like, in game play its fine. when characters are instinctively reacting to stuff i buy it, no problem. and a big part of that is that the character itself becomes more peripheral to your field of focus.

but the voice acting, its hard to mesh it with character models. i noticeit in comics sometimes too. the most perfect comics for me are the R.Crumb sketchbooky guys "keep on trucking" et al.
because the characters are only carrying as much dialogue weight as they're cartoonishness can support. if those same charactrers start saying too much, in a different voicing, then i just read the words and they don't feel as connected to the little drawn guy who's speaking them. (or when a horrible artist is paired with a great writer. its hte reason i could never read Sandman comics, and didnt like Morrisons Doom Patrol as much as i wanted to). that said, i think its more acceptable in comics to have stuff running in parallel tracks. in motion video (games or movies), it jumps out at you a lot more. the tone of the aural has to match the tone of the visual

you really should see Avatar

[Mee]

I actually liked the demo. A lot more than I expected to anyway. Left me wanting to play more. :shrug:

[KaineDamo]

Gamespot gives the game 8.5 in their review.

http://uk.gamespot.com/ps3/adventure...lot;subtitle;1

But I mean, these guys also gave Indigo Prophecy 8.4. And I fucking hated Indigo Prophecy.

Yeah... watched the video review.

Plot holes and inconsistincies. Characters somehow knowing each other even though they haven't met. Indigo Prophecy was plagued by that kind of shit.

But besides that, it looks incredibly tempting. It does look like a step forward from Indigo Prophecy, and I'd dig more games along these lines if they're done right.

I'm not buying a PS3 just to get this, though.

[ben]

I'll rent this. I took a bunch of games to gamestop to trade in that I have on both PC and 360, and the guy asked me if I wanted Heavy Rain. He looked so excited about it, and I still don't really know why.

He also looked like he gave head to a pepperoni pizza.

[ben]

Yeah, I rented this, and to my total surprise, I'm actually loving it. My main issue is still there (some bad voice acting, but its not the main characters, so you rarely hear it) but yeah, I like it!

[Tukiluka]

GaH! Still a total rental you think though?

[ben]

Yeah, until it drops down to $40ish, and guess what? I'll probably buy it when its that much. You do have some control over how things play out (not alot, but what you can control is pretty big stuff, like killing someone who could later be vital helping you out), so multiple playthroughs of it wouldn't be boring, but yeah, rent it.

Now, it could be the type of game that will stay near full price for awhile. I don't think too many stores will stock tons of copies of it, so its not like they have to drop the price to get it off the shelves if it doesn't sell. It was the same with Demon Souls (which I bought online since no one has it in store).

[maxwell's demon]

Originally Posted by Lackey

you really should see Avatar

but should i?

[Jess]

Yes

[Mr Sparkle]

yes....join usssssssssssssss maxwell.....join usssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss.

[ben]

I beat this earlier today. Trent Renzor lady came back into play about halfway through the game, and I really didn't want her back.

Spoiler:

I let her die in a drowning car. Haha

Good story (actually, really good), and it had some pretty intense moments. The ending wasn't bad, either. Definitely still a rental, but leaps and bounds better than I expected. Like, alot better than I expected.

[Tukiluka]

I shall be checking it out!

[ben]

There were a few times where the controls pissed me off (like, I was a hair's length away from being able to look at something, but when I turned to get to it, I would take three steps the wrong way). There were some pretty funny VOs (Paco and Lauren were the worst) and sometimes I would get a funny glitch (at the end, a news reporter looked like he was shuffling his papers, but there were no papers in his hand, so he was just waving his hands).

I want to get back in and kill off some people, though!

[JayTee]

I'm playing it now. Picked it up today along with Uncharted 2 again