Heavy Rain: New Screenshots and development footage*

[Arwin]

I don't know if these characters are convincing, and the way the dialogs flow is a bit unnerving with all the pauses, but at the same time this game is so different and I really appreciate it for it. I think I'll definitely get this game. Even in the case that I may not like it (which is entirely possible, as it's still a subject matter that doesn't greatly interest me), it's a format that I do find very attractive, and it's definitely something I'll want to make up my own mind about.

And I could definitely see this working in an episodic format, kind of like the Sam & Max games. You could do C.S.I. type games in this, or House, Dexter, etc.

EDIT: posted this on Eurogamer, hoping it might reach Mr Cage.

I want a game version of House with this engine ... would be great to experiment with different treatments and see how a patient dies in different ways (or lives!), do break in scenes at patient's homes, mess around in the private lives of the cast members or play practical jokes, etc. Should be hilarious. With Playstation Wand support just to be able to waggle House's cane around.

If you can't get the official licence, I wouldn't even mind some kind of blatent rip-off, starring a main character who pretends he's blind (and nobody knows!) and solves crimes against the environment or finds out what particular brand of autism/adhd/asperger a certain kid in pre-school does or doesn't have.

In the meantime though, I'm buying this game even just to show my support for something that's different, though with crime and killers featuring so heavily in it it's still not nearly as different as I'd like it.

But heck, I think a lot of TV shows could work with this kind of engine. I can totally see it do an Angel/Buffy type thing, or all sorts of other stuff.

Cage, now that you have the engine, maybe give it to others and let various creative people do a pilot episode for something new (or even to pitch an existing show - The Wire the Game? Deadwood the Game? - to its copyright holder) and put these pilots up on PSN to test them out?

Go go go! It takes far too long to develop a game, and there are so many different tastes out there. If you really want to expand the audience and make this a success then consider that as with each new series on TV or each new comic book author, each new content creator will make the engine better, expand the creative toolset, and bring in a wider audience. So please don't keep this engine to yourself but promote it to others and maybe invite people from TV to direct/guest direct something using it. Your game's setup is perfect for it, go go go!

 

[Antan]

http://psnow.es/index.php/foro/viewthread/245/

New shots! My god theres some serious tech gone into these.

 

[AlNom]

Nice skin shading, but certainly hitting some limits on texture res.

 

[Antan]

Nice skin shading, but certainly hitting some limits on texture res.

You think? On the whole i think they`ve got a really consistent image across the board. Everything seems to fit with each other quite nicely. Naturally im not expecting an AA level like whats on show here.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

I don't think the shading (or the lighting) is anything special, in fact it looks little more then a standard blinn, not too many signs of any advanced SH lighting or half-lambert shading or anything. Uncharted 2 still has the best looking characters IMHO.

Then again I've never been a fan of photo based textures, always preferred the hand-painted approach...

 

[the ignoramus]

The bearded guy looks much better than any character in either Uncharted game.
Uncharted's central character

Heavy Rain's central character

 

[_phil_]

It doesn't look like blinn,and btw, it isn't .
It's based on phong with 2 independant specular and a subsurface texture driven component.Not technicaly SSS ,but a special shader anyway.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Then it just doesn't work as well for me. UC2's character art is much more appealing to me, even the picture included above - which is arguably not the best possible one.

 

[patsu]

A good update but need to see them in motion.

The main guy does look more detailed than Nathan in some scenes. But for appeal, may need to show the more dramatic footage (or build-up-before-a-major-conflict footage). Driving a car, buying grocery is not going to win against train jacking, or rifle butt to the face action.

EDIT: I think the story for this game needs to be captivating.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

As an introduction to the characters, I think the choices of the mundane are brave and hope they pay off. We've seen enough of the suspense and danger scenes to know it's in there. For the story to be truly captivating, you need to care about the protagonists, and a good backstory is part of that.

 

[patsu]

True. I can appreciate and acknowledge the depth behind their decisions. However, in a skin-deep, impression-based visual comparison, it's hard to come through unless they mix the mundane routines with some intensity and point of interest (May be spoilerific in a story game).

The shaders won't be able to carry those experience. The art could imply a larger context, but it's not apparent from these stills.

 

[patsu]

Oh, it's part of more Heavy Rain reveals...

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/14/heavy-rain-producer-confirms-dlc-talks-marketing/

We argued that a playable demo would simply reveal how unconventional the controls could be, to which de Fondaumiere responded: "You simply cannot use conventional game mechanisms when you want to create a unique experience. But I think that -- and user tests we've conducted show that -- you get used to it very quickly. It's quite intuitive. I'm not too concerned about this. At all, actually."

Finally, when asked if he had any final words to tell the Joystiq audience, de Fondaumiere advised fans not to sell the game back to GameStop after completing the story. "Buy the game, don't sell it. Keep it to yourself. You'll need it to continue and experience more episodes in the months following the launch of the game." So, DLC confirmed, right?

... and a Joystiq preview here:
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/12/14/heavy-rain-preview/

EDIT: I like this one:

 

[ultragpu]

http://psnow.es/uploads/images/ps3/heavy_rain/img018-1056.jpg
OMG, that's her right? Mary Smith from the Casting? The character model and shading are mind blowing and extremely photorealistic especially the eyes. I would say the main dude is looking more convincing than Drake probably due to the close up shots and higher res texture maps.
http://psnow.es/uploads/images/ps3/heavy_rain/img011-1056.jpg
Love this crowd shot, so much geometry coupled with awesome lighting and nice motion blur.

 

[patsu]

I like the other woman better. ^_^
The close-up shots here are nice too:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18891001&postcount=1034
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18890959&postcount=1031

In any case, this is a challenging game to market. I have no clue how Sony is going to approach it. A few people on GAF mentioned that the press demo works rather well (to build relationship with the characters).

Since it's releasing in March, and David Cage said the game needs new controller scheme, I was wondering whether the new controller would work for the game too. The game may feel "twitchy" with the wrong scheme.

 

[ultragpu]

Haha, Madison looks good but I like the casting chick better with her sadder face. She makes me wanna care for her more if that makes sense.
I'm willing to give that game a try for sure due to a more mature theme with deeper stories, if they can nail down the control scheme than it'll be perfect.

 

[Billy Idol]

Question: aren't this all bullshots? I cannot see any aliasing...if the enhance the AA, you cannot say what other stuff they enhanced in this screenshots?!?!

EDIT: I mean this

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=18891009&postcount=1035


just looks too good, right?!

 

[_phil_]

In engine Hires (for paper press) render of game framebuffer.So ,it's heavil sypersampled .

 

[Billy Idol]

In engine Hires (for paper press) render of game framebuffer.So ,it's heavil sypersampled .

Thanks!

And what about the rest? is there some other enhancement involved...some of the pics look (un)real!

 

[rekator]

Thanks!

And what about the rest? is there some other enhancement involved...some of the pics look (un)real!

Resolution, AF, and AA are generally increased for Press Shot due to paper press, some games have go more, but generally now with internet they're received a not very good buzz, so we saw this less now day.

 

[patsu]

Haha, Madison looks good but I like the casting chick better with her sadder face. She makes me wanna care for her more if that makes sense.
I'm willing to give that game a try for sure due to a more mature theme with deeper stories, if they can nail down the control scheme than it'll be perfect.

Who are the 4 characters you can control ? Madison, that young detective father, the fat detective, and this girl ?

Since this is a "movie" game, I think we may see more close-ups. Will probably get a ton of uncanny valley feedback. Heard there are some issues with the voice acting of the young father (Not real enough), hope they change it. Otherwise, the game will feel fake and awkward, like watching a bad movie.

Most of the previews seem positive, but I have to wonder how advanced their build was. In the Sony betas I tried, there were quite a few rough edges to patch. So the previewers wouldn't comment on those work-in-progress details. We may still get some nasty surprises if they don't have time to fix everything.

The only thing I'm glad/relieved so far is:
According to some previewers, the story (so far) seems good enough to sustain their attention, and even get attached to the characters. Not too sure about brushing teeth and showering action in the game yet. Will have to read through the GAF thread in more details later.