SCE signs Heavy Rain (?)

[peacegamer]

"There is no Uncanny Valley anymore" is a pretty strong statement. Even cg movies failed to accomplish that. And he is talking of real time models, too!
Sure I would be really happy for that: it would set a new bar for any other developer...

 

[Arwin]

"There is no Uncanny Valley anymore" is a pretty strong statement. Even cg movies failed to accomplish that. And he is talking of real time models, too!
Sure I would be really happy for that: it would set a new bar for any other developer...

Well, it's not that simple though. It depends on what you are looking for. For instance, a game like Uncharted is pretty successful to me in avoiding the Uncanny valley. That doesn't mean the characters look real, but there's also nothing in there that is jarring in some unspecified way, and their eyes are really good.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes, if you avoid trying to recreate real-life skin textures etc., then the concern for Uncanny Valley lies in movements.Think of the old Disney rotascoped characters. The look was cartoon, but the movements were entirely human and convincing. Contrast that with the usual game look of jarring contrasts between animation frames and facial movements that don't match up with reality. If you aim for that rotascoped look, you'll avoid Uncanny Valley without having to have solved photorealistic rendering.

Although you're right, it's a strong statement! For their reputation as much as anything, it'd better not be bluster!

 

[patsu]

There's no point in having QTEs in Uncharted though, you can climb and jump pretty much to where you need to go, I thought the whole "hit circle" thing was redundant.

As for HS, if you allow for free exploration via platforming, it would make those "do these to reach a higher place" QTEs pointless, I don't mind boss fight QTEs but for exploration I really would rather do it myself.

Spoiler

The QTEs in Uncharted's final level are pretty demanding. So they really stand out. The end effect is I wanted to go up to my screen and stab Navarro to death. This is my own real complain about Uncharted gameplay... even though I felt relieved/happy when he finally dropped.

The QTEs in Heavenly Sword is pretty forgiving and the responses are more dramatic (e.g., The Roach battle). So I don't mind them that much. It's like watch a kungfu movie where you need to stay alert.

In general, I also prefer an open (exploration) game, but I'm concerned with comparatively limited time for gameplay and testing. The other thing is HS1 has no backtracking and no lull period at all. The game sprints from start to finish once started and I appreciate that kind of pace. Adding exploration may introduce some "dead zones".

In any case, after seeing HS, I think NT should be talented enough to do a proper HS2. So I'll play whatever game HS2 becomes.

In the mean time, the first Heavy Rain trailer looks rather "uncanny". What exactly is the game about ? I heard it was some sort of audition game ?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I don't like exploration much. Generally a game that has exploration has you going everywhere so you don't miss anything, which involves lots of boring walking around. This is also OT I see, checking the thread title!

The Heavy Rain trailer was just a tech demo, and not an indicator at all of any type of game. The only known point is the game is trying to operate on an emotional level where you have emotional reactions from characters. Perhaps it's the world's first computerised soap-opera?

 

[patsu]

Wikipedia has a few tidbits about the game.