[PS3] Heavy Rain

[icycalm]

http://insomnia.ac/reviews/playstation3/heavyrain/

It seems that even people who make great videogames are not immune to bad taste:

By combining elements we've seen before in an excellent manner it appears as if Heavy Rain has birthed a new genre, the "Interactive Drama."

http://twitter.com/therealcliffyb/status/10744056785

The general brainwashing campaign might also have something to do with it.

Anyway. I am wondering whether I prefer my own "Cinematic Videogame" or if I should adopt his "Interactive Drama" instead. I think mine may be better, because "Interactive Drama", like "Interactive Movie", is somewhat oxymoronic (dramas are, generally speaking, by definition non-interactive -- and movies are always so), whereas there is nothing oxymoronic about "Cinematic Videogame": it is a videogame with cinematic aspects -- not a videogamey cinematic (which WOULD have been oxymoronic).

[icycalm]

See, if you invert HIS term you also get something that is not oxymoronic.

So, Interactive Drama becomes Dramatic Interaction -- i.e. an interaction with dramatic aspects (as opposed to an interaction in the, for example, Pong, sense, which has nothing dramatic about it) -- and thus gets rid of its contradiction.

And Interactive Movie becomes Movie-like Interactivity -- a clunky term, but at least contradiction-free.

The gist of all this is that it is THE INTERACTION which is modified to become dramatic or cinematic, not the other way around. I.e. it is not the drama or the cinema which somehow become interactive -- for this is clearly impossible.

[icycalm]

I am really quite clever, aren't I?

[icycalm]

@therealcliffyb why aren't Shenmue, and Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy attributed to origin of that term?

http://twitter.com/mzamara/status/10744183401

And why isn't Adventure, for that matter?

There's nothing to be gained by going down this route. It's almost as pointless as trying to find the origin of the human species. There IS no human species: the species is an abstraction, a useful fiction, an abbreviated means of expression for everyday conversation. When you take abstractions for realities and try to find their "origin" you only end up wasting your time, along with everyone else's.

[icycalm]

This is the same dude who wrote that Japan, the West, and the Geeknocrats article a while back. He is a good dude. (Despite posting on SB and contributing to Kurt Kulata's blog. I guess he hasn't found this place yet, or is too intimidated to join.)

http://forums.selectbutton.net/viewtopi ... 368#715368

I've recently finished the taxidermist DLC, and while I'm still getting an enjoyable kick out of this, I still don't think it's a very good game. Every time I read someone say this is the future, I feel a little disheartened. Getting back to what Molyneux said, does Heavy Rain do anything which is revolutionary, or hasn't been done before?

Heavy Rain makes me question everything I previously thought about games - do we really need to obsess over stories when games, by their nature, are meant to be interactive challenges? Is the industry misguided in its attempt to be deep and mature and arty, when really good games - and look at the classics - don't need to be?

I've recently also been playing Valkyria Chronicles and Yakuza 2 alongside Heavy Rain, and both of the former have strong/good stories, but they are also without question very gamey style games in the old fashioned sense of the word. They reek of gamingness. And very good games at that. Cage's insistence that traditional games are somehow wrong infuriates me.

The medium seems to have been hijacked by a bunch of failed bards who couldn't cut it in other mediums and so thought a bunch of myopic geeks would be easy to muscle in on.

Emphasis is mine.

[icycalm]

Heavy Rain is just being marketed very smart.

The fact is that the game is actually nothing new, I would even go as far to say that its just ancient. I mean; RE1 or Grim Fandango controls, Shenmue QTE's or maybe even back to Laserdisc era, small linear and closed levels...

The trick is that this market is being saturated with FPS, sports, racing, and even hack 'n slash. Even Schafer's latest was just a Hack 'n Slash RTS hybrid. Now there is Heavy Rain, its so ancient that it feels completely new and different to other games from today. QD doesn't lie if they say this game offers an experience that other Ps3 games don't, as it does. And thats the catch.

HR was also totally marketed towards adults. Here, the game sponsored late night CSI broadcasts. I also saw commercials of this in late night cinema. I wouldn't be surprised if this game attracted some sort of new audience, cinemafreaks and adults.

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.ph ... ost1677674