I will buy a PS3 for this game alone. Indigo Prophecy was a great game and had a great story (for the first half or so at least). I wish they maker those action sequences a bit more interesting though.
Indigo Prophecy was absolute trash near the end. It's not just that the ending itself was unsatisfying...after starting off somewhat believable it started to get absurd.
But hey, I gave it a shot, I'mm willing to do the same with this. And more exclusives are cool, though I don't know why Sony would want to lock this one up.
I'm very very very interested in this. Truth be told, if it was coming out soon I would probably have a PS3 already.
Fahrenheit is one of the better examples that I can think of in regards to games where the storytelling completely overshadows the actual story and parts of the gameplay. This game had a great balance of player choice, while still guiding you along enough of a path.....at least in the beginning. It just took some completely crazy turns somewhere around half-way through the story. The jump the shark moment was when
The Agatha ghost turns out to be...a computer program....:lol
. I get the feeling that they either ran out of money while making the game, or that somewhere along the line, an important writer/designer left the company or something. Or maybe they just had a lot of cool ideas that were implemented early and eventually lost sight of the project, regardless, the potential was definitely there, even though the ball was dropped.
The
flashbacks
were an interesting narrative device that I don't see a lot of in games....but it was as though another team made them. I've never seen the quality of a game drop so dramatically in specific sections like that, everything fell, from the graphics on down.
The QTE's.....*sigh*. I won't lie, the section in his office
where he's running through cubicles fighting off bugs
was kind of cool, based mainly on the fact that it gave me a strong Matrix vibe....:lol...but aside from that, the shit was more often then not, pretty annoying. One part in particular that I found to be terrible was
when the objects in his home started to attack him
.
Be it as it may, I do love the game. The diner scene was probably one of the best done sections I have ever played in a game. Also, as I said, the way they told the story, through different characters, was pretty cool as well. The parts in
Agatha's house
gave off a helluva spooky vibe...there is no doubt in my mind that this game can deliver, the developers seem to have some wonderful ideas, they just got caught up in a few bad gameplay decisions.
Edit : Oh yeah, and I love the way the dialogue trees are set up. It's unforgiving, I think that developers like Bioware and Bethesda could take some pointers. None of that "Start the conversation over, get every single line out of the NPC" type shit, or even, "Take your time, think the decision through" either. You're given quick, permanent, consequential options.
I will buy a PS3 for this game alone. Indigo Prophecy was a great game and had a great story (for the first half or so at least). I wish they maker those action sequences a bit more interesting though.
It really seemed like three stories put into one, maybe more. The murder mystery conspiracy plot was fine by itself. The Mayan cult could have worked as a supernatural horror story, and the self aware computer programs could have been explored in more depth in a solid science fiction tale. Mashing all three together was a plan designed to fall apart. I actually applaud Cage and Quantic Dream for keeping it all together and up in the air for as long as they did, before it crashed down in the last parts of the game. It was just too ambitious, it was a tale that Cage would have needed to write a couple novels worth of prose to tie all together in a plot that made sense, and even then I have doubts it would work.
Cage seems to have learned his lesson though, so a tight story focused around a couple main themes should be gold from that studio.
I loved the first half of Indigo prophecy, and I hope they keep the super-natural bullshit out of this one. Not even a hint of anything out of the ordinary, please.
But anyway, form the information in the OP, it looks like it really is just gonna be about a normal dude and his family, which sounds pretty meh for me to be honest. I would kill, absolutely KILL for a noir style game with indigo prophecy's gameplay and mechanics. Swinging jazz soundtrack with a stylish fucking detective for a main character? Yes.
I loved the first half of Indigo prophecy, and I hope they keep the super-natural bullshit out of this one. Not even a hint of anything out of the ordinary, please.
Supernatural stuff was great in IP/Fahrenheit until about half way through - you were never sure if it's really supernatural or character's hallucinations, or what. Supernatural is great, unless it's tried to be fully unmasked. The whole Agatha thing in IP, and main character's ability to predict near future was excellent, and played a role in a fantastic way in a scene with frozen lake in the park. Supernatural stuff can be great if it's keep in check.
But anyway, form the information in the OP, it looks like it really is just gonna be about a normal dude and his family, which sounds pretty meh for me to be honest.
The subtitle of the game seems to be "Origami Killer". So I really doubt it will be just about everyday mundane life of a guy and his family I think you may get your wish, still.
Can't wait to see more of this at Leipzig (assuming it is shown), definitely one of my most anticipated games based off of the good bits of Fahrenheit. The developer seems keen to right the wrongs of that game and if they can do it then this has the potential to be stellar.
Can't wait to see more of this at Leipzig (assuming it is shown), definitely one of my most anticipated games based off of the good bits of Fahrenheit. The developer seems keen to right the wrongs of that game and if they can do it then this has the potential to be stellar.
Nope. I loved the hell out of this game. Bought it from the XBLM a little earlier this year. Its a shame that I missed out on it last gen. As much as I thought the story lost a bit of its direction in the later sections of the game, I still thought that it was amazing. The storytelling is among the best there is in the medium, and I really enjoyed the atmosphere and cold vibe that the game gave off. This is one of the only games that I had aboslutely no problem playing through without complaining about the drab graphics (Deus Ex being another one), as the storytelling and cinematic nature of the game is just so gripping. I also feel that more games need to incorporate choice into the story. Indigo Prophecy is one of my favorite games of all time.
With that said, I really can't wait to see what Quantic Dream comes up with for Heavy Rain. I don't even think the actual concept of the game has been revealed yet, so there's no telling what we're in for. The tech demos we've seen so far have been confirmed to have absolutely nothing to do with the game, other than to show off the engine. Heavy Rain is without a doubt, one of my most anticipated titles of 09.
i'm just glad that it builds on the accidental discoveries of Fahrenheit both good and bad.
the quiet scenes of just going about your life, were added to pad out the game when the publishers at the time wanted numerous episodic releases. that padding turned out to be the most engaging stuff in the game, and ultimately led to one of the biggest problems.
you walk in these characters shoes through all the minutia of their life in the first two thirds of the game, then in skips forwards in time and two of them have suddenly fallen in love. i don't know about any one else, but i felt robbed of that experience. i'd been those characters and the sudden jump ahead when i'd been doing their laundry and chatting with their neighbours, and whatever... it hurt the game so much.
Cage has learnt not to introduce new concepts 2/3rds of the way through a game too. most people were fine with the supernatural cult thing, since it's pretty heavily set up from the first moments of the game... but the AI things and your matrix powers came out of nowhere unless you did the optional punching bag mini game... and even then it wasn't well set up.
Heavy Rain sounds like it builds on those accidental discoveries. The post mortem on the game I read showed me that Cage acknowledged every problem i had with the game, even if he was still proud of it.
I found Fahrenheit crushingly disapointing in the end. I always say, a mystery is only as good as it's pay off... but i'm definately up for more from him, espescially since he seems very much keyed into what was brilliant in Fahrenheit and what was terrible.
Fahrenheit was an awesome video game experience, but not an awesome video game. That said, i loved it. Superb presentation, superb music (badalamenti) and great ideas and atmosphere.
As a game, it was flawed. But the first 1/3th of the game was amazing. It had so much potential. But it ended up in crap gameplay and a crap story.
I hope that Cage has learned from Fahrenheit. In that case, Heavy Rain could turn out to be a superb game.
Fahrenheit was an awesome video game experience, but not an awesome video game. That said, i loved it. Superb presentation, superb music (badalamenti) and great ideas and atmosphere.
As a game, it was flawed. But the first 1/3th of the game was amazing. It had so much potential. But it ended up in crap gameplay and a crap story.
I hope that Cage has learned from Fahrenheit. In that case, Heavy Rain could turn out to be a superb game.
- one bad guy per story is enough: the Oracle was the real enemy in Indigo Prophecy and I think his characterization was quite good. The AI that comes into play at the end of the game only adds confusion to the plot.
- you can make people believe anything in a scenario, but only once per story. In the case of Indigo Prophecy, the story of Lucas, guilty of a murder he never really committed because controlled by the Oracle, was THE unreasonable proposition in my scenario, which the players accepted without difficulty. The series of new developments at the end, although built into the first scene (the crow representing the AI is a leitmotif throughout the game) constituted a series of added propositions that went beyond what the players/spectators could reasonably accept.
- I made the mistake of not devoting enough time to the last hour of the game. I was convinced (and rightly so) that the first hour of the game would be decisive for hooking the player, but I naively thought that one hour from the end the player's opinion would be made. I therefore devoted most of my time to the rest of the game in order to make it as perfect as possible.
This was obviously a mistake. I was forgetting that what leaves a lasting impression on the player is often the end, and that a bad ending can change his perception of the whole game.
The final idea of assigning controls to the analog sticks and bonding them to the movements of the character on the screen came quite late in the development, too late for the appropriate tools to be developed. The implementation was thus very largely blind, and the tuning particularly long and delicate.
In addition, we failed to find an ideal visual representation for the symbols on the screen. We tested a large quantity of positions, sizes, shapes and colors and finally opted for peripheral player vision. It was an interesting option but not entirely convincing, the interface being graphically too invasive. If the player does not use peripheral vision, the eye moves from the symbols to the scene and the interface masks the scene.
One scene in particular was a veritable revelation for me, the one where Tyler wakes up in his apartment at the start of the game. The player shares in Tyler's personal life in the morning before he goes to work: showering, getting dressed, drinking coffee, putting on some music, having a serious discussion with his wife, then kissing her before taking his coat and setting out for work.
When I wrote the scene on paper I spent whole nights in a cold sweat: what was the player going to play in the scene? Where were the mechanics, why should such a scene have even the slightest interest in terms of game play?
After months of soul searching I was very surprised when I finally saw the scene assembled, with dialog, animation, music and directing. And to my great surprise, the scene worked. It wasn't based on the traditional mechanics of video games (objective, obstacle, ramping, reward) but on something else that I still find hard to define.
I believe the scene is based entirely on the interest of sharing in the character's personal life, developing an attachment for him, becoming slowly immersed in his story.
In my opinion this is one of the most interesting scenes in Indigo Prophecy. No stunts, no artifice, just "being" a character in a simple context.
Indigo Prophecy was really an extraordinary experience both professionally and in human terms. I learned an enormous amount from it and it profoundly changed my vision of interactivity. I won't make video games the same way before and after Indigo Prophecy, and I think it also deeply changed the vision of most of the people in the team.
And although the game may not be perfect, I hope that the passion and enthusiasm that the team and I invested in it will nonetheless make it a game that is both different and sincere.
In my personal development it constitutes an important stage toward making video games not just simple toys but a veritable form of expression. I hope it has given other more talented people the desire to explore interactive narration and the formidable capacity of this new medium to create emotion.
I played Fahrenheit for the first time a few months ago. I loved the first two thirds of the game, and felt that the rest was weak and rushed. Then I read the postmortem and basically Cage seemed to know exactly what went wrong. Those two factors, combined with the fact that they most probably have all of Sony's 1st party expertise at their disposal, are what makes me almost unbearably hyped for this game.
Wow, a lot of "me me me me!" in that text, but still a great read. Most interesting was he realized the ending of Fahrenheit was crap. Hopefully they won't redo the same mistake.
Can't wait for this game...I am a big David Cage fan and this is probably my most anticipated title at the moment. There is a lot of fahrenheit talk here, so I recommend to go and play Omnikron: the Nomad soul. It's an older David Cage game and like Fahrenheit it has it flaws, but at the same time it is also a brilliant game.
I loved the first half of Indigo prophecy, and I hope they keep the super-natural bullshit out of this one. Not even a hint of anything out of the ordinary, please.
But anyway, form the information in the OP, it looks like it really is just gonna be about a normal dude and his family, which sounds pretty meh for me to be honest. I would kill, absolutely KILL for a noir style game with indigo prophecy's gameplay and mechanics. Swinging jazz soundtrack with a stylish fucking detective for a main character? Yes.
Wow, a lot of "me me me me!" in that text, but still a great read. Most interesting was he realized the ending of Fahrenheit was crap. Hopefully they won't redo the same mistake.
I think when developed specifically for it, PS3 has more than proven to be a powerful platform. And if what I hear about this game is true, graphics power is the last thing anyone has to worry about. Sure if it was on PC, it could always be made to an even higher spec, but again, there are people literally flipping over this game (those who have seen it yesterday) in both of how it looks and just how interesting it is.
Has nothing to do with the power of any platform. I'm sure it will look great, hell, the demo in 2005 I think it was that ran on the PS3 looked better than what I expect from games this generation. Not to mention, it looks far better than anything ever will on my shitty laptop. So yeah, no problems in that respect.
I think when developed specifically for it, PS3 has more than proven to be a powerful platform. And if what I hear about this game is true, graphics power is the last thing anyone has to worry about. Sure if it was on PC, it could always be made to an even higher spec, but again, there are people literally flipping over this game (those who have seen it yesterday) in both of how it looks and just how interesting it is.
Man, I am flipping for this game and I haven't even seen it yet.
That's how much stock I put in Quantic Dreams and their potential.
Kabouter said:
Has nothing to do with the power of any platform. I'm sure it will look great, hell, the demo in 2005 I think it was that ran on the PS3 looked better than what I expect from games this generation. So yeah, no problems there.
I think the problem is that adventure games as a whole failed the transition to modern gaming (3D). If you look to for example Broken Sword series or the Longest Journey, the 3D sequels are pretty mediocre to downright horrible. And even Fahrenheit had some major flaws (and I am not only talking about the last third of the game), imo this genre needs a blue print game...kinda like Mario64 was for platform gaming. I hope Heavy Rain is successful critically and commercialy to revive the adventure genre and point it to a good direction.
I think the problem is that adventure games as a whole failed the transition to modern gaming (3D). If you look to for example Broken Sword series or the Longest Journey, the 3D sequels are pretty mediocre to downright horrible. And even Fahrenheit had some major flaws (and I am not only talking about the last third of the game), imo this genre needs a blue print game...kinda like Mario64 was for platform gaming. I hope Heavy Rain is successful critically and commercialy to revive the adventure genre and point it to a good direction.
Well, most adventures released nowadays still aren't 3D. More like 2.5D. 3D characters walking around in a 2D background. And I have to say, I've enjoyed a lot of games made like that in recent years, especially The Moment of Silence, which I can recommend to anyone.