I have had numerous requests to see progress pics of the studio-to-be. So here are a few to tide you over till the final pics.
“A Boy and his Turtle”
Wanted to finish a project with my new intuos4 tablet to see if I liked it over my Cintiq 21UX.
Created with Photoshop CS5.
Comments are welcomed.
Kotaku reported last week on a way for users to get their hands on the Heavy Rain demo for PS3. This demo was first thought to be an EU exclusive, but turned out to work in the NA Playstation Store as well. I, along with many other gamers, have been indecisive regarding this title. I can now say, based on the demo that I played, my worries are “washed” away. If you have been playing Quantic Dream titles since 1999 like I have, then you are in for a treat.
In 1999 the Sega Dreamcast was released. I treasure this console till this very day as my favorite; it does not hold this title for not only being my first console that I purchased solely with money I earned from working, but also for being the most creative to date. (Of course this is all opinion here folks so bare with me and hold the slanderous bashing to the end.)
I can remember my first Quantic Dream game… awe Omikron. Omikron was the very first open word game in 3D that I can truly remember. I’m sure there were others, but this particular title really struck a cord with me. Unfortunately it was one title that was truly ahead of it’s time. If only I had played it on the PC would I have more or less tolerated the controls and probably made it further than I did. The followup title for Quantic was Fahrenheit (or as it was referred to in the US as Indigo Prophecy, from this point forward I will refer to it as IP for my NA readers). IP was the game to bring “Choose Your Own Adventure” to the console market. The graphics were very nice for the time, and the story was quite good as well. The only thing that I can remember that negatively about the title was the QTE, aka Quick Time Events. Everyone that I know to this very day, hates, and I mean hates QTEs. They’re aggravating and frustrating, from the days of Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace to Shenmue and even today’s God of War series. Quick Time Events can be very cumbersome. Anyway, enough ranting… back to IP. So with it’s great story and thriller themed ideas of playing the killer and the investigators at the same time, it made for some quality entertainment.
And now Quantic Dream has Heavy Rain.
Production on Heavy Rain began in February of 2006 and later that year a tech demo was released at E3 showcasing what Quantic had in store for the public. Skip ahead four years into the future and the general public, and I mean general as in the folks that can’t make it to E3 every year, finally gets their hands on Heavy Rain (referred to from now on as HR).
The demo consists of three scenarios in total:
1. The tutorial, which has you playing a private investigator Scott Shelby, who starts out with him sitting in his parked car in front of a city alley. The objective of the scenario is to get the user familiar with the controls and options. End result is getting to the other end of the alley.
2. This scenario finds you as Private Detective Shelby again tracking down a female by the name of Lauren Winter. It is a full scenario and you get a chance to try out the new QTE in this Quantic title. I won’t go into detail as I do not wish to give any details of the story away for those waiting to purchase it on release day.
3. The last one has you playing an FBI profiler Norman Jayden, (Not a fan of the name nor the voice. Seriously Norman? I wouldn’t be surprised if he wasn’t the origami killer himself. Couldn’t resist. Sorry.) In this scene you get to try out the ARI system, which is a pair of glasses and a glove that is on your right hand allowing you to control a virtual system that connects to the FBI database and feeds you realtime information in the field. At this point in time it would appear that you cannot interact with the evidence beyond standing over it and giving the appropriate gesture with the right stick on the controller.
The overall impact of the game is indeed a true interactive novel. That is what it is and is intended to be. David Cage, the creator, has stated over and over that his full intentions are to give the audience an emotional interactive experience like no other. Although I could not attain this while playing the demo I did feel for Detective Shelby during certain situations. (Again I will not state them here although I’m sure other sites will go into full detail.) I played through the Shelby scenario multiple times, trying different methods and asking and answering different questions and answers, each time not feeling I was getting the same response. This is a good thing. Only once or twice did I get the exact same line, which usually happened when the scenario was just beginning or ending. This is how Choose your own Adventure should really work.
The controller scheme feels familiar to me, which is good if you’re a fan of Quantic’s work. The graphics are beautiful although I did feel that this was only due to limited interaction of the player and the game world. If you were free to run at a full pace, I am sure that the engine could not keep up the frame rate. Particle effects were a nice touch as well; after all a title called Heavy Rain with terribly rendered rain would be a huge eyesore for the audience. Speaking of that I did like the subtle nuances, such as when I was Agent Jayden. I went to walk through a puddle and the character stopped and looked down and lifted his foot out of the water. It would seem as if he pondered why I just made him walk into the small pond in front of him. If only they added him looking at the camera and saying, “Really? Was it not big enough for you to see it to avoid it? Come on!” That would’ve been classic.
As of this writing and completing the demo; I am enthusiastically looking forward to picking up Heavy Rain when it hits retailers February 23.
Go Quantic!
