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Heavy Rain freezing, but not turning into snow
First: Sorry about the obvious gag. Second: It seems several players are having an issue with their copy of Heavy Rain not only seizing up but (in a few cases) corrupting their save data; you can read all the stories on the PlayStation forums. Info is limited at the moment, but a Sony rep in the thread suggested the stopgap of waiting at least five minutes before rebooting if a freeze occurs. The rep seemed hopeful that measure would enough to avoid save data corruption. Heavy Rain is intense enough without having to worry about losing your save data at any moment. Here's hoping we have word of a fix soon. [Thanks, Ryan S.]
Heavy Rain official site launches, announces 'Four Days Challenge'
Heavy Rain's marketing may be missing that "mainstream appeal" factor it needs to push sales with the Wii Play crowd, but the folks in charge of the game's website sure do know how to whet the whistle of those of us chomping at the bit for anything new. Starting on January 26 and running "in real time across three weeks," the Heavy Rain "Four Days Challenge" intends on tasking participants with solving a murder mystery. The advergame's description claims it consists of "interacting with characters, identifying clues [and] making decisions," allowing those involved to complete said tasks between Tuesday and Friday of the three weeks that the game is scheduled to run. You can head over to the sign-up site right now and get yourself all set up for what is sure to be three weeks jam-packed with pure, unbridled excitement. Or a viral marketing campaign. But hey, at very least, you'll get yourself a voucher for a free Heavy Rain t-shirt in Home. That's something, right? Right? Hey guys, where are you going? %Gallery-30067%[Via VG247]
Japan due for some Heavy Rain in February
Famitsu has apparently given Heavy Rain a Japanese release date of February 8, 2010, reports IGN. Japan is receiving a specific localized version of the title, so it's unclear whether this means the game will be released earlier or later in other territories; however, it's unusual for a Western-developed title to land on Japanese shelves first. We contacted SCEA and were told the company has not "made any announcements on Heavy Rain's [release] date in North America." Yes, right, we know, that's why we're emailing ... %Gallery-30067%
Heavy Rain previewed by the numbers
A handful of new Heavy Rain previews hit the interwebs today (Eurogamer, 1UP) and are definitely worth a gander for those curious about this enigmatic adventurer. However, we're especially fond of Eurogamers' supplementary vital statistics piece, chock-full of numbers our blogging-robot hybrid brains can more easily digest. Some of our favorite stats: The script used for the game was about 2,000 pages long and features about 60 scenes, each lasting 15 to 20 minutes apiece (given the nonlinear nature of the game, you won't be seeing all of those during any play-through). All motion capture was done on-location at Quantic Dreams' Paris studio over a span of 9 months. Over 70 actors and stuntmen were involved and had their faces scanned in for use in the game. What neither preview mentions is anything related to the story, which Quantic Dreams is keeping very quiet. Heavy Rain is expected to hit retail sometime late 2009.* %Gallery-30067% *Aren't you proud of us? We went a whole post on Heavy Rain without making any water puns!
GC 2008: Heavy Rain will have demo; DLC teased
take a look at these screenshots Sure, we've been gushing about Heavy Rain lately, but Quantic Dreams President David Cage has assured Eurogamer that we will be able to experience it all first-hand with a demo. "Yes, of course, there will be a demo," he said, adding that it will likely not contain any elements of the main storyline. "We've spent a lot of time working on the story this time ... And I think it's a very unusual story for a videogame, so I think people will be quite surprised." Cage also noted that what we've seen so far is a separate episode and not related to the main storyline. Cage also hinted that Heavy Rain DLC could be trickling out in the near future. "This is something it's really too early to talk about, but it's definitely a possibility," he said, adding, "You can tell any story with this interface, because it's entirely contextual." The clouds will burst with Heavy Rain (seriously, we're going to work on our pun addiction) in 2009. %Gallery-30067%
Remember Heavy Rain? No? Here's a reminder... [update 1]
First, a note: this game is only possible on the Playstation 3. Almost mythical, the title Heavy Rain has been in and out of the public eye ever since last year's E3. You must remember -- the woman auditioning for something who slowly changes from an amicable young lady into a mad, raving, murdering lunatic... and then back again? Pssh, women. Anyway, Quantic Dream's lead designer David Cage recently spoke about the idea of all characters in games showing the full gamut of emotions in the near future. He said, "The pleasure we feel watching a movie or reading a book comes from the different emotions we go through. There is no doubt in my mind that games will follow the same direction and offer more interesting, emotionally involving experiences, with more meaning and depth."The enormous response from the Heavy Rain trailer really sparked Cage and his crew on to continue creating the title with emotional quality no less than already displayed. What's interesting is they had no intention to show this off -- it was created simply as a test to test how hard the PS3 was to program for. It was never edited, never re-worked. This is a raw, practically from the drawing board, trailer. As such, it's also real-time footage, not a cut-scene. In fact, the game is slated to have no cutscenes. "Also, this trailer is just a real-time non-interactive movie, where the game will be fully interactive, without cut scenes."Please, keep reading.
