heavy-rain posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Quantic Dream selling motion capture libraries

by Andrew Yoon { Jun 19th 2009 at 3:15PM }

One look at Heavy Rain, and you'll know it was an expensive, expensive game to make. Looks like Quantic Dream is already thinking up new ways of recovering the costs of the enormous project. The developer of the upcoming PS3-exclusive adventure game is selling its motion capture data in library packages. The offering will be what Quantic Dream calls "the industry's first high-end, off-the-shelf solution for real-time 3D character animation," according to a report by Develop.

Considering the developer spent nearly a year doing motion capture work on Heavy Rain, it's no wonder why the developers are touting their work.

Impressions: Heavy Rain

by Jem Alexander { Jun 8th 2009 at 11:00AM }

Heavy Rain is not your typical game -- the experience promises to change and morph throughout the different scenes. While the Taxidermist and Mad Jack scenes are reasonably similar, with our protagonists infiltrating areas for clues and then making their escape after being discovered, the new scene shown off at E3 by Quantic Dream's David Cage illustrated how situations and gameplay styles will differ throughout.

This new scene does exactly what it says on the tin. Named "Madison At The Blue Lagoon," it follows the exploits of our female protagonist, Madison -- who you may recognise from the Taxidermist scene -- at a busy club called the Blue Lagoon. Madison has gone in search of the club's owner, Paco, in order to get new information regarding something. As usual, Quantic Dream's David Cage is appropriately cagey about giving away too much of the story.

In contrast to the other scenes we've been shown, which have involved only a couple of characters at a time, the Blue Lagoon is packed full of people. Madison weaves through them naturally and realistically as she makes her way through the dancing throng towards the bar. This game's graphical fidelity tends to range from "incredible" to "a bit iffy," but this scene looked great, despite the relatively large number of characters on screen. With a Q1 2010 release date and with the game 70% done, there's still time to iron out any graphical kinks.

Gallery: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

Continued →

Overheard@E3: We're here to learn

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 3rd 2009 at 11:59PM }

"We're not here to have sex. We're here to learn something." -- Quantic Dream's David Cage on the objective in a new Heavy Rain scene debuted during a breakout session today.

We quietly chanted the mantra as the character, Madison, was forced (by consequences in the game demo) to strip down to her bra and thong, bend over, and shake it, shattering the fourth wall and our tolerance for dark rooms packed with strangers.

Heavy Rain keeps it 'real'

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 3rd 2009 at 10:15PM }

Remember that old lady that's actually an evil AI in Indigo Prophecy? Or the part where nanomachines bring you back to life, and you start running on walls as helicopters chase you? Yeah, Heavy Rain ain't going there. "That's absolutely not the case with Heavy Rain," explained Quantic Dream's David Cage, director of both the aforementioned Indigo Prophecy and forthcoming Heavy Rain, when questioned during an E3 breakout session about the very real possibility of "fantasy" elements in the studio's new game.

The ARI (Advanced Reality Interface) technology, pictured in action above, is "the only liberty we took," Cage assured. "It's not a sci-fi game; no magic; no alien nothing; just reality." So, we guess that rules out having undead sex again?

Sony forecasts Heavy Rain for Q1 2010

by Jem Alexander { Jun 3rd 2009 at 9:35PM }

A Sony representative has confirmed to us that Heavy Rain won't start pouring until the first quarter of 2010. Quantic Dream's David Cage told us that Heavy Rain would most likely get lost in the shuffle, among the Modern Warfare 2s and the Assassin's Creed 2s and that a Q1 2010 release suits the game much better.

For those anticipating the game's release this is undoubtably a disappointment, but a release during this period may mean better sales figures, which may mean more games or DLC for the series. See? Every rain cloud has a silver lining.

Heavy Rain: No game over, just game endings

by James Ransom-Wiley { Jun 3rd 2009 at 9:25PM }

Heavy Rain's got four main characters. All of them can die. So, it's essentially four "lives," and then, game over, right? Not quite. Quantic Dreams is challenging the ingrained notions of game endings. Sure, if your clumsy button presses manage to kill off all four of your characters, the game's mysterious antagonist, The Origami Killer, gets away. But this is simply one of many potential outcomes in a player-created story, director David Cage explained during an E3 breakout session for the game. Even if all four die, there will still be "a sense of closure."

Speaking to this design, Cage confirmed that during a single playthrough, "you never get to come back to scenes you've visited before." The save system is "transparent" and records data any time something significant happens. "You don't need to bother about saving," Cage insisted. "I would like people to play this game without playing too much with the saving system."

In all, the game contains roughly sixty, 15-minute "scenes" (levels), but Cage encourages players to weave their own complete dramas from the potential pieces. He suggested that everyone play the game from start to a finish once, "and maybe never play it again." Cage's advice is to not attempt to progress to a "right" ending or play out every scene, but for each player to create a "unique story that they have written themselves."

Video: Meet the various faces of Heavy Rain

by Majed Athab { Jun 3rd 2009 at 3:05AM }

Pole dancers, zebra suits and hanging crosses, oh my! These are just some of the sights to spot in this new Heavy Rain trailer from E3. Take a very close look at some of those new faces; any one of them could be one of the four mysterious playable characters that were hinted at previously. We've already met Jayden, Mad Jack and Madison, but who are all the others?

Gallery: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

Interview: David Cage of Quantic Dream and Heavy Rain

by Kevin Kelly { May 27th 2009 at 4:40PM }

We recently had our precipitation-sodden paws all over Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, and then chatted with David Cage, a man who wears plenty of hats at developer Quantic Dream. In addition to founding the studio, he's also the head game developer, writer, co-CEO, director, and chief bottle washer. So, who better to walk us through the trippy thriller that goes where Indigo Prophecy feared to tread?

Read on to find out some new tidbits about the game, how Fight Club inspired the interface system and why his favorite ending to the game is when all four characters die. Plus why, like Guillermo del Toro, he believes that the interactive entertainment industry is long overdue for a Citizen Kane (or in Cage's case, a Slumdog Millionaire) of games.

Gallery: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

Continued →

Hands-on: Heavy Rain

by Randy Nelson { May 27th 2009 at 12:45PM }

click to enlarge

Everything we'd seen up until the point we finally got to play Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer wasn't actually Heavy Rain. It was either an early tech demo ("The Casting") or a gameplay proof of concept ("The Taxidermist"). The one thing present in every version: emotionally charged situations. Quantic Dream says it set out to tell a gripping story, so it developed the technology needed to create game characters that players could actually see as real people -- and environments that look as lifelike as they do dreadful.

Before we played an all-to-brief scene from the game's total of around 60, designer David Cage dropped a couple of major details on us. First, players will assume the role of four distinct characters in the game, each with their own scenes and whose paths never intersect as they attempt to answer the game's tagline -- "How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?" –- and solve the mystery of the titular Origami Killer.

Gallery: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

Continued →

Heavy Rain footage surprisingly light on precipitation

by David Hinkle { May 22nd 2009 at 10:47AM }

The fine folks at 1UP managed to secure some face time with Heavy Rain game director David Cage and picked his brain on the upcoming title from Quantic Dream. Cage talked about the game's four main characters, and how they can each actually die in the game, and how such a catastrophe would affect the other playable characters. They talk about other things as well, but the thing to point out here is the plethora of gameplay footage, which we know is really what you're after. It's okay, feel free to use us for our embedded video past the break. We'll just be in the corner, crying, while you enjoy the gameplay.

Gallery: Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer

Continued →

Supposed Heavy Rain pics give sneak peek at new characters

by Majed Athab { May 21st 2009 at 6:15PM }

We're not entirely sure if these new images of Heavy Rain are real assets from the game, but they do look eerily similar to what we've seen of it before. Are these photos part of an upcoming feature (or video content) in the European mag PSM3? Quite possibly, since its watermark is plastered on all the images.

If these pics do prove to be legit, then we're looking at some of the most realistic facial renders ever seen. Just look at the attention to detail. And, is that Mexican bad-ass Danny Trejo (NSFW link) as a design inspiration? (Check the image after the break.) Wow, this game just got ten times more interesting. See the rest of the images here.

Continued →

Full Modern Warfare 2 site launches Sunday, sneak peek on GTTV tonight

by Richard Mitchell { May 21st 2009 at 6:00PM }

Infinity Ward community maestro fourzerotwo (also known by his civilian name, Robert Bowling) has announced via his Twitter that the Modern Warfare 2 website is set to launch this Sunday with the first gameplay trailer. What's that? You want to know the URL? Sure! It's modernwarfare2.com. Easy.

If you can't be bothered to wait until Sunday, Mr. Geoff Keighley has announced via his Twitter that GameTrailers TV will premier a new Modern Warfare 2 gameplay teaser tonight on Spike. GTTV also will be premiering Heavy Rain, building up tonight's episode to be a good one. And, if you can't be bothered to stay up late, you can rest assured that we'll share it all right here on Joystiq just as soon as it's released from the GameTrailers vault.

Source - @fourzerotwo
Source - @geoffkeighley

Calendar clarification: God of War 3, MAG before March 2010

by Randy Nelson { Feb 26th 2009 at 6:34PM }

Had your hopes up that God of War III and Zipper Interactive's "massive action game," MAG, would be all up in your PS3 before January 1, Ought-10 rolled around? Better let them down ... gently. Following two disparate announcements -- one saying both games (among others) would hit within calendar 2009; the other citing fiscal 2009 -- Sony has confirmed to Joystiq that the release window is, in fact, the latter: before March 1, 2010.

Two other games listed in the original press release are pretty much locked for release within the year, though. Heavy Rain, Quantic Dreams' dreamy-looking adventure game, was confirmed for calendar '09 release last August. The Sucker Punch developed action-platformer, inFamous, is coming "this spring," according to a packaging insert going out with tomorrow's major release, Killzone 2.

Sony: God of War III, MAG coming within the year

by Griffin McElroy { Feb 20th 2009 at 6:40PM }

A triumphant Sony press release which heralded next week's arrival of Killzone 2 and, effectively, the kick-off for its 2009 line-up, contained a tentative list of the games that will likely cause PS3 owners to foam at the mouth with anticipation over the coming months. The list contained two mammoths in particular -- according to Sony, both God of War III and Zipper Interactive's MAG: Massive Action Game will be among the "blockbuster exclusives" which will land on the console "throughout the year."

The imminent launch window for the two titles (which were mentioned alongside inFamous, Heavy Rain, MLB 09: The Show and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves) is just a bit surprising -- though we suppose Sony's selective wording ("throughout the year") could mean that the listed titles will be dropping by this time in 2010. Still, barring any delays, 2009's shaping up to be a heck of a year for the enthusiastic supporters of Sony's monolithic home console.

Heavy Rain concept art leaks onto the web

by Andrew Yoon { Jan 15th 2009 at 4:15PM }

Morgan Yon worked on concept art for the upcoming PS3 thriller, Heavy Rain. His personal website showcased some of his work on the game, but has since been taken down. Thankfully, Kotaku managed to grab the images. The art showcased is incredibly moody, heavily rooted with noir influences. The images won't reveal too much about the game, but we're always glad to get our hands on any more Heavy Rain media.

[Via 1UP]