What are you playing at the moment?

[Streeteh]

Originally Posted by Aboobie

It's a game I'd love to play but this is a pipe dream. They signed an exclusivity deal with the most expensive console so mainstream is far from their focus....

When i say mainstream i mean a reoccurring genre, one to join the RPGs, FPS', RTS' etc, i don't mean i want it to be played by every tom dick and harry on the Wii. It looks like Heavy Rain is proving to be a success in terms of early sales so hopefully it'll inspire other publishers/developers to investigate the genre themselves and maybe even bring it back to platforms other than the PS3 in their own way. To say the PS3 isn't a mainstream gaming platform when it's sat in millions of homes and is still selling well is a little... dubious imo, or have i misinterpreted your point?

[Aboobie]

Originally Posted by Streeteh

When i say mainstream i mean a reoccurring genre, one to join the RPGs, FPS', RTS' etc, i don't mean i want it to be played by every tom dick and harry on the Wii. It looks like Heavy Rain is proving to be a success in terms of early sales so hopefully it'll inspire other publishers/developers to investigate the genre themselves and maybe even bring it back to platforms other than the PS3 in their own way. To say the PS3 isn't a mainstream gaming platform when it's sat in millions of homes and is still selling well is a little... dubious imo, or have i misinterpreted your point?

I would love to see more narrative driven games but I believe Quantic Dream's decision to allow Heavy Rain to be a PS3 exclusive won't do anything to further this cause.

And before you get your knickers in a twist I'd be arguing the same if it was a 360 exclusive; except it would probably also be on the PC and would also probably only be 'timed'
Heavy Rain is a niche title that won't sell huge numbers. I've not seen any advertising for it and outside hardcore gaming forums I've not seen any mention of it.

Niche, small selling titles need as much exposure as possible. My worry is by being a PS3 exclusive it will fail to make much noise; my bet is it won't chart in the top 10 games in next months US NPDs and won't generate enough revenue to never mind make it's publisher lots of money but probably break even.

If it was on all the platforms, was played by tom, dick and harry on the Wii and did sell 1m+ publishers might look at Narrative only titles as a serious direction to invest and more people would be talking about it, but as it is it I fear it will be relagated to a niche title only seriously talked about by gaming enthusiasts.

[leowyatt]

There hass been quite a few TV adverts over here for it. I haven't seen any mind :/

[Aboobie]

Anyhoo....

I spent most of yesterday playing Lips: Party Classics.

It's, well, more Lips which you're either for or against :P

We had fanastic fun and there are some corking songs on it as well as a new feature which allows you to save your rendition after the song finishes. You then have the totally cringeworthy chance to play back your warbling with it removing the original vocal track.

Now I know it's only been out a day and there were only 1000 or so in the leaderboard but Jen (not Haly, mrs Abooie) and I managed to get a Diamand Trophy and the #1 spot for our rendition of Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer. On playback all I have to say it if we got #1 my ears would surely bleed if I heard any of other attempts...

Recommended!

[Streeteh]

Originally Posted by Aboobie

Stuffs

I'm far from getting my knickers in a twist, i just don't agree with you.

I think the huge sums of money Sony have pumped into Quantic Dream played a massive part in their decision to go exclusive. Without that money i very much doubt they'd have been able to make a title of such high quality as they're a very small development studio (or were at least until they got all the funding for Heavy Rain). If they'd decided to go multiplat the quality of the game would have likely suffered, they wouldn't have been able to afford the same voice actors or achieve such impressive things with the hardware available to them. It was one or the other i bet, make a comparatively low budget game for multiple platforms, without much outside funding but with the hope of a greater return, or make a higher budget game for one platform with a guaranteed lump sum to get it to the shelves. Both have their downfalls when it comes to trying to push the title to the masses.

I doubt it will make much noise too, just like most other high quality PS3 exclusives (what ever happened to inFamous and LBP!?) but i don't think it needs to. It's a relatively new idea in terms of gaming and the new ideas always start small before other developers take interest and thus the idea grows (just look at games like Braid, a small, relatively unheard of low budget game that arguably single handedly revitalized the 2-D platforming genre, sparking the creation of things such as Shadow Complex, Trine, Splosion Man, etc). Developers such as EA have shown in the past couple of years that they have a deep interest in trying new IPs or even completely reinventing genres (Mirrors Edge would be my example). I don't view it as a unreasonable assumption that they've got their eye on Heavy Rain and would consider making their own multiplatform attempt.

[Haly]

Also seen lots of TV adverts for Heavy Rain

Plus last night in work it was sold out both for purchases and rental and we still had people asking for copies! Not actually seen/heard that before with any other game in the past year! Although obviously that's only a small sample.

[Streeteh]

It's also topped the 'top sellers' list on Shopto, again not an accurate representation of the market but it's not a small etailer these days so it goes some way to showing it's actually being noticed. Even Zavvi have a full-site advert for it, the sort of advertising a small developer couldn't afford without massive publisher backing.

[Davey_Pitch]

Considering virtually every PS3 owner I know is really interested in Heavy Rain, I think it will sell enough to make plenty of noise in the industry, along with the high review scores it's been getting. Whether it'll lead to an increase in narrative-driven games is a completely different thing though. I hope it does, it was an exceptional experience and one I hope to repeat again in different games soon.

[Belmit]

Well I was playing Bioshock 2. Just started it up this morning and it can't find any of my save games. They exist on the hard drive under system settings but the game can't see them. Coincidentally, I had to install an update for the game when I started it up... Majorly pissed off as I was playing on hard and had progressed a fair way though.

Edit: Wow... just wow. My housemate used my Xbox while I was out last night..... and was playing the original Bioshock. I just hadn't spotted the disc had been changed.

[NokkonWud]

Originally Posted by Streeteh

they wouldn't have been able to afford the same voice actors.

Are you praising the voice work?
The voice work is by far and away the very, very, very worst thing about this game. This game does so much absolutely brilliantly, but the voice work certainly isn't one of them and when compared to other major exclusives we've seen this generation like Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid 4, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, BioShock et al, then this is positively third-rate.