Did Heavy Rain impress you before? What about now?


Recommended Posts

Wait until it's released ...

It's as simple as that tbh, it looks good, finer details have time to be ironed out. From what they are showing i'm interested in it. That's good enough for me right now.

Seems interesting story wise. Looks great, but some of the water/reflection effects aren't all that good. Seems they might have put a little more into that.

I'm not sold on the game play, seems more like an interactive movie. If all it is is testing to see how fast I can press a button that comes up on the screen then I'll pass.

I've been looking for an excuse to buy a PS3, if the game play is good this could be it.

HawkMan you do realize the amount of time you probably spend on a bike/vehicle in this game will be non-existent?

Well the game is called heavy "rain", and it seems to mostly be set at night, and several of the screenshots seems to be outside... so they should put half an effort into making it look good. and lights at night is quite important to the looks of a night scene. I mean, you don't look at night shots and go "oooh, look at the prety black inbetween the splotches of light",do you ? :p

and even if it's minor, it is part of the game and they should do it right, the reflections are fairly easy to do at least semi decent, and they'd practically have to remove default rendering opetiosn to get rid of specular highlights on the road surface from the lights too :)

And as I said, it looks very good though it lacks some olish, and it's not impressive, impressive means it sets a new bar above what is allready set, and it doesn't. in some scenes it macthes some of the best stuff done, but doesn't impress beyond it, and in ither scenes, it just a letdown, compared to the rest.

I see plenty of jaggies but then again, trailers / videos are horrible to judge a thing like AA.

You just can't post a compressed or streamed video of a game and then expect to see all the finer details! The way some software like Flash playbacks a compressed video 'eliminates' jaggies or rather replaces the visible edges with the fine pixelation.

Just wait until the game is released and proper, unedited, uncompressed screenshots are released or see it for yourself on a TV but judging AA from semi low-res videos and screenshots is just daft - So many games through times look so butter smooth on pre-release media but had very noticeable jaggies when released.

Wait until it's released ...

Tell me though Sethos why don't we get this crazy wave of AA complaining in every other game topic then if absolutely no screenshot or image can be judged until its in your hands?

Double standards?

Or are people just deciding which games they want to assault and which they'll say nothing about?

I'm defending this game because it's rather nice to see developers further graphics and in this case take a good approach on realism, while people are assualting the game to hell and back as if it looks like a PS2 upscale or something. Why is it being held against standards unobtainable in the gaming world?

I know the best judgement is on your own tv, in a disc in your console, but I'll be damned if some people actually believe what they're posting in this topic being that they seemingly NEVER EVER believe anything they see in preview/real time before release.

It'll be interesting to see responses from some of you in other game topics discussing pre-release titles ;)

Well the game is called heavy "rain", and it seems to mostly be set at night, and several of the screenshots seems to be outside... so they should put half an effort into making it look good. and lights at night is quite important to the looks of a night scene. I mean, you don't look at night shots and go "oooh, look at the prety black inbetween the splotches of light",do you ? :p

and even if it's minor, it is part of the game and they should do it right, the reflections are fairly easy to do at least semi decent, and they'd practically have to remove default rendering opetiosn to get rid of specular highlights on the road surface from the lights too :)

And as I said, it looks very good though it lacks some olish, and it's not impressive, impressive means it sets a new bar above what is allready set, and it doesn't. in some scenes it macthes some of the best stuff done, but doesn't impress beyond it, and in ither scenes, it just a letdown, compared to the rest.

In just about every single game out there, you'll find small things to nitpick at, so if you see the road with rain on it for like a total of 5 minutes in Heavy Rain, I hardly think it's a deal breaker that's going to ruin your visual enjoyment of the title.

As for the standards set, the only other adventure game I've seen with graphics looking to be on par with this is Alan Wake. And we've seen very little of it, but I remember a screenshot, ONE screenshot was posted recently and I don't remember every single part of it being torn apart and AA worries being mentioned :p

Tell me though Sethos why don't we get this crazy wave of AA complaining in every other game topic then if absolutely no screenshot or image can be judged until its in your hands?

Double standards?

Or are people just deciding which games they want to assault and which they'll say nothing about?

I'm defending this game because it's rather nice to see developers further graphics and in this case take a good approach on realism, while people are assualting the game to hell and back as if it looks like a PS2 upscale or something. Why is it being held against standards unobtainable in the gaming world?

I know the best judgement is on your own tv, in a disc in your console, but I'll be damned if some people actually believe what they're posting in this topic being that they seemingly NEVER EVER believe anything they see in preview/real time before release.

It'll be interesting to see responses from some of you in other game topics discussing pre-release titles ;)

Tell me AB, are you seeing my complain about AA and whatnot in this thread? I am genuinely looking forward to the game and have made no mention of Anti-Aliasing in a negative fashion. This is a clear case of PS3 negativity as usual from all parts and I would really expect you to be the first to notice.

I just tried to rectify you a bit by saying you can't really judge AA from compressed videos and screenshots from these said videos, I thought you would agree. I really don't care about AA on an exclusive title I'm looking forward to, either it's there or not. I only start caring when we are talking multi-platform titles and I'm looking for the 'prettiest' game.

So don't drag me down with the rest of the ship when I finally say something positive about a PS3 game :)

Seriusly, you don't remember the ripping the Alan Wake screenshot got? or are you just being sarastic? :p

and the lights/reflectiosn where just an example, it's just somethign very noticeabel in night shots with rain.

But then, I'm not so impressed with Alan Wake either, but that stems from the earliest tech previews of the engine when they did a fly over over ditant hills, and the hill where horribly low poly peaks with like 6 polies each, and engine in a single verticel peak, and for some reason everyone drooled oer it. and I hate it when they use really crappy low res background hills hoping you won't notice :p

Tell me AB, are you seeing my complain about AA and whatnot in this thread? I am genuinely looking forward to the game and have made no mention of Anti-Aliasing in a negative fashion. This is a clear case of PS3 negativity as usual from all parts and I would really expect you to be the first to notice.

I just tried to rectify you a bit by saying you can't really judge AA from compressed videos and screenshots from these said videos, I thought you would agree. I really don't care about AA on an exclusive title I'm looking forward to, either it's there or not. I only start caring when we are talking multi-platform titles and I'm looking for the 'prettiest' game.

So don't drag me down with the rest of the ship when I finally say something positive about a PS3 game :)

My comment wasn't aimed at you!

And I do agree, the video isn't a direct feed, nor is it HD resolution, but if the graphics were poor you'd still be given an indication that they were. They are definitely not poor by any standard.

Depending on your opinion on art style (it has a very clean, "real life" look, therefore you might even find it boring compared to the bloom/cell shaded masses?), you may not enjoy the graphics, but to say they're poor is digging a bit IMO.

It just saddens me that these developers are getting such negativity when they're clearly doing a good job, and other games much less impressive looking sail by not held up to the godlike standards some suddenly expect in here.

Seriusly, you don't remember the ripping the Alan Wake screenshot got? or are you just being sarastic? :p

and the lights/reflectiosn where just an example, it's just somethign very noticeabel in night shots with rain.

But then, I'm not so impressed with Alan Wake either, but that stems from the earliest tech previews of the engine when they did a fly over over ditant hills, and the hill where horribly low poly peaks with like 6 polies each, and engine in a single verticel peak, and for some reason everyone drooled oer it. and I hate it when they use really crappy low res background hills hoping you won't notice :p

It did?

Well I thought it looked great anyway.

Either my standards are out of touch, which I doubt (im quite a graphics buff), or some of you guys are expecting things not obtainable this generation, or at least not this early in it. Or it's reverse psychology and you're just choosing to downplay something that does look promising for whatever reason you feel the need to?

If you can find one of the very first Awake videos, the one where the start with a camer flyign low over a hill, then showing the then famous sunset light scene.

the mountains/hilltops the camera fly over at the start they're they're horribly low poly, it annoyed me because the whole thing didn't make sense, they're hills you won't see when you're playing, and you'll never be near them, why would they put a amera right over them in their tech demo where they're supposed to show off how awesome it is :p

This is a PS3 Exclusive still, right?

3rd party company, 2nd party title (means the title is exclusive, but company can develop other games on any platform).

SCEE are publishing and funding the game, Quantic Dream are developing it.

It was originally going to be PC and PS3, but went just PS3.

Some game physics will be made available by the use of PhysX by nVidia. It is used for console physics in general in the game. Originally for the PC, there were going to be two separate versions of the game to handle cases of a computer being equipped with the appropriate physics processing unit, and to handle cases when it is not present on the system. However, now that the game has been announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive it is assumed that that won't be necessary.
History and background

Quantic Dream started working on Heavy Rain in February 2006. The project was announced on May 7, 2006, and three days later, a real-time 3D prototype technology demo was presented at E3 2006 at Sony Computer Entertainment's booth. The demo, titled The Casting displays various technical features of the game engine in an emotional scene featuring a motion captured virtual actor. The prototype was allegedly created in less than three months, during which Quantic Dream wrote the script, developed the graphics engine, held auditions to find the virtual actress, and recorded the scene. The demo was initially designed to be an internal prototype not shown outside the company, but upon seeing the team's work-in-progress a few weeks before E3, Sony asked them to complete a working demo to be presented to the audience.

Collaboration with developer Quantic Dream to redefine cinematic

realtime entertainment

LONDON, July 3 2007 – Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SCE

WWS) is pleased to announce that it will be collaborating with developer Quantic

Dream on an exclusive PLAYSTATION?3 (PS3™) title – more details of which are to

be announced soon. Quantic Dream has an outstanding track record in delivering

interactive, cinematic games with true emotional depth. Combined with the power of

Cell Broadband Engine™ and game development technology of PS3, the project is

expected to set a new benchmark in delivering emotionally compelling experiences to

gamers.

Founded in 1997 by David Cage, French developer Quantic Dream has achieved

international renown for its ground-breaking innovation within the games industry,

particularly in the areas of interactive narration and emotional content. The studio’s

record speaks for itself: in particular Quantic Dream was responsible for 2005’s

award winning Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in the US and Canada), a

paranormal, interactive blend of film and gaming that was widely praised for

re-imagining the adventure game genre.

Michael Denny, Vice President, SCE Worldwide Studios, said: “We’re really excited

to be working with Quantic Dream for the first time and to have this opportunity to

once again push the gaming experience to realise a new level of interactivity and, in

particular, to engage players at an emotional level never experienced before. We’re

looking forward to revealing more news on this special title later this year.”

David Cage, Founder, President and CEO of Quantic Dream, said, “We always

believed that “next generation” meant more meaningful content based on players’

emotional involvement. To us, PS3 is the only platform that can truly deliver on this

promise, and SCE WWS is a group that is both inspiring and pleasant to work with.”

Indigo Prophecy, Baby!!!

It should be good like IP was!

03.jpg

Yeah good game, just soiled itself near the end.

The first 2/3's were like :o back in the day as nothing else was really like it.

I'm super happy Cage posted the big Gamasutra article condoning all the mistakes he had made, unlike some developers who aren't so modest. And has said Heavy Rain is going straight down the middle with realism (spoken about in the interview on page 1).

Postmortem: Indigo Prophecy - http://gamasutra.com/features/20060620/cage_01.shtml

Great read that article if you genuinely want inside the mind of David Cage, and care for his games. Or have an interest in game development, it's a long article written from the standpoint of development.

  • 4 months later...
This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • Motrix Next 3.9.6 by Razvan Serea Motrix Next is a modern, open-source cross-platform download manager built as the official next-generation successor to the original Motrix project. It has been completely rewritten using Tauri 2, Vue 3, TypeScript, and Rust, while still relying on the powerful Aria2 download engine for high-speed multi-protocol transfers. The app supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent, ED2K and magnet links, offering advanced features like multi-connection acceleration, task scheduling, bandwidth control, and batch download management. With a significantly reduced install size (around 20MB), it focuses on being lightweight, fast, and resource-efficient compared to traditional Electron-based download tools. Designed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, Motrix Next delivers a clean, modern UI inspired by Material Design 3 principles, with smooth animations and a minimal workflow. It improves usability through better download organization, system tray integration, and enhanced torrent handling including selective file downloads and tracker management. Motrix Next features: Multi-protocol downloads — HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, Magnet, .torrent, ED2K, and Metalink tasks BitTorrent — Selective file download, DHT, peer exchange, encryption controls, metadata caching, GeoIP peer flags, and tracker probing Browser extension integration — Embedded Extension API with independent authentication, download confirmation, smart auto-submit, filename hints, referer/cookie forwarding, and real-time controls (Chrome Web Store · Edge Add-ons) Safe filename handling — Content-Disposition, RFC 2047, non-UTF-8, percent-encoded, and extensionless URL resolution with path traversal sanitization Download organization — Favorite and recent folders, optional file-type categorization, stale-record cleanup, and completed history backed by SQLite Concurrent downloads — Independent controls for active tasks, HTTP connections per server, segments per file, and BT peer limits Speed control — Global and per-task upload/download limits with day-of-week and time-of-day scheduling System integration — Tray operation, optional tray speed display, macOS Dock badge/progress, protocol handlers for magnet://, thunder://, and motrixnext:// Lightweight mode — Destroys the WebView on minimize-to-tray while Rust keeps the engine, task monitor, notifications, history, and extension routing alive Notifications and power options — Native task start/complete/failure notifications, keep-awake during downloads, and optional shutdown after completion Network controls — Scoped proxy support for downloads, app updates, and tracker updates, plus system proxy detection Auto-update channels — Stable, Beta, and Latest Across Channels policies with separate download and install phases Diagnostics — Structured logs, exportable diagnostic ZIPs, database integrity checks, automatic DB rebuild, and Linux GPU rendering fallback Personalization — Light/dark/system theme, 10 color schemes, 26 languages, and first-launch system language detection Motrix Next 3.9.6 changelog: New Features Clipboard management — App-owned copy actions no longer trigger the Add Task auto-detect popup. aria2 input compatibility — Multi-line aria2-style task input is supported for URLs with per-task options such as out=. BitTorrent IPv6 DHT — Added IPv6 DHT support and related configuration. File category URL patterns — File category rules can match URL patterns with validation and localized hints. Task status tags — Added clearer waiting and sharing states for task cards. Download event bridge — Added an aria2 WebSocket event bridge for faster download notifications. Improvements Improved task list transitions and preserved task state during tab switches. Kept RPC origin access enabled for local integrations. Restored AppImage stripping in release builds after beta validation. Added localized preference guidance across supported languages. Download: Motrix Next 64-bit | ARM64 | macOS ~20.0 MB (Open Source) Links: Website | macOS / Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Segra 1.6.2 by Razvan Serea Segra is a free, open-source OBS-powered game recorder offering fast gameplay capture, instant clips, AI highlights, deep game integration, and seamless uploads—perfect for gamers, streamers, and content creators. Lightweight, fast, zero bloat. Segra key features: Automatic Game Recording: Begin capturing gameplay the moment your game launches, with zero manual setup. Instant Clipping: Save important moments instantly using a customizable hotkey—perfect for highlights, montages, or quick shares. Segra AI Highlights: Let Segra automatically detect kills, assists, deaths, and key events to generate polished highlight reels without manual editing. Gameplay Uploads: Upload recordings and clips directly to Segra.tv for fast sharing and cloud access. Deep Game Integration: Enjoy advanced game-data tracking across hundreds of supported titles, enabling smart highlight generation and stat-informed clipping. High-Performance Capture: Record up to 4K at 144 FPS using OBS-powered technology with minimal performance impact, supporting NVENC, AMD VCE, and custom quality controls. Segra Editor: Edit recordings easily with timeline controls, segment management, and event-based navigation to build the perfect clip. Customization Options: Adjust hotkeys, output formats, storage paths, codecs, capture quality, and performance settings for a tailored recording experience. Segra 1.6.2 changelog: UI: Improved the transition from the loading skeleton to the real content card. Security: Added Segra.dll code signing and automatic VirusTotal upload. Settings: Fixed the settings header to highlight Account when scrolled to the top. Recording: Updated OBSKit.NET to 1.4.1. Download: Segra 1.6.2 | 74.5 MB (Open Source) View: Segra Homepage | Github | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • Hey Google, these are the Gemini features I want in 2026 by Aditya Tiwari Google Gemini has been around for over three years. The AI chatbot started its journey back in 2023 (as Bard) when ChatGPT was already a talk of the town. However, it quickly attracted criticism after misrepresenting facts about the James Webb Space Telescope. The search giant spent a year fine-tuning Bard before rebranding the chatbot and its underlying generative AI model to Gemini, drawing inspiration from NASA's first human spaceflight program. Note that Bard was initially powered by LaMDA and PaLM 2; Google has since added several new features and integrations to Gemini. That said, there is scope for improvement and a gap for new features. I have been using Gemini for a while now and have realized that the chatbot lacks several features, making it harder for me to research across topics. These are mostly function-over-form updates that can improve the overall experience. Delete individual messages from a conversation Image via DepositPhotos.com One good thing about Gemini is that it can maintain context throughout the conversation. But things might get chaotic when you want to ask a related question, but don't want it to be part of your conversation in the long run. You can't ask that related question in a fresh chat because Gemini will lose the active conversation context of what you're trying to research. If Google allowed you to delete individual question/answer pairs, you could simply ask about a sub-topic and remove it from the conversation to create a smooth flow of important stuff. Offline mode Image via DepositPhotos.com A big pain of using Gemini daily is that everything loads from the cloud. It takes time for your chats to appear, and you can't view your conversation history while offline. To get a better idea, you can open the Gemini app and see how it looks without an internet connection. While Gemini models run in the cloud, it wouldn't hurt if Google could store chats (at least the text part) on the device so we can refer to them when offline. Google can also offer a lightweight version of its AI model to help with basic drafting, summarization, and other tasks. It has the Gemini Nano model, which can perform on-device processing on Google Pixel, Samsung, and some other Android brands, but it's a system feature and not related to the cloud-based Gemini app. Make temporary chats permanent I can't thank Google enough for taking the time and effort to add incognito mode or temporary chat mode to the Gemini app. It lets you have conversations without worrying that the topics will end up in your chat history or used for model training (at least on paper). Google claims that it doesn't use your temporary chats to "personalize your Gemini experience or train Google’s AI models." However, the data is stored "up to 72 hours to respond to you and to process any feedback you choose to provide." That said, I often start researching something in a temporary chat, only to realize the chatbot's answer is good enough to refer to later. Sadly, Gemini doesn't have an option to make such temporary chats permanent. In other words, I won't be able to follow up on it if I close the temporary chat. I'm left with alternatives like copying the answers into notes or another app. My digital life will get a lot better if Gemini gets a button to make temporary chats permanent. Collapse answers for a cleaner view You're heavily invested in your research game and suddenly feel the need to go up in the chat to recall something. This is when the conversation thread starts to feel like an overwhelming, unending wall of questions and answers. What if Google added a way to collapse Q&A pairs in the Gemini chat thread? It would look quite clean and easy to navigate. You'll quickly get an overview of everything you have discussed with the chatbot. Add buttons to jump between messages Suggested mockup of the feature. This reminds me of a small but useful Gemini feature that Google could add to its chatbot: the ability to hop between prompts in a conversation. Just add simple up- and down-arrow buttons, similar to YouTube Shorts, so people can quickly scroll through the messages. A table of contents or Chat Overview It's hard to get a bird's-eye view of everything you have discussed with the chatbot during a lengthy conversation. This is where a table of contents, or Chat Overview, displayed at the top of the screen, possibly in a drop-down button, might come in handy. You'll be able to get an overview of the chat and jump between messages, serving as an alternative to the up/down arrow buttons. Temporary mode for Gemini Live Image: Google You can use Gemini Live to have real-time conversations with the chatbot, which feels like you're talking to someone in the same room. However, a downside is that Gemini Live doesn't work in Temporary Chat mode, so all your conversations end up in the chat history. Google should consider expanding the temporary chat mode to include Gemini Live. Default to a specific chat One thing that feels somewhat annoying to me is that Gemini always opens in a new chat, whether on web or mobile. Sometimes, you want to return to your last chat. Google can take cues from web browsers, which let you choose whether you want to go to a new tab or a specific web page(s). Gemini can also have options to default to a specific chat when reopened. That said, generative AI chatbots have endless possibilities given the vagueness of their work. You can mold them the way you want by attaching different connectors, adding custom instructions, and including source files. It remains to be seen what Google has in store for future updates and whether anything from this wishlist gets the green light. The search giant released a stream of new Gemini updates in recent months, including Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini Omni Spark, adding that it now has 13 products with more than a billion users each. What do you want to see in the Gemini app? Tell us in the comments.
    • Thank you for the post. Just a FYI that links to an outside site or promoting specific software is considered spamming here. Asking general questions is fine.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Conversation Starter
      sumytbe earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • One Year In
      B4dM1k3 earned a badge
      One Year In
    • One Year In
      DarkWun earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Dedicated
      Almohandis earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Dedicated
      JuvenileDelinquent earned a badge
      Dedicated
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      507
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      181
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      86
    4. 4
      Michael Scrip
      78
    5. 5
      Steven P.
      76
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!