Is the Heavy Rain Mall Scene Uncanny-Valley-Tastic?

[Supraliminal]

I got quite mixed feelings out of this one.

At first is was a deep fly through the valley. The crowd in the beginning looked like a mass of npc's going about ( in endless circles). Then those close up shots made the effect subside a bit. The HD face textures did their job, although the facial expressions weren't that natural (didn't bother me that much, though).

When the clown came in the picture, I winced a bit. That's not right..., kids are afraid of those things. They are nefarious. I really waited for it to pull a gun from it's sleave and go berserk, but this is no Dead Rising...

Heavy Rain = adult stuff = stupid children and reckless car drivers.

I should have known.

 

[kibayasu]

Until everything starts looking like The Polar Express, I'm not bothered by it.

 

[Shock and Awe]

Wow, that looked pretty shitty to be honest seen much better in Mass Effect 2 or Uncharted 2.

 

[Internet Kraken]

This is one my issues with Heavy Rain. For a game that focuses so much on the cinematics, the animations are terrible. The character's movements seem unconvincing to me. They always look sluggish, even in situations that would required alertness and quick movement. The fight scenes look like awkward squabbles between a bunch of drunks.


This trailer hasn't exactly convinced me otherwise. The facial animations are, well, terrible. Their eyes are unsettling, and the mouths seem far to big. The movement do seem more fluid, though I still expected a bigger improvement. Voice acting also seemed shoddy in this clip. It sounds like they recorded him shouting "JASON!" just once and then had the character say it over and over again.

 

[Zersy]

That kid was seriously annoying.

Yes it's canny, but i'm pretty sure if i was playing that i would think "oh shit" or "I want to find out whats next" and thats what happens in every good game really.

 

[Standby]

Oh sure, it looks good, but that voice and and dialogue was terrible and ruined the entire thing for me.

Oh well, i had zero interest in it before i watched the video, and zero it shall remain.

 

[feather240]

What an annoying kid...

Can anyone PM the very last scene on loop? ;D

 

[300lb. Samoan]

For me it's the voice acting more than the animation or design. I'm used to game graphics not being all their cracked up to be, and I guess I still find the uncanny valley feeling kind of novel. For me what breaks the immersion here is the disparity between the animation and the voice acting. "I want the red baloon, dad" when he's jumping up and down should sound more like "oo oo oo! I want the RED baloon!" VG voice directors really need to start referencing the game's visuals, or just take the Avatar/AC2 approach and combine the duties of character model/mo-cap artist/voice actor into one person's role.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Gah!

I've just walked into a Blade Runner Replicant training camp!

Nope, Fahrenheit actually looked better than that, realistic face wise. Which isn't saying much.

what's Fahrenheit? by the sound of it, it looks good...

 

[Supreme Unleaded]

I guess im the only one here but i felt that that was fine. i did notice i bit of a strangeness but it wasnt enough for me to go "OMGZZZ ITZ TEH UNCANNEY VALLEY".

I felt a bit immersed in it, i felt the emotions pretty easily i guess.

 

[Firia]

From what I understand, there's a build up to this scene training the player how to play the game. Then this scene gets the story underway. Between what is essentually a forced tutorial, and this, the game doesn't really get rolling until the end of the Mall scene. It moves pretty quickly, but I imagine you'll have more build up during the tutorial to make something like this more moving.

I wasn't moved because I knew already the motivation of the main character already. When I first learned of it, I understood the shock of what that sort of moment could do to a person. I'm sure there'll be plenty of opertunity to get immersed.

 

[keybird]

You should have put severe spoilers in bold

 

[Firia]

Also, why the hell was the kid all the way outside, ACROSS A ROAD?!

I blame the father for poor parenting.

And I imagine so does the wife, the husband himself, a few other people wrapped up in the husbands life, etc etc. Which is the motivation of the guy in the first place. And part of what gets him into the story.

 

[Mr. Shoggoth]

Oh my god the Uncanny Valley effect made the clown even more terrifying than it already was.

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

So the kid can not only walk faster than his dad, he can get across a street with no obvious walk ways without drawing attention, and they're marketing this as a REALISTIC GAME!?




Uncanny Valley, you devilish bastard you.

 

[Svenparty]

The characters freak Me out I don't know if it's because they look very real or not quite right.

I am looking forward to hearing more about this game although I have no Ps3 it is a very impressive game.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I think half of the reason you didn't enjoy it as much as possible, is that you were watching a movie of a game emulating a movie experience. Same as watching someone go on a rollercoaster won't make your stomach lurch as theirs does.

Half of the depth is lost because you're merely sat there. I know the interactivity is minimal, but the great audio cue and brilliantly directed screen snaps really do it for me.

This is the game we need, if first impressions are anything to go by. This won't quite be our Citizen Kane but, will definitely show there's a potential for it.

That is, if our peers can tear themselves away from Halo deathmatch...

I have to agree with this. Watching a pseudo realistic game is one thing, I'll reserve my judgment for when the game is actually out and I'm able to play it. The only thing that bothered me is how annoying that kid is. Not quite sure I'd be able to take a car for a child that annoying.

 

[SimuLord]

Oh my god the Uncanny Valley effect made the clown even more terrifying than it already was.

This man has an avatar from Max Cannon's Red Meat (and is therefore awesome). This man knows fear. And that clown IS terrifying!