Zero Punctuation: Heavy Rain

[BloodSquirrel]

He didn't give Halo 3 a bad review, you know. He just said that the hype surronding it was empty. He was merely umipressed by the game, contrasting the pasting his true hates receive.

Calling something mediocre and saying nothing good about it is giving it a bad review. He's given much worse, but it's still a bad review.

Your criterion for taking him seriously demands the occurance of a game not cool to give a good review to being worth giving a good review to. I'm not implying anything about the likelihood of that, but it's a weird prerequisite that demands such a cooincidence.

Hardly.

There are plenty of games/movies/music that it's cool to hate that, nonetheless, sell very well. Somebody must like them. People who are expressing honest, independently derived opinions are bound to like some things that it's cool to hate, especially considering people's propensity to hate on things that they've never even bothered to experience for themselves en mass.

Never giving something higher praise than the nearest gaming forum will give it means that you're either incapable of developing your own opinions or just not being honest about them.

 

[eels05]

Wow judging by the comments he's really got up the arse of some Heavy Rain fans on this one.

Keep up the good work then.

And this was the game we were all urged to go and buy to make a point to game developers even without the console to play it?

 

[Vohn_exel]

I actually enjoyed this game, but like he said, there's a super happy ending and as far as I'm concerned, I got it. I didn't really want to go back and play the worse endings, I liked the characters too much for that. this game is great, definately go pick it up if you can. The characters are alot more likeable and relatable then many game characters in even some rpgs.

 

[RestamSalucard]

On the bit after 0:26, am I the only one who felt a little bit offended on behalf of the Escapist's very own "The Game Overthinker" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/escape-to-the-movies]?

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Say what you want about Heavy Rain, (though I do agree with just about everything Yahtzee has said), at least Heavy Rain is trying to make an interesting story and is putting story in front of everything else, and is trying to push the medium into an art form. Sure, a equal amount of gameplay and story would be appeciated, for god knows that this game controls like the original Resident Evil. However, if Heavy Rain flops, expect story to be left in some dumpster and every game to ever be made for the next decade to be only about space marines and things one would expect to see in a Michel Bay film.

 

[RestamSalucard]

Say what you want about Heavy Rain, (though I do agree with just about everything Yahtzee has said), at least Heavy Rain is trying to make an interesting story and is putting story in front of everything else, and is trying to push the medium into an art form. Sure, a equal amount of gameplay and story would be appeciated, for god knows that this game controls like the original Resident Evil. However, if Heavy Rain flops, expect story to be left in some dumpster and every game to ever be made for the next decade to be only about space marines and things one would expect to see in a Michel Bay film.

Good. It will keep him the hell away from Transformers.

 

[Not Good]

Can I just say I'm glad to see a first page that has everything BUT "LOL FIRST" or "GUD REVIEW MAN," Hence the lack of bans.

My question is... where does he stand? Is it bland and boring or is it worth the 5 hour wait and the 5 hour developing process (Indigo Prophecy came out in like 2004 or 5 right?). I'm not sure.

 

[Cucipher]

I thought Heavy Rain was a refreshing game. It's a step towards what is a fantastic and ambitious concept. Liked it more than I thought I would, and not as much as I hoped I would. I have a list of bothers that the review touched upon - and some it didn't. The inconsistency in voice acting and character models is my main gripe; some characters look fantastic whereas some just dont look "right" (Lauren anyone?). The plotholes people have been whinging about are indeed not nearly as much of a problem as the games deceptively linear story.

As for the subject of replayability - In fairness to David Cage, who directed the game, I read an interview recently in the Culture section of The Sunday Times where he said that ideally he'd only have gamers be allowed to play the game once and have to live with their decisions... While ultimately unrealistic I think this is a very interesting idea, especially considering the all-too-forgiving "moral choice" systems touted by so many games at the moment.

 

[The Bum]

If it's just a big quick time event the dosen't that make it an "Interactive Moive"?

 

[Fostaar]

I feel obligated to jump into this discussion and tell this so-called critic and his followers what Heavy Rain is really about. This video that does nothing more and nothing less than rants on an ingenious game is in my opinion a valuable waste of internet space and the biggest load of ass paint I have ever seen.

If you didn't get the point of the emotional immersion in the story and the bond you create with the characters, you have failed to understand the point of Heavy Rain. Do take notice of the fact that the majority of the reviewers are giving this game 90 at least. That says a lot about you and your "understanding" of the fact that these characters are supposed to be portrayed as real people with a life. But apparently, all you want are artificial characters with no realistic background that are always getting their heads blown off for no apparent reason.

So in conclusion: you have lost all credibility, Yahtzee, if you ever had any to begin with. The only thing missing is the spoiling of the Origami Killer's identity. That would have really been the finishing touch on this mountain of wannabe review crap.

Yes, this is my opinion and I'm not changing a single word. Feel free to ban me.

hahahahahahahaha
do you need a tissue?

 

[EchetusXe]

wow, that might be the funniest Zero Punctuation episode I have ever seen. And I have seen them all.

Hilarious.

 

[blindthrall]

snip

I was going to take him to task, but you beat me to it. Yatzhee has really gotten the fanboys' cocks in a knot over this one.

I don't have a PS3, but I'd heard the story was excellent, so I read a walkthrough. If Heavy Rain was a movie, it would be decent, but hardly groundbreaking. It's just like too many other serial-killer race-against time stories. It's not a bad example, but it doesn't hold a candle to something like Silence of the Lambs.

A proper plot hole, to use the biggest example in the last few years, is the watchmen movie. The plot starts off with Ozymandias murdering the comedian to protect his plan to achieve world peace. Which gets Rorschach investigating, so on, so forth. Except there was nothing the comedian could've discovered. Then when the only possible explanation (ozy told him) only raises even more glaring questions (they barely know each-other, why wait to kill him, why tell him at all, etc), you have a plot hole.

I take it you never read the comic. The movie's biggest sin is that plot hole, because there was a ton of background material associated with it. In the novel, Ozymandius constructs a dead Elder Abomination and teleports it into the middle of New York using a reactor he'd been developing independently of Manhattan. The point was that Earth would believe a massive alien being had somehow intersected with our plane of reality, and the world powers would join together to make sure it couldn't happen again. The inspiration for the story was a Reagan quote "it would be great if there were otherworldly invaders, so humanity would be forced to work together..." Blaming it on Manhattan makes less sense(Manhattan is still alive-could the world do anything to him?) and makes Ozymandius more evil(and easier for audiences to hate him)by betraying a friend. The Comedian was hired by the government to find out where all the scientists that Ozymandius recruited had gone. Comedian saw the Abomination, and pretty much turned into a gibbering mess before he could tell his superiors. Ozymandius still deemed him enough of a risk to kill. Instead of a story that made sense, they kept Night Owl II's impotence scene.. Good decision there, Snyder.

And Ozymandius was never openly gay in the book. The most the comic says on the subject comes from Rorschach as he's digging through Ozymandius's files.

"Possible homosexual. Must investigate further."

 

[adragonofgold]

1- Nice try with Heavy Rain to "change" what a video game is, but needs a bit more work. 2-Thanks to Yahtzee for doing what he does every week. 3-Ever consider going way back to old school games for some mini reviews? And by old school I don't mean Atari or ColecoVision.... because that would bring back lots of painful childhood memories...

 

[Sprogus]

Great video as always. I still think that if they marketed Heavy Rain as an interactive movie instead of a game people wouldn't have as big a problem with it.

 

[Grahav]

"Weird black thing found dead. No one cares."

That was funny.

At least the game gets better.

 

[samsonguy920]

Cheers! Excellent review, with quite the semi-spoiler. Though it doesn't surprise me that that detail stays the same. The creator/wannabe writer is horrible at making a plot.

 

[Zing]

Perfect review hahaha.

Exactly what I thought about the beginning. Fahrenheit's opening gripped you and pulled you in, heavy rain made it so you had to "stick it through" the shitty part of the game.

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

Glad to see that even through all the outrageous hype there is at least something decent buried in there. Still, I don't have a PS3, and I wouldn't be buying this game even if I did because of the pretentious attitude of David Cage. Contrary to popular belief he's not the first person to try and inject emotional content into a game.

 

[spinFX]

The responses to ZP are always funny. You can tell people just fast forward to the end and get the last line and go "hurr hurr very funny Yahtzee". The video length and just people's chances of watching the video right as it comes out show that people don't even watch the video before responding. What is the point? I think most people are not going to read your pathetic 1 line response.

Heck no one will even read my response so why am I bothering...?

Anyway, sounds like Heavy Rain is not for me, I'm glad when PS3 exclusives come out and suck. Makes me glad I have an Xbox 360. I just wish I could play God of War III, inFamous and Uncharted. Seems like they are the only 3 exclusives worth my time. Really come to think of it Xbox is just as bad. PC gaming for the win! Get most of the console games, with better graphics, modding etc, but that is a tale for another day.

 

[mchoueiri]

game looks amazing and looking forward to picking up real soon after I beat FF 13 and God Of War 3