I beat Heavy Rain. All in all it was fuckin awesome but the game has almost been out a year now so I'm not gonna blabber on about it. Plus, it's hard to talk to much about such a story oriented game without giving anything away so instead I'm gonna quickly sum up the good and bad.
Note -- There are absolutely NO SPOILERS to be found here so don't worry about that
The Good
Compelling story
Kind of a given by now; the story is the big selling point of this game and it doesn't disappoint. In fact I haven't felt so invested in a games narrative since Metal Gear Solid 4.
Pretty graphics
The level of detail in this game, most notably the character's faces, is mad. I was honestly blown away.
Solid Gameplay
Yeah that's right -- it ain't just a big cutscene. I had my doubts but for the most part, the quick time event style of gameplay was just a huge amount of fun. You might think it gets old and repetitive fairly quickly. You would be wrong. Character movement however is a different story, more on that further down.
The Bad
Awkward character animations
For the most part, the animations in this game ain't half bad ... for the most part. Some scenes involving physical character interactions (with objects and other characters) just look way off.
Tank movement
This almost drove me to insanity a few times. The controls for moving playable characters are not entirely unlike a PS1 survival horror game except now you hold R2 for them to start moving and then you change direction with the stick. I got used to this very quickly and to be honest there isn't a whole lot of walking around. However I lost count of how many times I managed to get a character stuck in a corner or a doorway or the like.
Flat out weak voice acting
Simply put, the voice acting just isn't that good. I might be wrong but I'm led to believe that most of the cast are British and (being British myself) the accent comes through quite clearly despite being set in America with American characters. Some of the voice work (most notably the children in the game) sounds so rushed and artificial which is a damn shame in such a character driven game.
So yeah you might notice that there are some pretty horrid flaws in this game which I think speaks volumes about how good an experience Heavy Rain is. I was easily able to just forget about the problems this game has and I really enjoyed it. In fact I played it untill I unlocked every last trophy which brings the platinum trophy count up to 2 ... impressive huh?
If I was gonna do a very late game of the year top 10 (I'm not) then yeah, this would be up there without a doubt. Top 5? Nah, but without the flaws this game unfortunately does suffer from, it could be. The whole 'interactive drama' thing that the developers have gone for really works and has massive potential for something really great, although perhaps not a sequel ... please god not a sequel.
Next game on the list: Final Fantasy XIII -- This ain't a backlog game, I've already beaten it however amidst all this XIII-2 hoopla (Don't get me wrong, I'm firmly against the idea) I got the urge to play it again. Hopefully another platinum?
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Having traded in my Xbox 360 for a PS3 just two short years ago, I had already missed out on some great looking Playstation exclusives. However over these last two years I've managed to build and entire backlog of games that I've completely missed mostly due to lack of funds. In an attempt to finally get to work on this backlog I signed up to swapgame.com, a website I was previously signed up with back when I owned a 360 and if I recall correctly, their service was superp.
First game on the backlog that I was sent, was Episodes of Liberty City, basically a bundle of the two DLC add-ons for GTA 4. Managed to beat Th e Lost and Damned and snatch all the trophies (only like 5 in total or something) fairly quickly, which was a good start. Got started on The Ballad of Gay Tony and well ... eh ... I just wasn't motivated to finish it, especially after I saw that Grand Theft Auto 4: Complete Edition has been released in stores. By this point, I feel I've played more than enough GTA 4 and decided to send it back. Verdict on those 2 games = Not bad, pretty much just more GTA if your interested in that.
Second game is Assassin's Creed II. I spoke about this in the last post, this was an xmas present and not a rental. I have now beaten it to 100% completion (or sychronization I guess would be a more correct term) and my opinion remains the same. This game is awesome. Cannot wait to play Brotherhood. Also managed to get a platinum out of this one, the first platinum I've actually managed to obtain so far which is good =]
Heavy Rain has now been dispatched to me from swapgame, should be here tomorrow or something. Am extremely excited to play this one, was following the hype around the game all the way up to release but never got around to actually picking it up, as is usual these days with me when it comes to new releases. I've managed to avoid any kind of spoilers for this game and I've heard nothing but good things about it.
So yeah I'm super psyched for Heavy Rain, will check in soon with updates
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So I've been a member of the site pretty much since launch but it's about time I became active so that's what I'm gonna do. So let's get started:
I recieved Assassin's Creed II for Christmas which is a game I actually previously owned AND beat. Despite this I am still compelled to play it which is a testiement to how good this game is and I must say right now to anybody who is reading this and has yet to play the game, I cannot reccommend it enough and in my opinion it is extremely rare to get this much replay value out of a single game.
I am thouroughly enjoying my second playthrough (actually this is my first time playing the 'game of the year edition' and this is my first time experiencing the DLC) and I honestly cannot reccmmend the game enough. Yes, I know brotherhood is out and has been for a while now but I do not care. This game is still as appealing as ever and is a must buy to anybody even considering playing Brotherhood (I have yet to play Brotherhood but apparently Assassin's Creed II is extremely relevent in terms of story).
So yeh, I don't wanna say much about Assassin's Creed II considering how old the game is however I would like to input a few comments: I have apsolutely no complaints about this game. I feel Ubisoft have managed to improve on everything that was wrong with the first game and have left everything that was right about it untouched.
That is all I have to say for this blog. As I mentioned already this is an attempt to become more active on giantbomb.com. Please leave some comments, I would appreciate any feedback. Hope y'all had a good xmas =D
Will be posting again in the new year or maybe even before then =]
This was written a few days ago so I've progressed quite a bit since then however my views on the game haven't really changed, I'm still really enjoying it! If your on the fence about getting this game I suggest you check it out! 1 Comments
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