[Sway]

So I've known about L.A. Noire for a few months, mostly because I'm such a Mad Men fan (the actor playing the main character in L.A. Noire plays a character on that show), and it looks spectacular, at least. I am borrowing someone's PS3 for kicks and I am going through Heavy Rain, and I just got past the killer reveal, which makes no fucking sense on like ten levels. Visuals are rendered nice enough, but the actual animation is fucking awful, the voice acting is terrible, the story is actually pretty trite and absolutely riddled with holes (honestly probably the worst put together story I've seen in widely published fiction of any kind -- I'm sure there are some "mystery" books that are just as bad or worse, but Heavy Rain was huge), and it's unbelievable this game got good reviews.

David Cage sucks so bad. L.A. Noire not only seems better rendered by a wide margin on the same hardware (and only a year or so later), but it animates much, much, much better, they hired good actors, the technology they used to develop it is way ahead even though they had about the same development cycle time, and I'm pretty confident Rockstar knows what they're doing story and gameplay wise, at least to an acceptable point.

Too lazy to make a good post, so this is in Complete Shit. Talk about how bad Heavy Rain sucks (I will accept no other viewpoint), or about what you think of L.A. Noire.

[KennEH!]

I still haven't got a chance to play Heavy Rain, which I still really want too.

Never heard of L.A. Noire until you mentioned it. Looks to be rigth up my alley. Graphically it looks quite underwhelming.

[Sway]

What looks underwhelming about it?

[Kvitne]

I definitely agree that L.A. Noire is going to be a frakking incredible game. I'm looking forward to it and definitely think the graphics in it look amazing as well, especially with the facial expressions and how big a part they're going to play in the game.

However I have to, for once, disagree with Sway. I really enjoyed playing through Heavy Rain. They plot was compelling to me, despite some obvious plot holes, and I really got immersed in the way the game played and was more of an interactive fiction than a game.

L.A. Noire will be better, but Heavy Rain was damn good in my book.

[Sway]

SOME obvious plot holes? Like everything about the story is wrong. The killer reveal makes no sense (to the point where the killer flat-out deceives us in his or her own thoughts for no reason), along these same lines, we are deliberately lied to or kept in the dark needlessly (I'm thinking matching up times when you're controlling the killer vs. that character needing to be seeing what Ethan is doing, character thoughts, and controlling a certain character and having access to his or her thoughts and then being placed outside the character's head so that we are delayed in knowing who the killer is a little while longer -- plus the surprise on this character's face when they discover the name even though they don't know this person at all), characters know things they shouldn't and do things pointlessly (Madison has Norman's personal cell phone number how?), red herrings are completely dropped for no reason (blackouts and waking up with origami figures never comes back into play), completely ridiculous things happen (Ethan gets past like 20 SWAT dudes, steals a cab, AND KEEPS IT, around the city, for several days without issue), no one has any idea that the FBI outranks a local police department apparently, almost all the choices affecting the story are purely an illusion and you are railroaded 90% of the time (the other 10% is killing characters, failing trials, or doing something slightly different for the same outcome), it reeks of sexism, etc. It's a complete mess. I understand the immersion aspect covering for a lot, but I could never even get into it once every good storytelling rule in the book got broken. Heavy Rain blows. It makes Other M look like Citizen Kane.

Can you tell I hate this game?

[KennEH!]

Sway, on 11 December 2010 - 07:06 PM, said:

What looks underwhelming about it?

Maybe I'm just too use to games where everything is in a different shade of brown, but I was just expecting more oomph form the trailers.

[Sway]

Hmm, did you see this?



I mean that's pretty good for real-time rendering on a console. I'm not in love with the game or anything and probably won't even get it, but I think that graphically it looks spectacular. I mean the facial expression is like Avatar good or something.

[Master of AFTER]

I never played Heavy Rain, but I did think to myself that it looked artsy and pretentious.

[Sway]

Haha, believe me, it's not artsy. It's an imitation of art as seen through the eyes of a Frenchman who can suck his own dick.

Postin' too much.

[Kvitne]

I meant to reply to this yesterday, but never got around to it.

I think the story that the game went through when I played it had a few fewer plotholes. I know that doesn't excuse the story branches that screwed up big time, but yeah.

[Sway]

I know I'm big into careposting territory now and dominating this topic with inane complaints, but the only things I listed that could be changed by the story are Madison calling Norman Jayden and Ethan's slapstick escape from SWAT (except, correction, he kept the car for at least several hours, not days -- still pathetic police work considering it's gotta be LoJacked). Maybe I went in with the wrong attitude to begin with, expecting the game to suck, but it sure did not prove me wrong.

Aside from very broad strokes like the police being totally incompetent (never running Madison's bike plates even though she owned it and was clearly helping Ethan, being unable to catch people, Jayden going to see Mad Jack without backup, the fact that the local police somehow can tell Jayden what to do), plot elements being forgotten and/or never being explained (what happened to Shelby's asthma, why was Ethan blacking out, etc.), and other such things you just have to suspend your disbelief for (Shaun hasn't died of hypothermia, propane tanks don't do that), and the absolutely awful voice acting, I just really, really have a problem with the killer reveal.

Spoiler

How did Shelby afford all this? It would have taken ridiculous amounts of cash to orchestrate it all. How could he get the broken glass in that tunnel for that trial, being so big? Why did he look so slim when he was disguised, killing Paco and fighting Jayden? Why did he only wear that gold watch when he was disguised? Why were we deceived when we listened to Shelby's thoughts? And only if you interpret his thoughts in the most ridiculously obtuse manner does it "work" -- it's fucking deception by the game, IMO, to have him thinking about wanting to catch the Origami Killer. Oh, and aside from that, Hassan, the convenience store owner: when he first enters the store Shelby thinks, "The guy behind the counter? I don't suppose that's him," implying that Shelby doesn't know who Hassan is. Why can you control Shelby and do things at times when he had to be at his place to send Ethan instructions and stuff? Why did the game flat-out lie to us during his time in the shop with Manfred? The cutaway does not match up, no way, no how. Why was Shelby even acting that way when he was alone with Manfred's body? Who was his audience? Why did he call the cops on himself despite staging the scene in such a way that he would be the one to find the body and phone? He puts the handset back before Lauren ever walks into the room, so what was even the point? Why he and Lauren even go there in the first place together? And seriously, why was Madison so shocked when she got the killer's name whispered to her (for no reason at all, mind you, except to clumsily keep it from the player)? She doesn't know him.

There are some good things about Heavy Rain, but for a game that is 99% dependent on the story, to have such a terrible story ruins it for me.

[Kvitne]

I can respect that. And looking back I agree with a lot of the points you make. I guess it just left a better taste in my mouth.