Editorial: Preowned & Project Ten Dollar

The debate over the second-hand (preowned) market has been a thorn in the side of both retailers and publishers. With supermarkets selling games at below cost price, retailers have responded by pushing preowned further into the public eye, and publishers are left feeling short-changed by the lack of any income via sales of used games, determined to claw back some of the money they have lost, which once would be found in selling brand new releases of older titles at cheaper prices. All the while retailers are constantly upping their prices of preowned games whilst reducing or keeping the trade-in price low. Consumers on the other hand are buying more games than ever, playing through more, and exchanging them more regularly as to keep being able to purchase new titles as soon as they are released.


It’s all a bit on the messy side, with different views held up high by all three parties, and a behind the scenes battleground between retailers and publishers, consumers caught right in the middle. As always with such complex matters, it’s neither simple, not elegant finding a solution, and sometimes perhaps, requires all individuals concerned to give up a little in order to do what’s best for everyone in the long run.

At the forefront of this is something EA like to call ‘project ten dollar’. It is a policy which entails the company providing a sizable chunk of downloadable content for a game at launch, for no extra cost to the consumer, redeemable via a download code contained inside the box. The first release to feature this was Mass Effect 2 with a code for the ‘Cerberus Network’ included in the box, and this will be repeated with the forthcoming Battlefield Bad Company 2, which is said to include a large chunk of DLC available from day one, all included for your standard £39.99 when you buy the game. Like with most DLC codes it can only be redeemed once, so anyone buying the game used will have to fork out $10, or what will probably be around £10 in British money, to get the extras.


Sony however, seem to be taking things a step further, by actually making standard features locked out on the actual game discs, until the gamer uses a redeem code inside the box to enable access. The game in question is the latest Socom title for PSP, in which the multiplayer mode is locked out until you activate the code contained in the box online. For users who purchase a preowned copy, they are expected to pay up a fee of around $20 to get the code from Sony. Now seeing as Socom is a primarily online title it isn’t as bad as it sounds, although not allowing people to play what is arguably the point of the game just because they bought it second-hand, is perhaps just a bit too unreasonable for many consumers to accept.

The EA system however doesn’t sound too shabby, and actually provides a good reason for you to pay up a few quid extra over a second-hand copy for the privilege. Certainly for people like me who only buy new (unless it’s sealed) can feel rewarded for supporting developers, and hopefully which will lead to new IP and more niche titles being made - though I’m sceptical on this front. It’s almost a win/win situation, except for the fact that not everyone can afford to buy a new game at launch.


There are many gamers who rely on trade-ins to be able to afford new releases, and part of that appeal is a reasonable trade in price, one which brings down the cost of the game to that of a much older title. For example, after playing Bioshock 2 I could trade that game in for around £22 and get the money off something like Heavy Rain, paying only £18 rather than the full £40 if I were just to buy the game outright. For younger games, students, and people who aren’t on a high income, it allows them to purchase a greater number of games per year than if they couldn’t trade their old ones in. The publisher’s still get their share of the profits by the retailer buying stock of the game in the first place, and the gamer goes home happy because they’ve saved some money. It could be argued that more people trading in equals more people buying games. In addition it also means that more people are likely to spend their money on unproven titles rather than just the big AAA releases, which surely benefits new IP to an extent.

However the grey area, and the one that is offensive to so many publishers, is the fact that once a game is traded-in and sold by the retailer, they make absolutely no money from that sale. In addition if a consumer trades-in their old games for a preowned title, the publishers make no money. The worst cases are when gamers are trading in a copy of last week’s new release for a preowned version of this week’s newest hit, traded in only a few days after release and sold for a huge mark up by the retailer. Again the publishers don’t see any of those profits. Also an added problem with this, is that they cannot judge how well a game that didn’t do well at launch has sold later on down the line. Titles like Mirrors Edge and Dead Space have become cult classics (especially Dead Space) through strong sales of cheap preowned versions, brought on by via word of mouth recommendations, and good reviews about the game by the press. Of course, it would help that publishers were at least getting a cut of these late sales, as it would help in funding future new projects based on new ideas, or niche avenues.


The big issue here, is that many publishers and people inside the industry believe that preowned games de-value the price, and perceived worth of new releases, especially when the mere notion of trading-in week on week for new titles incites that your hard-earned work, costing millions of dollars, becomes effectively nothing more than a disposable item, rather than something for people to keep and enjoy over a long period of time. This is something the likes of EA and many other publishers are trying to reverse. You only have to look back as little as seven or eight years ago, when new versions of games were still selling quite well as a brand new item months after release, yet at a reduced price which still gave the publisher back some income, whilst providing a cheaper alternative for consumers. Effectively you could keep selling a new version of the game for much longer than you can now, benefiting all of the industry whilst at the same time allowing games to consistently pick up older titles without the lottery of seeing if they had been traded in.

This is something that I myself would like to see, a greater selection of new stock available in store when compared to the huge selection of used available, not always in good condition. Indeed, when browsing non-specialist stores there seem to be many back catalogue titles available new, whilst at the big specialist chains you mostly only have the option of buying an alternative second-hand copy.

So what if ‘Project Ten Dollar’ does become a success for publishers, what will that mean for the industry?

For retail, initially it would have the effect of reducing the selling price of preowned games; in addition the trade-in price would also be lowed to maintain the sometimes-ridiculous amount of margin retailers make on, to keep profits up so new releases can be sold for less than RRP to compete with supermarkets and other discount happy outlets. It would also mean an even harder push towards the cheaper preowned alternative as well as accessories sales, damaging the once good customer service even further into the hard sales culture it has become.

Consumer wise, they would benefit by getting extra content previously reserved for quick release DLC a few months down the line, an added extra to say thank you for buying new. Although some publishers and developers may try to cut down the game intentionally to promote this ‘benefit’, when in reality you could be ending up with exactly the same product before this whole ‘Ten Dollar’ idea came to market. It might also become harder for certain gamers to be able to afford new releases, instead choosing to wait until the price goes down on the new version, or instead just buying a cheaper preowned copy after a price reduction, sans later buying the DLC. Alternatively people may be turned further towards piracy and illegal downloading, chipping their consoles to get their fix. Of course most will simply, I imagine, be more than happy to pay up the full £40 more often, especially if it means that they will see the money being channelled into new ideas and IP in addition to the usual AAA blockbuster releases (I know that I would).

Publishers will naturally get a greater slice of the retail pie than with what there getting at the moment, so long as sales of new titles don’t slow down as people may decide to hold off buying, or simply may no longer have the money to do so. In effect publishers could go back to having a new copy available in the shelves for longer, gradually over the year reducing its price in small increments allowing more gamers to pick up the title as an alternative to preowned, thus making more income from the same title over and over. This potentially would mean the end of selling large AAA titles such as Call Of Duty for the full £40 some two years after its release, especially if they don’t want customers picking up the cheaper used alternative.


These however, are only some of the changes which might take place in our much loved, but often-contradictory industry. It’s far too early to accurately gauge just what will happen, how retailers, publishers, and consumers will react, as well as to how far reaching the implications will be. One thing’s one certain though, it will make for a long and interesting debate, one which is sure to spurn on a wealth of ideas, along with an obligatory backlash and leaving many confused as to just what is going to happen.

With piracy, price discounting and preowned all presenting the industry each with its own set of problems, each interlinked with one another, it’s only fair that the industry finds new avenues to explore profit and self-preservation, whether it be with DLC, bonus code incentives for new games, or simply by thinking outside traditional consoles altogether.

Either way we at IQGamer will be following these events closely.

For more thoughtful discussion and insights into other issues surrounding the gaming world as a whole, be sure to check out gamesindustry.biz for another informative read.

Yakuza 3: Demo Impressions

It’s rather ironic that a few days after I posted my Heavy Rain impressions, whilst also making some obviously valid comparisons to Sega’s Shenmue, that Sega should release a demo of the very Shenmue-like Yakuza 3 on PSN. How utterly weird that must feel, especially since there was also some interesting news on the forthcoming Sonic 4 revealed last week, making IQGamer seem for like IQSega.


The demo that was released on Thursday allows you to explore only a very small part of Tokyo City, giving you very limited access to which shops or arcades you can go in, and people whom you can speak to. It’s really just a tiny taster of what’s on offer in Yakuza 3, and for the most part bares only a passing resemblance to Sega’s other epic. You could in fact describe it as a Shenmue Lite of sorts with the limitations present in the demo. It’s also true that the very first game in this series also felt this way compared to how much stuff the second game allowed you to do.

You start off the demo playing as Kazama, a once prominent gang member long since retired, pulled back into action after hearing that your two closest friends have been gunned down, interestingly, by a man who is said to look a lot like your deceased father. You find yourself starting out in the heart of Tokyo, wondering down a bustling, neon-lit street after just arriving back into the city to follow up on some leads and to hunt down the killer. As you casually stroll down the street, you are greeted by a group of screaming girls hastily being thrown out of a club by some ugly looking Yakuza types. It’s a this point you get your first task of the day, to find out what’s going on, and possibly to kick some arse along the way.


It soon transpires that there is a brewing Mafia war between families, with one such family known for unleashing sporadic violence having run into a sizeable amount of money, and are now using it to influence their grip on another families turf. Really, at this point the club owners – two friends of yours - have no choice, it’s either accept the money or get re-educated on how this business actually works. With a fight about to go down, Kazama challenges these guys, and the game sets you up with your first action scene.

The combat here is pretty much like every side-scrolling beat’em up ever released, or more specifically Virtua Fighter Lite, with button mashing and well timed counters being the order of the day. The face buttons are used for attacks and throws, the d-pad for changing weapons, and the shoulder buttons for both blocking and locking-on to enemies. As you are kicking the crap out of the various thugs the game presents you with, a meter called the heat gauge fills up. When it’s completely full you will start glowing with blue flames surrounding you, allowing you to unleash a brutal weapons-based finisher on whoever is left standing in your way. In addition, when squaring off against the boss character of these fighting segments, you have the option of performing a stylish QTE finisher to take them down permanently. This is another Shemue-esque trait that Yakuza has inherited.

Disappointingly, the animations when fighting in the real-time sections are rather stiff, lacking the fluidity of the Virtua Fighter games, or even those found in the Tekken Force mode of Tekken 6. Everything looks extremely last-gen, from the basic punching and kicking animations, to how characters get up after being floored, or even how you just run and move around the environments. It seems like nothing has really been improved upon, or reworked to any great extent from the first two games on the PS2.


The same could be said for the visuals overall, with basic texturing lacking detail found in many western AAA titles, and average looking character models, all running at thirty frames-per-second with a noticeable amount of aliasing. Certainly, it looks very much like an enhanced PS2 game, without the polish needed to really immerse you into the world you are thrown into. Heavy Rain this is not.

Anyways, back to the gameplay itself. After beating the seven shades out of those Yakuza guys, you become informed that the life of an ex mafia colleague of yours is in danger (aren’t you mr popular), after which conveniently, he contacts you in order to arrange an urgent meet up.

This now opens up a wider area for you to explore in the demo, most of which there is very little to do other than to fight it out with the local punks and street gangs, or to enjoy a spot of arcade gaming, before stopping off for a quick Karaoke session with a girl who blatantly sees you as her love interest (oh Nozomi I should’ve noticed you).

After leaving the club in which I’d just disposed of those pesky Mafia scum, I’m told that the police are everywhere, and that I should find another route down the back streets to avoid arrest, whilst heading to meet up with my contact at the Millennium Tower. Instead I decided that I would rather meet up for a quick date with Rina, and go sing it away with her in the Karaoke first for a few hours, seeing as I’d just arrived in town almost having my arse handed to me, and am now expected to dive in head-on into who knows what. No, I needed some time out.

This is perhaps the best thing about Yakuza, that you can just go off tangent and do your own thing, completing side missions you find whilst exploring the streets, or simply stopping off to have some fun with the local nightlife. In this case Karaoke, which brings up a bizarre mini-game in which you have to push the correct face buttons as a coloured circle moves over them on screen. Results range from clapping, to Kazama shouting hey whilst Rina belts out her vocals. Of course you have the option of going alone if you really want to humiliate yourself.

Naturally, I failed miserably, and Rina said that she wasn’t ‘feeling it’ as a result, so my chances of getting in there with her were busted right down. With all this negativity it was time to get back on track and head for the Tower.


Now back onto completing my second mission, the game has you walk around the city avoiding the numerous police roadblocks that have been set up – though walking up to one simply results in Kazama saying to himself how he should avoid any contact with the police – at the same time having to fight off potential muggers and more street punks, before finding that elusive back alley you need to avoid any law enforcement.

Once you find this alley, it’s time for another real-time battle, but this time against some FBI Men In Black wannabes. This one plays out exactly the same as the fight in the club, with several henchmen to take on followed by the identikit looking, group leader. Again, it’s simply a case of combining those face buttons to perform combos, whilst alternating between whatever weapons you have left until all these guys are down, before taking down the leader with another QTE finishing move.

The demo ends after this battle, giving you only a glimpse of the type of things you will find yourself doing in the final game. You can’t venture into most of the shops and bars found in the game, and most people on the street will just give you a sly comment rather than open up a basic conversation with you. In some respects Yakuza has never been as in-depth as Shenmue on this level, and with Yakuza 3 it seems Sega have done very little to move the franchise on since the first two games. However, what you have here isn’t representative of all of Yakuza 3, just the opening few minutes of an early chapter of the final game.


One thing that is going to be the same is the voice acting and dialogue. The UK and US releases of Yakuza 3 are both subtitled with no English language option for voice acting. In addition, only the most important of scenes are actually acted out. Most are simply text based, having you move on the conversation by pushing X, and with more text appearing afterwards, rather than fully voiced dialogue present in almost every area of Shenmue. It was the same for the first two PS2 games, though the first one did have full English voice acting with regards to the dialogue, along with using many text heavy segments.

From what I’ve seen so far, Yakuza 3 is looking rather dated and less interesting compared to Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain. Not surprising, given that it has been available in Japan for over two years, and since then, things have moved on significantly. However despite the stiff animations, unimpressive graphics, and familiar gameplay, Yakuza 3 may still be worth picking up, especially for fans of the last two games, and for people looking to at least try something different.

Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing: Demo Impressions

With the recent announcement of Sonic 4, we thought things were starting to look up for Sega’s flagship mascot. That was up until we played through the recently released demo of Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, both on the Xbox 360 and PS3.

The stupidly named game (did they really need the “Sonic?”) sees Sega’s biggest franchises come together in a Mario Kart style racing game, complete with various weapons, traps and character specific power moves. The game also features Sega’s famous drift mechanic to make navigating the courses a faster, more enjoyable experience.

The demos available on the Xbox 360 and PS3 are console specific, with the 360 version taking a Sonic Heroes inspired course, and the PS3 opting for a rather drab Billy Hatcher inspired course. The 360 version also features Banjo and Kazooie as an exclusive racing duo. Other courses seen on the selection screen, but unavailable on the demo, take their inspiration from such Sega gems as Samba De Amigo, The House of The Dead, Super Monkey Ball, Jet Set Radio, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg and various Sonic titles.

After booting up the demo, you’re presented with a mildly enjoyable, fully rendered opening sequence, after which you can choose your character and course. Waiting on the starting line, I expected to shoot off at 60fps, but that definitely didn’t happen. The opening few seconds of the 360 version suffers from some disappointing slow-down, as does the rest of the demo. The 360 demo never rises above 30fps either, but things are a bit smoother on the PS3. Much like the PS3 version of Sonic Unleashed, the game actually manages a few moments at 60fps, but quickly drops back down to a regular 30fps.

For a racing game, this is disappointing news. The speed of the vehicles and the fast paced nature of the courses and action would have really benefited from a faster frame rate. It’s even more disappointing when you consider that overall, the graphics aren’t really that much more impressive than Sonic Heroes on the original XBox.

Lighting throughout the courses is all pretty standard and the character/vehicle models feel too small to have any kind of visual impact. The various powers up feel very similar and flash by too quickly to leave an impression, as do the character specific power moves.

Ultimately, the core racing gameplay experience doesn’t live up to much either. The game races along at a fast pace, and staying in the lead proves quite tricky for such a simple game. Power sliding has been simplified and watered down in comparison to the likes of OutRun, and lacks any skill to give you a sense of accomplishment when navigating the courses, though the speed boost gained from a successful slide is a welcome addition. Tricks can be performed in the air with a simple tap of a shoulder button, and if successful, you’ll once again be rewarded with a handy speed boost. Traps are laden throughout the courses and in the demo, these included badniks from Sonic’s world, wooden boxes as well as seawater and snow patches to slow you down. These obstacles are easy to avoid and rarely get in the way of racing.

A certain amount of enjoyment can be gleamed from the appearance of Sega's most popular characters, even if they don't all fit into the roster successfully. As expected, Sonic and his companions take up a lot of the slots, but some less well-exploited characters are also thrown into the mix. Shenmue's Ryo Hazuki joins the cast, complete with his borrowed motorcycle. Successfully triggering Ryo's power move will enable you to take his trusty forklift truck for spin and flip the opposition out of the way. Other Sega favourites making an appearance include Ulala, Alex Kidd, Jacky and Akira from Virtua Fighter, AiAi, and Billy Hatcher. It's an impressive line up and certain to please most Sega fans out there.

For such a simple and proven concept, as well as being able to choose from such a rich selection of franchises, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing should be a nostalgic trip through the history of Sega, but instead, the demo has left us feeling like we'll be presented with yet another messy, technically flawed and unenjoyable experience. The demo never rises above mediocre, leading us to believe that the final game is destined to join the ranks off all the other Mario Kart pretenders that have come and gone over the years.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing is released on February 26, and is available on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and PC.

Sega Reveals Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown

Yesterday at the AOU 2010 arcade expo in Japan, Sega revealed for the first time the latest instalment in the Virtua Fighter series, in what appears to be the last iteration of VF5 before they move on to creating a fully-fledged sequel. Anyone still waiting for a VF5R port to arrive may want to let go, as now there’s very little chance of that happening. Instead, Sega may well be holding back to release this latest version onto consoles, though it will be at least six months before they announce anything of the sort, as not to impact on potential arcade sales.

In addition to releasing a trailer for the game. Sega also revealed that all items and unlockables from VF5R would transfer over to FS, putting hardcore Japanese arcade VF’ers at ease.

Whilst no more details about VF5FS were given at this time (arcade release date?) we can probably expect some major tweaks to the gameplay, in addition to some subtle changes and balance adjustments.


However from the trailer alone, we can already see some of the obvious changes being implemented as well some things which only die-hard VF fans are likely to notice. Firstly, we have what looks like a complete wardrobe change for all of the characters - all of which are far more outrageous than any of the cast’s original outfits - though we don’t know if these consumes are just additional ones or are actually the default numbers, plus we can see some new items to unlock during play.

Secondly, in terms of gameplay changes we did see a few improvements, such as some new cancels being performed by Pai, along with tweaks to how certain moves hit/react with certain characters - Taka for example didn't get knocked down after being hit by Jacky, which always happened when doing the same move in VF5R.


Currently that's all we know for now, but being excessively huge Virtua Fighters fans here at IQGamer, we will definitely be bringing you all the latest on Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown, just as soon as we find out more ourselves.

Until then, head over to virtuafighter.com and sign up for the petition to bring both VF5R and VF5FS onto PS3 and 360. Together, lets make it happen!

Editorial: Sega Outsources Sonic 4 Development

When Sega announced Project Needlemouse late last year it was said that the game would be developed via a collaboration between different in-house studios worldwide. It turns out however that this wasn’t actually the case, and that a separate company outside Sega is handling the game. Osaka-based Dimps corporation is essentially doing all the coding and modelling work on Sonic 4, with a so far un-named studio inside Sega handling all the character and art design work.



Now this isn’t the first time that Sega have developed a Sonic game with outside assistance. They did the very same thing way back in the early nineties when creating the Master System and Game Gear series of Sonic games. The first game was developed by Ancient Corp - a company managed by renowned Sega musician and sound designer Yūzō Koshiro - whilst the remaining later instalments were done by Aspect Co, Ltd, another external company with ties to Sega. So it’s not quite so unusual as you might have first thought, to have a lead franchise handled and developed externally.

Going back to Sonic 4, you might like to know that Dimps, were actually the company responsible for making all three Sonic Advance games for Sega on Nintendo’s GameBoy Advance handheld system. These titles were the closest thing in terms of gameplay and polish to the original Megadrive/Genesis Sonic The Hedgehog games, featuring classic loop-de-loops, interesting level designs requiring you to both explore and build up momentum for the faster sections, as well as having new take on the classic bosses found in the original games. However after the first Sonic Advance game, Dimps began the age-old trick of expanding the gameplay for the other characters, whilst making the level layouts more convoluted and confusing.

Sonic Adv2 and most certainly Adv3 were slower games than the first one, having greater emphasis on pure platforming and exploration rather than speed. However the addition of extra characters, and making the stages longer and more complicated affairs in order to fit their different playstyles just didn’t work very well. Sonic Adv3 especially felt overly complicated in this respect, and didn’t feature the same level of ebb and flow seen in the first two arguably polished instalments.

In regards to these criticisms, we hope that Dimps actually look towards the type of design used in not only the first Sonic Advance, but also to those found in the original four Megadrive/Genesis titles that set the benchmark for all future Sonic games to follow. However we also have a lot of hope too, considering that the they single-handily managed to produce a fairly faithful 2D instalment for the first time some seven years ago, there’s no reason to not expect them to do it again for Sonic 4, especially considering Dimps as accompany, is quite similar today as it was back then, unlike Sega who shed most of it’s highly regarded game designers and visionaries back in 2004 a year after they were purchased by Sammy Corp.

It’s with this particular statement, that Sega aren’t really the same Sega we know and love anymore – except for maybe AM2 – that perhaps having an external development team, with experience in producing more traditional Sonic The Hedgehog type games, is a far better bet than having Sonic Team produced the whole thing themselves, considering that their output has been less than stellar since the demise of the Dreamcast.



Overall, the news comes as a welcoming surprise, not only bringing back some of the excitement I felt after Sega announced the game, but also re-establishing some of my faith lost soon after seeing that teaser trailer shown off on the same day. Arguably, having Dimps involved is a good sign that Sega themselves is taking on the responsibility of making sure we have a game that is both as good as it can be, whilst also being faithful to the games it is supposed to succeed.

Dimps might have made some missteps with Sonic Advance 3, but like so many of us growing up, they can also learn from their mistakes and move forward with a greater understanding of what works well, and what doesn’t.

Sonic The Hedgehog 4 will be released sometime this summer for XB Live Arcade, PSN, and Nintendo’s WiiWare online shop. We’ll be following this one closely here at IQGamer with more in-depth coverage to come.

Heavy Rain: Demo Impressions

Late last week Sony released a demo of Quantic Dream’s upcoming Heavy Rain (HR), a game that promises to evoke some sort of deep emotional response from all who sample its delights, branching out and away from being just another interactive movie into something else completely, a new experience in which you should be able to ‘feel’ with the characters and become entangled in their own troubled minds, or so that’s the idea they are hoping for.



My interest with Heavy Rain peaked after playing through two sections of the game at the Eurogamer Expo back in October last year. It felt very much like an more in depth version of Sega’s hugely loved, but massively unsuccessful Shenmue, featuring greater levels of interactivity during the Quick Timer Event style (QTE’s) cut scenes, along with better dialogue and tighter direction, whilst also having less of the rather cool, but mundane stuff; like being able to pick up and look at various items in the shops you ventured into, or simply having fun by harassing random people in the street.

However unlike Shenmue, Heavy Rain’s slice of cinematic gaming is a far more tightly directed and concise affair, spending an increased amount of time setting up a connection between the player and the characters on screen, whilst also making you feel what they are going through both mentally and physically. In this aspect director David Cage and the developers at Quantic, have taken the time to present a much greater link between the actions displayed on screen with what happens on your controller. In this new PSN demo - in which there are two separate scenarios to play - the second one best demonstrates the combination of visual cues and control used for that effect perfectly.



In the second part of the demo, the game sees you playing as Norman Jaden, an FBI investigator closely analysing a crime scene found just over by a railway line, gathering evidence and making small connections to the serial killer. At one point the evidence you find leads you up a wet, muddy embankment, and it’s here that the game showcases one of the much talked about links to evoking emotion.

The way the QTE system is used in this section is incredibly immersive, and really does add to the sense of feeling the developers are trying to create. As you are climbing up the bank, the game makes you push and hold down a series of buttons, slowly making the combinations more difficult for your fingers to reach - making it uncomfortable for you - while at the same time moving across the pad with the face buttons and then bringing in both L1 and R1 into the mix, moving back and forth between them. If you let go of either of the two buttons still in play, you will find yourself sliding back down to the bottom and having to repeat the process all over again. When you’ve finished gathering any evidence you might need and begin heading back down. The game gives you a much easier, but by no means less successful, set of combinations to push as you run down the bank attempting to not slide on your arse as you do so. Essentially this involves quickly alternating between pushing the L and R buttons as you take each step before reaching the bottom.

The controls in this scene cleverly combine your own emotions with the character’s on screen, and it does this by either pairing up the buttons you push with what your character is doing, or by simply making you feel their difficultly using harder to reach button combinations at different speeds. It’s a nice concept that could have fallen completely flat on its face. However Quantic Dream seem to have thought things through very carefully and have not been at all brash with their implementation.



The same style can be found in the more regular QTE fight sequence from the first part of the demo, though perhaps less convincing, in which various rolling motions with the right analogue stick are used, along with frantic button presses and various timed releases to produce an exhilarating effect, making you completely involved without so much as quick second or so break in between actions. A more hectic and expanded version of the system used in Shenmue is what this most feels like, and if Yu Suzuki’s game were released today then I would probably expect something similar.

Along with these mandatory QTE events, the game also has some more sedate sections, which has you briefly talking to people and examining evidence scattered around a crime scene. In this scene the controls are also context sensitive and used to produce the same effect in a similar way. You might find yourself rolling the right analogue stick a quarter-circle in a forwards-upward motion to pull out your ID badge for example, or pushing down on the stick to pick any evidence you might find. Again, all these motions attempt to make it feel like you are actually doing these things instead of arbitrarily pushing a button baring no resemblance to the movement you are performing.

It’s pure genius; it really is, and it never feels forced or contrived either, which is exactly how any well thought out gameplay system should be.



The voice acting however, and the dialogue isn’t quite so inspired, quite often failing within the small self contained contexts found in the demo, with flat delivery and a decidedly clichéd script. The most noticeable thing is that the conversations never flow smoothly when you are in control of choosing a response, giving out answers or asking questions. Instead the often-stilted dialogue comes out much better during the pre-scripted parts of the scene in which you have no control, flowing far more like a real conversation. However as with any game giving you multiple choices for dialogue, it’s not always possible to blend the different responses in a way that seem natural without taking away some of the users freedom in how the they will want to express themselves. It’s just a common side effect of this open system which is always going to be present. Although with Heavy Rain setting the bar so high for trying to evoke an emotional response, it can seem quite jarring to the experience, especially when you have either plainly flat delivery of vocals, or enthusiastic over-acting which comes across as cliché.

Despite this, the choices you make and how the characters respond in conjunction with the controls, all make Heavy Rain a very interesting prospect. Sure, we don’t know how the outcomes in any of these two scenes will impact on the rest of the game, or really know enough about the characters to care about them, or even to make a connection. But we do know, that all these little nuances add up to form something quite different and a potentially very involving experience. Perhaps Heavy Rain might not end up making you cry- which according to David Cage is one of his ambitions to achieve in a game - but instead be sucking you in deeper than you have ever been before, giving you a greater feeling of connection through the controls, dialogue, and story.



We will find out in a couple of weeks time how successful Mr Cage and Quantic Dream have been in delivering their promises. However, even if they haven’t, they’ll still have made what looks like could be one of the most intriguing, inventive games around; something that hardly any developers these days can put a claim to. Either way, I will be giving this one a thorough play through before delivering any definitive conclusions in the eventual IQGamer review.

Until then you should check out Beames on Games for another interesting take on Heavy Rain, along with more talk of that illustrious multi-million dollar flop that was Shenmue, which by the way, if you haven’t actually played already, should really pick it up along with a Dreamcast and do so.