Notgames Forum

I have started my series of blog posts called "Treasures" with an article (http://notgames.org/blog/2010/03/27/tender-rain/) about tenderness in Heavy Rain. Please post any comments you have here, in the forum.

Treasures is a project that involves me "diving" into commercial games and finding interesting interactive moments that are not game-like. The idea is to only talk about what I liked and to try and ignore all the irrelevant gamey stuff surrounding those moments. In the spirit of being constructive and pointing out the good, rather than the bad. Next up is BioShock 2.

Wow, looks like I'm going to have to get this now. Is the experience as a whole good? Looking forward to the Bioshock article and wondering if it still references to the whole Ayn Rand Objectivism thing like the first one. And after that maybe we can have something on Shattered Memories? :)

Overall, I would say that Heavy Rain is absolutely worth it. If you're going to play a single game made in the last 5 years, and perhaps even the next 5, this would be it. That doesn't mean it's great in absolute terms. Because, well, frankly there's hardly any competition. If you ask me, commercial  games are at an all time low these days.
I can't get excited about the genre-fiction narrative in Heavy Rain. And the far too numerous moments of fighting are just badly designed and feel out of place and too much of an attempt to please hardcore gamers, or the demands of the videogame genre. But the tender moments that I mention on the blog post are some of the most beautiful things available in any videogame ever. I hope we will see more of this in the future. Less fighting, less ARI, less crime, less police, and more kissing and hugging and holding. Make love, notgames! ;)

Bioshock is an entirely different production. It's just a game. And as such fun to play and completely forgettable. It's a lot harder for me to find something of value in it. But I will succeed! :)
It references objectivism in the sense that the whole story -such as it is- is about a kind of pseudo-religious rebellion against it.

We don't own Shattered Memories yet. I've started Fallout 3 but I'm not sure if I'll be able to make myself play it since it seems like such a demanding game. But Assassin's Creed 2 is on the agenda. And we'll be playing Bayonetta as well, though there might not be anything there worth talking about , in terms of notgames. We'll see.

Here's an interview with the game's creators: http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4309/tense_questions_david_cage_on_.php

Seems like there was really a struggle on the game's gaminess.

[Edit]
Oops. It appears Michael already posted about this here: http://notgames.org/forum/index.php?topic=169.0