Games Cheats and Reviews

If only Sony had waited until after the South by Southwest festival to release Heavy Rain, the publisher could have printed several glowing quotes from a known Xbox consorter on the back of the PS3-exclusive’s game box. Oh, well — there’s always the "Game of the Year" edition.

During a a one-on-one conversation with writer Frank Rose at SXSW this week, Fabled designer Peter Molyneux heaped praise on Heavy Rain, calling it "absolutely brilliant."

Jeffrey Matulef of TheGameReviews writes: "What do Heavy Rain and BioShock 2 have in common? Aside from lots of water, they’re both about the same thing: fatherhood. Though the two games go about it in very different ways." (Challenging Conventions #10)

TrendAnalyst blog writes: Every time EDGE magazine reviews a Playstation 3 exclusive, they are accused of bias by PS3 supporters, who are then mocked as fanboys who aren’t satisfied with anything other than perfect scores for their beloved exclusives. EDGE are known to be harsh graders, and some respect them for using the full 1-10 scale instead of using 7-10 scale like the mainstream gaming press. The counter argument is that EDGE reviews every game harshly and it’s pointed out that for every PS3 exclusive that gets low scores like Heavy Rain, there is an equivalent 360 exclusive.

To investigate whether EDGE is just harsh overall, or if it truly judges and scores games based on their platform, blogger TrendAnalyst made a comparison chart of the top 30 games from each platform, as well as the top 30 multiplatform games.

The third episode of VGRT is a spirited one, as Jonah insists that Sony’s new game next week should be called "God of CRAP III" and gives an unassailable reason why, while Filippo says he’ll rip on Heavy Rain in his review, and Richard rips on Filippo’s review of Heavy Rain.

Also in the podcast, the trio discusses:

The pirate attack on UbiSoft’s DRM servers

the announcements of Portal 2 and Rock Band 3

Microsoft’s decision to unveil their Natal titles at E3

Sony’s decision to introduce eroding demos

Xbox Live finally loosening gay restrictions.

During the Sony’s GDC 2010 press conference, Peter Dille thanked the gaming press for positively reviewing Heavy Rain.

A stronger than expected first week for Quantic Dream’s interactive thriller, Heavy Rain

Chart Track has published the latest software sales figures from the UK (week ending February 27th). Heavy Rain makes its debut on the charts.

While slightly weighed down by its ambition, Heavy Rain provides a riveting mature-themed story, and an adventure driven by the decisions you make and the actions you succeed in. And best of all, there is nothing out there quite like it.

It’s been incredibly frustrating for me having Heavy Rain in hand, but not having time to play it. I’ve read the reviews, and heard nothing but good things from friends who have played it. Finally, just a short while ago, I had a break in my hectic schedule, and I sat down to dive in to one of my most anticipated games of the year. When I turned the PS3 on, I got an error about being logged out of the PSN. After a quick search, I discovered that the PSN is down for everyone right now. No worries though, Heavy Rain is a strictly single player experience. After sliding the disc in, I was greeted with a message informing me I should upgrade to the latest version of the game – so I guess at least PART of the PSN is up. After applying the update, and restarting the game, I received the following error (pictured above) “Registration of the trophy information could not be completed. The game will quit. (8001050F)”. After a short bout of swearing and head scratching, I decided to unplug the ethernet cable and try again. No dice. It seems the game demands a connection to the PSN to be playable at all, despite being a single player affair. Bad form Sony, bad form.

Sharing: It’s Win/Win

Yesterday Destructoid reviewed Deadly Premonition and gave it a score of 10. This comes just weeks after Destructoid reviewed Heavy Rain and gave it a score of 7. Obviously, this means one thing. We, at Destructoid, love the Xbox 360 and want to have sex with it. This conclusion can be drawn thanks to logic, which is a thing the Internet uses to make decisions based on ideas a thirteen-year-old had.

Some people (idiots) believe that I hate Heavy Rain because it is new and unique. The truth of the matter is that these people are gullible f***wits who believe that Heavy Rain is unique just because Sony told them that’s what it was. People who can think for themselves and actually possess some intellectual standards have realized that the game is not really new at all.