Heavy Rain is really cleaning up. The Kotaku review has me a bit worried, though. See the exert from the "Hated" section of their review-
[quote="Kotaku"]Distracting Voices: Speech is important in this game, but to my American ears I had trouble believing in the otherwise powerful virtual reality of this world when I heard actors speaking in what sounded like fraudulent American accents. The children, key characters in the game, are the ones who sound the weirdest. This won't bother some, nor will the occasional lack of precise lip-syncing, but it was the one thing that threatened to shatter the illusion and cheapen my emotional investment in Heavy Rain's world. Movement Errors: As much as I liked the basic controls, Heavy Rain does have some of that fixed-camera old Resident Evil problem. You're pushing the stick one way as a character walks through a door. The camera angle switches. And suddenly you are disoriented, pushing the stick all the wrong ways and your brilliant private eye is walking in silly small circles. It doesn't happen often, but it's a pitfall Quantic Dream didn't manage to fully bound. Sometimes Dull Lead Characters: Video game developers often have to decide whether to leave their playable protagonists as blank entities, the better for players to see themselves in the shoes of, or to make the lead characters distinct, a love it or hate it kind of persona. Three of Heavy Rain's leads are more of the blank type, which can make them bores compared to private eye Scott Shelby, who seems like an interesting and complex guy from the get-go. We all will have our favorites, and I finished Heavy Rain having enjoyed the times I felt I was more of a specific character and less of the time I felt I was controlling an avatar.
Part of what makes Mass Effect 2 so great are the conversations you have with people, and the quality of the voice acting (along with interesting characters). That's something Heavy Rain will have to do well to truly capture the player's attention. I will say, though, given all the praise, it's probably not too big of a concern in Heavy Rain. Just an observation.
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