Heavy Rain or Red Dead Redemption?

[shmokes]

Got a $50 Amazon gift card for my birthday today.  I'm thinking I'll probably spend it on a videogame.  I've been wanting Heavy Rain for a long time, but Red Dead Redemption is probably a better game.  Anybody care to chime in?  Red Dead is $5 cheaper in spite of being out like half as long.  I'm actually surprised that Heavy Rain is still full-price.  It came out in January, I think.  FWIW, I'm not especially concerned about which one offers more value for the dollar in terms of how long it takes to get through all the content.  My free time is extremely limited.  I pretty much ignore games that push above a 20 hour minimum to complete.

[Necroticart]

Well RDR is comparable in style to GTA just a bit better in my option. As for Heavy Rain I played the Demo definitely a different kind of game it's hard to describe I would recommend downloading the demo first before you buy. also the higher price is probably due to the fact the game is getting a patch to support PS Move.

[AtomSmasher]

Do you prefer Mysteries or Westerns?

Red Dead was a fantastic game and I highly recommend it, but I haven't played Heavy Rain so I can't comment on that one.  If your on the fence, then pick up the demos to each game and see how you like them.

Red Dead is basically GTA with horses, although it's also the best GTA game yet.  If you've played GTA IV, then just imagine the setting changed to the old west and you'll have a good idea what the gameplay in Red Dead is like.

[SNAAKE]

godofwar3

[amendonz]

Hold off a few weeks for dead rising 2, red dead was pretty good but over rated like every other gta game imo. 

[Malenko]

I have both, I RDR has a lot more replay value. Why not just get both used?

[MriswitH]

I've also got both - Heavy Rain is one of the prettiest (and neatest!) games i've played for the PS3.

RDR is a great game though too. Multiplayer is pretty fun and probably (as stated earlier) has more replay value; however, the storyline in HR is amazing.

[DirtyDachshunds]

If you're buying, I say Red Dead.

You can easily rent Heavy Rain and beat it in a weekend.  You can't do that with Red Dead

[shmokes]

I ended up buying Heavy Rain.  Amazon had it used, but qualifying for standard Amazon warranty and return policy and Super Saver shipping, for like $36.  I figure I can play through it then sell it on Ebay for probably no loss.  Then I can use that and the rest of my gift card to get Red Dead Redemption.

[Malenko]

I coulda sold you mine for $50 shipped

[shmokes]

That sounds like an awesome deal.  I'm sad I missed it.

[Malenko]

That sounds like an awesome deal.  I'm sad I missed it.

I was joking 

goes for about 30 used on ebay, YMMV

[shmokes]

That sounds like an awesome deal.  I'm sad I missed it.

I was joking 

goes for about 30 used on ebay, YMMV

LOL . . . so was I.  I just said I bought it for $36 already.   

[shmokes]

Finished Heavy Rain today.  In the end I was only mildly impressed.  It had tons of potential, but squandered much of it.  It's too bad.  I really wanted to like it.  The dialog, though, was consistently mediocre (and too often downright awful).  And fairly frequently the story would move forward by having characters behave in bombastically absurd ways.  Beyond that, there are major control issues, stemming from the aforementioned terrible walking mechanic, but also from the general retardedness of Sony's controller.  After all these years I still can't commit the buttons to muscle memory.  Who the ---fudgesicle--- uses a combination of shapes and random letters to name gamepad buttons?  

The story makes a serious attempt at being for adults, but the writing is actually FAR more mature in the decidedly less mature Uncharted 2.

It was fun, but I'm not inclined to replay it for the other endings.  I assume I can find 'em on Youtube.

3/5 stars

[massive88]

Who the ---fudgesicle--- uses a combination of shapes and random letters to name gamepad buttons?  

Its:
    Triangle
square   circle
       X

Right?

I had a hard time learning it on the ps1, but i haven't played a Playstation in like 4 years and I still remember it.  Shapes are no more random than ABXY, especially when MS decides to invert the SNES configuration.

[shmokes]

Shapes are random because there's no such thing as consecutive shapes.  They have no order that makes their placement intuitive.  It's just arbitrary.  Speaking of arbitrary, while letters and numbers do have a natural order, Sony randomly chose X and O.  They also decided to split the buttons up between both letters and shapes.  The whole thing is stupid.

Anyway, I didn't say I hadn't committed the buttons to memory, I said muscle memory.  Much of Heavy Rain is like super complicated Dragon's Lair.  The prompts pop up really quickly and you have to respond to the quick time events . . . quickly.  It's a ---smurfy--- layout.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Who the ---fudgesicle--- uses a combination of shapes and random letters to name gamepad buttons?  

Its:
    Triangle
square   circle
       X

Right?

I had a hard time learning it on the ps1, but i haven't played a Playstation in like 4 years and I still remember it.  Shapes are no more random than ABXY, especially when MS decides to invert the SNES configuration.

Take a look at this article about the design of the original Playstation, it'll explain a lot:

http://www.1up.com/news/playstation-1-design

Tl;dr = The shapes were not chosen at random.

[Ginsu Victim]

Sony randomly chose X and O.  They also decided to split the buttons up between both letters and shapes.  The whole thing is stupid.

I already knew about this years ago, but from the article above:

"I gave each symbol a meaning and a color. The triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction and made it green. Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents and made it pink. The circle and X represent 'yes' or 'no' decision-making and I made them red and blue respectively. People thought those colors were mixed up, and I had to reinforce to management that that's what I wanted"

[shmokes]

I already read all that on Joystiq recently.  I don't mean to say that the controllers were not designed.  I mean they are random as far as the user is concerned.  When I'm trying to play what amounts to a rapid game of Simon I'm not thinking to myself, "Viewpoint, Paper, Viewpoint, No, No, Paper, Yes!"  That's not helpful.

[Ginsu Victim]

We only took umbrage with you saying Sony randomly chose them. They may seem random to you (actually, most of us), but they were totally intentional, albeit confusing.

[shmokes]

Well, considering that the designer's inspiration is totally irrelevant to my complaint, it's probably not worth taking umbrage over.  I was criticizing the controllers for their inaccessibility, not because the designer responsible lacked a design philosophy.  Plus, I explained exactly what I meant by random:  not consecutive.

[RyoriNoTetsujin]

Hey I wasn't even "taking umbrage," I just thought it was a relevant article.  No worries. 

I do think it's interesting that you (we?) don't associate the *color* of the design on the button with the button itself, yet the main face-buttons on both the PS3 and XBOX controllers are color-coded in their own ways.  The more I think about it, I realize it takes me a moment to remember which color is on each button.

I'll have to try that the next time I teach someone a game... rather than say "Hit Circle" I'll have to try "Hit Blue."  Interesting!

[Malenko]

told you to get red dead

[Ginsu Victim]

Red Dead is AWESOME!!!!!

Plus, it doesn't use random buttons.

[shmokes]

told you to get red dead

Yeah, I have no doubt I would have liked it more.  But I felt like Heavy Rain was sort of this experiment in new types of gaming that I should support.  Also I thought it more likely that Red Dead would reduce in price more quickly than Heavy Rain (it's already cheaper, actually).  And then I found a great price on a fully-warrantied used copy of Heavy Rain.  You were right, though.