I can’t really tell you too much about what the story’s about or how it’s going to work with the characters, all I can tell you that your character - the main character - can die, and the story will continue.

That's creator David Cage, who goes on to say that, yes, this means you can go on playing, just not with the main character. So long as this means we don't have to endure a torturous QTE sequence to bring her back to life, OK, Cage, we're interested.

Heavy Rain: If the main girl dies, you can keep playing the “big story” [VG247]

We've already written about the driving game inspired character control — the R2 button moves her forward, with the left analog steering her head and shoulders — so let's focus on how everything else is done.

After discussing how the character walks, Cage showed us how to interact with objects. Outside of the residence that the protagonist was investigating were a pair of metal trashcans and a mailbox. Both could be opened with the right analog stick, using forward and back motions that translated to on-screen movement. Pulling back on the stick fully opened the mailbox door fully, pushing it forward closed it. You may have seen this interactivity showcased in the game's Games Convention trailer, with the character opening a refrigerator with a sweeping arc of the right analog stick.

Heading up to the house's front door, a context sensitive control scheme appeared in the bottom right corner, giving us two options — knock or ring the doorbell. Both could done repeatedly, with a side to side motion of the right stick.

Following that, another context sensitive control option became available, letting the player call out to whomever might be inside. This was done with SIXAXIS control, giving us three dialogue options. This could be done in concert with the knocking/doorbell-ringing for maximum annoyance to whomever might be at home.

As the character walked around the house's right side, we encountered a barrel. It wasn't of the exploding type, just a regular, non-combustible barrel that Cage wanted to use as a step. Pushing the object over with the square button, his controlling assistant pushed it forward with a thrust forward of the SIXAXIS. To right it again, he hit the square button.

Heavy Rain also gives players access to internal dialogue. Using the L1 button, we can listen to the main character's thoughts, giving players helpful clues about how to progress or simply to learn her opinion about the pros and cons of the current situation. There were two options when deciding whether to break and enter the house, one "daring", one "cautious."

Much of what we saw in the house was controlled via these methods, with brief Quick Time Events requiring randomized button presses. One, triggered by bumping into an overturned bottle, simply required a quick push of the triangle button.

Perhaps the most interesting implementation of the PlayStation 3 controller was during one of the stealth-action sequences. Forced to hide from the killer during the demo, the protagonist sneaked behind an open door, something that required the player hold X, then the R1 button, then the triangle button.

Another version of this sort of finger Twister game occurred when she sought shelter in a large wardrobe, requiring four consecutive button presses. We didn't actually see anyone from Quantic Dream fail at this, but it added a nice bit of tension to the scene.

Some of these control methods have been featured in Quantic Dream's previous games, but Heavy Rain looks to bring them all together into a cohesive package that feels thoroughly well implemented. We definitely look forward to going hands-on with the PlayStation 3 controller whenever Sony decides that's something it wants us to do.

He compared Heavy Rain's story structure to a rubber band, one that can be deformed and stretched by your choices in-game. Cage told us that what we were about to see would help us remain spoiler-free — our demo was a standalone scenario, not integral to the game's actual story.

After wrapping up his excited sales pitch — and showing us the "best looking menu of the show" featuring motion captured eyes — we began our first look at Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain's main character, the woman seen in the first teaser, arrived via motorcycle at her destination, a taxidermist's residence/workshop. Based on a conversation she had on the ride in, we learn that she's an investigative journalist on the hunt for the Origami Killer. In the demo, she visits the house of Leland White, a suspect in an unidentified murder case.

Standing outside in the pouring rain, we got our first taste of Heavy Rain's non-traditional control scheme. Cage lamented the use of an analog stick to control a character in 3D space, in relation to an ever changing camera angle, explaining Quantic Dream's implementation.

Similar to the method of moving your character in the developer's own Indigo Prophecy, Heavy Rain uses a racing game inspired layout. You'll use the R2 button as an accelerator to move forward, steering her head and shoulders to guide her with the left analog stick. This gave her movement through the space a much more fluid feel, with no jittering or awkward ambling.

(We'll talk more about Heavy Rain's control scheme in another post, because of its rather unique implementation, and focus more on the action here.)

After attempting to go through the front door, getting no response, the character moved into the house, through an open kitchen window. Transitioning through the demo level's highly detailed environments, we didn't see any loading, as Cage says the game will stream data from the disc and hide load times elegantly.

The kitchen environment floored us with the game's attention to detail. Everything in the game looked natural, lifelike, with high resolution wallpaper textures and softly casted shadows. With almost no HUD — you'll only see contextual cues to interact with objects and complete "Quick Time Events" — there's little in Heavy Rain to remind you that you're playing a video game. The near photorealistic environments and characters certainly help.

The main character continued her investigation indoors, finding clues in the fireplace and garage. During these moments, the game dropped hints about how the environment will behave. For example, while in the garage, surveying a blood stain on the floor, she attempted to raise the garage door, which had been locked from the outside. Flipping a switch, the door raised, then became stuck. Similarly, when walking upstairs, floorboards creaked. Both were important environmental factors that played out later.

While the main character was idle, mentally processing some evidence she'd unearthed, the game seemed to take control of the camera. Cutting and panning across the room, showing off realistic reflective surfaces on a series of picture frames, focusing on the numerous mounted heads in the taxidermist's house. The changing view lent the game more of a cinematic feel and the cuts were surprisingly well edited on the fly.

After the protagonist went upstairs, uncovering the corpses of a half-dozen women — all taxidermically preserved in a variety of sensual poses and situations — the owner of the house came home. The game's camera then went split screen, giving us a view of the killer and the heroine. After listening to her internal thoughts, something the player can do at branches in the game's story, she was determined to get the hell out.

As she crept downstairs, avoiding the creaking floorboard with a QTE and out of the garage, we had a constant camera view of the taxidermist (who occupied about a third of the screen), making for an incredibly tense escape.

Cage then showed us a different version of that scene, picking up the moment the killer returned home. After failing to stay quiet, the killer found the main character hiding in a wardrobe. This kicked off a much more action oriented series of events, with numerous Dragon's Lair-style reflex focused button presses. In between these Quick Time Events the Quantic Dream rep was in control of the character, whose animation changed to a more panicked style. She was clutching walls and taking missteps down stairs, conveying fear through animation and facial expression.

The QTEs, not something I'm particularly fond of, mind you, looked to be implemented well. They were graphically designed well too, with a clean black and white button hovering above the object she was interacting with (or avoiding). That means that as the knife was being swiped at her, the button graphic followed the arc of the killer's stab. It was a nice touch.

This particular scenario, Cage said, was indicative of what will be included in the final game, estimating that some 50 or 60 would be included when the Heavy Rain shipped. Each would offer multiple outcomes, scenarios that could be replayed to allow for new perspectives on the story.

To say that we were impressed by Heavy Rain would be an understatement. Quantic Dream is certainly sitting on something unique with the game, with what appears to be a balanced blend of gameplay and cinematic storytelling. It also happens to be the second best game we've seen at Games Convention, graphically.

Keep your eyes peeled for the demo — no, we don't know when that's coming — because we suspect it will look exactly like what we saw at Leipzig. And you'll probably think it's amazing, too.

Quantic plan to keep the plot under wraps for as long as possible, so the demo is likely to be more about demoing the game engine with content unrelated to the main game and showing off both the subtle 'emotional' controls and fine character animations.

Intriguingly, for such a plot-heavy game, Quantic's David Cage suggested that some DLC might be in the offing. This sounds a bit like slapping an extra plotline onto a film, so you have to hope it is handled with care and doesn't feel bolted-on.

"This is something it's really too early to talk about, but it's definitely a possibility," Cage told Eurogamer, "You can tell any story with this interface, because it's entirely contextual."

Demo and DLC for Heavy Rain News [Eurogamer]

We watched the game's protagonist, seen in the 'casting call' trailer shown at E3 years ago, investigated an abandoned house, filled with what we assume to be ghosts frozen in time. Visually, the game looked spectacular and moody, heavy in sepia tones but with occasional dashes of primary color, but we'll have more in-depth impressions of Heavy Rain when we see it behind closed doors tomorrow.

Before we start, note they caught only part of the rehearsal, not the whole thing. So there's plenty of room for a major announcement or two. But here's what they did see:

Heavy Rain: a new trailer was shown, revealing in-game footage for the first time.

LittleBigPlanet : a new trailer, with producer Pete Smith coming on-stage to give us all a final public walkthrough of the game ahead of its release.

SingStar: there's a major focus on SingStar in Sony's conference, unsurprising considering the popularity of the series in Europe. Interestingly, Gamekyo say the focus will be on a "new" SingStar for the PS3, which ties in with SCEE boss David Reeve's promise to unveil a "next generation" version of the game at Leipzig. What this means for the existing "next generation" SingStar is anybody's guess.

Heavy Rain for PS3 at Sony Conference tomorrow ? [Gamekyo]

Other things we learn about Heavy Rain is it features an obese man, plus the front and back of a motorcycle. We're sure to learn much more about Heavy Rain at the Leipzig Games Convention. Promise.

Heavy Rain [Spilzonen]

Honestly, I loved the game. I thought Uncharted was very interesting. There was some very, very interesting aspects to it. The big difference between Uncharted and what we're doing here is that Uncharted was still structured like a video game. It gives you a bit of story, then action, then a bit of story, then action — like porn movies, when you think about it.

More adult film musing after the jump.

Porn movies are structured in exactly the same way, except that the action is not the same (laughter), but it's the same structure. Most video games are done like that. It's one thing to do a great cutscene, even if it's real time. It's another thing to try to tell the story as you play, so the story's not told through cutscenes — it's told through gameplay. So you don't need acting performance in cutscenes. You need interactive performance.

Guess that means Uncharted the best game ever made with the same structure as a porn movie about a dude in a T-shirt and jeans.

Dreaming of a New Day: Heavy Rain's David Cage [Gamasutra via Eurogamer]

He first contrasts sandbox gaming in general with the deliberately-constructed "rollercoaster" of linear games:

"From the time you're in the line, you go in the back of the rollercoaster and through the tunnel and everything is defined. We knew while you were waiting how to make the stress grow, how to make you feel something, get you scared, make you feel better, et cetera. This rollercoaster is being conceived by someone to optimize the experience."

Calling MMOs the only "true" sandbox of which he's aware, Cage is a little bit critical:

I've played many MMOs these days, and most of the time, the experience is really poor, because you end up doing not very exciting things. I think the value of the experience is not on that. It's really about building yourself - the vision of yourself, like, "Oh, I want to be a hero, because I've spent so much time at level 16. I'm so strong. Look at my weapons and my helmet." These are the core mechanics these games are based on.

I think that's fine for people when they need to build self esteem, and it's a very important core complementing experience, but if you're not into that, what's the real narrative or emotional value? Sometimes it's really interesting when you're in the guild in a massively multiplayer game and you attack the fortress or whatever. Some great things can be told, but it's not guaranteed. The value is not always there."

What do you think, Kotaku readers? Do you get a "narrative or emotional" value out of MMOs most of the time, or do you prefer the "rollercoaster?"

Dreaming of a New Day: Heavy Rain's David Cage [Gamasutra]

The more subtle, social emotions such as love, empathy, joy, sadness, jealousy, anger, and shame are frequently addressed in literature and cinema, Cage pointed out, but are rarely successfully tackled by games. He pointed to Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Rez, Katamari Damacy, and The Legend of Zelda as a few titles that draw from both ends of the emotional spectrum.

Blah blah emotion, blah blah social behavior, Mr. Cage - tell us something about the mysterious, much-reputed Heavy Rain:

Of course, the gamers and video games journalists attending the event expected to get some exclusive info on the so-far mysterious Heavy Rain, and entreated Cage to offer new details. The designer noted he couldn't speak in detail on the game, but he did indicate that the game follows in the footsteps of Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy.

Though Cage is intrigued by the possibility of real-time player-to-NPC conversation, the current impracticality of such technology means the game will, like its predecessor, use traditional dialogue trees.

It will be a heavily author-controlled story, eschewing the open world trend in favor of delivering a fuller, more directed, emotional experience.

Is "linear" a bad word now? I hope not, when there's a good story.

Heavy Rain's Cage: Games Stuck In Primitive Emotional Range [Gamasutra]

Reader Saimon was kind enough to translate some of the more enticing statements about the title made by Quantic Dream's founder David Cage. And we were kind enough to copy and paste the translations after the jump.

On Locations:
"I don't want to do a big free-roaming city like GTA, because the flow of the story will then be hard to control. Nevertheless, I do want to incorporate big sets, with a crowd, heavy populated areas like a mall and a subway are going to be in there. Of course, the gameplay has got to make use of that aspect too."

On Graphics:
"People will be surprised. Internal (Sony's) feedback on graphics has been great. This is going to be a truly next-gen game. But still, we want to do something unique with the graphics, going beyond just making the most photorealistic world we can."

On Gameplay:
"With the release of Fahrenheit, we gave the adventure genre a new grammar. We brought new ways into the genre, new words if you want to see it like that, a new vocabulaire. With Heavy Rain, where going to expand on that same grammar."

On Story:
"Heavy Rain is about normal people that have landed in extraordinary situations. I wanted a much more personal story. The first thing that came to my mind, as a father of two little boys, was that the main theme should simply be a father's love for his son. This is not a game about saving the princess or the world. Its purely about a father's love."

"The main story will revolve around 4 different characters, and we're putting the spotlight on their perceptions. The question 'what is good and what is evil' is the key here, that will be just a matter of viewpoint...I believe heavily in moral choices, I'm going to use them A LOT. They're not about being good or bad, but about finding the right balance."

So far, so good. Thanks to Saimon for all the hard work on this one.

Quantic Dream, makers of Indigo Prophecy and the upcoming Heavy Rain, made a really bold claim a few weeks ago; they said that their game had crossed the uncanny valley—that place in human graphics that sits jarringly, stomach-churningly between not quite fake enough and not quite real enough. Looking at the company's tech demo, it's tough to agree or disagree with their claims.

You see, I can't say that the figure looks entirely real, but I can look at the model without being bothered like I am by, say, Beowulf. I don't viscerally feel like something inhuman is posing as human, and I'm not sure exactly why that is.

Of course, without any full environments, let alone a full face, it's tough to jump to all that many conclusions at the moment anyway. But if Quantic is pulling off these features in a real time environment on this generation of consoles, I'm pretty freaking impressed.

Tech Demo of Heavy Rain [Gamersyde]

Our objective is to make this media a mainstream entertainment form with high creative expectations...To us, the only way to reach the level of quality we were targeting for the animation of our characters was to use Vicon motion capture...Demand has been immediate and we have actually already started to rent the system to high-profile video game and advertising clients. Our new studio is fully installed and is functioning almost every day either for complex full body or facial captures.

Quantic Dream buys mo-cap tech for PS3 exclusive [gamesindustry]

While the team behind the tech demo for Heavy Rain, pictured above, may nail it sooner, Obsidian Entertainment producer David Kunkler says traversing the gap may take more time.

They look strange - they're too close to real, but not quite real. Give us another year or two, and we'll be able to completely get across that uncanny valley.

Update your calendars, new-gen gamers! No more creepy robot faces are scheduled for 2009. Watch for it. Michael McWhertor

Real game characters 'next year' [BBC]