I usually don’t play video games aimed at adults, as anything featuring Mario is more my speed. But recently my husband convinced me to try Heavy Rain for PS3, since I love mysteries and police procedurals. I did try it, and though I wanted to like the game, I just couldn’t.
Heavy Rain is basically a Choose Your Own Adventure book (remember those) that plays out on the PS3. As with Choose Your Own Adventure, you occasionally come to proverbial forks in the road during this game, and the choices you make can have an impact on how the game ends. These real choices are few and far between, however. Most of the time, the game is so rigid that you go down the same road no matter which choice you make.
The main story is that there’s a serial killer, known as the Origami Killer, on the loose. The Origami Killer snatches kids and then holds them in a storm drain during the heaviest rainfalls of the year so that they’ll drown if someone doesn’t reach them in time.
As the player, your job is to track down clues and rescue Shaun Mars before he drowns. During gameplay, you can control one of four characters: Ethan, Shaun’s dad; Madison Paige, an insomniac who runs into Ethan at a motel; Scott Shelby, a private eye; and Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler sent to help local police with the case. Usually, controlling the characters simply means choosing a specific approach to take during questioning a suspect (aggressive, sympathetic, etc.) or pushing the controller buttons a certain way to do things like start a car, sit down in a chair, etc.
The storyline was frustrating at best. You don’t really have control over where the investigation goes, so you can’t direct your characters to go talk to a certain suspect or check out a certain scene if you think it’s important. In fact (minor spoiler ahead), I don’t think Norman Jayden generated a single usable lead, so what was the effing point of his character???
Also, just when the game gets interesting, there will inevitably be long, drawn out cut-scenes that slow the action down to a crawl. Plus, there are several places where you’re forced to do mundane things like brush your teeth or make a pan of scrambled eggs just because. These things don’t add to the “reality” of the game; they just slowed it way down!
I won’t get into the solution here because I don’t want to ruin the game for those who haven’t played it yet. But let’s just say that there were way too many plot holes that were never explained. For instance, you’ll wonder how the killer killed a certain person when the killer was never alone with the victim to begin with!!! Also, you’ll wonder when the killer had time to send Ethan on his 5 missions and monitor Ethan’s progress.
The bottom line is that Heavy Rain could have been a very good — or even great — game, but it falls well short. Some parts of it were fun and interesting, but on the whole, I wouldn’t recommend this title. There are too many slow spots, too many inconsistencies in the “plot”, and too many other minor annoyances that build up by the time you reach the end. Oh, and the voice acting is absolutely TERRIBLE!!! Save your money and don’t buy this one!
I was browsing for office furniture last night when I came across this beautiful leather desk chair. I have been searching for the perfect desk chair for a long time, and would love to get something in leather! I’ve tried out leather chairs at stores, and they are just so much more comfortable than the faux stuff that it’s not even funny. But they are expensive! The one in the picture retails for more than $1300, and even the sale price of $739 is still way out of my budget. 
Well, this is pretty ridiculous! Have you seen this product called the 
My 7-year-old son is at an age now where he’s almost always playing outside with other kids in the neighborhood. He’s not allowed to wander too far away, of course, but still, he does get on his bike and play out of sight of the house. After getting tired of roaming around trying to track him down to come in for lunch or dinner, I decided to buy a couple of walkie talkies for us to use.