5 Reasons Why Heavy Rain Won’t Run On Xbox 360
NowGamer investigates the barriers in bringing Quantic Dream’s vision to Xbox…
5. Not Enough Graphics
It’s widely accepted among fans of Sony’s console that the Xbox 360 “doesn’t have enough graphics” to do Heavy Rain. We looked into this and in identifying a number of Xbox-exclusive titles, many of which have quite a lot of graphics, we concede that this argument could hold water. Mass Effect 2 and Lost Odyssey are both ram-packed with graphics, but measure between 118-124% less graphics than Heavy Rain, lending considerable weight to this point of view. (see Fig.1)
More graphics. Here's the concrete proof.
However, as you can see, this figure is offset by the discovery that, in group tests, these percentages were proven to be largely imaginary. Imaginary differences are the key ingredient in the console war and should never be underestimated.
“This feeling is largely mirrored across the pages of fan-sites”
4. The Buttons Are Wrong
We carefully thought through the actions of actually playing the game and hit a theoretical brick wall. While following stick rotations, uses of R1, R2 and the X button worked perfectly well, what is the player to do when he or she is instructed to press the Triangle, the Circle, or the Square? The problem is compounded further by the fact that motion control instructions would result in quite a bit of heave-ho on the Xbox pad, but no success whatsoever in completing those vital, life-saving QTEs.
3. Poor Sales
Historically, PlayStation exclusives do not fare well on Xbox 360, with titles such as Uncharted 2 and LittleBigPlanet failing to sell a single copy to Xbox 360 owners. With this kind of market research no doubt in Quantic Dream’s hands, the ‘zero sales to Xbox owners’ anomaly could well be the deciding factor. Why would a developer/publisher port a game such as Heavy Rain when not one single member of its potential market has shown any interest in buying it?
But what of the Prophets. They don't even make an appearance.
This feeling is largely mirrored across the pages of fan-sites, from which our smattering of research has gathered that Xbox owners are largely of the opinion that “I’m not a fanboy1!!>!....... I haz an PS3 az well, itz just all the best gamez is on Xbox. You iz fail”. Strong words there prime minister.
2. The Story Doesn’t Follow On From Halo 3
Master Chief gets lost in space, there’s a memorial for his supposed death and then what? Well, then you’re swinging a child around your head in your perfect life outside your perfect house in your perfect garden, which, by the looks of it is tended by an army of Mexican gardeners. We’re all for narrative leaps, but playing Heavy Rain made no sense whatsoever.
What happened to the Master Chief? Are The Flood still a threat? What fate befell the Arbiter? Despite over ten hours of gameplay, Heavy Rain failed to answer even these most basic questions and for this reason, we predict that Xbox owners will show about as much enthusiasm as a dead cat.
1. The Disc Doesn’t Work
Remarkably, we may well be the first online games journalism entity to report this. Having excitedly popped the disc into the tray of our 250Gb MW2 Elite, we were greeted with only a whining, whirring sound and after several seconds, the surprise reappearance of the disc itself. In a fundamental oversight on the part of Quantic Dream and of Sony, the game, far from being merely buggy on Xbox, simply doesn’t work at all, presenting the user with a message informing us that the disc is not recognised. We approached Simon Miller, editor of the UK’s best-selling independent Xbox magazine – X360 – to see if he had any insight, but as we predicted, we were stonewalled. “I don’t really know what to say” Miller stated.
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