That's a great question.  Personally, from the demo, I think HR would be a game that would work very well with Arc or Natal while holding a controller ('cause I don't go for the whole 'no controller' angle and wouldn't accept walking in place to move around).

The challenge I see is that, if you look at the fight, you have a more realistic fight that other games using controls.  Falling onto tables, grabbing stuff, blocking blows, swinging your opponent something, etc.  However, QD (and other developers who don't even try for this level of realism) clearly struggle with having a consistent, non-prompted way of achieving this.  The problem with prompts for me is you have to watch for them rather than watch the game - it inserts a 'follow the sequence' mini-game into the proper game.

To break this I reckon either different input methods are required - for example, with Arc, you could move the controller in the direction you want to grab for something, and press a button it initiate the grab.  Or jerk the controls around to throw someone off (I guess Sixaxis can do this too).

I'm still fairly convinced that with some though you could have a consistent set of controls even on Dualshock, but I can see the challenge.  But I'm sure someone will crack it at some point.

It seems that QTEs or quick time events are a flawed gameplay mechanism which exist only as a placeholder waiting for something better to come along. Im curious to see how Splinter Cell: Conviction handles this. I wonder if perhaps by the time that game rolls around we'll be thinking 'if only they had done it xxx way in that game' or conversely it may be just as mediocre.

I wonder if the Wiimote would have been a better implementation. You could implement a point and click style system so you wouldn't really need to use the nunchuck if its not desired. In addition, the Wiimote comes with a built in speaker so the game can use audible clues as to when specific actions from the player may be made. Im actually quite curious as to why they wouldn't make this game on the Wii. It seems like the style of gameplay isn't as much visually orientated given the length of time adventure style games have existed, predating even a mouse interface.

I haven't played the game yet as my internet has gone really really slowly recently (Heavy Rain demo 2000 minutes remaining, oh god how I wish it was an Xbox Live download). However when I do play, one thing I will be thinking about would be something along the same style as Max Paynes 'bullet time' in that when the player enters into a state of heightened addrenaline that time would slow down and give the player more time to consider his/her options.

From the sense I got with the Gametrailers review, I felt that perhaps this style of game does not mesh with the style of gameplay in terms of mainstream adoption anyway. I was thinking that perhaps it would be better that the avatar in this sense was along the same lines as an action hero so that the repurcussions of less optimal actions are not as drastic. In that sense the game could be a lot looser as to the allowed actions and therefore more intuitive and less guided. If coupled with say Arc or Natal, the player could therefore choose which particular chair to pick up to break over the bad guys head. If for example the player picks up a fork and brings it to a gun fight, the negative repurcussions would not be instant death and the player would have a second and perhaps third chance to best the baddy.

Yeah, there's got to be a better approach.  I think QTEs are just a kind of placeholder in a sense.

Playing the demo again I felt that it would be better to have consistent controls linked to the use of direction push of analogue stick.  For example when you're thrown down onto a table and their is a glass just below your head you push X and push stick towards glass (relative to your head) to grab it and use it as a weapon.  With no on-screen prompt you'd be watching the action and reactiing naturally.  When being pushed back you could push square and stick in direction to push back in, etc.

That way you could learn a set of 'rules' and dispense with the prompts.

I also felt playing through again they should reverse the current use of R2 for walk.  I think it would be better to walk by default, then press R2 while still to switch to moving your head and looking around.  At least on the scenes in the demo it felt like you did more walking by default vs looking around.

Clearly, somewhat like your bullet time idea, the game could have difficulty rankings that give you more time to decide, and are more forgiving in failure implications.

I still like the game from the demo, and will get it, but I feel this type of game is still trying to find the right way to control itself with a gamepad.

I note QD have now said they initially wanted motion controls.  Guess that indicates they were thinking that might allow for better control methods too.