Thirded.

Well, just the fact that they believe Mass Effect 3 ending and making Sim City online > foreclosing on people who don't deserve it and ruining the environment in terms of evilness makes a compelling argument for my postulate.

I just finished the game a few minutes ago. I'll have to wait a bit for my final impressions to set in but overall I had a blast playing the game. And WOW, that last boss battle was intense! Damn spikes and satellite things drove me crazy!

How do you get the familiarity hearts up?  From feeding them?

Late to the party as usual, but after @15 hours in (and yes, I take my time playing games, just now "recruited" Esther) my early impressions are very favorable. The battles, so far, are fun, yet challenging. The various side quests and bounties don't seem to take too much backtracking (at least so far, I completed all in Ding Dong Dell and have only one more in Al Mamoon) and the animation style I am in love with! I do have one small question though. Should I hoard the treats for later familiars or are they pretty easy to come by (I know I can buy them but money does seem to be a bit sparse so far)? Anyhow, so far I am loving this game, and hopefully the love fest continues, although it seldom does it seems, lol.

The future is an old man with lovely eyes.

Good points all around, Dave.  I think Cage wants the medium to move forward, but he blatantly disregards current trends in the industry or flat out refuses to admit that other types of games exist outside of violent action games and kiddie stuff.  And quite frankly, his nine main points could all be argued back and forth with counterarguments that prove this isn't a cut and dry issue.  He says things like, "Games need to be more adult" or, "Most games have protagonists with guns" and never acknowledges the merits of either.  I'm playing Spec Ops: The Line right now, and that is a violent action game that is trying to say something about war and its effects on soldiers.  While Spec Ops may not succeed at everything it tries to do (much like Heavy Rain), I'm glad it exists and I think it shows that the medium is trying to move forward.  And David Cage hasn't really done enough to push the medium forward with his two titles to start telling the industry what to do.  This is the equivalent of Uwe Boll telling Hollywood what to do (Okay, maybe that's a little harsh.  More like JJ Abrams telling Spielberg what to do). 

I will 100% agree with Cage that gamers need to vote with their wallets.  This is the reason I'm not buying Dead Space 3 and I plant on buying Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs at full price in the summer. 

So David Cage did this today:
http://kotaku.com/5982205/its-time-for-video-games-to-finally-grow-up-by-doing-these-nine-things

Honestly, I can't stand this asshole.  Nearly every point he makes is contradicted in the one title he's released in nearly ten years of development.  David Cage may claim to push the genre forward and I understand the points he's trying to make, but he comes across like a failed film major who was forced to make video games and will forever resent it.  How can he argue these points when Heavy Rain violates nearly every one of them (rape scene, Madison's boobs, tons of violence, horrible storytelling that would be laughed out of any film class for lacking the basics of mise-en-scene, etc.)?  I'm sick of people listening to this no talent assclown.  

Eh, I'm not saying its far and away my favorite game, but I thought it did a very good job of creating tension. For instance, I'm really claustrophobic, so the crawling through the tunnel scene (besides the plot hole of him not pushing the glass aside like a normal person would) freaked me out. I don't think I've ever said "Oh HELL no!" out loud to myself that many times.

But hey, maybe I'm confusing story-induced stress with QTE-induced stress.

Really, you like Heavy Rain, Crispy?  I think you need to go back and listen to one of our older episodes.  I simply don't have the space to go into how fucking awful that piece of pretentious shit is. 

All kidding aside, Heavy Rain tries really hard to do some cool things.  I personally think it fails miserably at just about all of them (how it handles Madison sexuality/vulnerability, the giant freakin' plot holes, generally awful narrative, piss poor acting, etc.) but I think Thomas Wayne said it best when it comes to these things. 

Saw this article about a giant mod for Torchlight 2 today and had to pass it on:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/01/30/insane-torchlight-ii-mod-adds-new-class-monsters-raids/