Quantic Dream renovates mocap studio

by Justin McElroy on Dec 13th 2010 9:00PM

A lot of times game journalists complain that December is light on news, with all the big releases for the year behind us. But we've always thought they were just a bunch of Negative Nancys. In an industry as robust and busy as ours, how tough can it be to find something to write about?

... So, umm ... Quantic Dream renovated its motion capture studio. Now it's got like 64 cameras, and some sound-proof curtains and stuff, so that's ... you know, a good number of cameras. So ...

We were going to make a Heavy Rain joke in which we suggest it "renovate" its voice capture studio by burning it to the ground. ... You know, because the acting was so bad? But it turns out that this new studio can do voice capture too, so that's not really that funny anymore.

So, yeah.

Source: Develop

Tags: david-cage, Heavy-Rain, mo-cap, motion-capture, playstation, ps3, quantic-dream

Reader Comments (49)

@Billy Taebo Blanks "(ugh, what is it with games that focus on the story, like Heavy Rain and Mass Effect, getting all the critical acclaim?)"

Poor Billy needs to put his banjo away and try reading a book.

I forgot how beautiful this gir-eh game looked.

@JohnAHD
Holy shit. I literally JUST walked up stairs after having beaten this game.
Amazing game if I might add. Not my usual style but I could see it becoming my favorite genre if it was expanded.

@JohnAHD
Yeah. The Iwata story right underneath this one looks like a pale imitation of reality next to this.

@LegendOfJustin

JAYSHUN

@LegendOfJustin

Since when was yelling First acceptable? "lol"

One of my favorite games this year, it's only let down's being some awkward character movement and voice acting.

Lets hope they pop out a sequel and show us what the new fancy camera's and voice actors can do

@Hivetyrant I definitely don't want a sequel, but whatever they do next will undoubtedly be mindblowing. I can't wait.

@hxczuner

Sorry, I did the old "don't think before you speak" thing.

I meant another game. A sequel would probably be silly.

@Hivetyrant They've got one more DLC chapter that should get released at some point but they've said there wont be a direct sequel to HR because they've "said all they had to say about serial killers". Between HR and Indigo Prophecy (and even Omikron to a lesser degree) I kinda agree, time to put their efforts towards a new type of story.

@PN04 They cancelled all future DLC chapters to focus on Move support. They're probably working on their next game now.

@LegendOfJustin

Since when was yelling First acceptable? "lol"

I'm glad to see studios like Quantic Dream and Naughty Dog getting their own mocap studios which means they are doing really good.

@PreGHz

Also not acceptable, double posting.

wow is this Joystiq? From the sound of the article its Destructoid.
I'm disappointed.

@Narutogameking

I thought it was awesome. I couldn't help but reading the whole thing hearing it in Stewie's voice.

So .. Brian.. yeah.... how is that ehm.. novel coming along? You know... that..... novel you've been working on?

@Narutogameking

I think the personality in most posts have slightly resembled Destructoid lately... especially the Home posts... it annoys me too. The humour is good sometimes but other times it is a bit tryhard.

@MystileArmor

eh. i thought it was kinda funny.

@maveric101

meant that @naruto

But... why? I recall David Cage saying something about getting out of the "interactive movie-game" business, what with having done 3 of them in a row. I'm not sure if other genre of games will benefit from awesome mo-capped cutscenes to warrant the overhaul.

One of the best movies to come out in recent times! :3

@Esposch It sure wa- wait a minute! MOVIE? Ohhhh you card you!

Was the voice acting really that bad?
I recall it being average, good in places, bad in others.

@Helghast102 When none of your voice actors can pronounce "origami" and that happens to be a central part of your game I'd say it's bad.

Also if Quanitc Dreams has some extra cash maybe they could hire, you know, actual game designers?

@dcfox

I would be totally cool with them just hiring one actual writer.

@Helghast102

The problem with the voice acting is that all the actors were actually French people trying (and often failing) to sound American.

@Kevadu
The FBI guy was kinda fun. He sounded like some nondescript new york/new england accent. Not a real one, but something kinda similar. "Arigahmi killa".

This game was so much awesome and and so much fail at the same time. It was a huge triumph for interactive cinema, but pretty bad as a game. However, it did have some truly amazing decision moments. I don't remember ever feeling more put-on-the-spot in a game than I was when I had to choose between shooting the apartment dwelling dude or not. Crap that was tense.

@Kevadu No, they weren't. You might want to check up on their nationalities.

@Helghast102 I thought the guy who played the Origami Killer was pretty good. STEALTH SPOILER

@CamelCamelCamel
Oh yeah definitely, brilliant work on his part. Stand-out all-round.

I wasn't aware of bad voice acting, i haven't played yet.

@acme64

It wasn't bad, but it was mediocre and not up to the standards of the rest of the game.

Except for JAYSHUN. That was straight up painful.

@acme64

Don't let it discourage you, regardless of the voice acting (if it's possible to believe) it's a great game, and a style of game play that I hope continues to be used.

@Colin Jaysin sounds fine. It becoming a meme has colored that scene in the wrong light.

@DustbinK

The thing about that part of the game that annoyed me was the fact that they repeated the same voice clip over and over, so I was just thinking to myself the whole time "Surely they could have paid a voice actor a few extra dollars to say Jason in a few different pitches"

@acme64
It was more funky than bad. The actors were probably capable as actors, they just weren't capable of portraying Americans convincingly. It also suffered a bit from sounding disjointed at times--since you could often determine the path of conversation, sometimes it didn't flow quite right...and it's always a bit awkward when you have tense exchanges of people yelling at each other, yet suffering huge delays as we wait for the player to choose the next thing to say! Of course, this is a problem with any game that has branching conversation trees.

@acme64

It is not. In reality it is average to good. Granted, it doesn't compare to the voice acting in Uncharted or MGS but it is still good enough and coupled with the excellent graphics and story it becomes really compelling.

The accent was terrible, but the tone, volume and delivery of "JAYSON!" was dead on.

@bookscout

the plate was very aesthetically pleasing, but the meal was atrocious!

I always thought HR's VA was a mixed bag. Some of it was great while some of it was bad (though not horrendous.) The complaints over the different pronunciations of "origami" are ridiculous. People pronounce things differently in real life and this is one of the few games that actually acknowledge this.

Can I have a balloon? Please, I want one.

[Gamer's apartment. The lights are out, but it is not dark. A yellow hue is cast across Gamer's face as he sits on the literal edge of the couch, staring gape-mouthed at the television. His eyes are sunken, fixated; there is fear in them. He clutches a Playstation controller tightly as an unsteady orchestral scale rises and rises from the stereo. Something is happening.]

[Girlfriend enters front door to Gamer's apartment.]

GIRLFRIEND: What are you doing?

GAMER: CUTTING OFF MY OWN FINGER!!!!!

You know, I don't see why people are all uppity about the accents. There are soo many movies where Nazis or Russians are portrayed with a British accent.
Enemy At The Gates is a good example. They didn't even *try*.

By the way, 3 of the actors are British, and one's American.
Only the children really sound French.

That said, if they didn't have the FBI as part of the storyline, I could've believed it a lot more; then it would just be a generic city somewhere in the world.

@zer0surge

In Goldeneye on the Wii, every enemy seems to have a different accent. Didn't bother me too much.

Goldeneye Wii, by the way, has some fantastic facial animations.

@zer0surge Maybe it would bother us if we were German or Russian?

now everybody shouts ..."JASON...JASON...JASON"

@NoirR
you don't have to keep pressing the button :p

You know although the Jason jokes are still funny, I have come to realize that there is more to this.

Back when they were whoring Heavy Rain (before it came out) there was all this talk about "uncanny valley" stuff and how this game looks so phenominal.

Why don't they take a note or two from Rockstar because HOLY CRAP THE FACIAL ANIMATIONS IN LA NOIRE ARE EFFING INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Heavy Rain

Quantic Dream renovates mocap studio

Reader Comments (49)

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 3:27PM Teletheus said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:09PM JohnAHD said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 11:57PM tenacioustoaster said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 12:15AM sigma8 said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:24PM Zenith said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:24PM PreGHz said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:25PM Hivetyrant said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:42PM hxczuner said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:53PM Hivetyrant said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 3:37AM PN04 said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 7:29AM WPstart said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:27PM PreGHz said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:27PM Mustang Fanboy said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:28PM PreGHz said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:40PM Narutogameking said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:24PM MystileArmor said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 11:55PM DarkTwisted said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 2:21AM maveric101 said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 2:22AM maveric101 said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:41PM ch3burashka said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:54PM Esposch said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 11:15AM Zolroy said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:56PM Helghast102 said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:24PM dcfox said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 12:50AM A Sandwich said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 1:54AM Kevadu said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 2:20AM sigma8 said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 10:32AM SirBucket said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 2:57PM CamelCamelCamel said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 6:06PM Helghast102 said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 9:59PM acme64 said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:07PM Colin said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:57PM Hivetyrant said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:59PM DustbinK said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 11:33PM Hivetyrant said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 2:25AM sigma8 said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 11:47AM ptcamn said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:22PM bookscout said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 11:06PM Liquidfingers said

Posted: Dec 13th 2010 10:58PM DustbinK said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 2:20AM Breakdown said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 3:59AM superchamois said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 4:30AM zer0surge said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 10:22AM Enosoma said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 10:23AM Enosoma said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 3:00PM CamelCamelCamel said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 5:10AM NoirR said

Posted: Dec 16th 2010 1:53PM Rizraz said

Posted: Dec 14th 2010 10:20AM Enosoma said

Heavy Rain Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Weekly Webcomic Wrapup is a stranger in a strange land

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW