Yes, they're both adventures...guess I should have said "point & click".
There's also the seasons of Sam & Max and Back to the Future available.
Point and Click is sort of gone now though and was more a 16-32 bit era genre. They live on in spirit, but Adventures have evolved much further recently with a lot more immersion that tries to remove any interface altogether. Heavy Rain is definitely a great example of this, but I would say it is still very much the same genre as you are still moving a character around scenes exploring the environment and objects in it.
If you haven't played a classic game in years, it's never too late to start!
I don't think that Point & Click adventures are of existence right now. There are quite a lot of those adventure for windows and they keep coming in the future. Not so many though as the old days nor nothing at all. I still play that kind of adventure as it's my 2nd favourite kind after text(/graphics) adventures which those you can surely say that they don't exist anymore.
Heavy Rain, yes it's an adventure of sort of, but as you're old enough and much experienced (like me) in computer games industry through over the years, you can simply tell the difference if a game is a pure adventure (like classic adventures) or not.
Just because you move a character around various locations and examine objects doesn't make it an adventure methinks. It might be near that, no doubt, but not 100% as we knew it.
Maybe things have changed like RPGs. As I said earlier, I don't like the new touch of RPGs, as I prefer the old kind like Eye of the Beholder, SSI's RPGs etc.
[b]To Be A True Adventurer, You Ought To Play Real Text Adventures[/b]
Games and their genres are constantly evolving and I don't think we can expect a genre to stay as it is for more than 10 years. Even throughout the life of the Amiga a genre evolved, or more so for the Amiga where many genres were actually invented for the first time.
I also was a huge fan of the Dungeon Master style RPG style, with the Eye of the Beholder games being my favourite. Hired Guns and a few others were also brilliant. But that style of gameplay is now very out of date and the way it worked was really a product of the computer power of the day. Utilising what was available at the time to create the more immerse environment they could at the time.
If you haven't played a classic game in years, it's never too late to start!
Don't forget Legend of Grimrock which is still on it's way!
I'm following the production blog on this and it's in alpha state now, meaning it's technically playable from beginning to end though much content is still missing. Apparently the developer who went through it to hit that milestone used ten hours to do it even though he knew exactly what to do. Probably a PC-only release though so a little off-topic here.
I agree with Phantom,
adventure games still have fans, and they still have a space in the industry.
I love them.
I am playing Still Life 2 and it is a great game, with a nice story. I like those kind of games and the feeling they can give you.
i allways want to know how the story ends, even if graphics or sound are not the best. But story here plays a very important role.
exemples of great adventure games with fantastic stories:
- Longest Journey (best advanture game ever... for me)
- Longest Journey 2 Dreamfall
- Still Life 2
- Myst series
- 7th guest
- 11th hour
the list would go on and on. Longest journey is not so old... no more then what 6/7 years...
But i also liked a lot Heavy Rain, brilliant game, and L.A. Noire looks very good to.
A500 - A600 - A1200
The Longest Journey is actually 12 years old - I bought my boxed copy second-hand in 2000!
It was 5 years ago since I played Dreamfall!
My friend also has Heavy Rain, I will see if I can borrow it when I'm done with Oblivion. She says her kids keep playing Heavy Rain, apparently they all sit there for hours watching the rain falling realistically off cars