New movie-style video game's interactive mystery puzzle website

(All rights reserved - Sony Computer Entertainment)

Heavy Rain, the imminent PlayStation 3 release from ambitious Parisian software developers Quantic Dream, is being supported by an interactive, detective-themed website in the four-week run-up to the game's late February launch.

The game is seen by many as a followup to 2005's PlayStation 2 game Farenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in North America), which was also a cinematic against-the-grain entry into the videogame market of the time.

Studio founder David Cage saw Farenheit as a visionary work that blurred the boundaries of home entertainment and divided gamers and critics alike, repelling and attracting with its novel approach to the format, and has said the same of the upcoming Heavy Rain.

The game's extraordinary visuals coupled with its intended intuitive controls are expected to make waves upon its release, either as a critical hit or a disappointing flop. Either way, it's sure to be unique in its style.

The game revolves around four characters' search for the Origami Killer, a murderer who has touched each of their lives in different ways. Similarly, the Four Days online mystery is also a hunt for clues about the silent assassin.

European participants who sign up at the Heavy Rain website recieve a piece of digital clothing for use in the PlayStation 3's virtual world, Home, while budding North American sleuths have an opportunity to net one during the Four Days experience which runs from January 26 until the PS3 game's release in the last week of Feburary.

www.HeavyRainPS3.com