Except for the whole choice / consequence thing. Whenever Heavy Rain comes up it invariably comes down to this whole argument. There is a degree of control over characters that allows me to confidently call this a "game". That it does not include traditional combat / inventory minigames does not, in itself, mean anything. You can make conscious choices (or mistakes) that impact the way the game plays out. There is very clear output based on the input of the player. What else is there? Call it a bad game if you want, call it a boring game by all means, but it's a game.