Implying heavy rain is a game is like implying that a some 5 AM Grilled cheese sandwich is a masterpiece crafted by Gordon Ramsay and an army of magic Christmas Elves.

Though I will say that there has been a notable shift in how games are designed and treated as they steadily marched into the mainstream. The fallout games are actually a really good comparison from a then vs now standpoint. Original Fallout and Fallout 2 versus modern games, not counting Vaultblivion. Fallout was chalk full of mature themes, bleak survivalism, graphic violence (Take the "bloody mess" perk.) And strong sexual themes, though those were far more prevalent in the second game. Games with adult content were made, ranging from the crass debauchery of Custer's Revenge to the cinematic romance scene in Defenders of the Crown.

These things haven't truly changed, they're just made prettier and shoved in our faces more due to gaming shifting from the chaotic early days into structured corporate world we're stuck in today. The graphics and hardware have been on a steady rate of improvement as technology allows more polygons, higher quality sounds, and more soul-drained wageslaves adding more layers of bland grit to our CoDBlOps or whatever kids call them. Some games are getting bolder with how they present content, Bioware going the route of the late night cheesy smut movie with intimate makeout session and the likes of Heavy Rain and God of War reducing sex to awkward quick-time-events. Its interesting to observe how gaming has advanced through the ages, but how much of it has kinda stayed the same.