So ... L.A. Noire, what's the verdict?

[Magellan]

Critics seem to love it, but still point out a few of its flaws.

I watched a few playthroughs myself and it looks interesting enough. The script fits the times, the face recognition works well, it feels like you're in the 40s. So did anyone pick it up last night?

[Flagg]

I've played through the first couple acts and it's pretty good so far.

[weemadando]

http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2011/0 ... et-better/

[CaptHawkeye]

It's a puzzle game basically, one you can't fail at. Anyone who approaches it thinking its GTA or even Red Dead Redemption is an idiot. It's not an action game by nature and Rockstar never acted like it was one.

My problem is that as usual, it's not open ended. Especially when Rockstar likes to act like they're the trumpeting poster boy developers of open world games. But a bad game? Only if you act like it should be something it isn't.

[Magellan]

It's a puzzle game basically, one you can't fail at. Anyone who approaches it thinking its GTA or even Red Dead Redemption is an idiot. It's not an action game by nature and Rockstar never acted like it was one.

My problem is that as usual, it's not open ended. Especially when Rockstar likes to act like they're the trumpeting poster boy developers of open world games. But a bad game? Only if you act like it should be something it isn't.

I see it as a Phoenix Wright meets GTA meets something else kind of thing. Its bugging me because I can't figure out what that something else is.

EDIT: Meets noir films I guess.

[CaptHawkeye]

Ironically it's not very noir-ish other than the seldom heard narrator. It's closer to an episode of CSI.

[Stark]

Ironically it's not very noir-ish other than the seldom heard narrator. It's closer to an episode of CSI.

Given how awful the gunplay is in Rockstar games, that's probably a good thing. I'm not really sure there's a reason to keep the game, unless you play it really slowly.

[DPDarkPrimus]

It's a big-budget, cinematic adventure game with a candy coating of GTA gameplay on the outside.

The only annoying thing for me is that in interrogations sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly which piece of evidence you need to present when breaking a lie, and you don't get do-overs.

[weemadando]

It's a big-budget, cinematic adventure game with a candy coating of GTA gameplay on the outside.

The only annoying thing for me is that in interrogations sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly which piece of evidence you need to present when breaking a lie, and you don't get do-overs.

Turns out that you aren't a trained detective IRL and that getting a flawed outcome isn't a gamebreaker.

[Stofsk]

The only annoying thing for me is that in interrogations sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly which piece of evidence you need to present when breaking a lie, and you don't get do-overs.

That actually sounds really, really good.

[weemadando]

Indeed it sounds like Spycraft...

[Stofsk]

I was actually thinking of Alpha Protocol in how the conversations - all of them, but in particular the meaningful ones - were on a timer and thus there were no do-overs.

Such an insanely good idea that really puts you in the moment. None of this 'oh let me take an hour or two to decide how best to respond' crap.

[Chardok]

I was actually thinking of Alpha Protocol in how the conversations - all of them, but in particular the meaningful ones - were on a timer and thus there were no do-overs.

Such an insanely good idea that really puts you in the moment. None of this 'oh let me take an hour or two to decide how best to respond' crap.

BFS, I've played it for like an hour and you know where MY hangup is? No? Well, I'll tell you anyway. Its on the first traffic mission where you get your first side mission that tells you to stop/apprehend the mugger/whatever. I keep BOOM headshotzing him, and I want to only wound him, see? so I restart, sit through the whole 5 minute long "introduction to traffic desk" cutscene, and redo it...over and over and over again


I hate myself.

[Artemas]

proportional force man

maybe you shouldnt shoot him

[Chardok]

Look, this goes against convention, okay? Clearly you have to shotz him.

[weemadando]

Are there the chases which are so.scripted that no matter what you do you can't end them until the script says so? You know where the car has invulnerable tags on and has physics values bumped so you can never run it off the road etc?

[Magellan]

The foot chases feel scripted, but I'm not too sure about the cars.

[CaptHawkeye]

Yeah it's full of typical Rockstar bullshit and it's draining my patience quickly. Every time a scripted chase sequence comes up I just want to stop playing.

[Chardok]

Yeah it's full of typical Rockstar bullshit and it's draining my patience quickly. Every time a scripted chase sequence comes up I just want to stop playing.

I think you might be missing the forest for the trees. I feel like L.A. Noire is a pretty big step forward in terms of storytelling and immersive gameplay overall. I'll paraphrase Jim Sterling here, because I feel like he's spot-on "I want to send a copy of L.A. Noire to David Cage with a note attached that says 'THIS is how you do it' (ya pretentious French twat)"

[Stark]

Is immersive gameplay necessarily linear?

Rockstar says yes.

[Magellan]

Being linear is not necessarily a bad thing. This game can't be Ace Attorney meets GTA meets Heavy Rain.

I'm appreciating it for what it pushes itself to rather than giving it crap for what its not. Yeah, the chases sequences are a bit repetitive, but action isn't exactly the strength of the game (even though it still works for it).

[Stark]

Chards thinks the game is immersive, but the point is it would be equally immersive if they didn't have the GTA:VC-era scripted 'events'. Maybe one of their mission designers thinks an important part of being a policeman post WW2 is memorising street traffic spawns.

[Magellan]

Chards thinks the game is immersive, but the point is it would be equally immersive if they didn't have the GTA:VC-era scripted 'events'. Maybe one of their mission designers thinks an important part of being a policeman post WW2 is memorising street traffic spawns.

Har Har

The game is at its most immersive when you're investigating. Picking up items at the crime scene or realizing that someone is full of shit and calling them out on it. Even the cutscenes, the dialogue feels so natural when you're watching Cole banter with his partner (whether its someone he likes or not).

[DPDarkPrimus]

The only annoying thing for me is that in interrogations sometimes it's hard to figure out exactly which piece of evidence you need to present when breaking a lie, and you don't get do-overs.

That actually sounds really, really good.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate that you can get wrong interrogation approaches and not get a game over screen, but when the adventure game scenario of "I know what to do, I know I have what to do it with, but not how to do it" comes up and you know you don't get another chance at doing it... yeah.

But it's a fault of the genre, really, so I don't hold it against LAN too much.

[Stark]

Har Har

The game is at its most immersive when you're investigating. Picking up items at the crime scene or realizing that someone is full of shit and calling them out on it. Even the cutscenes, the dialogue feels so natural when you're watching Cole banter with his partner (whether its someone he likes or not).

Do you mean 'mashing A to investigate'? You don't have to demonstrate any understanding of clues or the crime scene (like in the more sophisticated Condemned 2 system), you just have to pick it up and wiggle it a bit. The interview system is a good idea, but since it's 100% binary (ie, you pick the 'right' option or you get nothing) it's not as dynamic as it could be, especially when the game pulls you into a conversation before you have the clues you need to 'win' the interview. Even more amusing is that the game will let you interact with the same trivial nothing (salad forks, washing powder) at every house, but you can't use the kitchenware that exactly matches a murder weapon as a clue. It's not a clue! You can't pick it up!

Everyone I've spoken to would rather just watch the movie than play the game, because the stuff you have to do is so boring and repetitive - even those who thought RDR was great. The street crimes being basically cut and pastes from RDR where 95% of them are just 'murder all suspects', which is a real shame.