L.A. Noire

[stoobie]

This is not really an opinion yet as I have only done the very first intro case, but there seemed to be a lot of picking 'evidence' up to be faced with lines like 'maybe thats not helpful' or 'thats not needed here'. That could get annoying.

The facial animation is amazing tho

[Sambob]

Feed me impressions

[illdog]

[retroed]

I'll be picking this up in Gamestation tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in, I've not been this excited to play a game for quite some time.

[illdog]

It's really good. Took a little getting into and the gameplay isn't explained well but once you get into the meat of the game it's great.

I feel it could get repetitive. It's obvious when someone is going to run and it's comical how often it ends with them holding a hostage in an alleyway.

This.

My own bitty, all over the shot impressions:

I was a little bored for the first hour and thinking this game wasnt for me but I found myself really in to it by the end of the first proper case - it takes about that long to get a good feel of the game and how it works.

The driving is sweet, nice and fluid. The walking and fighting is pretty clunky. The shooting is a ton better than GTA.

THE FACES THE FACES LOOK AT THE FACES. As good as they are they do all look a bit like Hannibal Lecter with a skin mask on.

I was abit confused at first on when to use Doubt and when to use Lie, but i think i was being a retard. Its a Lie if you can proove it, Doubt if you think they are talking shit and you want to press them further, like HOLD IT!

Really been enjoying the street crime side missions, i do them at every opportunity so i can blast my nine piece.

Also the stories are well told and enjoyable, i get easily bored but ive been happy to take everything in. Digging the little newspaper story too.

Thumbs decidedly up.

EDIT: I thought i had the lie, doubt truth system down but i was wrong. This girls eyes were darting all over the place and apparently she was telling the truth. I guess part of it is down to luck.

[stoobie]

I think it starts of badly - the search down the alley way is really badly handled I think, but its needed for the training.

Once it gets going tho its really good. I am pretty useless with my interrogations - although I did get all questions answered correctly achievement for one of them. I am not sure when to Doubt or when to Lie - Im sure it will all become clear.

Its not as sandbox as I thought it would be which I am glad about - it reminds me a lot of Mafia 2.

[DANGERMAN]

I'm really enjoying it, I know it's harsh to compare it straight away but I think I'd take Heavy Rain's darker tale over the 40's style of this. The characters are really well done though, even some of the witnesses.

I agree with illdog that it's a bit clunky every now and then. The shooting could be better, I don't know if that's something that changes as you level up. I was trying to follow the rules with the driving but frankly it's not worth it, might as well just plough through and hope for the best.

One thing I have found is that, when I had to travel from one location to another (a long way away) it took even longer with the side quests popping up. The side quests have been good, although not so much the hostage taking (ended up just shooting the guy before getting to that point after a few attempts), and so far all but one of them have ended with the perp getting dropped (the other they guy just got knocked the fuck out). I ended up missing one just because they kept taking me further away from my destination. They're nice and short though, once you get there like.

[HandsomeDead]

What does creative director of FarCry 2 think?

"1hr in. Moriarty was right re games as kitsch," He said, referencing a GDC talk. "Derivative, uninspired, narcissistic. Nothing original to say, & said badly. #LANoire"

The cat has some claws.

[stoobie]

If you are a member of the Rockstar social club you can go the website and check all your game stats - including if you missed any evidence during the cases and the questions you got wrong. Plus all the other stuff like cars driven, newspapers found, headshots etc. Ideal for game stat nerds like...erm...me and illdog.

You can compare your stats with other people on your friends list too. For example I can see that despite having the game for only 20 seconds topgun is already nearly ahead of me

[stoobie]

Mind reading policeman from Heroes just turned up.

I charged him with murder which seemed to annoy my boss who then demoted me. Oops

[DANGERMAN]

the mood of this game throws me. The story missions require you to be really methodical, the interview parts anyway. I've had the Phoenix Wright problem of finding evidence where the game thinks there isn't any ** . It seem to want you to go through your evidence list and see if there's anything the directly contradicts what's being said, and that's fine, but the way that's hidden away encourages you to just take a guess based on behaviour and remembered conversations. To counter that though the side missions are pure action. I feel like I'm not doing them properly if I just gun people down, and maybe I'm not, but it's getting me the mission complete.

**

the screentest case. Presented a mini head to prove two suspects had seen each other recently, i.e. one had given it to the other, apparently wrong even though it proves it and the game acknowledges it as evidence

Really enjoying it though, there's a few bits of side plot that seem to be beginning to thread into the main storyline

[DANGERMAN]

if you can prove it it's a lie, if you can't but you think they're holding out on you it's doubt. Oddly sometimes if you accept what they're saying is true they give you more information too, things like if they say they're upset you can be sympathetic and they'll talk more. It's not the most refined thing ever, but then I guess if it was it'd feel too gamey

[illdog]

if you can prove it it's a lie, if you can't but you think they're holding out on you it's doubt. Oddly sometimes if you accept what they're saying is true they give you more information too

But you still get a cross by your question. Thats annoying. Its getting much more difficult to get the difference between doubt/truth/lie. Sometimes even when they are telling the truth the flick their eyes a little, making me instantly think its time to doubt. It might just be cos im a rubbish detective.

Despite its possibly samey nature im enjoying every case, the stories are pretty engrossing once you start chasing your leads and start peiceing things together. I really enjoy "being" Phelps, i love his straight edge super dedicated attitude and the intensity in his voice when he questions people.

Im on a case called "The Quarter Moon Murders" and its started off quite differently. I was quite into it till the woman accidently ejected the disc whilst needlessly cleaning the 360.

[spatular]

i'm sort of enjoying this but also sort of hating it the finding evidence bits are slow and boring, clunkey movement doesn't help either. and i'm rubbish at the questioning too, even one of the cases i worked out straight away but got all the questioning wrong, not that it matters that much most of the time. some odd stuff happens too, like i'd already got evidence for something but your guy says something completely different. but in other ways it's really slick, i like the quick travel thing letting the other guy drive, and it's really varied gameplay, some shooting, chasing on foot/in car, questioning, finding clues, folowing people, it really keeps you on your toes. the dialogue and story are pretty good too.

[DANGERMAN]

I heard a radio advert whilst in the car as a murder detective, and I'm fairly sure it was Ryan from Bioshock, the guy's nailed the 40's voice.

Agree with everything that's being said regarding the questioning, you can never be 100% sure you and the game are on the same wavelength. Again I've presented evidence (this time in the Golden Butterfly case), the text at the top of the screen led me to believe we were talking about one thing, then as soon as I pushed lie he changed to a different track, annoying.

Also on the Golden Butterfly who did people pick?

I went with the paedo, the name of his company and his use of rope sold it to me. But I can totally believe the husband did it, without testing the blood you wouldn't know I guess, nor seeing if his uniform was at home

Either way one is going to break the law again the other not, except maybe turning into a drunk and beating/assaulting his daughter but that's another department

[illdog]

I went with Matt from Heroes because the evidence was more in his favour and the Captain said he would have the paedo whatever the outcome.

Im on Disc 3 now, just had a case end without a shitty interview for me to get wrong, it was a nice change.

[stoobie]

I chose the husband - his bloody overalls in the car, the blood on his shoe which he tried to burn and the fact that he lied about smacking his wife - I got the impression that the paedo was innocent but they wanted to frame him for this to get him locked up. I'm still not sure if I made the right choice or not. The results cutscene showed my boss being pissed off with me and demoting me, but then the next case opener made out that I got a brilliant result from the case

[DANGERMAN]

I chose the husband - his bloody overalls in the car, the blood on his shoe which he tried to burn and the fact that he lied about smacking his wife - I got the impression that the paedo was innocent but they wanted to frame him for this to get him locked up. I'm still not sure if I made the right choice or not. The results cutscene showed my boss being pissed off with me and demoting me, but then the next case opener made out that I got a brilliant result from the case

With me I got praise, then more praise. But he wanted the paedo nicked, and my partner had decided it was the husband (although he's been saying that before we spoke to him)

[Sly Reflex]

Sometimes moral obligations get in the way of the actual truth guys. There are a few incidents like that.

[illdog]

Ad Vice > Homocide.