L.A. Noire 360/PS3

[shiffy]

Just thought I'd bring to your attention that Amazon UK currently have "L.A Noir - The Collected Stories" up for pre-order on the Kindle as a freebie (it certainly is now as of 2/6/11).

Here's the link for those of you who have a Kindle.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/L-Noire-Collected-Stories-ebook/dp/B0052CHOKA%3FSubscriptionId%3D1GVBN9WWNVXC5DBPE502%26tag%3Dkindlefree-21%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB0052CHOKA&kc=A7B2F8DUJ88VZ

Also posted in the bargains forum as well.

[Jebus]

It seemed completely random and purely an instrument to drive where the character goes to next on the career path. It honestly didn't make much sense, unless this is cleared up later in the narrative or papers. As it stands you're left wondering why. I can potentially see a connection on the back story part, but it's seems pretty weak sauce as a plot arc.

Edit = Reading the spoilers I must have missed all of that, but I have been paying attention - the only interaction I saw was the visit.

The whole thing was a mess in that respect. It's quite a while into the game before you even realise that

->Open Spoiler<-

Cole even has a family

and even then they are treated as unimportant.

[MartyG]

I'm nearly at the end now and it's generally been an interesting journey, but there aspects of the game that need work. The whole Cole is nice, Cole is a psycho in the interviews needs reworking - the interviews come across as Scooby Doo rather than Columbo, the conversation inflection is so disjointed that it spoils the immersion and the script and story generally doesn't feel that gelled together.

I can't fault the 40s setting though and the soundtrack does a good job of making me feel part of that era, I'm sure if LA Noire 2 can tweak things it'll move up from a 7/10 in my eyes.

[MrMarbles]

I've just finished this now. What an unsatisfying ending to what I felt to be a disappointingly shoddy game.

There was plenty of ambition there but it fell short in so many crucial areas:

The open world stuff was needless, boring and, if anything, made the game bulkier and more padded than it needed to be.

The story was told terribly due to poor editing and directing. Many supposedly key scenes lacked any impact and some were just plain confusing.

It seemed to be rinsing and repeating a very limited set of mechanics throughout a game that was overlong. Oh, another chase sequence that's going to result in the coroner being called out again.

I never did get to grips with the controls - I was making Phelps lurch around like a blundering idiot, knocking things over and trampling over everything in many a crime scene. They seemed to lack any kind of finesse, making fine-tuned movements impossible.

The admittedly excellent faces just made the horrendous hair and bodies stick out like a sore thumb.

Plus, the Truth/Doubt/Lie system just didn't seem strong enough in its current implementation to build an entire game around.

Positives? Well, I liked the soundtrack. And some of the voice-acting was excellent. I also like the potential for future Mega 64 ribbing where they just go around pointing at stuff before picking it up, rotating it a little and putting it neatly down again.

It wasn't for me and, for that reason, I'm voting with a 6.

[cutmymilk]

Yeah thats my feeling but Ive only played about 8 cases. Is it just rinse and repeat from here would you say?

[EvilBoris]

There is a bit of a lull in the middle when you are in homicide and the cases are kind of a bit samey, I enjoyed it more just after that

[nonny]

There is a reason the homicide cases are samey.

[cutmymilk]

I've found a new way to "play" this game:

Watching this guy's youtube videos. Makes the game much, much funnier

[Jebus]

I just felt the game was about 4-5 hours too long. If they'd kept it to a 10-12 hour title, it wouldn't have had the repetition, and the flabby middle (the homocide desk was way too long imho). The further you get, the more it comes apart at the seams, and honestly, I feel the best way to play it would be to sit with a game guide and just enjoy the cinematics, whilst grabbing top marks all the time.

Hated the ending too, and the

->Open Spoiler<-

balance beam

sections were awful, and I have no idea why they introduced that mechanic at that stage.

[cutmymilk]

I did the lipstick killer last night. Two stars! Hurrah!
Thing is, I went straight to the killer instead of interviewing the innocent husband. So I get marked down for not finding out he didn't do it before catching the killer.

It's why I like the guys video playing it. He's assuming he's wrong all the time

I think thats a good way to do it jebus.

[Wools]

I played a bit more of this over the weekend and finished off Homicide, being promoted to Ad Vice.

This game is quite a mixture, feeling as revolutionary as Mario 64 and Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, whilst being formulaic and boring as well. I played it for nearly 7 hours non-stop over the weekend it was released, adoring the acting, fresh approaches to action (No game has made a on foot chase this special or exciting) and atmosphere. However I put it down for over a fortnight and did not return, every time I thought about powering it up, I remembered the hammer A on everything approach to a crime scene, the jumps in character, the seemingly random and unexpected outcome of pressing Lie, Truth or Doubt and the complete sparseness of the world.

After spending the entire Saturday out the house in the sunshine, a soggy Sunday confined me to the house, prompting me to start the game back up. I’m glad I did.

The criticisms levelled at the game are fair and the silver lining can sometimes be hard to see, but when you’re deep into a murder case it’s so easy to see what the game does do well without hitting any of the snags. I’ve found myself completely ignoring driving case to case as it’s a mundane and dull reworking of Rockstar open world games, and using the thankfully included, skip to destination option. With this, the game does not become another mission re-tread of GTA set in period LA, but instead morphs into an adventure game with great acting, with the unique twist of being a police officer actually involved in the investigation, rather than just shooting the bad guys.

I’m probably about half way through now, so I don’t know if the story can keep up the momentum or how wearing the investigation component will become, but I really enjoy the core mechanics when it’s firing on all cylinders. I wonder how the game would have played if the open world was removed and focus was given to the main story progression?

Either way, it’s a really special game that should be played just to demonstrate how far acting and story has come, and what an individual title this is.

[crocky-chocky]

Finished this a few nights back and loved it for the most part.

There's memorable, lengthy low points and the last hour almost entirely avoids the best aspects of the game, but the highs are too great. It just felt like a massive step-up in so many ways, and such a perfect game to introduce the face-acting tech.

Some of the main plot points didn't come across that strongly, but I didn't mind that, I felt the stories strengths were the little moments in the individual cases. The clever reveals, the awesome on-foot chases, the surprising actions of a character, or just the characters themselves. In fact, I actually liked how they downplayed stuff like [HIDE]Phelps sleeping with Elsa[/HIDE], normally something like that'd be thrown in your face as soon as possible. The story has plenty of flaws, sure, but for me, they focused on the stuff that was more interesting.

Anyone tried the DLC? I played through 'The Naked City' last night, which I got with my preorder. It was brill.

Just bought the other case and am going to fire it up this eve.

[marcus]

Im on episode 10 now, and its frustrating/entertaining in equal measure.

I guess Stan Marsh can sum this up MUCH better than I ever could..

[EightRooks]

This game is quite a mixture, feeling as revolutionary as Mario 64 and Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion, whilst being formulaic and boring as well.

Pretty much. Beat it a couple of days ago, and while in many respects it's an amazing achievement, it's not anything like as much of a game as it ought to be. The interrogation system started to fall apart pretty early on for me, once I realised Phelps thinks there's nothing wrong with accusing

->Open Spoiler<-

a fifteen-year-old girl who's been raped

of lying in the exact same way he does for a murdering thug. Though the nadir was the point I was trying to get a guy to confess to having been committing a certain series of crimes - picked the wrong answer, so he insists he's not guilty - then got the next answer right, at which point he essentially confesses to having committed the crimes anyway yet Phelps just sits there and doesn't react in the slightest. I mean, Jesus, Team Bondi, did you not notice crap like this? Really?

And the structure was far too often fairly dire - I liked the chases, even the tails - they controlled perfectly well and I appreciated the chance to get a better look at the city, but the fact every bloody suspect does a runner just started getting on my nerves. Note to developers: if you need to put in an in-joke about something negative to do with your game, that's a sign you're doing it wrong. No arguments.

Plus I get to be that guy again - I loved the ending. Not done half as well as Team Bondi obviously think, but I thought it was a brave step that was foreshadowed pretty well and felt satisfying despite its flaws. The downside for me was I thought the homicide cases were increasingly bloody awful, particularly the utterly ridiculous conclusion - it's the thing the game's sold on ('Play through the Black Dahlia case over and over!') and it was so stultifyingly boring by the time I'd finished I was struggling to carry on. But I'm glad I did, since even if the game's basic flaws never went away I thought the narrative overall suddenly got a hell of a lot more interesting shortly into Ad Vice and only got better from then on.

Just about manages a 7, for me. A proper 7, as in a very good game, but with too much wrong with it to ever be a real standout. Much better than Heavy Rain, overall, but like Heavy Rain far more valuable as an inspiration for other developers than a game everyone simply must play, etc., etc.

[toythatkills]

Here's something fun to try in LA Noire. When you smash a car so the wheels roll away, run in front of one of them and let it bump into the back of your legs.