L.A. Noire 360/PS3

[rmoxon]

I think meticulously covering a crime scene is a skill mate...

I only say this because going back a replaying cases I've found things I've missed beforehand and some of them were key elements to deriving the correct answers in some interrogations. This and the fact I wasnt rushing anything, I just didnt spot them first time (it's a much better game with the assists off). So perhaps skill isnt the right word here but it's a definite requirement to achieve the best ratings on cases but the structure of the game will let you progress with leniency here... but at the cost of a worse score.

So far I've been getting around 4 stars per case on first attempt but since turning off assists I've had one horrendous case where I completed it with 2 stars. So yes I would say it is possible to be rubbish at this game. I'm actually playing it with my mrs listening in on the whole proceedings as she's found it absorbing to spectate. Call it good cop, bad cop (Im the bad one). What I've found is in some situations she's actually spotted something I've missed completely, stuff that when put into context means more than I took on face value.

It's a simple thing, but what I am saying is... as a detective she clearly has more skill than me.

My main complaints about the game so far are that in places it is too rigid and the mechanics dont do as good a job as they need to for the game to flow more convincingly. I would also prefer some more free-form clues and detective work to be allowed outside of crime-scenes and following a paper-trail... as it is sometimes this works and really works well and other times it can be jarringly strange when the game plays you a segment of conversation that in your head you had pre-empted would go completely differently.

The good news here is when you 5 star a case everything makes perfect sense.

I found virtualy every peice of evidence in the game my first time through and I had the assists off. The only time I missed evidence seemed to be if i completed a case before id even visited an area. Which makes no sense in some cases becuase you are then told that certain people have avoided arrest even though in reality you could still go and arrest them after you had caught the other culprits. Youre basicaly being punished becuase of the games rigid structure, which again has nothing to do with your skill as a gamer as there is no way you can know which order to visit some places off hand.

I'm Sorry I just really dont consider walking around an area and picking things up a skill. it doesnt feel like detective work, it feels like a programed computer game (which it is of course), even with the assists off the game still virtualy tells you what to to.

I dont understand where the skill is in being told what to do (though i do admit a couple of my previous bosses in real life might tell you that the abilty to follow orders is simply skill set I dont have ).

Sorry i just dont see it at all, everything is laid out for you, the game doesnt require you to be good at anything, you see things and pick things up, you dont even have to use your brain becuase everything is just laying there and the characters in the game will always tell you what to do next even with the aids off.

I did expected much more freeform elements with this, like the ones you have described and I wish they were there, you dont feel like youre in charge of an investigation and its a shame. However thats just my opinion, i'm sure some people love being lead by the hadnd everywhere, but either way I still dont think it takes any kind of skill to play the game well.

[Myth]

I personally see the skill as knowing what to do with the evidence. Not so much in walking around a room pressing a button.

Very rarely have I found myself questioning a suspect with no clue whether to pick truth, doubt or lie. Especially if you check your notebook before moving on as each area gets crossed off once you've cleared it of clues. It nomally comes down to knowing that you have the evidence to pick lie, or reading the suspects body language to pick between doubt and truth.

[toythatkills]

I personally see the skill as knowing what to do with the evidence. Not so much in walking around a room pressing a button.

Very rarely have I found myself questioning a suspect with no clue whether to pick truth, doubt or lie. Especially if you check your notebook before moving on as each area gets crossed off once you've cleared it of clues. It nomally comes down to knowing that you have the evidence to pick lie, or reading the suspects body language to pick between doubt and truth.

I wouldn't even bother, man. That way madness lies.

[rmoxon]

As i have said I dont think the questioning works half the time, but even when it doesI dont think thats about how skillful you are either.

Everything is laid out for you (in theory at least), you dont even need a good memory becuase as you say its all in the notes, all you need to do is listen to someone and then look down the evidence to see if you have anything that contradicts their statments. As for reading witnesses in regards to body language, its all about the facial experiesons not the body language and its usualy obvious if they are lying or not becuase of what they said. I havent really needed to read anyone so far, the only time Ive got things wrong is when the game seems to have gone against the evidence that I have, requiring me to pick doubt when i have evidence that proves the witness is lying (but the evidence wont work for some reason and then in the end the evidence is never needed for anything). Or when It wants me to pick lie but I pick doubt.

Incidently I dont understand why doubt doesnt work in some way no matter if you have evidence or not, you should still get some reaction out of some witness' but you dont, they just laugh at you and rub the fact that you are wrong in your face, its not half as realistic as it should be. Yet another way in which a more freeform nature would benefit the game. I just really didnt get on with the fact that it kept reminding me that it was a rigidly structured game.

Its just all a bit too restricted for me, its an ambitious game, but it doesnt work as well as it should.

[fallenangle]

A short incidental practical question about the game: I've just read the XB360 version comes on three discs, how does that work as regards playing from the HDD (as I assume everybody does)? I've not played a multi-disc XB360 game before so I'm curious to know if you have to swap discs even after HDD installation when you hit what would otherwise be an 'insert disc 2/3' point?

[toythatkills]

Yep, you still have to swap disks. If you install them all at once it just means you don't have to install them at the changeover and wait ten minutes to change the disk! The swapping's not a big issue, though. It's always between cases and so there's no annoyance or owt.

[crocky-chocky]

Still really enjoying this, and as my gal is away I'm going to have to go the weekend without it. There's just too many amazing touches. Playing it alone is actually impossible.

I love the repetition of solving cases, and hit my first genuinely disappointing moment when the game switched things up a tad (

->Open Spoiler<-

the search for clues dotted around L.A. by Black Dahlia McGee

) . I liked that you were essentially just nudging Phelps in the right direction, so to suddenly switch to having to solve the

->Open Spoiler<-

riddles

myself kind of messed with the pacing.

Also, had to chuckle at the bit on top of

->Open Spoiler<-

the chandelier. I was up there for about a minute, trying to get it to sway

and ended up making poor Phelps look quite the boob.

Typical. I've ended up being mostly negative about a game I love to bits.

[Mayhem]

Started playing this yesterday, got as far as completing the first two detective cases. Nothing too tricky so far, I imagine it'll get harder later as I managed to get four star and five star on them. Maybe my love of Phoenix Wright will help hah hah. Been randomly finding the locations and cars to unlock, I even nicked the coroner's van in the second case. Thankfully he didn't mind

Quick question: if you aim at a fleeing suspect, there's a dial that appears and fills up? What is this for, to prepare for a warning shot or something to stop them escaping? I notice there's an achievement for getting a fleeing suspect to halt, so I'm wondering if I'm putting two and two together. Most of the time, the street crime incidents I respond to need the coroner afterwards

[toythatkills]

Yeah, if you can target them long enough you fire a warning shot and get them to stop. It's the difference between a live suspect and a dead one in a few street crimes! IIRC, you'll have been told to do it in one of the tutorial case type things where you're still a patrolman.

[Mayhem]

Really? I don't recall seeing any instruction about warning shots, maybe I wasn't completely paying attention to popups...

[fallenangle]

Yep, you still have to swap disks. If you install them all at once it just means you don't have to install them at the changeover and wait ten minutes to change the disk! The swapping's not a big issue, though. It's always between cases and so there's no annoyance or owt.

Thanks for the info.

So it's not unlike the way PC game installs seem to work (as I've found out to my disappointment). I've been disc swapping since my early PS days (5 disc Riven) but I've been spoilt by my modded original Xboxes where playing from the HDD means just that.

[toythatkills]

Haha, it's amazing that Riven used to come on five disks, and now you can play it on a telephone

[stevie vip 99]

So i've just finished this 100%, not sure really what to say about it. I sort of enjoyed it but it wasn't like playing a game for me, i have to agree with what someone said earlier, there was really no skill involved in my opinion. Game plays itself a lot of the time.
I think this has been given rave reviews because of the rockstar name but i found it awkward to control at times and also a lot of faults in the game. How hard is it to get a character to move freely in a game?? **** games seem to manage it ok but the movement on this was just not right. Cars were pretty shocking to drive too!!

Overall it's worth a playthrough but i imagine many gamers will be bored after awhile with this (i've spoke to many who were). 6/10

[Mayhem]

Cars were pretty shocking to drive too!!

Well, that's one true to life thing from America 1940s then

[PeteJ]

Surprised you 100%'ed it if you didn't like it!

I just did the second mission on Vice

->Open Spoiler<-

The match fixing one

and somehow I ended up with one star. I have no idea what I was meant to do on the interview. I blatently had evidence, so I selected lie and suddenly the suspect says "yeah, you can't prove this thing which has nothing to do with what we were just talking about". For the first time in the game I failed to get a single question right! Bah.

Enjoying this more the further I get in though. The Vice cases are much better than everything before hand.