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Team Bondi's L.A. NOIRE |OT| Watchin' Faces, Solvin' Cases

firehawk12

Subete no aware
Sethos said:
Have to agree with whoever used the AC1 comparison, very much spot-on. Game has a ton of potential but right now, it does fall a bit flat.

Yup, and like the move to AC2, I'd be perfectly fine if they changed location and basically rebooted with a whole new character. This time, someone who is much more fleshed out and perhaps a bit more likeable.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
I don't really see the Assassin's Creed compariosn beyond simple repetition. AC1 got the actual assassination's down very well, much better than either of the sequels actually did. LA Noire doesn't nail the detective part down and suffers from repetition.

It has the foundation for a much better sequel laid out, but there's nothing I can really closely compare it to.
 

JonCha

Member
I think sequel aren't going to be around, but just individual games in different eras. I'd actually quite like a sequel though.
 
So I was on the "Marriage Made In Heaven" case and found the
knife in the garbage
but then didn't get credit for finding it/didn't get the achievement.

UGH.

This left stick to look around thing is cool but too touchy or whatever.

Fun game but yep, annoyances are creeping in.
 
I'd hope they'd fix the basic movement controls and camera. If we're going to be spending a lot of time walking around sometimes cramped environments and trying to position ourselves to focus on very small items scattered on the ground in the game world, movement has to be precise and comfortable.

The cover system and combat is classic Rockstar, which is to say its clunky and still way behind the times. If the game is going to throw in combat and racing as the fun and exciting bits, those aspects of the game HAVE to be nailed, and, well, fun and exciting.

In terms of the cases themselves, I'd hope they'd give more options in how to approach interrogations, remove the fail conditions (allow retries but allow the possibility of continuing the story even with botched cases), allow us to control our level of aggression in questioning, outside of whether we believe the subject or not, and provide more game elements to the questioning besides purely determining truth or falsehood.

Then give us a change of pace between cases. Don't just stack them up on top of each other in sequence. Put them as spots on the map, so that when we arrive in a certain area of town they unfold, and/or provide us with some alternate gameplay (not cinematics) for us to engage in after finishing a case. Maybe we meet up with other detectives at the bar. Maybe we go home, something, anything that gives us insight into the world and characters, but that is playable.

Last bit - give us a pathway through the game where we don't have to kill except under extreme circumstances. Let us take down offenders by non-lethal means or allow us to take limb shots. Reward us for bringing suspects in alive.

With that kind of effort I'd be all over a sequel.
 

watershed

Banned
Anticitizen One said:
If this game gets a sequel my big request is to replace the current interogation system with something more similar to Mass Effect dialogue trees.

This. The interrogations seem to lack depth because you can't ask questions/dig deeper. Its kind of sad to me that Mass Effect does a better job of interviews and interrogations then LA Noire where that gameplay is its major selling point. Plus the devs could have looked around to see what others have done with similar gameplay systems (mass effect, ace attorney, lots of pc rpgs) to figure out something with a bit more complexity and nuance.
 

watershed

Banned
NullPointer said:
I'd hope they'd fix the basic movement controls and camera. If we're going to be spending a lot of time walking around sometimes cramped environments and trying to position ourselves to focus on very small items scattered on the ground in the game world, movement has to be precise and comfortable.

The cover system and combat is classic Rockstar, which is to say its clunky and still way behind the times. If the game is going to throw in combat and racing as the fun and exciting bits, those aspects of the game HAVE to be nailed, and, well, fun and exciting.

In terms of the cases themselves, I'd hope they'd give more options in how to approach interrogations, remove the fail conditions (allow retries but allow the possibility of continuing the story even with botched cases), allow us to control our level of aggression in questioning, outside of whether we believe the subject or not, and provide more game elements to the questioning besides purely determining truth or falsehood.

Then give us a change of pace between cases. Don't just stack them up on top of each other in sequence. Put them as spots on the map, so that when we arrive in a certain area of town they unfold, and/or provide us with some alternate gameplay (not cinematics) for us to engage in after finishing a case. Maybe we meet up with other detectives at the bar. Maybe we go home, something, anything that gives us insight into the world and characters, but that is playable.

Last bit - give us a pathway through the game where we don't have to kill except under extreme circumstances. Let us take down offenders by non-lethal means or allow us to take limb shots. Reward us for bringing suspects in alive.

With that kind of effort I'd be all over a sequel.

I endorse this statement. I would just add to it: Give the cars better physics and better controls.
 
I've made it to Vice and I can already say that this is my GOTY thus far; way surpassing the likes of Portal 2, LittleBigPlanet 2 and Yakuza 4. There are a myriad of minute flaws I can nitpick at, but when I'm in the midst of a case and revelling in the ambiance of glitzy 40's L.A., in the snappy banter between Phelps and his partner and in the highly nuanced investigatory nature of the gameplay, I'm ensnared by the experience like no other, and it all just comes together in one beautiful package.

This is exactly the sort of thing I want from gaming right now.
 

UberTag

Member
Buckethead said:
So I was on the "Marriage Made In Heaven" case and found the
knife in the garbage
but then didn't get credit for finding it/didn't get the achievement.
That's not a glitched achievement.
You'll only get credit for the trophy/achievement once the actual cause of murder is identified at the coroner's office later in that case. It'll pop then... don't fret.
 
UberTag said:
That's not a glitched achievement.
You'll only get credit for the trophy/achievement once the actual cause of murder is identified at the coroner's office later in that case. It'll pop then... don't fret.
Yeah it didn't give me credit for
finding the knife
.
I'm like 6 cases after that now.

I don't know if I needed to do the LS thing (I tried mind you, it just wouldn't rumble) or what.
 

BeeDog

Member
Just started up the game, and was wondering, is the guy who's doing the voice-over narrative the same guy who's Joshua Graham/The Burned Man in Honest Hearts?
 
Enjoying the game for the most part. Controls bother me here and there. One other thing that bothers me is that the interrogations and questioning don't always flow together. Phelps will be perfectly calm and then you choose one option and out of no where he yells at the person and says "I will break your fucking skulls!" There's no build up, just goes from calm and intent to loud and violent. Or vice versa.
 

jgminto

Member
I am on the second case of the arson department and I am very happy with this game. There are a few problems though.

SPOILERS:

End of Vice:
I don't fully understand why Cole was cheating on his wife with the singer. There seemed to be no connection with her other than visiting the Blue Room. And why did he cheat on his wife in the first place. There were no real problems with his marriage. And his wife was barely a character. The first time you hear her speak is after you cheat on her. They are both shallow characters.

Incorrect notices: I don't like how music plays when you get an answer correct or incorrect. It really makes me want to quit and start the interrogation. I would prefer if there was only the dialogue. You would still be able to tell if you were blatantly wrong but it wouldn't be so obvious.

Mission Structure: I feel that the missions are repetitive. They generally consist of:
1. Go to Crime Scene
2. Collect Evidence
3. Visit person of interest
4. Chase and interrogate/Investigate and interrogate
5. Repeat 3 & 4
6. Make verdict

I feel that Bondi and R* had the ability to use a large variety of mission structures but just played it safe.

None the less, LA Noire is still a great game and if Bondi can improve on those elements I will be extremely interested in a sequel.
 

bitoriginal

Member
Played upto "Marriage Made In Heaven" last night. Still on the fence about this game. I really wish they didn't tell you the 'right' and 'wrong' answers, this sort of game should be all about carving your own path. Not too keen on rating cases either.
 
From what i've played so far (just completed the 4 ''training missions'' and first case, now nearing the end of my first Traffic Case) the game seems really good but definatley flawed and not in the same league as GTA or RDR.

The game has an amazing atmosphere, fantastic animation system, with strong voice acting, well written dialogue and a solid soundtrack. So presentation wise the game feels quite impressive, especially as loading times are few and far between.

As far as flaws go this may just be me, but I was expecting a lot more depth to teh interogation and investigation segments. It also seems very limiting as to what you can and cannot say when interviewing someone, you feel very on the rails as saying the wrong thing can lock up a subject or cause the interogation to repeat itself. With games like Mass Effect doing such a great job with dialogue trees, it seems as though this game has missed the boat a bit in some regards while being quite revolutionary in others.

Shooting feels a bit janky, but so far there hasn't been alot of it so it's not really a problem. I think the fighting system feels really good and works alot better than the one in GTA IV.

Team Bondi should be applauded for realising such a fantastic setting and creating such clever tech though. I just wish you had a breather between cases instead of finishing one, getting a cut scene and then being hurried onto the next one. Doesn't really make it feel like you have the time to explore at your lesiure.
 

rhino4evr

Member
Mass Effect dialogue trees? NO. That system is already broken. Picking the top answer to say something nice or the bottom to say someone negative is not what I call intuitive.

Unlike some of you...I'm having no problems with the interrogations. I've got 4 stars on each traffic case and 5 stars on the first murder case. The fallen idol had a cool ending.

Great game
 

Aspiring

Member
Buckethead said:
So I was on the "Marriage Made In Heaven" case and found the
knife in the garbage
but then didn't get credit for finding it/didn't get the achievement.

UGH.

This left stick to look around thing is cool but too touchy or whatever.

Fun game but yep, annoyances are creeping in.

There is an acheivement for this? Crap I didn't get it either!

Anyway just finished
red lipstick murder
and the game is amazing. So much fun and I love the way that case played out with two options. I got the cheevo for finding all leads or whatever it is but only 4 stars! Getting 5 stars on all missions is going to be killer! Oh and the game I's amazing. I'm finally getting the interrogations and what they mean but man at first it was confusing. You would click doubt and he would accuse them. Buy finally understanding it.
 
Buckethead said:
Yeah it didn't give me credit for
finding the knife
.
I'm like 6 cases after that now.

I don't know if I needed to do the LS thing (I tried mind you, it just wouldn't rumble) or what.


Yeah, you have to do the LS thing to make it count, it'll rumble as you turn the evidence so it's flat in your hand (sorry, best description I can give)
 

jgminto

Member
Also another complaint.

The driving. It sucks.

The cars handle like go-karts. I preferred GTA where the cars actually had weight. For a game where it is supposed to be an accurate depiction of 40's LA it can be jarring when you glide around a corner. Also RB is terrible as hand brake.
 

Aspiring

Member
UberTag said:
That's not a glitched achievement.
You'll only get credit for the trophy/achievement once the actual cause of murder is identified at the coroner's office later in that case. It'll pop then... don't fret.

The way this case Played out for me was that
I went to the coroners office and he informEd me that the actual cause of death was stab wounds and that I should find a murder weapon and than when I researched the crime scene I found it. Is that why I didn't get the achievement? Also I didn't arrest the woman just the bar man.
fuck I love the way the cases can turn out different depending on your evidence.
 
Am I missing something? I'm not understanding the "repetitive" complaints. You're a cop. You solve cases and, like real cops, once they're solved you immediately move on to the next one. Not sure what it is people want.
 
Aspiring said:
The way this case Played out for me was that
I went to the coroners office and he informEd me that the actual cause of death was stab wounds and that I should find a murder weapon and than when I researched the crime scene I found it. Is that why I didn't get the achievement? Also I didn't arrest the woman just the bar man.

Correct - you only get the achievement/trophy if you specifically
found the knife on your first sweep of the crime scene.
I did, but only because I used an intuition point.
 

rhino4evr

Member
Gooster said:
Am I missing something? I'm not understanding the "repetitive" complaints. You're a cop. You solve cases and, like real cops, once they're solved you immediately move on to the next one. Not sure what it is people want.
If you think the game is repetitive then you don't like the game...because in the general sense ALL games are repetitive. There is plenty of stuff to do in LA Noire..and even different ways to solve cases. The only difference is that in this game the cases follow a linear path. The way you solve cases is up to you.
 
Im upto the third homicide desk case, enjoying the game but agree with a few peoples complaints, namely the handling of the cars and the fact there isn't much to do around the world (I get the fact its not meant to be a major sandbox game, just wish there was more to do)

I've got one five star and a few four stars without cheating or anything so I must have a slightly decent detective eye.
 
jgminto said:
Mission Structure: I feel that the missions are repetitive.

Am I the only one who thinks this was deliberate? Most police say their job is repetitive, so I think that's forgiveable. Its the same with the complaints about the Homicide desk
I agree its pretty obvious that you are locking up people who are innocent, but then again I'm pretty sure that pressure from bosses has resulted in innocent men being sent down in real life too.
My main problem with the homicide desk is the Quarter Moon Mission( the mission I am currently on), as I haven't found all the landmarks yet, it is hard to decipher the clues without the descriptions of the landmarks. Would it have been that hard to have a map at Central Station with the landmarks on it? As it stands I'm going have to drive around looking for landmarks when all I want to do finish the mission.

I don't really mind the car handling even though it is unrealistic, I don't think 1940's cars would be fun to drive if the handling was realistic( although the driver A.I is woeful, cars stop for no reason in the middle of a crossroads, & they don't seem to look in their mirrors judging by the amount of times cars have turned into me on a straight). The Gunplay is poor, no matter what sensitivity I used it still felt clunky so I put Auto Aim to High & just fly through the firefights to get to the "fun" bits of the game.

Talking of the interrogations, I can see peoples issues with the instant correct/incorrect notification it does take away from the rest of the interrogation, it would have been better if it only came up after it had finished(or was completely optional). I disagree about changing it to a dialogue tree however, I don't think that would work well, perhaps some modifiers to the existing options would work well( a good cop/bad cop option for each current option would help with Cole's odd changes in tone)

As for the plot/characterisation I don't really mind it, some of the incidental characters are well done & even the stereotypes are given a fresh lick of paint with the quality of the facial animation system ( I especially like the Captain with his anti-commie schtick, & obviously Rusty). The plot so far is no great shakes ( Although the newspaper strand seems interesting) but then again I can happily watch a police procedural so I have low standards with regards to this sort of stuff.

All in all I am pretty pleased with the game, & can certainly see myself finishing it( a rarity for me, I tend to stop playing a game as soon as I get bored with it) & probably picking up any DLC cases that are released (depending on complexity/ ambition)
 

tiff

Banned
mickcenary said:
And where's the story at? And why the fuck did the police captain chastise me at the end of the
Hugo Moller case
, even though I discovered something like 9/10 pieces of evidence and answered 11/14 questions correctly? And to add to the confusion of it all, the next cutscene depicted the Captain and Rusty talking about how well I've been doing and how happy they are with the outcome of the case. AWESOME.
I literally laughed out loud when that happened. God damn.

rhino4evr said:
Mass Effect dialogue trees? NO. That system is already broken. Picking the top answer to say something nice or the bottom to say someone negative is not what I call intuitive.

Unlike some of you...I'm having no problems with the interrogations. I've got 4 stars on each traffic case and 5 stars on the first murder case. The fallen idol had a cool ending.

Great game
When people are saying they want to lift the ME dialogue system, I think they mean they want the basic structure of it, not the "you aren't making tough choices here, you're just picking if you want to be friendly and diplomatic or arrogant and badass while doing it" aspect. Because as I can tell, the choices in LA Noire already don't affect the outcome, just your score.

And I have at least 2 or 3 five star cases, in case you're wondering.

Edit: But yeah, it's no more repetitive than most games.
 
Gooster said:
Am I missing something? I'm not understanding the "repetitive" complaints. You're an assassin. You assassinate people and, like real assassins, once they're assassinated you immediately move on to the next one. Not sure what it is people want.

fixed for assassin's creed...

like the ac games, most 'repetitive' complaints are in regards to the 'how' part, not the 'what' part. it's understood that's what your character does. it's the way the game structures how he goes about doing it, & how fresh or stale that experience is after repeated cases/assassinations. are they varied enough to be distinguishable/memorable? or does it just become rinse/repeat after a while?...

shouldn't surprise you, or anyone, that there will be people seeing it as one or the other - it's a pretty subjective call (speaking as someone who really liked ac1)...
 
I've played around six hours and I'll post more intimate impressions later, however.

The opening hour or more was definitely underwhelming, it just didn't click. I expected much more of a grandiose welcome to the world of L.A. Noire.

It is a slow burn, and there is a long list of minor gripes.

At its core though there is something magnificent, charming and beautiful to behold.
 

THRILLH0

Banned
I really think the 'Doubt' option could benefit from being renamed something like 'Press', because there's some straight up jank otherwise.

For example in The Golden Butterfly i'm interviewing
Eli and I ask if he has a job. He says he had one and is looking for something new and doubt is the correct answer even though he's telling the truth and doubt leads to Cole asking the name of the place he used to work.

It seems like there are many occasions where doubt seems to lead to Cole pressing for more details instead of actually doubting what the subject says. Minor nitpick but it's still bothersome.
 
If they do make a sequel, and they listen to the complaints about making the interrogations more flexible then I can see the sequel being shorter but hopefully with better replay.

But I've always wanted to see a game that offered a ton freedom within the narrative (although narrative isn't the right word). I've always imagined this game to be about 2 hours long but because it offered so much freedom there was 30+ hours of original content. It would account for so many different approaches and the characters would actually react appropriately. It would have to be a on small scale, say an apartment building with maybe 8 tenants, and deal with the various dramas of each tenant as you interacted with them. But you wouldn't be stuck in the building there would be a small town where various events could take place. It would have the detail of say Mafia II's world, there for atmosphere but with minor interaction.
 

Hypereides

Gold Member
I really dont understand most of these complaints about the game I read here.... but alas thisisneogafdude.gif.

Story-wise its very well written and probably features one of the best game plots (thus far) this gen. Fucking love the narration.

Technically I'd describe it as a modern point-&-click adventure, reverse GTA.

This thing is rare. I cant remember the last time a detective based game was made.
 
AShep said:
I really think the 'Doubt' option could benefit from being renamed something like 'Press', because there's some straight up jank otherwise.

In a sequel they should give you 2 options when doubting: Doubt Passively and Doubt Aggressively.
 

MMaRsu

Member
I dont understand the open world feels empty complaints

it's not supposed to be seen as an open world with a linear story in it,

it's a linear story set in an open world. Just like in Mafia II there wasn't shit to do there outside the main story either. Fine with me. and this game is 20 hrs long instead of six.
 

ecierif

Member
Cerebral Assassin said:
My main problem with the homicide desk is the Quarter Moon Mission( the mission I am currently on), as I haven't found all the landmarks yet, it is hard to decipher the clues without the descriptions of the landmarks. Would it have been that hard to have a map at Central Station with the landmarks on it? As it stands I'm going have to drive around looking for landmarks when all I want to do finish the mission.

About the Quarter Moon case...
The required landmarks will appear on your map, either as question marks or symbols. When you move the cursor over them, a description will be displayed and you can match the clue to the landmark.
 
artwalknoon said:
Is there any way to skip cut scenes or dialogue? I quit some missions in order to redo them but I hate watching the same stuff again. Any help?

Having to go through a bunch of cutscenes just to restart a case is fucking annoying, the checkpoint system in the game isn't exactly optimal, mess up one question means I have to watch the cutscenes, pick up all the clues, then go through the interrogation all over again, sometimes I have to do that in two different locations, the game director obviously didn't play through the game himself enough to realize he needs to offer the option to restart the last sequence.

The guy who plays Phelps isn't really that convincing, he's a little young and a tad scrawny, way too clean-cut and baby-face for a former marine officer/war hero, the other people are much better cast, like that irish captain who keeps saying boyo.
 
MMaRsu said:
I dont understand the open world feels empty complaints

it's not supposed to be seen as an open world with a linear story in it,

it's a linear story set in an open world. Just like in Mafia II there wasn't shit to do there outside the main story either. Fine with me. and this game is 20 hrs long instead of six.

It just feels like a waste of a beautiful world when there is hardly anything to interact with, just random cop work like stopping random robberies or purse snatchers outside of the 40 pre set side missions would have been welcome.

To skip scenes I button mashed all four main buttons on the PS3 pad and it skips the cutscenes and dialogue, can't be any more specific but it must be a combo of 2 of those buttons.
 

Atruvius

Member
Today I compeleted the Golden Butterfly. I only missed 2 clues and got 3 questions wrong and I still got only 2 stars. I didn't even crash that much.
Maybe I should have arrested the creep, instead of the husband?
 

Roarer

Member
Is anyone else bothered by the rather poor performance on the Xbox 360 version? I'm having texture pop-in issues on the level of early Unreal Engine/Mass Effect 1 days, and the frame rate keeps dropping down to what fells like <20 fps at times. Even the opening cinematic had some extreme stuttering whenever the title cards appeared.

Have I been spoiled by high-performance PC gaming or does anyone else feel like the game runs pretty badly? I don't remember Read Dead Redemption being this sluggish for example. Or am I experiencing some of the overheating issues? The games has crashed on me once...
 

Forsete

Gold Member
Fantastic game. Almost perfect for me.

Btw, Team Bondi should be doing the optimization of future RDR/GTA-games. LA Noire both looks and runs better than GTA4. The framerate on the PS3 version is MILES better than GTA4.
 
ecierif said:
About the Quarter Moon case...
The required landmarks will appear on your map, either as question marks or symbols. When you move the cursor over them, a description will be displayed and you can match the clue to the landmark.

Thanks man, that will help a lot.
 

Roarer

Member
Forsete said:
Btw, Team Bondi should be doing the optimization of future RDR/GTA-games. LA Noire both looks and runs better than GTA4. The framerate on the PS3 version is MILES better than GTA4.

Hehe, see my post above. I probably should have gotten the PS3 version. Stupid achievments drawing me in every single time, heh.
 

Aspiring

Member
Roarer said:
Is anyone else bothered by the rather poor performance on the Xbox 360 version? I'm having texture pop-in issues on the level of early Unreal Engine/Mass Effect 1 days, and the frame rate keeps dropping down to what fells like <20 fps at times. Even the opening cinematic had some extreme stuttering whenever the title cards appeared.

Have I been spoiled by high-performance PC gaming or does anyone else feel like the game runs pretty badly? I don't remember Read Dead Redemption being this sluggish for example. Or am I experiencing some of the overheating issues? The games has crashed on me once...

The opening credits, in particular when the car is in the car lot or gas station whatever it was stuttered like in was 1 fps for me. Other than that I am finding it perfectly fine. I have not noticed texture pop in or major slowdown at all. I have it installed if that matters.
 

LevityNYC

Banned
Roarer said:
Is anyone else bothered by the rather poor performance on the Xbox 360 version? I'm having texture pop-in issues on the level of early Unreal Engine/Mass Effect 1 days, and the frame rate keeps dropping down to what fells like <20 fps at times. Even the opening cinematic had some extreme stuttering whenever the title cards appeared.

Have I been spoiled by high-performance PC gaming or does anyone else feel like the game runs pretty badly? I don't remember Read Dead Redemption being this sluggish for example. Or am I experiencing some of the overheating issues? The games has crashed on me once...

The ps3 version has a fair amount of pop in. Red Dead ran better because there was simply less going on on the screen and you were moving slower.
 

Grisby

Member
Roarer said:
Is anyone else bothered by the rather poor performance on the Xbox 360 version? I'm having texture pop-in issues on the level of early Unreal Engine/Mass Effect 1 days, and the frame rate keeps dropping down to what fells like <20 fps at times. Even the opening cinematic had some extreme stuttering whenever the title cards appeared.

Have I been spoiled by high-performance PC gaming or does anyone else feel like the game runs pretty badly? I don't remember Read Dead Redemption being this sluggish for example. Or am I experiencing some of the overheating issues? The games has crashed on me once...

I've had several posts complaining of the performance on the 360. While its not so bad during important parts like clue finding and interrogation, it is distracting during shootouts/car chases.

Even just driving around is a slide show sometimes. RDR and GT4 ran a lot smoother then this. I won't speak of it anymore until I do a short review but it takes you out of the experience and makes me hate the open world a bit because thats when the framerate is at its worse.
 
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