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

saunderez

Member
PsychoSoldier said:
At least they're cognizant enough of the flaws of the action in the game to allow you to skip them on occasion.
But isn't that just sweeping the problem under the rug? It's like these issues came up in playtesting but instead of fixing them they just decided to let you skip them instead.
 

mattiewheels

And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
Speaking of adventure games, pulling the notebook out and interrogating made me have a flashback to rhe Dagger of Amon Ra. I feel safe that the bondi guys are old Sierra fans.
 
Finished it tonight.

I haven't felt so apathetic towards a game in a very long time. It's like a complete non-event. I didn't care for any of the characters, the narrative tripped over itself numerous times, apparent critical plot points weren't properly introduced or justified, and by the final few missions I just wanted the game to be over already.

There isn't any one part of Noire that I hated, but the whole game in itself seemed to be tied together by frayed threads. Nothing seemed to work properly by the end, and when the credits rolled I just didn't care.

The investigating portions were interesting at first, but became a chore by the end. There was no real sense of accomplishment other than adding one more entry to Cole's journal. The interrogations were fun, but again they just got boring after a while. They all felt tailored to the three dialogue choices and not one interrogation ever felt like it stood on its own as a unique exchange of words.

The entire game feels like it runs out of steam by the time you hit the Arson desk.

I really want to elaborate on my utter discontent with L.A. Noire, but for the life of me I just don't even care enough to write any more about it.
 

LifEndz

Member
Really loving the bleep outta this game. I'm on the last mission and the game did tail off a little, but not enough to change my opinion.

Would've really loved it if instead of getting your next case after you complete the previous case, the game gave you some time to explore the city. Or maybe even allowed you to drive to Cole's home and save your game there ala GTA. I think it would've been really cool to see Cole's family doing different things depending on the time of day you went home to save your game. Also *Spoiler*
I think seeing Cole's wife taking care of the children or doing various things around the house while you're gone for extended periods of time would've made Cole's affair with the singer resonate all the more. As I didn't really care about his affair because I had no real attachment to his wife.

Also wish you could use your gun to wound people rather than have every shot be lethal. Other than the one time I was able to shoot the gun out of someone's hand, I think I killed just about every suspect I came across. Once I realized that just about every shot was a death shot I started going for head shots instead of trying to shoot people in the leg or in the hand.
 
saunderez said:
But isn't that just sweeping the problem under the rug? It's like these issues came up in playtesting but instead of fixing them they just decided to let you skip them instead.

Putting in a workaround is probably far easier than making it good.
 
disappeared said:
Finished it tonight.

I haven't felt so apathetic towards a game in a very long time. It's like a complete non-event. I didn't care for any of the characters, the narrative tripped over itself numerous times, apparent critical plot points weren't properly introduced or justified, and by the final few missions I just wanted the game to be over already.

There isn't any one part of Noire that I hated, but the whole game in itself seemed to be tied together by frayed threads. Nothing seemed to work properly by the end, and when the credits rolled I just didn't care.

The investigating portions were interesting at first, but became a chore by the end. There was no real sense of accomplishment other than adding one more entry to Cole's journal. The interrogations were fun, but again they just got boring after a while. They all felt tailored to the three dialogue choices and not one interrogation ever felt like it stood on its own as a unique exchange of words.

The entire game feels like it runs out of steam by the time you hit the Arson desk.

I really want to elaborate on my utter discontent with L.A. Noire, but for the life of me I just don't even care enough to write any more about it.

Glad you made this post, because now I don't have to. Well said mate.
 
I'm starting to wonder whether Truth/Doubt/Lie was all just a huge miscommunication on Team Bondi's part. Since the very beginning, I saw the options as:

Truth - Person is telling the truth and is not withholding any information
Doubt - Person is telling an almost half-truth and is withholding information/not telling the whole story
Lie - Person is not telling the truth whatsoever

So far, this has made sense to me, however I see a lot of people confused on why they should be pressing Doubt rather than Truth. Maybe this will help out a bit.
 

rdrr gnr

Member
Just finished it.
The second half of the game is a lot more interesting than the first. Less interrogations and clue finding, more narrative and action. But, ultimately -- the game failed. It failed to portray and true sense of detective work. Everything felt like an over-glorified matching-game. My logic circuits were screaming in some of those interrogations. It never ever reaches true greatness. Up until the final few cases, I didn't give a damn about any of the victims, suspects, or witnesses. The controls and cover system quickly became annoying. The pay-off for finding the Black Dahlia killer is nonsense. The game just spews banalities around every corner. There needed to be a better emphasis and development of game play than there was. Cases needed to differentiate themselves more than they did. In the most vital senses the game failed, however it was successful on the fringes of game design. The music was good. Facial animations were good. It looked good for what it tried to do. Controls of vehicles were acceptable. Writing was adequate.
 

beastmode

Member
I got a PS3 and an Xbox. Which console is better for this game? I'm leaning toward PS3 because it has an excluuusive case and isn't spread out over 3 disks, but most games on both platforms look slightly better on Xbox. Halp?
 

JaxJag

Banned
beastmode said:
I got a PS3 and an Xbox. Which console is better for this game? I'm leaning toward PS3 because it has an excluuusive case and isn't spread out over 3 disks, but most games on both platforms look slightly better on Xbox. Halp?

I own the 360 version, the frame rate is very spotty especially for the side missions.

In fact there was a shootout where the game was in the single frames.
 

saunderez

Member
PsychoSoldier said:
Putting in a workaround is probably far easier than making it good.
Without a doubt, it's just incredibly lazy.

I can't help but thinking this game could have been something special if a bit more effort was put into making sure the action parts were fun.
 
beastmode said:
I got a PS3 and an Xbox. Which console is better for this game? I'm leaning toward PS3 because it has an excluuusive case and isn't spread out over 3 disks, but most games on both platforms look slightly better on Xbox. Halp?
The PS3 version, being the lead platform, is the "superior" version in terms of technical aspects (frame rate, pop-in, lighting & some reflections, etc.). The rest is up to you. Just go after which controller you prefer.
 

Fjordson

Member
Wow, sucks to see so many people disappointed with the game. I'll never claim that this is at all perfect, but for some reason I found it extremely compelling all the way through. Loved everything about the presentation and the story, and I actually really enjoyed the interrogations. If they were to make another I do hope they keep the choices more consistent with what Cole actually says. That was pretty jarring at a few spots. Still, those scenes made for lots of interesting and tense moments.

Clue finding wasn't bad, though I do think there's room for improvement. It sucks to be one of the last officers on the scene since all the clues are already marked by someone else. I'd prefer even more areas where you have to find them without any aid of that sort.

I'm fairly apathetic towards the open world aspect. I thought it looked pretty good. Whenever I felt like hurrying things up a bit I just had my partner drive and skipped to the next scene. It probably helped that I really liked how the cars handle. The chases (in a car and on foot) were definitely my favourite action sequences.

On the other hand, the combat was my least favourite part. At first I didn't mind it, but those sequences basically felt like a chore towards the end of the game. Controlling Phelps is fine for me overall, but getting in and out of cover didn't always work right in my playthrough. And I think Euphoria has spoiled me. The lack of physics on enemies made it feel really fake and the hit detection seems weird. I've shot guys in the foot once, only to have them fly back like I hit them right between the eyes.

I think the side quests overall could do with better implementation. I don't have a good answer as to how Bondi could actually do it, but they broke the flow of the game for me quite a bit. One minute I'd be in the thick of an intense murder case, searching for clues and following up on a lead about a witness or suspect, but then the next I'm gunning down 5-6 thugs in some epic battle in the middle of Hollywood Boulevard. And after Cole calls it in on the radio it's back to friendly banter with my partner as we casually head over to some dude's apartment.

That's all I can think of right now. Like I said, definitely not perfect, but it somehow managed to add up to a really great game for me. I can only hope this does well for Bondi so that they can work on a new project (or even a sequel). Hopefully it won't take 6-7 years this time :p
 

Teknoman

Member
FromTheFuture said:
I'm starting to wonder whether Truth/Doubt/Lie was all just a huge miscommunication on Team Bondi's part. Since the very beginning, I saw the options as:

Truth - Person is telling the truth and is not withholding any information
Doubt - Person is telling an almost half-truth and is withholding information/not telling the whole story
Lie - Person is not telling the truth whatsoever

So far, this has made sense to me, however I see a lot of people confused on why they should be pressing Doubt rather than Truth. Maybe this will help out a bit.

Well it also tells you this in the manual. Just look at the person in question for awhile, check for sudden eye movements, odd swallowing, or just general figits/itchiness. Maybe even a slight smirk here or there, not to mention some clues or initial investigations reveal the character of the person before you talk.
 

dk_

Member
scar tissue said:
this sonuvabitch keeps freezing (xbox 360)
already cleared the cache and all that, to no avail
fuck this shit
My gf & I never had a freeze till now and we both played around 20 hours in total on my 360.
 

Dabanton

Member
Code:
Just finished the Golden Butterfly they try to muddy the waters a bit
but did everyone find all the clues and visit the locations?

The fact that Eli had a blood covered overall and pipe in a car at the school pretty much made him my prime suspect.

I went to the school then to the morgue to look where they had a selection of ropes and what i thought was fairly important a shoe print but i was confused as the hugo's initials were on the overalls which they explained at the end as Eli works for a company with the same initials.
 

Linkified

Member
Right on second case in the Arson desk, I like how outside of Traffic each desk has a desk story and personal story of Cole and the overall story in total, like at how things hinted at during Homicide come back up in Vice section. Really good stuff so far.

Plenty of subtle dialog in cars etc that you need to pay attention to as well for more context regarding Cole himself.
 

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
finished it, I didn't like the game, did not live up to the hype for me,I am very disappointed with the game, what a shame.

+Interviewing/detective stuff and facial animation are very good, unfortunately the game is not just that.

-Uninteresting Story, I didn't want something in level of LA Confidential ,Lone Star or Chinatown story here, but the story and the writing here is so C-rated even for a video game story.
-It help you a lot to solve the cases instead of letting you completely lost in it and I think it's a bad thing.
-The game look very dated,GTA4 and other look way better than it, Characters animations ( Walking/running) are really low quality too.
-Very repetitive (cases and everything) unfortunately,very samey, you know how stuff will start and end.
-Soulless City, the city is detailed but very soulless and dull I don't even want to walk or drive in it.
-Chasing criminal are completely limited and killed the entire cops action for me.


It's another game that try hard to be a movie and it failed imho, but at least it's better than The Getaway.

6/10
 

Acheteedo

Member
Just started Vice, this game is edging out portal 2 as my GOTY so far, and I really loved portal 2. So glad I still have 2 desks to complete.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Dabanton said:
Code:
Just finished the Golden Butterfly they try to muddy the waters a bit
but did everyone find all the clues and visit the locations?

The fact that Eli had a blood covered overall and pipe in a car at the school pretty much made him my prime suspect.

I went to the school then to the morgue to look where they had a selection of ropes and what i thought was fairly important a shoe print but i was confused as the hugo's initials were on the overalls which they explained at the end as Eli works for a company with the same initials.

The pipe was linked to the husband's car, you can never inquire to eli about it. The case is way too sloppy to give anything definitive on either of them anyway.
 
Finally found some time to play again, and just beat the Fallen Idol case. Boy, was it short. And anticlimactic. I mean, I suppose
the shoot-out at the end was kind of "exciting" or whatever, but that was it.
It just felt really linear and abrupt, unless I missed something...or if the case gets brought up again in the future. Will this be a common trend for future cases, or will there be more interesting/in-depth cases?
 
disappeared said:
Finished it tonight.

I haven't felt so apathetic towards a game in a very long time. It's like a complete non-event. I didn't care for any of the characters, the narrative tripped over itself numerous times, apparent critical plot points weren't properly introduced or justified, and by the final few missions I just wanted the game to be over already.

There isn't any one part of Noire that I hated, but the whole game in itself seemed to be tied together by frayed threads. Nothing seemed to work properly by the end, and when the credits rolled I just didn't care.

The investigating portions were interesting at first, but became a chore by the end. There was no real sense of accomplishment other than adding one more entry to Cole's journal. The interrogations were fun, but again they just got boring after a while. They all felt tailored to the three dialogue choices and not one interrogation ever felt like it stood on its own as a unique exchange of words.

The entire game feels like it runs out of steam by the time you hit the Arson desk.

I really want to elaborate on my utter discontent with L.A. Noire, but for the life of me I just don't even care enough to write any more about it.

I 100% agree, mang. It really is a sloppy effort on all fronts; Bondi should be thanking their lucky stars that R* is irrevocably linked with LA Noire. I have no doubt in my mind that the majority of critical acclaim for this game stems from the usual R* sheen that glistens so brightly at first, but nearly always fades considerably with time. That's not to say that all R* games are actually poo in disguise; it's just that I think R*/Bondi have really pulled the wool over a lot of peoples' eyes with this one.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Necromanti said:
Finally found some time to play again, and just beat the Fallen Idol case. Boy, was it short. And anticlimactic. I mean, I suppose
the shoot-out at the end was kind of "exciting" or whatever, but that was it.
It just felt really linear and abrupt, unless I missed something...or if the case gets brought up again in the future. Will this be a common trend for future cases, or will there be more interesting/in-depth cases?

I think the cases in Vice are pretty good, but most are forgettable.
 

Foffy

Banned
Dumb question but is there disc swapping with the 360 version, or can you explore the city and do sidemissions regardless of the disc? And what about the PS3 DLC, will that eventually appear on the 360?
 

daviyoung

Banned
Foffy said:
Dumb question but is there disc swapping with the 360 version, or can you explore the city and do sidemissions regardless of the disc? And what about the PS3 DLC, will that eventually appear on the 360?

I think there was a statement released saying that disc-swapping is for story cases only.
 
disappeared said:
I haven't felt so apathetic towards a game in a very long time...

the last game i felt this way about was infamous (which i finally played less than a year ago)...

it's almost worse than hating a game, in a way: you can see there's good stuff, you can respect the effort made, & there's nothing so awful that it makes you just quit in disgust. & so you're kinda stuck for hours going through the motions in this game where the main character & storyline mean little to you, with no real emotional investment, while all the time kinda hoping, in the back of your mind, that something will occur to kinda redeem the whole experience... which, of course, never does...

i don't hate l.a. noire. it's an amazing accomplishment in many ways. i just stopped caring after a few hours...
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
disappeared said:
Finished it tonight.

I haven't felt so apathetic towards a game in a very long time. It's like a complete non-event. I didn't care for any of the characters, the narrative tripped over itself numerous times, apparent critical plot points weren't properly introduced or justified, and by the final few missions I just wanted the game to be over already.

There isn't any one part of Noire that I hated, but the whole game in itself seemed to be tied together by frayed threads. Nothing seemed to work properly by the end, and when the credits rolled I just didn't care.

The investigating portions were interesting at first, but became a chore by the end. There was no real sense of accomplishment other than adding one more entry to Cole's journal. The interrogations were fun, but again they just got boring after a while. They all felt tailored to the three dialogue choices and not one interrogation ever felt like it stood on its own as a unique exchange of words.

The entire game feels like it runs out of steam by the time you hit the Arson desk.

I really want to elaborate on my utter discontent with L.A. Noire, but for the life of me I just don't even care enough to write any more about it.

This pretty much sums it up for me as well. I think it is time I swore off any games produced by Rockstar. They all disappoint me without fail. Team Bondi games too. I can see why Sony dumped the funding now.
 
I really want to get L.A. Noire, but I refuse to pay full price, and then pay extra on top of that to play certain pre-order DLC content.

I'll wait until I can get the game used for cheaper, as that way I'm not paying more, and it means I'm not supporting that.
 

daviyoung

Banned
Shotgun Kiss said:
I really want to get L.A. Noire, but I refuse to pay full price, and then pay extra on top of that to play certain pre-order DLC content.

I'll wait until I can get the game used for cheaper, as that way I'm not paying more, and it means I'm not supporting that.

Are you from the UK?

You can get it cheap at GAME if you trade in a specific game (Shift 2, Crysis 2, Brink, Mortal Kombat).

Then trade in LA Noire and get Dirt 3 for £5.

Failing that, I'd say for most players this is more a rent than a buy.
 
daviyoung said:
Are you from the UK?

You can get it cheap at GAME if you trade in a specific game (Shift 2, Crysis 2, Brink, Mortal Kombat).

Then trade in LA Noire and get Dirt 3 for £5.

Failing that, I'd say for most players this is more a rent than a buy.

Yeah, I am.

How cheap? I have Mortal Kombat, which I don't really want, on account of the controls being shite on the 360.
 

Mik2121

Member
Man.. the backlash against this game is horrible. I really enjoyed it, even though it definitely had it's flaws. But saying it's absolutely boring and whatnot... just sounds like a bit too much, to me.

Oh well :/
 

daviyoung

Banned
Shotgun Kiss said:
Yeah, I am.

How cheap? I have Mortal Kombat, which I don't really want, on account of the controls being shite on the 360.

Was in there on Saturday but didn't look at the specifics. I traded in Shift 2 and got Noire for half price. Some people are saying you can trade in Brink and get Noire for £5.

Have a look on the internet/GAME website for details I guess.
 

Adamm

Member
Mik2121 said:
Man.. the backlash against this game is horrible. I really enjoyed it, even though it definitely had it's flaws. But saying it's absolutely boring and whatnot... just sounds like a bit too much, to me.

Oh well :/
If you look from the other side.

This game is getting so much coverage from mainstream coverage as being the greatest game ever, when really it is flawed in so many ways.

Its not a bad game, but it does not to live up to most of the hype that it is getting.
 

darkwing

Member
Mik2121 said:
Man.. the backlash against this game is horrible. I really enjoyed it, even though it definitely had it's flaws. But saying it's absolutely boring and whatnot... just sounds like a bit too much, to me.

Oh well :/
but its 90+ on Meta
 

Linkified

Member
Mik2121 said:
Man.. the backlash against this game is horrible. I really enjoyed it, even though it definitely had it's flaws. But saying it's absolutely boring and whatnot... just sounds like a bit too much, to me.

Oh well :/

Same really enjoying it I know people say the story is uninteresting, but are these people reading the newspapers, listening to the dialog between 'sets' and watching the vignettes at all?
 

low-G

Member
Mik2121 said:
Man.. the backlash against this game is horrible. I really enjoyed it, even though it definitely had it's flaws. But saying it's absolutely boring and whatnot... just sounds like a bit too much, to me.

Oh well :/

There's a lot of people that were never gonna want this kind of game, and many of those people don't even know what they want. So whenever a super highly acclaimed and extremely good game comes out people all pick it up and some end up hating it.

It's especially contentious when the game is so different from the average game, deals with topics much more maturely than 99.99% of games, and virtually zero concessions were made to appeal to anyone other than the target audience.

It reflects on the tastes of the consumer, as all opinions do. Not on the quality of the game.
 

Kintaro

Worships the porcelain goddess
Linkified said:
Same really enjoying it I know people say the story is uninteresting, but are these people reading the newspapers, listening to the dialog between 'sets' and watching the vignettes at all?

Yep. Have you beaten the game yet?

low-G said:
There's a lot of people that were never gonna want this kind of game, and many of those people don't even know what they want. So whenever a super highly acclaimed and extremely good game comes out people all pick it up and some end up hating it.

It's especially contentious when the game is so different from the average game, deals with topics much more maturely than 99.99% of games, and virtually zero concessions were made to appeal to anyone other than the target audience.

It reflects on the tastes of the consumer, as all opinions do. Not on the quality of the game.

Come on man. Don't bring that mess in here. It's rather insulting. The conversations about this game have been more mature than the game itself and directly reflects on the quality of the game itself. Good or bad.
 

Linkified

Member
Kintaro said:
Yep. Have you beaten the game yet?

Nope finishing up the Arson desk, but people saying its a boring game and boring story I dunno I don't understand that, especially being near the end now.
 

Irish

Member
The main problem with the game is that it never really evolves. To add to that, the cases, especially in homicide, are so similar and force you to go against what you would do in that situation, only to continue along the 'proper' path and be 'amazed' that you've been arresting the wrong people along.

Of course, the game may be a little to mature for my childlike brain.

The game really needed a better logic system. It's a shame when there are three pieces of evidence that all prove the same thing, yet only one acts like the proper 'key' in the conversation.
 

Tobor

Member
I'm almost done with Vice, and I'm still having a great time. Seems like every complaint I'm reading in here is overblown or a case of lofty expectations, or both.
 

daviyoung

Banned
Irish said:
The game really needed a better logic system. It's a shame when there are three pieces of evidence that all prove the same thing, yet only one acts like the proper 'key' in the conversation.

This seemed like a deal-breaker in a lot of my conversations too.
 
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