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

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
PigSpeakers said:
I have a feeling that this is going to turn into one of those games that had its share of problems, but then hyperbole and hive-mind take over, and it gets put up as the worst game of all time. I already know I'm going to hear about this over and over and over and over in every single thread whether its relevant or not.

It isn't the best game. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but try not to play it for too long because too many cases in a row can start to get old. I have no real complaints with the controls, the game-world, the acting, or any of that. The cases and the gameplay are becoming a little stale and repetitive, but I still enjoy trying to find out if they're lying or not, and looking for evidence. It's not 9 out of 10 material, but its certainly not "the worst game of all time lol" either. Or garbage. Or an abortion. I know how much people like to throw those terms around. This hasn't happened yet, but its definitely going to pretty soon.
You are complaining about hivemind and talking about imaginary gaffers from the future?
 

jett

D-Member
butter_stick said:
LA Noire would probably be OK as an XBLA game, that lasted the length of a movie.

The mechanics and characters are not strong enough to last more than a few hours.

This is kinda true. The first few hours of the game are the best because everything's so new and fresh.
 

tiff

Banned
jett said:
This is kinda true. The first few hours of the game are the best because everything's so new and fresh.
Plus they don't try to tie everything together with a big overarching story. It's just Cole doing cases.
 

The Technomancer

card-carrying scientician
So, completely random question, but as a fan of mystery games who doesn't have a chance to pick up L.A Noire, I'd like to hear from someone who has played both: how does investigation and piecing together cases in LAN compare to Phoenix Wright?
 
Y2Kev said:
You are complaining about hivemind and talking about imaginary gaffers from the future?

No, I'm just basing it on past experience of seeing this with other games. It goes from a fairly positive experience with some much needed criticisms, to suddenly becoming an awful game and the creators should be shot and fired or something like that. Maybe its not definitely going to happen, but I'm certainly afraid that it might People are entitled to their opinions, and I agree with many of them. It's just a prediction.

EDIT: I did notice that I said "definitely" in my original post. Changed post to reflect that.

daviyoung said:
That's just it, it's fun when you're in it, but your opinion might change a few days after completion.

I guess my opinion is that yes, I am enjoying it, and after completing something do I rarely change my feelings on it. I would not replay this, at least not as a whole. Maybe do I case here and there. I don't feel like its something I would do all at once though. The cases are compelling enough to get me through one or two at a time.
 

Nemo

Will Eat Your Children
PigSpeakers said:
I have a feeling that this is going to turn into one of those games that had its share of problems, but then hyperbole and hive-mind take over, and it gets put up as the worst game of all time. I already know I'm going to hear about this over and over and over and over in every single thread whether its relevant or not.

It isn't the best game. I'm having a lot of fun with it, but try not to play it for too long because too many cases in a row can start to get old. I have no real complaints with the controls, the game-world, the acting, or any of that. The cases and the gameplay are becoming a little stale and repetitive, but I still enjoy trying to find out if they're lying or not, and looking for evidence. It's not 9 out of 10 material, but its certainly not "the worst game of all time lol" either. Or garbage. Or an abortion. I know how much people like to throw those terms around. This hasn't happened yet, but its definitely going to pretty soon.
That means it'll also get GAF GOTY then
 
PigSpeakers said:
No, I'm just basing it on past experience of seeing this with other games. It goes from a fairly positive experience with some much needed criticisms, to suddenly becoming an awful game and the creators should be shot and fired or something like that.

kinda like Metroid Other M.

Anyway, has it been mentioned that these cases (or at least the homicide division of cases) are based on real life cases? You can look them up by the game's case name.
Sorry if its been discussed in length on here at some point. Just thought it was pretty interesting.
 

fernoca

Member
Well, 14 hours..starting Vice Cases (well, "starting" since I already did 'The Naked City'-DLC, while I was in Homicide); and Like it more, the more I play it.

I still haven't jumped directly intro free-roam, except to just look for a few cars and badges to add to the collection, but the overall game is a mix of two of my favorites games...


Chases (on-foot/rooftops): Assassin's Creed II/Brotherhood
Simple and direct to the point. With a lots of turns, stairs, jumping, poles, people walking by. Some even have destructible environments which add to the tension.​

Investigation/interrogations: Phoenix Wright/Ace Attorney Investigations
Also simple, but still interesting. During the investigations there may be a lot of items on screen, but only some are actually relevant to the case. Then the ones you question are either always involved or the actual criminals. You have to keep an eye out for their expressions and gestures to get to know where and when they lie.​

Also some things that remind me of Heavy Rain (looking at things/items), shooting and driving feels like Grand Theft Auto IV, and a little of Red Dead Redemption (like being a relatively good-guy and not a mass--murderer that can destroy the entire city and shoot/kill everyone...without actual consequences)

There's also the open-world, which lets you takes on simple missions of chasing/shooting criminals, collecting badges and film-reels hidden through the city, newspapers through the cases to expand the story a little more, different types of cars to keep an eye out..and the map's huge, so there's usually something new to see and look around.

Plus the whole 40s setting, music, clothing, Black Dahlia references, corruption, etc... the amazing visuals and level of detail, the facial animations, acting, dialogs...

If things manage to continue the same, will definitely be one of my favorites games this year.


NOTE:
Xbox 360 version, by the way! :p
Disc 1: Ended around the 6.5 hours mark
Disc 2: Still on it. Currently at 14 hours
 
The_Technomancer said:
So, completely random question, but as a fan of mystery games who doesn't have a chance to pick up L.A Noire, I'd like to hear from someone who has played both: how does investigation and piecing together cases in LAN compare to Phoenix Wright?
I would say you feel much more involved with the cases in Phoenix wright. Keeping in mind that cases in LA Noire are around an hour long each compared to the lengthier Ace attorney cases so they don't really get as much time to hook you. LA Noire could certainly take some more pages from the Ace attorney book, villain motives and evidence use are pretty sparse and due to the lack of consequences for screwing up it kind of takes you out of the investigation. Still a good game but La Noire is more Ace Attorney investigations as opposed to main Ace attorney series in plot style and even gameplay if anything.
 

seat

Member
daviyoung said:
That's just it, it's fun when you're in it, but your opinion might change a few days after completion.
I feel that way about a lot of the games I've played, which is why I simply rent most of them.

Regardless, I'm really satisfied with my experience with LA Noire. It does remind me of Heavy Rain a lot, but I think LA Noire does what Heavy Rain much better. The facial scanning technology is revolutionary, the scope and detail of the city itself is amazing, and I can't think of another game that has better acting from such an awesome cast. I'm not sure what people were expecting out the story in this game, as it's still a lot better and mature than most story-driven games today.

I suppose my expectations were different for this title than most others in this thread, and since I only rented it, I have less to complain about. I can agree that the shooting and variety of gameplay could have used some work, but like Assassin's Creed, that will certainly be fixed in the sequel. There's no doubt in my mind that LA Noire is the start of a great and fantastic series of games. These guys are obviously very capable developers.
 

daviyoung

Banned
seat said:
I'm not sure what people were expecting out the story in this game, as it's still a lot better and mature than most story-driven games today.

I personally wasn't expecting it to have as much story as it did, I just wanted to solve cases and get marked on them, working my way through the ranks. Maybe my fault for avoiding the majority of the previews/hype. But then the plot shoehorned its way into the gameplay mechanics and I lost much of my love.
 

no angel

Member
Well I Finally put LA Noire to bed this evening and I can honestly say I really enjoyed it, in fact I found myself wishing it had gone on a bit longer. I can see the problems it has but perhaps because I didn't build the title up to be the second coming they just don't feel big enough to detract from what was overall for me a thoroughly enjoyable experience.
 

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
fernoca said:
Chases (on-foot/rooftops): Assassin's Creed II/Brotherhood

Simple and direct to the point. With a lots of turns, stairs, jumping, poles, people walking by. Some even have destructible environments which add to the tension.

The chase sequences are really horrible, shallow and scripted as hell, they are very non AssCreed since they feel on rail and it don't even matter since they ends the way the game want,they are awful just like the most of stuff in this game.
 

daviyoung

Banned
Totobeni said:
The chase sequences are really horrible, shallow and scripted as hell, they are very non AssCreed since they feel on rail and it don't even matter since they ends the way the game want,they are awful just like the most of stuff in this game.

That's a bit extreme. I can only remember it being jarring when he's going up a set of stairs and he automatically turns at the top. Press up and run is all you need to do. But running after a suspect across gardens and through alleys was fun regardless.

I'm sure it'll get fleshed out in the sequel, the chase sequences weren't the deal breaker for me.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
The_Technomancer said:
So, completely random question, but as a fan of mystery games who doesn't have a chance to pick up L.A Noire, I'd like to hear from someone who has played both: how does investigation and piecing together cases in LAN compare to Phoenix Wright?

Not even in the same stratosphere. Phoenix Wright is possibly my favorite series this generation, all the satisfaction you get piecing together how the crime was caused and taking down the bastard that did it is not even remotely apparent in this game.
 
Totobeni said:
The chase sequences are really horrible, shallow and scripted as hell, they are very non AssCreed since they feel on rail and it don't even matter since they ends the way the game want,they are awful just like the most of stuff in this game.
Do you like how the controls automatically turn during a chase like you have a string tied to the suspect? The way cole just easily grabs onto stuff is weird also.

EDIT- I see thats exactly what you guys are talking about. My bad.
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Kung Fu Grip said:
Do you like how the controls automatically turn during a chase like you have string is tied to the suspect? The way cole just easily grabs onto stuff is weird also.

This is actually apparent all through the game. Just hold RT/2 going up stairs and hit nothing else, Cole automatically turns and keeps going up. He sticks to paths a lot once you notice this, it's weird.
 

fernoca

Member
daviyoung said:
That's a bit extreme. I can only remember it being jarring when he's going up a set of stairs and he automatically turns at the top. Press up and run is all you need to do. But running after a suspect across gardens and through alleys was fun regardless.

I'm sure it'll get fleshed out in the sequel, the chase sequences weren't the deal breaker for me.
Exactly, which is why it reminded me to ACII. You press the trigger and the A button (in ACII/B) and you have Ezio running and jumping from poles automatically and all you have to worry is about reaching the other person..more than on other people walking, and stuff going on. Some may not like it as it is simple, but I do. In this game, especially loved the chases with wood-floors falling as you sometimes had to quickly change routes because of it.
 
So yeah I finished the game. It was pretty great. The story was great, everything was pretty phenomenal. A GOTY contender for sure.

The graphics, pretty outstanding honestly. The only other real open world game that came close to GTAIV in detail had been Mafia 2. I use had been because LA Noire blows it out of the water. The city and environments are so detailed that it's breathtaking. The in-door areas look amazing as well, so much so that I have to praise the people at Team Bondi. They have created some fantastic environments. This game looks stellar and because of the detail its super imerseve, so much more so then any other open world game released so far. I was really impressed with how the game world looked and little things like bad textures here and there did not hurt this otherwise fantastic recreation of LA. Character models can be a little strange looking sometimes, but for the most part they are well done. They sometimes can have some wonky animation, but it did not hurt the game too much. Yes the faces are great.

The gameplay is good. The controls during a firefight are not as precise as they could be and it often made firefights the worst part of the game, but you get use to them. The last couple of firefights were really fun and I enjoyed how simple they were. It made each firefight feel a little more grounded, which is the feeling the game was going for. A simple head shot does the trick, and nothing more. And because just 1 person can be a threat it makes the firefights just feel a bit more intense and less gamey, kind of how Mafia 2 felt. LA Noire is still a game though and has gamey things that do hurt the experience, but are only really obvious because of how well the experiencing is done. Things like the fact that a neighbor appears at the right time and you can pick up pointless things just because. Little things though and they don't hurt the game, just take away from the completely well crafted experience. The searching for clues does become basically searching for rumble and makes it kind of tedious, but things that require you to pay attention to them are pretty awesome as you start to think about how they tie into the current case. Which is pretty much why I liked the game, I was constancy trying to pay attention and think on how things applied to the case, this carries over to the interrogations. I really enjoyed just paying attention to the details and dialogue in order to figure out what was the best answer. It made for a very fun game. It's got some flaws in the limited way the game can branch out, but all in all it was a great first try. Though one flaw that really annoyed me is that if you found out a info in one question it did'nt effect the other. Like one question told me that the dude had a pretty intimate relationship with the victim, but when asked about the relationship in another question he says he dosen't and wants me to prove otherwise, but you already told me!

And as for the story, what a great story. I constantly read on here about it's problems, but I don't see them. My only problem is that Elsa is'nt used earlier in the game. There should have been a "break" part in between each case where Phelps goes and talks to her. When you do talk to her, you already get her character so it's not a big deal. Other then that and the gamey logic such as everyone runs I have no problem. It's a great story as far as games are concerned and it's extremely well written. You get the characters by how they talk and what they say and the characters are consistent. The personal story of Phelps and Kelso is great and really intriguing and how it comes up later in the game really kept me glued to my seat. The flashbacks and I don't see the problem with them. The newspapers are also fine and a good portion of them come up are connected to the case. I really enjoyed the story.

So yeah the game is probably a 9/10 for me.
 

colinp

Banned
daviyoung said:
Haha. Are people seriously pronouncing it like bondee?

Yep! I think just about all of them actually. And even when they pronounce it both ways when they are not sure someone will pipe up "I think it's Bondee."

Really??? What, good sir, makes you think that it is Bondee?
 
I enjoyed the game for the first few hours. Had plenty of gripes by around half way through homicide, but tried to defend them. By arson I couldn't defend them any more but was still having a decent amount of fun for what it was. By the end of the story I couldn't of cared less. Tried to put a bit of effort in to the collectables and that after but couldn't be bothered so stopped. Traded it in on Friday, I rarely trade games in, but I just know I will never play it ever again.

I do think the premise can be worked on and probably turn out a lot better. Wasn't particularly impressed with the world. I can relate to the likes of GTA IV from seeing so many of the landmarks it was based on in films and such. Other than the Hollywood sign, none of this meant anything to me.
 

Zeliard

Member
RoninChaos said:
I just hit the homicide desk. Still enjoying it.

I just got to Vice but it wouldn't surprise me if Homicide ends up the best part of the game, partly since it's apparently the only desk with its own on-going storyline.

I do think the game drags on a bit too long. I haven't been in Vice long and it's already feeling quite repetitive, especially since it's back to the monster-of-the-week style. Granted I've been playing it pretty heavily the past couple days, but it does seem artificially stretched out in parts.

And I think the entire Street Crime portion is pretty misguided. Just takes you out of the experience. It's their obvious call to GTA fans who desperately need that sort of thing in an open-world game, but it's jarring in L.A. Noire. It doesn't fit with the methodical investigation that makes up the meat of the game and the street crimes just feel so mechanical and uncreative. Doesn't help that they also reuse some actors for those portions.

Otherwise it's pretty enjoyable and it had me hooked for a while. As most everyone has said, the facial animation is a game-changer. Easily above anything else there's been. And I enjoy the dialogue and the acting for the most part. Guy who played Rusty Galloway was fantastic and his dialogue with Phelps was enjoyable, if perhaps made him seem unrealistically naive. 40s Los Angeles is also always an evocative setting.
 

Don

Member
I just finished it yesterday and although I did enjoy it quite a bit, it really didn't come close to being as good as I expected.

One of my biggest problems was how unsatisfying pretty much every case felt after you solve it. There were times when a case would end when I was expecting it to keep going for a bit longer.

The Ace Attorney series seems like the best comparison and I feel that the cases in that series are handled so much better. Each game only has about 4-5 cases but they nearly always leave you satisfied once you have solved them, and are filled with great memorable characters that keep you invested in each one.

With L.A. Noire there are 21 cases and I don't think I could tell you how half of them ended despite just finishing the game recently.

I want to go back to it at some point to try the DLC cases and also attempt to 5 star most of the cases, but it became so repetitive that I need to take a break before jumping back in any time soon.
 

Apdiddy

Member
I actually liked the last case on the homicide desk, call me crazy. It seems to allow an opportunity for the player to be directly involved instead of "look at this evidence here, chase this suspect there, interrogate" as most of the other cases seem to have done. The earlier cases were self-contained and that was good as well.
But having an over-arching storyline for the homicide desk I don't think was good. Compounded with the fact that the game (and the partner & chief) seem to force the main character to go against his instincts.
I'm on the last case for the vice desk and THAT is irritating.
So there is a scandal that wasn't mentioned up to that point and Cole's partner uses Cole having an affair to deflect the blow of the scandal? Or maybe Cole doesn't exactly know about it in the 'story behind the story' sequence. And Cole acts like it's OK -- which goes back to my point.

Still, L.A. Noire is not a bad game -- I actually like watching the game more than playing it. I didn't have high expectations for it (i.e. GTA in 1947 or RDR as a cop) but it took some adjustments for me. The game seems to push more thinking than action (which is good IMO). Phelps isn't the standard military lunkhead action hero -- but
in fact, he's almost cowardly judging by the flashbacks.
And Cole Phelps is a different type of character than Marston or Nikio.

In a perverse way, I just hope there is a zombie mode DLC. Phelps might have to do something then.
 

Zeliard

Member
I also agree with others that letting you know which answers you judged incorrectly as you went is just dumb.

What they do at the end with the "case notes" portion in telling you how you could have been more efficient in solving the case, or pointing out some major fuckup - that part is quite excellent.

But telling you that you misjudged a question or not after each a) very unrealistic since Phelps wouldn't have access to that sort of instantaneous info, and b) just brings the mechanics behind the game to the forefront. For a game that does go for a sense of realism to a large degree, they certainly like to remind you that you're playing a game at every turn.

Why not just hide all of that info, so you aren't quite sure if you judged the person correctly or not? It's especially stupid in LA Noire because it isn't a game over if you misjudge every single answer a person gives. The game continues and you follow a different path, so why show you which questions you got right and wrong? It would feel much more organic if they didn't.

And I know sometimes you do get a bit of extra info than Phelps does, like during Homicide when they show you a portion of the murder, but that's trivial by comparison and fits well with the noir elements, regardless.
 

tiff

Banned
Apdiddy said:
I actually liked the last case on the homicide desk, call me crazy. It seems to allow an opportunity for the player to be directly involved instead of "look at this evidence here, chase this suspect there, interrogate" as most of the other cases seem to have done.
I liked the idea but for some of them it felt like you'd actually have to have been to the location to figure the clue out.
 

Totobeni

An blind dancing ho
Zeliard said:
I also agree with others that letting you know which answers you judged incorrectly as you went is just dumb.
(.....)

Why not just hide all of that info, so you aren't quite sure if you judged the person correctly or not? It's especially stupid in LA Noire because it isn't a game over if you misjudge every single answer a person gives. The game continues and you follow a different path, so why show you which questions you got right and wrong? It would feel much more organic if they didn't.

And I know sometimes you do get a bit of extra info than Phelps does, like during Homicide when they show you a portion of the murder, but that's trivial by comparison and fits well with the noir elements, regardless.


Because the dev thought it don't even matter since they are here just to show us good faces and ugly necks,and to the game nothing actually matter here if you get answers/questions right or wrong or find clues, the game don't give a flying crap, and things will go to automatic pilot and solve itself anyway with your power of pushing the left analogue stick.
 

Zeliard

Member
Totobeni said:
The chase sequences are really horrible, shallow and scripted as hell, they are very non AssCreed since they feel on rail and it don't even matter since they ends the way the game want,they are awful just like the most of stuff in this game.

Not true. The chases will inevitably end somehow if you don't catch the suspect before, i.e. they'll crash, your partner will cut them off, etc, but in many cases you can tackle them or shoot them before it gets to that point.
 

Zeliard

Member
Totobeni said:
Because the dev thought it don't even matter since they are here just to show us good faces and ugly necks,and to the game nothing actually matter here if you get answers/questions right or wrong or find clues, the game don't give a flying crap, and things will go to automatic pilot and solve itself anyway with your power of pushing the left analogue stick.

I don't really mind the lack of a fail state outside of brawling/shooting. I think that's actually one of the best things about the game, that if you get certain questions wrong and/or miss certain physical clues, the game will give you those through other means. It's typical of adventure games to not have fail states when it comes to the clue-solving portion, anyway.

Sometimes it's obvious how they do that, since you'll just pick a clue from two completely different spots for one specific location you need to go to, but usually they seem to mix those up well. Like if you didn't pick up a cup that reads the location of a certain area, you won't usually just find that same cup somewhere else, but it'll be something like another character giving you that clue through interrogation.

You can tell how some clues replicate themselves sometimes, but in other cases I don't doubt it's completely hidden from the player because you would have had to miss the clue in the first place for it to show up.

It's hard to tell on a single playthrough but apparently from others who have played it through more than once, there are quite a few changes depending on the paths you take. Like you'll talk to some character you never had to before. Personally, I've solved cases where I acquired some huge clue fairly early on and skipped some locations entirely to go straight to it.

All that stuff is cool. The big problem is that they feel the need to tell you exactly which questions you got right and wrong and they essentially turn it into some school exam instead of an organic investigation. Just a bad design decision.
 
Just finished the game and I'm not touching it again. I really had to force myself to play through the game after you're moved out of homicide. Things just aren't as interesting from there on out. The game just uses the same pattern over, and over and over. Then you finally make it, and the ending was abrupt, meaningless, and just plain bad along with the rest of the inconclusive story that lacks any real theme.
 
D

Deleted member 30609

Unconfirmed Member
Zeliard said:
I just got to Vice but it wouldn't surprise me if Homicide ends up the best part of the game, partly since it's apparently the only desk with its own on-going storyline.

I do think the game drags on a bit too long. I haven't been in Vice long and it's already feeling quite repetitive, especially since it's back to the monster-of-the-week style. Granted I've been playing it pretty heavily the past couple days, but it does seem artificially stretched out in parts.

And I think the entire Street Crime portion is pretty misguided. Just takes you out of the experience. It's their obvious call to GTA fans who desperately need that sort of thing in an open-world game, but it's jarring in L.A. Noire. It doesn't fit with the methodical investigation that makes up the meat of the game and the street crimes just feel so mechanical and uncreative. Doesn't help that they also reuse some actors for those portions.

Otherwise it's pretty enjoyable and it had me hooked for a while. As most everyone has said, the facial animation is a game-changer. Easily above anything else there's been. And I enjoy the dialogue and the acting for the most part. Guy who played Rusty Galloway was fantastic and his dialogue with Phelps was enjoyable, if perhaps made him seem unrealistically naive. 40s Los Angeles is also always an evocative setting.
Personally, barring the frustrating ending, I found Homicide and Traffic to be much better than Vice. Luckily, Arson seems to have another over-arching storyline going on and the cases are much more creative than the relatively unsatisfying Vice cases. Stick it out to Arson, it really picks up again.

Although I'm only two or three cases into Arson, it might take another nose-dive.
 

Badgerst3

Member
Just started. Almost instantly wished I had rented this game instead of purchased.

I feel like I will have to force myself to finish.

Too scripted with a gta iv free roam but empty sorta feel. Poor action, great facial animations. Average free roam, repetitive main plot line game play.

And I loved rdr.
 

Darko

Member
ToyMachine228 said:
Just finished the game and I'm not touching it again. I really had to force myself to play through the game after you're moved out of homicide. Things just aren't as interesting from there on out. The game just uses the same pattern over, and over and over. Then you finally make it, and the ending was abrupt, meaningless, and just plain bad along with the rest of the inconclusive story that lacks any real theme.

same, forced myself to play all the way to vice hoping it would get better.. got bored of it and havent touched the game since last weekend..
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
The end of Vice kinda took me for a surprise.
wat? who are you, wifey? i've never seen you before. and i've been sleeping with elsa? i just tailed her home once!
 
I only have to redo the Butterfly case and I'll have five stared every case, I'm like 20 minutes away from a fairly easy trophy and I can't bring myself to play that case. The fact that
the game makes you blindly pick one and get fucked with a three star still upsets me

Btw, after completing the game, all 17 hours worth I found one gold reel. Wtf, where are the other 49? lol
 

Papercuts

fired zero bullets in the orphanage.
Square Triangle said:
I only have to redo the Butterfly case and I'll have five stared every case, I'm like 20 minutes away from a fairly easy trophy and I can't bring myself to play that case. The fact that
the game makes you blindly pick one and get fucked with a three star still upsets me

Btw, after completing the game, all 17 hours worth I found one gold reel. Wtf, where are the other 49? lol

I looked through the social club and nobody on my friends list found a single reel, lol.
 
I've found one film reel so far, it was
at the air field in a hangar and the only reason I found it was I was cruising by and looked around, hoping I could fly a plane.
No dice.

Just finished the first Vice case, holy shit I love Vice. Roy is definitely my favorite partner so far, he's a scumbag but he's an awesome scumbag. I really loved the pacing of the first case too. Really well done.

My favorite lines from the case:
"Where are you gonna be?" "Polar bear hunting."
"How many janitors carry a gat?" BLAM.

I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of this game. It's not exactly what I expected, but I love it just the same. I hope it does well enough that they make a sequel and fix the little things that would make this even more enjoyable.
 
Square Triangle said:
I only have to redo the Butterfly case and I'll have five stared every case, I'm like 20 minutes away from a fairly easy trophy and I can't bring myself to play that case. The fact that
the game makes you blindly pick one and get fucked with a three star still upsets me

Btw, after completing the game, all 17 hours worth I found one gold reel. Wtf, where are the other 49? lol

I think it's down to the fact they are really hard to see, I used a guide to find them and I swear to god I walked straight past like 5 of them without spotting a single one.
 

jgminto

Member
The only good characters of this game are Cole's partners, Captain Donnolly and Jack Kelso. Cole has absolutely no motives and his wife was barely a character.
 

Clunker

Member
Zeliard said:
I don't really mind the lack of a fail state outside of brawling/shooting. I think that's actually one of the best things about the game, that if you get certain questions wrong and/or miss certain physical clues, the game will give you those through other means. It's typical of adventure games to not have fail states when it comes to the clue-solving portion, anyway.

Sometimes it's obvious how they do that, since you'll just pick a clue from two completely different spots for one specific location you need to go to, but usually they seem to mix those up well. Like if you didn't pick up a cup that reads the location of a certain area, you won't usually just find that same cup somewhere else, but it'll be something like another character giving you that clue through interrogation.

You can tell how some clues replicate themselves sometimes, but in other cases I don't doubt it's completely hidden from the player because you would have had to miss the clue in the first place for it to show up.

It's hard to tell on a single playthrough but apparently from others who have played it through more than once, there are quite a few changes depending on the paths you take. Like you'll talk to some character you never had to before. Personally, I've solved cases where I acquired some huge clue fairly early on and skipped some locations entirely to go straight to it.

All that stuff is cool. The big problem is that they feel the need to tell you exactly which questions you got right and wrong and they essentially turn it into some school exam instead of an organic investigation. Just a bad design decision.
100 percent agreed on virtually all of your points. I really liked L.A. Noire overall, but I felt that in general its attempts to be more "gamey" -- e.g., giving those instant feedback responses to interrogation questions, summarizing your "1/4 questions correct" like the XP gain screen of an RPG random battle, those really janky balance-beam sections and the terrible bulldozer sequence -- really hampered what the rest of the game was building toward.

If I were a betting man, I'd wager that all of those sections, as well as the pretty forgettable street crimes, were concessions the developers made to the game to stave off complaints about the game being little more than an interactive movie or an FMV borefest -- which is ironic, since the summaries and instant responses are what completionist, trophy-huntin' gamers find the greatest fault with. I never had a problem with leaving a question answered "incorrectly," and in fact I really liked the lack of a hard Game Over screen since that meant I didn't have to hit the classic adventure game wall of just trying every single dialogue option, presenting every piece of evidence, or combining every two items in my inventory just because I'm stuck and can't figure out what to do next. But clearly a lot of people did.

For a potential sequel or expansion on the L.A. Noire basic concept, I hope they allow people to disable the chime feedbacks/end-of-encounter summaries; it's weird that they didn't give this as an option, since they obviously saw that some people would want to remove the rumble and music fade cues from the investigation scenes. I think not being slapped in the face with "BUZZ! WRONG ANSWER!" would alleviate a lot of people's bad feelings about the game, though I also think a lot of people (here and elsewhere) are really sore about not getting 100 percent right their first time through.
 
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