he can, since he's not a police-officer he's not abide by laws and "to protect people". Then again, Cole can kill them while driving.
Plus Cole's no saint. If you're running (on-foot) and there're people in front of Cole, he just pushes them and they slam their faces into the ground leaving a trail of blood.
That's really not true at all. The game has a story. To say it has no semblance of story is just lying. You can only say that if you honestly did not pay attention. There's an entire story about Cole and what happen during the war and how that comes to a head during the Arson desk and even the Vice desk.
Sure you can not like the game and think it has a bad story. But no story? That's just wrong.
Is it just me or does Kelso have more personality than Cole? I love playing as Jack and him running around investigating is a real nice change of pace from the police investigation angle. It sucks that this is happening so close to the end, I would have liked Cole's investigations broken up a bit more.
Also, I find it hilarious that while you're Jack, you basically revert to GTA mode and manhandle people out of their cars like a jackass.
the ticket in the boxing case is for the set-up which has the same basic plot of the case in question, but it came out in 1949...which is odd.
there's some weird references for the specific year the game takes places, 1947, but that jumped out as the most wrong. it's also a shame it doesn't take advantage of all the cool hollywood/war time stuff that was going on during 1947 as well.
I'm almost done with the game and I'm liking the story on several levels. The writing and acting are solid, the short story format is a good use of the video game medium, and the overall story seems coherent enough. When people trash the story in the game, I'm not sure what they're comparing it to or what they consider good storytelling." I'll have to wait until I finish though to read why people feel that way in the spoiler thread.
... damnit! Only 27,000 dollar penalties! I guess I'll need to go way more crazy. By the way, it seems like it's easier to rack up penalties with destroying cars than damaging civilians or doing city damage.
And one new thing I discovered. Some interrogations can have many right answers, there could be 2 right buttons to press, I wasn't aware of that. One specific example:
Stuart Ackerman in the white shoe case. With the first question there's at least 3 right answers:
-Doubt
-Lie (purse)
-Lie (rope)
Suddenly Cole's family has relevance and suddenly this good guy everybody loves named Cole decides to cheat on his wife with some German interrogation witness that he has no connection with and doesn't know outside a 2 minute conversation. And then they say they can't have a criminal in the LAPD, but they keep him in the Arson desk anyway
[spoilers]To say he dosent know Elsa is wrong. We see him go to club several times only to see her sing. Should they have shown more interaction? Sure but it's quite obvious he was infatuated with her. It's no stretch to say he interacted with her. I also think your taking the crminal line a bit too litearly. He's a criminal because he was the good guy everybody loved that comited a very publicly bad sin and with a german lady no less. And think about who said it as well. Arson is also seen as pretty pointless, makes sense to throw a guy you don't want there.[/spoilers]
Suddenly Cole's family has relevance and suddenly this good guy everybody loves named Cole decides to cheat on his wife with some German interrogation witness that he has no connection with and doesn't know outside a 2 minute conversation. And then they say they can't have a criminal in the LAPD, but they keep him in the Arson desk anyway
The family wasn't supposed to be "that relevant", in fact it was probably the intention. Cole was more focused on his job and growing in ranks than about his family; which is why the multiple times he's asked about the marriage and even alluded about cheating on his wife, he just ignored or changed subjects. It was explained that he's there while the investigation and the hearing for his case is pending and taking place in December (probably enough time for them to create false evidences and blame him for the "wrong accusations/arrests" and use that as excuse to completely have him out). Up to this day, there care situations when officers are asked for his gun/badge, but still has to go to work and do misc. things. (or just get paid their salaries while staying at home) in his case he was demoted.
Also keeping in mind that the whole reason the whole situation exploded and his cheating was exposed, was because they wanted him out; since he was close to discover/expose the corruption taking place in the same police. But they also knew they couldn't just fire him; so they put him on the "lowest group", and take care of fires, investigate if it was on purpose or not and talk to the insurance about it.
Cole's image was created by the newspapers ; so they knew they had to destroy him the same way. The police also only cared for headlines and covers, and they knew Cole brought them covers; so they couldn't just fire him...that easily.
EDIT:
Hahaha..while working on the wreaking havoc/achievement, I left Galloway and forgot about him..and out of nowhere when I'm walking around a siren sounds close and it's a police car with Galloway inside, and he gets out all pissed off ..XD
I agree with Rahx. Man the backlash in this thread is still strong and is really grinding me down dammit.
Why is it grating that they put him in the arson desk? "They don't want a criminal on the police force" is code for "we want to deflect attention away from the prostitution scandal" and so they take their best cop and bury him in arson - he's getting punished for making the force "look bad" (when really his sacrifice is a pretext for saving the force's corrupt leaders).
Is adultery even a jailable offense back then?
Anybody else think Elsa's accent was great? *swoon* love dem foreign accents.
I went to school near Harlem, and in Harlem there are still a few "jazz club" type deals that are pretty cool. I've gone a few times because the saxophone player is really good. Gaffer Tsubaki went once on his trip to new york. It doesn't mean we're infatuated with him.
Where is your evidence of Cole's infatuation? Honest question. Is there something beyond his "several" trips to see her sing?
I agree with Rahx. Man the backlash in this thread is still strong and is really grinding me down dammit.
Why is it grating that they put him in the arson desk? "They don't want a criminal on the police force" is code for "we want to deflect attention away from the prostitution scandal" and so they take their best cop and bury him in arson - he's getting punished for making the force "look bad" (when really his sacrifice is a pretext for saving the force's corrupt leaders).
They probably shouldn't have based the police force's motivation on a scandal you wouldn't even know about if you happened to miss a newspaper lying around somewhere, for one.
I'm sorry for that. Im on a phone. If a mod can edit my post then much appreciated.
As for what Kev said. I'm pretty sure I said in an earlier post that the thing with Elsa was poorly handled and that we should have had break scenes in between each desk were they talk about Cole's cases. The scene where you do talk to her there already seem to have history as she has a good idea on Coles personality. I think your points are fair and mine are just filling in the blanks which speaks to how poorly it was handled in the game. But still from the way the camera focouses on Elsa as he goes to the club we are supposed to get some sort of hint.
Just finished.
The game is no RDR, but I enjoyed it enough. I honestly think sandbox style has ruined me from other genres. It's much harder to get excited for anything without an open world.
Edit:
Things I liked:
- Detail in the environments. Especially in the landmarks.
- Face tech. Combine this with Uncharted's mo-cap and you've got perfection.
- Voice acting was mostly top-notch.
-
Set pieces like the Black Dahlia's confrontation and Ira's ranch house.
Things I didn't like:
- Some animations were weird. Scaling fire escapes comes to mind. Also the body movements during cutscenes could be iffy.
- The plot could feel a bit disjointed.
They really should have used the wife/kids more than they did. Some situations felt unresolved, especially the corruption with Connolly and the others.
- Earlier levels felt more Noire-ish than later ones.
- The sudden
character change. I didn't have a problem with Jack, but I felt like I barely knew him. Similarly, I didn't like the sudden tearing-down of Cole's character. That should have been a bit more drawn out.
- Some action pieces seemed out of place.
Cole being able to walk a tightrope. Jack outrunning the bulldozer. Picking up a flamethrower in the last level.
They are hidden around the world in a similar fashion to the pigeons/flying rats in GTAIV. They tend to not be on the main path (ie locations you investigate/explore for cases), in back alleys and in buildings.
With the partner drive/teleport system and an online guide it is very easy!
... damnit! Only 27,000 dollar penalties! I guess I'll need to go way more crazy. By the way, it seems like it's easier to rack up penalties with destroying cars than damaging civilians or doing city damage.
Hahah so did I but it wasn't by choice. I only got 2/4 questions right on one guy and after I got 4/4 on the other I came to the conclusion that Suspect #1 was guilty. However, because I got 2/4, it wouldn't let me charge him. Another flaw in this game.
Finally finished it tonight. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The end case was alternating awesome and kind of disappointing: Final case spoilers:
I liked the alternating between Jack and Cole aspect of it. The car chase with Cole running interference for Jack was pretty freakin' awesome, and both the ranch setpiece and the final action setpiece in the runoff sewers were really well done. On the other hand, I was really disappointed there wasn't more investigation aspects to the final case. No interrogations, so the clues you found didn't matter at all, and you didn't have to traverse anywhere, you were automatically put everywhere you needed to go. I guess it helped keep up a frenetic pace for the climax, but I still feel like since the entire game was solving cases to kind of skimp on it on the last case was bleh.
Overall technical thoughts:
-I liked investigating, but the clue hunting aspect needs to be tweaked. Let the player decide what is evidence and what isn't. Having it automatically logged in the book makes it less about detective work, more about guessing. Make it more about searching and less about mashing A until you pick up everything in the room.
-Interrogations were fun, but they didn't work 100% with the truth/doubt/lie system. Something needs to be tweaked in that, probably in correlation to the clue hunting. My idea: Instead of having a question system (4/4 right!) make it so you can present evidence you found to suspects/witnesses, and if you have the right evidence you can get information from them, if you present them things that have nothing to do with the case they give you a look like you're a dumbass.
-The facial software is awesome. But I think the tells could have been made more subtle. For most interrogations it was really easy to see if they were being truthful or lying (a few did get me, but not many) and then it wasn't about seeing the features but determining if you had the evidence or not to call them out. Linking that to modifying the interrogation technique, give an option to "press" a suspect when you see them give a tell, or something similar.
-The large, open city was awesome in that when you were investigating cases it really made it feel like you were in a city. You were never in the same place, and it just felt like you were really there. However, when you aren't solving a case there's really not much to do in this vast open world that you're in. FIX THAT.
-Don't make every car chase end at some fixed point. Don't give the suspect to the player on a silver platter, make us work for it. In the same vein, give me an option to talk down the hostage taker, don't always make me shoot him.
-Story thoughts: Everything up through endgame spoilered within, so only read if you've beaten it.
-There definitely needed to be more focus on Cole's life pre-Vice. In Traffic and Homicide, we only get tidbits here and there, mostly in car conversations with the partner that can easily be missed. We get the flashbacks between each case, yeah, and they all add up to the final couple of cases, but the scandal that forces him into arson basically comes out of nowhere since we know very little about his personal life.
-There needed to be more one-off cases. All the traffic cases were one-offs, and that was fun. Homicide needed to be broken up, not every case needed to be linked to the serial killer. Having three of them be serial killings, have two unrelated killings to break up the monotony, and the last case be a fourth killing and finally have them break the serial killer aspect.
-Playing as Kelso for 2 out of the last 3 cases was alright, but playing this entire time as Cole only to not have him involved at the end, especially not playing as him for the final sequence, really made him feel more like a side character in a game where he was the main protagonist for most of it. ESPECIALLY with his sacrifice in the ending. Kind of dulled the point, could have been way more effective.
-For that matter, having only two of the Arson desk files actually have anything to do with Arson, and again, not having any one-off Arson cases was kind of sucky. The two Kelso cases could have been combined into one case (since the first Kelso case ended abruptly and really just led into the second case without any finality) and we could have had a solo Arson case in there as well.
Overall, I'd give the game an 8/10. I really enjoyed playing the game and what it did do. It was a great game with the mechanics and story that it actually had. However, with some of the changes and tweaks I mentioned, it could be turned from a great game to an unbelievable classic game. I look forward to a sequel as well as any DLC, and hope they make a few of the adjustments I mentioned.
I don't understand. Why do you have a problem with this option? It's meant for those who want to just play the game for the story and interrogations and don't want to play the action sequences (either because they are not good at them or because they simply don't want to play them). If you don't like this screen popping up, you can always turn it off in the option screen.
It doesn't really bother me though. Just like the skip option in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, it's not a feature meant for gamers.
I feel like I'm the only guy that really, really enjoyed the driving sequences. Their handling felt good and arcady in comparison to the overly weighty controls in GTA IV, but they still managed to give all of the models different feels. The cars are recreated well and are quite detailed, although I wish the damage model was a bit more impressive. Most of all, however, I like that the game punished you for driving badly. It's an odd restriction for an "open-world" game, but it put its own little metagame within the world. You have to drive fast but also well, watching to avoid the occasional pedestrian or car. The traffic behavior seemed pretty predictable, and liberal use of the police siren often cleared the streets when needed. The fact that some cases would reward your arrival time with new objectives or information gave the game a sense of urgency not often seen in these types of games, and I hope its a feature crossed over to GTA V.
Overall, the cars seem to be very overlooked by people (minus the achievement seekers), and that's a shame.
It just cheapens the experience. Where I would normally think, "Well, I did that," now it's "I did it... But I guess I didn't really have to." I wish I would have known about it so I could have turned it off. When I first saw it I just sighed.
The fact that you can't go solo in free roam is dumb.
I don't want to hear "you're crashing into shit" ad nauseum and wait for those dummies to get their slow rears back in my whip.
Lots and I mean lots of things that make me mad about this game yet I still like it. Weird.
All the evidence pointed towards the husband. It looked like I could have pinned it on the child molester, but the husband was obviously the guilty one. Why would the molester have killed her? He didn't even rob her. All he had was her broach, which could have been found. I blamed the husband, and then I got the shit chewed out of me, telling me I fucked everything up. I don't understand what happened here. Did I miss some evidence for the molester being the actual killer?
All the evidence pointed towards the husband. It looked like I could have pinned it on the child molester, but the husband was obviously the guilty one. Why would the molester have killed her? He didn't even rob her. All he had was her broach, which could have been found. I blamed the husband, and then I got the shit chewed out of me, telling me I fucked everything up. I don't understand what happened here. Did I miss some evidence for the molester being the actual killer?
I finally received my copy of the game from game.net last night and sat down to play for about 30m.
Wow.
The first comparison I thought of was Paganini selling his soul to become the best violin player in the world. Team Bondi seems to have sold their soul for the most perfect facial animations ever. I mean, good facial animation has been done before - Heavenly Sword, Heavy Rain... But this is on a different level altogether.
