Rockstar's L.A. Noire - debut trailer

[Mr. Clean]

Yeah I struggle some with the bullshit-o-meter. Restarted several chapters for missing questions. They employ the "eyes looking left" concept alot. Sometimes super difficult of to choose lying or doubt....I'll forget certain evidence I've collected or completely not connect the dots.

[ProfessorChaos]

my copy arrived today, but unfortunately i'm in the middle of moving and my xbox is packed up in its box. just gonna have to drool over this case and all these discs. the gamestop pre-order came with "the naked city" bonus case and the "badge hunt" challenge. inside the game case, there was a sealed envelope with film negatives in it for the badge hunting evidence, pretty schweet.....

[MinionZombie]

I take it The Naked City and the Badge Hunting elements have to be downloaded from XBL? If so, that's me knackered on those, as I don't have XBL. Anyway - my copy arrived this morning. Gonna give it a go later on after I've done some editing. Oh - there's an easter egg in the game, in a trash can at one crime scene in a back alley, you can find John Marston's hat from Red Dead Redemption apparently - saw video of it on YouTube from IGN.

[MikePizzoff]

Watched my buddy play this game for a bit last night. Pretty cool, but I'm not sure I want to pick it up just yet. I wanna hear some more personal reviews from him and you guys.

[MinionZombie]

I've had a couple of hours with the game, so here's some initial thoughts. Naturally, when just getting into a new game, you're a bit like a newborn calf, unstable on your feet, and unsure of the feel of it all (like controls, and the rules of the game and the gaming world), but you always begin to figure it out and get the vibe. The first interrogation I made a right old hash of, and had to retry it like 3 damn times before I got it ... so it's going to take a bit of getting used to with this Truth/Doubt/Lie mechanic, however it is an interesting new way of playing a game. I'm really digging the vibe of the game overall, that 1947 Los Angeles vibe. It's like playing L.A. Confidential, and it can be quite atmospheric. Hunting for clues is interesting, at times it's quite focused, other times it's a little bit unfocused (like on my first time hunting for clues I kept looking at empty bottles and cigarette butts - if it's not important, why even have Cole Phelps pay interest in it? ). Foot chases are good - the controls are simple - you basically steer your guy and hold down Right Trigger to run (so gone are the days of constantly tapping "A" to sprint ... however, this does mean, for some reason, that Handbreak for vehicles is moved to Right Bumper, instead of A, which is a teeny bit odd) - anyway, the chases are cool so far, I dig the thrill of the chase presented ... a detective hoofing it after a suspect. I responded to one side-case, although I shot the guy in the face, so I think I might have closed that case a little too quick as a result (i.e. never got to find out who it was or why he was shooting from a rooftop), so I'll have to replay that one if possible via the menu. The hand-to-hand combat is good. It was pretty ropey in GTA IV, and it wasn't great in RDR either, but they've made it responsive and smooth here - so that's very nice to have, as you'll occasionally find yourself duking it out with a suspect on a rooftop or whatever. Speaking of controls, I've not experienced any major problems moving Phelps around ... if anything, the character control feels the best out of GTA IV and RDR. Not to say there aren't the odd moments of limitation that could use a tweak, but I see no problems worth bitching about like the IGN reviewer did. I'm on the first big case, having done the first four missions - which introduce you to the basics, and get you promoted from a beat cop to Traffic. So I'm definitely digging it, but it'll also take some getting used to. With all the clues and questions to ask and so on I can imagine I'll spend a fair amount of time with this game. Looking forward to doing so mind - more impressions as-and-when.

[acealive1]

i guess now a dark city and thirteenth floor mod can be made from this game.

[MinionZombie]

Some more impressions: SIDE MISSIONS/RADIO'D-IN CRIMES COMPARED TO THE MAIN GAME: These random crimes seem to come thick-and-fast when you're out and about in your patrol car, but they're generally cursory and just an excuse to throw in a quick chase or shoot-out amidst all your sleuthing and evidence gathering, which is a much slower paced thing - indeed the slower pace of walking around the crime scene, getting witness reports, piecing together bits of information, examining bodies, proving someone's lying with a piece of evidence, and so on is rather fun and enjoyable - I get to play detective, and how can you not like that? The driving mechanics are totally different to GTA IV, where the cars felt very realistic, in this they don't feel anywhere near as bad as the arcadey sharp turners in Saints Row 2, but they are pretty spritely - however compared to the lumbering lummoxes you often found in Mafia 2 (which were perhaps more realistic), it's a more enjoyable situation in which to be driving. Indeed you can get your partner to drive to a new location during your investigations in case you can't be arsed - but if you do that all the time you'll miss the opportunity to sight-see along the way as you stumble upon L.A. landmarks (make sure you press "B" when it tells you, even if you're tear-arsing along the road with your siren blaring, and you'll be treated to a bit of info and a nice look at the building). I've not played Heavy Rain, but I don't think it's going to have the same element of so many distinct ways to approach a situation, or indeed outcomes ... but on the other hand, it's rather enjoyable to piece together the clues and try and figure out what's going on in a particular case. Perhaps in time it'll become a tad repetitive, but at the same time - surely real police work is somewhat repetitive, indeed crime stories are often called "procedurals" because there are numerous procedures you have to conduct in order to figure out what's going on. I'm starting to understand this Truth/Doubt/Lie mechanic a bit more, and can see that it's relatively clear whether someone is truthful or not - although the confusion can come when you're trying to figure out if someone is being Doubtful, or flat out Lying. There seems to be particular 'looks' for the three options, so I'll have to look on YouTube if there's a guide to show the difference between Doubt and Lie visually (like, is the latter a much more obvious version of the former). You might say it's a bit simple, once you understand the mechanic, and maybe it is, but then at the same time so few, if any, games are made like this - so you've got to create the whole gameplay from the ground up. You'd be able to tweak and change and improve in time with another entry, but this is a sandboxer unlike most sandboxers for the most part. It's about being a detective, about solving crimes, stopping perps, chasing down folks fleeing the scene, that kind of stuff. It's an entirely different approach and pace to something like GTA IV or even Red Dead Redemption (although RDR changed the pace up a bit with the slow-paced first missions, and the slow-paced stuff on the farm later on). Atmospherically speaking, it's pretty damn good. Visually speaking it's good, but RDR was definitely prettier and more impressive. In terms of missions it's more guided and focused than a GTA or RDR. You don't travel to an icon and then enter a mission, your next case comes up one after another and within those cases you can free roam stuff (like answer calls, sight-see, etc) ... so it's not as freeroam as GTA or RDR, but it's certainly nowhere near as linear and un-sandboxy as Mafia 2. The facial stuff - most of the time it's pretty cool, but it's not perfect. Sometimes it can look a tad odd, but other times it can look really good. So it's an imperfect thing so far, but considering it's new technology, it wasn't going to be perfect anyway. Indeed this game is generally a new approach, so it's not going to be perfect, and being that it's a Team Bondi game rather than a Rockstar game, it's not exactly like the Rockstar way of doing things. It's like a mixture between what we know and understand a Rockstar game to be, but mixed in with what Team Bondi were going for from the-off, and how they personally code things ... if that makes sense. I'm definitely getting wrapped up in it though. Imperfect (like all things), but generally a bold step in a different direction for a sandboxer, and well worth getting into if you dig the Noir genre, and movies like L.A. Confidential (which is no doubt the closest inspiration).

[Mr. Clean]

It's a really great game. I like it not to mention its unlike anything else I've ever played before. I just wish I could make traffic stops, arrest random people at will, and pull my weapons out at anytime. All of that would increase the value of the game a hell of a lot. The limited number of guns in the trunk sorta blows too. (Most people only get the shotgun, I have a tommy gun aswell because I preordered)

[MinionZombie]

It's a really great game. I like it not to mention its unlike anything else I've ever played before. I just wish I could make traffic stops, arrest random people at will, and pull my weapons out at anytime. All of that would increase the value of the game a hell of a lot. The limited number of guns in the trunk sorta blows too. (Most people only get the shotgun, I have a tommy gun aswell because I preordered) There's guns in the trunk? Of your police car? Now this I didn't know - I've just been battling street crimes with my pistol unless I've otherwise been given a different weapon to start with/picked up one dropped by a bad guy. ... Further impressions of the game. I would have handled it slightly differently - Cole has a family, but I've not seen his wife or kids at all yet - I would have had your main save point be his family home, and then play the game out truly free-roam (ala GTA or RDR), but then I can also see how they'd use a more focused approach for the cases you end up investigating (it'd be weird to be in the middle of a case, but spend a week of in-game time doing random shit) ... but then at the same time, most of these cases are solved within one day - which is also a tad unrealistic, so whatever. However, I'm really into the game now - I'm on the third Homicide case (the "Silk Stocking" one) - and I'm properly wrapped up in it. I get a real thrill from doing the police procedural stuff, finding clues, piecing together the story behind the crime, and then chasing down suspects who flee various scenes - indeed car chases are also quite a thrill as you battle it out with cars fleeing, or cars chasing you, on the streets and back alleys of L.A. Interrogations have been quite tense at times, on "The Golden Butterfly" (the second homicide case), I was interrogating two suspects and...   it was so goddamn tense when I was exploring the various pieces of evidence with both suspects, and how I thought it was Moller, but then his testimony (and that of Eli, the pervert I caught at the high school), made things not so clear - so when I was interrogating Eli it got really tense with the last couple of questions, and whether he was lying or not, and I didn't want to fuck up the question and get it wrong - and plus there's this tense musical tone constantly playing at moments of decision like that, and you're staring right at the suspect's face to decipher their facial movements, and oh my - the tension. In the end I charged Eli with the murder of Mrs Moller (indeed, with the evidence I didn't see that you could do the same to Mr. Moller). It's a pretty damn cool game, and a much fresher approach to a sandbox game (even considering my aforementioned suggestions of how I would have done it a tad differently) ... if you want to play Detective, then by all means pick this up. The atmosphere of 1947 L.A. is pretty damn cool, the thrill of the hunt for clues - piecing together the story behind the crime - and trying to figure out if your gut feeling matches the truth is really involving, and it's a very stylishly put together game to cap it all off. There was one bit that involved a climax to a case that took place at the crumbling set of Babylon from D.W. Griffith's "Intolerance", which was really damn cool too. That really stood out to me as a highlight of the game so far (even if I did experience a glitch that halted progress - a cutscene that didn't complete - thus having to quit and restart from an earlier save point, which meant I had to re-do a whole portion of that particular case). As for the street crimes, some are a bit cursory (essentially go to a location, kill everyone, end of - there seems to be no opportunity to arrest these perps, or even shoot the guns out of their hands), but then others are much more interesting and sometimes bring back side characters from previous cases or situations, so it's like "oh it's you again ... you're under arrest, bub". It's also interesting to note the nudity in the game - they've not tried to censor or bizarrely cover up the apparent victims of the Black Dahlia ... I wonder what hysterial anti-games nutjobs would say about it if/when they find out? GTA IV had no nudity, just nipple tassles and pokey g-strings, Episodes From Liberty City had a dude's schlong thrown in at one point, RDR had some boobs flopping around mid-coitus, and L.A. Noire features 'on display' murder victims, bush-and-all. It's interesting to note how gradually the use of nudity is evolving in all of these - adult rated - videogames. In L.A. Noire it's staying true to the homicide cases at hand, and the motives of the killer (who is still unknown to me as I'm only on my 3rd homicide case). It's an imperfect game, but a bold step in a direction few (if any) have bothered investigating. Even though you're a little more 'guided' in your ultimate approach than you could have otherwise been, your approach to questioning is still important, lest you want to lose out on certain information and particular leads, plus you'll want to get everything right. You'll want to discover the truth, get to the bottom of the crime, and you might even end up thinking "did I charge the right guy?" afterwards. If you dig the Noir genre, or movies like L.A. Confidential, or the golden age of hollywood and Los Angeles, then pick it up.

[Mr. Clean]

There's guns in the trunk? Of your police car? Now this I didn't know - I've just been battling street crimes with my pistol unless I've otherwise been given a different weapon to start with/picked up one dropped by a bad guy. Yeah, During shootouts, you can walk up to a police vehicle trunk and grab a gun. It's the A button for 360. Interrogations have been quite tense at times, on "The Golden Butterfly" (the second homicide case), I was interrogating two suspects and...   Yeah I did the same thing. I was pretty sure it was Hugo until I found out the perv had worked at the Marina(don't remember the name) but the stenciling on the coveralls matched the Marina's name plus finding the butterfly on him. The lug wrench from a different car didn't make any sense though, I didn't know what to think of that. If they had let you check Hugo's car to see if he had a lug wrench then that lead wouldn't have been left open. It gets much better, a HUGE twist is thrown in. Wait until you see the dead junkies who OD'd on morphine. That shit made me laugh my ass off. Popcorn EVERYWHERE. WTF? What a bunch of tweakers.

[MinionZombie]

Aye, about that evidence in the Golden Butterfly case...   it was stacking up completely against Mr. Moller, but then the overalls were explained away as you say, and when the guy said about working at a Marina - and having examined the ropes and talked about them at the Coroner's office, and indeed discovered that Eli was also a Size 8 shoe wearer (even though he had on 11's - hence the Size 11, possibly anyway, that I found in a previous case) - I just said "this is the guy, let's charge the fucker!" But aye - that car jack/wrench/whatever that matched a Chrysler was a weird one ... the rabbit's blood on a pair of shoes was explained away decently, but the tyre iron thingy was a weird one - but then again, perhaps it was in there by mistake and Eli just used it ... ... if I was a real detective, this sorta thing would keep me up at nights, just like that opening voice over said. I can't wait to progress further through homicide - I'll keep an eye out for the scene you said, it sounds pretty mental. Red Dead Redemption made me feel like a cowboy in the dying days of the west, and L.A. Noire really makes me feel like a 1940s detective. I'm loving it.

[Neil]

BBC article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13507355

[MinionZombie]

I've just made my way onto the Vice desk, and I'm working my first case - will have to be careful to go to the locations in the correct order. I knew a suspect was lying, but I didn't have the evidence to prove it - because I hadn't been to another location beforehand. So that's something to watch out for - methinks I'll take the time to "ask" my partner what we should do next when there's more than one location on the list (going to the first one on the list hasn't necessarily always meant doing it in the correct order).

[Yojimbo]

Finished the game and was quite impressed. My one complaint is that the detective shrieks like a little girl every time he gets clocked by a suspect unexpectedly. Sound a bit too wussy for a lapd detective.

[ProfessorChaos]

still in the middle of getting settled in to my new place and have been working 50-hour weeks, just got my car repainted, etc, so i've barely had any time with this at all....should be back on xboxlive by next week, going to get the rockstar pass for 800 ms points, which then allows you get all DLC packs. just made it to the traffic desk, but plan to re-start once i get all the DLC picked up. my immediate impression would have to be: so far, so good.