L.A. Noire

[Poopface Morty]

Only thread I could find was one from back in 2006 with five posts...so fuck it.

This looks awesome. I remember viewing the original trailer a month or so ago and before then I'd never heard of it...when I was first watching the trailer I think it was on my phone and the quality was shitty, but I was totally like "That's Ken Cosgrove" (from Mad Men) when watching it. Pretty solid testament to what technology they got going, considering I've seen Aaron Stanton in nothing else. The cynic will easily say that it's nothing more than a glorified tech demo, but in the hands of Rockstar I'm sure it will be solid.

[Mighty Hatman]

Post in the old thread for ultimate necro powers.

Game looks amazing and I'm pretty into the style of it too.

[gunsage]

I've seen a variety of vids, screenshots, and articles for this. I'm absolutely psyched for this one.

[Cyber Altair]

Rockstar suck at storytelling? Lay off the weed for a bit will ya'.

[Sir Legendhead]

I like how being able to read people is a key gameplay mechanic. Awesome.

[The Young Scot]

This game has pretty faces

[Cyber Altair]

GTAIII was a terrible italian mob movie rip off with a silent protagonist

Vice City was a rip off of Scarface and multiple other pre-established 80's cliches. Did this set the awesome 80's tone? Yes. But nothing was original about the setting.

San Andreas would have made a terrible movie about a southern California hood, but I don't think Rockstar was trying to be serious then anyways, so the first three 3D GTA's get a free pass since story didn't matter.

Enter GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption, while both are great games, GTAIV would have made a terrible crime drama if applied to film, and Red Dead would have been a lame western if its story and the way it was handled with the same direction was applied to a western film. Rockstar are awesome game developers. As for story telling, they are enjoyable enough, but no better than throwaway television.

The first three GTA's weren't supposed to be the pinnacle of storytelling. They were filled with stereotypes and took everything lightly yet I'd have to say I enjoyed San Andreas's story for all it was worth. GTA IV had a lot of character and the story was good imo. It was quite original and fun while it still had it fair share of stereotypes, it wouldn't be a Rockstar game if it was dead serious and the same goes with Red Dead, it had a solid story with a lot of great lively characters. They may not be great if they were ported to TV shows but they're games and for what they do in the medium they exist in, they're pretty great.

[gunsage]

GTAIII was a terrible italian mob movie rip off with a silent protagonist

Vice City was a rip off of Scarface and multiple other pre-established 80's cliches. Did this set the awesome 80's tone? Yes. But nothing was original about the setting.

San Andreas would have made a terrible movie about a southern California hood, but I don't think Rockstar was trying to be serious then anyways, so the first three 3D GTA's get a free pass since story didn't matter.

Enter GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption, while both are great games, GTAIV would have made a terrible crime drama if applied to film, and Red Dead would have been a lame western if its story and the way it was handled with the same direction was applied to a western film. Rockstar are awesome game developers. As for story telling, they are enjoyable enough, but no better than throwaway television.

What about Manhunt, Bully, and The Warriors? Sure, the last part of The Warriors was basically just a retelling of the movie, but I don't think the rest of it was from a novel or whatever. And while Bully's dialogue was...yeah...the overall story was pretty fun.

[Cyber Altair]

Forgot Bully, the game was really good. So much fun.

[Gyrael]

I just hope all developers start using this technology because it's a nice step into proper storytelling.

[Gyrael]

No, that's The Witcher 2.

[Gyrael]

Ugh, you're such a liberal.

[Sir Legendhead]

GTAIII was a terrible italian mob movie rip off with a silent protagonist

Vice City was a rip off of Scarface and multiple other pre-established 80's cliches. Did this set the awesome 80's tone? Yes. But nothing was original about the setting.

San Andreas would have made a terrible movie about a southern California hood, but I don't think Rockstar was trying to be serious then anyways, so the first three 3D GTA's get a free pass since story didn't matter.

Enter GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption, while both are great games, GTAIV would have made a terrible crime drama if applied to film, and Red Dead would have been a lame western if its story and the way it was handled with the same direction was applied to a western film. Rockstar are awesome game developers. As for story telling, they are enjoyable enough, but no better than throwaway television.

The funny thing about Vice City was that I liked the Scarface game more. So the ripoff of the ripoff wound up being...better...than...the original? It really is kind of a Mobius strip when you think about it.

Another thing is, you wouldn't be able to narrow the entire experience of RDR down to the length of a single movie. I spent over forty hours immersing myself in Marston's world. That's about as much time as it would take to watch all 23 films in the Bond series, and it's not like that character would've had as much impact if his story had stopped after Dr. No.

Rockstar narratives work exceptionally well for what they're intended to do, but there would be too much lost in translation in the jump from console to theater. Unless you did them as trilogies or continuing series, such as Nolan's Batman or the aforementioned 007.

I just hope all developers start using this technology because it's a nice step into proper storytelling.

I know, right? If they keep this up, maybe someday games will be capable of greater artistic merit than film.

[Cyber Altair]

It's hard to get the pacing right if the game is an open world game. You're supposed to be able to roam of for 6-7 hours between missions if you fancy and the developer has no way of countering that.

[Sir Legendhead]

I don't mean to quote you out of context, but one of your last lines sums up why Marston's character worked for me;

You'd have to be a sociopath to act as simple and good-ol-boyish as Marston did at times after all of the things he had possibly done in his criminal career.

See, I thought that was the whole point. Marston isn't very far removed from Kane and Lynch when you think about it. They nailed that...I've lived in Tennessee for most of my life and the guy reminds me of just about every redneck I've ever met. That's actually one of the best descriptions of him I've read.

I also agree with what Altair said, about pacing being subjective. I played this over the period of about a month, with the majority of it being side stuff. Story missions in sandbox games tend to have more impact when you spread them out like that, as opposed to going straight through.

Another thing that was handled sloppily was the character development with Marston and his former partners. It was so painfully obvious that they were there to simply drive the gameplay along, and that's fine if that segment of gameplay is going to be short, but it was the bulk of the game, and you literally get no satisfaction from the encounters with your old partners after so much work.

I don't think we were supposed to get any satisfaction from taking Dutch out. This, ironically, made it one of the most satisfying parts of the story for me.

You have this guy who has a somewhat noble goal, in that he doesn't want the ways of the old west to be replaced by crass commercialism and dependence on technology. It's kind of sad to look back on American history and realize that men like him seem to have failed for the most part, and it only makes things that much worse to see him degenerate to the point where he kills innocents to achieve his goals. Even then you don't get a sense of catharsis from seeing him die. The scene plays more like the ultimate downfall of a potentially good man than it does a triumph of good over evil.

Mexico felt arbitrary as hell, and the revolution part was handled like it was Duck, You Sucker written by a 14 year old. With such a strong theme, they could have toned down the over the top characters that were not entertaining with their over-the-topness and crafted a really special part in Mexico.

The only part of Mexico that really stands out in my memory was when the Federales shoot the girl and are gunned down by Marston in return. My mom happened to be visiting that day and gasped out loud when she saw it...pretty high praise from a lady who named her son after a cowboy movie. =p

[Sir Legendhead]

Now that you mention it, one of my favorite parts is when John and his wife are riding away from McFarlane's ranch. Bonnie's animation is classic. She just kind of hangs her head down as she watches them leave, then brushes the dirt with her foot before going back to work. The body language in that scene tells you more about her feelings towards John than most of her dialogue.

His wife had a scene I liked too, where it shows John getting up one morning to do his rancher thing. He runs his hand over her cheek while she's sleeping only to have her push it away. You just spent god knows how many hours killing people with this guy, and all of a sudden you realize he's more soft-hearted than she is. Rockstar is great with subtle stuff like that. I really liked how her character contrasted his.

[Sir Legendhead]

I'd like more dialogue too, but the problem is that they have maintain a consistent level of action to keep mainstream gamers entertained. One of the most common complaints I've seen about Red Dead is "too many scenes where you do nothing but talk while riding a horse". Just imagine how bored they'd be without the horse.

[Sir Legendhead]

The more I think about what they did with body language in their last game, the more eager I am to see how they use facial expressions in this one. Subtle touches like those go a long way towards adding depth and characterization without having to rely on long, non-interactive cutscenes. They've mentioned how you can read people during interrogations, but I haven't seen anything about how this affects gameplay. I'd like to know more about how they intend to implement this. It might be something like you watch the scene play out, then continue the investigation. That would be cool, but it'll be even better if they have the player take an active role in the dialogue like in Mass Effect.

[high on hugs]

Fuck yeah Ken Cosgrove! This facial technology would be amazing on a big upcoming RPG like Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age 2.

[Cyber Altair]

Fuck yeah Ken Cosgrove! This facial technology would be amazing on a big upcoming RPG like Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age 2.

Except they don't need to have SUPER ULTRA GRAPHIX!!!