L.A. Noire

[Sir Legendhead]

Sounds like it's worth a rent, but I don't see me giving this a second playthrough.

[Stevil]

The story is incredibly weak. I think it was Solgrim who said that the GTA games usually had terrible stories compared to great gangster films and that RDR had a terrible story compared to great western films. As an avid fan of the noir genre, I can only look at the entirety of what I've seen as an all style no substance attempt at the noir genre. Cole Phelps is uninteresting, and due to occasionally bad voice acting(Certain lines of dialogue are delivered in a way that make Phelps seem like a child trapped in a man's body). The characters are alright enough, but almost none of them are compelling and even less reach the third dimension.

Actually, most academics would argue that noir is a stylistic choice rather than a genre and I'm inclined to agree (pretentiously, I have written papers on the subject). From what I've seen, it ticks those boxes quite well. As for the substance, if it's riffing on the slew of cheap pulp short stories that came after Hammett and Chandler, surely, its successful in that regard (without spoilers)?

I haven't played it yet, but I'm guessing that's the case. We'll see on Friday. Overall, I'm just glad they've basically made a next-gen Police Quest game and sold it to the masses.

A good noir story would never include five minute sections dedicated to driving, a good noir story wouldn't have pointless shootouts. These things add nothing to the game and only serve to detriment it.

You should watch The Tattooed Stranger then.

The entire movie is basically cops standing around crime scenes, discussing the case in the office, driving to more crime scenes and it ends with a shootout, which could have been easily wrapped up with an arrest. It's not a stunning b-picture, but its an efficient, stylised procedural that paved the way for detective shows like Dragnet.

[Mr. Gobbldigook]

Finished the second case in the Traffic desk last night. I am really enjoying it. its exactly what I was hoping it would be at this point. the only thing that has annoyed me is after foot races I haven't figured out a way to disarm the guys and arrest them instead of just shooting them in the head. I tried to hit a guys leg and he just shot his hostage in the head on the way down. I'll play some more tonight and see how it goes. most games rockstar puts out I play half of and then wait almost a year before finishing them. I think I may be able to just finish this one in one "sitting."

[ClownBaby]

as a person who's seen a good five or six noir films and even read a couple noir books(enough to know that noir is not about style), I can say that what L.A Noire tries to do is pretty laughable compared to all of those.

Ah. As far as your Noir complaints go, I guess I'll wait until somebody who knows what they're talking about comes along. As for the gameplay stuff I have nothing to say since I haven't played it yet.

[Byronic Man]

I haven't played it yet, but I'm guessing that's the case. We'll see on Friday. Overall, I'm just glad they've basically made a next-gen Police Squad! game and sold it to the masses.

WHAT OH MY G---

I haven't played it yet, but I'm guessing that's the case. We'll see on Friday. Overall, I'm just glad they've basically made a next-gen Police Quest game and sold it to the masses.

... Fuck.

[Stevil]

Don't make me dream of games that will never be, Byron.

Just...don't. It's too painful.

[Mix]

I am glad I didn't jump the gun and buy this off the shelf but I do want to try it out.

Price drop or used purchase as well, fuck, I still have wrapping on Mass Effect 2 for the PS3...

[Mr. Gobbldigook]

Because only somebody with a film degree in Noir studies can note a shitty story when they see one.

It's not really a Noir game. The spelling kind of gives that away a little. It is set in the Noir era and has some of the bleak tone that noir films have but its not a true Noir story. Cole is an interesting character but He doesnt seem like the lead in any Noir film I've ever seen. I wonder if they had to title it Noire because its not a true Noir story.

The only definition I can find for Noire is a Chrochet?

[Vordak]

Everyone read the news about the PS3 and now the Xbox both over heating while playing the game? Has anyone encounter this?

I played the game for a few hours on my xbox and had no problems but I installed all 3 disks to my hard drive.

[fetusmilk]

speaking of actors. im starting to actually recognize some of them from other movies and shows. but i tried to look one up and it wasnt on IMDB. even the character he plays wasnt listed.

Frank Morgan, the character who bought the Hog who hangs out at cavanaugh's bar with Adrian Black,
is none other than Pete "dead meat" Thompson from the Hot Shots movie. William O'Leary. who also plays Tim Taylors brother Marty on Home Improvement.

[Mr. Gobbldigook]

Taking a break. Just got stuck at a school on the homicide desk. it wants me to investigate there but its night time and wont let me. plus time isn't passing very fast.

[ClownBaby]

It's not really a Noir game. The spelling kind of gives that away a little. It is set in the Noir era and has some of the bleak tone that noir films have but its not a true Noir story. Cole is an interesting character but He doesnt seem like the lead in any Noir film I've ever seen. I wonder if they had to title it Noire because its not a true Noir story.

The only definition I can find for Noire is a Chrochet?

"Noire" is the feminine form of the french word Noir.

[Mr. Gobbldigook]

aw man. so this is a chick game. I'm selling my copy.

[ZombiePlatypus]

Yo Sam I'll buy your copy from you for not very much money if you don't want very much money for it because I'm not in a position to spend very much money while still being a responsible adult who doesn't have very much money.

[Petro1313]

I bought this yesterday, and I've already put around 6 hours into it. I've never come across a game that made me feel quite as involved as this. When I get an interrogation question wrong, it actually feels like a personal failure on my part, and it's a great feeling when you get one right. We need more games like this.

[Tomasz]

My main problem with the interrogations is that sometimes you have no idea what you're going to say when you hit "doubt" or "lie". Or sometimes the interrogatee would state a fact that is true, but the correct "answer" is doubt because you're supposed to push for more information. I hope I can find the game's rhythm in this sense because it gets pretty frustrating sometimes. Aside from this I'm loving it.

[Tomasz]

I'm thankful you can back out of an accusation without consequence. Some of the things that Cole says are the just not the road I wanted to take with that option. I'm also still developing my affinity with the facial animations; it really is something else. The difference between a suspect being nervous because they're being interviewed by the police and nervous because they're lying can be really subtle. I've never seen anything like that in videogames before. It's like Jim said in his review, this game tests how good a human you are.

[Stevil]

So I've just made it up to The Red Lipstick Murder...

Hmmm...

There's something about the way this game jumps between contemporary noir and classic pulp that has me really grappling with the juxtaposition (along with the controls). It's such a melting pot of styles (there's more going on with the TV serial format), with the Ellory stuff rubbing shoulders with the "Johnny Gossamer" antics.

I like the game best when you concentrate solely on the cases themselves and there's moments where certain characters have caught me out through some subtle acting, but it's so schizophrenic at times and catering to a videogame audience (i.e. shoot the barrels in The Fallen Idol, the street crimes, etc.) that I'm not 100% on board. It shares that same kind of "throw everything in" feel of Red Dead Redemption, where sometimes two similar styles work and sometimes, it completely goes against the material in a hokey way. After all, there's a big reason why contemporary, post-modern noir is far removed from the subtler, by the film code, approach of early noir.

The thing is, do I rate it as a solid B-movie that faithfully recreates its pulp origins or do I criticise it for not achieving the heights of its contemporary influences?

I know I'm being vague here, but I'll be writing a blog on it later in the week, where it'll all make sense.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving the investigations and the little twists, but there's something completely off about its presentation too. Also, I like the fact that Cole Phelps is a ruthless idealist. He's not a nice guy at all and despite being the humbled war hero, he clearly hasn't mended his ways. It's still a great game, mainly because it's about choices you make and the slower pace is so nice to get involved with and see in a mainstream game. It's very much an old school adventure game meets the FMV of old and hell, those are two types of games I'm very much in love with.

P.S. How cool was it to open up the Badge Pursuit envelope and see those negatives?!

[Sir Legendhead]

>I like the fact that Cole Phelps is a ruthless idealist. He's not a nice guy at all and despite being the humbled war hero, he clearly hasn't mended his ways.

Ah, yeah. This makes me want to play some more Bond.

---

On a more relevant note, I'm intrigued by the controversy surrounding this game. If everyone liked it, I'd dismiss it as a trend. Seeing everyone come up with their own unique opinion piques my interest, however. Really looking forward to playing this. Can't afford a personal copy at the moment but my childhood friend Jimmy is supposed to have a copy at his rental store next week.

[Stevil]

It's a solid 8/10 game for me. Not quite the game I wanted it to be, but it definately works when it keeps focus; the pros usually outweigh the cons.

I've been suprised by some of the content too. It's not crass either, even when Cole's speaking-out-loud thoughts can be a little hammy.

I do also like how you can't just doubt everything. There's a lot of "take a little/give a little" going on. It forces you stop thinking with a narrow perception and act less paranoid. It's not always cut and dry, but there's stuff, like Tomaz says, where if you don't pick the right answer, Cole flys off the handle and it's clearly from another branch of questioning. You know when you're getting stuff right when the conversation flows as it should.

Oh...and the music is bloody amazing; especially its use in the crime scenes.