LA Noire

[vault_overseer]

I'm on 360 sailing smooth so far(on the second disk right now)

[Tale]

But they said they confirmed it locally with multiple games. So either their test department are worthless jackasses or something is possibly going on.

[Humanoid]

Presumably lawyers happened.

[Tale]

Ehh, I'm waiting for the PSN store to be up again, anyway.

[Hurlshort]

Haven't read anything about it other than this thread, but got me vaguely interested. Hey, it could be the first game I ever play on my Xbox.

 

 

Would Tex Murphy be a comparable analogue?

 

It doesn't make me think of Tex Murphy, although I love the reference

 

It is more like Police Quest. You have a fair amount of procedural police work that a private **** like Tex would never bother with.

 

The funniest thing is how I cringe every time my character grabs evidence without gloves. CSI and Law & Order have totally trained me to be super nervous about tainting evidence, I have to remind myself this is in the 40's before DNA and ballistics.

[Jaesun]

So Is this basically a QTE Adventure Game? Are there any "twitch" like mechanics or is it all QTE?

[vault_overseer]

No QTE really. You do have to be careful when searching for clues, even the the vibration doesn't help that much... Action sequences are pretty standard GTA stuff(with slightly worse controls). but no QTE. It's not "dumbed down".

[Hurlshort]

So far, as a traffic cop, it also isn't overdone with the amount of action like most video games. Aside from a short bank robbery tutorial mission, I've actually only shot one guy in about 7 cases.

[Hell Kitty]

But they said they confirmed it locally with multiple games. So either their test department are worthless jackasses or something is possibly going on.

 

"We have received a very small number of customer support questions about PS3's overheating or shutting down while playing L.A. Noire," it reads.

"At this time, Rockstar Games and Sony can confirm that neither L.A. Noire or firmware update 3.61 are causing the PS3 hardware to overheat.

 

Also happening on the 360 apparently.

 

This isn't the first time that people have complained that New Game X destroyed their console. I like these explanations from the comments thread:

 

Consoles get bricked all the time. You just hear more about it when a big release hits. You never hear people complaining that Hexic bricked their console

 

Very simple, Noire will be one of the most played games this year and thus will be in many consoles when they die and they do die.

[Tale]

But what Rockstar said earlier is that they could confirm. They didn't say that it was customer support questions, they said THEY confirmed it locally.

 

We have confirmed locally that multiple games (Rockstar and non-Rockstar) overheat or freeze only when 3.61 is installed.

 

So either those testers were jackasses who weren't doing their jobs right.... or? I mean, the former is quite likely.

Edited May 19, 2011 by Tale

[Flouride]

So far haven't had any problems with the game. Compeleted 5 cases.

[Nepenthe]

Well, I caved in and bought the PS3 version. I buy almost all my games this way, I try to keep up to date on what games could be interesting, and then just one day I get a massive craving to do some gaming and go pick it up. A time-honoured tradition that's netted me Jade Empire, Mass Effect, Uncharted 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company over the years. Come to think of it, I've made less purchases that I regret this way than via the careful planning route (*cough* GTA IV *cough*).

 

So, when I get back from work, I'll know what the overheating situation is.

[Nightshape]

Meh... It's alright, its not amazing though.

[HoonDing]

Call me when it's better than Case of the Serrated Scalpel.

[Nepenthe]

No overheats, good game for food poisoning, like I have now.

[Nepenthe]

So Is this basically a QTE Adventure Game? Are there any "twitch" like mechanics or is it all QTE?

It's nothing of the kind. The game mostly consists of totally untimed classic adventure-game type investigation sections, with (generally optional) rockstar style freeworld roaming segments in between, and occasional action segments (car and foot chases, gunfights).

 

The investigation elements are in theory interesting, with some nice (if simple) puzzles. Most of the time you're just canvasing areas trying to find clues, which will point you towards new locations and people, and help you in interrogating said people. This doesn't just straddle the line to boring, but sometimes also crosses it resoundingly. Mostly the areas are quite bearable, but occasionally they are a bit on the large side, with a lot of wandering required. I can live with it, though and it does have a certain addictive quality to it.

 

The much-touted facial animations play a big part in the interrogations. Unfortunately, anyone who complained/complains about the Mass Effect dialogue wheel is probably going to have their head explode here. You ask a question, the perp/witness answers and you get your choice of truth (believing them)/doubt (essentially accusing them with proof)/lie (proving that they are lying with a clue from your notebook). In practice, in a lot of situations you can tell that the person is avoiding telling you something, but it still might be truth (they didn't tell you everything), it could be doubt (which it basically should be) or lie (with some pretty serious leaps of fancy being necessary to connect the proof). The core problem being that especially with "lie", your mouthpiece can take the interrogation in an unforeseen direction, and the proof you had turns out to be inapplicable (for that particular question). Or just completely unforeseen in general.

 

You can skip the driving around almost completely (you can let your partner do the driving), but sometimes this will results in different situations at the next location (say, gunmen might have escaped due to being too slow) or a clue not showing up. I found the driving to be generally a LOT better than in the last Rockstar game I played, GTA IV, both in physics and in camera.

 

Story-wise, it's a typical on-rails story, where nothing you do impacts the story in any way, and includes a lot of failed story-failure. Trying not to cross into the spoiler territory, but sometimes the game doesn't allow you to reach the correct result. Sometimes your character just makes decisions for you that I find grating I dunno, I've gotten this feeling in a few games over the couple of years, mostly this one, uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend, and I can't quite place it. Lack of the famous RPG elements?

 

Mostly, I enjoyed the experience, but found it to be fundamentally flawed as a game. I don't think my issues with the interrogation mini game were due to an inherent stupidity on my part, but it is, of course, a possibility.

[Nightshape]

I'd basically say a more Gamey version of Heavy Rain, coupled with some pointless GTA elements.

 

It's not bad, I like many things about it in terms of structure, plays like watching a TV series if you ask me. I'm not 100% certain its a game though.

[Morgoth]

I presume this is the sort of "games" that you just could watch over youtube instead?

[Nightshape]

I presume this is the sort of "games" that you just could watch over youtube instead?

 

Yeah... You could watch a lets play of it, and so long as the video quality was good. There is interaction, but its not so much fun, as curious.

 

Like I say, its got alot in common with Heavy Rain.

[Nepenthe]

I'd basically say a more Gamey version of Heavy Rain, coupled with some pointless GTA elements.

Mostly agree, though I think some of the action sequences are a lot better than any I've played in a GTA game...

 

Never understood the concept of watching other people play. I got to do enough of that in the 80s with hot seat multiplayer.

[Malcador]

Never understood the concept of watching other people play. I got to do enough of that in the 80s with hot seat multiplayer.

 

Useful way to get the SP experience for free, on rails games especially. Did that for Modern Warfare 2, worked well.

[vault_overseer]

Personally, I think this game is worth experiencing on your own, if only for the sake of fantastic noire atmosphere(try it in b/w).

[Bokishi]

I have a greater appreciation for this game as I live in LA and have driven on most of the streets in RL and hung out in many of the landmarks, it's very accurate right down to having my business college's old location in the same spot

[Nepenthe]

Useful way to get the SP experience for free, on rails games especially. Did that for Modern Warfare 2, worked well.

But you don't. Get the SP experience, that is. The "game" part of it.

[Malcador]

But you don't. Get the SP experience, that is. The "game" part of it.

 

Well, depending on the game, the "game" part might be very little. For shooters it works well I find, RPGs and RTS (never seen a LP of an RTS, thinking of it) not so much.

Edited May 23, 2011 by Malcador