L.A. Noire

[NickInABox]

So, one of the possibly biggest games of the year is coming out in 9 days, and I'm surprised that nobody here is talking about it!

L.A. NOIRE

What does everyone think? Will it be awesome? Does it only LOOK awesome? I get a real "Godfather: The Game" vibe from it, probably because of the setting.

I'm impressed with the facial whatever technology, and Walter from Fringe is in it!

Discuss, discuss, discuss!

 

[Jax]

It does look good though am still trying to figure out how the game will go about its buissness because its obviously GTA esq with the engine and going around the city but is going to be linear and not have any of the OTT stuff GTA is famous for.

However the key point to the game is the fact its going to be story driven and I love a good story in my games . I will pick it up and most likely for the PS3 but not till the summer after 1 or 2 patches and a minor price drop. I do expect to see LA Noire though win major awards this year because Rockstar rule baby .

Also is it true that 360 version is 3 discs ? I hear it only just fit onto the PS3 Blu RAY Disc.

 

[NickInABox]

Have you played Red Dead Redemption? I hope L.A. Noire's got as much impact as that game did. I cried at the end of RDR

 

[TheGodBen]

I'm cautious about it. I loved GTA4 and RDR, so I should be excited for it, but this looks like such a big departure from the sandbox formula that it would be easy to screw it up. I'm also worried about replayability. I want to be able to replay this game a few times, like I can with other sandbox games, but I fear that by knowing the story, knowing what clues to look for, and knowing which character is guilty of what, replayability might be thrown out the window. At the same time, if there's multiple ways to solve each case then replayability could be even better.

So I'm waiting to see what the reviews say. If they are overwhelmingly positive then I'll get it day one. If it's more of a mixed bag, I'll hold off and maybe get it when the price has dropped.

Also is it true that 360 version is 3 discs ? I hear it only just fit onto the PS3 Blu RAY Disc.

Apparently, that's to store all the facial animation. The story should be around the same length as GTA4, from what I've heard (which may be a bad thing as I thought that GTA4's story was too long).

 

[Lonemagpie]

I can't wait, and yes it's true that it's 3 discs.

 

[Jax]

Have you played Red Dead Redemption? I hope L.A. Noire's got as much impact as that game did. I cried at the end of RDR

I've played RDR but only gotten as far as Mexico so far, its a fine game but doesn't have the same kick for me and feels like it does drag on but still a good game.

I am not too bothered about replay value as Rockstar games are so long I don't do the single player twice and online would just feel tacked on for LA Noire.

 

[RoJoHen]

My roommate stole my RDR and played it all the way through and got 100%. I think I only managed to play it for about 2 hours. It just didn't grab me like some games do.

I'm waiting for Rockstar to make a sci-fi game!

 

[Magellan]

Have you played Red Dead Redemption? I hope L.A. Noire's got as much impact as that game did. I cried at the end of RDR

I've played RDR but only gotten as far as Mexico so far, its a fine game but doesn't have the same kick for me and feels like it does drag on but still a good game.

I am not too bothered about replay value as Rockstar games are so long I don't do the single player twice and online would just feel tacked on for LA Noire.

You have to stick with RDR. I initially got bored and stopped playing before I even got to Mexico. The story is powerful and poignant but it is a slow build and that's what I think makes it so effective. It is actually one of my favorite video game stories ever.

As for LA Noire I am definitely interested because of RDR, although I never liked GTA. I guess we'll see how the reviews are. If its RDR i n 1947 noire style I'll love it.

 

[gh4chiefs]

I'm kind of waiting for the reviews/word of mouth. It absolutely looks stunning from a technical standpoint, but I'm not sure if the gameplay is going to be fun (for me). Superficially it reminds me a lot of Heavy Rain and 5 minutes into that game I wanted to shoot myself. So I'm a little gun shy of jumping into it. There are too many games coming out in the next few weeks that I know I want to play (Duke Nukem and Infamous 2 to name 2) that it makes me reluctant to plop down $60 for this game.

 

[backstept]

I'll definitely get it if it comes out on PC

 

[Jax]

I'll definitely get it if it comes out on PC

Anyword on a PC version? seems to me GTA 4 recieved mixed reviews on the PC and RDR never came out on the PC did it?

 

[backstept]

no idea . . . they'd be fools to ignore the PC market

 

[Jax]

no idea . . . they'd be fools to ignore the PC market

Console sales are pretty robust for Rockstar games though I wonder if they just feel they can't make the same level of quality on the PC due to the controls of a mouse/keyboard never seems to suit their games.

 

[TheGodBen]

They had real problems optimising the RAGE engine to work with all the variations of PC hardware, which is why GTA4 on PC was buggy and very demanding. This is probably one of the reasons why RDR never saw a PC release.

L.A. Noire doesn't use RAGE, it uses an engine that Team Bondi created themselves, so it might be easier to port the game to PC. However good this may be to PC gamers, it's yet another reason why I'm cautious about the game because the RAGE engine is part of what made the worlds in GTA4 and RDR so immersive. Team Bondi's engine may be even better, but I'm going to wait and see.

 

[Timby]

In addition to it not running on RAGE (and doesn't have Euphoria), it's also important to note that the sandbox style of this game is very, very limited, as opposed to the open worlds of RDR and GTA4. This is apparently very episodic in nature.

In any event, I'm intrigued, but not enough to give GameStop five bucks to hold a copy for me. As I understand it, Bondi's largely made up of people who worked on The Getaway and Black Monday, which were fucking awful, so I'm really going to wait on reviews and user opinions before I even think of dropping sixty on it.

 

[Yoda]

The whole industry has shifted to hyping crap up, and trying to get people to buy it before it even comes out. I'm with Timby, I'll ignore the hype for now and wait for some honest reviews.

 

[Timby]

Some folks on the Something Awful Forums have received their Xbox 360 copies early (Amazon does tend to have issues with street dates), and experiences so far are ... mixed. The consensus is that it's absolutely nothing like GTA / RDR outside of the superficial similarities of having driving and shooting. Outside of that, other common opinions seem to be that the gunplay is pretty clunky, but the voice acting is good. Everything I'm hearing seems to sum up to "go in with low expectations."

 

[gh4chiefs]

I hope I'm wrong, I hope it turns out to be a great game, but my "spider sense" just keeps screaming at me that this game isn't going to be fun, but rather tedious and boring. I'd also heard the "clunky gun play" comments.

But Rockstar has a good reputation, so hopefully I'm wrong. Can never have enough good games to play.

 

[Timby]

But Rockstar has a good reputation, so hopefully I'm wrong.

I'm not sure I understand how this keeps getting overlooked: It's not a Rockstar-developed game. Team Bondi (which, as I said, is largely made up of the team that did The Getaway and its sequel; the game was initially a PlayStation exclusive until Rockstar acquired the publishing rights) has been developing L.A. Noire for years. Rockstar sent a team from Rockstar North to help out over the last few months, but the Rockstar North sound lead has said that the team played second fiddle to the Bondi crew. Given that Rockstar's crew was only involved for a few months, it's basically guaranteed that their role was debugging and QA work -- any fundamental changes to gameplay, structure, etc., would have been done ages ago.

Yeah, it's a Rockstar-published game, but it doesn't run on RAGE and is by definition very different from GTA4 and Red Dead Redemption.

 

[Jax]

Rockstar will still of had some say in the game but of course large parts of it will be out of their hands. They pushed it back several times so Rockstar must be happy enough because they have been willing to wait in the past to release games until there happy with it - RDR is a indication of that. I think people need to drop the GTA/RDR aspect in their mind and judge it on its own merts.

EDIT - The Guardian has reviewed it and normally newspaper reviews mean jack to me but this is not a tabloid paper nor the Daily Mail so I will take some notice of it. Some snippets appear to give it...

* A perfect score

The Guardian says that the game takes many of the elements gamers expect from Rockstar – car chases, shootouts, and interesting characters – and envelops them in a presentation that feels much more like a TV series than a movie.

The real achievement is the way in which the MotionScan technology keeps the player immersed from beginning to end. Where games typically break that suspension of disbelief with “unrealistic animation, clunky dialogue, poor virtual camerawork, or facial characterization,” L.A. Noire expertly utilizes all of those storyline essentials.

Unfortunately, for those interested in reading The Guardian’s complete review, it has since been taken down as a result of the news outlet breaking embargo