L.A. Noire

A few days into playing it and I'm thoroughly bored. It looks and sounds gorgeous, but the game play is too prescribed, whatever action you take has no consequence to eventual outcomes and it's utterly repetitive.

Red Dead Redemption was far more fun!

What a shame.

This game is absolutely stunning in every way. The facial construction of characters is best I have ever seen in a game, their expressions and the mouth moves exactly the way it should when they talk.

Basics of this game are you are a cop and you have to solve crimes. Sounds basic but it's not. You have to search for clues around the crime scenes. You also have to question suspects and witnesses and say whether you think they are telling the truth, lying etc. If you guess wrong you lose points and have to start the questioning again.
I am not sure if this game will appeal to the gun totting COD gamers but I love it.

Rockstar over the years have created some of my favourite games I've ever played, the GTA series, Red Dead and now L.A Noire. For any fan of the mentioned games I recommend to get yourself a copy of this truly fantastic game.

You play the part of Cole Phelps, a decorated war hero FROM WWII and 'new guy' to the L.A.P.D. In an era of corruption and greed, it's up to one man to try his best to right the wrongs. I won't go too much into this story in this review, I'll leave that part to you to enjoy as you play through. Once you start playing you wont be able to put the controller down, the game is so immersive. It has a real 'I want to know what happens next' quality to it which has made me play for 4 hours straight at one point.

The graphics are pretty darn good, not the best I've ever seen in a game, but 1947 L.A is recreated with immaculate detail, and the new system implemented by Team Bondi is genuinely a break though for the games industry and I'm kean to see it implemented into future titles. Facial expressions play a big part in the game, it's a massive step forward in technology and at times the characters look as real as their real life counterparts that play them - you will spot the odd "celebrity" playing a part in there from various tv shows.

The sound design is awesome, the soundtrack is one of the best I've witnessed in a game and works towards really capturing the 1940's era. The sound effects in game are also detailed, and realistic.

Gameplay is fun, I was expecting more shoot outs, and the pace may be a little slow in parts but once it gets going there is plenty on offer. Searching crime scenes is rewarding and the interrogation system is both unique and challenging. Driving is tight, and enjoyable although if you choose to, there is a lot of it. Good thing is, if you don't fancy taking the wheel to every location, you can let your partner drive you, acting like a 'fast travel'.

Overall I say this title is excellent, I've been looking forward to it for some time and it certainly hasn't let me down. There are a few slight negatives but they're easily forgiven. In my experience of past Rockstar games there tends to be slight glitches - and there are slight glitches with this game but not enough to hinder your enjoyment. The facial expression technology is an exciting new instalment which makes this game extremely unique and could easily be in contention for Game Of The Year.

1 star. Is that a bit harsh?
No. I've thought about it and it really isn't.
I just don't understand the high scores for this 'game'. I'm not sure it is a game. It's more like a slightly interactive movie. Just like a movie you don't really have that much control.

It's just...boring.

In one bit, I had to chase this bloke who had a shot gun, so I was looking forward to a bit of gun play. He hid behind a wall, so I took cover too. He popped out and I took aim and shot him in the arm. He flopped down dead, action over. Booo!

Car chase sequence. The cars handle just a bit too well. I'm expecting some over steer from a big old American car, but they corner like they're on rails. This caused me to mount the kerb at high speed. Wouldn't have looked good, me a Police detective, smearing some innocents along the pavement. Fortunately for them, they just bounced off the car like they were made of rubber. Boooo!

That was the good bits.

The rest was the usual:
Wander around looking for clues. Pick things up. Look at them. If it's relevant it goes in the note book. Dull, dull, dull.

Pre-scripted witness/suspect questions and the Truth/Doubt/Lie option following the answer. That gets really boring after the first two Q&A sessions.

If all you want from a game is some nice looking facial effects, then this is the game for you.

I hope this style of game doesn't take off, as I can see this facial effect ruining the quality of games the same way CGI ruined movies.

If you are hungry for some 40's era action, you can buy a copy of L.A. Confidential on DVD from Play for a fiver.
That's a much better deal...all the faces look real too!!!

ok game is good but o.m.g its the same thing time and time again go to a crime scene look around then spend the next hour asking people if they did it yet the facial expressions are good but come on people gta and red dead were amazing and you could do so much l.a noire would be 50x better if was fully sandboxed and better detecive work .....
imhalf way through the game and its getting to much of the same :(
i will update with overal verdict once complete