24 replies to this topic

[Strum la Frantique]

LA Noire will dissapoint a lot of people. GTA doesn't do menus very well, and LA Noire is full of them, it's just not responsive enough in those text menus and investigation scenes to feel fluid. Will still review well, but it's no Red Dead, infact I'd argue it's inferior to GTAIV. The faces are nice, and used to good effect (if a little obvious) during the questioning scenes.

Witcher 2 is RPG of the year, Dragon Age 2 can go and get fucked.

EDIT - Oh and the map in LA Noire is fucked. It's all black and white, and the icons are all black and white, and you're a small white arrow. You lose track of it and spend ages zooming in and out trying to find it. Oh and there's no GPS, so you can't cheat to find it that way. Speaking of that, Pressing X to get the passenger to give a "left", "rght" or "straight ahead" direction was annoying after 5 minutes. After hours you'll be throwing your controller at the screen.

[Aero]

didn't appeal to me anyways, but then im with the mentality - give me a red dead 2 before another GTA, dont know why but i enjoyed it much more, L.A noire has always sounded like they where trying to hard to make another game that people wouldnt just call GTA 5 and as such it seemed likely that they'd fuck something up... so far based on the menus as you say, it sounds aweful..

[Smacktalks]

I followed LA Noire from it being announced but i've kinda lost interest it. The facial technology looks amazing, especially on the advert where they've used the best bits but I fear it's just gonna sell on that alone and the game will be a let down.

[ALL STAR]

I've kept up with the game but I stopped keeping track awhile ago purely down to the fact I want to go into the game not knowing what to expect. I find quite a few games now release trailers where they show to much of the whole game. I'm interested to see how it plays out, and to see how the open world is implemented given the detective nature of the game.

I'll be getting it on Thursday so I'll give some thoughts on it then, from what I've seen though it looks good and well it will be something different.

[Strum la Frantique]

Yeah I had steered clear of the trailers too, I wonder if the trailers show that the game is essentially a point and click adventure game using the GTAIV engine.

[ALL STAR]

Oh it's using the GTA engine? thought it was a different engine that that Team Bondi created. All the gameplay shown has been very brief and nothing that gives a full picture of what to expect. Though that is kind of expected with Rockstar.

[Strum la Frantique]

Wait...so you were hyped up to play a game developed by an Australian developer, using an Australian developed engine, from a developer that hasn't developed anything until now? Blind faith... Have you not played any of Krome's terrible games? Can you name a single decent Australian game in the past two decades? I can name two - Fruit Ninja, and Flight Control, two iPhone games.

I think we should be thankful it's just a reskinned GTAIV with some impressive face tech put on top.

[Strum la Frantique]

I'm calling it, LA Noire is shit. It's so fucking repetitive and SLOW. In all fairness though, I understand why they made it slow - I'm onto the second disc after only a few hours of play, there's not a lot of "game" here compared to Rockstar's other open worlders. Infact, this is an old school adventure game with open world tacked on, you can skip the driving bits and just be taken automatically from A to B. I recommend that because there's fuck all to do in the city.

EDIT - Pretty faces though, pretty faces that take up a shit ton of disc space. I don't see this 'tech' (pasting videos of faces onto models) catching on...

[Aero]

the pretty faces only make sense on the ps3, atleast its all on 1 disc, but if the game really is that short and over 3 discs, the pretty faces can go fuck themselves.

never had any problem with games like FF VII being on multiple discs cos it was a beast of a game it took agggggggeeeeeeesss to beat completely, but if its purely for aesthetics thats wank

[Strum la Frantique]

Well the cases are split across 4 desks - traffic, homicide, vice, and arson. The first disc contains the traffic missions, some short tutorial "patrol" missions and I think one homicide mission. There was only about 5 traffic missions all together. Each mission has about three locations to visit, not inlcuding sometimes a trip to the morgue or police station, about three characters, about three lines of questioning for each character, and take about half hour to complete.

Also, you know in adventure games how you go into your inventory, pick an item, and then get a response from the character about that item? Surely a perfectly well suited mechanism for LA Noire? No well I think that would take up too much extra space with the voice, and faces. Instead you get to choose vague lines of questioning, and reply with either - truth, doubt, or lie. Truth and doubt further the proceedings with no input for the player, but choosing the wrong one might not get the character to give you the information you need (no need because you get so much evidence for convictions you can stand to lose a few). Choosing lie needs to be backed up by a piece of evidence you've picked up prior, thing is it has to be the evidence the game wants you to pick (can sometimes be a few similar pieces if you've picked up an item that supports it and also a witness statement). So you might think something is a lie and have evidence you want the character to explain, but it may ultimately lead to a generic 'wrong' answer and leave you baffled.

EDIT - Eurogamer review is up.... summary exerpt!

"L.A. Noire is slow but quietly engrossing; its mechanics are suspect, but you can't fault the ambition, attention to detail and commitment that went into its making. It risks stumbling over its own earnestness at times, but it's saved by its star – and I don't mean Staton, who does his best with a dry character.

That star is Los Angeles: as bizarre, threatening and fascinating in this virtual 1947 as it is in the real world today. L.A. Noire may owe its vision of the city to Ellroy and others, but as a game, it can depict it in a way those others can't. McNamara, Team Bondi and Rockstar have taken that responsibility seriously, convincingly peeling away the layers of a sick society over the game's length. That – not the curse words or the grim subject matter or the naked corpses – is what makes L.A. Noire a genuinely mature game.

8/10"

It's slow, with suspect mechanics (which i've already mentioned, I should be a game reviewer), but it's only saved by the city... Reviewers are too soft, give it the 6 or 7/10 it deserves. I don't give developers extra points because they tried hard but fell well short. GameTrailers mentioned the same things, and gave it 9/10...

[ALL STAR]

I've played it through to the 3rd disc and I've enjoyed it but the faults are becoming more and more obvious, the best thing about the game is the detective work search crime scenes questioning suspects etc, but when the game breaks away from that it just feels ever so clunky. Shooting and taking cover is not smooth at all, general movement is a problem to as the character will only jump when ever the game feels like it. One example being I was trying to arrest a suspect who crashed his car into a lamp post which was on the road but I couldn't jump over it. I have had similar problems getting over curbs and smalls barriers.

One thing I hate are some of the missions where you have to follow a suspect on foot or a car and this happens way to regular and on foot you can fail these so easily, I crossed a road while it was safe to cross, all the cars are stopped. I'm half way across a road and a car beeps for no reason and 'case failed'.

I do enjoy the game but it has faults and it holds your hand way to much, there is no real true failing a case like the bad guy getting away, you will always get someone so it kind of feels no matter how much you mess up you will still make the case somehow.

Overall I see this game as a seed which other devs will take aspects of and will run with them.

[Strum la Frantique]

The game has proven that an old style adventure game can still be marketable to people today if you put enough frills on it. If this hails a genre revival I'd be very surprised, the sheer cost associated with AAA game development and risk in an adventure game are too great. Those expensive frills are necessary though, so I'd say the genre will still be stuck in low budget 2d point and click titles, and episodic Telltale games.

[salizzle]

I quite liked it, but I think it may be due to my love for adventure games, and how I can't enjoy the old 2d point and click style anymore. I enjoyed the story too, homicide having the best cases.

Just need to get 5 stars in a couple more and i'll be done with it. I can't see myself going back with DLC or anything, they'll just be filler. I enjoyed the rise and fall of the guy, and it'll just be like playing another case, like how the naked city was crammed in.

[ALL STAR]

I thought the story was ok but I felt for a game with such a strong focus on the story it was a little all over the place at times, each case would gain momentum and the story would move forward but moving to a new desk it starts all over again. Which is ok considering it's a new desk but I think it could of been smoother.

Speaking of the story did anyone else enjoy the switch up on the last desk?

[salizzle]

Not really, I really enjoyed the Black Dahlia cases, but the person behind them was pretty lackluster.

[ALL STAR]

Yeah I thought they were great up until the reveal, I was hoping the killer would reveal his reasoning for why he killed the women and why he left clues to find him. One of those caes I really enjoyed was the one where the womans items are along a blood trial leading away from the crime scene.

[Swagga!]

Guys do you think it is worth buying L.A. Noire now for full price or should I wait for the price to drop?

[salizzle]

Drop! It's good but it's not fantastically oh my god lets play it now material.

[ALL STAR]

Yeah wait for a price drop, oh and when you do get it don't play a lot of it all at once because for me it felt like the game was dragging because you do a lot of the same things over and over. Pace it out and I think you would enjoy it more.

[Smacktalks]

ALL STAR, on 29 May 2011 - 06:30 PM, said:

Yeah wait for a price drop, oh and when you do get it don't play a lot of it all at once because for me it felt like the game was dragging because you do a lot of the same things over and over. Pace it out and I think you would enjoy it more.

That's the problem i'm having with Alan Wake. The story seems good but each episode seems to drag while you do the same things over and over.