L.A. Noire from Rockstar

[poopypoo]

Finished this morning. Not perfect by any means but still awesome. Certainly, a landmark game, the sort of game non-gamers will tell their kids about. The low bitrate audio makes a lot of sense when you consider the technology they used in 1947!

 

[patsu]

btw yesterday just checked LA Noire xbox 360 data, its only using CBR 2ch MP3 64Kbps (radio), 80Kbps (music), 128Kbps (environment sounds) , and 160Kbps (environment sounds) for the audio. I never though the musics using MP3 80Kbps, it's sounds good.

the properties for LA Noire title music :
http://tinypic.com/r/2psk2dz/7

Is it the same on the PS3 ? I thought the music was a little flat, but I didn't complain.

 

[orangpelupa]

@patsu
sorry i can't check what the PS3 version using....
already finished the game on xbox so buying again the LA Noire on PS3 will be weird

Spoiler

as for the music, i just tried to compare the Title Music between 80Kbps from game and streaming from youtube.
it seems the title music is different with the one on official soundtrack...
but the difference in audio quality can be heard.

after comparing the two, i think in-game the audio feels we got from 80Kbps is kind of matching with the graphic style (feels old) so maybe that the reason why even in low bitrate is still good in game?

 

[green.pixel]

http://www.richardcobbett.com/journal/the-shadows-of-la-noire/

 

[Cornsnake]

http://www.richardcobbett.com/journal/the-shadows-of-la-noire/

Don't read if you don't want the story spoiled.

 

[patsu]

What is the article about ?

 

[green.pixel]

Review of the game, but much more detailed than the usual "mainstream" ones.


Another one. The score here correlates with many of the user opinions I've read so far.
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/xbox-360/2011/05/25/la-noire-review/1

Spoiler

The problems come when the heavily scripted nature of a film meets the player choices inherent in a game. Choose incorrectly in an interview and a whole line of inquiry can be cut off, lessening your understanding of the case. It’s even possible to back yourself into a corner and ask questions to which you know the suspect is lying when they answer, but have no evidence to back it up because you followed up leads in the wrong order.

You’ll also occasionally dip into LA Noire’s open world for car chases, gun fights or running down a suspect. These events are surprisingly rare for a game that shares much on the surface with GTA; the archetypal run, shoot and drive game, but this only means that they’re that much more exciting when they crop up. Outside of investigations, though, the huge game world often seems wasted as you drive from point A to point B, with only optional (and very short) non-story related side missions to distract.

This is LA Noire’s greatest shortcoming; for all the effort made in its story line and immersive game world, there’s very little actual game here. Between searching crime scenes and interviewing witnesses, there’s little variation between cases. While the plot progresses as you guide Phelps through the LAPD, you’ll have seen all the game has to offer within the first five hours. Those first five hours are a gripping and engaging example of interactive cinema, but after the 20th crime scene spent wandering an apartment waiting for the tell tale rumble, and 20th interview waiting for the tell tale shifty eyes, we began to lose interest.

With every game, I suggest reading some of the Metacritic user reviews, particularly the mixed and negative ones.

http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/la-noire/user-reviews?dist=neutral
http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-3/la-noire/user-reviews?dist=negative

Spoiler

On the surface La Noire seemed intriguing; a detective game that combines investigation with combat , driving, and interrogation set in the seedy/glamorous setting of 40's LA. Despite its grand ambitions it fails on almost every level, because the whole thing is a mere illusion. The main crux of the game is - as it should be - about detecting. Scouring crime scenes for clues, talking to witnesses, experts, and adding up the evidence. But all of this is very shallow and limited. Whilst the searching for clues is handled well, how you are able to use them in interrogation is frustrating, and in many instances plain illogical, reminding me of the old point 'n' click adventures, where rather than using logic and the clues in a 'real world' way, you had to second guess what the developers were thinking. There were many instances during the game that if it were for real, i would have shoved a slew of damning evidence in the face of a witness to intimidate and get them to spill, but the game will only allow you to ask a very narrow set of questions, where there is only one 'correct' answer. This renders much of the info stuffed in your notebook utterly useless. As a result interviews - whilst there is no denying the stunning nature of the facial tech - leave you feeling deeply unfulfilled, as do the end of many cases It gives you a whole beautiful city, but nothing to do in it (and no i wasn't expecting it to, nor wanting it to, be gta). The foot chases are simply a case of holding the sprint button and directing which way to run - you dont even have to press a button to time jumps. Also, in some chases you can't draw your weapon (because the game needs you to have the perp taken alive), whilst in others where the game wants you to kill them, it sets up a clunky cover-shoot scenario. And this really sums up the game. Where it should be a game of intellect and choices that have consequence, La Noire never takes off the handcuffs and lets you 'play'. You can't, for example, just go back to interview a suspect you've arrested, you have to wait until the game wants you to. You can't go back to re-interview people - again unless the game wants you to. You can't go and discuss things with forensic pathologist or your captain unless...you get the idea. Everything you do feels like you're being pushed - sometimes forced - down paths to arrive at the next cut scene or the 'correct' conclusion. This is never more clear than at the end of a case where you have gotten many of the questions 'wrong' but still automatically end up solving the case. For all it's faults the game is actually quite engrossing. It pulls no punches in crime scenes and the acting is generally superb. I can only hope that team bondi get another chance to deliver a game of more substance rather than this alluring fraud

There's no doubt that visually this game is lovely, and that the subject material and basic storyline ideas are different and interesting. The problem comes with the actual gameplay, which is long-winded, repetitive and rather dull after the first couple of levels. These are some of my issues with LA Noire; 1. the character movement is clunky and cumbersome, and often you have to keep moving the character backwards and forwards just trying to get into the right position to investigate a clue. 2. there's a huge amount of lag between pressing buttons in certain investigation modes, and the character actually responding. 3. you're supposed to interrogate suspects, basing your responses on their facial expressions, but these swing from being laughably obvious and silly to inscrutably stoney-faced, with no real middle-ground. The final straw for me is the completely linear gameplay, whereby even if you don't get everything you need from a suspect the plot takes you on another route to the same conclusion. There's no real option for failure, or experimentation. At least, not based on my six hours of playing so far. LA Noire has received a huge amount of positive reviews, but I think it's one of those games that will split the audience down the middle. Overall I found myself enjoying the look of the game, but not really caring about the characters, and sadly not wanting to play anymore. I'll be trading it in straight away

There seems to be a pretty large split between gamers when it comes to what they think of the game. I gave the game a pretty low review in comparison to many others which would put me on the negative side of the fence. I noticed someone posted a comment stating anyone who gave a poor review didn't know what they were talking about, in the same comment he stated that the many outcomes of the investigation was fascinating which, of course, is wrong because there is always only one outcome to the investigation: either you convict the guy, or someone else does. The pros to this game: The facial recognition is very impressive! The vehicle handling is better than in GTAIV Interesting plot and good acting Well researched and feels like an authentic 40's experience Cons of this game: Absolutely zero return value after you've finished the game (15-20 hours worth) Irritating lag between opening the note book and selecting items from the notebook Flawed Map directions (You have to literally find out where you're going or ask your partner for help) You cannot buy weapons, clothes, cars or houses (This is what really disappointed me). You're supposed to feel fully engaged with the character but there is absolutely zero personalisation of the character. You have a selection of five outfits and if you don't like them then tough. Red Dead had about 15 outfits. Interrogating suspects can be vague (by this I mean you doubt someone for your own ideas only to have them dismissed by the character your play and therefore fail the interview) Very very linear storyline. In the Black Dahlia murders I had the temp barman pegged for it from the first murder, he was even mentioned twice by a barman in one of the other murders but the character brushed past questioning him further on the matter. The Newspaper's "Behind the scenes" articles can confuse more than they enlighten. I made the mistake of being too sure while questioning a suspect after watching one of the stories that tells you flat out that he's guilty (Ad Vice case). There is no real shooting in this game. Many people demonize other gamers for calling this a flaw, stating that they're unintelligent violence addicts and that there are other games to buy for mindless violence but I think they're missing the whole point of action in an action adventure game. By that I mean there is no real action. The shooting camera is also difficult and clumsy. In the human shield situations I first shot them in their pistol hands (it worked in Red Dead!) only for them to clutch their stomach and kill the hostage. What I really don't understand is that in GTAIV and Red Dead there are plenty of crimes that you can stop. They appear randomly and provide some sort of rewarding experience for your troubles. In L.A. Noire, a police game, you can only stop 40 crimes and that is the end of it. Finally, there is no multiplayer or online game play. In this day in age this is a huge let down. Of course you can ask, what would multiplayer entail? For start there could be online cases added every few months that can be cracked by you and a partner, there could be a "Cops and Robbers" type shoot out game or even better would be a sort of sandbox type Criminals try to commit crimes and Cops try to stop them sort of thing.

This game already has a very loyal cult following and I suspect it always will, but I can't say I understand why. It's not much of a game, more like an interactive movie. No matter what you do the plot will progress and you can't change how things turn out. Alot of games manage to make this work by telling a good story, but this is not one of them. The story is like something a child would write. The character development is nonsensical. The twists in the plot are so predictable it'll put you to sleep. There is very little gameplay to speak of. There is no skill involved in the interrogations, you just go through the motions. Getting the correct answers is not necessary, it simply provides you more information. If you get wrong answers you'll still solve the case, but it may not make as much sense to you because a witness would have told you something else if you'd called him on a lie. Searching for evidence is monotonous and unchallenging since the game tells you when you've found it all. The monotony is broken up by action scenes which consist of chases and shootouts. This is kind of entertaining at first until you realize how insanely easy it is to win. Auto aim puts you right on target everytime and you have infinite ammo. Driving is mildly amusing but also insanely easy. They made a big deal out of the ability to explore LA, which you can, but you can't do anything except play out the story. I think the positive reviews are coming from alot of kids and people who've just bought the game. If you want to pretend to be a cop in 1940s LA, it'll do that for you, and maybe thats why people like it. But if you're looking for a good game, this probably ain't for you. People who just want to play cops should check out the old police quest games for the pc. They were alot better

It's actually a sad indictment on the professional video game reviewers that this game can score such high reviews when there are 39 users who have written clearly honest reviews who feel the game is boring and thus not worthy of being purchased. Too many times I have read glowing reviews of the 'professionals' and purchased a game and then regretted not paying enough attention to more objective reviews of gamers. Just because Rockstar's name is on this and therefore we have long being looking forward to it doesn't make it a good game

 

[patsu]

I have not completed the game, but I think the facial expression tech deserves more use. It put me in the game. Heavy Rain with this level of facial expression would be scary.... Very scary.

Btw, what do the positive user reviews say ?

Edit: Bah... There are 194 positive user reviews, 29 neutral and 45 negatives ones. While the negative opinions may be valid, it looks like people like the experience in general. Give the tech and genre some breathing space. The developers can improve if enough people like it.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I don't care much for user reviews because they reflect only the vocal minority. People who like stuff tend to not bother reviewing while people with negative impressions are more likely to want to voice their disappoinntment.

 

[Cornsnake]

L.A. Noire does have it's share of faults sadly. The story is not all that good, although it does have it's moments. Cole will sometimes say something you weren't expecting during interrogations. And sometimes the game forces you do to things you probably don't agree with. I don't like the way the game constantly rates your performance. Congratulations, you caught the killer, one star out of five.

But there is a lot to like. It's a very involving game because it forces you to think before you act, how use the clues you've found, whether or not a suspect is lying. The tech behind the facial animations is really something. Being the good guy for once is also a nice break what's usually the norm in games.

I really like to see a sequel that improves upon it. A better story line, that can be effected to some degree by the players actions. More freedom while your investigating.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I didn't really mind the story at all. Nothing earth-shatteringly good, but I'd say it's better than just about any other game I've played this gen. My opinion of video game stories, in general, is incredibly low. In fact, I'd say they're mostly abysmal.

The game, apart from the interrogations, is too easy. That's my main complaint. Most of the complaints about finding clues, the chases and gun combat being too simple is warranted. Still, I found the game enjoyable to play, mostly because I really felt like I wanted to get the interviews right, and I put a lot of thought into my answers. In that sense, I felt much more involved in the story than I would in another game. Getting interview questions wrong really bothered me, because I knew I'd have to replay the whole mission to go back and get it right. You get different cut scenes if you do a horrible job on a case, and I didn't want to do a horrible job.

 

[green.pixel]

Edit: Bah... There are 194 positive user reviews, 29 neutral and 45 negatives ones. While the negative opinions may be valid, it looks like people like the experience in general. Give the tech and genre some breathing space. The developers can improve if enough people like it.

There are people who like Heavy Rain and that game is utterly abysmal in every single aspect (expect the music). I sat at my friend's house and watched him play LAN for the first 4-5 hours and I don't like the substance-free, bare-bones mechanics and interaction at all, and it looks like that it's not going to get significantly better later on. Facial tech (goes without saying), VA and the music are quite good on the other hand. Those are probably the most positive aspects of the game.

I didn't really mind the story at all. Nothing earth-shatteringly good, but I'd say it's better than just about any other game I've played this gen.

Portal 1/2 maybe? Gameworld implies a narrative through playing. And they are one of the rare games which don't suffer from the "ludonarrative dissonance" problem (from which, Uncharted and GTAIV do, for example). Btw, games aren't about stories at all. they should just set the mood for play/interaction. Or at least shouldn't be, designers/directors who are trying to turn games into (bad) movies/novels are missing the point of games entirely, and should just exit the game industry.

 

[patsu]

There are people who like Heavy Rain and that game is utterly abysmal in every single aspect (expect the music). I sat at my friend's house and watched him play LAN for the first 4-5 hours and I don't like the substance-free, bare-bones mechanics and interaction at all, and it looks like that it's not going to get significantly better later on. Facial tech (goes without saying), VA and the music are quite good on the other hand. Those are probably the most positive aspects of the game.

Did your friend complete the game ?

Personally I liked Heavy Rain. More than other open world and adventure games that didn't make me feel connected to the main character (like GTA4). If you feel there's not much substance in HR, then they may have found a way to involve/immerse the users with little traditional/familiar mechanisms. Perhaps some games may require too much content/work in comparison.

 

[nightshade]

Anyone noticed how surprisingly smooth the powerlines look in this game, one wouldn't expect 2xmsaa to make stuff this smooth especially when the jagged edges are very apparent everywhere else. NFS HP is another game which I can think of that had something similar.

 

[green.pixel]

Personally I liked Heavy Rain. More than other open world and adventure games that didn't make me feel connected to the main character (like GTA4). If you feel there's not much substance in HR, then they may have found a way to involve/immerse the users with little traditional/familiar mechanisms. Perhaps some games may require too much content/work in comparison.

But that (emotional connection, story) are secondary aspects in almost any game; they are are all about genres and mechanics. They supposedly focussed on those aspects, and even then they ended up terrible. HR is reputedly an adventure game, and all elements of that genre (problem/puzzle solving, exploration, dialogues, story and characters) are very bad or simply not present at all (problem solving).The biggest problem with HR is that there is barely any actual game/interactivity in there. Even if it did have a well-written story, characters, animation, VA, and the same (nearly non-existant) mechanics were in place, it wouldn't be much better, since the most impartant part of the game - interaction, would be almost completely missing.

 

[Cornsnake]

But that (emotional connection, story, etc.) is secondary to any game. Problem with HR is that there is barely any actual game/interactivity in there. Even if it did have a well-written story, chracters, animation, VA, it wouldn't be much better.

Is that a problem though? They never made a secret out of not having much traditional gameplay. The emotional connection and story were the primary parts of HR.

L.A Noire places a similar importance on it's story over the gameplay. Although I prefer L.A Noire for still having more traditional gameplay.

Games like this are really blurring the lines of what you can call a game.

 

[ct03]

I'm extremely disappointed by this. The cases are way too short, too straightforward and too unrealistic. Two or three long complicated cases would have been so much better.

I also hate how overused the whole Truth-Doubt-Lie mechanic is. After every single statement you have to pick one.
It's ridiculous how often regular witnesses withhold information or lie to you. In a realistic scenario, you'd almost never have reason to doubt eye witness accounts. In this game, it's as if everybody tries to hide things. You need to doubt them all the time (or call their lies) in order to gain information. And then the game will play that silly music to let you know whether you acted the right way. Immersion this ain't.

 

[joker454]

Games like this are really blurring the lines of what you can call a game.

Yup, in the end whether or not something is considered a game, fits in a particular genre, etc, is of little interest anymore. I just want to be entertained and I've been finding LA Noir entertaining. I understand that it won't be everyone's cup of tea and that's fine, there's a million other games for them to play, for me I'm really happy they are making titles like LA Noir. Seems like it's a very female friendly title as well, so bonus there.

 

[patsu]

I'm extremely disappointed by this. The cases are way too short, too straightforward and too unrealistic. Two or three long complicated cases would have been so much better.

I also hate how overused the whole Truth-Doubt-Lie mechanic is. After every single statement you have to pick one.
It's ridiculous how often regular witnesses withhold information or lie to you. In a realistic scenario, you'd almost never have reason to doubt eye witness accounts. In this game, it's as if everybody tries to hide things. You need to doubt them all the time (or call their lies) in order to gain information. And then the game will play that silly music to let you know whether you acted the right way. Immersion this ain't.

Now this is a tangible criticism about repetitiveness.

I wouldn't argue against it. Hey Heavy Rain and LA Noire people, hope you can vary the basic formula next time ! I will buy the next one to check it out.

 

[green.pixel]

Is that a problem though?

Yes, it is, and a big one. There is almost no, you know, game in there, and what is there it's horrible. For a game that is almost all a "movie", i.e. storyline and characters, there are really gigantic problems with both of them. If people want a strong narrative/emotional experience, what's stopping them from reading a good book or watching a good movie? Or at least, play a handful of games with good/decent stories. And once again, sorry, but people who where "entertained" by it, i.e., had pleasure/enjoyment during it, most likely means they haven't paid attention to what they were watch.. err, playing, or simply have extremely lowered expactations. What "mattered" to them is objectively utterly abysmal. I can only imagine what kind of movies and books they like, when they can forgive a failure of this magnitude and bending over to come up with some kind of bizzare "emotional engagament". But ok, it's theirs prerogative to enjoy stuff. I'm sure content creators in all industries will be happy to have them as customers. When a game with a plot this bad can be a success, games will continue to have poorly written stories for a long time.

LAN is much better than that, though. It at least has some kind of decent interaction.