L.A. Noire

Is this a sequel to Mad Men? The presence of Ken Cosgrove confuses me.

L.A. Noire = Ace Attorney with Guns

It sounds like there is a lot more emphasis on exploration and dialogue than gunplay. Looking good.

^^^ Man, that's so freakin' good to hear!

I have such a game-boner for L.A. Noire that it is hard to bear. I simply cannot wait for this game.

Aaron D. wrote:

^^^ Man, that's so freakin' good to hear!

Now it looks like you're talking about SallyNasty's boner.

/complete child

Who says I wasn't?

New video: Investigation and Interrogation:

I think I'm coming full circle from enthusiastic gushing back to vague doubts and worries that they may have messed it up in some way.

I just hope it's better than that Sherlock Holmes game.

I'm guessing that E Hunnie would play this with me. That's all I need.

Cool link, thanks.

Wow. Trailer 3 looks awesome. I wish it was gonna be on the PC. It would look so much better.

The character models look very archaic. I'm sure I'll be able to get past the dated visuals if the game play and story are up to snuff though.

Dyni wrote:

L.A. Noire = Ace Attorney with Guns

It sounds like there is a lot more emphasis on exploration and dialogue than gunplay. Looking good.

I'm actually wavering on LA Noire now. It sounds like it has a lot in common with 'Heavy Rain', which I welcome. However, I am concerned is that there doesn't appear to any way to fail the game. Previews in both 'Edge' and 'GamesTM' have stressed that the game will offer subtle prompts to enable players to continue the investigation/narrative if they've missed clues or mishandled interrogations. But nothing I've read indictates that it's possible to fall off the path entirely.

This makes me worry about the replay value of the game, which in turn makes me worry about the initial sale price. A game that provides few or no incentives to replay simply isn't worth £39.99, in my view.

'Heavy Rain' dealt with this potential issue quite elegantly. It allowed players to fail individual missions/investigations (to the point, of course, where characters could die), but ensured there were sufficient player-characters to allow the main story to reach its conclusion. Replay value was assured by providing players with the chance to improve their overall outcome.

As I understand it, LA Noire has only one player character, so they are unlikely to be taking this path.

Any one else have similar concerns?

I think Rockstar confuse the matter a bit by saying it's a Rockstar game, when they aren't one studio but many, and LA Noire is by Team Bondi, and they're currently owned by Take Two. I guess it's similar to Bioware, who have Edmonton/Montreal/Austin studios and are owned by EA, but all under one big banner even though the studios make different types of game, although the name works as advertising, when you read "A rockstar game" you automatically think of all the other games under the label.

detroit20 wrote:
Dyni wrote:

L.A. Noire = Ace Attorney with Guns

It sounds like there is a lot more emphasis on exploration and dialogue than gunplay. Looking good.

I'm actually wavering on LA Noire now. It sounds like it has a lot in common with 'Heavy Rain', which I welcome. However, I am concerned is that there doesn't appear to any way to fail the game. Previews in both 'Edge' and 'GamesTM' have stressed that the game will offer subtle prompts to enable players to continue the investigation/narrative if they've missed clues or mishandled interrogations. But nothing I've read indictates that it's possible to fall off the path entirely.

This makes me worry about the replay value of the game, which in turn makes me worry about the initial sale price. A game that provides few or no incentives to replay simply isn't worth £39.99, in my view.

'Heavy Rain' dealt with this potential issue quite elegantly. It allowed players to fail individual missions/investigations (to the point, of course, where characters could die), but ensured there were sufficient player-characters to allow the main story to reach its conclusion. Replay value was assured by providing players with the chance to improve their overall outcome.

As I understand it, LA Noire has only one player character, so they are unlikely to be taking this path.

Any one else have similar concerns?

The GTA games and Red Dead Redemption were both 30 hour or so games for the single player. Are you really saying that a game isn't worth it unless you get double that? That seems to be asking a bit much.

I'm really excited for LA Noire. I haven't been playing many games lately, for a lot of different reasons, but the unattractiveness of recent releases has played a big part. I'm hoping Portal 2 and LA Noire start to change that.

TheCounselor wrote:
detroit20 wrote:
Dyni wrote:

L.A. Noire = Ace Attorney with Guns

It sounds like there is a lot more emphasis on exploration and dialogue than gunplay. Looking good.

I'm actually wavering on LA Noire now. It sounds like it has a lot in common with 'Heavy Rain', which I welcome. However, I am concerned is that there doesn't appear to any way to fail the game. Previews in both 'Edge' and 'GamesTM' have stressed that the game will offer subtle prompts to enable players to continue the investigation/narrative if they've missed clues or mishandled interrogations. But nothing I've read indictates that it's possible to fall off the path entirely.

This makes me worry about the replay value of the game, which in turn makes me worry about the initial sale price. A game that provides few or no incentives to replay simply isn't worth £39.99, in my view.

'Heavy Rain' dealt with this potential issue quite elegantly. It allowed players to fail individual missions/investigations (to the point, of course, where characters could die), but ensured there were sufficient player-characters to allow the main story to reach its conclusion. Replay value was assured by providing players with the chance to improve their overall outcome.

As I understand it, LA Noire has only one player character, so they are unlikely to be taking this path.

Any one else have similar concerns?

The GTA games and Red Dead Redemption were both 30 hour or so games for the single player. Are you really saying that a game isn't worth it unless you get double that? That seems to be asking a bit much.

I'm really excited for LA Noire. I haven't been playing many games lately, for a lot of different reasons, but the unattractiveness of recent releases has played a big part. I'm hoping Portal 2 and LA Noire start to change that.

I think the argument is more akin to "a game that doesn't allow you to lose isn't worth full price." At least, that's what I got out of it. But like most games, I'm sure LA Noire is going to allow you to fail a mission then start it over from the beginning, or from a checkpoint. I really don't see the issue here. So it has elements similar to Heavy Rain-- that's great, I welcome crossing genre streams-- but it also has elements similar to GTA (or probably more likely, Mafia)-- so a GTA/sandbox game in which the players interact with NPCs and other characters beyond either killing them or leaving them alone? And to top it off, the player isn't controlling a psychopath pointlessly debating whether he is morally ambiguous or just an asshole; instead, the player controls a cop and has to work within the system to succeed. I don't see why this would make one waver in interest, if one enjoys games like Heavy Rain and GTA.

I keep being reminded of the old 1994 game "Under a Killing Moon," whenever I watch a trailer. Kinda reminds me of the old Sierra games from that era, like phantasmagoria, that were walk-through movies.

I won't be worrying about replay value. The main story is suggested to be 25-30 hours. And I can only imagine what kind of DLC they're going to create.

@TheCounselor, WipEout

The volume of content in the game isn't an issue for me. What is an issue for me is the likely level of challenge presented by the game. This month's Edge contains a mini-preview, making these observations:

"Sparse, brooding jazz plays until you've found all the clues at a crime scene, and audio cues and controller vibration help point out evidence. We relied on these to identify interactive items: with the camera pulled back into thirdperson, spotting and interpreting relevant clues is more than a matter of sharp eyesight.

But overlook something vital and other police workers eventually mark it out with a yellow evidence tag. Your partner, who is also pacing the scene, will take the lead if you dawdle. This is, in its investigatory elements at least, a failure-free game. Even if you bodge your way through, the story branches to find other ways of delivering the required evidence to you (although each case ends with a ranking of your sleuthing skills".

It's the sentence that I've put in bold that leads me to question the value of the game. Team Bondi and Rockstar have gone to great pains to stress that the heart of this game, it's core, is detective work. There'll be some shooting and some chasing, of course, but the 'meat' of the game is sleuthing... and these missions cannot be failed.

Now I accept that players can replay the game in order to get a better score for each case. However, I can't see how this will be at all satisfying if - in order to complete the 1st playthrough - the game has already identified all the elements required to progress. Attempt 1 may yield a 'D' grade, but attempt 2 - it seems - will always yield an 'A'.

My suspicion is - as Cyrax suggests - that the publishers/devs will attempt to get round the value/longevity problem by establishing LA Noire as a platform, and releasing substantial DLC for it (in same way that Rockstar released Undead Nightmare behind RDR). However, I still don't feel that a game with limited replay value justifies a £39.99 price tag.

EDIT: @peacesunshine - A walk-through-movie is exactly what the bulk of LA Noire is sounding more and more like. And there's nothing wrong with that per se, particularly if there's more conventional game material included as well. But I think that does raise the question of value. Interestingly - to me at least - GamesTM has an article on the perceived value of games and the impact on pricing. It focuses on the value of shorter titles like Homefront and the impact of cheap casual games on established price points, but it occurs to me that this is also an issue with games like this and Heavy Rain.

Put simply, if a game is £40, then an interactive movie should be much less, IMO.

I guess we have different perceptions of value, then. I would rather have a strong and fulfilling gameplay experience rather than feel like I have to play through games multiple times. Especially since it's usually handled on a rather superficial level. (i.e. A lot of the content is the same, there are just random differences throughout.) The only way the investigation portions could be significantly different is they make a ton of extra content the vast majority of the audience is never going to see and force them to charge even more, or if they make those portions random and/or procedurally generated, which would inevitably make them far less interesting.

And, with the exception of system-based games like Tetris or Civ 5, I have little desire or time to replay the same game twice. Hell, I don't have enough time to complete every game I want to even once.

Are we having the "not a game" talk? It's my favorite!

wordsmythe wrote:

Are we having the "not a game" talk? It's my favorite!

IMAGE(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v282/Thin_J/not-this-sh*t-again.gif)

I, personally, plan to purchase this not-a-game at the earliest convenient time.

No PC version bites. What a bummer.

Malor wrote:

No PC version bites. What a bummer.

+1

Hypatian wrote:

I, personally, plan to purchase this not-a-game at the earliest convenient time.

I have already pre-ordered and put cash money down! I can't WAIT!!

This is the first game in over 10 years that my wife wants to play. She hasn't expressed interest in a game since Myst and The Last Express, so this went from a maybe-depending-on-reviews to day-1-perch. They must be running a hell of an ad campaign.

That said, I'm a little worried that it could get dull fast, especially, as it's sounding, if there isn't a lot of challenge to it. The no-fail issue is a bit disappointing, but it all depends on how they handle it.

Putting my cash down today.

A little more news on LA Noire from an article on Joystiq - http://www.joystiq.com/2011/04/26/la...

According to MTV Multipalyer, Rockstar art director Rob Nelson assuaged this group's fears while demoing the game at the Tribeca Film Festival last night, telling attendees that they'll be afforded the option to skip action sequences after failing them two or three times.

Nelson explained, "You can skip those action elements and still experience the bulk of the narrative."

My earlier comments about the investigative elements notwithstanding, I actually like this idea. As I've said in other threads, every GTA game that I've played has had at least one monstrous game-ending-if-you-can't-pass-it mission, so I welcome the inclusion of a mechanism that allows players to skip and move on.

Prederick wrote:

Putting my cash down today.

I'll be getting it Day One, but I'm holding out just a little longer to see who has the best pre-order deal.

I've got $20 credit from Amazon, so that may be enough of and by itself, but with DiRT 3 due out just a week later, I'm not sure if I want to apply the credit to that instead.