PAX East 2011: L.A. Noire Brings Unparalleled Realism to Virtual Characters

[Tipsy Giant]

I am well interested in this, hope it avoids the problems with the genre, although by the sound of the little ditty playing when you have seen everything they have fell for at least one.

Rockstar could have learned a thing or two taking the best parts of investigating in heavy rain.
Give me a time restriction for searching for evidence, so that if I look at all the relevant items using my own intuition I am rewarded instead of my ability to spend a lot of time walking around looking at EVERYTHING, that sounds boooooring


EDIT: Oh and don't tell me what I missed, not knowing will be the only reason for replayability, god it's like game designers never learn which bad mechanics to avoid, don't they play video games too?

 

[Jumplion]

See, what I worry about for this game is that it isn't going to have much difficulty in it.

All of the clues are already there, and I bet if you walk close to them an icon will appear saying "Press X to pick up cigarette" or something. And with musical queues showing when there's nothing else left to investigate, people will just stay in the area until everything is found. It's kind of like Heavy Rain where the only reason you would miss something is if you just didn't explore enough.

I dunno, I'm a bit worried about it, but it still looks awesome. I am loving the setting and the style, so I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I can understand your reservations, but it seems to me that a game like this is more about story than difficulty anyway, so I don't think it'll matter much.

I understand that as well. But again, I will cite Heavy Rain. Since everything was mostly a quick time event (don't go all "it's a movie!" on me, it's a game pure and simple), it would be very difficult to fail at one of them and get a bad ending.

With this, you want to get the best possible results in every single case, so it'd be really hard to not find every single clue, and anyone who explores a lot should find those clues no problem. Also, from what I've seen of the motion capture of faces, while they are awesome to look at, so far most of them have shown people who are obviously lieing. I could be worrying over nothing, and I hope I am, but I can't help but feel that this will fall into the Heavy Rain style of "difficulty" in that it's hard to really get anything wrong unless you don't have the patience to walk around.

That, and to be completely honest, Rockstar tell shit stories. Okay, maybe "shit" isn't the best word for it, but they do make some schizophrenic ones, and their pacing can be pretty friggin' annoying (seriouly, in Red Dead Redemption, Marston goes into a town, goes further away in the region, goes over to Mexico, helps end a revolution, goes back up to the "elite" part of town and FINALLY finds the gang members who, lo and behold, were right there the whole friggin' time! after probably months of sidequests. And don't get me started on GTA4).

 

[addeB]

I'm so damn excited about this game!

 

[wrightguy0]

8 square miles?... that puts it roughly slightly smaller then GTA San andrea's =/ i was hoping for a slightly bigger world but so long as the play area is very detailed with lots to do =)

that was a typo, it's actually 80 square miles of LA, if it was 8 Square miles you'd be stuck in downtown, i'm not sure how far the map extends, but it goes out at least as far west as Hollywood, and maybe maybe a little east of the LA river, which was a popular dump site for bodies back then, R* and team Bondi have said it's the largest game world they've done to date

 

[IvoryTowerGamer]

See, what I worry about for this game is that it isn't going to have much difficulty in it.

All of the clues are already there, and I bet if you walk close to them an icon will appear saying "Press X to pick up cigarette" or something. And with musical queues showing when there's nothing else left to investigate, people will just stay in the area until everything is found. It's kind of like Heavy Rain where the only reason you would miss something is if you just didn't explore enough.

I dunno, I'm a bit worried about it, but it still looks awesome. I am loving the setting and the style, so I can't wait to get my hands on it.

I can understand your reservations, but it seems to me that a game like this is more about story than difficulty anyway, so I don't think it'll matter much.

I understand that as well. But again, I will cite Heavy Rain. Since everything was mostly a quick time event (don't go all "it's a movie!" on me, it's a game pure and simple), it would be very difficult to fail at one of them and get a bad ending.

With this, you want to get the best possible results in every single case, so it'd be really hard to not find every single clue, and anyone who explores a lot should find those clues no problem. Also, from what I've seen of the motion capture of faces, while they are awesome to look at, so far most of them have shown people who are obviously lieing. I could be worrying over nothing, and I hope I am, but I can't help but feel that this will fall into the Heavy Rain style of "difficulty" in that it's hard to really get anything wrong unless you don't have the patience to walk around.

That, and to be completely honest, Rockstar tell shit stories. Okay, maybe "shit" isn't the best word for it, but they do make some schizophrenic ones, and their pacing can be pretty friggin' annoying (seriouly, in Red Dead Redemption, Marston goes into a town, goes further away in the region, goes over to Mexico, helps end a revolution, goes back up to the "elite" part of town and FINALLY finds the gang members who, lo and behold, were right there the whole friggin' time! after probably months of sidequests. And don't get me started on GTA4).

Hm, good point. In Heavy Rain I guess it worked because the story was (typically) engaging no matter what you chose, but in a story like this one it might pan out as well.

 

[Devil's Due]

For this case, players actually get hands-on with the dead body of a completely naked female, examining her nasty head wound, the damage to her hands, and any other "points of interest" that relate to the crime.

This can be easily abused if someone is perverted enough.

But anyways, I'm really curious about the game now. All previews I saw have been "meh," but now I'm interested. It's funny, the same happened with Red Dead Redemption. I trusted Rockstar, but the trailers and such seemed very boring. Once I get the game I was actually having a blast. The only trailer I last remember from Rockstar that I truly enjoyed was GTA IV's, either my tastes are changing or their trailers are beginning to lack.

But I'm sure I'll still buy it used regardless a week after it comes out or such. Will remember to keep my eye out.

 

[Dr. wonderful]

is this going to have the black darhila case

I've heard it does, or that there's at least something similar. I wouldn't be the one to ask, though.

It does.

That picture from the chick at top?

It's from the case.

 

[notyouraveragejoe]

This is the kind of game I've wanted for a long time.

I agree. Ever since I heard of it I can't wait. It looks like this is going to be absolutely brilliant!

 

[Velocirapture07]

They seem to have finally crossed the uncanny valley. Also, holy shit John Noble [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633604/] is in a video game. John Noble is awesome.

I hope to god there's a PC version, eventually.

Wait What? John Noble's awesome. Who does he play in the game?

 

[white_salad]

No PC version? Shame.

Also rotating a globe puzzle to find an address? Is this Murder Mystery or "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago?"

Hopefully both. Who in the world murdered Carmen San Diego?

 

[Master10K]

This game seems impressive and I'll definitely have to try it out (once the price goes down). The problem is that we'll get the same old crap, with parents/fox news saying some BS along the lines of: "LA Noire will turn your kids into murdering necrophiliacs"

Just sad that games will never be taken seriously, until our generation of videogame players completely take over the working populace.

 

[EmzOLV]

I don't think I can describe in words exactly how I feel about my excitement for this game. This is exactly going to tick every box in my gaming wants (or needs, whichever).

I think it's probably the only game I will actually pre-order this year.
I have read everyone's concerns and I can appreciate them and they do flicker a little - musical hints do kind of give away a little too easily but surely knowing Rockstar they will probably have an option to turn this off (I would have thought they would have, knowing how many options there were for RDR). But yeah, I will reserve judgement and I will fling myself fully into pre-ordering it I reckon.

 

[DTWolfwood]

o good god you can't fail a mission?

Booo. I mean now i don't have to pay attention to win the game

Oh wells, the story in the game interest me a great deal. And since im no longer playing RPGs for the Challenge, not failing will certainly let me enjoy the plot more

p.s. this game might be the first console title i pickup in over a year or to whenever Red Dead Redemption came out.

 

[Svenparty]

Looks like the game world will be more like Mafia 2 and be more of a place built for atmosphere. Looks like they finally got past the uncanny valley.

 

[GonzoGamer]

Looks like the game world will be more like Mafia 2 and be more of a place built for atmosphere. Looks like they finally got past the uncanny valley.

It does look better but I wouldn't say we're out of the valley yet; at least not from what I've seen. It still looks a little like Epcot, but with something else projected onto it now.

What I don't understand is if they going more for atmosphere and aren't going to fill the world with a bunch of side activities and time-wasters, why are they making the 'biggest open world they've ever made?'
I like open world games but you need to have something to do in the open world. Or else you end up with No More Heroes.

It looks like it could be cool but I'm definitely renting this first. I'm definitely not buying into their pre-order scheme.

 

[Knusper]

If I won the lottery right now, I would pay them to port it to the PC. I want it that badly.

Or, you could win a minor fortune and just BUY AN XBOX?!

... Good point.

 

[LadyRhian]

Sounds a lot better than that CSI:NY game they made. I loved the CSI games: Looking for clues, examining evidence, interrogating suspects. But CSI:NY broke the franchise by being little better than those "Search this scene until you find these items, not all of which are actually clues".

 

[Yokai]

They seem to have finally crossed the uncanny valley. Also, holy shit John Noble [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0633604/] is in a video game. John Noble is awesome.

I hope to god there's a PC version, eventually.

Wait What? John Noble's awesome. Who does he play in the game?

No idea, but there [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/trailers/2558-L-A-Noire-The-Technology-Behind-Performance] he is at 0:26.

 

[Marowit]

I cannot wait for this game. I cannot wait for this game. I cannot wait for this game. I cannot wait for this game.