L.A. Noire (2011)

1947 Los Angeles, after the war. In the shoes of Cole Phelps, a by-the-book LAPD officer quickly moving up the ranks, you are assigned to cases that run the gamut from petty theft through to homicide. Taking one case at a time, the overarching story is slowly revealed with every case you close. When you arrive at each crime scene, you search the area for clues and interview Persons Of Interest, chasing them down if you have to, or taking them out lethally when they become a threat.

When you're interviewing a POI, you are often given a choice of whether to acknowledge that they are telling the Truth, to cast Doubt on their story, or, using the evidence you've gathered, to catch them in an outright Lie. Before playing the game, I had a notion from early player impressions that these three choices weren't descriptive enough and that seemingly-reasonable deductions would send Cole into a sudden aggressive tirade. While that's partially true (Cole always feels like he's repressing anger anyway), I think most of the reasonable choices resulted in the expected dialog. (I should replay the game and always accuse everyone of lying, for fun!...) Another small aspect of the disconnect may be due to the actors being unable to play off of each other while recording their dialog.

The MotionScan capture process used in this game is, without a doubt, its greatest technical achievement. Actors are recognizable, their expressions as they deliver lines truly helps sell every performance, and that helps the player in determining whether to cast an interviewee's statement into Doubt. However, the technology isn't without it's drawbacks; for one thing, it's cost-prohibitive, which is likely why it hasn't surfaced in any game since. Also, the actors are unable to move around while recording their lines, so the full body motion captures were recorded in a separate session, resulting in some of the head-to-neck connections feeling a little bit off, dragging otherwise excellent performances into a dip in the uncanny valley. For L.A. Noire in particular though, the trade-offs are worth it.

The other details in this game also impressed me on multiple occasions. Initially, I turned the graphics settings way down and still had performance issues, including missing many of the all-important facial animations, but I soon realized that the game had defaulted to DirectX 9 instead of 11. Once I switched that over, and closed my browser, everything ran smoothly, and reflections in the chrome of the cars, and the real-time shadows were great additions to the noire atmosphere. In particular, I remember pulling up to a chain link fence at night, with my headlights inches away, casting a giant chain link shadow across the ground. And the texture detail was also great, especially for small bits of 40's era novelties. I stopped at a completely non-interactive pâtisserie just to check out the window display. Physics glitches were rare, and never impacted my gameplay, but I did occasionally see cars inside of other cars.

Like other Rockstar titles, you're free to move around the city to discover landmarks and a few hidden collectibles (I only found a few while playing). You can also deal with a number of smaller crimes that get called in over the radio. Unlike other Grand Theft Auto games, you don't get to shoot everything; friendly fire is impossible. But you can run over city property and civilians without the department getting too upset. There are ninety-five vehicles to drive in the game and at first they all looked basically the same to me, but the longer I remained in 1947, the easier it was to spot cars I hadn't driven yet. For now, I'm still missing five, but there's a Vehicle Showroom available from the main menu where you can see the silhouettes of the ones you've missed.

I was in this building (The Hollywood Museum) last month for a Batman '66 exhibit! The single-story side is a diner now.

Living nearby, I was curious about how accurate the game's portrayal of the city actually is. Since I'm not in LA very often, and I definitely wasn't there in 1947, its tough for me to say. I'm sure they condensed it down in size, while trying to cover the major points of interest, but Highland Ave in particular, which crosses Hollywood Blvd, was pretty accurate. I've been to a number of well-known locations in that area, and recognized most of them in the game. And yes, the famous "Hollywood" sign, was originally "Hollywoodland". But mostly, this game pointed out just how many landmarks in LA I've still never visited!

So, a large 1940s city to roam around in as a cop, but how about the story? Each case is like a different episode on a show, and most of them are very good, and may have you doubting your hunches. Many of them build upon each other, and some of them build upon the main story. The acting is often excellent, with a few minor roles that are just passable; it's probably tough to act like you're actually lying, while trying to also "act" like you're lying enough to give the player a chance, if that makes sense. Some of the cases are rather graphic as well; this is not a game for younger kids. I liked that the DLC was integrated into the game naturally, playing out the same as any other case. And happily, you can re-play every case for a better rating if you missed some clues or botched an interview. The ending is apparently something many didn't like, but when Steam continually presents you with the headline "What's the most disappointed you've been by a game's ending?" in the Recent News that automatically shows up for each game in your Steam Library, you expect something really awful. In my opinion, it wasn't really awful, but could have been better, and was simply appropriate for the genre.

My only real complaint is with the tutorial bit. It let me fail the first interview without giving me a second chance, so I didn't understand how the Lie accusation worked for a while, and many of the "audio cues" it mentions are either way too subtle for me to have ever picked up on, or possibly even nonexistent. L.A. Noire cost me, somewhat sadly, only $3.86 ($8.99 BRL from Nuuvem) in early 2014. This game is worth more than that. Lastly, here are two additional reviews from your fellow assassins, Joe and Sadistic Chicken (who both got a 100% completion!), and if you've already finished the game yourself, here's a fun blooper reel I found on YouTube! (caution: spoilers!)

Some other interesting games beaten…

realMyst: Masterpiece Edition (2014) Originally released in 1993, Myst has definitely withstood the test of time. I remember lamenting its Mac exclusivity then, but it soon arrived on PC, and I played it all the way through …with the help of a guide. I never played 2000’s realMyst update, but with the recent 25th anniversary Kickstarter campaign, my interest was rekindled, and I finally revisited Myst Island. The puzzles are still great (and I don’t need a guide anymore), the world is still intriguing, and the acting is still a little cliched. Apart from missing the pleasant dithered fade transitions, I feel that realMyst: Masterpiece Edition replicates the original game rather well, with updated graphics and a new day/night cycle. Alongside Among the Sleep in a “10th Anniversary” bundle from MacGameStore, it cost me $4.71 in mid-2015. Someday, I’ll also revisit Riven – the only other Myst game I’ve played.

TrickStyle (1999) I played the demo of this hoverboard racer a long time ago, and was excited to get it in Indie Gala’s Friday Special 67 – $1.18 via group buy. The demo was a small area with a few challenges and two characters. The full game has nine characters (I only played with one…), and plenty of challenges that unlock additional moves. The course themes for the races are 2099 London, UK; Manhattan, USA; and Aerial Tokyo, Japan, each with five races and a Boss. The AI’s rubber banding is immediately apparent, making every race a fairly close finish regardless of time, but skill and course memorization are still definitely important. I beat the majority of the game in about four hours, but that last level… it’s tough, and added almost two hours to my playtime. Controller support is partial, but once I switched my Logitech F310 over to D-Input mode, and started the configuration with a keyboard, it worked great. I’d highly recommend finding the PlayStation manual online for additional backstory and the “correct” controller bindings. I didn’t try the split-screen two-player mode. I had fun, but would really only recommend it for nostalgia’s sake.

Forbidden Clicker Party (2018) As idle clickers go, this wasn’t terrible. It still wastes your time, but not for as long as most idle games, and the art really is kinda nice. This was one of several games included in Fanatical’s Hidden Gems 7 bundle for $2.49.

A pair of SG wins beaten…

Home Darkness - Escape (2017)
First off, this is not a hidden object game. On the Steam Store, it’s even officially described as “a classic Hidden Object game […]”, but the creator apparently has no idea what that genre actually is. This is more of the room escape style point-and-click where there are items in the room that you pick up and sometimes combine to move on to another area. Not bad gameplay, but absolutely not a HOG. I reported a misapplied tag for the very first time, but so far it’s still listed with the “Hidden Object” tag in the store. Anyway… the game itself is extremely mediocre. The scenes are all static, the music on a short non-stop loop, and near the ending there are no clues as to what needs to be combined with what; thankfully your options are limited at that point and so it doesn’t take long to make it to the nonsensical and unsatisfying end. Not recommended.

Cyberpunk Arena (2018)
If you want to swim around as a bikini-clad android with some very nicely-rendered sea life in a fairly small area with too much bloom where everything killable dies in two shots regardless of what weapon you use, then this is the perfect game for you. Feels like an asset flip, plays like an asset flip. The multiplayer component was useless while I was on (there may have been other players, or it might have been AI, but in either case they presented no challenge and rarely attacked). There’s a couple of very large creatures that you can’t kill, but there’s nothing in-game to indicate this other than them continuing to not die when you shoot them. Weapon variety sucks. Movement is slow, even as you slowly upgrade. It should take less than my 57 minutes of gameplay to get all 20 achievements, but I exited once and apparently that resets your achievement progress. It didn’t even occur to me until I visited the forums that this might be trying to capitalize off of CD Projekt Red’s upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 – it’s just so obviously not in the same league.

Some Android games beaten…

Realm Grinder (2017)
I went into this one optimisic, based on some reviews declaring that it was different from other idle games, more strategic, and I liked the nice fantasy-themed pixel art. But while the art is nice, and it is different, there’s no animation or audio, and it definitely still becomes a grind. At some point, the Wiki or forums become indispensable; although I’ve never used any “builds” other than my own, achieving some of the trophies requires knowing things that are too obscure without consulting the community. I do like that it syncs between Android and Steam though. One of my first posts here on BLAEO mentions being hopefully nearly done with the game with only two achievements to go. Those last two achievements, one in particular, took me another 10 months. And I’m still not at the (new, and continually updated) endgame. Will I keep it installed? Maybe…

Another Lost Phone (2017)
I haven’t played the first game. This one is from Humble’s 22nd Mobile Bundle. It was fairly short, but nice. I didn’t know what the theme of the game was going in, and I think the message it carries was presented well. There are some codes you’ll have to find in-game to progress, and I should have just kept retracing my steps for one of those, but found a hint instead. If you’re curious about whether the story has an overall positive or negative tone, I’ll include that in spoiler text here… evitisop llarevo .

Sally’s Law (2016)
I believe I picked this one up for free from the Play Store. I don’t yet own it on Steam. The gameplay is fairly casual, with a tiny bit of challenge. The story isn’t too deep, but it’s presented nicely alongside the gameplay. Worth playing in your free time away from a PC, and there are enough levels that it took me a couple of days to finish over a few short sessions.

Also enjoying…

Kathy Rain - The main update on this post was originally going to be about finishing this one, but time had other plans for me; it’s pretty great so far though!
Meadow - A very peaceful game where you wander around with other random animals (other players) in the world of Sheltered, communicating only with emoticons, and collecting flowers, mushrooms, and other items to get additional personal cosmetic choices.
Cities: Skylines - Installed for Steam’s Spring Cleaning event, I won’t continue anytime soon, only because I know I will get sucked in and spend way too much time on it!
I Am Innocent - A sometimes-frustrating mini-game played within an intriguing guilty-or-innocent storyline.

One year on BLAEO!

Has it really been that long? It’s taken me a while to get to another big game review on BLAEO, and I don’t know my exact join date, but my first post was on the 24th of May, so I’ve been on here for a little over a year now!
How about a little giveaway to celebrate?… I, E, X, U, X – you should know what to do with that!