I'm having a hard time embedding video with my text for some reason. But yeah. I'm on disc two of L.A. Noire and right now, I'm feeling a resounding "meh" towards this game. The graphics aren't that impressive. At first, the facial animation was pretty damned impressive but then I got to the interviews and everybody is just giving away their lies by looking crazy. I'm surprised nobody has started twirling their evil mustache as a way of giving away the fact that they're lying.
Investigations don't really feel like I'm investigating. I just walk around and wait for the controller to vibrate. I know we can turn that option off (and I think I'm going to do just that, the next time I play it). No thought goes into them. The main character is as bland as a bread sandwich and the partners he's been paired up with are unlikeable. Driving mechanics are pretty bad and even the walking is pretty rough (A manageable flaw that I also had with Red Dead Redemption). The investigations are the high point of this game but even then, I find myself quitting the game when I get an answer wrong and just reloading my last save so I can get it right. Missing a question means you miss out on some of the story and, even thought the story hasnt sucked me in at all, I don't want to miss out on something that could potentially be interesting.
I don't know what happened. I loved games like Indigo Prophecy, Sam and Max, and Heavy Rain. This game should be right up my alley but it's not. It's a challenge free, bland looking, bland feeling, boring movie in the guise of a video game. Playing it is a chore. I was really hoping this would be the first 2011 release that would really impress me. It didn't.
