L.A. Noire

[billiejoearmstrong8]

I think the point was that it was pointless, haha. It fits with one of the themes that runs through the game, that you can do your best to do what's right but no one is free from faults (in Cole's case some of his decisions in the war, later the affair, often being driven more by seeking success and approval than truly striving to do the right thing) and each person can only do so much and can't change everything or make everything right (eg Cole's relative powerlessness against the corruption of the police force and government, you work as hard as you can on cases but that doesn't mean you can't be overruled by superiors for corrupt reasons or get screwed by a mistake + someone looking to make you a scapegoat). sh*t happens and all you can do is roll with it, you can't control everything. 

 

The end gave him a small moment of redemption, allowing him to commit and act of heroism that was entirely unselfish (saving Elsa and Jack - not to advance his career, stick it to someone, or to try to live up to his hero status that he knows is undeserved - just to help others as it was the right thing to do) while still staying true to that theme. I think it's also poetic than while the death was an accident that wouldn't have happened without a freak natural event, he ultimately caused it himself by being the one to cause Ira to become screwed up because of his orders, and the chain of events that unfolded afterwards. It's the rise and fall of Cole Phelps. He dies in an unfortunate accident, the police are still corrupt, Roy Earle is still on top giving a bs speech at his funeral, and not everyone had to pay for their crimes. That's life, he lived, hopefully did more good than bad and had some positive influence on things, then he died and not much was changed. It's sad but it's a real ending, and it fits the noire style. 

 

Also that moment of him looking up and simply saying goodbye before being washed away is embedded in my mind lol. I think it was well done in how realistically sudden and non-lingering it was while still being a memorable and poignant moment. 

Edited February 3, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Americana]

I admire games without stupid boss battles.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

Yeah I was expecting some kind of flamethrower boss battle in the sewers, I was glad it was something different. Only thing is I wish we could've switched to playing as Cole again before the end, even if you just controlled him while he escaped with Elsa before the final cutscene. They already had us switching back to him a couple times after playing as Jack was introduced (including earlier in the mission), wouldn't have hurt to let us finish the game as him. 

[LittleBlueTroll]

I think the ending was perfect for the story they were telling. It was more thought provoking than some cheesy sh*t where Cole appears from another sewer entrance and then suddenly turns LA around and everyone works a 9-5 job, leaves crime behind and vomits rainbows. I think LA Noire could have benefited from a Heavy Rain style ending format, albeit on a smaller scale, where maybe some of your in game choices and decisions could alter the outcome at the end. It seems like the perfect game for this. Heck, even a GTA V style multi option ending would of been good. Ideally, one that really tested your moral compass. 

 

For example:

Say there was an ending, someway, somehow, where you could kill Roy Earle, but Cole ended up in prison. Now you, the player, would love to kill Roy (even though deep down I quite like that son of a bitch from an antagonist standpoint) But is it worth it? Is it worth undoing all the good you've done? Would that truly be the "best" ending. 

 

Anyway, I digress, but you get my point. It would be great to have some different options or ideas to play out, but for the story driven narrative provided here, I think the ending is fitting.

[BUT THE BENZ]

I think cole died because dan houser wanted him dead. instead kelso is the hero/survivor. brendan mcnamara had invisioned cole as the hero to the end but then R* took over and since dan and brendan didn't like each other dan wrote kelso into the story, the guy questioning cole's every decision, the one that makes it to the end

 

 

[billiejoearmstrong8]

13 hours ago, BUT THE BENZ said:

I think cole died because dan houser wanted him dead. instead kelso is the hero/survivor. brendan mcnamara had invisioned cole as the hero to the end but then R* took over and since dan and brendan didn't like each other dan wrote kelso into the story, the guy questioning cole's every decision, the one that makes it to the end

 

 

 

I don't think they'd let pettiness like that spill into the game. Cole was never going to be a "hero to the end", the whole thing is that he's believed to be a war hero but uncomfortable with that because he knows he isn't really, and strives to be a hero in the police force to make up for it but frequently fails. The story was always going to be his rise and fall due partly to his own flaws and partly to corruption in the system, not just him rising to the top. He also is allowed to be the hero in his last moment, saving Jack and Elsa.

 

I think by having us play as Jack at the end they just wanted to have the contrast of the two characters, more complex Cole going by the book and more straightforward Kelso using brute force, and were maybe trying to set things up for a sequel. 

Edited February 5, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Americana]

I have a feeling that only Roy Earl knew what he was doing (or what he should be doing) in this 1940's Los Angeles mess.

[JaeDan 101]

How was L.A. Noire? Was it good?

It looks like this game is interesting

[STNeish]

On 2/7/2021 at 7:48 PM, JaeDan 101 said:

How was L.A. Noire? Was it good?

It looks like this game is interesting

It was good.  It has its flaws, but I really did enjoy it.

It's a slower paced game, you need to pay VERY close attention to the details.

[GhettoJesus]

On 2/8/2021 at 1:48 AM, JaeDan 101 said:

How was L.A. Noire? Was it good?

It looks like this game is interesting

If you speak relatively good English and if you like gritty noir stories then you will have a blast. Be warned though this game is far from being a GTA so if you are planning on shooting your gun everywhere and cause havoc then don't play the game.

[JaeDan 101]

8 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

Be warned though this game is far from being a GTA

I know, man

[billiejoearmstrong8]

I'm sad that there isn't more to do around the city. I fell in love with the place but there's only so much you can get out of driving/walking around. It wouldn't make sense to be able to go shooting the place up and causing havoc or doing leisure and sports activities like GTA etc so I don't even know what they could've put in really. But it's just a shame there aren't a few more things to do besides the set street crime missions and collectibles when the city is so cool. 

 

Because of this I'm just playing through the story again. I was going to deliberately screw up each case as badly as possible but I couldn't bring myself to lmao. Maybe next time. I have noticed a couple of instances where you can get different stuff to happen by deliberately missing things. For example if you decide not to check the laundry label on the woman's dress in The White Shoe Slaying it means instead of just going and getting the address from the laudromat you have to call for a list of women fitting the description in the area and go to three different houses, with the conversations at the two wrong ones being quite amusing. Also the end of A Marriage Made In Heaven is significantly different if you don't find the knife at your first visit to the crime scene. And of course you can try deliberately charging the wrong suspect in the ones where there's a choice.  

Edited February 14, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[LittleBlueTroll]

2 hours ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

But it's just a shame there aren't a few more things to do besides the set street crime missions and collectibles when the city is so cool. 

 

 

Talking of collectables, if there are any completionist's here, the "Auto Fanatic" achievement will be a real kick in the dick. There is a special place in hell for whoever came up with that idea. 

When this game first released I wanted to 100% it. I got close, but no cigar. Then again when it remastered I tried again, got about as far as I did on the original version. 

[billiejoearmstrong8]

2 hours ago, LittleBlueTroll said:

 

Talking of collectables, if there are any completionist's here, the "Auto Fanatic" achievement will be a real kick in the dick. There is a special place in hell for whoever came up with that idea. 

When this game first released I wanted to 100% it. I got close, but no cigar. Then again when it remastered I tried again, got about as far as I did on the original version. 

 

I did it. I just got in different vehicles a lot when I saw them as I played, and then used the vehicle showroom in the "extras" section of the start menu to see which ones I didn't have yet. It just shows a blank silhouette for the missing ones but since they're listed in numbered order you can google the numbers of the ones you don't have and the gta wiki will show you what they look like and tell you if there's a specific location or time in a case to find them.

 

There's also a neat little trick you can use to help find ones that don't have specific locations. You know how once you drive or see a particular vehicle, often a lot more of the same one will spawn? Well if you go to the vehicle showroom, go to the silhouette of the vehicle you don't have yet (then the guide I saw said press x on xbox/square on ps, no idea if that part is actually necessary but I did it), then immediately exit the showroom and go to freeroam (I did so on homicide desk) the game thinks that vehicle was just around and it's highly likely some will spawn either driving or parked right away. This worked for me to get the last one I needed, did the showroom thing and bam it was parked in the lot across the street from the police station. 

Edited February 14, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[LittleBlueTroll]

Yeah I did look at this method before, but I basically stuck to the allocated cars most of the time during the story, so when it came to this achievement I was so far behind it was mind-blowing. I must have had about 90% of the vehicles undiscovered, so I gave up Maybe one day I will return to it and get it done, I do revisit games here and there to mop up missing achievements and what not, and I still want to 100% this at some point.

 

Another achievement that gave me insane grief on the original 360 version was this:

 

Bulletproof Windsheild: Kill the drivers of both MP vehicles in the gun battle at Hughes Aircraft, before they pull up.

 

My god. I spent more time than I care to admit doing this. I never ever got it done on the 360 version, but I managed it on the remaster, and it still took me a while.

 

[billiejoearmstrong8]

23 minutes ago, LittleBlueTroll said:

Yeah I did look at this method before, but I basically stuck to the allocated cars most of the time during the story, so when it came to this achievement I was so far behind it was mind-blowing. I must have had about 90% of the vehicles undiscovered, so I gave up Maybe one day I will return to it and get it done, I do revisit games here and there to mop up missing achievements and what not, and I still want to 100% this at some point.

 

Another achievement that gave me insane grief on the original 360 version was this:

 

Bulletproof Windsheild: Kill the drivers of both MP vehicles in the gun battle at Hughes Aircraft, before they pull up.

 

My god. I spent more time than I care to admit doing this. I never ever got it done on the 360 version, but I managed it on the remaster, and it still took me a while.

 

 

Yeah purposefully using different vehicles and always getting in unfamilar seeming ones or ones that pop up in certain places/missions (eg branded ones like the InstaHeat van) as you play through the story/complete street crimes does help a lot, as well as getting all the unique ones marked on the map. I hadn't seriously planned on trying to get all of them but doing that got me most of them so I went back and finished it off. I got a lot of them by noting down times they can be found during cases from the wiki and grabbing them while I was replaying the case for other achievements. 

 

That one was hard for me as well haha. In the end I watched a video of it being done and copied it, and luckily it's very quick to replay, so I managed it eventually. Also the whole second time I did the story I was worrying about the kill a bad guy with every gun one and making sure to always pick up random guns to use them (since it's kind of hard to know which is which or how many different ones there are). But then I realised at the end it was probably just the flamethrower I was missing all along. 

 

L.A. Noire has the title of being the only game I've ever got every achievement for as well as just 100%ing (I've got all the non-online ones for a few others, but it's not the same). And I did it in two weeks from start to finish lol. That's lockdown for you.

Edited February 14, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[Americana]

It's interesting how many cars there are in L.A. Noire.

[LittleBlueTroll]

18 hours ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

That one was hard for me as well haha. In the end I watched a video of it being done and copied it, and luckily it's very quick to replay, so I managed it eventually. Also the whole second time I did the story I was worrying about the kill a bad guy with every gun one and making sure to always pick up random guns to use them (since it's kind of hard to know which is which or how many different ones there are). But then I realised at the end it was probably just the flamethrower I was missing all along. 

 

Yeah I had exactly the same issue. On my original playthrough, unlike the cars, I picked guns up left right and centre. I wasn't even thinking about the achievement as I usually do one playthrough "blind" then go back and aim for certain tasks. The gun one was just natural, then when I saw the flamethrower near end game, there was no way I wasn't going to use it  Some people always miss the gun you can pull out from your boot/trunk (I think it's a shotgun) I thought everyone knew about that. 

Man, I wish the remaster was on PC, I would happily play again. The original version's PC port is dogsh*t. 

[GhettoJesus]

I still don't know what gun was missing for that achievement. Supposedly you can do the achievement with the last mission because pretty much every gun is featured in it but I never managed to get it. Now I have no chance to find it out because I bought my L.A. Noire copy physically and my PC case doesn't have a room for an optical drive anymore.

Edited February 15, 2021 by GhettoJesus

[billiejoearmstrong8]

12 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

I still don't know what gun was missing for that achievement. Supposedly you can do the achievement with the last mission because pretty much every gun is featured in it but I never managed to get it. Now I have no chance to find it out because I bought my L.A. Noire copy physically and my PC case doesn't have a room for an optical drive anymore.

 

It could possibly be the "colt official police", the pistol that Cole has on the Patrol desk which is different to his regular pistol he has through the rest of the game. I think the only way you can use it to kill a bad guy is if you play Armed and Dangerous and drop the shotgun you're given which will cause you to be equipped with it so you can use it to kill the guys in the bank. If you can ever play again maybe this will be useful!

Edited February 16, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[GhettoJesus]

19 minutes ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

 

It could possibly be the "colt official police", the pistol that Cole has on the Patrol desk which is different to his regular pistol he has through the rest of the game. I think the only way you can use it to kill a bad guy is if you play Armed and Dangerous and drop the shotgun you're given which will cause you to be equipped with it so you can use it to kill the guys in the bank. If you can ever play again maybe this will be useful!

No way, is that really the only occasion you get to use that gun? Absolute bruh moment.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

2 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

No way, is that really the only occasion you get to use that gun? Absolute bruh moment.

 

Yeah it's weird. You can use it to fire a warning shot in the last patrol case (or fail by shooting the guy) as well. But that time at the bank is the only opportunity you have to kill a bad guy with it, since Patrol is just those four tutorial cases and there's no street crimes with it. I think the idea is once Cole becomes detective he starts using the gun he used in the marines, and he's done with the standard issue police one. 

Edited February 16, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[billiejoearmstrong8]

What the f*ck is up with saving in this game? So I:

 

1. Completed the game using one save slot (didn't get 5 stars on any case)

2. Replayed all the cases with the help of a guide to get 5 stars on each, using other save slots and saving over the replays (which is necessary since there's more cases than save slots) but never the original completed story slot. This resulted in each case showing 5 stars, with no trouble caused by saving the replays over each other. Game completed 100%, every achievement earned, every case says 5 stars in the cases menu

3. Decided to play the story again so started a new game in a different save slot to the original one and completed it. Still no problems, still says 5 stars on every case in the menu even though I didn't get that on most of them this time

4. Wanted to replay a case again, so I did so saving over that second completed story slot, thinking it was worthless since I started and finished it after achieving everything that can be done with the game

5. A BUNCH OF MY CASES NO LONGER HAVE 5 STARS. A random selection of them now only have 3 or 4 stars. It doesn't correlate to what I scored on my first story playthrough, my replay run of each case, or my second story playthrough. Just totally randomly the 5 stars is gone from some of them but not others.

 

I can't even begin to figure out what could cause this, nor do I know if I'll accidentally make it happen again next time I try to replay a case or play through the story again. So I don't know if there's even any point in going back and getting them to 5 stars again, since I don't know what save slots are safe to use. There's no instructions or warnings about which save slots you should use when replaying cases or when starting a new game to avoid losing case rating progress. Terrible, confusing and unclear save system. 

 

Edit: I can't find ANY info about this when googling either. I simply want to know how to replay cases or play the story again without losing my existing case ratings. What save slots I should or shouldn't use. Impossible to find out. This crap really puts a dampener on the game, how hard would it have been to just have a normal saving system. 

Edited February 18, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[billiejoearmstrong8]

So I'm still pissed off about the saving thing, but I'm replaying again anyway, in black and white this time. I wouldn't recommend it the first time since it would hinder finding clues at crime scenes, and the city does look awesome and is probably easier to get familiar with in colour. But it's pretty cool to play it in black and white the way a noire film from the time would've been, it gives it a totally different atmosphere. Also I decided to answer every interview question with doubt. It's hard to make myself do it but it's pretty funny lol, it's also led me to some interesting extra tasks and different conversations through getting questions wrong and having to find evidence other ways as a result. Might follow up with a truth to every question playthrough and a lie to every question playthrough. 

 

Also I'm so impressed by how accurate the city design is. I've been reading about it and the amount of research they did is astounding. I knew the layout was based very closely on the real thing but I didn't realise a lot of it was actually the exact same street layout. Like I heard the Hotel Cecil (creepy hotel where lots of murders and crimes have happened) was in the game but it didn't say the location on the wiki. So I decided to look on Google Maps for where the real one is and noted down the address, downtown on Main Street between 6th and 7th. Playing the game later my mind was blown, drove there and sure enough that's where it was. Awesome.

Edited February 19, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[billiejoearmstrong8]

Lmao selecting doubt for every question is brutal. Cole tells grieving widower Angel Maldonado "You didn't like the idea of other men f*cking your wife, them slipping it to her, the idea that she might like it..." and he tells him to go f*ck himself in Spanish lol. I felt bad.

 

I think doubt is actually the most common correct one to select though so I still haven't done that badly on the majority of cases so far. Selecting lie for every one (including selecting the incorrect evidence to back it up even if it was the correct choice) so that I get every single question in every case wrong will be next.

[GhettoJesus]

3 hours ago, billiejoearmstrong8 said:

Lmao selecting doubt for every question is brutal. Cole tells grieving widower Angel Maldonado "You didn't like the idea of other men f*cking your wife, them slipping it to her, the idea that she might like it..." and he tells him to go f*ck himself in Spanish lol. I felt bad.

 

I think doubt is actually the most common correct one to select though so I still haven't done that badly on the majority of cases so far. Selecting lie for every one (including selecting the incorrect evidence to back it up even if it was the correct choice) so that I get every single question in every case wrong will be next.

Are you gonna do a full playthrough where you only stick to true response only?

Edited February 22, 2021 by GhettoJesus

[billiejoearmstrong8]

39 minutes ago, GhettoJesus said:

Are you gonna do a full playthrough where you only stick to true response only?

 

I'm sure I will yes! Just doing it to hear lots of different dialogue and see different scenarios, and to find another way to keep playing lol.

[billiejoearmstrong8]

12 cases into answering doubt to everything and I find out you can actually fail an interrogation (as in get a fail screen and have to start the whole interrogation again) other than just the tutorial one. Had to re-do interrogating Tiernan and McCaffrey in The Studio Secretary Murder for not selecting lie in the final last chance to charge question. They sure made them hard to fail! I'm glad though, I understand why it had to be a fail there since there was no believeable way to charge someone but I like that usually you just have to live with your screw ups and move on. 

 

Also I love The Quarter Moon Murders so much, it's fun following the trail around town and I'm a Shelley fan so it's very cool to see his work in a video game. I like that someone had to go through Prometheus Unbound (which is very long) and find appropriate quotations to use as clues. Stuff like this sets the game apart. 

Edited February 24, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8

[billiejoearmstrong8]

Cole is such a prick lmao. The "truth"/"good cop" question he asked James Tiernan on my current truth only playthrough: "She was old enough to be your mother, Tiernan. Were you banging her?". So much for good cop. 

[billiejoearmstrong8]

Conclusion on playing through selecting only truth/only doubt/only lie:

 

Only doubt or only truth gets you through the cases pretty naturally (besides three or four times where it'll cause you to fail a final interrogation where you have to charge someone, so you have to start the interrogation again and select at least enough correct answers to finish the case). Both ways get you a decent amount of correct answers throughout the cases (especially doubt) and the interview conversations don't seem weird, main difference is just that doubt usually gives you more entertaining dialogue while truth is usually the most boring and short. 

 

But selecting only lie (I also selected the wrong evidence even when lie was the correct choice) is ridiculous lol. Because they make a point to have him say "lie"/"lying" almost every time he sounds like a crazy person just constantly accusing people after everything they say. 

 

Also noticed on that first tutorial interview in the shoe shop, even though it tells you what to select you can choose to select the wrong response. And instead of making you fail/start again it just makes her clam up and not answer any more questions, so the dialogue after leaving is different and you don't have the option of going straight to the jewellery store.

 

From doing all this I think I know all the correct answers blind now. I'm playing through one more time just to see if I do. I so wish there were more cases or sequel , can't get enough of this game. I bought it for my sister so at least it'll be fun to hear what she thinks of it.

Edited April 6, 2021 by billiejoearmstrong8