L.A. Noire (PS3)

I have been waiting quite a while for this game to have come out... and once finally there, I got the Speical Edition. Awesome sound track, the 'film' bits are cool and I love the cards. I also enjoyed the special in-game downloads which were for free with this package.

The game itself is stunning to the eye, the graphics and sounds are well done and you really feel like you are in Hollywood 40's-50's style; Hooray! The music, the weapons, architecture and especially the cars. The cut scenes are brilliant, worth just looking at it with a beer in the hand. Sometimes I've found myself stammering that they were too short, as I enjoyed them too much. But hey, this is not Heavy Rain.

The gameplay was pretty forward with a lot of action and some puzzles. Interrogating people was slightly more difficult I must say; it was very ahrd to read the right emotion from the faces; and no, this didn't hinder me... if at all, it was a welcome challenge.

There are some puzzles and scenes where you have to do stuff. The scenes are quite easy (sometimes what frustrating) but can be skipped if you are a gamer novice. The puzzles were not too hard either, but enjoyable as they were.

The story is cool, pretty straight forward, but interesting enough to keep on playing and wanting to find out. Until the end. If you have finished the game, he replay value is not there... that's it and you can only wait for downloadable content or for a sequal (has it been announced yet?).

Now the game is somewhat older, I can recommend getting it from the budget shelves in a game store, you -will- enjoy if you like relaxed gaming with action/puzzle and driving elements.

Only a couple of hours into the game but so far L.A Noire is impressing me. Went for the PS3 version as it meant only one disc and slightly better graphics. Slightly slow to set up (as is normal with the PS3) and we've had one little non load moment but otherwise painless.

The graphics are great, the detail on characters faces are much improved from GTA: San Andreas. The music is atmospheric and also features popular music from the 1940s. It's all very stylish and cool.

It all still feels very GTA and seems to have a slight issue with some missions feeling a bit repetitive (you go to a scene, they run, you chase them, they take a hostage, you shoot them). It's a nice touch to play as a cop for once and they appear to have taken lots of touches from Heavy Rain (being able to "examine" the bodies and evidence). So far so good. Whether after a few more hours of chasing down crooks and using the question and answer routine it might become a bit samey. We'll see.