Self Aware Blog

Sickened by the fact that....

So I've been playing a lot of LA Noire lately. The truth being that I find it to be a pretty enjoyable and entertaining game. A nice, pretty well thought out story mixes with some pretty good gameplay.

You play a 1940's era detective doing your detective thing. I could delve into the whole game ad nauseum, however, this is not a game review blog. Truth is, I don't know what kind of blog this is. Most likely that these are the lunatic ramblings of someone who simply felt inclined to share them.

Details.

Where was I? Right! Filling you in on the game in the blog that we can reasonably assume is not a game review blog. If you want that, go read some Zero Punctuation or Penny Arcade. They're better at this than me.

Anyway....

The reason I started down this line of thought in the first place is a certain aspect of the game. Namely, the questioning of witnesses, suspects et al.

The folks at Rockstar and Team Bondi (and whoever else were involved) have done a fine job of the whole facial motion capture thing. Though admittedly, some of the looks people give when they're lying are positively hilarious. I think I'd love to sit around the poker table some time with them. I think I may be getting ahead of myself a little. Whenever you question someone, you pose your query, as one does and the individual provides an answer (go figure!). It is then your job to discern whether they are telling the truth, if you doubt their answer or if they are lying. The latter having the additional fun of you having to present evidence to back up your claim.

Still following? Good!

One thing I've noticed is that people in 1940's Los Angeles seem to be incapable of telling the truth. Now, you'd expect that when you're questioning a suspect. But it comes from people who have absolutely no reason to lie. It's as though everyone wants to send you down the wrong path for shits and giggles.

"Hey! 6 people have been murdered but I'm gonna deliberately mislead this cop for no apparent reason."

Ok. Ok. Fine. Yeah, some people have some things to hide for whatever reason and blah, blah, blah, it might not have anything to do with my case but they're distrustful of cops and don't wanna wind up in jail for being a Communist. Oh yeah! There's some of that in there too! There's also some drivers who think it's perfectly acceptable to cut off an oncoming police car, sirens blaring. Well, who am I to argue? I don't have a drivers license. Maybe that's what you're supposed to do.

All this is a roundabout way of telling you that you should go buy the game. To borrow a line from Ben Croshaw, it's a refreshing departure from a world of games who's main goal appears to be genocide. Admittedly, there is some gunplay. Though it is decidedly not a main focus. That award goes to your sleuth skills.....and the piano music that helps you along.

 I'm pretty sure real life cops and detectives would be ecstatic if every time they approached a clue, a little chime sounded or if a little diddy played once they'd collected everything relevant from a scene.

Ya know, for a game I enjoy, I seem to be complaining a lot about it.

Whatever. It's a good game. Go play it and leave me alone.

....immortality is not mine to have.