User blog comment:JackFrost23/L.A. Noire: The Big Snooze/@comment-10278667-20110602000536

Jack, I must say that I both agree and disagree with you.

I'll start this off by saying that I am a fairly big fan of Rockstar Games. I watch new games, that everyone talks about, come and go without batting an eye. However, any game produced by Rockstar, Lionhead, Bethesda, or Bioware is worth a try in my books. I guess it's the usual consumer attitude, sticking to a name brand that I not only like, but am used to. Even if I'm not particularly interested in Rockstar's or Lionhead's latest release, I feel that I should at least try it and see.

Anyway, I don't own a sycophantic number of their games. I have Red Dead Revolver and Redemption, along with GTA IV. I owned GTA III and GTA: San Andreas as well, but those have been lost after friends and friends of friends borrowed them and eventually disappeared.

However, upon seeing the trailer for L.A. Noire, I was interested. The game looked great, and I liked the idea of being a detective. Finally, a good puzzle game that doesn't involve bloody portals!

Now, I don't know about you, but I didn't get myself too excited over the game. I just thought that it was a good looking game that I should at least try. That may be why I wasn't as disappointed in it as you. All of the glitches you listed, I've experienced. Cars disappearing or phasing through each other. The nuisance of trying to stop a car only to find that it's scripted to stop a few blocks away. And the driving! Oh, how I hated the driving! Such a large city and I had to drive everywhere. It was boring. And on these long drives, what could I do? Bugger all. I couldn't run over civilians, they jump out of the way. I couldn't destroy the city, I'd be docked marks. I couldn't even do the jumps as my car would break and again I'd be docked marks. What could I do other than force my useless partner to drive for me, listening to his inane blabber? Outside of my car, the only action I could hope for was that a Street Crime would occur and I could finally do something other than consistently fail at questioning suspects. And where would these Street Crimes be, and when would they occur? Always, I'd get the call a block or two away from my destination, and always the Street Crime would be kilometres away. After getting out of my car and forcing my partner to drive there, I'd be back in it a second later, chasing some outlaw through an alley in which every object seems to get in the way of my bulky, hard-to-drive automobile. Finally, the crooks would crash, and I'd get to put that under-used pistol to work. *Bang* - Suspect down! *Bang* - Suspect down! And after that exciting shootout, I'd see Ol' Phelps reloading his pistol and that would be it. Now for a long drive back to my original destination...

Despite all of this, I wasn't disappointed in the game. I never thought much of the game, and I never really had the time to form expectations for it. I also didn't compare it to other Rockstar games. For this, there could be a number of reasons. One, I've played GTA and RDR, two different Rockstar games and this was just another. Two, it didn't really feel like a Rockstar game. No activities, no real free-roam, no multiplayer. Combat felt rather thick (If that's the right word) whereas GTA and RDR have an almost flow to them.

And somehow, with all of these flaws included, I don't dislike the game at all. I actually rather enjoyed my playthrough of it. After listing all of these negative points regarding the game, I almost feel daft for not disliking the game.

The only thing I really didn't like about the game was that it wasn't like Dirty Harry. While you compared it to another game by Rockstar, I compared it to my favourite film series about a cop. I wished Phelps was more of a Hero. I mean, Phelps is an actual character. He has a personality, a history, flaws, etc.. He's actually a very round character. Too round. I wanted to hear less about his struggle during the war, less about his want to do good, and more of him being a total badass! I wanted him to carry a big gun, shooting criminals left and right while spitting witty one-liners. Instead, he seemed awkward and was, kind of, a twat.

To conclude this excruciatingly long comment, I think there's only one thing I can say:

Goddamnit, Cole Phelps, why couldn't you be more like Harry Callahan?