Yesterday I started playing this "L.A. Noir". On another forum I was on I read people say it was "unworthy" of the Rockstar name. I suspect these children went into the game thinking it would be a sandbox title of "follow the line" Grand theft auto rather than an adventure game. Thankfully I was far more open minded.

First problem, the combat feels tacked on. This is probably to appeal to dude bros who play Gears Of War and Grand Theft Auto. You get a bunch of really short, repetitive sequences of shooting people then chasing them. Over and over. It feels out of place. The detective talky adventure stuff is the good part of this game, not the action sequences.

Now dudes, this is the comparison bit. While massive jerkoff's like Bioware and David Cage put out Heavy Rain and Mass Effect titles that aspire for "mature gaming". What they actually amount to is sterile characters full of either, overly melodramatic campy dialog (Heavy Rain) or emotionless Vulcan like dialogue (Mass Effect).

L.A. Noir has the most believable characters I have seen in a video game. This has fuckall to do with the animation system (that works against it because it is weird looking) but the amazing voice work and writing. People, sound like people. Not some geeky Bioware nerd writer imagining what sex would be like for normal people and attempting to simulate it. When I play this game, it feels like these characters could actually exist. It's about as close to participating in a "TV show" as I have played in a video game.

I usually hate talky sections because they are almost always badly done. And go right to the action sequences. With L.A. Noir it is the exact opposite. This game is a new peak for voice work and writing. It's organic and feels natural.

The much talked about animation system, I don't like. It's odd looking at best, horrible at worst. Valve have better animations imo. Those look more natural for a video game than something so realistic it is off-putting.

L.A. Nior, cool dude game. Way better RPG than Mass Effect. Way better "cinimatic bla bla" than Heavy Rain.