Just gonna say it... L.A Noire is a great game!

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Venekor

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#1  Edited By Venekor

All I hear from people is how much it sucks, how your choices have no impact on the story, how the city is pointless etc etc.

I approached it like it was an adventure game, I was under no illusions that it would be GTA where I'd be roaming all over causing chaos. I'm just glad it wasn't totally linear and gave me a bit of freedom, even though the city doesn't really have much at all to do in it, it makes me feel like I'm part of this living world and not a series of levels.

I loved the story, I thought the facial stuff was so amazing and I loved at least having the illusion of choice, while it didn't punish me all that much, it did make me feel like a failure. I dunno if people have played Bioware games, every choice you make has no impact on anything, it is always who lives or who dies and just becomes tiresome so quickly as those characters might as well not exist since they have no impact on the story. The Walking Dead as well, no choices have any impact, it doesn't even have any gameplay, it might as well be a TV show with a button that pops up once in awhile to keep playing on. In fact I got that experience the other day while watching something on Netflix and for some reason it kept stopping, I had to keep pressing play. I understand the criticism, but then why do so many other games which have far worse stories, where you choices have just as little impact on the story, why do they get a free pass?

I genuinely thought all the missions were interesting, the setting drew me in, I loved finding the clues and digging into peoples lives. My friends girlfriend recommended the game to me, she loved it and I get what she saw in it. I personally liked how smart it could be, it didn't always go down the route of the lowest common denominator and just become a shooter with waves of enemies.

If I had a top 20 games of all time, it would be on the list, I loved it and it has become the first SP game I've completed since Portal 2.

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Shindig

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My only complaint is the cop-out they took with homicide's conclusion. And the lack of police procedural that led to that entire desk.

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chaser324

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#3 chaser324  Moderator

I actually did really enjoy it aside from a couple of fairly significant plot holes. I keep meaning to go back and play through it again, but I haven't been able to find the time.

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Bobstar

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I really liked that game, never understood why people hated on it so much.

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nightriff

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Its the best Rockstar game from last generation.

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Ry_Ry

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My wife and I really enjoyed playing it together.

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Humanity

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I really liked it and I thought the story was really interesting. They should have gotten rid of one of those later desks though because it was really deflating after this huge buildup.

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peacebrother

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I enjoyed it up until the end of the homicide desk, and then all of the momentum, energy, and flow of the game was totally interrupted and I just gave up on it.

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sparky_buzzsaw

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I liked the detecting, but the random ass interview emotions and that horrible, horribl ending sequence ruined what appeal the game had, and wrapping it in a shiny, lifeless world was kind of adding insult to injury. It's an idea I'd like to see revieited, but with an eye towards keeping the gameplay in check with its scope.

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Jonny_Anonymous

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I love crime noir so I loved this game

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discomposure

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Yup, I really enjoyed it & will probably play it again.

There really aren't many police procedural/detective style games out there and this was a fine attempt, I love the setting and think it pulled off the 'noir film' feel really well. Would love to see more games like it.

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The_Tribunal

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#12  Edited By The_Tribunal

@nightriff:

slow down there bud. LA Noire was good, but the last desk was a complete mess in terms of pacing and logic.

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deactivated-63bbfc9f777ec

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It's one of my favorite games from last generation, but I would recommend anyone to play through it with an interview walkthrough open right next to you.

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Heycalvero

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The first hour was so mindblowing due to the face animations that the memory of me playing it with my brother are burned in my brain. It's fun driving around the city and sinking in the atmosphere.

The game loses momentum pretty fast and the face reactions become really weird to read in the second half. But above all I hated that, just as Cole was getting more interesting (by showing his moral problems), they change the protagonist to the boring american hero guy who is still morally perfect.

The game still probably gets more shit than it deserves though. Just for those early moments it's very much worth playing.

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s10129107

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I felt that the game mechanics weren't engaging.

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Dan_CiTi

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Can't you punch Dan Ryckert in this game? Good game, I should finish my PC playthrough.

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deactivated-601df795ee52f

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I didn't care for the driving and open world but I did really enjoy the game. Been meaning to pick up the PC version if it gets cheap enough.

The ending of the game sucked though.

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notnert427

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#18  Edited By notnert427

I'm a huge fan of that era, so I really wanted to love L.A. Noire, but it's a very flawed game. The world they made was gorgeous, the facial animations were stellar, and the premise was really solid.

Unfortunately, I felt like they did a really poor job capitalizing on that with the actual game. The city wasn't interactive at all to where it didn't feel like a living world, which is a stark contrast to most R* games. The cases had no real consequence (positive or negative). Worst of all, the story was uninspired and entirely forgettable.

It was by no means a bad game, but I can't help feeling like it could have (maybe even SHOULD have) been an incredible game, so I was left with a bad taste in my mouth. It was a letdown for me.

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ShaggE

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#19  Edited By ShaggE

I've never been able to finish that game for some reason. At a certain point, I just get tired of it.

I do hold it in high regard, though. The first half-ish of the game is excellent. My only real beef with it is the expression mechanic. It goes from cartoonishly exaggerated to... not subtle, exactly, but more open to interpretation. It just doesn't work quite right.

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NTM

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#20  Edited By NTM

I played it in August of last year, and I liked it, but I went in expecting there to be multiple endings, and not planning on playing through it again (at least on 360, because I just wanted to move on after it), I just used a walkthrough for choices, and in the end it wasn't really a huge change, and I think that negatively affected my playthrough since I didn't have to really use a walkthrough for such a thing. L.A. Noire is a game I want a sequel to, because the first is the weakest of Rockstar games I've played that had come out between GTA 4 and five, but it was still good, and it just needed some work done in a few aspects to raise the bar to the other games levels, which I'd love to see most.

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nightriff

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@the_tribunal: I would rather play LA Noire than GTA 5, 4, trudge through Mexico again, or shoot my way through Brazil. LA Noire is the best Rockstar game from last gen. Now that doesn't mean I'm right in terms of the masses, doesn't mean its the best game from last gen, just the best Rockstar game. And yeah the last desk sucked ass and the flamethrower part sucked, but every Rockstar game has something that is extremely annoying and awful.

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The_Tribunal

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@nightriff:

"Extremely" might be a strong word, but I agree. Oh, and LA Noire was a Team Bondi game published by Rockstar, not an in-house production.

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ShadowConqueror

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I really liked it, too. Sure, there were things that could have made it better, but damn if that wasn't an entertaining and intriguing game.

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bigsocrates

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L.A. Noire was a very good game with some serious flaws. I think that people who really don't like it went in expecting something else. I do not think, however, that the general reaction to it was negative, it's just that there was a vocal backlash. If you look at this site, for example, Brad gave it 5 stars and Ryan put it high on his top 10 of the year. Not exactly a "sucks" verdict.

Personally I really enjoyed it as an adventure game. I would have liked it more, though if there had been less shooting and LESS DRIVING. I can't believe they modeled the whole of L.A. and put so little in it to do. Talk about wasting resources! Once I started letting my partner drive I had a much better time with the game, and I would happily buy a sequel. The DLC is also really good. I agree with other people that the ending wasn't super strong, but so what? It felt like playing an old 1940s gumshoe movie, and that was awesome. And before anyone says that I shouldn't bash the creation of the city if I loved the atmosphere, the city and driving were not what gave it its atmosphere, though the radio was pretty good. It was the performances, and the individualized location of the cases. I can still vividly remember the train yard and a few other cool locations from that game. All I remember of the driving are a couple good songs and fake commercials and being endlessly annoyed at how big the city was, and the random crimes you'd stop along the way, which were mostly a PITA even though I did all of them.

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AlexW00d

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#25  Edited By AlexW00d

I'm glad you enjoyed it op. I really wanted to enjoy it, but there were so many issues with I just couldn't. Severe tonal issues, gameplay that felt rushed and unnecessary, pacing issues, and I always found the interrogation sequences weirdly inconsistent especially as it decided whether questions were correct or not, which I feel is possibly the worst way that could be handled. At the time I felt a sequel would massively improve on it and would be a properly good game but I doubt a sequel will ever happen.

@the_tribunal: I would rather play LA Noire than GTA 5, 4, trudge through Mexico again, or shoot my way through Brazil. LA Noire is the best Rockstar game from last gen. Now that doesn't mean I'm right in terms of the masses, doesn't mean its the best game from last gen, just the best Rockstar game. And yeah the last desk sucked ass and the flamethrower part sucked, but every Rockstar game has something that is extremely annoying and awful.

So when you say best, you mean your favourite.

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nightriff

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@alexw00d: I guess I'll clarify, didn't think I had too but yes, LA Noire is the best (inferring also my favorite) Rockstar game from last generation of video game consoles and PC.

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DarkeyeHails

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I really wish someone would run with the idea but push it to its natural end point. A world with more to do. More open-ended crime solving. Letting you be a bad cop who plants evidence and gets dodgy confessions.

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huntad

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I really really enjoyed L.A. Noire. It's one of my favorite adventure games of last gen.

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Sin4profit

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I enjoyed it while i was playing it, but it doesn't hold up to retrospect...just made me remember how much better Pheonix Wright did what LA Noire was attempting.

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tavistavistavis

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I thought it was a lot of fun, even with it's flaws, which were noticeable. A sequel could have been stupendous, even though a game like that doesn't really need a sequel. A second game with different characters maybe, but it doesnt matter because that wont happen. But a man can dream.

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spankingaddict

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I agree .

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MEATBALL

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I really enjoyed it, I'm not sure I'd say it's out and out great, but I think it's a good game that has its flawes.

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lead_dispencer

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While I think the game is OK in itself, I while I was playing the game I noticed one thing. I was not enjoying it. Not in the sense that the game was bad or buggy or whatever else. When I play games I become invested into them most of the time. I try to be that character inside and out but have some of my thought process and personality into it as well. When I was playing LA Noire I felt like I was going to work. Every day there was a new crime and I had to investigate evidence , track down a perp, and interrogate him/her. It was exhausting!

When I stopped trying to play this like a 1940s GTA and more like a detective adventure/simulator, I could take in the game more and more until I finished it.

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Getz

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It's very convincing as a Noire thriller/mystery, but calling it a good "game" is pushing it. The game part serves the story and atmosphere, strip away that and you've got yourself a rote picture hunt game.

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PandaBear

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@venekor said:

All I hear from people is how much it sucks, how your choices have no impact on the story, how the city is pointless etc etc.

You mean that game that got an A on 1UP, 5/5 on Giant Bomb, 9/10 on GameSpot, 8.5/10 at IGN, 4.5/5 at Joystiq, 39/40 in Famitsu, 8/10 in Edge, 8/10 at Eurogamer, 5/5 in GamePro...

Oh and me, saying it's a brilliant game. I think you probably talked to about five people and made up the critical consensus in your own head.

@venekor said:

I approached it like it was an adventure game, I was under no illusions that it would be GTA where I'd be roaming all over causing chaos. I'm just glad it wasn't totally linear and gave me a bit of freedom, even though the city doesn't really have much at all to do in it, it makes me feel like I'm part of this living world and not a series of levels.

It's a game that literally make all action sequence and all driving totally optional. You didn't approach it in some new way, you approached like the game it is.

That said, that last mission when it devolves into a straight up action game, it's pretty unforgivable.

@venekor said:

In fact I got that experience the other day while watching something on Netflix and for some reason it kept stopping, I had to keep pressing play. I understand the criticism, but then why do so many other games which have far worse stories, where you choices have just as little impact on the story, why do they get a free pass?

Be specific here, what games? What games are getting a free pass?

And the game intentionally contradicts you here -- your choices actually don't matter for the first third of the game because you never have a chance to catch the real killer. That's not a criticism either, I liked that, but there's no denying you are lead down a linear path in this game that leads to only one conclusion. It just widens the road now and then.

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poobumbutt

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@venekor: My problem with it was none of the things you listed. It was the fact that when you had to call someone out on lying, your choices were either to push them for info (the term was "doubt" I believe) or to directly call them on their shit with "lie". You needed solid evidence for the latter, though. But the problem was, you could miss evidence at a scene and therefore not even know that evidence existed for a given situation and choose "doubt". Of course, a "lie" situation could not be solved with "doubt" and vice versa. One time, I had evidence of someone's lies and picked "lie" because of that, but it turned out I was supposed to doubt her, and then she would make a more specific statement NEXT line, at which point I should choose "lie". It turned the game into either not feeling like a cool police dude or resetting constantly to get the choices right - or both. I thought it was stupid and stopped pretty early.

I did think it was cool when Gamespot ran that story about how Cole apparently matches like, 90% of the requirements for a sociopath. Interesting character quirk, even if unintentional.

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Shindig

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I think another one of these has to allow you to revisit crime scenes and re-examine witnesses.

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Mister_V

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It's a fantastic game with two major flaws. The whole homicide storyline is a massive let down. They should have at least given you one or two stand alone cases.

The ending is bad.

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MooseyMcMan

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I really liked LA Noire back in the day. I think it has issues, and I liked the first half more than the second, but I still liked it a whole lot.

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Brackstone

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If the game had been entirely about the traffic desk, I'd agree. But after that desk the whole game went down hill so fast that by the end I was struggling to get through it. It was like they had watched clips from a couple Noir films, and maybe caught an ending or two, but then fundamentally misunderstood how to write interesting plots/characters/noir and had completely lost it all by the end.

Also some of the clue/lie detector stuff was some straight 90s adventure game nonsense.

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vikingdeath1

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I was always under the impression that the general consensus of L.A. Noire was that it was a Very good game with some minor flaws, and that it probably wouldn't age well due to that face-tech.

Never knew people didn't like it at all. I fucking loved that big ass adventure game! I played though it again about a year ago; Still pretty good!

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ds9143

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I have two issues, the pc port was locked to 30 fps and was relatively shitty, and the game ended in a big shoot out instead of some multi-step, complicated case to crack, which i think would have served the game better.

But man, some of the best writing in a video game ever, for sure.

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Slag

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I really loved LA Noire. Yeah it had some flaws, serious ones I guess, but to me the Highs were so high and the novelty of the ambition so enthralling they easily outweighed the shortcomings. I think if there ever was a LA Noire 2, I wouldn't be as forgiving of the flaws.

Kinda feel the same way about The Walking Dead and Heavy Rain.

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Nilazz

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Venekor

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I was always under the impression that the general consensus of L.A. Noire was that it was a Very good game with some minor flaws, and that it probably wouldn't age well due to that face-tech.

Never knew people didn't like it at all. I fucking loved that big ass adventure game! I played though it again about a year ago; Still pretty good!

All I hear is how the game sucks, I'm bored of hearing that, it is one of my favorite games of all time. It is right up there with Portal 2 and Monkey Island 1&2... again people say how amazing Bioware games are, I'm sorry but they have the worst stories and tedious gameplay, Obsidian always come in, make an expansion and expose Bioware for how shitty they really are.

Any ways..

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Jeust

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#47  Edited By Jeust

Buhhh buhhhh :P

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monkeyking1969

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I liked many parts of it, in fact most parts of it, but I have to say the big discontinuity of having Detective, Cole Phelps scream at people sucked. It was totally incongruous to what players chose in dialogues in most cases...thus that was a huge fucking mistake.

I think there was a lot they could have done with the story and setting, but it is sad to say that a lot fo potential went down teh drain because you couldn't do everything you could do in a GTA style game. Of course a GTA-style LA Noire would have been the most racially charged game ever made...white people in 194os LA were HUGE fucking bigots. The police and Navy agitated the Zootsuit Riots. Which lead to Governor Earl Warren of California ordered the creation of the 'McGucken committee' to investigate and determine the cause of the riots. In 1943, the committee issued its report; it determined racism to be a central cause of the riots, further stating that it was "an aggravating practice (of the media) to link the phrase zoot suit with the report of a crime." The governor appointed the Peace Officers Committee on Civil Disturbances, chaired by Robert W. Kenny, president of the National Lawyers Guild to make recommendations to the police. Human relations committees were appointed and police departments were required to train their officers to treat all citizens equally. Of course we can take a string form that through other riots culminating in teh 1992 LA Riots (Rodney King). Those were the largest riots seen in the United States since the 1960s and the worst in terms of death toll after the New York City draft riots of 1863.

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Counterclockwork87

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Loved it, one of my favorite games from last generation. I think people who don't like it don't understand it's bascially a point and click adventure game.

One thing people overlook is how good the writing is overall when compared to 99 percent of games and how good the acting is. Seriously, it has the best acting thats ever been in a game (because of the facial scanning they hired real actors and all they had to do was act not "voice act").

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GERALTITUDE

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I loved this game. The city and the cars were a dream come true.