When I look at L.A. Noire, something triggers in me. After watching people play it for 15 minutes, and after the QL before, I got this weird clean feeling in my brain, like seeing all those period clothes, artifacts, hairstyles, and landmarks was a fully realized Other World that was still instantly relatable. The amount of detail I've seen so far is extraordinary, and Brad was right, they even achieved that different feel using the fonts common in the period. I used to look through old books and feel that, or our Monopoly or Risk instructions.

I don't delude myself; there's no ideal period in history. Some things may get worse, but others get better, and while '47 is some people's idea of the golden period for the U.S., plenty of others don't share that, both those who grew up there and those where growing up in other places, whether or not they were ravaged by the war. Still, I guess it's the myth of that speaks to me, and I like how L.A. Noire, in the tradition of other period crime dramas like the excellent L.A. Confidential, cut to the core of the period they're creating, showing us the myth and the dark side at the same time.

After watching that fifteen minute clip, while getting dinner ready, I imagined all the stuff a homemaker then might have to go through to get a decent meal ready. I think of my grandparents, how they might have spent a Saturday; and my parents-- what the world looked like as they were growing up, all the things and places they were expecting to inherit when they grew up, but by the time they had  grown up, those places and things, and all of the people, had changed.

When I look at L.A. Noire, something triggers in me. After watching people play it for 15 minutes, and after the QL before, I got this weird clean feeling in my brain, like seeing all those period clothes, artifacts, hairstyles, and landmarks was a fully realized Other World that was still instantly relatable. The amount of detail I've seen so far is extraordinary, and Brad was right, they even achieved that different feel using the fonts common in the period. I used to look through old books and feel that, or our Monopoly or Risk instructions.

I don't delude myself; there's no ideal period in history. Some things may get worse, but others get better, and while '47 is some people's idea of the golden period for the U.S., plenty of others don't share that, both those who grew up there and those where growing up in other places, whether or not they were ravaged by the war. Still, I guess it's the myth of that speaks to me, and I like how L.A. Noire, in the tradition of other period crime dramas like the excellent L.A. Confidential, cut to the core of the period they're creating, showing us the myth and the dark side at the same time.

After watching that fifteen minute clip, while getting dinner ready, I imagined all the stuff a homemaker then might have to go through to get a decent meal ready. I think of my grandparents, how they might have spent a Saturday; and my parents-- what the world looked like as they were growing up, all the things and places they were expecting to inherit when they grew up, but by the time they had  grown up, those places and things, and all of the people, had changed.

When you get up to the homicide cases you will not be feeling clean, I guarantee you

One comment my housemate made offhand watching me play was pretty revealing: "it must've been so much more fun to be a man in that period." Namely, those suits and hats which make almost anyone look powerful and stylish. Probably part of the reason people like that show 'Mad Men'.
But that's just a small aspect of it. Aesthetically, L.A. Noire is fantastic (although it's not without flaw). It's eerily reminiscent of a Hitchcock film in places.

No ideal period in history?  You, sir, obviously weren't alive when Ninja Rap was on the airwaves.

Have played through roughly a third of LA Noire's cases and so far I appreciate the meticulously detailed indoor environments more than the sprawling LA cityscape, enormous and historically accurate as it is. The investigations often end up in someone's apartment or house, and though these more intimate spaces often look rather similar in overall style each of them nonetheless feels authentic, lived-in and individually designed from the ground up rather than, say, merely assembled by using standard textures and stock items (though there are certainly some of those as well).

Its a very interesting era to explore because at the pinnacle of the industrial revolution Americans truly started to embrace the future, or wilder concepts of engineering and development. That elitism is exactly why the average man, whether hard boiled detectives or street saavy criminals, had such a thoroughly commanding demeanor.

If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that the art and detail in this game are fucking amazing. The lighting sells it well, can't wait to start my second playthrough in black and white.