L.A. Noire

[Art Blade]

 ;D
Thanks, PZ :)

The cases differ regarding complexity of those interviews you conduct and sometimes you're likely to screw up without knowing by following "the wrong" clue first rather than the other. Although you may have followed both clues, you do sometimes deprive yourself of a branch if you chose to follow trails in the wrong order. In interviews it may deprive you of "the full story." Sorry for the quotation marks but indeed the clues are not wrong and the case may be closed without having followed every possible branch. The thing is, the whole game is one massive film and I don't want to miss out on anything in it at least the first time through. If you get everything right, you get to see it all. :) So for me it has been worth it to be prepared to fall back and start a case anew just to get everything right regarding the story. Sometimes I wanted to get an achievement that I hadn't been aware of and therefore screwed that up, so I had to do it again. Costs maybe an hour or more, snack breaks included, to do the same case from scratch.

Right now I'm on my 100th hour in the first playthrough which includes finding most of the cars (88/95) and doing quite a few street crimes (27/40). I spent nearly five hours examining 270 clues (hold them in my hands and turn them around) which lead to interviews during which I asked 205 notebook questions and successfully accused the suspects or witnesses 155 times of lying to me which I was able to prove thanks to my clues. That made 17 cases a 5-star case, 4 to go :-D Plus, of course, I spent time in free roam to unwind  :-D

Here a funny scene. Both my arson partner and I have both eyes closed at the same time. And I caught that in a picture 
[smg id=5967 type=preview align=center caption="closed eyes"]

[PZ]

... Both my arson partner and I have both eyes closed at the same time. And I caught that in a picture 
[smg id=5967 type=preview align=center caption="closed eyes"]

Isn't that always the way it goes! 

[Art Blade]

 :-D

Anything wrong with this pic? You got that right.. I'm now playing as Kelso who works for an insurance company! He has been Phelps's rival since Officer Candidates School in WWII. However, playing as Kelso is limited to one particular case.

[smg id=5968 type=preview align=center caption="being Kelso 01"]

[Art Blade]

some random (nightly) impressions

[smg id=5969 type=preview align=center caption="random impression 02"]
[smg id=5970 type=preview align=center caption="random impression 03"]
[smg id=5971 type=preview align=center caption="random impression 04"]

[Art Blade]

By the way, I'm on the second case in sequence playing as Kelso.

Damnit, he did it again!
Gord must have skedaddled, leaving his wheelchair behind. :-D
[smg id=5972 type=preview align=center caption="wheelchair"]

[fragger]

 :-D

Man, he sure gets around!

[Art Blade]

 :)

Finally, I completed all story missions with a 5-stars rating (only 0.9% of the steam gamers have got that.. must be quite difficult to get that achievement, then) but it's not over yet because I've got the complete edition including DLC cases. A few of them were interwoven, slipped in between vanilla missions, and they do blend in perfectly well. That's why I've spent more time on the story than I would have without DLC.

By the way, when I said I had 100 hours into the game, the stats inside the game only showed some 37 hours. I don't think that I spent 63 hours in the pause menu nor that I fell back that often using backup saves which no doubt did reset some of my gaming time. It appears that those stats refer to something that may be related to actual investigation and interrogation during cases.

[PZ]

I had to go to the grocery today (the local super store Fred Meyer) and lo and behold, they had L.A. Noire on sale for $13.77 for the PS3.  Naturally I could not resist that reasonable price.  >:D

[Art Blade]

excellent!  :) I'm curious about your impression regarding the story cases, PZ :) Even if you don't like that part, I'm sure that you will enjoy the free roaming.

[Art Blade]

I completed all story missions with a 5-stars rating

By the way, that is misleading and I was misled by that achievement. I know how the story for Cole ends which is why he cannot solve the case with 5 stars, so I still have one story mission to go after my current (and last) DLC case.

[Art Blade]

During a DLC case, Nicholson Electroplated, I found a situation that allowed me to do something I wasn't supposed to do: Walking around, although a small radius it was at least allowing me to go away from the objective, with a gun at the ready  >:D However, injuring a civilian hit me with a "case failed" message. But I did cause quite a chaos  :-()
Of course I reloaded (first the gun, then the savegame) and finally finished the case with 5 stars.
[smg id=5973 type=preview align=center caption="running amok"]

[Art Blade]

Just started the final case, and I'm Kelso again!  ::) At least he gave up his old job at the L.A. Fire and Life insurance company during the last (vanilla) case and now works for the District Attorney. One way to get around easily as Cole Phelps was to use his police cars. As Jack Kelso, I can at least "borrow" police cars  :-D Switch on the siren and traffic is much less of a hassle.

[Art Blade]

Damn, the last part reminds me of the movie "The Third Man" with Orson Welles. A deadly hide and seek in the sewers of L.A. rather than Vienna, though.

[smg id=5974 type=preview align=center caption="the third man"]

[PZ]

Just began the game install, went to get a snack expecting to do the requisite half dozen updates, but was pleasantly surprised when I returned a few moments later with the start screen displayed.  Donning the headphones, I was immediately delighted by the jazzy music playing!  (I really don't care for the heavy metal head banging music most games like to display these days.)

After immediately appreciating the soundtrack, I started the first mission where I was to drive to a murder scene.  Pleasant music was in the background as I approached the scene.  Then as I walked down the alley a soft chime would sound when an object of interest was near, which I could examine - cool.

I have a notebook which keeps track of my objectives, the people I meet, and locations of interest as well as the clues I've discovered.

So far, the game is a winner just from the sound track alone  :-X

[Art Blade]

:-() :-() :-() That is great!

Funny, I've JUST now finished the game and you've only just begun. Great, now it is your turn, you may post about your way through it, too, which will be two consecutive personal narrations of what an individual OWG player experienced. :) Well, after what our fellow players already did two years ago, that is  :-()

As for me, I love this game like crazy  :-D I even watched through the endless credits to find a rewarding last cutscene which tells us about how it all started  ;) :-X

I solved all cases, including DLC, with the maximum score of five stars each and investigated at least 95% of all clues (there's an achievement I got for that) but actually I must have got 100% as I always had maximum scores for every case and got all branches right and all interviews/interrogations were completely flawless. Some were difficult but hey, you can always ask the net..

I found the very best help, I have to say it is outstanding how well that is done, at IGN. Here's a start and check the left hand menu for any particular case you want to have a walkthrough for, including valuable tips and hints. It may help you get the best out of this game.

http://www.ign.com/wikis/la-noire/Basic_Tips

I only read the tips there after finishing the game, during the game I only sought help for specific cases and used their walkthrough. Most excellent, except for the DLC cases which they treated with less care as in a very brief help and once only a YT link. The vanilla cases were most excellent, though.

One tip about something I found out I'll repeat here: The intuition points. Check your handbook if you're not sure whether there are more clues to be found; you can tell there are IF you can (still) spend intuition points on that. But instead, don't, just keep looking until the handbook doesn't offer that option any more (greyed-out) and save the point for something else :-()

By the way, don't spend intuition points on the "ask the community" option during interviews. It will only show a percentage of how many players chose which option, e.g. truth, doubt or lie, but when I tested it, the majority got the wrong option  so it is not worth it.

P.S.: The game doesn't end after the story. :-X

Only now I've checked the "cases" menu to go for the free roam option I saw after finishing the traffic desk. Now I've noticed and just tested that you have that free roam option on all desks except the tutorial one. This means, you can choose who your partner will be (bloody hell, I'm not going to like to get Roy from Vice!  :-() ) because every desk has your respective old partner for your free roam! Nice.  :) :-X

[PZ]

Well, I'm anticipating a wonderful experience even though it is not the shooter game I typically like.  It is so refreshing to experience great music and order and structure rather than chaos.

[Art Blade]

By the way, here is the second source I have frequented, many useful informations and trivia there to be found :)

http://lanoire.wikia.com/wiki/The_Streets_of_L.A._%28Free_Roam%29

[Art Blade]

Ah, finally I found the last of the 95 cars available. The wiki link in the previous post holds a list of all cars so it may help you find the one you're looking for.

Funny enough, it had been sitting there in the parking lot just across the street from central police station all the time (it is a DeSoto Custom Suburban)  :-D Achievement "Auto Fanatic" unlocked, only 0.5% of the steam players have gone to the trouble of getting this :)

[Art Blade]

One achievement takes quite some doing. You'll have to waste a nice rating for a case in order to get the achievement:
Cause $47,000 damage during a single case. I did it using a replay option, I went to the case desks and picked one I was already doing for another achievement.

I tried it wrecking the Duesenberg car about 10 times and even derailed an electric tram, twice 
[smg id=5975 type=preview align=center caption="Public Menace 1"]

And was surprised at how massive the damage was. You only get to see it when the case closes, at least on a PC you can't check your current damage costs. Well, but I got it, anyway  :-()
[smg id=5976 type=preview align=center caption="Public Menace 2"]

[Art Blade]

The Chicago Piano Gun, in the trunk of your partner's car, is available together with a 12-gauge shotgun in case you need (or want) extra fire power. Here I use it during a street crime. I just ran back to the car and grabbed it  :-D

[smg id=5977 type=preview align=center caption="Chicago Piano Gun 1"]
in the 2nd pic, there is a Thompson M1 on the ground. I had picked it up after a gangster had dropped it and that reminded me of the Chicago Piano Gun which I hadn't used before.
[smg id=5978 type=preview align=center caption="Chicago Piano Gun 2"]
[smg id=5979 type=preview align=center caption="Chicago Piano Gun 3"]

[Art Blade]

Well, with help of the Chicago Typewriter (Chicago Piano) it was easy to do a few of the last remaining street crimes  >:D

Now I've finished all 40 of them. Most of them differ not much regarding action, either a chase or a shoot-out or a fist fight or any combination of them. But the locations and stories are all nice :) Usually there's a small intro cutscene and sometimes an epilogue type of cutscene, apart from the coroner showing up or the paddy wagon driving away with the suspect. But some of them are like mini cases which may include following a blood trail or finding one or two clues before you go on apprehending or subduing your suspect(s).

During free roam, you may replay street crimes ever so often, they show up randomly on your map or you receive a random radio message. The ones you already did show up as a grey running man symbol and the yet unsolved ones are red. There is a number of street crimes limited to your desk. For example, I got the message "all street crimes on this desk have been completed." Which makes it easy to find the ones you're still missing.

Some of the street crimes involve faces you'll see or have seen before during desk cases which is funny. This guy, Oswald Jacobs, was a witness during The Consul's Car which was a DLC Traffic Desk case (by the way, if you like L.A. Noire, I strongly recommend the DLC cases) and this is a street crime belonging to Traffic, too. Nice to see how Cole Phelps recognises the guy and asks, "Oswald Jacobs? You w@&k here?" and Oswald recognises Cole, too.  :)

[smg id=5980 type=preview align=center caption="meeting old friends"]

[PZ]

Thanks for all the tips, AB!  :-X

[Art Blade]

Any time, PZ :)

PZ, one tip for console players as well as PC players: Observe the "saving" icon in the lower right corner of the screen to get an advantage in case you're going to screw up an interview or interrogation. Usually the game saves before you enter a location or if it doesn't, on leaving. Just walk into and out of a location where someone is going to be interviewed by you so you do have a save point. Now, after scratching a question and getting an "X" rather than ticking it off with a "checked" symbol ("X" means you chose the wrong option, i.e. using "truth" rather than "doubt" or some such) you just exit to the game/pause menu and hit quit. Then choose Resume and you should be starting where you last saved: before the interview :) and do it again, hopefully right this time  :-()

***

Man, I've now got all but three achievements (57/60). One I'm currently on is getting all landmarks (star map achievement) and the next would be finding all golden film reels (erm, I got 2/50) and that would then amount to the 100% completion achievement.

[PZ]

That's a great one!  :-X ^-^

[Art Blade]

That one will most certainly prove itself valuable rather sooner than later :-D You're welcome, matey :)

Meanwhile I got all landmarks. And now I don't feel like searching L.A. for another 48 hidden golden film reels -- sod that, and the 100% completion. Now I'll just take a stroll or cruise around in all kinds of non-police vehicles (to avoid those radio dispatches). :)