I just realised that in these older videos you say, 'girlfriend' and now you say, 'wife.' Feels comfy, man.

This is one of the few games my mom has sat to watch. She wasn't really interested in the game itself, but she loved exploring the city. She grew up in LA in the 60s and so many of the streets and sights were still relevant for her nostalgia. I remember notably she was excited to see the police call boxes.

@hayk3000

2 жыл бұрын

That's extremely cool

L.A Noire really did foreshadow Phelp's tryst with Elsa beautifully. You mentioned the way that Cole never speaks about his wife, but if you pay attention to his facial expressions during the interrogation with Elsa, in which she starts to talk about her own experiences during the war, it is clear that he feels a connection - it is mentioned before this that he feels his wife doesn't really understand what he went through in the Pacific. I think that's pretty cool, because all through the game you're supposed to read the various NPCs you question... but you're equally rewarded for doing the same with your own character. Personally, i knew why Phelps was driving to Elsa's.

@broadcaststsatic

9 жыл бұрын

Valentin Seleznyov Yeah, I love that scene. There's so much going on in the plot that rewards you for thinking about Cole as being entirely separate from the player-- it's one of my all-time favorites. I hope to one day see another game like it. I think I will, at some point. Police Procedural is too big a genre not to have another crack at for somebody.

@danielkovacs2470

4 жыл бұрын

@@broadcaststsatic I realize I'm replying to a 5 years old comment and probably telling no new info here, but I think Disco Elysium is also an interesting take on police procedure. Far more stylised and weird but I wouldnt say any less interesting experience Also, love your videos and really glad you can make a living out of it. Keep being awesome :)

@nate567987

3 жыл бұрын

@@danielkovacs2470 and here you go kzread.info/dash/bejne/oJNr0MmDdMW7gag.html

Forget it Noah,its L.A. Noire.

@tomasinacovell4293

5 жыл бұрын

It's funny how he mentions Naked City, as it's a TV series, and in a way L.A. Noire is like a series in one game, it's hard to have the kind of story arch any well made movies might have in that format?

@fuzzydunlop7928

5 жыл бұрын

@@tomasinacovell4293 I think the short-form television format is the way to go - perhaps not multiple seasons, but 'miniseries' along the lines of True Detective or Band of Brothers - not necessarily long enough to deteriorate in plot and purpose and character drive, but longer than a movie so that one can build bonds with the characters and ideas of the show without the time-constraint of the feature-film format which is so short it requires skillful economy of pacing and sequencing to make a competently-written picture or is either so long it begins to fatigue the audience. For the modern audience I think 6+ episodes at 1 hour or more length each is the way to go, I believe it strikes a good balance. If that's even what you were talking about. lol

" this will become a monthly series." he only did 2.

@StevoDude09

3 жыл бұрын

In fairness, a lot of the games he reviews are Genre Orphans - he just does longer videos on them at a less frequent schedule

I really hated how the game would tell you if you got interrogations right or not. I don't mind making mistakes in video games, I actually really like having consequences to making mistakes. Just don't tell me the instant I do something wrong how wrong I'm being. It's like making a test with the teacher looming over you shouting ''WRONG'' with every answer you write down. It just ends up with me wanting to reload a bloody checkpoint after every mistake.

@Eszuran

7 жыл бұрын

This isn't as bad as the fact that even though the game told you you were RIGHT, there was an inevitable plot twist when it was revealed you were WRONG all the time. It made me stop playing the game. I sold it and didn't want to revisit it ever since.

@DergonQuert

6 жыл бұрын

I still continued playing and I still love the game, but holy shit that "twist" pissed me off so much. Nothing like being told the hard choice you had to make earlier didn't matter at all because all options were wrong.

@NTEDOG561

5 жыл бұрын

I disagree

@zetetick395

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah, all these 'conversational choice' type games still have *real* problems with making the so-called 'wrong' choice / 'failure option' interesting in their own right

@rolfs9660

2 жыл бұрын

@@zetetick395 One of the best things about Disco Elysium

I love your writing so much, im lost for words, trying to express it. Please, always be there for us. Please, be healthy, happy and awesome. Love and peace.

Just finished the game and started watching this video. I suppose it's because the plot is fresher in my mind, but I'd like to correct a few things: - Elsa is mourning her best friend, not her husband; - We see Phelps' wife at the opening of the game, when he leaves his house in uniform. However, this does not invalidate your point. I definitely had not realised Biggs is the narrator! That's cool. At first, I didn't like him, but I came around.

Having Biggs as a partner is fun, because as a Mass Effect nut, it means I'm palling around with Harbinger the entire time (shared VA).

@arkanjoteixeira

7 жыл бұрын

gfv25 Also the Burned Man from New Vegas, and The Didact from Halo 4 :)

At around 14:40 when you talk about how these cases make the player feel bad... that's the point of it, really. This game is about showing the police's true nature, and the game wants you to know that sometimes, the police just have to arrest people to give the cases a conclusion to satisfy the press and people, but it's still wrong. Videogames have this ability to make you walk on other people's shoes, and it is often used on fantasy characters and other bullshit, but L.A. Noire is a game that wants you to discover a different perspective, and for that, it is a very good narrative game.

@sirprintalot

5 жыл бұрын

I love LA Noire, the music, the setting, the gameplay. But the story? Ugh. The story is limp, only half a tale, and it ruins the gameplay! It's a proper noir tale, but it doesn't make for a good 'game'. The "you failed" plot twist renders all the Homicide cases and most of the Vice cases as moot. It'd be alright if the game was more linear, or if the cases were standalone from the story... but LA Noire decides that EVERY case in those two desks had the wrong outcome. Your time is wasted. Everything you did in the game was reversed. Hours and hours of gameplay that no longer mattered. Not fun. Great story, I love noir. But it wasn't as fun as it could have been. Should have been a linear story-driven game like Max Payne or a case-by-case game like Phoenix Wright.

@MisterAAnderson

4 жыл бұрын

Totally. The war on drugs and prostitution criminalized, the tough laws on immigration make the police - criminals in uniforms.

@southweststrangla9591

4 жыл бұрын

@@sirprintalot Ending of a game is same really, your time is wasted you didn't stop corrupcy, didn't took morphine out of streets. You found the truth but noone else did. That made story more realistic, instead of being another superhero stops bad guys type of story. Right people to accuse there are people that police want to get rid off for one reason or another but didn't have proper reason so it's convinient, not people that are guilty. It's good sometimes to see story that has bad and unsatysfying ending, cause if you think about it life is just a same.

I was hanging on every word. What an amazing KZread channel with such valuable content.

Many a True Nerd is just on his Let's Play playthrough and it reminded me what an experience this game is. So, being just before the end of my playthrough this video hit the spot. There just isn't anything else like this on the market. It's a unicorn, but an amazing, epic one! One of my biggest gaming wishes is I could see more games like this, possibly by the same developers. It's not at all hard to appreciate the tremendous work that was put into this title - you just need to load the game.

@michaelgerrardtyson4197

9 жыл бұрын

Absolutely agreed. This game is like a time capsule. It is without a doubt one of the most memorable pieces of art i've consumed in my life. Perfect concoction of cinema and viewer interaction made possible by the medium that is gaming.

Noah Cadwell-Gervais, the most awesome hipster to have ever lived!

Anyone here 7years later seeing this for the first time. I love these videos

The Mount and Blade series is a good example of a game that doesn't particularly fit into any one genre. It's part hack n' slash, part RPG, and part political simulator.

@buneibar-ju8438

9 жыл бұрын

I don't know. As a political simulator it's very, VERY basic.

@ryboy344

9 жыл бұрын

rob laslo Yeah, but the elements are still there. And it'd be a good fit for this series with or without political elements.

@buneibar-ju8438

9 жыл бұрын

hWhat're Yedoinson My dream game is basically M&B with CK 2 politics.

@StarkeRealm

9 жыл бұрын

hWhat're Yedoinson If we're being reductive, M&B is (kind of) a medieval Elite clone. At least that's the genre it's always reminded me of.

@MisterAAnderson

4 жыл бұрын

Just like Sea Dogs / Age of Pirates.

I was so thrilled to see this in my subscriptions, you have no idea. ♥ L.A. Noire is one of my top favorite games and after you'd mentioned it in one of your previous videos, I was hoping you would eventually do something on it. This was a great watch! Though, I do wanna point out that Lou Buchwalter wasn't Elsa's husband, but a very close friend. Happy to see you uploading more! Looking forward to the next one.

I'm liking the increasing frequency of uploads. I've always looked forward to watching your videos, whether I have previous experience with the subject-matter or not, because they usually give me a fairly credible idea of whether they're actually worth playing. This quality of content is exactly what motivates people to become patrons, keep up the great work!

It's strange to me that you would pull upon The Naked City and Chinatown over LA Confidential, the movie the game takes a lot from.

@MisterAAnderson

4 жыл бұрын

Hmm. Only in the main story. Not the cases where the main story is not developed (especially the DLC ones).

@professordetective807

3 жыл бұрын

Or Who Framed Rodger Rabbit? No joke, both boil down to a real estate scam involving the construction of the LA Freeway.

@LadyTylerBioRodriguez

2 жыл бұрын

The entire game is a giant homage to Jame Ellroys books. Specifically Black Dahlia and LA Confidential.

LA Noire is probably my favorite game of all time, close tie with Paper Mario TTYD. I honestly thought the Traffic desk was the strongest while Arson was marginally the weakest.

@LadyTylerBioRodriguez

2 жыл бұрын

I would agree. Traffic feels like it should be horribly bland but it has the most diverse cases and probably the most likable of partners.

@zetetick395

2 жыл бұрын

Another great 'Noire' vibe adventure game is the indie game _Bear with Me_ - Which, as you might imagine, starts out kinda cute and dryly funny (you're a gruff teddy bear Private Investigator) and then *somehow* it takes you from there down on into a true 'Noir' detective experience, it really surprised me with what it managed to achieve and the journey it took me on! 👍

The one thing to remember about LA Noire is that it is a noire and it's not meant to have a "Happy Ending"

@LadyTylerBioRodriguez

2 жыл бұрын

I strongly agree. The classic noire films like This Gun For Hire don't end happy for the protagonist. Stuff like the Sam Spade stories or The Glass Key at best have the case be solved but grand changes aren't happening.

Definitely one of the most articulate reviewers I've ever watched. You're doing a really great job on all of the videos that I have watched so far. Keep up the good work!

How could one do a breakdown of the brilliant L.A Noire without mentioning the fantastic soundtrack?

@zetetick395

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah man, it's so perfect for the games tone! IMO It's as good as the real, authentic OG Nioir-Jazz : Stuff like, say *Gerry Mulligan - Night Lights* kzread.info/dash/bejne/iZpklLhxcdezkco.html (This music style has completely its own world-vibe)

That was a really good review. The facial animations are incredible. I'm really looking forward to more of these Genre Orphan videos.

Your work is so good bro. I’ve listened to this one I don’t know how many times, but it never gets old. Keep it up; you’re so good at what you do!

Another great, well considered and thoughtful video! I love what your doing and the way you go about doing it. Always a pleasure to watch, listen to and think about later.

Awesome analysis - I especially loved how you turned the usual intro into something very Noire-themed. Nicely done.

That was so great! LA Noire is one of the coolest games I've played in a long time and you pretty much explained why in this video! Can't wait to see what your next "Game Orphan" will be!

6:28 I had a buddy that swore GTA 4 was at it's best if you disable the mini-map/gps (and the aim-bot of course). After trying it I think I agree with him. If you take the story missions slowly, you end up practically memorizing how to get around the city as if you lived there. The taxis and subways are more useful too, since they're much more of a convenience when you have to figure out how to get from point A to point B rather than just bombing along a yellow line like it's need for speed.

Just binged all your videos in about two days. Love your content mate, very insightful stuff.

Happy to see another video so soon after the other. Great video intro btw, nailed it.

Great analysis Noah, this game isn't talked about enough in my opinion. It's like someone took all of what i love in open world titles and mixed it with the point and click games I gawked at when playing them on the Commodore Amiga as a kid. Cool to see you're now capable of doing videos more frequently. Always nice to see talented folk doing alright for themselves

One of your most succinct videos, love this concept and this was an incredible analysis of one of the most fascinating games in recent AAA gaming (fusion of modern GTA sandbox framework subverted by way of 90's adventure game ethos). Would love to see more.

I'm really happy to see this title covered by such deep and thoughtful attention. It deserved more attention than it received.

The best reviewer on KZread, by far.

@aliak530i

5 жыл бұрын

more of an analyst

I really love your videos man! You talk about all the games I love! Mass Effect, LA Noire, you know, deep story driven games! Please keep it up :D

i saw that a new video was out and i said to myself "that's not right, he usaly takes a month or two" then i see this and a huge smile spreds across my face, you just made my day.

Picking this game up right now! Excellent video Noah! Your production value's have really improved!

This is the sort of analytical depth that this game deserves, great content!

Great video! You explained what made this game work so well brilliantly! Easy sub, look forward to seeing more from you.

One truly interesting police procedural that was also successfully translated to games is both the witcher 1 and 3! What is so brilliant about that example is that only video games could immerse the viewer so fully in a promise that defies everything about the genre. Obviously not every chapter of the games occupies the classic detective atmosphere, but the sequences that do are in my opinion far more powerful than going through any case in LA noire. Whereas LA noire feels Arcady with its clear game instructions, the witcher treats the player like an adult, and uses some truly unique and groundbreaking role playing mechanics to controversial effect.

@glitch373

9 жыл бұрын

Premise*

@SaberRexZealot

8 жыл бұрын

Can't wait to play the whole trilogy for the first time.

Hey Noah, I've been watching for a while and it's great to see you're uploading alot more videos! (I guess the less hours at your day job have really benefited your video making) I feel like we're all apart of the 'under 10k club' for the internet's next big thing :P Good luck man!

It's funny hearing how $50 million was an outrageous amount of money for a video game, when over a decade later we have Cyberpunk 2077 with a whopping $440 million budget. Oh, how times change...

T'is always a joy when I see one of your videos in my subscriber box!

Really glad you're putting out content more often! If I wasn't jobless and mostly broke, I'd support you on patreon. Thanks again Noah.

I'd love to see you continue this series! A video on Deadly Premonition would be great.

Your production quality is really good now. Loving your channel.

Just caught up on the videos you've been uploading. All great, as per usual.

Another great video Noah, keep it up man :D

This game did try to get the cop feel down, other games like the True Crime ones, while had crimes for you to solve it was done in a much more arcady way. Which isn't bad, had lots of fun in those buggy games. Also their maps were very faithful to the real life locations of L.A. and New York's Manhattan, huge maps.

I love it when Mr. Noah Caldwell Gervais blazes it on camera, its the coolest shit

Great Video! I really love the idea for this new video series. I really enjoyed the shit out of L.A. Noire. Which was why I was hoping you would tackle the mechanics behind interrogations but I nonetheless enjoyed this video. Keep up the great work.

Great video! I really hope this becomes a thing.

Hearing you recount the plot of LA Noir in your typical anachronistic manner of speech is a real treat.

Awesome video. I felt like I didn't even play that game considering how much you pointed out that I missed. Agree with all points. Looking forward to more.

I want Noah exclaiming "Peeping Toms" as my phone's notification tone.

Great video, very interesting to see despite the fact that I have not played a few of the games you've covered. Its given me some perspective on titles that I previously had no interest in. Thanks for the Patreon mention btw, good to know I can count on your word. ;)

Marathoned watched all ur videos keep up the good work love all of them

This is the first of your videos I'm actually gonna hafta pause to play. Thanks.

Great to see another video so soon. Really enjoyed it. I liked LA Noir, especially because it was doing something different, but I grew tired of it about three quarters in. The pacing was a bit off, in my opinion, but perhaps I was trying to play too much of it in one go. If I ever play it again I'll do one case a week, like a TV show. Perhaps then I'll appreciate it a bit more.

You're on a fucking roll man, love it

Love your videos. You and Super Bunny Hop are my favorite youtube channels. I don´t know if you do requests but cann you do a video on The Witcher franchise? I finshed 2 about a month ago and I thought it was great and I would love to get your thoughts on the franchise

@debabratp

3 жыл бұрын

I am curious about how much you liked Witcher 3.

Great job as always!

"A series I'd like to continue once a month" lmao yea right Noah

Another video so soon! On a Monday no less, thank you Noah!

God DAMN Noah you didn’t wait long to get another review out

Oh shit! Another episode! AWESOME! :D

I really hope you’ve stopped smoking! I need these videos for decades to come

what an amazing commentary. jesus. you're a videogame professor!

I really enjoy your analysis

You make great videos Noah !

glad i discovered your chanel. youve got a lot of valuable things to sa6

I dunno, I love LA Noire... but then again, I actually like old movies and happen to recognize the noir tropes as they get presented in-game

I just bought the game the other day - finally getting into this. I'll watch this after I finish it

I fucking loved this game, the same way I found PS2's The Getaway a guilty pleasure (same creators as LA Noire I guess). Both were not-quite open world games, but damn did the setting, and earnest voice acting get me in the end. I also love your videos, with KZread flooded with video game reviews/walkthroughs with commentators who get too cute trying to be obnoxious wannabe comedians...damn is it nice to see some serious, straight-up game discussions; it's a nice change of pace and thank you for that.

Great video!

Hey Noah I loved this game and I loved your analysis of this game. I was curious if you've ever seen The Wire because a lot of the questions you ask and make me think about are answered to me in The Wire. It's an extraordinary show I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it. Saludos desde Peru!

This was excellent, though I think your interpretation of the emptiness of purpose in the open world is off, it wasn't a design decision. The project was very mismanaged, and they didn't hire a world builder to make things to do in the open world, until late in development.

one thing I really love about the game that I don't think was mentioned is the music during the main menu, and the layout of the menu in general.

wow how have I never seen this video, very pleasant surprise.

I'm so glad whenever I find I'm not the only human in the world that appreciates this game. It is so painfully misunderstood that all the development turmoil almost seems all for nothing. But I can see there's a small community that gets it. It's a shame some of the other content couldn't be included to flesh out things a little more but I think it still all works just fine. I mean even I was expecting a more GTA style game at first but once I got invested into the design and concept, I'm glad it stood apart from it. It subverted my expectations in a very good way story wise and does a pretty good job of encapsulating the film noir genre. There are no heroes, instead, they show the fallibility in human nature as opposed to the positive aspects as with traditional hero narratives. Very interesting game experience.

I just got this game on sale, and finished it about an hour ago. (Absolutely binged the game). I really enjoyed it, and I'd love to see more games of this genre. LA Noire has a lot of potential if it's given full freedom, less forced action scenes and more effort put into the writing. I feel like the game was afraid the player got bored near the end of a case, rushing the endings instead of having some better closure.

Can you do a genre orphans for Deadly premonition? That would be awesome

+1 for smoking, would be a +2 if you smoked a cigar instead.

Hi Noah.keep doing the videos great work i am proud to say i was one of your first viewers (when you did your AVP review) i wanted to say how do you do your awesome videos can you make a video on how you make your reviews and where did you buy that mik and how much was it.

17:05 - the scene where you can clearly notice that something is wrong in people's animations. And there are lots of scenes like this one in the game. The reason is they capture face animations and body animations independently from each another. That's the reason why L.A.Noire tech has no future, although it was really impressive shortly after release of the game. But today lots of AAA games use full performance capture which captures everything at the same time, that's why they look more advanced and don't have 'uncanny valley' moments like this one.

Noah u deserve a fucking medal for this keep it up man.

I'd give the world for more of it, another two desks would have been more than welcomed for me. But I would like them to fill it out on the same lines you've suggested, still I couldn't get enough of it. I wish they'd go back and take care of the mechanics and the missing features like, street signs, emergency beacons (gumballs), turn signals, manual shifting etc, etc.. And maybe change it a higher dynamic range video.

Damn, this video makes me regret stopping playing this game after the serial killer was finally caught. I missed out on so much. But you totally nailed it on the head about how weird it was to be catching the serial killers and putting them behind bars whilst knowing they were innocent. Just didn't really work gameplay wise. Great video though and it's awesome to hear that your gaming career is working out. Btw, when you talk about freelance writing do you just mean stuff like Textbroker/WritersDomain, etc or is it something else?

Great video only thing I noticed is that I’m pretty sure it has just Elsa’s friend that died I don’t believe she was married to him. She mentioned how he was the only man who was nice to her without trying to sleep with her

Fun fact: LA Noire has got a sort of direction-pointing GPS too. When in car and destination set, you can ask your partner where to take turns and it actually works. Don't remember the button though. Btw I am surprised how positive your 'thorough look' is. My playthrough was a disappointment most of the game only made up by the story starting to make sense by the end.

woah that was a quick new video.

Please for the love of god purchase a Blue Snowball Mic or a Yeti Mic. I absolutely love your long form format and these mics will improve audio quality significantly.

my only complaint about this video is its not long enough lol, I would love to hear you go into so much more detail about the story.

Great video, as always. :) But wouldn't Telltale's Law & Order: Legacies be considered a police procedural game also?

Loved the game, it's a pity no one has itrated on this game play style afterwards, while I found some bits of it to be frustrating or disappointing, I think with a few tweaks it could make for one truly memorable game ❤

I liked this game, but I also found it jarring to discover the character I was playing for hours was quite a different person than I'd imagined. It might have helped for this to be hinted at more strongly in the early game.

One of my favorite games of all time.

I think L.A. Noire's open world is its biggest weakness. It didn't need a giant lifeless city, 90 vehicles, useless collectables, 5-minute-long driving sequences and corny street crimes that always end the same way. It also didn't really need linear car chases and generic shootouts that present no challenge and lack deeper mechanics. And it seems the devs even knew this, since they let you skip the driving right away and the action sequences after a few failed tries. I would've appreciated if they had focused more on the actual crime solving and dialogues and made a solid adventure game with action elements rather than a mix of GTA and point'n'click adventure.

@doug3225

7 жыл бұрын

it sounds like you just didn't like the game lol

@matman000000

7 жыл бұрын

+Douglas Liantonio It's a pretty mixed bag, to be honest. On the one hand, I'm a huge film noir fan and I want to love the game and delve into its dark monochromatic world soaked in whiskey and blood, but on the other hand the bad design choices make it a fairly disappointing experience that never achieves the glory it truly could as a more focused experience. I love aspects of the game (the soundtrack is absolutely brilliant), but I don't think I've ever genuinely enjoyed playing it, since the action gameplay is barely serviceable and the puzzles and dialogues lack the depth and clarity I'd expect from a detective game.

@neves6867

7 жыл бұрын

Mattchester you're 100% right. And most of the Open World games shouldn't even have an open world. Both Watch Dogs are a perfect example.

@aliak530i

5 жыл бұрын

I like to experience the 50's American culture through the lens of the video games. The variety of cars, the long drive and the scenic views are what i see as a valuable asset and its strongest point. I love seeing the different aesthetics of a car back in those days, seeing a culture different form the now and getting a deep and meticulous lenses on that culture, judging it and evaluating it to compare to the now is also what i look for in a "Period Piece" game. The shooty bit I admit wasn't also its selling point but all these mechanics is here to give heft to the detective mechanics. Otherwise it will be very monotonous and soul crushingly singular in its gameplay. I for once love a game where i can just drive and look at the world in other people eyes in other peoples times.

32:52-32:56. Fascinating analogy.

One of my favorite games. It was the reason I scrounged money together during my first Summer job to buy an Xbox 360. Was not disappointed.