This isn't a review. That’s not what I do. You can find plenty of those on other sites. I just want to make you think a little deeper about how you play games and how they make you feel.
I picked up Rockstar’s newest work of art, LA Noire, at its midnight release. LA Noire really surprised me in the way it made me interact with its world.
More often than not it seems that you’re on the wrong side of the law in video games, particularly open world games. Cops seem to get a bad rep in video games. Often they’re the ones being shot and killed by the player.
This changes in LA Noire.
In LA Noire you’re not senselessly killing cops or innocent people, but rather you’re the one wielding the badge sworn to protect the people of the city of angels.
This gives you a whole new perspective and attitude as you play. It is very liberating.
This changed the way I experienced the world of LA Noire. In Grand Theft Auto, for example, hitting someone with your car would be quite comical. In LA Noire I do my best to avoid hitting pedestrians.
I cringe when I almost hit someone in a crosswalk and I breathe a sigh of relief when they get out of the way in time.
I'm a cop, I don't want to hurt innocent people. I want them to be safe.
When has a game made you act that way before?
I can’t think of one.
This makes LA Noire different than anything I’ve ever played.
Regardless of what game you’re playing, don’t just play through the game, be a part of the game. Care about what’s happening in the game. Get lost in it.
Enjoy your game.
Enjoy LA, or wherever your game takes you.
Enjoy your life.
PS. I haven’t beaten LA Noire yet. So be happy I took time from playing it to write this post.
 |
| Forget the mind blowing facial capture used in LA Noire. |
The most amazing feature of the game is that none of the doors are double hinged. Yep. If you push your way through a door, you’ll pull it open when you go back out. Truly revolutionary gaming.
Fun things I overheard in LA Noire while playing:
“Why is the word abbreviation so long?”
“I used to be really indecisive, now… I’m not so sure…”
“If olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from?”
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 also has single-hinged doors :)
ReplyDeleteI never really noticed the double hinged door thing but when I think about it, I see it all the time.
ReplyDeleteRockstar is fairly infamous for its portrayal of cops as enemies. It should be interesting to see how they handle the opposite role. I think the current Ctrl+Alt+Del comic shows that.
I can only think of one game were I played as a cop and it was only at the very beginning of the game. That game was "Dead to Rights". I think that cops are not generally used in video games because cops have many "rules and regulations". It probably is fairly hard to portray them in a way that that they won't get a backlash from some "group" or another. Then there is keeping the game entertaining as well. It's probably easier to keep cops as enemies, a least non-playable allies or a fairly neutral party. At least as enemies/etc you never have to show any insight into how they actually behave there just trying to take out the "bad guy" usually the player. At least that's my opinion. Sorry for answering a question that was not asked but its something to think about anyway.