Episode 8: Hardcore and Hardboiled, telling a compelling story for a videogame crowd.

So I’ve been getting my teeth firmly sunk into Rockstar’s latest epic L.A Noire and frankly I’ve been pretty much blown away with what I’ve seen, there are some criticisms  only minor ones mind you and all things that would be fixed via downloadable content or further releases in the franchise ala Grand Theft Auto.Just another day for the L.A.P.D

I’m not really here to review the game as such today just want to make some observations, comparisons and comments because this game is great and puts many others to shame not to mention it’s more entertaining than a whole lot of films out there and this game is one of those that’s really trying to blur the lines between the two mediums.

L.A Noire or L.A Black as a few people at my current place of employment refer to it as, is a hardboiled detective thriller very akin to films like L.A Confidential and The Untouchables. The events take place in 1947 and the character you are put in the shoes of is one Officer Cole Phelps.

Phelps starts as a rookie beat cop on the bad streets of post war L.A he was a decorated soldier during the war and husband and father of 2. Straight from the off Rockstar and Team Bondi (Noire’s developer) are obviously striving for something more than GTA in a mobster setting. The focus is on police work not hustling honest people and shooting guys for having no respect; it’s about building a case then slapping the perp with that piece of crucial evidence your partner told you was a waste of time to put the guy away for good. The interesting thing is just how engrossing the experience is for the player or players in my case as my brother sat with me for at least the first few hours of the game helping me separate the honest victims from the scumbag liars. and how much attention you have to pay to what’s said and who said it and where things were found relative to the case is almost overwhelming.

I can honestly say it’s been a very long time since I’ve been engrossed the way I have with Noire; I actually feel like a brilliant detective when I get  everything right and feel truly awful when questioning turns sour or in one case I honestly felt terrible when I realised I sent the wrong man down for murder but by then was too late to correct my mistake; I just have to hope to redeem myself on the next case.

For those not in to games so much there is something here for you too, whilst you may be unfamiliar with the typiical drive here, shoot that guy, duck behind cover there they are merely the connecting dots to keep the core of the game or interactive film as some call it moving along the narrative but all the dots as I put it can be skipped if found difficult or turned off completely and you can be left with the meat of the L.A Noire experience which is just fookin’ brilliant.

The tech behind the game (promise not to nerd out here) is the sweet sweet icing on this delectable cake. Team Bondi have been working on their face capture tech probably longer than the game itself. you are effectively watching real actors play the parts and it’s real refreshing especially when you can start picking people out of the game straight from films and shows you’ve seen. (My favourite so far has been Matt Parkman from Heroes) The faces whilst still not as real as real life are still dam good and it brings along everything from the actor’s facial impressions, ranging  from honest fear, shady grimaces and flat out bollocks. This pure attention to detail is obviously used to full effect to add depth to the interrogations and whilst on occasion (mainly early on) it is a real fine line between truth/doubt/lie and is a bit frustrating when you pick the wrong option so  whilst great the faces don’t give away guaranteed tells.

An example of one of L.A Noire’s many actor’s in a capture session and their virtual counterpart

As you play though you’ll realise you can only accuse a suspect of a lie if you can prove it so just check your handy police hand book before throwing wild accusations around and if you still struggle you can use intuition points earned as you rank up to remove a wrong answer or get the percentages for what the online community chose; very Who Wants To Be A Millionaire I know. The great thing is all cases once finished can be replayed and frankly you are going to replay them especially the ones you messed up as you get a star rating out of 5 so those 1 star cases are going to bug you if your anything like me. The one criticism I’ve seen in a few places and I do tend to agree with is that because of the case structure the overarching story of Detective Phelps does feel a tad disjointed at times and I feel that just adding some extra sort of prologue/epilogue to each case may of helped with keeping cases separate but with opportunity to link them to the bigger picture that is L.A Noire’s story. I do enjoy the flashbacks of Phelps’ army experiences between cases though as they add some dimension to his character but they do also add to the jarring effect at times. Other than that I really do love what Bondi have done here and hope they continue to push the good parts of this game (maybe GTA 5 anyone???)

By now if your still reading it’s clear I like this game I’m yet to finish it so I don’t know how Phelps’ commitment to cleaning up the filthy streets of L.A turn out just yet but I look forward to finding out; but I’m left with a pretty big nagging feeling……………  How does this game succeed were so many films fail?? L.A Noire does take many cues from films, great films at that especially the likes of L.A Confidential, Godfather and  even Blade Runner to some extent but this game tells a gritty dramatic some times even heart pounding crime thriller and it’s a GAME!!! L.A Noire isn’t perfect by any means but it is the first film… sorry game that is blurring “THAT” line, in my opinion at least. It does so much that lots of films I’ve seen flat out fail at, everything from deep character development to coherent narrative. L.A Noire truly is a ground breaking experience not perfect but still an absolute must play game even if your not that into games you have to give this one a try at the very least. Now to finish up cleaning those filthy streets and taking care of those scumbag criminals.

See You SpaceCowboys…………………….. 

BTW

I’ve noticed this blog is getting a reasonable amount of traffic and I only really post links on MSN Facebook and Twitter but would love to hear back from people, especially those not from the U.K as I want to know if you people like what you read find it useful or think it’s shit so please either follow the blog and leave a comment or drop me a line at spacecowboy2187@googlemail.com hope to hear from you all and feel free to pass this blog around to friends too =D

Episode 7: The Mighty Thor on the Mighty Big Screen !!!!!

Right then first things first, I know nothing of Thor! Yes I love comic book movies (mostly) and yes if you asked most people they’d say I had a pretty good knowledge of comic books but frankly Thor is well out of my league, other than the fact I knew he had a hammer and was the god of thunder and one of the first Avengers I know nothing of this Marvel hero and you don’t even need to read comics to know two out of those three facts anyway!!

Before I continue this is a bit of a warning………I’m going to potential spoil things in this mess of words so please if you want to know nothing just press the little cross in the upper corner of your web browser now!

Right now they’ve gone we can get to the nitty gritty of Thor. The first thing that struck me as I sat waiting for Thor to start was that I felt alienated by the idea I didn’t know anything; unlike a Batman or a Spidey flick where I have a relative (but novice) understanding of the lead character and their expanded universe with Thor I was clueless and that made me a little uneasy partly because I wouldn’t be able to identify if they got things right or not, when I watched Batman and Robin in 1997 I knew it was all wrong and I was 10 but my 24 year old self got hung up on the fact I potentially wouldn’t notice if Thor got Schumachered because I wouldn’t of known any better.

Well let me tell you the first 20 minutes or so I held strongly to this self doubt and perhaps allowed that fear of the unknown to negatively effect what I was seeing on screen. The film starts on earth with scientist Jane Foster and her assistant as well as her mentor witnessing an astrological phenomena which results in them running Thor over; rewind to 965A.D  Asgard the home world of Thor and one of the Nine Worlds that make up the cosmos (Earth being another and Jotunheim being another). Thor’s father and king of Asgard Odin (the god of thunder) is a mighty warrior who defeats the Frost giants of Jotunheim to bring peace to the nine worlds and relinquish them of their power. This is a famous story now told to the children of Asgard including Thor and Loki (Thor’s brother) of which one will one day be king. Jump back to present day Asgard Thor has now been chosen as the next King but during his ceremony frost giants break in to Asgard to get back what Odin took, whist unsuccessful Thor enraged at their arrogance and disrespect wishes to take the fight to Jotunheim like his father before him but Odin forbids it knowing only war will come of it. Thor obviously disobeys and rounds up his brother Loki best friend Sif and the warriors three (yeah I didn’t know of any of them either) and take it to Jotunheim. Now up to this point I got everything that was going on which for someone who is clueless to this whole section of the Marvel-verse was pretty good. This is also the first time we get to see Thor smash stuff with that awesome hammer which very much distracted me from any niggles I had about my knowledge. It was a great scene but was a bit dark and the action was a bit choppy, I’ve been finding this with a lot of films lately maybe its just me but it is a little off putting but when Thor takes things down they stay down and that felt real satisfying to watch.

Ultimately Thor’s actions piss off everybody the frost giants his brother his friends and worst of all Odin. Thor is there by banished and cast down to earth to live with mere mortals as a mere mortal being stripped of all his powers and his hammer which is too cast down to earth (if you’ve seen Iron Man 2 post credits you already know that bit) only to be picked up by one worthy of its power. This is where the first third or so of the film comes full circle back to the very being with scientist Jane and co running him over in their truck.

Now that seems a lot to cram into what I thought would take up a much bigger section of the films time but for me it did seem to work. One thing that bugs me with hero films or at least the first in the series is all the explaining and getting to the bit where the transformation to hero happens ala Spider-Man but with Thor you get the hero straight away then have to follow Thor on a journey to earn his power back. This consists of him ultimately becoming worthy to once again wield his mighty hammer and defeat those who betrayed him which is achieved by Thor learning the meaning of humility and putting others before his own wants. Cheesy I know but still great life lessons. My main bug to bear with the plot is its villains or lack there of. Loki is ultimately responsible for Thor being cast out and whist Loki does send a giant death Harbinger of doom to earth (better known as the Destroyer)  I felt like more could of been done to show Thor off a little even the final battle with Loki whilst by no means bad did feel a little lacking but I still enjoyed  the action in Thor it just wasn’t as epic as I hoped. I am curious as to what the Avengers will have to face as it has got to be at least an 11 on the epic scale to have Thor, Ironman, Captain America and the Hulk reeling although I think the strong rumour of the Hulk being the bad guy still seem pretty likely just not as epic.

As for the cast other than Natalie Portman (Jane Foster) and Anthony Hopkins (Odin) I wasn’t too familiar with any of the main cast. Let me say right now me and a friend have a long running joke about Portman having used all her talent up in Leon but she wasn’t bad in Thor but then again she didn’t have a lot to do so who’s to say (wait till I’ve seen Black Swan I think) but Hopkins was a surprise he was a bit scary in fact belting out godlike orders and delivering more heartfelt moments the next the old boy still has it, as a supporting character at least. However Hemsworth is a great Thor he is a big physical looking guy for one and he delivers his Norse speech without hamming it up ……too much but bare in mind it’s a comic book film its supposed to be a bit hammy and he seems to strike a good balance between hammy Norse god and thundery force to be reckoned with. The one cast member other than Hemsworth who really impressed is Clark Gregg who has played Agent Coulson in  now in Thor and both Ironman films as the guy who seems to pull most of the strings where S.H.I.E.L.D ARE INVOLVED even if he himself is working for a higher power (Sammy L. Jackson’s Nick Fury) I know it seems odd to mention and his performance isn’t mind blowing or worthy of any awards but its his slightly smug “I know more than I’m letting on” delivery of his lines I love because he does and it feels like a massive tease in of itself.

Some would argue that Thor actually follows a very common formula that many films have done before; hero is young and reckless does something stupid gets betrayed learns a lesson and kicks the bad guys asses and you’d be right but Thor does it very well and whilst predictable in places in particular with the twist with the character Loki I did really enjoy Thor a lot more than I expected my main hesitation was my lack of knowledge of Thor going in but I have nothing to really reference the film to so I can’t honestly say if they got it right but what I can say is I enjoyed it for what it was a stepping stone much like hulk and both Ironman films and like them Thor may suffer a little from references missed by the non-hard-core fans (this time myself included) but unlike Iron man 2 which seemed to crowbar them in left, right and centre Thor seems more focused on itself and less worried about later films (for the most part at least) and the way the film ends Thor isn’t exactly where he wants to be and I have to wait for the Avengers (2012) to find out how the mighty god of thunder gets there.

See You SpaceCowboys…………….