LA Noire

[Enhance]

I'm on the second disc right now and am on the second to last mission for the homicide desk.

What everybody else has been saying about the game so far is relatively true. It's slightly repetitive but it's not trying to be like GTA or Red Dead Redemption. It's a sand box game with a much more linear storyline, and I think it works. In a way, it has to. In former Rockstar games the player generally had the option to travel wherever he wanted at any time a choose which missions to do first. Now, you can travel wherever still, but there isn't as much to do like red tape pointed out. But it's tough to have a wide open sandbox game when you're supposed to be an honest cop, because other job opportunities and rampages (like you'd do in GTA) just wouldn't make sense in this game.

 

[Enhance]

SPOILERS AHEAD

I just beat L.A. Noire.

Some people have knocked the ending of the game, but I think it's one of the better game endings I've seen in a long time. I think people who knock the ending don't understand the noir (or filmnoir) characteristics this game possesses. Noir is not meant to be happy, heroic or inspiring. It's full of hypocrisy and bleakness - sadness and openness. Our main character is cynical and despite his white knight mentality has his character flaws. Yes, we didn't get half the guys responsible for the mess in the ending of the game, but it's part of the genre and the mood set by the game. I thought it was very, very good.

Some might find Phelps' ending as cheesy, especially when you consider the context with which he fought the war - always trying to be great without sacrificing anything. He was hated by his men and spent the rest of his life, following the war, trying to atone for himself. Although his death is cheesy, he got the release he had been looking for for so long.