Sexy. Sleek. Intentionally itself. L.A. Noire defines summer gaming. It let’s you explore another Rockstar universe, take down the bad guys, and look damn fine doing it.

More Playtime
Dialogue. Whether we’re driving up and down 6th Street or exploring a crime scene, we want more conversational back-and-forth. Cole Phelps’ persona exudes confidence and no bullshittery. He’s unapologetically direct yet compassionate enough to get even scared housewives to tell the truth. However, he won’t hesitate to make a man cough up his own balls if he won’t cough up the truth.

Ralph Dunn and Stefan Bukowski, Phelps’ partners early on, offer their own brand of cop. They maintain separate identities without having to play foil to each other, which really goes to show that Rockstar writers are really fucking good at creating characters.

For example, when Phelps gets bumped up from beat cop to detective, a fellow detective tells him, “I hope you like work, kid. Bukowski sure as hell doesn’t.” Bukowski fires back, “That’s why we have partners, right?”

Detective Earle rakes Phelps over his bland choice of suits. “What’s with that get up of yours anyway? I should start introducing us as ‘Detective Earle, and this is my science teacher, Mr. Phelps.’”

Shoot outs. This is probably coming from some deep, dark, sadistic chasm in my heart, but even though the combat system is simple and minimalistic, it’s still fun to shoot a man and watch him fall. Because there’s nothing like sending a message that you are better than another person in the form of video game murdering.  Also, there’s something a little Johnny Cash in it too.

Less Playtime
Stupid fucking pedestrians. Even when I have the sirens blasting, some dumbfuck manages to find a way to head-butt my grill. I imagine that people on the street are a real threat to a speeding police officer who values their lives, but as a detective who could cares about top speed and screeching tires, I don’t.

Restarting a case. We’re being picky here, and we know it, but sometimes I just want to replay a small part, and I have to go back to the actual beginning of the case. I think they did this so people wouldn’t replay the interrogations just to get the right answer, and this isn’t a bad move on Rockstar’s part.

Final review coming Saturday. When I get to it.