This came out of nowhere, Kermode actually playing a game?!

Now THIS is a proper videogame review...

This was a great game - So Gritty - So Stylish - So Tongue in cheek - I really loved this game - It was like playing a retro GTA - Speeding around in those fantastic old Motors of the times (Some real classics appear in this Game) cruising at a steady 20 mph while listening to those old bakelite 78s as we drove around - And just where did they hide those giant gramophone horns on the motors dashboard ? - So discreetly too ! The story lines were fab - Ex Army types Selling stolen morphine on the black market - like something out of the 3rd Man - Plus mass murderers - Poisoners - Crimes of passion Bank robbers there all here just to mention a few ! And most amazing of course you get see the most Stunning of all ! - The location :- 1940s Los Angeles - Driving around you get to see all the old landmarks of 1940s Hollywood ! What more could you ask for ! In fact I'm gonna dig my copy out - And play it again some !

Have I just entered a parallel universe? Mark reviewing a VIDEO GAME? Extraordinary. LA Noire certainly does represent a new direction in gaming.

I love Kermode even more now

Grim Fandango captured the essence of film noire IMO

she has some wicked hair

I'm the same, it is literally the same thing one after another, I was really looking forward to it as well. as I'd loved heavy rain and wanted another gaming experience that was similar.

I've never seen The Big Sleep, but visually it looks amazing from that clip. I'll definitely check it out now.

Love the opening. Straight from Chandler's "The Big Sleep".

im sure david cage loathes the fact kermode didnt do this for his games. thanks for the kermode archive, gratitude. the acting is bad in la noire though, had to cut budget somewhere after dev time, modeling people and settings, and face scan costs.

She makes it out like during the interview sequences it incredibly obvious if you should say they're lying, doubt them or lie. Which it isn't! although throughout (so far) you get many of the interviews right, it's very rare you will get all the questions correct. I recall previous games where you had to do a similar thing, might have been the 24 game, it was plainly obvious. In L.A Noir, some people are perticularly good at lying and can be very hard to read. Making it especially satisfying.

Mother of all plot-spoilers at 3:42.

@TheBroz He never said that he hated video games, he just doesn't care for video games. What he hates, are movies based off video games.

Wow. There's a snippet in the game that uses the face of an actor I know named Beth. Weird.

@etocadet it does in the options menu

Must be annoying playing with those blinds.

What about linear games that are still artistic, like system shock 2, or Bioshock? And also what about role [playing games where the path you choose can change the story drasticly?

Dear God, this is Kermode NOT trashing games. WTF.

@scrumpled Thankyou..Shame I looked for this after I'd seen it. Expect more from Kermode and the BBC...Divs.. Nice work scrumpled..Luckily, I knew that was coming in the game. A newspaper I read ingame gave it away. ;)

Mark should play Heavy Rain! Easy to play and good story telling.

greatest game of all time.. no question

the found music is nightmare of arti shaw

I haven't played the game, so can somebody post when the spoilers occur so I can avoid them?

whats the song that start at 0:18 ?

He should review Metroid Prime mixes great gameplay, atmosphere and storytelling without a single word being spoken.

Mark Kermode, covering a video game.... holy crap. Considering he generally hates them, he did a great job of tackling the matter. Personally, I was massively unimpressed and disappointed with LA Noire. It felt little more than a point and click adventure game, moving from point to point with barely any flexibility afforded. Most of the time it really felt so utterly 'gamey' that it spoilt any immersion that something like Red Dead Redemption executed so damn well.

@qwertyuiopdan1 I disagree. The point she was trying to make was that the facial motion capture has to serve two things in gaming; the narrative and conveyance of information which the player uses to make decisions. In films, narrative aspects are generally very subtle - obvious facial expressions are seen as "hammy" and bad performances whereas in gaming, they have to be obvious so that the player doesn't get stuck or continually wrong. This technology highlights the conflict between the two.

Solving case after case got boring and I didn't finish the game without any regret. Which it had a singular case or along the line of the film LA confidential where two cases somehow become interconnected.

mark plays video games

@simplelife88393 No, he never said he hated games. He just doesn't like movies based off video games. Mark Kermode is rather apathetic towards the gaming medium, but he does like Charlie Brooker a lot.

Maybe it's not her equipment and it needed charging. It could have been sitting on shelf at the BBC for weeks before se was asked to use it.

I agree with you!

he should give Heavy Rain a go

Surprised none of you have suggested Infinite yet. Dr. K; Do it!

wtf ive finished the game but i havent seen this clip 3:56

Loved this game

Though I love the traditional linear path of most games, I think games real uniqueness come from those with with no stroy-line at all. Though the story of a final fantasy or zelda are best executed through a game, they could work as a book or film. But experiences in EVE, minecraft or dayZ are irreplicable and it's these games that make the genre so much more dynamic than traditional entertainment, as the narratives are infinite and molded in real time by mass involvement.

L.A. Noire. The game you watch instead of play.

@SirHprdgn You should. The sexual chemstry between Bogart and Bacall is great but be warned it can be hard to make sense off. Even the writer Raymond Chandler has no idea what is happening.

Funny thing is this game wasn't praised for its story. If you wanna play a great story Kermode then I suggest you go for Metal Gear Solid or Assassin's Creed.

@ace9846 Shoulda picked up the newspaper in the shrinks office

It's an interesting experience, although just as a game I don't think it compares to Red Dead Redemption or GTA.

@SamHain1031666 This Red Dead Redemption was the best of their recent releases, but GTA4 I stopped playing like you said... games like Fallout 3 are equally as big in scale, but you just can't stop playing them

Rockstar make me proud to be scottish

funny when he said 'staggering accuracy and detail' there are modern chairs. the suits look 60's... if you don't know, you don't care- but if you do know its disappointing. i am disappoint.

There's a massive plot spoiler in this coverage!

i think i'm probably looking at the way they fit the models. having seen more of the game by now, i'd call it hideously impressive. rockstar missed mebbe 1 out of a 1000.

exactly!

..okay well you said your opinion, know go...

This game need a mods.

This game is great, it does get tiresome and linear but the script had me in tears. Hilarious.

mark plays video games?

wait a min, i thought he was only a movie critic, anyway ive played la noire and i can only say i had to push myself to finish, i couldnt wait to finish it not because it was that good but because it was that bad, not really bad but the game had a flaw...a serious flaw being not able have freedom in a sandbox open world game, it was the only open world game i played without having that sense of carefree freedom that games like gta and red dead so amazingly delivers

@adamshawboro i know i just fucking paused it!

such a beautiful game, this video doesnt do it justice. But evry thing fun has been removed from the game, its certainly not gta. You cant even run a pedestrian over. But I buy it for its beauty

then go..

4:19 is that "seasoned gamer" playing L.A. Noire on a PS2?

I actually liked LA noire, I thought the plot was interesting enough to keep me playing. GTA 4 however...

But did you really enjoy it more than something like LA Confidential. Like the point they made about it all being over exaggerated, that kind of ruined it for me. I'm a casual gamer so maybe it suits someone that will play for 10 hours straight?

I thought Kermode doesn't like video games?

this is the funniest fucking video i’ve ever seen oh my god

Just compare this to ign's review

I thought he hates games

I sucked at this game. I'm never being a detective.

1:37 God I hope so

what the fuck! i thought he hated video games?

assassin's creed story is pretty unrealistic, but metal gear's story is excellent

I'm truly sorry bit didn't you understand the idea behind the game? You are playing an L.A.P.D. officer, later made detective and if you want to uphold a cohesive plot line you can't have a police officer shooting random innocent people in the streets. If you don't like it then go and play a gangster in GTA, but don't say its boring just because you can't play a homicidal maniac.

Its decent enough as a movie but as a game its pretty dull.

This is the same guy who said games were for losers and spotty teenagers.

At no point did they mention how repetitive and monotonous the game gets. Seriously I was half way through vice and just gave up I got so bored.

okay then don't play it.

shame you have never played it. shame that it is your own opinion. shame you cant see that everybody can dislike a comment like this. yeah, keep thinking that.

Typical Mark, always giving away plot spoilers.

game was boring as hell, they should have allowed a free roam. like gta and red dead, you couldn't shoot or run people down grrr!

shit, this was made by qualified historians?

Honestly I hated this game, it was childish. It was crap. Why compete with film. I'd much rather have to think my way through a brilliantly scripted, acted and directed film like LA Confidential than play that crap again. It was like a film made by children pretending to be adults for children. Games should be different to films. More shoot em up type stuff. Leave the films to the filmakers.

I dunno about you probably throwing your controller around in an angry little nerd rage and breaking them. I have never had to replace mine and have had them for years. And you purposefully burden yourself with a charging cable which impedes your movement for the sake of nostalgia? I guess you must have to sit close to the tv because you cant see through your thick greasy spectacles. And can only afford one controller so do not have the luxury of having one on charge whilst running a second. BYE

shame it was a terrible game.

Gmod has better facial expressions.

it's a decent experiment but not a good game

"the contemporary depiction".... dressed like a hipster cloning the noire look. ok sweetheart

Ya. Its boring though.