L.A. Noire

Release: May 17, 2011  Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3, PC.

Story: L.A. Noire puts you in the shoes of Cole Phelps(This one can't swim) a World war 2 veteran turned policeman as he rises through the ranks of the Law enforcement bureaucracy(contain your excitement). This puts you in charge of solving cases such as Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and Arson. The games story also focuses on Cole's personal life and how he copes with his war experience.

Gameplay: The game plays somewhat like Rockstar's other franchise Grand theft auto(except a complete role reversal) but with a greatly reduced amount of gun play and penalties for harming civilians. This highlight of the game is the crime scenes and interrogations, which are made challenging and intriguing by the use of a custom engine to make the facial expressions as realistic as possible.

Graphics: The games graphics were not its highlight (that's not to say they're bad). However the games facial animations are still incredible even two years later.

What they did well:

Interrogations: The facial animations incorporated during questioning and interrogations was and still is one of the games biggest draws.

Setting: The setting of 1947 L.A. was a great choice and the team did a great job recreating L.A. as it was at the time.

Characters: The characters were incredibly deep and believable. Many of the later characters introduced were Phelps squad mates who brought more of Phelps past over in the Pacific theater to light.(*spoiler* its pretty dark)

What could have been better:

Free roam: The game featured a perfectly recreated 1947 L.A. but not all of it was used. The game allowed you to travel but outside main quest's and a few street crimes there wasn't much incentive to do so.

Gunplay: The game takes the emphasis of off Guns but doesn't really replace them with much. It makes sense being that your in the shoes of a cop but the lack of action can be a deal breaker for some gamers.

Overall :8/10