LA Noire Plot

Whats the plot of LA Noire all about? I've noticed a lot of people have come to this blog looking for the answer to that question. While I did a review and moan about the flaws I didn't actually talk about the plot. So here, for those that are want it is an outline of the plot. I've skimmed over a lot of the details and ignored some of the unimportant stuff other wise this would be even longer.

From now on there of course spoilers but then if you're looking at a blog called "LA Noire Plot" then you should kind of expect that.

First off lets deal with all those flashbacks and what they mean. The Flashbacks of the war are for two reasons. Cole is trying to make up for wrongs that he did during the war. He was not a well liked officer, perhaps the worst thing he did was have a cave of civilians burned. He was then shot by one of his own soldiers and this is how he was wounded. The other point of the flashback's is that its these soldiers who steal all the army morphine that turns up later during the vice desk missions. So the flashbacks are a set up for that.

Now as for the murder cases, well they are all being done by one man, a serial killer. You arrest four men, one for each murder, but they have all been set up by the killer. He's planted evidence and framed them. You find this out and he sends you across town trying to find him then you track him down, find out that it was the temporary bar man from two early cases and then kill him. Only he was the son of someone powerful so it gets covered up and the four innocent people get quietly let go.

Then you move on to vice which is all about tracking down the morphine. The soldiers change their mind about dealing with the mob and instead sell it to Doctor Fontain, who is in league with the people behind the housing projects. The mob and the soldiers have a kind of turf war. Cole has an affair with a German singer at the Blue Room club. Your partner, finds out and tells the powerful housing project people who make it public. Cole is disgraced and his wife leaves him and he gets sent to the arson desk.

So at arson there are lots of house fires that end up having a pattern. People who didn't want to sell their homes to the Housing committee are being attacked and their homes burnt down. Some one is sabotaging the Insta Heat boilers (if you recall them from an earlier case). You find out who the guy is and arrest him. But then it later turns out it wasn't him. It later turns out that the housing committee people are running an insurance scam. Basically then want to build all the houses because a new freeway is going to be built on the same land. They can make a huge amount of money when the government gives them compensation and buys their new houses to make way for the road.

Cole's German lover wants him to help look into the death of her friend who died on a building site. This is where you start to play as another person, Jack Kelso, one of the former soldiers. He's an insurance investigator and he starts to find out the truth about the housing committee. The mayor, the chief of police, the doctor, the guy running the insurance firm and various other big wigs are all in on it. You end up attacking lots of them and have big gun battles at the mayor's house in a rather silly way.

Then this guy Kelso discovers who was starting the fires, another soldier who was the one ordered,by Cole, to use his flame thrower to kill the civilians in the war. Now he's gone a bit nuts and works for the doctor. This guy kills the doctor and runs of with the German woman in to the river tunnels. Kelso and Cole go into the tunnels and fight with gangsters. Kelso has the help of an assistant DA who is trying to out all the corrupt officials to gain more power.

So you have a big shoot out in the tunnels as Kelso, rescues the girl, kill the arsonist and lots of gangsters. But the tunnels are flooding and Cole is drowned and killed while the others escape. The game ends with Cole's funeral and his old partner from Vice, the one who told on you, tells us how great he was and what a hero he was in the war and a great family man. The mayor and chief of police are there too, as is the assistant DA who it would seem has cut a deal with the bad guys who have now got away with it all. Cole's lover runs out of the funeral shouting "liars" and Kelso says he didn't hate Cole. Game ends, credits roll.

There are more than a flew flaws in all this plot details of some can be found in another one of my blogs.

Album of the Week - Jim Reeves

Jim Reeves - Bimbo (Camden 1970)

When I first set eyes on this record my initially thought was why the heck is this album called bimbo? and is this a suitable title to have with a picture of a young child? The answers to my questions will take us on a moderately interesting entomological journey.

Jim Reeves was a very successful country singer in the 1950's and 60's who achieved great success on the country charts and sometimes in the wider musical world. His song Distant Drums was a UK number one in 1966 keeping the Beatles of the top spot. His rich, velvet voice brought a lot of people into the world of country music. Even after his death in 1964 he remained popular around the world. While his name might of faded behind others and his music now less popular his legacy has proved to be of great importance to county music.

Bimbo was a song that Jim Reeves brought out early in his career in 1953 and proved a hit making it to number one in the country charts. Written in the late 1940's by Glenn Odell, it was something of a novelty song about a young boy sung in a very jaunty manner.

But why on earth is it called Bimbo? Well that word comes from the Italian word bambino and refers to a male baby or young male child. So despite what we think of the word now the word and the song and indeed the cover fit together nicely. However this meaning was long before the song was written and by the late 40's was being used as we now know it.

By the 1920's the word had changed to mean a stupid male rather than a child. It changed again later in the decade with a 1929 dictionary entry for bimbo providing the meaning simply as a woman. From there is quickly transformed into the bimbo that we know today, that of an attractive stupid woman or one who has a lot of sex with different partners. All very judgemental and unfair of course.

It does make one wonder why the word was used for a song about a small child. Even at the time it was written the original meaning would of seemed antiquated and out of touch, perhaps even quaint. Rather like a song written today titled "Gay" but meant to be about being happy.

I doubt anyone really cared and lets be honest its hardly offensive. Unless of course you look at the German meaning of the word which is a racist slur. Now wasn't that a slightly interesting look at how words change?

LA Noire - Plot Holes - (Spoilers)

Wanted to talk a little about the plot of LA Noire but admitted it from my review to not spoil the game for others.

Whoop whoop, spoiler alert, don't read if you have not completed the game or if you don't want to hear an overly obsessed person moaning about pointless things.

Seriously, spoilers, there you've had your warnings.

Let the rant begin.

The Dahlia murder case. So four people are innocent of four murders yet they behave like they are guilty and don't put up much of a fight? The real killer has framed them yet they seem happy to go along as if they are the killer and not question all the planted evidence. If I was being accused of a murder I didn't commit I would kick up a fuss. And just how the hell does the killer go about planting all this evidence with out being seen? How does he know that the woman will get off at the hobo camp or that a witness will point out said hobo? How does no one see a guy climbing onto a chandelier in a government building and call the cops?Why does no one notice the planted evidence in their homes and think, that's odd, whats that?

When you get to the killers lair what you see doesn't fit with an MO of jumping people in public and hitting them on the head and strangling them. The whole bath of blood and torture instruments doesn't really match up with all the crimes you deal with. There would have been months of planing for each murder, following the victim and getting to know there lives before killing them and framing the people who knew them. But each case looks like the women just got attacked while drunk.

You should have been on to him from the start but the game doesn't let you speak to the temp barman even though its pretty obvious you should. Why mention him twice if he means nothing? For me the whole homicide desk does not work and once you look at the cases in depth they fall apart. Was very frustrating that you work the case, every thing points to one person who you charge only later to find out that he was framed by the real killer.

Also very disappointing that once you find out who was the killer his whole motives and story where not really revealed to you in any way. I'd have liked to have know how he actually did it all rather then just shot him and move on. It seems like the writers were trying to combine various real life crimes together and just got confused.

There was a neighbour of the house that burned down who told me he knew nothing about the competition yet goes and gets me a flyer that mentions it and I can't in turn ask him about it.

One of the my biggest issues is that the main guy has an affair and cheats on his wife. Why the hell should I care about this guy any more? and how I'm I to believe that he will cheat on his family but not take bribes? At his funeral they mention what a great family man he was even though the whole world knows he wasn't and his mistress is at the funeral. Seemed dumb to me.

The flashback newspapers where fine, up until they showed your partner betraying you yet you still had to work with him because you didn't actually know he'd sold you out. Gave away a plot twist rather cheaply I felt.

The final plot was obvious and I knew what was going on yet still had to go through a lot of stuff to get to the end and I'm sorry but insurance scams are not very exciting. I did also wonder just how many houses they would have to burn down in this way. Seemed you would need to do this a lot and once you got past a few then the flaws in the plan would become apparent.

With the hit and run case, I found the knife right away, yet some how a bloody knife and a victim with stab wounds don't seem to mean anything and I have to leave it in the bin because "someone was cutting meat". I know its said the the victims wounds could have come from the hood ornament but would any detective ignore a bloody knife found at a crime scene?

I messed up a couple of cases and got shouted at and was told I'd be busted down to a uniformed cop. But by the next scene I was being told how great I am and to tackle the next case. It just doesn't matter if you screw up or get things wrong and the cases are never affected by your mistakes.

That's about all I can recall at the moment and I appreciate that some people won't care but if you are trying to make a plot heavy game then get a decent plot. I also will admit that its possible I have missed something or not understood whats going on, it does happen.

There, I feel better now.