LA Noire may share its open world gameplay with other Rockstar games, but that is where the similarities pretty much end. As such this is a very different game for the publisher and not without related risks.

Unlike the undirected sprawling worlds of Red Dead Redemption or Grand Theft Auto IV, where you could get lost collecting pelts or running anonymous errands, LA Noire offers a much more directed experience. This is a game that is mediated rather than generated.
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Heavy Rain (PS3)
Alan Wake (360)

L.A. Noire is a wonderful amalgam of cop drama, adventure game and open-world playground. Tension melts into schizophrenia and suspense as I lose myself in the game, even if I am taken out of the world on occasion by an army of tiny issues.

From the moment I first heard about L.A. Noire I was excited and nervous for it in near equal measure. Developer Team Bondi's focus on procedural police work as a driving force behind the game play, with a huge reliance on facial expressions, fascinated me. However, the knowledge that it would be blended with a Rockstar open-world game was troubling. I remembered the duality of most Rockstar game protagonists, how regularly running people down made them seem like sociopath, and wondered how it could blend with the fiction of being a cop.
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We discussed LA Noire. Was it an intricate masterpiece or a sparsley populated open world drama? Was it outdone by Heavy Rain's branching story or is there something more substantial going on here?

Before the tape started rolling, here are our scribbled notes.
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there is little doubt that LA Noire marks the arrival of a new and exciting era in gaming. however, much of the clamouring that has constituted its reception has made me convinced that the gaming world needs to think again about the bigger picture.

Rockstar/Bondi's 40s-era wunderkind is a revolutionary game, and unless you've just this minute got back from a trip to a coma, i'm sure you've already heard as much from a million other enraptured voices.
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LA Noire stops the clock for a painstakingly detailed 1940's LA and an experience as personal and unsettling as any film or TV series.

LA Noire takes us another step towards the truly interactive film experience that Heavy Rain perpetuated last year. By being open world rather than point and click though, LA Noire not only fools you into thinking you are living in celluloid, it actually lets you take charge of the experience fully.
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This week in the family gaming show Loz and I talk about LA Noire's open world 1940's LA, Flight Control HD on the iPad, Lego Pirates of the Caribbean and Ocarina of Time on the 3DS. Also broadcast on Kerrang Radio.

This Family Gaming podcast is broadcast each week on Kerrang Radio's Loz Guest show. We talk about the latest games, and how we find time to play them with busy family and work lives.
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