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Psychotic Weasel posted:I didn't find the plans about the freeway system to be really out of place though, they'd be great marketing material since you could claim that all the new houses would be near these new roads and they'd offer quick access to the whole of LA. Of course we'll find out later that there's a much bigger connection. I'm also pretty sure that Rancho Escondido was a mistake and that Ira has gone rouge by this point; in order for the Development Fund's scam to work they need the houses standing so they can claim against the value of the homes rather than the vacant lots. They just wanted him to burn down homes of people who won't sell and are threatening their time table. Except that they were supposedly ready to move into when the fire happened. If people had actually moved in, they would have quickly discovered how shoddy the construction is. Seems like this fire was meant to both prevent such a discovery and claim insurance payouts for the buildings. Edit: Also, I forgot one thing: the newspaper in this case is dated to 19th of September. Same day as the Sawyers departed for Catalina island. It could seem like we have actually travelled back in time, and in any case this is another indication that this case originally came before "The Gas Man". Kopijeger fucked around with this message at 07:22 on Aug 23, 2016 |
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Aug 23, 2016 07:09
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Kopijeger posted:Except that they were supposedly ready to move into when the fire happened. If people had actually moved in, they would have quickly discovered how shoddy the construction is. Seems like this fire was meant to both prevent such a discovery and claim insurance payouts for the buildings. The insurance company is supposed to be profiting from the scam as well, but if the land has been devalued because the shoddy house burned down, then wouldn't the scam almost not be financially worth it? Why bother building the houses in the first place? Eminent domain takings are usually not at the best rates or impacting parties who would rather not sell, at least from following the Kelo case that happened a while back.
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Aug 23, 2016 07:26
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Spookyelectric posted:It was quite a surprise to see John Noble in this game! I recognized him as Morland Holmes rather than anything else listed on his Wiki. He does a great job being a rich rear end in a top hat.
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Aug 23, 2016 07:34
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monster on a stick posted:The insurance company is supposed to be profiting from the scam as well, but if the land has been devalued because the shoddy house burned down, then wouldn't the scam almost not be financially worth it? Why bother building the houses in the first place? Eminent domain takings are usually not at the best rates or impacting parties who would rather not sell, at least from following the Kelo case that happened a while back. Plus, given how easily Phelps and Biggs discover the shoddy brick wall, you'd think they would have to bribe the Arson department and the Fire Brigade as well to look the other way. And why do they make no attempt to conceal that the materials are substandard? Even if the piles of planks were a design oversight, you'd think the workers might spread the word that the houses are unsafe for habitation.
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Aug 23, 2016 07:55
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Spookyelectric posted:It was quite a surprise to see John Noble in this game! I actually recognised the face instead of his voice for some reason. Didn't really sound like I am used to hearing him in this role I suppose.
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Aug 23, 2016 08:55
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berryjon posted:edit: Howard Hughes, Nazis and a Comic Book Hero? I'm not sure it could be anything else 
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Aug 23, 2016 10:06
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LivesInGrey posted:I recognized him as Morland Holmes rather than anything else listed on his Wiki. He does a great job being a rich rear end in a top hat. He was brilliant as Walter Bishop and Walternate in Fringe, he kept me watching through the shittier episodes. Same thing with Sleepy Hollow. The series took a huge nose dive in quality after he left.
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Aug 23, 2016 10:17
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In related news, Ben Affleck wants to remake WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION.
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Aug 23, 2016 16:03
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monster on a stick posted:The insurance company is supposed to be profiting from the scam as well, but if the land has been devalued because the shoddy house burned down, then wouldn't the scam almost not be financially worth it? Why bother building the houses in the first place? Eminent domain takings are usually not at the best rates or impacting parties who would rather not sell, at least from following the Kelo case that happened a while back. The insurance company is not profiting from the scam. The man in charge of the local branch is. As for the land revaluation, that's a simple matter of having the mayor delay the land inspector until after the federal government comes by and purchases everything. Kopijeger posted:Plus, given how easily Phelps and Biggs discover the shoddy brick wall, you'd think they would have to bribe the Arson department and the Fire Brigade as well to look the other way. And why do they make no attempt to conceal that the materials are substandard? Even if the piles of planks were a design oversight, you'd think the workers might spread the word that the houses are unsafe for habitation. The chief of police, the district attorney, and the editor-in-chief of the LA Times are all in on the scam. Between the three of them, I figure they think they've got the law enforcement angle covered. And the workers are definitely in on the scam, too; that becomes clear enough in the next real mission.
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Aug 23, 2016 16:04
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is it still a conspiracy if every single person except the protagonist is in on it
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Aug 23, 2016 17:28
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:The chief of police, the district attorney, and the editor-in-chief of the LA Times are all in on the scam. Between the three of them, I figure they think they've got the law enforcement angle covered. And the workers are definitely in on the scam, too; that becomes clear enough in the next real mission. But when you have that many people in on it, it would be nigh-impossible to keep it secret. And, of course, there is the question of why anyone thought it would be a good idea to have a mentally ill war veteran commit arson on their behalf instead of hiring a more stable gangster to do the job.
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Aug 23, 2016 17:31
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Kopijeger posted:But when you have that many people in on it, it would be nigh-impossible to keep it secret. And, of course, there is the question of why anyone thought it would be a good idea to have a mentally ill war veteran commit arson on their behalf instead of hiring a more stable gangster to do the job. Also a crazy firebug. And if you have that many people on the conspiracy that are already on the payroll, what's a few cops more? Phelps is a self-righteous rear end in a top hat but offering to sweep the whole adultery thing under the rug and let him catch killers would have been tempting even for him.
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Aug 23, 2016 17:36
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Everyone in LA seems to be on the take and with all the other shady poo poo going on I doubt no one really cares and the lower echelon people being brought in to do the dirty work probably don't really know whats going on or how big the scam is. They're just paid to look the other way and make sure their shiity job is done. I get the impression that the houses they are building (the ones built with crappy materials) aren't meant to be lived in, or if they are inhabited then not for very long. They just need to look good long enough for the bulldozers to move back in after the feds have appropriated everything. That's why the vets at Rancho Escondido were being kept away for so long and getting antsy - the people behind the scam don't want people taking a closer look and the fires are drawing attention to things. While the devs clearly rushed through the level design you can tell that the fire wasn't that recent (a few days) as there were no fire crews on scene or any wet areas left from the water they'd use to extinguish the flames. What's odd is that Phelps is an arson investigator and somehow hasn't heard about this and no one has said anything about it, instead he has to hear it second hand from his patner and read about it in the paper. Who ever did go investigate the scene was either incompetent enough that they'd blow it off as an accident or paid to keep their mouth shut. They probably went to Ira because he was vulnerable and easy to manipulate, and also if he was caught they could just blame his psychosis for anything he said or did. But now that they've lost control of him he's starting to draw unwanted attention and Fontaine is afraid he's coming after him now.
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Aug 23, 2016 17:47
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Kopijeger posted:But when you have that many people in on it, it would be nigh-impossible to keep it secret. And, of course, there is the question of why anyone thought it would be a good idea to have a mentally ill war veteran commit arson on their behalf instead of hiring a more stable gangster to do the job. It's not a secret, though. That's the thing: with all the important figures in the government, insurance, and media in on this scheme, they don't need to keep things secret so much as they need to keep things quiet enough for Joe Public and the federal government to not realize what's going on. Hell, all it takes to destroy the whole conspiracy is one guy with a personal vendetta, one guy who never leaves well enough alone, one guy with political aspirations, and one guy who's willing to turn on the other conspirators to get off scott-free.
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Aug 23, 2016 19:59
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I'm watching slowbeef and his wife play LA Noire right now, in the very first case she walked down the stairs in the gunshop and there's a whole firing range down there. Not interactive, but still. This game put polish at the forefront.
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Aug 25, 2016 19:34
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I said it before, but for all of its many flaws this game nails the atmosphere and is full of pretty insane and neat details. It's fun to look around the city at all the little shops and the landmarks, it all feels so authentic and helps in grounding the characters and all the other elements really nicely. Sadly it also means that all the silliness and glitches and what have you stand out even more but still, I think it's worth it.
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Aug 25, 2016 19:40
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Kopijeger posted:- On an unrelated note "Herschel" is a Yiddish name mening "little stag" and Biggs is apparently of English origin. The combination seems unlikely and Biggs is apparently not supposed to be of Jewish ethnicity (otherwise it would probably have been mentioned and used against him already). Probably another research failure on part of the developers.
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Aug 28, 2016 21:22
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Aug 29, 2016 16:58
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Oh man, it's that case with the cool intro! 
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Aug 29, 2016 18:16
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Only a few minutes in, but "why are they shooting at the police?" Probably because the cop car rolls up and immediately opens fire into their backs while they're still running away.
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Aug 29, 2016 18:38
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I love it when games let the protagonist murder dozens of people without repercussions. Usually it's gangsters and criminals, but an entire hangar's MP force is particularily egregious, especially since Cole ends up shooting first when he gets to the hangar. You'd think a tense standoff and negotiations between the LAPD and the MPs would be more interesting. But no, gotta fill the cover shooter segment quota.
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Aug 29, 2016 18:38
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Yeah, I kinda think the military would have something to say about that.
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Aug 29, 2016 19:05
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davidspackage posted:Yeah, I kinda think the military would have something to say about that. Well, everyone else already thinks Coles a traitor due to being sympathetic to the Japanese and boning a German very shortly after WW2. May as well get the military in on the fun! 
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Aug 29, 2016 19:16
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I'm really hoping that Chinatown gets covered. It's my favorite movie of all time because of how it really captures the best parts of noir. I wrote a paper on how it's the seminal work for the genre. Really love the LP!
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Aug 29, 2016 19:17
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This case has the best intro in the entire game. It's honestly amazing.
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Aug 29, 2016 19:54
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Notes: - The exploded factory is based around a real industrial accident that took place in February of 1947. - Aside from the "H-bomb" anachronism, it seems slightly out of place for Biggs to make such an assumption in september 1947. Not only does the Soviet Union not have the bomb yet and no plausible means to deliver one to Los Angeles (possible exception: the recently unveiled B-29 copy Tu-4), they certainly wouldn't attack out of the blue and the Cold War is arguably not properly underway yet (that would happen next year, with the Berlin Blockade), it would make more sense if he assumed it was an accidental detonation of an American bomb. That, or he should remember that it happened in an industrial area (he would presumably be familiar enough with Los Angeles to do that) and attribute it to an industrial accident. - Slight inaccuracy about the engine: It was never used on Corsairs (excluding a single prototype) or the B-29 (the B-50 upgrade, on the other hand..). Should have said "B-36 and B-50" instead. - Microfilm became commercially available in the 1920s. Funny that Biggs is unfamiliar with it. - The camera is explicitly stated to be a Minox model C. Not only is this grossly anachronistic (this model was introduced in 1969), it seems unlikely that T. Okamoto could get hold of one of the Latvian models produced between 1936 and 1943. It would have to be either a pre-war import or stock seized by Allied forces during the war. Actual production of Minox brand cameras did not resume until 1948. - It is indeed silly that Okamoto had the newspaper clipping pointing to her own apartment and the wheel to decode it in her briefcase. If only they hade made it so that the apartment belonged to the murdered guy, and that the codewheel and ad both came from him. Could be that this is another case plot made nonsensical by hasty rewrites. - "Do you know Tomoko Okamoto? Never heard of the broad. Why?" "Tomoko" is not an obviously female name to someone unfamiliar with Japanese naming conventions, which Mapes probably wouldn't be. Yet it is not possible to call him out on the fact that he knew it referred to a woman. - Why assume that a random mostly-burned shirt is any sort of lead? If it had been found in McClellan's locker, that would have been another matter. - The guy at 37:55 looks an awful lot like Hughes from the photos. Possibly HH was to appear in person at one point, and they reused the model. - Why was Security Head/Pimp Vernon Mapes involved with the industrial side of the business at all? - The plane looks strangely unfinished for something that is about to have its maiden and only flight in a little over a month. - "Shtupping that German broad": that verb is not recorded before the 1960s in the sense used here. Kopijeger fucked around with this message at 20:32 on Aug 29, 2016 |
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Aug 29, 2016 20:23
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What is the car Mapes (and later Cole) drove? I know Biggs doesn't like it, but I think it looks stylish as gently caress.
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Aug 29, 2016 21:07
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Oh cool! That's a Tucker "Torpedo" 48 that Mapes is driving. There's a great story behind the man and his car, the tl;dr of which is he spent a ton of money developing a highly innovating rear engine car, only to get railroaded by the auto industry and government at the cusp of success. Only 51 were made, they used an aircooled aero-engine and were manufactured in a what was at the time the largest factory in the world, previously a Dodge aircraft engine plant used in WWII. During the highly publicized launch of the first prototype, it was discovered by journalists that the transmission was incomplete and had no reverse gear. Further, the fitment was unrefined, leading to NVH that one journalist described as "GOOSE-GEESE, GOOSE-GEESE". This lead to car being dubbed the "tin-goose", after the immobile and incomplete Hughes Spruce Goose. Certainly an interesting tie in to the DLC. I'm guessing the person in charge of car casting knew their history. (anachronisms aside) 
hoonigan_neil fucked around with this message at 01:13 on Aug 30, 2016 |
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Aug 29, 2016 21:14
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God, Ray is such a glorious troll. Look at that poo poo-eating grin right as he sends Cole to run the experiment. Well regarding the shirt, Cole mentions it to Nicholson, who then tells him it was likely McClellan's, so there is at least some flimsy justification. Kind of sucks that in a case where one of the POIs was an Asian woman, not only do we not even see a photograph of her but the only Asian character in the case (as Bobbin noted) is...some rude guy in a laundry. I guess considering she got, er, vaporised, that makes some sense, but still, they didn't have to 100% tack to history, especially since no trace of her was ever found. Although, Jesus - the guy who McClellan was based off was literally a self-taught chemist and high school dropout who bluffed his way into his position.
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Aug 29, 2016 23:27
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Yvonmukluk posted:
Woah... No joke. http://framework.latimes.com/2012/02/20/explosion-at-oconnor-electro-plating-corp/
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Aug 30, 2016 01:05
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You know, I remember playing "Rocketeer The Game" on the Commodore 64 in the very early nineties. It was very hard and/or I was very bad at it since I was pretty young, so I couldn't get past the "take-off" stage. From memory you had to waggle the joystick left and right at the perfect rhythm to get him to run fast enough to get off the ground.
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Aug 30, 2016 05:42
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Antistar01 posted:You know, I remember playing "Rocketeer The Game" on the Commodore 64 in the very early nineties. I played the hell out of the Rocketeer PC game by NovaLogic. Yes, that NovaLogic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XctJFyWEOGg One hell of an overlooked gem, IMO.
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Aug 30, 2016 10:16
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Dark Void was a pretty good Rocketeer-based video game and I wish it got a sequel or a remake.
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Aug 30, 2016 10:30
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ScandiHoonigan posted:Woah... No joke. I'm sure this story is going to be a Dollop some day.
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Aug 30, 2016 12:37
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Ditto to this case's intro being awesome, and everything else being... well, not. I forgive a lot of the writing in this game because it's mostly well-acted and the dialogue flows, but just everything about this case is jankey. At least we had Ray's experiment to keep things light (my favorite bit is Carruthers coming in just before, immediately sussing out what's happening and hide for cover, and afterwards deadpan that he got him too a while ago. And then leaving without doing what he came into the room to do.) What you said about camp is very resonant with me too; I've always recognized and admired labors of love and real effort, even when the products haven't really been good, or even approachable through common means. This is why a lot of fascinatingly bad films gain cult status too- not for being traditionally good, but for being bad in the most fantastically weird ways you couldn't replicate if you tried. Over in the movie thread, there was a goon who posited that the near universally reviled Transformers series by Michael Bay was actually a cunning satire on militarism and the loss of humanity through violent, and having finally seen the 4th one about a while ago, God help me, but I think she might have been right. 
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Aug 30, 2016 22:43
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ScandiHoonigan posted:Oh cool! That's a Tucker "Torpedo" 48 that Mapes is driving. There's a great story behind the man and his car, the tl;dr of which is he spent a ton of money developing a highly innovating rear engine car, only to get railroaded by the auto industry and government at the cusp of success. Only 51 were made, they used an aircooled aero-engine and were manufactured in a what was at the time the largest factory in the world, previously a Dodge aircraft engine plant used in WWII. Also, this case is so over the top it becomes great, despite the eh storyline. Massive explosions! Escaping a burning building! Gun battles with the US army! Shooting looters on the streets of LA! The Spruce Goose!
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Aug 30, 2016 23:04
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Garrand posted:Only a few minutes in, but "why are they shooting at the police?" A fair point, but like Biggs says, "You don't shoot at cops, you little prick!"
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Aug 30, 2016 23:39
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ScandiHoonigan posted:Woah... No joke. Huh. That explains why the mayor was broadcasting on tv instead of radio--because in the story its based on it was the first local disaster specifically covered on tv.
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Aug 31, 2016 07:36
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Kopijeger posted:Notes: Was there some sort of link between the 1947project people and the LA Noire developers? Did they hire someone in LA to dig up real-life crimes that could serve as case inspiration? Or did the game writers troll the blog for fun? Now that the DLC is finally over - I suppose the placement here was due in part to the desire of the publisher to rip off cases for DLC, and the inability to remove certain cases that were tied to a story arc (all of Homicide and most of Arson), but it really demonstrates how gutted Vice and even Traffic feel with two cases removed from each. I don't think there was ever a "good" place to put Nicholson Electroplating - originally it's late in the game and is really jarring as Bobbin points out, but I'm not sure if it would have been all that much better earlier in Arson. Phelps is supposed to keep his head down, and while a bunch of housefires will keep him moderately busy, a high-profile building explosion (complete with TV coverage!) isn't something I'd see the higher-ups be happy about even if they still consider him a good case man. Then the mission goes off the rails with Phelps shooting at Army troops because. Last any bets on the three movies left in Bobbin's catalogue? Next time is definitely Chinatown; I believe he mentioned LA Confidential on the list. The Coens keep doing neo-noir so maybe one of their titles?
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Aug 31, 2016 07:59
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The last movie better be Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or I'll never watch a Bobbing LP again.
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Aug 31, 2016 08:09
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