Playing L.A. Noire. For those unfamiliar, one is a detective who handles cases ranging from Traffic to Homicide. To solve cases, one must gather clues, & interview suspects & witnesses. Crucial to the interrogation is observing facial expressions.
Until I played L.A. Noire, I didn't realize how incompetent I was at this skill. I figure this is because there are no major consequences for being unable to decipher facial expressions in everyday life, therefore, there is no reason to notice. Whereas getting it wrong "here" means that you will fail the case (that is, you will close it without knowing the entire story, or that the wrong person will be put away, or that more people will die). There will be moments when I'm sure the person is lying, but have no evidence to back the accusation. So I will "Doubt" them - but they were telling the truth! It's amusing.
I would like to know of other people's experience with the game - mainly, whether you think the facial expressions are an accurate representation of real-life expressions. And whether or not you agree with the statement above in which I said that there are little or no consequences for being unable to read "them" in everyday situations (after all, people tend not to be as deceptive as the criminals of L.A. Noire).
15 May 2013, 8:08 pm
