Comparing LA Noire remaster to the last gen originals.

To me, LA Noire was one of the greats of last gen. Innovative gameplay and intriguing cases. Brilliant facial animations. Huge and atmospheric city to explore.

So now that I got the remaster on PS4, I decided to do bit of screen capturing to show other fans of LA Noire on this forum, the visual differences between the two.

Yes, I know, I know, there are lot of comparison footage around the net, but because I really love the game, I decided it deserves it's own topic here. I hope mods agree.

Anyway, here are some shots I just took from both PS4 and last gen. Same time, same location, same case, same visual settings (or as close as I could get). As you can see, there are some interesting differences.

We can discuss other differences in the versions later. If anyone is interested.

Cant see a lot of difference tbh.

Anyway, it still amazes that almost 5 years after the original release, not a single game has even come close to matching the facial animations in this, let alone surpassing them.

i guess you haven't played mass effect andromeda then?

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but seriously naughty dog are at least one company that have taken facial animations to new heights well beyond la noire. i'm sure there are others too. half life 2's were a more impressive achievement (at that particular point in time).

on topic the remaster shots look awful. seriously poor.

off topic, does anyone know how to post a medium image and put text beneath it? i've had to "hack" the editor with a bunch of dots down the side of the image to push the text down

@Macutchi: UC4 had good facial animation but it was cartoonish compared to the almost photo like LA Noise stuff. Plus there was an engine built just for that and the little facial ticks were just exceptional. I would love RStar to use that in RDR2 but they clearly arent.

i think it was certainly impressive for its time, but overall a bit overrated. there were plenty of times the expressions the characters were pulling were a little inscrutable and difficult to read.

for a game like la noire which cut to those interrogation scenes as core gameplay sequences it was an appropriate technology choice, but i believe the way the engine drew faces made it largely impractical and limiting performance wise for other games. i think i remember reading the company who created the tech went out of business.

for the sake of debate, here's an image and a gif from a quick google search for uncharted 4 facial animation. in the interest of proving your point that uc4 looks "cartoonish" in comparison, post some pics of la noire which beat them

that is so true! Even in the opening movie every single person has their thoughts written all over their faces. And the hero has so brill facial expressions they are always pleasure to watch. Okay, all these expressions are rather exaggerated, but they work in the game.

The remaster has all new Photo Mode. When you hit the Photo Mode, the game freezes, and you can move the camera around to take cool screenshots. You cannot move the camera everywhere, tho, which is a shame, but it does allow for bit better screens. Here are few example pics taken with the Photo Mode. These pics show that when it comes to fine detail, the remaster is rather better:

@Macutchi: You cant compare a cut scene to actual in game graphics.

hang on, that's where the strength of la noire is right? the interrogation sequences? which are essentially cut scenes.

you can't be seriously trying to say that in terms of in-game graphics "not a single game has even come close to matching the facial animations in this, let alone surpassing them." because those shots henry has posted completely invalidate that point straight away. they look awful.

and if it's those screenshots we're using as a yardstick of quality they also make your other point that uncharted look "cartoonish" in comparison completely invalid too. post some screenshots to prove your point. if you can prove it with evidence i'll concede you're right, otherwise you're wrong on both points

@Macutchi: No, they are not cut scenes, they are playable scenarios and built in game. The cut scenes in UC4 are out of engine for the most part, the one you posted anyway.

And yes, Bondai used facial capture for the game and it just hasnt been bettered. It would be better to play it then just looking at screen shots.

All those LA Noire shots are actual gameplay graphics. They are not from cut scenes. In case someone was wondering...

they are playable as in you can pick an option from your notebook and then sit back and watch the ensuing cut scene. that's it. it's a cut scene with an occasional interactive notepad view.

look at the faces in the screenshots henry posted. those are in game shots. what you're saying is that those are the best ever in gaming and no game has come close to matching them. and that is ridiculous.

i've asked you twice to post screenshots to prove your point and you've failed to do so both times, so you obviously can't prove your point

I dont really get that argument youre having. Most games use facial animation to the fullest only in the movie clips, be it Uncharted or MGSV or whatever.

In general gameplay, we only get general expressions depending on what the characters or npcs are doing.

But when it comes to those movie clips, LA Noire is indeed still the best with it's micro expressions and whatnots. Mafia 3 comes close too, as it has really good facial animations, as does MGSV.

Uncharted games never impressed me in this. In Uncharted games, the characters just look like third rate hollywood actors going through the motions. They never feel like they're having real emotions, they just look like they are acting out the emotions. And I've played all the Uncharted games... Even in the very emotional Uncharted scenes I never felt as if the characters were truly grieving or being elated. The facial, and bodily expressions are just poor.

Which reminds me, when doing emotions, the whole body has to act it out, not just the face. LA Noire does this superbly with it's body language.

it's not an argument henry, i'm trying to get ss to prove his point. i come on these boards to have a discussion. i'm usually pretty open minded, if he can make the case as to why uncharted is cartoonish in comparison then great, i'll concede. but he won't do. many people are like this on these boards. they don't want to have a discussion, they just want to come in make some sweeping statement and don't like it when they get challenged on it.

as for your points, i do think that the expressions in the interrogation sequences of la noire are still highly impressive but there's a smidgen of artificiality to them. it's possibly because the surrounding graphics aren't up to the high standards of the super realistic facial expressions. in terms of authenticity and cinematic impact i think other games have caught up and surpassed them.

and i think you're being unfair to uncharted. there's some really great scenes in those games, not necessarily ones centred around nathan but ones involving the surrounding cast - sam, sully etc. but all that stuff's pretty subjective i guess