Indeed, in The Fallen Idol case, there's a fight scene that players can miss entirely if they take their time going to the apartment in question, with the result that the scene plays out completely differently.
And that's what will make L.A. Noire a game that players will discuss and dissect. Like Heavy Rain, players won't know about the paths they miss and the sequences that they don't see – they live with the story consequences of their decisions and actions. As you can imagine, this creates something of a minefield, and the team has had to methodically work through every possible permutation and outcome, looking for 'logic bombs'. Maintaining the logic of the gameworld basically adds up to a whole lot of work: writing more dialogue and creating more scenes, all so that the one path the player does take is seamless.
Players will have a fair degree of control over the level of difficulty themselves. If they really want to live the life of a detective, for instance, they can visit crime scenes without any of the assists – no musical cues, no controller rumble when a piece of evidence is nearby. Of course, the flipside is also true – the intuition system is designed to help players if they need it, while failing an action sequence a number of times results in players being given the option to skip it altogether, Red Dead Redemption style.
