The 'true crime'? All the button mashing.

With all the hype about 'the new GTA' that I heard, I was expecting a lot. I wasn't *totally* disappointed, though it definitely isn't GTA. It doesn't even come close.

You play as Nick Kang, a cop with a typical tragic past. He is an agent for the EOD, or Elite Officers Division. Everything you'd expect to come along with that does. Bad attitude, willingness to break the rules, and extremely corny (though usually funny) catch phrases.

Your time playing is split up mainly between three different 'modes,' driving, shooting, and fighting, though you also spend a bit of time solving street crimes. It becomes obvious early on that most of the time was spent developing the driving, as the entire city of LA is accurately mapped out for your driving pleasure. This is great if you enjoy endlessly driving from one side of LA to the other, but not so much if you'd rather be fighting or shooting.

First, the fighting. It's sloppy at best. You spend a good amount of time mashing buttons. They say there are 'combos' that you can do, but it all just ends in button mashing. Also, you have guns, but Nick usually refuses to use them in boss battles. You're stuck feverishly mashing buttons until the other guy is knocked out. Luckily, for all but the last boss, this doesn't take much time.

Next, the shooting. The aiming is very, very, very picky. It's slow, and clumsy, and generally not very good. The two really good parts about the shooting bit are that you can pick up high-power guns that enemies drop and use them until the ammo runs out, and your own guns never run out of ammo. Though never running out of ammo is definitely cool, FPS fans will find the rest of the shooting part very, very dull.

As for solving crimes, the first 10 or so were really fun. Chase actress Halle Cherry after she does a hit and run, rescue heiress Patricia Durst from kidnappers, break up the 'high class hooker' turf war, etcetera. However, you wonder after a while why Ms. Cherry hasn't been locked up for all of her 6000 hit and runs, and why Patty Durst doesn't hire a team of bodyguards. After a while, it gets unbelievably tedious driving around waiting for the same old crimes over and over again.

My favorite part of the game by far is walking the streets and frisking people to see if they're holding drugs or illegal weapons. I don't know why it's so amusing, but it definitely is. It's especially amusing finding a tiny, elderly Chinese man carrying illegal weapons. Also amusing is tackling people, which you accidentally do a lot while trying to frisk them.

An interesting and unique aspect of this game is the 'good cop/bad cop' meter that changes depending on what good or bad things you've done. If you catch someone holding drugs or weapons, you get a point towards good. If you shoot an innocent civilian because you don't like his hair, you lose a point. I definitely would like to see this system in a better game.

Finally, the graphics and sound in this game were actually pretty good. There are a lot of different songs on the soundtracks provided, and you can easily add your own customized soundtrack. The ones provided are mostly hip hop and metal, but they both add nicely to the 'action.' The sound effects and voice acting are also fairly good. I was surprised, since most of the newer games I've played have had terrible voice acting.

Graphically, it could definitely have been better considering the xbox's capabilities, but it wasn't bad at all. My one specific gripe with graphics was the lack of shadows. If you duck under a shaded awning, you're still as bright as if you were standing in the sun. Little things like this detract from the overall picture, I feel.

Overall, I did enjoy playing this game, but it was much, much too short and easy. It also definitely seems as though the makers rushed everything else in order to accurately map LA. They should have waited longer and ironed out the kinks before releasing it.