Rockstar Games is best known for the "Grand Theft Auto" games in which the player is a criminal committing theft, murder and countless other heinous crimes in a huge, realistic city.

"L.A. Noire" has the huge, realistic city, but players are on the other side of the law here.

As Cole Phelps (voice and likeness of Aaron Staton from "Mad Men"), players will rise through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department, solving cases involving murder, fraud, conspiracy, arson and more.

Set in the postwar 1940s, the game takes pains to create a film-noir feel, from the moody soundtrack to the femmes fatale.

It can be played in color or black-and-white, and looks great either way.

As the game begins, Phelps is a beat cop with bad memories of his time in the war. After performing well in several cases, he is promoted to detective and starts receiving more complicated cases to solve.

Unlike the chaos and destruction of a "Grand Theft Auto" game, "L.A. Noire" is deliberate and thoughtful. Each case involves gathering evidence, interviewing or interrogating witnesses and suspects, and occasionally chasing after someone on foot or by car.

Shootouts and fistfights happen, but they're not the point of the game, and driving recklessly or injuring civilians will hurt Phelps' rating when a case is finished.

Evidence searches can turn up clues in a number of ways – bodies and trash bins can hide secrets, and some clues are outside the obvious area of a crime scene. Careful searches can uncover leads that will make the investigation easier down the line.

Intuition points can be used to discover less-obvious evidence at crime scenes, but Phelps can have only five at a time.

The heart of the game is in its conversations. "L.A. Noire's" characters have impressively realistic facial expressions modeled on the performances of real actors, and often the only indicators of a subject's honesty are subtle tells – a glance to one side, a chewed lip, a nervous tic.

For each question Phelps asks, he can believe the answer he hears, doubt it, or accuse his subject of lying.

The latter is especially risky – without a piece of evidence to back up his accusation, Phelps may cause a source or suspect to react badly, clamming up or otherwise becoming uncooperative. There are multiple routes to solving each case, but blowing an interview can make it more difficult to do so.

Phelps can also spend Intuition points to remove incorrect responses or find out what options are most often picked by other players.

Aside from the main cases, there are numerous street crimes that players can participate in solving if they wish. These cases tend to be shorter and are often more action-oriented than the storyline cases.

L.A. NOIRE

3 1/2 stars

Publisher: Rockstar Games

System: Microsoft Xbox 360, also for Sony PlayStation 3

Price: $59.99

Age: Mature

PICKS AND PANS

Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters

Publisher: WB Games

System: Microsoft Xbox 360, also for Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii

Price: $59.99 ($39.99 for Wii)

Age: Teen

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

Taking place after the new movie, "Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters" has Hal Jordan and his fellow members of the Green Lantern Corps battling the killer robots their order replaced as protectors of the galaxy. It's better than a lot of movie tie-in games, and it looks pretty good.

Jordan's power ring can generate objects out of "hard light," enabling him to create melee weapons, guns, bolts of energy and many other tools useful for breaking robots down to scrap. Jordan starts out with some basic moves and constructs, but the player can soon spend points earned by fighting with more elaborate abilities, along with upgrades for existing ones.

The bulk of the game is not unlike a "God of War" game, or other similar brawlers – lots of enemies, lots of moves to string together to defeat them. Occasionally the player will take to the skies for shooter segments, and a second player can drop in and out of the game at any time.

Nelson Tethers: Puzzle Agent

Publisher: Telltale Games

System: Sony PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network download); also for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad

Price: $9.99

Age: Everyone

Rating: 2 1/2 stars

As the sole member of the typically idle FBI's Puzzle Research Division, Nelson Tethers is given a rare mission in the field when the factory that supplies the White House with erasers goes dark.

Sent to the small factory town of Scroggins, Minn., Tethers must talk to the townspeople and solve many puzzles to uncover the mystery, similar to the "Professor Layton" puzzle series on the Nintendo DS.

The puzzles range from logic and math brain teasers to image-reconstruction challenges to recognition riddles. Tethers can use chewing gum (prechewed, as the town is short on gum) to reveal hints to the puzzle he's working.

Solving puzzles without taking hints or making mistakes on the solution garners a better score (and costs the taxpayers less money).

– Justin Hoeger