I went with the FYE $39.99 pre-order deal despite expecting the game on the 5th! Patience, patience...

Gamespot reviewed the game

Score 7.2 across all 3 platforms, Xbox version tagged as best one.

Xbox

Gamecube

PS2

Last paragraph

IGN review scores

Xbox 9.2
PS2 9.0
Gamecube 9.0

I have been reading some on the gamefaqs forums about True Crime..it sounds very, very cool. Everyone over there is simply having a blast with it. I am a bit surprised at Gamespots low rating, but that wont stop me from getting it.

I been reading about the custom soundtrack stuff and it seems you can pick what songs play when driving when your walking and having a shot out. So is this true cause I got the game but yet to open it being as I can't stand gangster rap and I damn sure don't want to hear it in a game. Most custom soundtracks on xbox just play you're songs in any order at anytime without matching the stuff going on in the game. Be nice if I can make my own sound track for all the stuff going on.

Thank ya for you're answer.

You most definitely can. I have it set to System of a Down to play during fight scenes. Although i'm pretty turned off by most of the tracks in the soundtrack(simply because a particular artist sucks), there are a few jems in there like Bone Thugs' For The Love of Money, Ice T's Six in the Morning and a few Parliament funks classics. You can also edit the default sountrack to reflect your taste.

OK cool thanks buddy time to open the game up and make my very own and first soundtrack for something. Yeah I like some rap but gangster rap I hate just rap is ok but gangster no thanks.

Anybody having trouble cuffing the perps? This has been the only problem I've had with the game so far, everything else is A-Okay.

There's been some goodies in the soundtrack. Parliament/Funkadelic's "Knee Deep" and "Flashlight" were welcomed tunes and there's a few old school joints in there too like The D.O.C's "The Formula" and some Bone Thugs! Man, I hope I hear more of that!

And Metalheads, dont dispair. Megadeth's "Symphony of Destruction" makes a nice intermission.

You can't handcuff perps until you have beaten them unconcious. You may be able to cuff after shooting them in the leg or something. I just unlocked the skill to take non-lethal shots, so I'll let you know.

Wrong. You can also cuff perps when they surrender. Flash your badge or fire a warning shot, and they might give up. Also, yes you can cuff them when they are shot in the leg or something with the non lethal skill.

I just started playing the Xbox version. I notice that some of the loading screens just fly by like instantly, normally that wouldn't be a problem. But it has some sort of 'tips' on that screen and they dont stay up for more than a split second...what is the deal with that?

I noticed that too, I was like wtf. I wanted to read them, too. This game is alot different then I thought it'd be. Still a good game, but not nearly as cool as I anticipated.

btw, that Gamespot review was horrible. The game was worth paying the $50 for. He gives it a bad review because of some of the one liners the main character says. I mean those are some of the funniest parts of the game. Who doesn't think hearing him say "I AM AN EEE-OHHHH-DEEE (EOD) AGENT!!!" which of course is mimicking Keanu Reeve's (I AM AN EFF-BEE-EYE AGENT) in Point Break.

Yes, you can handcuff them when they surrender. I just assumed that was obvious to everyone.

Well when you said you can only cuff them when they are unconcious, I had to set the record straight lol

I noticed that the tips on the loading screens do repeat, so it isnt that big of a deal afterall. It seems like a really fun game, just have to get use to the controls and the overall feel of the game.

Best moment in this game so far:

Walking up to 4 drug dealers doing their business, flashing my EOD badge, then have all 4 of them turn around and shoot me. Died in like 3 seconds. Man, that is good stuff.

This game is a lot of fun. I've been enjoying driving around and busting people while I get the hang of the controls. The city is huge and I have no idea where I'm going yet.

Best moment for me so far:
I stopped my car in the middle of the street, so I could grab a drink. As I was coming back, I saw a car of gangstas roll by and did a drive by on my car wasting me.

That is pretty funny.

Is the clipping and camera as bad as the reviews say it is? Or are they being harsh just because this game walks in GTA's shadow?

A couple funny moments:

I jumped out of my car and somehow ended up right in front of it, and ran myself over

I went up to an old man who was mugging someone. He surrenders, when I try to cuff him, he pulls out an uzi. Game over, lol.

UGh! I spent 10 minutes pursuing a baddie, taking out a few pedestrians in the process (and in the meantime totally forgot what this perp did in the first place ). When I finally ram his car dead, it pushes his car through a wall on the freeway. He gets out of the car and surrenders, but I'm on the other side of the wall looking at his bumper and unable to jump over the wall to arrest him!
The camera issues are mainly when walking ariound. Eveything is different when walking than in a car. The L stick steers in a car but shifts the camera on foot. Until I get adjusted I often find myself swinging the camera aound Nick as he wanders into the street to get run over.
My other big control issue is all the time I get my triggers mixed up. I'll try to shoot a baddie while driving and instead leap out of the car going sixty to do some mega-damage to myself.

Bottom line -- It's no GTA and not nearly as fun as that game and there's a lot to complain about. Still it is pretty cool and if you're a Los Angeleno, it's amazing to drive around and know exactly where you want to go. I never tried The Getaway, but this is really something as compared to a fictional city. Dispite the major flaws, I still think Gamespot lowballed the rating.
Give it an 8.5 or so.

I got The Getaway right after going to London and it was definitely dead on. I've also been to L.A., & True Crime did a great job too. However, TC is SO much less frustrating than The Getaway because that game was THICK with traffic, and most of the time it would swerve INTO you instead of away from you. With TC, when you have your siren on, some cars get out of the way quite well, which makes sense.

I love the game but hate the music. At least with GTA: VC you could pick your station (metal, R&B, new wave, etc.). Here there are a lot of tracks but I hate all of them, unfortunately.

It's hard to get going on the missions when there's so much crime going on to stop. I just can't resist a call to stop a mob hit... VERY good addition to my collection...

yeah, last night I couldn't resist so I broke down and bought the game. So far no crashes and I love this game. Stopped a rape suspect by running over him while he was attacking some woman.

How big of an area does this game cover? Santa Monica to Pasadena?

You can't make it all the way to Pasadena, unofrtunately. I tried last night. The 110 N stops after Dodger Stadium (Called Stadium Way here)

Taken from the IGN review:

The rough parallelogram (you never thought you'd hear that one from us) defined by Pacific Palisades to the northwest, Marina Del Rey to the southwest, Downtown LA to the southeast and Los Feliz to the northeast is the sandbox for True Crime and every nugget of pavement between those points is as it should be. So much so that Los Angeles natives --or anybody who knows their way around La La Land-- will have a tremendous advantage when it comes to the timed driving portions of the game. If you've used a shortcut down a back alley to dodge the cops in real life, it'll probably serve the same purpose in TC.

I was getting ready to ask if there was any reason to try this out if you hate the GTA series, so I'm guess the answer is no?