I think the problem with the town in LA Noire is that it is trying to recreate real life to an extent and that is boring. In GTA they start you off real small and give you missions in a small section. Let you get to know the streets and land marks in the area and then expand. No so in this game. They tell you to smurf off and go all the way across this huge city scape that looks largely the same.

Semi spoilers but not really

During the missions to find....THE GUY! You have to guess clues about where to go....I don't smurfing know LA or what the landmarks are. That was bulltit as I don't even have this stuff on my map. I couldn't make heads or tails of a town I know nothing about. It is just poor design...PERIOD! This is the exact same problem that True Crime: The Streets of LA had but that was ramped up even worse than LA Noire is.