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Frogwares has been in the Sherlock video game biz for quite a while. The developers have created a number of classic capers for the worlds greatest detective to crack, sometimes with the hilarious side effect of things like Creepy Watson coming out of it. However, Frogwares latest move with the Sherlock Holmes franchise stops taking a step forward and instead looks back. Who was Sherlock before he was the most famous detective of Scotland Yard? Sherlock Holmes Chapter One takes a dive into the character as a young man in his formative years of deductive crime-solving, and I got to take an early peek at what the game has in store in a limited preview.

This preview look at Sherlock Holmes Chapter One started with a young Holmes and his friend Jon (not Watson) on their way to the fictional Mediterranean island of Cordona. What brings them to this remote place? Well, it turns out Sherlocks mother is buried there and he wishes to get some peace he was never given when he lost her at an early age. It isnt long before hes caught up in matters far more complicated than emotional closure with his lost parent. I found myself at a hotel where a sance gone wrong resulted in Sherlock taking up the challenge to uncover stolen valuables from among a violent former naval officer, his frantic wife, and a mysterious medium.

Right from the get-go, Sherlock is a narratively intriguing take on the mystique of the legendary detective. Unlike the usual well-experienced Sherlock and his escapades, this Sherlock is brash and fallible, even if he keeps the trademark savant powers and instincts of deduction and investigation and the cool and bold demeanor that make Holmes an easily recognizable character. In the full game, the entire island city of Cordona will sprawl before you, full of mysteries and clues to both small cases and grander ones related to young Holmes and his goals.

I only got to get a taste of what the city would entail, but it was easy to tell that Holmes direct objectives are not the only cases the players will pursue. Each district of the city bustles with life and hides non-primary cases the intrepid detective and player might wish to pursue. Im very interested to see not just how young Holmes story plays out, but also what secrets the team that made The Sinking City might hide in Cordona.

Much as in previous games, the pursuit of truth in a case is a multi-faceted affair combining the use of scene investigation, studying of clues, collection of testimonies, and mechanics tying it all together to form logical conclusions. At any given point you might be on the path of a lead you can pin as active. Having a certain lead active may result in you asking potential witnesses about the subject for which they might be of help or not. When youre in a hot crime scene or other places of interest, you can search for clues or present pertinent clues youve found to notable persons in order to gain their testimony on the matter.

All of this works towards creating a branching path of deduction to piece the overall crime and culprit together. Players familiar with previous Sherlock games should very well recognize this mechanic. Its alive and well-preserved in Sherlock Chapter One. Also interesting is that the clues you discover can lead to drastically different reasonings and conclusions. For example, by the time I had finished gathering all clues regarding the military officer, his wife, and the medium, I had four outcomes to choose from: two culprits and what Sherlock would do in reaction to them.

Jon is also an interesting figure. Much like Watson, he follows you closely throughout the game and acts somewhat like a guide. If ever youre at a loss for what to do, Jon will no doubt be somewhere nearby to give you some form of direction. He also supplies just a touch of lightheartedness and comedy to an otherwise rather straight-faced game and I found myself welcoming his presence more often than not.

My time with the preview of Sherlock Holmes Chapter One was short but pretty sweet. Its not always the best-looking game, though I find its use of character animations and reactions to your questioning rather standout, as well as its detailed crime scene investigation. The clues were cleverly placed, the logic and truth were interesting to uncover, and the path to a final conclusion felt very well formulated by the mechanics. Theres still a lot for this game to show and tell us about, but if youve been in for the Frogwares brand of investigation before, Sherlock Holmes Chapter One is shaping up to be another meaningful entry in that trademark style.

This preview is based on an early edition of the game supplied by the publisher. Sherlock Holmes is currently slated for launch sometime in 2021 on PC.

TJ Denzer is a player with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. When he's not handing out beatdowns in the latest fighting games, exploring video game history, or playing through RPGs with his partner, he's searching for new food and drinks in the constant pursuit of good times with good people inside and outside the South Texas area. You can also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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Sherlock Holmes Chapter One hands-on preview: Formative deductions - Shacknews

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was one of the most popular television shows of all time. It ran for 15 years on CBS, spawned several spin-offs, and entertained parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents endlessly with grisly crime investigations and detective camaraderie. Now the original crime scene investigators are coming back in a series revival called CSI: Vegas, and a new featurette catches up with Gil Grissom (William Petersen), Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox), and David Hodges (Wallace Langham), who return to help Maxine Roby (Paula Newsome) and her team face a massive threat.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (the ATM machine of television) followed a team of crime scene investigators employed by the Las Vegas Police Department who used physical evidence to solve various murder cases. But in the new series, theres a larger overarching problem that the characters have to face. A lab used to fake criminal evidence has been discovered, threatening to destroy the entire Crime Lab, undoing all the hard work theyve previously done, and potentially forcing the release of thousands of convicted killers back into society. Doesnt this sound like something Gotham City would have to deal with?

Jorja Fox explained what will be happening in the series premiere this fall, which seems to kick off with her character:

Sara is coming from the great wide open, the land of the unknown. She gets a phone call from a friend who is in trouble, a friend that the audience may recognize and love a lot, and next thing you know she finds herself at the lab and she meets this new dynamic, compelling, intriguing force of criminalists that are on the front lines of fighting crime in Vegas.

So the team will still be solving crimes just as they did all those years ago. But even in the six years that the show has been off the air, crime scene investigation has changed. As William Petersen notes in the video, The way we solved crimes 20 years ago is a lot different than the way they solve crimes now. Its a different world. So expect to see some new investigation techniques and technology assisting the team this time.

CSI: Vegas will also star Matt Lauria as Joshua Folsom, Mandeep Dhillon as Allie Rajan, and Mel Rodriguez as Hugo Ramirez. The show is executive produced by Jason Tracey, who will also serve as showrunner, and Jerry Bruckheimer is also back as an executive producer. Uta Briesewitz directs the premiere episode and also executive producers along with Jonathan Littman, KristieAnne Reed, Anthony Zuiker, Carol Mendelsohn, Ann Donahue, Craig ONeill, Cindy Chvatal, and star William Petersen.

CSI: Vegas is coming to CBS in the fall line-up this year on Wednesdays at 10:00 P.M. ET/ 9:00 P.M. CT, but a specific premiere date has not been locked down yet.

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'CSI: Vegas' Teaser Welcomes Back the Original Crime Scene Investigators - /FILM

TRENTON City resident Cheryl Jones encountered the gunman knocking on her front door, and officers at Trenton Police headquarters heard the fatal gunshots.

Clent Morris, 90, has been charged with first-degree murder, second-degree burglary and weapons offenses on allegations he shot and killed his neighbor on Sheridan Avenue this past weekend.

New details in the grisly homicide emerged in court documents obtained by The Trentonian.

Jones, 65, and her boyfriend identified by the initials EG were watching TV inside their Sheridan Avenue household when someone knocked on the front door about 6:20 p.m. Saturday, according to the affidavit of probable cause.

Jones went downstairs to answer the door and said, I told you to stay off my porch, Clent.

Morris, who has long accused Jones boyfriend of breaking into his nearby house and stealing his money and food, tussled with Jones on the front porch before shooting her multiple times at close range, according to witness statements provided to the Mercer County Homicide Task Force.

Ive been shot, Jones said, according to witness statements. He shot me.

Trenton Police Department officers heard the shooting occur, for Sheridan Avenue is an adjacent street to TPDs North Clinton Avenue headquarters, Detective Jessica Senese of the homicide task force wrote in the probable cause statement.

Detectives Jeffrey Vetter, Michael Gettler and Gregory Woods immediately responded to the scene and found Jones lying on the front porch suffering from multiple gunshot wounds, according to information released by Trenton Police and the Mercer County Prosecutors Office.

The officers performed CPR on Jones, who had succumbed to her injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Additional officers arrived on the scene, entered the house and found Morris ascending the stairs to the second floor of the Sheridan Avenue residence, according to Seneses probable cause statement supporting the heavy charges against the 90-year-old city man.

The officers, believing Morris was armed and dangerous, told him to drop the weapon and to surrender.

Morris put his hands up and walked down the stairs, according to court documents, which indicate Morris did not have a gun on him at that time.

Officers, however, found a revolver on the second floor near the steps and a gun holster on the front porch, court documents show.

Police searched the entire house and also found the victims boyfriend, EG, on the second floor.

EG, in a statement to police, said he had heard the gunshots that killed his girlfriend and saw Morris walking back downstairs when the cops told Morris to put your hands up.

Morris accuses EG of burglary and theft, but EG said he had never been inside the elderly mans Sheridan Avenue household, according to EGs statement to police as detailed in court documents.

Based upon their crime scene investigation, police charged Morris with the murder of his Sheridan Avenue neighbor.

Instead of hauling him into TPD headquarters and taking his mugshot Saturday night, police transported Morris to a local hospital to treat his eye injuries. He was suffering from a wound to his eye at the time of the homicide, police said.

Police officially filed murder charges against Morris about 11:50 p.m. Saturday, records show.

In New Jerseys criminal justice system, a general presumption of pre-trial detention exists for any defendant charged with murder.

The Mercer County Prosecutors Office says Morris has been hospitalized since his arrest but has not said whether it will seek to place the elderly man in jail without bail pending trial.

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90-year-old Trenton man charged with murder accused victims boyfriend of burglary, witness says - The Trentonian

Moments after leaving the first scene, Local 5 learned of a police presence just five minutes away along 23rd Street.

DES MOINES, Iowa Officers are at the scene of a different incident along 23rd Street in Des Moines Wednesday night after responding to a shooting just five minutes away.

Two people were injured following a shooting near the 1700 block of 11th Street, according to officers with the Des Moines Police Department.

Details are minimal, but Local 5's Eva Andersen confirmed there were three police cruisers and a crime scene investigation unit at a residence in the area.

Jefferson Avenue is blocked off at the 11th Street intersection while officers investigate.

Moments after leaving the area of the shooting, Local 5 learned of another police presence just five minutes away along the 1800 block of 23rd Street.

Our crews observed what appeared to be bullet casings in the street. Evidence markers are also visible.

Officers are blocking off the area.

Local 5 will update this story as more information becomes available. Download theWe Are Iowa appor subscribe to Local 5's"5 Things to Know"email newsletter for the latest.

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Officers respond to shooting along 11th Street in Des Moines minutes before incident near 23rd Street - Local 5 - weareiowa.com

TORRINGTON Officers from around Wyoming, Nebraska and Colorado attended a 40-hour training session hosted by the Torrington Police Department Monday, March 29, through Friday, April 2.

Forensic Pieces, a Florida-based forensic training company, provided entry-level investigations training to a class of officers from different agencies throughout the tri-state area.

Dr. Michael Doc Berkland and April Crichton provided instruction for greater than 20 students throughout the week. Doc is a former medical examiner, while Crichton works for the city of Anaheim, Calif. as a forensic specialist.

Crichton has been with the city of Anaheim for the past 13 years, where she has worked as a self-proclaimed jack of all trades. She has been involved with evidence collection, fingerprints analysis, blood spatter analysis and crime scene work.

In addition, she has experience working with a wide range of major cases, such as officer-involved shootings, homicides, death investigations, domestic violence investigations, breaking and entering investigations, burglaries and much more.

Ive seen one of everything, Crichton said of her experience as a forensic specialist.

Crichton acquired a bachelors degree and was then certified as a crime scene investigator in California when she was hired by the city of Anaheim.

This is a basic crime scene class. It is here to give everybody the crash course, who may not know how to handle a crime scene, Crichton said. A lot of the people here in are in an investigation role, now, and they are fairly new in it. So, they want to make sure they can preserve the scene, and they can preserve and collect the evidence properly, document the scene, everything, so that it is reproducible and verifiable.

During the class, officers were provided sample crime scenes and directed to diagram the scenes. The goal was to obtain as much information as they could while preserving the scene.

After the officers did this, they would have other officers come to their mock crime scene to attempt to reconstruct the crime scene, based on the original officers notes and documentation of the scene.

A lot of it is measurement and math, Crichton said.

Officers were later provided with samples of simulated blood spatter which they were required to measure to determine the angle of trajectory for the blood.

During the blood spatter analysis portion of the class, officers were also instructed on the proper way to test red-colored spots or stains to determine whether the spots or stains were blood or something like nail polish or dried barbecue sauce.

Its very important for officers to be able to distinguish whether something is evidence or not, Berkland said. As part of this class, we teach officers to check for the viability of certain pieces of evidence, such as blood. We then test the officers to ensure they are able to determine whether or not there is blood present on a swab; some swabs have blood on them, some have dried barbecue sauce.

After determining whether the red-colored spots or stains are blood, officers are then required to document the spots and stains so they can begin to understand what occurred at the location.

When somebody, sadly, gets bludgeoned, theres standing, theres castoff, there are all sorts of things, Crichton said. When that blood hits that wall, we want them to know what direction its going, why it is going this way, what to expect. Crime scene work is a lot of measurement, a lot of math.

The officers were provided mock crime scenes, complete with simulated blood spatter, on Wednesday and Thursday.

We have the officers set up the scene and create a scenario, Berkland said. Other officers will then be required to diagram the scene and use what they have learned to determine what happened in the scenario created by the first group.

Berkland said this is one of his favorite parts of the training as the officers try their best to challenge one another.

The officers setting up the scenes will swipe the blood here, and swipe the blood there, to try and mislead the officers who are investigating the scene, Berkland said. Its a really good time.

After the conclusion of the training, many of these officers will use what they learned and immediately apply their education to ongoing and new investigations. Additionally, there are other courses available for the officers to progress further and learn more about crime scene investigation.

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Area officers attend CSI training - The Torrington Telegram