L.A. Noire

**Kyo** · 2010-02-07 10:22

February 6, 2010 - In the March 2010 issue of Game Informer (on stands this month), the first real details of L.A. Noire are revealed. Developed by Team Bondi (The Getaway), L.A. Noire is an open-world action-adventure game set in the City of Angels in 1947. Unlike previous Rockstar efforts, L.A. Noire exists in a real city, painstakingly recreated for historical accuracy. Don't expect the "shoot everyone" mentality of a Grand Theft Auto title -- this is something completely different.

You play as Cole Phelps, a beat cop looking to clean up the streets of L.A. It won't be easy, seeing as how the L.A. police force is mired in corruption from top to bottom. Phelps has his own issues to deal with, including some very bad things he did in World War II. Though he starts low on the totem pole, over the course of L.A. Noire Phelps progresses through a series of "desks" in the department, including traffic, vice and, ultimately, homicide.

As a detective, you have to solve cases through a mixture of investigations, interviews and interrogations. According to the article in GI, when you come across a scene, you won't find highlighted items sitting in obvious places. Crime scenes are said to look natural and require a deft eye to spot important clues. See a pair of glasses on the ground of a supposed murder scene and you can pick them up, noting details such as the brand etched on the inside of the frame. These little bits of information are jotted down on your notepad, which can be brought up at any time.

Things get a little more interesting in regards to the interview system. Team Bondi is using revolutionary technology that could change the way games are made. The new facial motion capturing system sets actors alone in a giant room with cameras all around. In full make-up, the actor delivers their dialogue. Every facial moment is recorded, from the most exaggerate of motions to the slightest twitch of an eye. The dialogue is recorded at this time as well, creating a seamless scene. All of this is then translated into a 3D game landscape with no animators needed. The result? According to GI, it's a picture-perfect rendering of the actor's scene. That's important to the gameplay.

When you interview someone, you'll need to watch their face and determine if they're lying. Like Mass Effect, your dialogue choices come from a handful of general options: coax, accuse or force. The way you handle an interview or interrogation is greatly determined by the reactions you get from the suspect. You can also refute testimony by selecting clues from your notebook.

Unfortunately, GI wasn't shown any of the gunplay, so the set-up for the action sequences is still a mystery.

You can read more details on the demo in the latest issue of Game Informer.

Game sounds pretty interesting.

**Odesseiron** · 2010-02-07 10:27

Well the 2 Getaway games were pretty decent. Maybe a bit... under developed in some areas, so hopefully they took what they learned from that series and applied it to this. I remember hearing about this game for quite some time, so hopefully it turns out to be good.

**Eggroll** · 2010-02-07 13:34

Looks very promising, even with how saturated the game market is becoming with sand box titles.

**Arnwulf** · 2010-03-09 12:03

Bump for Xbox limitations.

http://www.gofanboy.com/home/news-ar...because-of-dvd

It looks like there may be some issues with Rockstar Games’ highly anticipated and very ambitious LA Noire for the PS3 and Xbox 360. In particular it appears the Xbox 360 version is the one with issues. While many have questioned the DVD media format on the 360 since 2006, it seems the antiquated format is causing enough problems to be frustrating the team at Team Bondi, the developer behind LA Noire.

LA NoireApparently the frustration at Team Bondi is enough that Jeronimo Barrera of Rockstar has been tasked by the heads at Take-Two, Rockstar Games’ parent company, to calm the situation at Team Bondi over the size limitations by being stationed at the developer. While information is still limited on exactly how bad the limitations are, one would assume that some form of compression would allow for a HDD install on the Xbox 360.

The biggest concern is of course whether LA Noire could possibly go back to being PS3 exclusive as it was initially announced. The good news for Xbox 360 fans of course is that if T2 is involved directly and dragging Rockstar Execs into the mix for quality assurance, then chances are everything will go fine. We’ll just have to wait and see at this point. But one thing to note is that with Team Bondi using a completely new form of motion-capturing and video, compression may be a big issue. Stay tuned on this one.

**Lucavi** · 2010-03-09 12:24

I read a roughly 8-page write up/preview for Noire in Gameinformer and came away seriously curious about the acting and body-capturing technology they're using for this game. It seems like (or rather, they're hyping it as) once you witness the level of realism that full-body delivery offers, instead of CGIed cutscenes with the standard lip-synching that we have in games nowadays, you'll never be able to go back.

I'll be looking for a more in-depth video preview soon.

**Kyo** · 2010-03-09 12:42

Originally Posted by Arnwulf

Bump for Xbox limitations.

http://www.gofanboy.com/home/news-ar...because-of-dvd

Xbax strikes again.

**Lucavi** · 2010-03-09 12:44

Makes me wonder just how good looking GoW 3 would be if they PS3ed it, or even better, made it PC-onry.

**Kyo** · 2010-03-09 12:45

Originally Posted by Lucavi

Makes me wonder just how good looking GoW 3 would be if they PS3ed it,

What, lol?

You mean Gears of War 3?

**Lucavi** · 2010-03-09 13:07

Yes, Gears of War. I keep forgetting that God of War uses the same initials, but I've never really had an interest in the frothing Kratos (outside of hilarious webcomics like penny arcade).

**Riposte** · 2011-01-14 21:22

http://uk.ps3.ign.com/articles/114/1144147p1.html

Fan questions answered.

Full-on hyped for this game. I hope it fulfills its RPG promises. The specifics on being a detective sound too good to be true.

**Blabj** · 2011-01-15 05:38

Hot damn I'm even more pumped after reading that, not least that they mention 2 of my top 10 films as inspiration (this was pretty obvious from the look of the trailers anyway, but it's great they specifically mentioned them...)

**Qalbert** · 2011-01-22 11:47

leaked trailer:
http://kotaku.com/5740574/la-noire-t...eleases-may-17
slowtaku etc, but still, looking mighty interesting

**Priran** · 2011-01-22 12:04

My expectations for this game's story are probably too high. I'm thinking Mafia 2+Heavy Rain+Hotel Dusk. Still, it seems like an interesting game.

**Qalbert** · 2011-01-22 12:10

May 17th date btw. gonna embed this, although it may get taken down

**Riposte** · 2011-01-27 16:37

Official website is up.

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire...ref/?redirect=

**Insanecyclone** · 2011-02-09 13:18

Looks great

**Hiryo** · 2011-02-09 13:30

Had no interest in the game until I saw that video. That looks surprisingly good and not just a braindead sandbox game.

**Salodin** · 2011-02-09 13:43

Wow that game looks awesome.

**Odesseiron** · 2011-02-09 14:09

Wow, that looks fantastic. I hope they didn't try to make too much content and spread themselves too thin. From looks and that trailer alone, looks like a day 1 purchase for me.

**TacoTaru** · 2011-02-09 14:16

Been following this game a few years; finally nice to see a release date. Have a stack full of games I'll have to finished up by then, DA2 being one of them <_<

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