LA Noire

iMuse

Debut Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgUknbTFDO4

Looking forward to it, Hopefully it doesnt get delayed too many more times:rolleyes:

Retr0gamer

Looks great, acting is superb. Hoping it's bit like a less weird deadly premonition with a budget

Kiith

Excellent trailer. Has a really believable feel to it. The facial animation is excellent as well. Looking forward to it.

Fanny Cradock

"I took many a lump, but 'twas all in good fun."

Not overawed by the graphics but the voice acting seems excellent.

humanji

I think the graphics are pretty good on the character models. The faces look great. Reading up on it a while ago and apparently you have to pay attention to tells and twitches that people have when you're interviewing them, so hopefully the animations will really shine in that area.

The backgrounds aren't too brilliant, but it's a fairly free roaming game, so I generally come to expect the likes of GTA or Mafia with regards to the worlds content.

ShaneU

Is that Ken Cosgrove from Mad Men?

eddhorse

ShaneU wrote: »

Is that Ken Cosgrove from Mad Men?

Ha i was thinking the same myself, kudos to a great show.

As for the game, gonna wait for a few people to get it first....

Sisko

Finally you get to play someone on the other side of the law, a private eye is the perfect idea.

Can't really complain about the graphics, its limited by the fact that its a console game and theres nothing Rockstar can do to make the hardware better so they gotta roll with they have.

calex71

Wasn't this announced like 5 years ago ????

I'd forgotten about it totally but this looks good. One to look forward to I think.

Jim

calex71 wrote: »

Wasn't this announced like 5 years ago ????

I'd forgotten about it totally but this looks good. One to look forward to I think.

Yea, many thought it was vapour ware. Really looking forward to this now. Wonder who was doing the Irish was. Was pretty decent for a video game any form of media.

stuckin

Kinda makes me think of this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9CxT48jIgI

pixelburp

First Duke Nukem, now LA Noire? What's with all this vapourware returning from the grave?

The lead character's a bit so-so, but the rest and their facial expressions are eerily convincing. Especially that character who says "it takes a particular animal cunning..." / "This is your chance, don't fail me", the little twitches in his face while he speaks are sublime.

I'm guessing then it's a modern-day point n' click if the emphasis is on sleuthing so that in particular has be interested: it's a shame there's no PC version on the way (or at least, going by the logos at the end of the trailer, this seems to be the case)

humanji

pixelburp wrote: »

I'm guessing then it's a modern-day point n' click if the emphasis is on sleuthing so that in particular has be interested: it's a shame there's no PC version on the way (or at least, going by the logos at the end of the trailer, this seems to be the case)

It's kind of like a mix of free-roaming in a large GTA style city, where you get a call on the radio to investigate various crimes (I think you start off in traffic and move your way up through vice and then homicide), and then it goes into a kind of first person view when interviewing people of searching around a crime scene.

I read a 4 page article on it in, I think, PCGamer. I probably threw it out, but I'll see if I can find it and get some more info.

I'm actually kind of surprised at the Spring 2011 release. I had assumed that once it was re-announced that it'd be a year or more away. Can't wait for it.

pixelburp

humanji wrote: »

It's kind of like a mix of free-roaming in a large GTA style city, where you get a call on the radio to investigate various crimes (I think you start off in traffic and move your way up through vice and then homicide), and then it goes into a kind of first person view when interviewing people of searching around a crime scene. [...]

I WANT TO GO TO THERE.

That sounds awesome; they may just be making the same album over and over again, but by god you gotta love Rockstar's sound.

Burning Eclipse

Have been looking forward to this since it was announced. I also immediately though of Ken from Mad Men... It's gotta be him.

As for the trailer... I'm not sure what to think. I would consider LA Confidential to be one of my favourite movies. I've watched it so many times. I'm just wondering if this game is going to be Rockstar's LA Confidential in the same way that Vice City could be compared to Scarface? It even has the Irish police captain. Mark my words now, he's dirty.

death1234567

No PC version

humanji

ShaneU wrote: »

Is that Ken Cosgrove from Mad Men?

The main character is voiced by Aaron Staton from Mad Men (I don't watch it, so don't know if that's the guy you're talking about).


I found this article on the net that gives more info about it:

Hookedgamers.com wrote:

Digital Pulp

Noir is often considered a genre left to movies and literature. Bullets, booze, femme fatales and moral shades of gray have been explored in cinema via Humphrey Bogart and in books via Raymond Chandler. The themes and ideas exposed have generally been kept away from the video game audience but Australia's Team Bondi have decided to bring those things to the masses with L.A. Noire, as well as promising a few significant changes to the gaming industry itself.

Set in Los Angeles in 1947, you'll play as Cole Phelps, a policeman and World War 2 vet with ambitions the size of the very city he inhabits. The city itself will be massive in scope, something the developers have striven hard to accomplish. Looking over photos, records and street plans from that day and age, Team Bondi reconstructed what Los Angeles would've actually looked like during that time all the way down to the small alleyways and store names. This urban expansion makes more sense when one realizes that Rockstar Games, the fellows behind the Grand Theft Auto series, are publishing L.A. Noire as well as providing some development support. Once again, a sprawling cityscape will be the playground.

Well, mostly your playground. You're playing a policeman after all, not a mob associate or gangbanger, so your trigger finger will have to be partially subdued. Though you'll have freedom to go anywhere you want and do anything, your directive is much more focused than in any GTA game. Starting as a simple beat cop, Cole Phelps (voiced by Mad Men's Aaron Stanton) has been spat out into the rough world of post-war America, a landscape crawling with corrupt cops, drug pushers, murderers and hosts of other characters that seek to make Cole's life as a man in blue a treacherous one. But he deals with it. Cole Phelps is one of the few good ones, ready to take it to the streets, fueled by his dreams of reaching the homicide department.


Desk Work

Your rise through the ranks will be steady throughout L.A. Noire. From beat cop you rise to robbery to vice and other police departments until you reach homicide, acquiring a new partner with each desk you make it to. Your partner will, obviously, be a significant tool as you perform your investigations. Should you get stuck in a situation with no obvious clues you can ask your partner for help and they may prod you in the right direction. Need to take a long drive across town to the next plot advancement? Sure, you could simply jump there with the push of a button, but you could also enjoy the ride and chat it up with your partner about the suspects and evidence (and maybe stop a few crimes that could happen along the way).

But all this crime-solving won't be as simple as asking your partner for an easy clue. In fact, scene investigation is a key component of L.A. Noire, designed as a challenge to all the eagle-eyes out there. There will be no highlighted items, no clear path to follow. Many of the crimes in the game are based off of actual crimes during that time, thus many of the crime scenes have been painstakingly recreated as well. The guys at Team Bondi scoured newspaper clippings and police reports and photos, carefully reconstructing the murders and robberies and chases that occurred in the dark corners of L.A. The developers have even written endings to crimes that wound up unsolved. All this meticulous crafting has left a refreshingly realistic world for your detective skills to explore.

All clue-sleuthing will wind up in your notebook, possibly your most vital instrument in L.A. Noire. Whereas characters in the GTA games relied on guns, Cole Phelps will keep his notebook closer to the vest than any other item in his possession. See a brand name etched upon a murder weapon? Jot it down. Something strange written on a piece of paper next to a dead body? Record what it says. A witness said something about a mysterious black car driving by? Make those words eternal. Your notebook will be one of the biggest aspects to your rise through the ranks.

The Art of Lying

That, plus your interviewing skills. The interviewing of suspects and witnesses is vital to the solving of real-life crimes and it will be no different here. However, this won't be as simple as selecting the right choices in a dialogue tree. Team Bondi have introduced a new kind of technology that will, according to several sources, change the way in-game characters are rendered. Much buzz has been made about L.A. Noire's face rendering technology. Brendan McNamara, Team Bondi's founder, began a motion-capture studio called Depth Analysis solely for the purpose of creating the facial expressions for L.A. Noire. When early renderings simply weren't doing the trick, McNamara set out to revolutionize the way they are made and, judging from early previews of the technology, he and the folks at Depth Analysis are truly on to something.

Taking place in a large studio in Sydney, Australia, most actors in the game (reportedly over 300) acted out their scenes while roughly 32 cameras captured their performance. The motions and acting given were transferred to computers and reanimated for use in the video game. The technology, called (surprise surprise) 'motion-scan', has seemingly upped the ante for all facial animation in a game, even giving the developers of Heavy Rain a run for their money.

Now, when suspects and witnesses come under the heat lamp, you'll be forced to squint at every facial twitch and change the characters make. Is the suspect actually innocent? Could the witness be hiding something to protect themselves? Are you wasting your time or are you on the cusp of solving the case?

Assisting you in these interrogations will be the use of Coax, Accuse or Force, your three main options for moving the questioning along, but you'll need to watch yourself. Accuse too soon and the person will clam up and not say a thing. Coax too lightly and you'll never get anywhere. Force too often and your superiors may come down on you. It will be a delicate balancing act as you try and pry out the information you want while also making sure you don't lose it forever.


Taking the Case

But screwing up and dropping the lead happens in real life, and Team Bondi, sticking to their mantra of realism, looks to keep that up. Though some cases may have up to nine different endings, the developers have stated that you might not be able to solve all the cases. But don't fret because you'll have other ways of moving on. One dead-end case may be the beginning of a new one. A slow-moving case may cross paths with another or lead back to a cold one. Each case is even given its own title and though they'll often be independent of one another, they'll somehow help feed the overall story.

And the story looks to be as intriguing as any nourish tale of thugs, guns and cops. The gritty flow of a detective novel has never been overlooked and L.A. Noire looks to stay in line with that. With a script over 2200 pages, equivalent to 12 years of a TV series or 12 feature-length films, and over 20 hours of voice acting recorded, the scope of the story looks to be as large as the scope of Los Angeles itself. And though some of the stereotypes are intact (Cole Phelps's WW2 past and all its secrets come back to haunt him, and several of your partners will play the age-old 'bad cop' role to your good cop), considering all the changes L.A. Noire might bring to the industry, it's safe to overlook them.


Bringing It Home

The in-depth detective work, the expansive and detailed city and the earnest aspirations built into L.A. Noire should give any fan of hardboiled fiction an excuse for anticipation. The gunplay is one of the biggest pieces of the game that so far has been given little to no press but if Team Bondi can inject that aspect with as much precision and thought that they've given to the other main features, gamers need not worry about the thrill of the action. If all these parts can combine into a captivating symphony of foggy streets, shady women and cynical gumshoes, then Team Bondi might just introduce the noir genre to a new home.

Sisko

feckin hell. Ive been waiting for something like this for a long long time:eek:

Shiminay

This looks really interesting alright. Is that Liam Neeson voicing the police captain/boss guy?

The graphics don't need to be amazing for me, but the game's gonna need to be stylish to make it work well I think.

But it's Rockstar and it's an open world, so it's something they do well

death1234567

Kharn wrote: »

Is that Liam Neeson voicing the police captain/boss guy?

Yeah I'm fairly certain its him.

djkeogh

Well I hadn't heard a thing about this before but I'm loving the look of this. This could be pretty epic if it lives up to that trailer.

I'll be following this more closely now

Single Malt

Edge had a feature and cover towards the start of this year. That had release for Fall '10. I was dismayed to find out last August that it was pushed back to Spring '11, as it was the game that most interested me of all the upcoming (and past) releases this year.

Skerries

death1234567 wrote: »

Yeah I'm fairly certain its him.

i don't think it is, the face and voice match an actor you would see on telly but i can't put a name to
he's one of those actors that you would know to see but wouldn't know the name

Jim

Skerries wrote: »

i don't think it is, the face and voice match an actor you would see on telly but i can't put a name to
he's one of those actors that you would know to see but wouldn't know the name

Yea, I know exactly who you mean. Can't put my finger on him.

Jim

Jim wrote: »

Yea, I know exactly who you mean. Can't put my finger on him.

http://gameinformer.com/games/la_noire/b/xbox360/archive/2010/11/11/l-a-noire-preview.aspx

That's why all the facial expressions are so good. Also seems all the characters look like their voice actors. With that in mind I'm almost 100% that Brandon Keener (usually seen making some calibrations) does the main character / narrator in that trailer.

Jim

Apparently it's Aaron Stanton from Mad Men


But I'm still confident the narrator is Brandon Keener!

Zero-Cool

Wow, had no interest in this game with all the delays. Even the trailer wasn't anything special but Humanji's link above sealed it for me!

Always wanted a GTA style game where you play a cop, not a robber. Also love the CSI games and solving crimes. That mixed with a Noir story just sounds brilliant to me.

Now I can't wait for this game! balls anyway!

Zero-Cool

Okay, here we a go. A fantastic 4 page preview of this game including one of the cases you work. I cannot wait to play this and see it in action!!

http://gameinformer.com/games/la_noire/b/xbox360/archive/2010/11/11/l-a-noire-preview.aspx?PostPageIndex=1

Paleface

I love everything Rockstar do.

I think this game has the potential to be another huge success for them.

Sisko

Yeah although they're the publisher this time, Team Bondi are the devs doing all the groundbreaking stuff.

Having rockstar there helps massively though as, well, many will automatically buy it as a result with out any knowledge of how ground breaking its being hyped up to be.


This game has the potential to change things in the industry. And really put gaming on the map as proper rival for storying telling and not just entertainment, to movies and TV.

The fact that these guys have come up with tech that allows actors to just simply act, and their facial animations transfer onto to a 3D model, with out the need for painstaking frame by frame editing, could bring a massive boost to 3D animated films or tv shows too. As well as bring more major actors and directors to games.

Zero-Cool

A slideshow of pictures showing scenes from the game. Looks well stylish.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sleuth-slideshow-l-a-noire/707569

Jim

sheehy83 wrote: »

A slideshow of pictures showing scenes from the game. Looks well stylish.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sleuth-slideshow-l-a-noire/707569

Even those still images make it look so good. I'm very excited for this now. I might actually put a personal embargo on any news about it from now on. Seems like a story where you don't want anything at all spoiled.

Zero-Cool

I think i'm with you on that Jim. Some previews released today, great one from CVG but had t ostop reading halfway down cuz they were giving away the ending of a case. Sounds f*cking amazing tho reading the previewers emotions playing it

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=276597

Sisko

Agreed, I skipped through all the parts talking about the missions he's playing. Loved the parts talking about the overall impact this game may have apon release. I've a feelings this is going to be a landmark game :

We've been well and truly enchanted by L.A Noire, from its lugubrious jazz hall 'feel' to its stunningly evocative, wonderfully authentic and impressively motley locales. We can't wait to take on cases from other LAPD departments - especially Rockstar's specialist 'desks', Homicide and Vice.

But it's the game's personalities that leave us with the feeling that this could represent a new dawn for entertainment as a whole.

The uncanny valley has been demolished. The faces of Noire's excellent cast (including Mad Men's Aaron Staton as Cole) are represented with such accuracy, they create a world in which NPCs not only appear, react and lie as real people - but carry with them a human presence and intimacy never before seen in video gaming.

Perhaps even more credit should be passed to the complexity and astuteness of Team Bondi's writing, however. On this evidence, Noire's characters have been crafted on page with the intelligence, maturity and bewitching idiosyncrasies their jaw-dropping animation deserves.

Those we've witnessed are more believable and multi-layered than anything we've previously seen in a Rockstar game; an amazing feat when you consider the studio's own sterling reputation for in-game personification.

A question mark exists over pacing (will an unhurried, dialogue-heavy adventure pass muster with Rockstar's core fans?), but this has astounding promise - a handsomely cinematic experience, housing an unflinching, surprisingly cerebral adult journey.

A better narrative-driven experience than the movies? L.A Noire might lift the lid on 1947 Hollywood's seedy underbelly - but it's Tinseltown 2010 that should have real cause for alarm.

I can only wonder now what the combat is like. Personally I would have hoped it'd lean more towards a more realistic approach. One bullet can kill, resulting in the moments you do pull out your gun to be really intense and forcing you to think. Suiting the pace of the story in the game and atmosphere etc. Think swat 4 in 3rd person, the ability to call out and get people to drop their guns etc etc.

But console limitations apply and unfortunately this isnt a PC game. The realistic approach is hard to pull off with pad controls , so it'll likely lean more towards arcade shoot outs , you easily taking on 10 guys - auto aim typical GTA stuff.

I hope to be presently surprised though.

Magill

zzzzzZZZzzzzZZZZZ sisko




This game looks like its going to be awesome, but then rockstar are one of those few in the gaming industry that seldom produce anything but excellence.

Dont know which im looking forward to more, this or agent.... even tho theres very little info on agent... im very excited. 2011 has some great looking games on the way.

Sisko

zzzzzzzzzz, yourself, live in denial all yea want, doesn't change the disappointing facts.

I wont refrain from stating which to avoid offending over sensitive console gamers.

pixelburp

The latest trailer for this is out, detailing in more depth the technology behind the proposed facial expressions / features. It's scarily good in some of the clips, this really could be something special, they've got a really extensive cast by the looks of things & playing a proper detective could be such a blast:

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-diary-l-a-noire/708505

Also: Walter Bishop! (also known as the actor John Noble of course hehe)

Sisko

this really is a step forward in gaming.

The graphics don't look that impressive at all though which makes the 10/10 facial animations look a bit odd on the GTA like 3d models but what can yea do, they're limited by the hardware there.

grizzly

What are the mechanics of playing through the conversations like? After all the fancy facial animations do you just get;

– (He's lying) "Book 'em"
– (Trust him) "Let him go"

Overheal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTOlEUAtGog

Behind the scenes of the facial motion capture.

No PC version again eh. I guess I'll just keep giving my money to Blizzard and Valve.

humanji

grizzly wrote: »

What are the mechanics of playing through the conversations like? After all the fancy facial animations do you just get;

– (He's lying) "Book 'em"
– (Trust him) "Let him go"

It's a case of trying to get information out of people. I think you have set methods of talking to someone like threatening them, reasoning with them, bribing them etc., but you've to try and read their face and body language for tells that might indicate what you should do and if they're telling you the truth.

So if you mess up, you may believe information that'll send you after the wrong suspect, or if you you realise you're being lied to you can try and force out the truth.

Burning Eclipse

Overheal wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTOlEUAtGog

Behind the scenes of the facial motion capture.

No PC version again eh. I guess I'll just keep giving my money to Blizzard and Valve.

Do you not own a PS3 or Xbox 360?

pixelburp

Snap! :P

Overheal wrote: »

Behind the scenes of the facial motion capture.

No PC version again eh. I guess I'll just keep giving my money to Blizzard and Valve.

eugeneious

I wish this game was out now!! lol

Zero-Cool

Lads, when exactly is this out? I'm seeing different release dates all over the shop!

gizmo

sheehy83 wrote: »

Lads, when exactly is this out? I'm seeing different release dates all over the shop!

The first half of this year is about as accurate as the official reports have been unfortunately.

Grumpypants

Rockstar reckon spring 2011 but who really knows these days

Kiith

It says Autumn 2011 on the tech trailer above. At the end.

Sephiroth_dude

A may 21st release like rdr would be perfect

GTR63

Rockstar announced on their twitter that a release date would be announced soon.I'm guessing it'll be released in the summer.

iMuse

Release date announced as May 17th, Lets hope it comes out on time.


New Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsYAraSusdo