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-   -   LA Noire - The Thread. (https://forum.dvdtalk.com/video-game-talk/533295-la-noire-thread.html)

PopcornTreeCt 06-09-08 09:12 PM

LA Noire - The Thread.
 
Here's some news that's more than 2 months old:


Originally Posted by lanoire.net

Surfer Girl is reporting some interesting information regarding LA Noire. Apparently Sony have dropped the game and are not helping fund it anymore - which is more fuel for a 360 release too.
The new details being reported:

* Team Bondi’s goal is to have every NPC in the city feature a distinct personality and different knowledge sets
* The game is not being funded by Sony, who dropped the title (Phil Harrison and Brendan McNamara (Team Bondi head) can’t stand each other, McNamara & Company’s tendency to miss milestones did not help either, but had very little to do with Phil’s decision), there is nothing stopping a 360 release.
* The amount of music in the primarily jazz soundtrack is “comparable to GTA.”
* The detecting mechanics are described as “an analysisfest” to which reaction has been polarizing, one calling the detective elements “fatally boring” and another remarking that the mechanics are “absolutely innovative.” The former dubs the game “Assassin’s Creed: Noir Edition” and the latter went on about “investigating the social structure of 1947 Los Angeles.”
* Finally, information about at least some of the crimes you will be investigate in the game can be found here.

Surfer Girl later updated their post with the following details about Sony’s dropping of the game:

UPDATE: Sony stopped funding the game when Phil dropped it years ago. The bad blood between Brendan and Phil, which began during the development of The Getaway, is the primary factor in the game being dropped. Team Bondi would likely still be with Sony if Phil never took control of WWS, there is a reason that Brendan affiliated Bondi with SCEA rather than SCEE, who has authority over Australia.

There is no indication that Team Bondi are going the route of Ratbag, whose title Ikon (later became Scavenger, which never made it to stores) was dropped by Rockstar after being dropped by Sony, Brendan is quite amiable with the Housers.

Those detective elements are so polarizing that the implementation of them is cited for the reason of at least one resignation and there has been a number of departures at Bondi. Internal horror stories about Bondi appear to be plentiful.

Interesting developments, we’ll have to wait and see what comes of this.

Source: Surfer Girl

I remember watching the videos for this game before the PS3 was released and was disappointed that this game wouldn't come out for the 360. Well, flashforward to now and I've got a PS3 and this might (never?) come out for the 360.

DJLinus 04-29-10 05:49 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/3hk3rZ_lnTI&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/3hk3rZ_lnTI&hl=en_US&fs=1&color1=0x006699&color2=0x54abd6" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

http://www.rockstargames.com/lanoire/

Ever since discovering them about a month ago, I've been devouring the books put out by Hard Case Crime. This game looks like it'll scratch that genre itch (in videogame form). And after reading the March Game Informer cover story, I'm really looking forward to this.

Liver&Onions 04-29-10 06:11 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
cool vid, i wish it was gameplay rather than cutscene though. I want to see it in action after that article in Game Informer the other month

chuckd21 04-29-10 07:17 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Man, whatever happened to Surfer Girl?

JohnnyDaBull 04-29-10 07:27 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Let me get this straight, this isn't coming to PS3? I will be pissed!

dsa_shea 04-29-10 07:42 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by JohnnyDaBull (Post 10132052)
Let me get this straight, this isn't coming to PS3? I will be pissed!

If it doesn't then fuck em. I'd like to play it but I'm not buying another console just to do so.

Giantrobo 05-01-10 04:57 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
I love the "noire" part. The setting is gorgeous. But I don't like these all cutscene type games.

MrX 11-11-10 11:49 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
New trailer
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ZFkitjk4uA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8ZFkitjk4uA?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>

I've been looking forward to this, but this trailer does absolutely nothing for me. Not sure the guy who plays Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men was a wise choice as the voice on the main character either.

Raul3 11-11-10 11:53 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Well, I loved it. It looks great, the facial animations and voice work are amazing. At least in that video.

I didn't know any about the actors involved and was able to recognize them from the video.

Decker 11-11-10 06:00 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by MrX (Post 10485175)
New trailer

I've been looking forward to this, but this trailer does absolutely nothing for me. Not sure the guy who plays Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men was a wise choice as the voice on the main character either.

I was wondering if that was him. I mean it looks exactly like Ken Cosgrove and the era is the same so I wasn't sure if it was the same guy or if my mind was playing tricks on me. I like the actor and he's a good fit for that period of history, so why not?
I can't recall many other games where the in-game character is designed to look exactly like the actor who plays him. There was a Bruce Willis PS1 game and one where a fairy was Gwen Stefani, but those were much more famous celebs and kind of a different situation than this. Oh yeah - Martin Sheen in Mass Effect 2, I guess.
BTW :Who was the Scottish guy in that trailer? He looked and sounded familiar as well.

fumanstan 11-11-10 06:19 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
I've never seen Mad Men so I have no idea who that is. Kind of a mediocre trailer, but I still dig the concept and I like the style. The facial animations look good, but the rest of the graphics seem pretty weak.

Decker 11-11-10 06:30 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...hAuLKWR3Evb10= http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...inb486KsjKhKk= http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...pLXrzdVlGspgI= http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...UvG0sG7jehuNA=

BTW : You're missing the best show on TV. Get it in your Netflix queue. Or wait, Season 1 is coming to Video On Demand any day now.

Groucho 11-13-10 09:42 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Some uncommon valley problems in that trailer, for me.

Liver&Onions 11-13-10 10:13 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by Groucho (Post 10488426)
Some uncommon valley problems in that trailer, for me.

uncanny even.

Groucho 11-13-10 10:24 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Some spelling problems in this thread, for me.

Fandango 12-16-10 05:50 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
<div style="width: 640px;"><embed width="640" height="391" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:moses:video:gametrailers.com:708504" quality="high" bgcolor="000000" name="efp" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowfullscreen="true"></embed><div style="font-size: 10px; font-family: Verdana; text-align: center; width: 640px; padding-top: 2px; padding-bottom: 2px; background-color: black; height: 32px;"><div><a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com" title="GameTrailers.com">Video Games</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/game/l-a-noire/3244" title="L.A. Noire">L.A. Noire</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://www.gametrailers.com/video/developer-diary-l-a-noire/708504" title="Developer Diary: The Technology Behind Performance">Developer Diary: The Technology Behind Performance</a></div><div style="padding-top: 3px;"><a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://xbox360.gametrailers.com/" title="XBox 360">XBox 360</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://ps3.gametrailers.com/" title="PS3">Playstation 3</a> | <a style="color:#FFFFFF;" href="http://wii.gametrailers.com/" title="Wii">Nintendo Wii</a></div></div></div>

RocShemp 12-16-10 06:53 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
That looks fantastic. Please tell me it's coming to PC. :drool:

Brent L 12-17-10 03:23 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Did any of you guys order L.A. Noire from GoHastings.com when they had it mistakenly priced at $29.99? Well I just got the following email on that - they are going to honor the price mistake and ship it!


Thank you for your “LA NOIRE (PS3)” order. As you may have noticed, we had a data error causing us to allow this item to be purchased for $29.99 rather than the regular list price of $59.99.

Although this price is below our cost, in the spirit of the holiday season we have decided to ship your order when this product releases. You will receive a shipment confirmation email after your order is processed on or near its street date.

If you have any questions, you may call goHastings.com guest services at 877-427-8464

Happy Holidays from the goHastings.com Team

MrX 01-22-11 11:45 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
May 17th is the announced date of release.

http://kotaku.com/5740574/la-noire-t...eleases-may-17

Rob V 01-22-11 12:14 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Looks great.

SoonerDoc 01-22-11 11:17 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
On the cover of The Official Playstation magazine this month.

Fandango 01-24-11 12:38 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
<iframe src="http://www.rockstargames.com/videos/embed/6441" width="480" height="270" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Liver&Onions 01-24-11 12:49 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Consider this one pre-ordered!

Fandango 02-09-11 11:43 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
<iframe src="http://www.rockstargames.com/videos/embed/6561" width="640" height="360" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

Looks good! Also, is that Harry Crane I see?

Gunde 03-10-11 06:55 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
<iframe src="http://www.rockstargames.com/videos/embed/6731" width="640" height="360" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>

More and more recognizable actors. I saw both Greg Grunberg and Patrick Fischler. And <s>the guy at 1:10 - can't recall his name right now</s> Brian Krause

Gdrlv 04-21-11 10:43 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...ains-gameplay/

Gameplay trailer. Looks fantastic.

starseed1981 04-21-11 11:37 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Wow. Color me impressed.

RyoHazuki 04-24-11 12:25 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Looks good but I really hope it controls better than GTA IV.

Decker 04-25-11 12:18 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Huge LA Times article on the game in today's Sunday edition. Never seen them run such a big story on an upcoming video game.

I've copied it below, spoilerized for size.
Spoiler:
L.A. Noire plays in the shadows
The upcoming Rockstar Games release is more investigation than shoot-'em-up — a risky move. What's the big idea? The faces will tell the story.

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2011-04/61045966.jpg
Thirty-two cameras are aimed at actor Aaron Staton to capture his every move for transformation into Det. Cole Phelps in the video game "L.A. Noire." (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)


By Ben Fritz, Los Angeles Times

April 24, 2011


Aaron Staton is used to being in front of cameras. But it wasn't until the actor best known as ad account executive Ken Cosgrove on "Mad Men" starred in the video game L.A. Noire that he acted in front of 32 of them.

On a winter morning in a warehouse in Culver City that has been turned into a makeshift acting and game development studio, Staton was wrapping up his last day on the job. Sitting alone in a small room surrounded by the dozens of cameras and pupil-shrinking lights that eliminate any hint of a shadow, he worked his way through one gritty line after another — the type most people haven't heard since the days of, well, noir.

"A 15-year-old girl told me she was drugged and molested at a casting house with a mermaid out front," Staton growled. On the other side of a thin white wall, Brendan McNamara talked into a headset. "Make it a little more urgent," the game director said with his Australian accent. "This guy throws his rival off a roof."

By the next day, a bank of servers helped transform the performance into Det. Cole Phelps, an animated character who isn't so much based on Staton as possessed by him. Every dart of the eyes, tilt of the head and crinkle of the skin caught by those 32 cameras can be seen in the game, making for an eerily lifelike performance.

It's not uncommon for video games to feature professional actors doing voice work and even motion-captured movement. But McNamara was searching for something different in L.A. Noire: a video game in which players spend less time shooting people and more time interrogating them. "People hear about this game and they wonder what buttons they press, but it's not about that," McNamara explained. "It's doing what your brain has been doing for millions of years: Reading faces."

Seven years in the making, L.A. Noire (due out May 17) is the latest release from Rockstar Games, the company forever associated in most people's minds with its blockbuster Grand Theft Auto series. However, the New York publisher has long struggled to find another series that could stand behind it, with titles such as Bully and Manhunt falling well short. Rockstar finally hit the jackpot in 2010 with Red Dead Redemption, which sold 8 million units and swept industry awards.

It also revived the western at a time when it was virtually dead not only in video games but the larger pop culture. The company has mined different angles of the crime drama with its GTA sequels and is now looking to do the same with noire. "This is a very risky game, but it's also consistent with what they are known for," said Adam Sessler, co-host of the video game news show "X-Play" on cable network G4. "There's no other game developer with Rockstar's interest in mining American mythologies."

L.A. Noire shares traits with GTA and Red Dead such as a huge, open world — in this case 8 square miles of 1947 Los Angeles, from downtown to Hollywood, faithfully re-created with the help of a cadre of historians. But it stands out from most big-budget games for one simple reason: It's not a shooter or a fantasy role-playing game or any of the other industry-standard genres on which publishers are typically comfortable spending tens of millions of dollars. Action, in fact, is minimal, and there's no online multi-player, a de rigueur feature for most big-budget games nowadays.

Making a game centered on investigation is inherently a chancy proposition. Players raised on a diet of fast-paced shooting and epic action sequences might struggle to stay interested with the more methodical tasks of investigation and interrogation, no matter how stylish the backdrop is. With the exception of sports simulations and a few long-lasting and well-known brands such as Super Mario and the Sims, hit games in the U.S. not centered on shooting, stabbing or stomping are rare. Other games that emphasize style over action, like last year's murder mystery, Heavy Rain, have been modest sellers.

"This is a very bold move in that most people won't really be able to understand what it is until they play it," said Andy McNamara, editor in chief of the gamer magazine Game Informer (and no relation to the game director). "I don't think it could have gotten made at any other company."

But Rockstar, about to kick off a significant marketing campaign for its latest creation, believes L.A. Noire can be a hit among an audience much broader than the typical young male gamers. They're going after people who watch police procedurals like "Law & Order" and "CSI." "I think it's going to appeal to a very broad audience that is familiar with this type of thing in television or movies but never before in interactive entertainment," said Jeronimo Barerra, vice president of product development for Rockstar.

And Brendan McNamara said that if nothing else, he's confident L.A. Noire takes his chosen art form in a much needed direction. "If the future of games is only about body count," he said, "then it's not a very interesting future."

Going on a hunch

McNamara and his core team of developers previously worked on Sony's racing video game series the Getaway. In 2004 they formed their own studio in Sydney, Australia, called Team Bondi and set to work on L.A. Noire. As a fan of Humphrey Bogart films, the books of Raymond Chandler and the man he calls "Mr. Ellroy," McNamara thought the then-in-development PlayStation 3 could for the first time create the genre's foreboding shadows in a video game.

Developing the story and setting was the easy part: In 1947 Los Angeles, a World War II-veteran-turned-police-detective is haunted by his actions at the Battle of Okinawa while he investigates crimes based on infamous real events, most notably the Black Dahlia murder. From music to lighting to case names like "the silk stocking murder" and "the red lipstick murder," L.A. Noire was designed from the start to embody its title.

The problem was what the gameplay would be. McNamara knew he wanted to center it on interrogations but wasn't sure how to translate that into something compelling for the player. Verbal sparring was too technically complex, and letting players beat the truth out of suspects resulted in almost comical barrages of smacking.

At the same time, however, McNamara had begun working with researcher Oliver Bao, who was developing a system called MotionScan to more accurately capture facial movements. Starting with two cameras in a shed, Bao's dream was to re-create every nuance of the human face in digital form without the help of an animator. "I wanted to make a 3-D scanner out of cameras that could capture every little twitch," Bao explained.

McNamara's intention had been to use Bao's technology for the narrative scenes in between the action. But he eventually realized that lifelike facial performances could be at the heart of it — players would analyze suspects' facial tics and attempt to determine who's telling the truth, who's lying and where to take the investigation as a result.

"The first half of developing this game was basically stick figures and texts," recalled Barerra. "When the heads started coming on-line, it was a 'Hallelujah!' moment."

Those heads were portrayed by Australian stand-ins until late 2009, when video production began in Los Angeles. More than 400 actors performed in the game, first by acting out their characters' movements on a stage and then in the Culver City offices of Depth Analysis, where Bao is head of research.

It has taken more than a year of on-and off work to make it through a script that weighs in at a staggering 2,200 pages because of the multiple paths each investigation can take. The game features 20 cases as Phelps works his way through the Los Angeles Police Department's traffic, robbery, arson and homicide desks, investigating crimes. In one, a boxer goes missing after winning a fixed fight he was supposed to lose. In another a young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom and ends up raped and nearly dead.

To the last detail

On Day 82, according to a call sheet taped to the studio's white walls, Staton was one of several actors wearing orange T-shirts who were going through hair and makeup before sitting in the blindingly bright room with the expensive cameras. Bao was proud to show off his technology but also paranoid about letting strangers get close. The last time someone accidentally tapped one of the cameras, he explains, it took nearly four hours to recalibrate the system.

Reading a teleprompter and staring at a mini-"Mona Lisa" as his eye line, the 33-year-old Staton rattled off lines like the experienced video game pro he has become, though McNamara occasionally had to remind him to stop blocking his face with his hands. Speaking later on a bench outside, he acknowledged it has been a bizarre process as an actor and not at all what he expected when, in November 2009, he was offered a part in a game code-named "Hard Boiled."

"With a television show or a movie, you have an idea of how it's going to look because you were there," he said. "In this, you feel very removed because the physical process was separate from the line reading. I have no idea how it will look when it all comes together."

McNamara has a pretty good idea after all the time he and his colleagues have put into the game. The question is how many consumers will be as fascinated as he in the underbelly L.A. in the late 1940s. "The detective story has always been great in literaure; it's always been great in films," he said."We're asking: 'Why hasn't it worked in video games?'"


TimeandTide 04-25-11 01:02 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by Decker (Post 10740560)
Huge LA Times article on the game in today's Sunday edition. Never seen them run such a big story on an upcoming video game.

Thank you!

Arpeggi 04-25-11 01:35 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Best game of all time.

foxdvd 04-25-11 07:23 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
I wonder what % of the game is actual gun play....???

RichC2 04-25-11 08:14 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by foxdvd (Post 10740717)
I wonder what % of the game is actual gun play....???

Very little I hope. Nothing worse than having an interesting plot only to stall it with needless, repetitive gun battles (looking at you, Uncharted.)

foxdvd 04-25-11 09:55 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
I just wonder how they are going to balance it...the idea of short explosive fights that happen when you least expect it and are over in a few seconds actually sounds exciting. In a game like this it would seem stupid to clear 4 floors of a building one by one with an endless supply of thugs coming your way.

One of the trailers released recently showed a lot of driving, fighting and shooting....

RichC2 04-25-11 09:58 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by foxdvd (Post 10740878)
One of the trailers released recently showed a lot of driving, fighting and shooting....

Expectations of a Rock Star game, well that and Ping Pong.

Raul3 04-25-11 10:49 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
I can't wait for this game. One of those games that sadly I'll preorder fro. GameStop.

Groucho 04-25-11 10:53 AM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
Because you're a cop in this, I don't think the game will allow you to run around plowing through pedestrians, lassoing ladies, and the other mayhem that is commonplace in other Rockstar games. But I do suspect that you'll be doing more gunplay than a real L.A. detective in this timeframe.

nickdawgy 04-25-11 09:52 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
But can you have sex with hookers? That is what's keeping me on the fence.

Groucho 04-25-11 10:00 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 

Originally Posted by nickdawgy (Post 10741990)
But can you have sex with hookers? That is what's keeping me on the fence.

I would rather have the game stock full of hookers, but anytime you're solicited, you just say "No thanks, ma'am, I'm married!". But the game will let you tie them up and leave them on the train tracks!

PopcornTreeCt 04-25-11 10:56 PM

Re: Whatever happened to LA Noire? -here's some info
 
I really hope this game is more Red Dead and less Heavy Rain.


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