L.A. Noire

[Murdoc]

In case anyone missed these:

http://www.shacknews.com/screenshots.x?gallery=13854&game_id=5335&id=149109#img149109

I'm a bit excited and dissapointed at the same time. All this hype and we get a low resy console version of Mafia 2; was kind of hoping for something a little more "styled".

On the other hand, I love that era and if they can pull off a noire game that isn't Gta 1956 I'll play it willingly.

[Thyroid]

It's a blend of GTA and Godfather, innit? Isn't Saboteur like that? For that matter, wasn't The Godfather game like that too?

[brkl]

Both The Godfather and The Saboteur took a bunch of features from Mafia, which was a lot like GTA3 with a story. I don't really know what this story is even about though -- is Mafia 2 going through a name change or are the ports going through one?

[juv3nal]

It's a blend of GTA and Godfather, innit? Isn't Saboteur like that? For that matter, wasn't The Godfather game like that too?

Actually, from what I've read, it sounds like more of an adventure game with dialogue trees and stuff. Which makes it way the heck more appealing to me than the GTA/Godfather type stuff.

[Kolzig]

When is Mafia 2 coming out?

I really need to play the first one once again, I seem to remember that being awesome in almost every way and only the racing stuff was badly done.

[brkl]

Ahah, I hadn't heard of this game, so I thought Murdoc was actually talking about Mafia 2 and this was some kind of odd port.

The screen shots look like five years ago.

[kashwashwa]

Actually, from what I've read, it sounds like more of an adventure game with dialogue trees and stuff. Which makes it way the heck more appealing to me than the GTA/Godfather type stuff.

An adventure game in this setting, with some action sequences, in sort of a GTA like world is pretty much my dream game. That would be awesome.

[Patters]

An adventure game in this setting, with some action sequences, in sort of a GTA like world is pretty much my dream game. That would be awesome.

Yakuza?

[juv3nal]

Oh incidentally, in case anyone wants to read for themselves:

http://www.gamegrep.com/photos/29933-la_noir_gameinformer_scans_leaked/

The adventure game vibe, I get mostly from the description here:

http://www.gamegrep.com/showimage.php?pos=7&newsid=29933

continued here:

http://www.gamegrep.com/showimage.php?pos=10&newsid=29933

Not that reading scanned magazine text is a load of fun or anything.

[Xeneth]

Saw this in Game Informer the other day... Interesting.

Way back when my Uncle and I were playing GTA 3 for the first time, I recall him saying that he'd really like to see something similar, only setting-shifted into an era of tommy guns and prohibition. It's nice to see developers driving toward intuitively appropriate settings.

Is it just me, or does this sound a lot more linear than your average Rockstar-published product? Personally, I'd be down for that- The sheer number of random unrelated things to do daunted the hell out of me in GTA: San Andreas, and oftentimes the "mission option fan out and collapse" cycle of narrative gating that goes into these open world games feels quite disconnected to me. I'm intrigued by the talk of adventure game elements... For all the work that has been done lately to seamlessly integrate RPG elements into just about every other genre, I feel like it's high time to look at other "Grandfather" genres we can learn important design lessons from.

I second the desire for a less "Realistic" and more "Noire" look to the art direction. I think this would be fantastic with some more expressive shaders and texturing. Picture Borderlands with all the manga and "ill-mannered whimsy" influence replaced with more of a pulp aesthetic and see how that strikes you.

On the other hand, it sounds like the amount of research that went into accurately recreating LA was MASSIVE, and the way they're doing facial animation scanning sounds really groundbreaking, so I can totally understand shooting for realism given the circumstances. Painting over all that detail in the name of style would feel an awful lot like throwing away source material to some artists.

[juv3nal]

EDGE preview (some spoilers in there but no more than the Gameinformer scans had )

[Grippage]

Only the first screencap was low-res and badly staged (either that, or the pipe weighs as much a cigarette)

The rest looked pretty sharp to me, and the lighting looks good.

How bad was godfather 2 though

[toblix]

Well holy crap:

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Prettay sweet. I don't know what kind of facial animation thing they've got going on, but it looks wonderful.

[yeah]

Hah, I kept thinking that the main character looked like Aaron Staton (Ken Cosgrove on Mad Men), and sure enough, he's lending his likeness and voicing the main character. Awesome.

[toblix]

Clint Hocking thought the trailer was lame:

If I watch the trailer as a game trailer, I don't see a game. If I watch it as a movie trailer, it is confused, derivative, bad.

To me it sounds like he's saying that a game trailer has to show actual game play to be a proper video game trailer, but isn't that an unnecessarily strict definition? There are established ways of doing trailers, but does a movie trailer have to show footage from the actual movie to be a proper trailer? I'm sure there have been lots of independently produced advertisements for movies. Why can't it be just a clip that shows some characters, visual style and technology and still be a good trailer? Those are important parts of a game as well. Can't an ad for a book, say, do nothing but pan down pages of text?

[Raff]

It's a film trailer advertising a video game that shows only cinematics, which suggests a video game heavily dependent on impressive cinematics, which is lame in my opinion, because video games are about interactivity.

[Garple]

Can't an ad for a book, say, do nothing but pan down pages of text?

They have fucking trailers for books now, isn't that nuts?

Also: While they trailer isn't great IMO in-and-of-itself...it still looks fairly unusual as the subjects for video games go...furthermore, using the Noir concept in a game instantly makes me want to buy it no matter what. Also, I like the fact that I can't quite imagine what the gameplay will be like. Red Dead was the same way...I wasn't sure what to expect until I finally put in the disc.

[MrHoatzin]

It is a little heavy-handed noirwise and maybe a tad uninspired themewise from what I can see in that trailer. The faces do look less awful than your standard, super-realistic , tho. Still too goddamn shiny and with little dead eyes, but not offensive.

7.0 out of 10

[Patters]

It is a little heavy-handed noirwise and maybe a tad uninspired themewise from what I can see in that trailer. The faces do look less awful than your standard, super-realistic , tho. Still too goddamn shiny and with little dead eyes, but not offensive.

7.0 out of 10

I think they have purposefully gone for a high contrast system, which looks terrible to me,

[Murdoc]

Character lighting is awful, but yeah since lost and the damned then red dead their facial animation is pretty top notice since they are outsourcing to a mo cap studio for it.

[Quanta]

I was going to say that facial expressions look rather excellent and that I am still looking forward to this game. But then I checked the Official Website and realized that a PC version hasn't been announced. If Rockstar don't bother with the Windows Platform, I don't bother with their games. (I am still waiting for Red Dead Redemption for the PC as well )

[Forbin]

I like the character model of his partner way more than Cosgrove.

[Nappi]

I actually thought the faces looked pretty horrible, especially that of the detective. Now that you mention it, the facial animation is quite good, however. It's probably the lighting then, maybe.

Still, I'm anxious to see how this will turn out. I hope there will be some kind of video walkthrough soon, because I have no idea how this game will actually be played (and can't be bothered to read the previews).

[ThunderPeel2001]

If I watch the trailer as a game trailer, I don't see a game. If I watch it as a movie trailer, it is confused, derivative, bad.

Yes Oh god, yes.

Forgetting that they don't show gameplay, if this was a trailer for a movie (which is how they're trying to sell it: "This is as gripping as real movie!") I would give it a wide berth.

It should be called LA Cliche.

Here's the trailer broken down:

Case cliches

Police Chief: "A case that makes you, or a case that breaks you." (epic case!)

Police Chief: "The case you never solve. The one that keeps you awake at night." (dark case!)

Police Chief: "It takes a certain animal cunning, lad. Do you think you might be ready for that?" (tricky case!)

Police Chief: "This is your chance... don't fail me." (career case!)

Lead character cliches

Young detective: "LA PD, could we have a word?" (he's decent!)

Young detective: "You shot a man in cold blood, you're going to have to pay for that." (he's idealistic!)

Young detective: "What do we got?" (he's no nonsense!)

Young detective: "Spill it! Or we take you out in the alley and we knock it out of you!" (he's ready to break the rules!)

Young detective: "You needed the money, so you killed her..." (he's tough!)

Generic detective: "I thought you'd been under fire before..." (he's not perfect!)

Young detective: "So I'm supposed to believe that you don't know what happened?" (he's takes no crap!)

Young detective: "We're done for now." (he's in control!)

Generic genre cliches

Woman: *screams* (there's drama!)

Veteran detective: "Two stiffs, overdosed ... Victim was dead before the car hit him" (blasé cops!)

Accused man: "That's not true, goddamit!" (more drama!)

Mafia guy: "I expect you... to draw your own conclusions." (a sinister mystery!)

Gun-toting criminal: "Not gonna happen, fellas!" (there's crazy gangsters!)

Is there anything we haven't seen before a million times? I don't even know what this epic case is about, who the characters are, what makes this a compelling story in any way. It's almost deliberately bad.

I wonder if he'll uncover "corruption that goes all the way to the top!" or maybe find that the "whole system's is rotten from the inside!". Somebody hire someone talented to do game writing... pleeeeeeeeease.

Edited November 13, 2010 by ThunderPeel2001

[MrHoatzin]

At least no one is a loose cannon in the trailer.

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