Jump to content

L.A. Noire


 Share

Recommended Posts

I really love that the graphics and facial animations are so strong in LA Noire that I can easily recognize the actors. It's not the first time it's been done (Dead Space, Assassin's Creed, The Force Unleashed,) but in those games, there's usually something "off" about the recreations of the characters. But this... this is different. I think this could really open the door to using Hollywood actors in games.

 

Now all they need to do is make the body animations match the face animations and we're really moving forward.

 

edit: I just hit up imdb for the cast list. I got more than I bargained for. It's a little surprising how many of them have played roles in Mad Men.

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764429/fullcredits#cast

Edited by HotChops
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  On 3/9/2011 at 6:15 PM, Deanb said:
This was the still used in EG RSS feed for a Gameplay video

screengrab_480.jpg

 

 

I know who that is. And I want him on my team. Though he would be a bit OP in a detective game :P

lol, is that Matt from Heroes? He would most def be overpowered.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, that's definitely Greg Grunberg (or if you prefer, Parkman from Heroes).

 

I recognized him right away when I watched the new trailer/gameplay video :D

I seriously can't wait for this game. Getting a distinct "Heavy Rain" vibe from it.

Kinda hard to explain, but I guess both games being about murder investigations might have something to do with it.

Edited by FLD
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Usually when a game gets announced and then several years later release, I am really excited at the start, then I lose interest, then when the game comes out it takes me months to get it. L.A. Noire has held my interest since I first heard about it.

 

I'm taking a week off work for this one. heh

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  On 3/9/2011 at 11:14 PM, TheFlyingGerbil said:

I like the premise of this game but don't games that get delayed this often usually end up a bit of an unfocussed mess. I'm hoping they managed to keep it tight over all this time.

 

Well, that's a toss-up. Batman: Arkham Asylum was delayed, and look how that turned out. Granted, that was one delay, not many.

 

Team Bondi (had) talent, but lacked refinement. Most rookie developers are like that, but then they get picked up by a larger publisher and they weed out the bad, improve the good, and boost the development budget considerably. But I don't think that's the main reason for the delay.

 

I think the #1 reason it was delayed so many times was the groundbreaking technology used in it's production. They're traversing new territory in a generally-unused genre. It's not like an annual Call of Duty game where the basic technology and formula are already there. People have made their comparisons of LA Noire to Heavy Rain, Red Dead Redemption and Mafia II, but I really think that L.A. Noire will be something distinctly different from all previous games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had in mind specifically Too Human, and it followed a similar arc to what you say about LA Noire (uncommon style/genre and technologically overreaching). There are others too but I cant think of them off the top of my head.

 

Delays can be good to a certain extent where they are done to trim the fat and make genuinely useful additions. but i think that only works when delays come at the end of the development cycle. It's when the game proved too ambitious (as too human supposedly was) for the technology that exists at its inception and the delays occur throughout the process that I think the bloat sets in and I really hope that's not the case here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Even though I didn't really have interest in Too Human, I thought it did do some things well. People are a little bit too harsh on it imo.

 

I think there's a number of things that separate Too Human's development/delays and L.A. Noire's:

 

-one was also accompanied by a lawsuit

-one involved heavy hype accompanying a developer who had done good work in the past, whereas...

-Team Bondi has yet to prove itself

 

Oh and one more thing...

Too Human looked like shit within only a couple of months before its release. I remember watching a video of it and thinking, "Christ, they didn't fix that? Shitttt."

 

whereas L.A. Noire looks fucking awesome. However, we still haven't gotten a good look at the driving/shooting portions. But how bad could it be? Those have both been done well in other Rockstar games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  On 3/9/2011 at 8:12 PM, FLD said:

Yeah, that's definitely Greg Grunberg (or if you prefer, Parkman from Heroes).

 

 

 

Dammit that's who it is.. that's been bothering me all day. :bun-wah:

 

 

  On 3/10/2011 at 1:24 AM, TheMightyEthan said:

Too Human was terrible. Please never speak of it again.

 

Oh, Ethan... :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You know what looks odd about Grunberg in that image is that his head seems disproportionate with the rest of his body. I mean the guy is pretty tubby (and with good reason if you've ever come across his recipe for cookies). I hope that's just the screenshot though.

 

I do recognise well actually most of the actors on it though.

 

Team Bondi or rather the Creative Director of the game last worked on Sony's The Getaway. This game had a terrible dev schedule but I'm sure the game will be fine from the way it previews. There's a lot of former Sony Goodwill and investment in this game before Rockstar bought this game in exchange to providing Sony a few exclusives.

My main gripe with the crappy production is that Noire was actually a typo because someone couldn't spell Noir, but they could've changed that earlier. Now it's fine because that's its identity but usually when you discover errors like that so early in production you do change it. It's just and this part is a rumour, I hear someone high up pretty much was convinced that Noire was the right spelling for Noir which is pretty stupid if true.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  On 3/10/2011 at 7:52 AM, WTF said:

My main gripe with the crappy production is that Noire was actually a typo because someone couldn't spell Noir, but they could've changed that earlier. Now it's fine because that's its identity but usually when you discover errors like that so early in production you do change it. It's just and this part is a rumour, I hear someone high up pretty much was convinced that Noire was the right spelling for Noir which is pretty stupid if true.

 

Well that explains a bit. I thought it was some pun. Like Lanoire meant something, or there was something to do with LA or whatever. I was like "nobody seems to have brought up the spelling, I guess it means something. I'll stay quite for now. 'open your mouth n remove all doubt' kinda thing".

 

Because what it actually means is:

The Black Angels

(If you smash your French and Spanish together)

Or

Black L.A

(If you don't)

 

Which I guess kind of works. But I bet that wasn't what they were going for since it seems like it is most definitely rooting itself in the Film Noir genre.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  On 3/10/2011 at 11:21 AM, Deanb said:

 

Which I guess kind of works. But I bet that wasn't what they were going for since it seems like it is most definitely rooting itself in the Film Noir genre.

 

They definitely weren't. The main overarching case is their take on the Black Dahlia case which means they definitely were trying for some Film Noir reference. I wonder if they even realised that Film Noir meant 'Film Black' .

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  On 3/10/2011 at 11:37 AM, Hot Heart said:

I'm not an expert at French but isn't it the feminine version of the word?

 

Not that they should be using that anyway, since it's 'film noir'. Or is LA considered a feminine noun?

 

My French is rusty but cities are considered feminine and Noire is feminine iirc. Well most cities (there are exceptions). However LA is an abbreviation and I think to use Noire with LA it probably needs to be part of a sentence. I'm guessing if Noire were part of the city's name it's acceptable like Montagne Noire but otherwise it probably should be Noir like Discworld Noir.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think Noire is fine. The only reason the style is called "noir" is because "film" is a masculine noun in French, so you use the masculine form of the adjective. "L.A." is a city, so is feminine, so you use the feminine form. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Pop up video is pretty good- for some odd reason I thought it meant it would be in 3D.

 

There's an article I read recently that got me insanely stoked for the game for one reason:

 

It's mature. Not as in the rating. Not in the way that every other AAA game that comes out these days is mature (through violence, gore, bad language, etc.). In the article it went into detail on how the game is 'mature' in the sense that it deals with really adult stuff, and doesn't skimp on or stereotype any ground it covers.

 

They noted a crime scene where the victim was lying dead in a room- completely naked. You could literally see everything from teeth to toenails to pubic hair. On top of that? The player, to do well enough, has to examine her body closely; turning over parts of her for examination, looking up and down, and taking note of stuff, from an almost magnifying-glass perspective of a dead and mutiliated young woman's body.

 

Apparently it was pretty hard to swallow for the journalists watching- and that Team Bondi are basically going for a real, gritty, true as possible story experience in the world of a 40s metropolitan cop.

 

Realistic and mature, that is, until you whap out a shotgun and start blasting everyone. I'm really worried about the combat in the game- it doesn't seem to have NaturalMotion's Euphoria, which imho is a must if you want your game to be realistic at all. It looks fun but scrappy- the worst part of the overall simulation.

Edited by kenshi_ryden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...