First proper LA Noire video this week

By Robert Purchese Published 9 November, 2010

Rockstar ready to unveil its game.

Rockstar's new open world detective game LA Noire will be shown this week.

"The first trailer", as it's billed, will arrive at noon on Thursday, 11th November. That's noon Eastern Time, which means five hours later here: 5pm UK time.

LA Noire was delayed recently to "the first half of calendar 2011". The game was announced years ago in 2005.

It's a 1940s crime thriller based around you rising through the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department. Central to everything is a magnificent-sounding motion-capture system, which records the look, voice and actions of real-life actors and then processes them into the game.

Such a level of detail enables a sophisticated interrogation mechanic, whereby players can judge facial expressions and behavioural quirks to determine whether a suspect is holding anything back. Team Bondi is also said to have written an unprecedented 300 pages of script for the game.

The LA Noire concept video.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds. @Clert on Twitter.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • StolenGlory #1 2 years ago

    And about cunting time.

  • schnide #2 2 years ago

    Something tells me this is going to fall short of a lot of the claims it's made, and that there isn't much point in it living up to others. 6/10?

  • mkreku #3 2 years ago

    Has this been in production about as long as Gran Turismo 5 then?

  • geeza2020 #4 2 years ago

    Finally! I though this game was lost to development limbo for all time. Now I just hope that its being pushed by Rockstar because its ready to go, and not because they are just cutting their losses and getting the game out as is. Only time will tell.

  • NewbieZilla #5 2 years ago

    Brilliant. Hopefully this game rocks, or at least other developers will get a desire to go down a noirish path.

  • kangarootoo #6 2 years ago

    @schnide

    What on earth tells you that, your magic 8 ball? Rockstar's record is pretty good, both in terms of making good games, but also in terms of delivering on what they say they are going to deliver on. I've seen nothing that suggests this won't turn out well.

  • Shikasama #7 2 years ago

    I hope Teti doesn't get the review.

  • StolenGlory #8 2 years ago

    @Shikasama

    What's wrong with Teti again?

  • NewbieZilla #9 2 years ago

    StolenGlory

    [link url=http://www.eurogamer.net/archive.php?type=review&sort=reversechrono&platform=&author=579
    ]http://www.eurogamer.net/archive.php?typ...[/link]

    Limbo review full of spoilers is the big one as I see it. Others have said its the 4/10 Mafia II score. Check out his reviews, and see what stands out as bad for you. The limbo spoilers didn't get me because I didn't read the review. Before the game, or after. As after there was no point.

  • Lebowski #10 2 years ago

    Walked into the comments section. Sure, I'd been into hundreds of similar joints and this one was no different: all bums and goof-balls and without a dame in sight...

  • Shinetop #11 2 years ago

    Central to everything is a magnificent-sounding motion-capture system, which records the look, voice and actions of real-life actors and then processes them into the game.

    No way! That sounds incredible! It'd be even more amazing if that wasn't pretty much common use in movies and video games since the late nineties.
    Edited by Shinetop at 09/11/10 @ 12:31

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #12 2 years ago

    @shinetop

    I thought this used a process similar to the performance capture you see in films like Avatar or Tintin, where the whole process - facial expressions, voice, everything - is captured at the same time and transfered directly to the in-game character? In which case, no, it's not been around since the 90s.

  • Vanmunt #13 2 years ago

    @Schnide

    I get what you mean, so a bit like red dead... we all know that bombed.

  • makeamazing #14 2 years ago

    Ive pretty much enjoyed all Rockstar games over the last good few years, so i am optimistic about it to be honest... and will end up getting it day one, i am a sucker for open world games :)

  • drxym #15 2 years ago

    I was playing Heavy Rain (Move edition) last night for the first time and it is amazing how the game lurches in and out of uncanny valley. Every so often you think wow this is good (usually the quicktime bits) and other times the character behaves like an automaton with a blank unmoving expression and stilted walking. It's jarring and whatever other merits the game has, it's a flaw that it shares with many other games (hello Fallout 3).

    Much has been touted of LA Noire capturing facial expressions, motion capture etc. I hope that they have mastered it and it is a convincing effect. I don't think much of 300 pages of script brag - by usual conventions 1 page = 1 minute so that's 5 hours of dialogue. Hardly seems like a huge amount for a game which must feature branching, side missions, incidental music / dialogue and so on.

  • makeamazing #16 2 years ago

    5 hours of video is actually quite a lot in a game, especially if you consider all of the missions/thngs that you will probably be able to do in the game. Add onto that 5 hours of video...thats alot! It would be interesting to know the amount of video in something like RDR or GTA.

  • PixelPirate #17 2 years ago

    I am confused, is this the one that was supposed to be exclusive to PS3, or was that another one?

    This got announced so long ago, my mind is very hazy.

  • JJrabbit #18 2 years ago

    @PixelPirate - I think you're thinking of Agent. Not much info about it AFAIK, but it's Rockstar's PS3 exclusive.

  • NewbieZilla #19 2 years ago

    PixelPirate

    Yes, back in 2005 when Sony were the publishers. Then, in 2006, Rockstar took over and it was penned for "Next generation consoles." But this was seen as abstract to many, and it wasn't seen as coming to 360 by many until, I don't know, about a year now? Half a year? I've been following the game since 06, but my ability to pin down when shit happens is poor.

    Edit: 30 months ago, they said they were in the final push. http://teambondi.com/ No updates on that site since then.
    Edited by NewbieZilla at 09/11/10 @ 15:18

  • PixelPirate #20 2 years ago

    @JJrabbit

    Aha! yes thank you, got them muddled up :-)

  • schnide #21 2 years ago

    @Er, pretty much.. everyone :)

    It's been quiet on LA Noire for years and it's been in development for quite a while now. This game has made similar claims to those that were made for Alan Wake, and we know how that had to abandon them to become far more linear. This is not the same team that made Red Dead. I WANT it to be good, I'm just not convinced that it will be. Analysing facial details to help investigate claims? I think it's ahead of it's time (and possibly the ability of a lot of players). But we'll see!

  • randompanda #22 2 years ago

    I have no complaints with a studio not hyping a product up.

  • trip919 #23 2 years ago

    Ten seconds of footage blended with FMV - I bet.