PS3 L.A. Noire cuffs exclusive case

By Robert Purchese Published 13 April, 2011

ESRB outs "fleeting images of pubic hair".

Owners of L.A. Noire on PS3 may receive an exclusive traffic case called The Consul's Car.

Supporting evidence was pulled from PS3 shop boxes touting "exclusive content", plus a captured image (on Rockstar Network) - possibly from a video - that reads, "Get The Consul's Car traffic case only on PlayStation 3".

When confronted with the evidence, a Rockstar official on the company's website said, "Look for more details on that coming soon." Is that confirmation? It's not a denial.

The ESRB age-rating for L.A. Noire has been published, too, and goes into surprising detail.

Stop reading now if you're painstakingly avoiding even light spoilers.

Fights comprise of "realistic gunfire" from pistols, shotguns, rifles, machine guns and even flamethrowers. There are "blood spurts". Splat.

Cut-scenes can be violent; one shows a character "being beaten with a crowbar (off screen)", with "large spurts of blood" in the foreground.

L.A. Noire, a detective game, also has players closely examine "badly beaten or mutilated" corpses. You can peruse the "bruises" and "bloody cuts", and "a few female corpses are depicted fully nude with fleeting images of pubic hair".

Dialogue is adult, with descriptions of criminals vivid: "He's some kind of sex fiend," hero Phelps overhears. One cut-scene implies an adult-to-teenager relationship; "You take love where you can find it as you get older, Jack," says one person. "That has nothing to do with love," quips the other.

Language is flowery: you'll hear "f**k", "sh*t", "c*nt", "n**ger" and "sp*c".

L.A. Noire was rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. Or was it M for Mature?

L.A. Noire, a game with five hours of cut-scenes, was rated 18 by UK official BBFC yesterday.

Macs were cool back then, too.

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 (33) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • frostcircus #1 1 year ago

    The Case of the Fleeting Pubic Hair

    The ESRB's words rather confirm my fear that the game's going to have too much killing. Going out of your way to solve a murder when you've just committed several dozen yourself does seem slightly daffy. I'm slightly cheered by the use of the word 'injured,' though.
    Edited by frostcircus at 13/04/11 @ 15:22

  • jeebthegreat #2 1 year ago

    "L.A. Noire was rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. Or was it M for Mature?"

    Could you imagine the uproar if this was rated a 3+ over here :) would be amazing

  • Golgo #3 1 year ago

    Pubic hair spotted? It's too early to be talking about pre-owned copies, isn't it?

  • Architect_z #4 1 year ago

    Hahaha, pubes.

  • tomjoadsghost #5 1 year ago

    Fully nude female corpses, does it say whether they exhibit signs of being spanked?

    I think i may now suspect the perpetrator in this game.

    Unless of course there is some particular reason why strategically placed sheets and/or careful use of camera angles are only applicable to male corpses.
    Edited by tomjoadsghost at 13/04/11 @ 15:46

  • kinky_mong #6 1 year ago

    Language is flowery: you'll hear "f**k", "sh*t", "c*nt", "n**ger" and "sp*c".

    Is that last word "spac" or "spic"?

  • GamesProgrammer Verified Games Team Programmer, Eutechnyx Ltd. #7 1 year ago

    Sony seem to be picking up a lot of 3rd party exclusive content recently, wonder if this is a new SCE business plan.

  • CrunchinJelly #8 1 year ago

    But Sony don't do moneyhats.

  • imamazed #9 1 year ago

    sigh...

    Bad language can be effective with context but I hate how littered it is these days in big games. Red Dead Redemption had a reasonable amount of very strong language that I felt was totally out of place, I think a similar scale would be wrong too in LA Noire. Of course, it doesn't metion the frequency of the bad language, so it could be very sparse, but there's all the big ones in there, I'm worried it's going to be overloaded with unnecessarily bad language. As I say, it can work in context, but I can't see that in this game; from what I've seen so far.

  • NimbusTLD #10 1 year ago

    ESRB lists a Windows version! Hope?

  • sonicyoda #11 1 year ago

    Bloody hell, is Rockstar going to release the first game containing the 'C' word as well as the first game to contain racial slurs? Cutting edge!

  • el_pollo_diablo #12 1 year ago

    "fleeting"?

    Damn.

  • HandOfBeadle #13 1 year ago

    So that's feck, shat, cant, nogger and spuc all added to children's vocab.

    It's a fucking disgrace.

  • BBIAJ #14 1 year ago

    @sonicyoda:

    I'm pretty sure both GTaIV and RDR use the "C" word...

  • tomjoadsghost #15 1 year ago

    @sven_vath: you do realize its artificial corpse bush, right?

  • HandOfBeadle #16 1 year ago

    Sonicyoda: ever played Halo MP? Using nogger and cant in a videogame is as passé as an Amy Winehouse joke, or some 'humorous' reference about cake being a lie.

    edit: Also, initially I misread the 'cutting' in cutting edge.
    Edited by HandOfBeadle at 13/04/11 @ 16:18

  • DAN.E.B #17 1 year ago

    I dont get offended by this sort of thing at all, but Rockstar seem to shoe horn it in whenever they can in a lot of their titles
    Why not let a game sell well on its own merrits rather than cheapening the experience with these tactics.
    Just a thought!

  • sonicyoda #18 1 year ago

    @BBIAJ

    You can tell I'm not much of a Rockstar fan can't you? ;)

  • sonicyoda #19 1 year ago

    @HandofBeadle

    I'm afraid I haven't actually. I remember getting told I drink tea and eat crumpets a lot by the American's who play Gears of War.

  • man.the.king #20 1 year ago

    @CrunchinJelly

    "But Sony don't do moneyhats."

    Maybe they are picking up a thing or two from Microsoft?

  • Toothball #21 1 year ago

    I've sat out on most Rockstar game releases. They look decent enough, but there's something about them that never really inspired me to go out and buy one. But I always enjoy a detective story, so this one might see me on board for a change. Solving mysteries has always interested me more than shooting people. Obviously there's plenty of people needing shot, but the cases sound a lot more interesting.

  • Phantom_Dynamite #22 1 year ago

    Its not real pubes it must me a mirkin.

  • arcam #23 1 year ago

    Oh naggers. Of course, naggers. Right.

  • Syrette #24 1 year ago

    Really getting tired of Rockstar and their exclusivity deals.

    edit; Negs for this? Seriously? Some of you lot are so precious.
    Edited by Syrette at 14/04/11 @ 08:36

  • Tyronne #25 1 year ago

    The first game to have motion captured merkins?

  • whatsthecoo #26 1 year ago

    Ok earliest use of the c word (vocally) in game?? I know it was in Getaway for PS2. Anyone have anything earlier?

  • Tyronne #27 1 year ago

    sure some adult adventure games made using the quill in the 8-bit days had the c word in them.

  • shave_my_donkey #28 1 year ago

    i only clicked the link coz i saw 'pubes'

  • orangpelupa #29 1 year ago

    L.A. Noire was rated E for Everyone by the ESRB. Or was it M for Mature?

    Rated E for everyone who mature.....

    btw
    im concerned about the strong language and strong visual.
    hopefully its there for a reason (maybe the case, the investigation is like that).

    im afraid if it strong language and strong bush just being shoehorned to the game just because its R*'s game.
    Because LAN is a serious game for mature people i hope it not get shoehorned with that things.

    wow my english getting worse...

  • Murton #30 1 year ago

    This does look good, a day 1 for sure.

    As always I'm concerned about significant content being locked to one console instead of being available to everyone. I've only got a PS3 so I win this time around but that doesn't make it okay. Everyone should get a complete game, not just those with the right colour console or those willing to pay a little bit extra.

  • man.the.king #31 1 year ago

    @Murton

    I agree with you - I do not like content locked to one platform either, even though this time around the PS3 is being favored. That being said, I do find it funny that all the 360 supporters who asked PS3 gamers to be philosophic 2-3 years back (when PS3 was repeatedly losing out on such exclusive content for long periods of time) by saying "it's just business" get all riled up when the shoe is on the other foot.

  • Ahskay #32 1 year ago

    I wonder if i can use that flamethrower to kill serial murderers and rapists. Would be a cool trophy. I would call it "burned bacon and eggs".
    Can't wait to play this detective/adventure game.
    Edited by Ahskay at 13/04/11 @ 22:56

  • JStaunton #33 1 year ago

    5 hours of cutscenes? This isn't MGS4, eurgh.