PS3 L.A. Noire cuffs exclusive case

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.